There are so many quotes that inspire wanderlust and travel that I wanted a place to put all my favorites. This will be updated regularly as I come across new quotes (or as you tell me your favs!) This is an ongoing updated this to create the ultimate list of inspirational travel quotes. The best travel quotes are meant to inspire you – to book the ticket, take the adventure, and to check off that bucket list (so I’ve tried to avoid cliche’s as much as possible).
There’s a mix of short travel quotes, long travel quotes, travel quotes by famous travelers (like Anthony Bourdain) and some lesser-known. Some are funny travel quotes while others are a bit more serious travel quotes. Some are quotes about traveling with friends or traveling with family, and others are about solo travel – you can do both! I hope this list inspires you to get out and explore the wonderful world we live in.
Don’t forget to check out these 25+ travel quotes by Anthony Bourdain when you’re done here!
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100+ Inspirational Travel Quotes:
- “You will never be completely at home again because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.” ~ Miriam Adeney This is my ultimate favorite quote – I even got it tattooed on my back! I have pieces of my heart all over the world!
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2. Live your life by a compass, not a clock ~ unknown There is something about travel that destroys our routine – and it’s amazing. It’s something I try to do once in a while even when I’m not traveling.
3. Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey ~ Babs HoffmanThere are always potholes, but trying to enjoy the journey despite them is important.
4. “I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” ~ Rosalia de Castro I’ve come to accept that I’ll get lost wherever I am, so I just have to keep going!
5. There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. – Robert Louis Stevenson
6. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes- Marcel Proust
7. Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. ~ Omar Khayyam
8. You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. ~ Unknown
9. Somewhere on your journey, don’t forget to turn around and enjoy the view. ~Anonymous
10. To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted. ~Bill Bryson
11. Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow. ~ Anita Desai
12. All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it. ~ Samuel Johnson
13. It doesn’t matter where you’re going, it’s who you have beside you. ~ Unknown
14. A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles. ~Tim Cayhill
15. Travel doesn’t become an adventure until you leave yourself behind. ~ Unknown
16. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all. ~ Helen Keller
17. It’s a big world out there, would be a shame not to experience ~ JD Andrews
18. I’m in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met. ~ MelodyTwong
19. Travel… the best way to be lost and found at the same time. ~Breanna Smith
20. We travel, some of us forever, to see other places, other lives, other souls. ~ Anais Nin
21. Fill your life with adventures, not thing. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show. ~ Unknown
22. It’s a big and beautiful world. Most of us live & die in the same corner where we were born & never get to see any of it. I don’t want to be most of us. ~Oberyn Martell, Game of Thrones
24. I want to make memories all over the world – Unknown
25. Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. – David McCullough Jr.
27. Never go on trips with anyone you do not love – Hemingway
28. Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man & the universe – Anatole France
29. The important thing is to never stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. –Albert Einstein
30. The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life – Agnes Repplier
31. You only live once, but if you do it right, once in enough. – Mae West
32. The journey is my home – Unknown
33. It’s not the destination where you end up… but the mishaps and memories you create along the way – Unknown
34. Traveling is an adventure that comes with a breathtaking view – Benj Pasek & Justin Paul
35. Great things never came from comfort zones – Anonymous
37. You can shake the sand from your shoes, but you can’t shake it from your soul. – Anonymous
38. Don’t quite your day dream – Unknown
39. Fear is only temporary. Regret lasts forever. – Anonymous
41. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover – Mark Twain
42. All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. – Martin Buber
43. Without new experiences, something inside us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken. – Unknown
44. I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world – Mary Anne Radmacher
45. Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing. – Unknown
46. In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years. – Unknown
47. The ‘traveler’ rush that hits you upon arrival to a new place is like a drug. And like a drug, the more you expose yourself to it, the more you want it. – Clayton B. Cornell
48. Travel is not a reward for working, it’s education for living – Anthony Bourdain
49. We travel, some of forever, to see other places, other lives, other soulds – Anais Nin
51. The farther I travel, the closer I am to myself – Andrew McCarthy
52. Stop dreaming about your bucket list, and start living it! – Annette White
53. Travel opens your heart, broadens your mind, and fills your life with stories to tell. – Paula Bendfelt
54. The ideal is to feel at home, anywhere – everywhere – Geoff Dyer
56. Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. ~ T.S. Eliot
57. Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. ~ Mark Twain
58. You don’t have to be rich to travel well. ~ Eugene Fodor
59. Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. ~ Jennifer Lee
60. Don’t count the days. Make the days count. ~ Muhammed Ali
61. You need not even listen, just wait .. the world will offer itself freely to you, unmaking itself. ~ Frankz Kafka
62. You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself. – Ella Maillart.
63. We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. – Hilaire Belloc
64. What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. – William Least Heat Moon.
65. Nothing lasts forever, except the day before you start your vacation. – Gayland Anderson
66. Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen – Benjamin Disraeli
67. The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharp – WB Yeats
68. It doesn’t matter where you are. You are nowhere compared to where you can go. – Bob Proctor
69. If we travel simply to indulge ourselves we are missing some of the greatest lessons life has to offer. – Unknown
70. The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams. – Oprah Winfrey
71. Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
72. It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Way and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while, you fumble for words, trying to vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and what’s happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there – with your eyes open – and lived to see it. – Anthony Bourdain.
73. The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper – WB Yeats
74. Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world – Gustave Flaubert
75. It doesn’t matter where you are. You are nowhere compared to where you can go. – Erick Widman
76. Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown. – Anthony Bourdain
77. If we travel simply to indulge ourselves, we are missing some of the greatest lessons life has to offer. – Unknown
78. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust
79. We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. – Jawaharial Nehru
80. When a man is a traveler, the world is his house and the sky is his roof, where he hangs his hat is his home, and all the people are his family. – Peter Hoeg
81. Travelling in the company of those we love is home in motion. – Leigh Hunt
82. Take the time to put the camera away and gaze in wonder at what’s there in front of you. – Erick Widman
83. I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it. – Rosalia de Castro.
84. Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. An in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks – on your body or on your heart – are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt. – Anthony Bourdain
85. The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. – GK Chesterton
86. Travelling tends to magnify all human emotions – Peter Hoeg
87. To see the world, things dangerous to come to. To see behind the walls, draw closer. To find each other. And to feel. That is the purpose of life. – Secret Life of Walter Mitty
88. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart. – Helen Keller
89. To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while you give, to roam the roads of lands remote: To travel is to live. – Hans Christian Anderson
90. Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
91. Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
92. Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life – Marcel Proust
93. How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew? – Ernesto Che Guevara
94. Meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were charming and interesting and intoxicating to me. The perfect meal, or the best meals, occur in a context that frequently has a very little to do with the food itself. – Anthony Bourdain
95. Once the travel bug bites, there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life. – Michael Palin
96. Travel, not to escape life, but so life does not escape you. – Unknown
97. When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable. – Clifton Fadiman
98. Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of every day, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art. – Freya Stark
99. There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. – Robert Louis Stevenson
100. To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. – Aldous Huxley
101. The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it. – Rudyard Kipling
102. Not until we are lost do we begin to find ourselves. – Henry David Thoreau
103. I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within. – Lillian Smith
104. The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land. – G. K. Chesterton
105. Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. – Mark Twain
106. A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. – Lao Tzu
107. We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time. – T. S. Eliot
108. Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost
109. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain
110. I have worn the dust of many foreign streets, but to brush it off would surely be a crime. I have the memories of many foreign adventures, but to forget them, would surely be a sin. So, breathe in the dust, and keep the memories in. – Rowland Waring-Flood
111. I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on earth. Then I ask myself the same question – Harun Yahya.
112. A traveler without observation is a bird without wings. – Moslih Eddin Saadi
113. All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. – Martin Buber
114. All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time. – Paul Fussell
115. Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain. – Jack Kerouac
116. One of the great things about travel is that you find out how many good, kind people there are. – Edith Wharton
117. We travel for romance, we travel for architecture, and we travel to be lost. – Ray Bradbury
118. As soon as I saw you I knew a grand adventure was about to happen. – A. A. Milne
119. All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. – Martin Buber
120. Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else. – Lawrence Block
121. A traveler without observation is a bird without wings. – Moslih Eddin Saadi
122. All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time. – Paul Fussell
123. For my part, I travel not to go anywhere but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. – Robert Louis Stevenson
124. He who does not travel does not know the value of men. – Moorish proverb
125. Investment in travel is an investment in yourself. – Matthew Karsten
126. If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home. – James Michener
127. Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures. – Lovelle Drachman.
128. Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow! What a Ride!” – Hunter S. Thompson
129. Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. – Dolly Parton
130. No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. – Lin Yutang
131. No one has ever described the place where I have just arrived: This is the emotion that makes me want to travel. It is one of the greatest reasons to go anywhere.” – Paul Theroux, The Pillars of Hercules.
132. The World is a Book, and those who do not Travel, Read only one page. – Agustine of Hippo
133. I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train. – Oscar Wilde.
134. The heaviest baggage for a traveler is an empty wallet. – English proverb
135. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. – John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
136. Better to travel hopefully than to arrive. – English Proverb
137. The Journey itself is my home. – Bashō Matsuo
138. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. – Andre Gide
139. In the desert of life, the wise travel by caravan, while the fool prefers to travel alone. – Arab Proverb
139. I did not write half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed. – Marco Polo
140. So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry. – Jack Kerouac
141. The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination. – Don Williams, Jr.
142. Arriving there is what you are destined for. Ithaka gave you the Marvellous Journey – C.P. Cavafy
143. I did not write half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed. – Marco Polo
144. A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. – John A. Shedd
145. We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parentheses in eternity. – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
146. We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. – T.S. Eliot
147. I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are. – Diane Von Furstenberg.
148. Every man can transform the world from one of monotony and drabness to one of excitement and adventure. – Irving Wallace
149. The life you have led does not need to be the only life you have. – Anna Quindlen
150. The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are. – Samuel Johnson
151. The true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. it’s the symbol of his liberty- his excessive
152. Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. – Miriam Beard
153. The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: The desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown. – Paul Theroux
154. We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there. – Pascal Mercier
155. The greatest justification for travel is not self-improvement but rather performing a vanishing act, disappearing without a trace. – Paul Theroux
156. When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. Susan Heller
157. Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year. – Unknown
158. Plane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo. – Al Gore
159. Travel is a new experience that can transport you out of your everyday routine to create memories with the ones you love. – Brian Chesky
160. He who has not traveled widely thinks that his mother is the best cook. – African Proverb
161. I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more. – Thomas Jefferson
162. It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return. Such are the melancholies du voyage: Perhaps they are one of the most rewarding things about traveling. – Gustave Flaubert
163. A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you can control it – John Steinbeck
164. Culture shock is often felt sharply at the borders between countries, but sometimes it doesn’t hit fully until you’ve been in a place for a long time. – Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Mind’s Eye
165. If you are planning to travel where corn grows, you should take a sickle with you. – Ethiopian Proverb
166. You go away for a long time and return a different person – You never come all the way back – Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari
167. The traveler sees the world in its true proportions: Small enough to hold within his arms, yet large enough to encompass him. He feels himself part of the universe, instead of separate and apart from it – James Michener
So there you have it – 167 incredibly inspirational travel quotes (so far) to get you to live your best life.
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Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow is my favourite. It’s so true
I love travel quotes. They are so inspirational. Since I’m a solo traveller, #35 really resonates with me.
This is a hard one! Which would my favorite be…? I’m between my compatriot Rosalia de Castro and the unknown “Live your life by a compass, not a clock”. Thanks for sharing!
Wow, quote number one hit differently! Pieces of my heart have been left in nearly every place I’ve ever visited, any place I’ve ever made a memory with new or old friends.
“I’m in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met.” I think that pretty much sums up why I’m driven to travel 😀 Great list!
Thanks for sharing these quotes! “Somewhere on your journey, don’t forget to turn around and enjoy the view.” is one that resonates with me most strongly. It is such an important reminder that sometimes when we’re traveling we need to put down our tour book and busy agenda and just stop to appreciate the new and exciting surroundings around us. Thanks for the reminder!
Absolutely! It’s easy to get swept up in all the “must sees” instead of what the destination is trying to show us!
Traveling is an adventure that comes with a breathtaking view is my favorite. Cant wait to travel again. Hope this pandemic ends soon
I completely love the first quote you mentioned!! I can see why you got it tattooed. After reading them all, the other one which stands out to me the most is the one about us being the foreigners!
So many beautiful quotes! I can’t wait to be able to travel again
Oh I just loved these quotes. Thanks for the great post!! I miss traveling so much!
Same here! Glad you enjoy them!
I love these! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
This is so inspirational! Love it!
Love these inspirational travel quotes! My favourite is number 11. It’s so true that a destination stays with you long after you leave it whether it’s a smell, a dish etc.
So many beautiful quotes! Love the positivity and inspiration during this crazy time we are in 🙂
So many great quotes, thanks for sharing. It reminds me of travel days.
This is a fantastic list of inspiring travel quotes! I’ve heard of most of them but also there a few that are new to me, so I really appreciate this! This one is one of my all time favorites –“Travel is not a reward for working, it’s education for living” – Anthony Bourdain
Thanks for including that one on this ultimate list!
Haha that’s my favorite reminder that work is just work. – Which (at least in America) is often forgotten.