120 Travel Quotes to Inspire Your Next Journey

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Travel has played a crucial role in human lives for millennia. These travel quotes show it can play a role in yours too.

Though we see travel through the lens of our own experiences and the world around us, the desire to spend time in a place far from home is not new. People have been traveling across countries and continents for generations.

Travel is an exciting adventure. Though some of us travel for business, many of us are motivated by vacations, which give us the opportunity to recharge, reconnect, and understand our place in the world.

Whether you’re going to a new place for a week, embarking on a gap year before college, or making a big move, we’ve got the best travel quotes to inspire you to get there.

Travel Quotes

Hans Christian Anderson travel quote "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"
“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

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.

Mark Twain

Certainly, 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

He who is outside his door has the hardest part of his journey behind him.

Dutch Proverb

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen.

Benjamin Disraeli
Travel Quote "We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us"
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

Aldous Huxley

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.

Anais Nin

Live with no excuses and travel with no regrets.

Oscar Wilde

Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.

Ibn Battuta

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.

Paul Theroux

Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions.

Peter Hoeg
Michael Palin Quote "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"
“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

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.

Martin Buber

Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing in the pursuit of something else.

Lawrence Block

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

One of the great things about travel is that you find out how many good, kind people there are.

Edith Wharton

The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.

Tony Robbins
Hilaire Belloc travel quote "We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment"
“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” – Hilaire Belloc

Travel: the best way to be lost and found at the same time.

Brenna Smith

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s OK. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.

Anthony Bourdain

The journey not the arrival matters.

T.S. Eliot
William Least Heat Moon Quote “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”
“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.” – William Least Heat Moon

For the born traveller, traveling is a besetting vice. Like other vices, it is imperious, demanding its victim’s time, money, energy and the sacrifice of comfort.

Aldous Huxley

Travel brings power and love back into your life.

Rumi

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.

Gustave Flaubert

A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Seneca Travel Quote “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind”
“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

Why We Travel

We know that the urge to travel, explore, and see new things is not a new one for humankind, but what encourages us to pack our bags and leave home?

Whether you go by car, on foot, by rail, or air, these travel quotes are all about the forces that drive us to go new places and seek new experiences.

Robert Louis Stevenson Quote "I travel not to go anywhere but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move"
“I travel not to go anywhere but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Andre Gide

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust

The journey itself is my home.

Matsuo Basho

I would rather own a little and see the world than own the world and see a little of it.

Alexander Sattler

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sail. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain
Augustine Travel Quote “The world is a book, and those who don’t travel only read one page”
“The world is a book, and those who don’t travel only read one page.” – Augustine of Hippo

There’s something about arriving in new cities, wandering empty streets with no destination. I will never lose the love for the arriving, but I’m born to leave.

Charlotte Erikkson

To get away from one’s working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one’s self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change.

Charles Horton Cooley

I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like the people or hate them than to travel with them.

Mark Twain

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

John Steinbeck
George A Moore Quote “A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it”
“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” – George A. Moore

Focus on the journey, not the destination, joy is found not in finishing the activity, but in doing.

Greg Anderson

Once you have travelled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.

Pat Conroy

We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us. Even while the earth sleeps we travel. We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered.

Kahlil Gibran

Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.

Isabelle Eberhardt
Mary Ann Radmacher Travel Quote"I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world"
“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Ann Radmacher

The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

Christopher McCandless

I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.

Susan Sontag

The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life.

Agnes Repplier

Sometimes one day in a different place gives you more than ten years of life at home.

Anatole France
Carew Papritz Quote "I travel because it makes me realize how much I haven't seen, how much I'm not going to see, and how much I still need to see"
“I travel because it makes me realize how much I haven’t seen, how much I’m not going to see, and how much I still need to see.” – Carew Papritz

Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed pope-mobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.

Anthony Bourdain

And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.

Pico Iyer

Solo Journey Quotes

Traveling alone is one of the scariest and most rewarding things you can do. Going where you want, when you want, without having to account for someone else… it sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Well, yes and no.

Taking a solo trip is liberating and reminds us how responsible and accountable we can be for our actions. We get to enjoy the journey, as well as the amazement of going somewhere we’ve never been before, with no distractions or drama.

Although traveling alone can be a little lonely, it’s also a great way to build confidence. It’s worth remembering that a solo trip might also introduce us to new friends, family we didn’t know we had, or even a significant other.

Suzy Strutner Quote "Solo travel not only pushes you out of your comfort zone, it also pushes you out of the zone of others' expectations"
“Solo travel not only pushes you out of your comfort zone, it also pushes you out of the zone of others’ expectations.” – Suzy Strutner

Traveling solo does not always mean you’re alone. Most often, you meet marvelous people along the way and make connections that last a lifetime.

Jacqueline Boone

Some journeys can be only traveled alone.

Ken Poirot

Don’t be scared to walk alone. Don’t be scared to like it.

John Mayer

Travel far enough, you meet yourself.

David Mitchell

A person susceptible to wanderlust is not so much committed to movement as committed to transformation.

Pico Iyer

Traveling allows you to become so many different versions of yourself.

Anonymous

The inner journey of travel is intensified by solitude.

Paul Theroux

When preparing to travel, let out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.

Susan Heller
Thoreau Quote "The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until that other is ready"
“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau

Half of the fun of travel is the aesthetic of lostness.

Ray Bradbury

I love the feeling of being anonymous in a city I’ve never been to before.

Anonymous

A person needs at intervals to separate himself from family and companions and go to new places. He must go without familiars in order to be open to new influences, to change.

Katharine Butler Hathaway

To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure. You have no idea of what is in store for you, but you will, if you are wise and know the art of travel, let yourself go on the stream of the unknown.

Freya Stark

I am never happier than when I am alone in a foreign city; it is as if I had become invisible.

Margaret Storm Jameson

Traveling alone will be the scariest, most liberating thing of your life, try it at least once.

Anonymous
David McCullough Jr Quote "Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you"
“Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.” – David McCullough Jr.

Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time.

Hannah Arendt

Some roads aren’t meant to be travelled alone.

Chinese Proverb

Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.

Ernest Hemingway

Business Travel Quotes

Some of us travel more than others, and for some travel is more about obligation than enjoyment. For businesspeople who have to travel from place to place, it doesn’t seem like much of a privilege at all.

However much of an obligation traveling for work may seem, there are always ways to make it more enjoyable, fulfilling, and rewarding.

Matthew Karsten Quote "Investment in travel is an investment in yourself."
“Investment in travel is an investment in yourself.” – Matthew Karsten

Travel is never a matter of money but of courage.

Paulo Coelho

One thing I love about traveling for work is growing and learning out of my comfort zone.

Anonymous

But my sense in speaking to people when I travel is that the film business is not that dissimilar from a lot of other businesses.

Steven Soderbergh

I have found adventure in flying, in world travel, in business, and even close at hand… adventure is a state of mind and spirit.

Jacqueline Cochran

I am in a very peculiar business: I travel all over the world telling people what they should already know.

David Randi

Better to see something once, than to hear about it a thousand times.

Asian Proverb

No one traveling on a business trip would be missed if he failed to arrive.

Thorstein Veblen

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

John D. Rockefeller
Ann Landers Travel Quote "A husband is a man who wishes he had as much fun when he goes on business trips as his wife thinks he does"
“A husband is a man who wishes he had as much fun when he goes on business trips as his wife thinks he does.” – Ann Landers

Road Trip Quotes

Taking a road trip is a quintessential American dream for many, how many of us are brave enough to jump in the car, turn on the music, and drive for thousands of miles?

If this sounds like your idea of a perfect vacation, or something you’ve always wanted to do, make this the year that you plan it and do it!

Take the time to plan out a rough guideline for your adventure. Include must-see sights, places to stay, and experiences you just can’t live without. Making space for spontaneity is important, too, for some of the best times of our lives happen when we least expect them.

Lewis Carroll Quote "If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there"
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by.

Robert Frost

I just go with the flow, I follow the yellow brick road. I don’t know where it’s going to lead me, but I follow it.

Grace Jones

I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.

Walt Whitman

I climb behind the steering wheel… I drive off immediately without once looking back; it’s a long journey but it leads to freedom.

Corinne Hoffman

Never underestimate the therapeutic power of driving and listening to very loud music.

Unknown

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.

Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac Quote "Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road"
“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” – Jack Kerouac

God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.

Isak Dineson

If you’re on a road trip, you need driving music.

Edgar Wright

Because the greatest part of a road trip isn’t arriving at your destination. It’s all the wild stuff that happens along the way.

Emma Chase

Road trips are the equivalent of human wings. Ask me to go on one, anywhere. We’ll stop in every small town and learn the history and stories, feel the ground and capture the spirit. Then we’ll turn it into our own story that will live inside our history to carry with us, always. Because stories are more important than things.

Victoria Erikson

Road trips required a couple of things: a well-balanced diet of caffeine, salt and sugar and an excellent selection of tunes—oh, and directions.

Jenn McKinlay
"A road trip is a way for the whole family to spend time together and annoy each other in interesting new places"
“A road trip is a way for the whole family to spend time together and annoy each other in interesting new places.” – Tom Lichtenheld

What it takes to realize everything is fine around you? A road trip to the mountains where your soul dwells in the echoes of the winds that carry fragments of clouds with them. What it takes to realize world is going back to chaos and infinite hurry? End of the aforementioned road trip.

Crestless Wave

A passenger on a road journey is in the hands of a driver; a reader embarking on a book is in the hands of a narrator.

Romesh Gunesekera

Map out your future – but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip.

Jon Bon Jovi

I love road trips. You get into this Zen rhythm; throw the sense of time out the window.

Miriam Toews

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.

Jerry Seinfeld
"Now, on this road trip, my mind seemed to uncrinkle, to breathe, to present to itself a cure for a disease it had not, until now, known it had"
“Now, on this road trip, my mind seemed to uncrinkle, to breathe, to present to itself a cure for a disease it had not, until now, known it had.” – Elizabeth Berg

I love being on the road. I love that lifestyle, traveling city to city, rocking out and moving on to the next place.

Caleb Johnson

You can be writing every day. When you go on a road trip, the trip itself becomes part of the story.

Steve Rushin

The freedom of the open road is seductive, serendipitous and absolutely liberating.

Aaron Lauritsen

That’s why I love road trips, dude. It’s like doing something without actually doing anything.

John Green

Wherever you get to is better than where you started. To stay on the road is a massive achievement.

Anthony Joshua
Walt Whitman quote "Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road"
“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road.” – Walt Whitman

All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.

Jack Kerouac

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Yogi Berra

I can speak to my soul only when the two of us are off exploring deserts or cities or mountains or roads.

Paulo Coelho

Look for chances to take the less-traveled roads. There are no wrong turns.

Susan Magsamen

When all’s said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it’s not so much which road you take, as how you take it.

Charles de Lint

The open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself.

William Least Heat Moon

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

You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.

William Hazlitt

The road must eventually lead to the whole world.

Jack Kerouac
"The road is there, it will always be there. You just have to decide when to take it"
“The road is there, it will always be there. You just have to decide when to take it.” – Chris Humphrey

Wherever your next trip takes you, we hope you found a quote to inspire you on your journey! And if you’ve just returned home, now may be the perfect time to start planning your next adventure.

Travel has always been a transformative experience for those who dare to do it. Visiting different places, cultures, and lands can introduce us to parts of ourself we otherwise may never know.

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Natalie Seale

Natalie Seale is a writer and researcher with an MA, MSc, and PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh. Natalie is an avid reader, a keen traveller, and enjoys cooking and walking with her English Spaniel. Her posts focus on inspiring ideas and tips that help people learn, gro, and inspire others.

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