The sightseeing sentences worth learning first

Opening times, queues, last entry, and asking a stranger for a photo

A day of sightseeing is a surprisingly small number of sentences, repeated at every site you visit. Learn them once and the Alhambra, Machu Picchu and the cathedral down the road all work the same way.

Ask about last entry, not closing time

¿Hasta qué hora se puede entrar?, what time is last entry, is the question that saves an afternoon. A site that closes at eight often stops letting people in at seven, and the closing time is the one printed on the door.

Two more before you set off: ¿a qué hora abre? and ¿está abierto los lunes? Monday is the usual closing day for museums, and plenty of smaller places shut from about two until five.

Queues, and booking ahead

Hay mucha cola means there is a long queue. La cola is a queue and also an animal's tail, which is a fair picture of what a queue looks like from the back.

For the Alhambra and the Sagrada Família, hay que reservar con antelación is not advice, it is the situation. La taquilla is the ticket office if you did not.

Ask for the mirador

El mirador is the viewpoint. Almost every hill town has one, it is almost never the thing marked on the map, and ¿cuál es el mejor mirador? is the single best question a visitor can ask. It gets you a recommendation and usually a conversation as well.

While you are at it, el casco antiguo is the old town, where most of what you came for actually is, and la plaza mayor, or la plaza de armas in much of Latin America, is the main square.

Asking someone to take your photo

¿Me hace una foto, por favor? is the polite form, for a stranger. ¿Me haces una foto? is for somebody your own age. Adding ¿le importa?, do you mind, makes it easy to refuse, which is exactly why it makes people more likely to say yes.

Then aquí mismo, right here, and otra más, por favor, one more please. That is the whole exchange.