Band 5: Describe a place you visited that was completely different from what you had expected. You should say: where the place was, what you had expected it to be like, what it actually was like, and explain how this unexpected experience changed your view of that destination. (User-Submitted IELTS Speaking Answer)

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Polished transcript:

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It was in the summer, and I went to a place with tourist guides. I found this page on Instagram and decided to go to one of the touristy places with my friend, and we went together there by bus. So it took around one hour to get to this place. No, it was two hours, yeah. And we expected to see the lake, the blue lake. On the photos we saw that it was very beautiful, very colorful. But when we went and we climbed there for like 3000 meters up, and we were so tired, and finally we got to the point, we got to the place, and when we saw the lake, it was so small, so gray, because the weather was a little bit rainy and cloudy, so we couldn't see the blue lake, and the weather was messy, and we couldn't enjoy the view, and we couldn't even take pictures, take selfies, because it didn't look like on Instagram. So it was so desperate about this, and it was really hard to get to this place. We gave so much energy, we expected a lot, but got nothing. But you know, we took several pictures and we had the food, and some flavors, so it was the only part that gave happiness.

Actual audio transcript (What native speakers are likely to hear):

It was in the summer and summer time and I went for a place with tourist guides. I found this page on Instagram and decided to go to one of the touristy places with my friend and we went together there by a bus. So it took around one hour to get this place. No, it was two hours, yeah. And we expected to see the lake and the blue lake. On the photos we saw that it was very beautiful, very colorful. a colorful but when we went and we climbed there for like 3000 kilometers up and we were so tired and finally we get to the point we get to the place and when we saw the lake it was so small so gray because the weather was a little bit rainy and cloudy so we can see the blue lake and the weather was messy and we couldn’t enjoy the view, the view, the view and we can’t even take pictures, take selfies because it was, it didn’t look like on the Instagram so it was so, um, desperate about this and it was really hard to get to this place we gave so much energy we expected a lot but got named we got nothing but you know it took several pictures and we had the food so and some flavors so it was the only part that get happiness cause.

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Describe an enjoyable evening you had with your friend.

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Band 5+: Describe a place you visited that was completely different from what you had expected. You should say: where the place was, what you had expected it to be like, what it actually was like, and explain how this unexpected experience changed your view of that destination.

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