Getting around

To say how you travel, English uses by:

by car, by bus, by train, by plane, by boat, by bike

There is no the and no a. Not by the car. Just by car.

Then there is one exception. Walking is on foot, not by foot.

• I go to work by bus.
• I go to work on foot.

Nobody can explain why. It is simply the phrase.

arrive does not take to

You go to a place. You arrive at or arrive in a place. You never arrive to.

• We arrived at the station.
• We arrived in London.

Use in for a town, city or country. Use at for a building or a smaller place. This is the same size rule you saw with time words.

Get to is the easy way out. "We got to the station." It works for every place and is very common in speech.

travel and trip

Travel is usually a verb. "I travel a lot."

As a noun, travel is uncountable and means the general activity. You cannot say a travel.

The word you want for one journey is a trip or a journey. "We had a good trip."

drive, ride and fly

You drive a car. You ride a bike or a horse. You fly a plane, if you are the pilot.

If you are only a passenger, you go by plane or you take a plane. Saying "I flew to Spain" is also normal and does not mean you were the pilot.