If you’re planning on a backpacking adventure, language is one of the major factors that you have to learn and understand, even if it’s just the basics. Even if you know that you have to speak Spanish somewhere, you have to know where you need to speak it. Here are several countries that you can find people speaking Spanish as either a primary or secondary language.

North and Central America
Spanish-speaking capitals and their countries in this area include:
San Jose, Costa Rica
San Salvador, El Salvador
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Mexico City, Mexico
Managua, Nicaragua
Panama, Panama

South America
South America has a bigger range of countries than North and Central America and these include the capitals and countries of:
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sucre, Bolivia
Santiage, Chile
Quito, Ecuador
Asuncion, Paraguay
Lima, Peru
Montevideo, Uruguay
Caracas, Venezuela

Caribbean
The Caribbean, a mass of islands south east of the Gulf of Mexico have three Spanish-speaking countries including:
Havana, Cuba
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
San Juan, Puerto Rico

If you are going to any of the countries listed above, make sure that you have some basic Spanish words and sentences in your own vocabulary. If you don’t have the time, make the time. It’s important for any traveler to know the basics of being in a foreign country, for your own basic survival and as common courtesy to the people who live there. Make sure that you have basic working knowledge of greetings, directions, basic places like hotels, restaurants and tourist spots, types of foods and means of transportation.

Whatever Spanish-speaking country you’ll end up in, make sure to be prepared to be able to communicate properly. A well-versed tourist is a well-liked tourist, and locals would most likely want you back over in their country. So, prepare that backpack in your mind to make room of sentences you have to bring to these countries.