Travel Quotes for Travel Inspiration
Sometimes a few simple travel quotes or phrase is all it takes to spark action in our lives.
We always welcome inspirational words, so we thought it would be fun to share some quotes that have inspired us in the past. Hopefully one or two of them give you the push you need to plan that next adventure. Enjoy!
50 Inspirational Travel Quotes
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd
“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
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine
“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener
“Jobs fill your pocket but adventures fill your soul.” – Jamie Lyn Beatty
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“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
“You seldom, if ever, get lucky sitting down.” – Zig Ziglar
“Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great.” – Orison Swett Marden
“A wise traveler never despises his own country.” – Carlo Goldoni
“Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” – Anthony Bourdain
“We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.” – John Hope Franklin
“Life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better.” – Simon Raven
“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.” – Anatole France
“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” – Barbara Hoffman
“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!” – Henry Ford
“Since life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better” – Simon Raven
“A journey is best measured in friends, not in miles.” – Tim Cahill
More famous travel quotes to inspire you
“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley
“If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel: as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go.” – Anthony Bourdain
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost
“Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Promise me you’ll always remember: you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think” – A.A. Milne, Winne the Pooh
“It’s Better to Travel Well than to Arrive” – Buddha
“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
“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese
“Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times.” – Asian Proverb
“Travel makes a wise man better but a fool worse.” – Thomas Fuller
“When dealing with complex transportation issues, the best thing to do is pull up with a cold beer and let somebody else figure it out.” – Anthony Bourdain
“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
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other. We may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou
“Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” – Roy M. Goodman
“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner
“We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.” – Gloria Gaither
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” – Gandhi
“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustav Flaubert
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” – Terry Pratchett
“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain
“A traveling fool is better than a sitting wise person.” – Mongolian Proverb
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.” – Wayne Gretzky
“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang
“You can do anything, but not everything.” – David Allen
“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark
“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
“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food, it’s a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.” – Anthony Bourdain
“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Dalai Lama
The following is from the first paragraph of Moby Dick. There are times when “normal” life no longer cuts it, when I have to go somewhere far away where the language, food, people and sights and smells are different. This quote describes the feeling that spurs me to travel…
“… Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”
Thanks for sharing Jane!
Great quotes, I love them all. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome Kim! Good luck on your future travels – you have quite the adventure in front of you!
Thanks for the great tips! I just hope a lot of people would benefit from these tips.. Anyway, thanks a lot for the thoughts!
You’re welcome Jenny!
I hope 1 or 2 of these quotes inspires you to take on a new adventure
Thanks jeny
Great collection of inspirational quotes. Thanks for posting! Here’s one of our favorites: “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”
― Dorothy Parker
I like that Marla – thanks for sharing! 🙂
“If you’re not walking on the edge, you’re taking up too much space”.
Hah! That’s a good one Donna
Great selection! Here’s my fav:
Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.
– Benjamin Disraeli
Great contribution Micki – thanks! 🙂
Great quotes! I have a few that inspire me:
If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.
-Jane Austin
“To move, to breath, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote: To travel is to live.”
– Hans Christian Andersen
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”
— Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You’ll Go!)”
“Travel is like adultery; one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one’s own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live…in our wanderlust, we are lovers looking for consummation.”
– Anatole Broyard
Awesome quotes Stacey – thanks for contributing!
Other great quotes:
“The earth is round, we shall meet” – African Proverb
“If a diploma can famously be a passport, a passport can be a diploma” – Pico Iyer. Read the rest of his wonderful essay on travel here: http://www.cmi-gear.com/tim/travels/chapter12-travel.asp
Thanks Sarah – we appreciate the contributions! 🙂
These are wonderful quotes. I like this one the best: “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. – Freya”
It reminds me of some silly movie I once saw where the actress said she loved finding herself in a city or town where she couldn’t speak the language, knew nobody, and didn’t know where she was. That defined what a good day for her was.
I liked that quote. I feel the same way.
Thanks for sharing Barbara!
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac
love all of these!
Thanks Britany! 🙂
I love the Barbara Hoffman quote. Anyone who has driven in Kazakhstan or Senegal knows this to be so true!
Love the blog, kind regards, Si
Cheers Si!
Appreciate the kind words 🙂
When I think of the word travel, I don’t always associate it with exploring and being active geographically speaking but more a state of mind – a curiosity for people, life and culture.
One of the things I enjoyed whilst on the road was collecting memorable quotes from people I met in each Country. It doubled as a great trigger to remind me of the moments and people I connected with also.
Number four is my favourite. I try to remember that all the time
Great list. I love travel inspiration quotes and there’s quite a few here that are new to me. This is one I’ll have to come back to. thanks
My favorite: “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free” from The Shawshank Redemption.
Love quotes! My favorite one is the Mark Twain – Explore, Dream, Discover. I’m also a huge fan of “Not all of those who wander are lost.” 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
I love this post. Some of these are quotes that I live by, while others were completely new. One of my favorite quotes (not exclusive to travel) is by Oscar Wilde, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” I truly feel the most alive when I’m traveling.
These are great quotes — I like the Zig Ziglar one, you seldom get lucky just sitting down. So true.
I love collecting travel quotes. There was a Banana Republic store in Boulder with five of the most famous travel quotes. Every time I’d walk by I’d linger and dream.
Great list of quotes! Sometimes all you need is something simple and inspirational to give you a push and keep going. Thanks for sharing these!
Great collection of quotes, but that photo stole the show…incredible…
These are rather nice .. Truly this are inspiring .. i travel a lot but the problem is i don’t find people who are free to go alone ..
I love reading travel quotes. Thanks for introducing me to a few new ones. I like this one, “We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.”
Great quotes! Reading these is getting me excited for my summer travel plans.
I do agree with Mark Twain in the first quote above. And I like this post generally. I actually had a really great time reading this. What’s your favorite travel quote? Anyway, thanks a lot for sharing this.
-Wilma
A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles. (Tim Cahill in the book Road Fever)
Everybody would be inspired to travel reading this collection of travel quotes.
That is true Christina…. For sure everyone will definitely inspire to travel after reading these travel quotes.
Love all your choices!
Another one:
“It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone in the world: cut adrift from every connection; uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted. The charm of adventure sweetens that sensation, the glow of pride warms it.” – Jane Eyre
I love reading travel quotes. Truly this are inspiring … i travel a lot but the problem is i don’t find people who are free to go alone …
I love traveling and those wonderful quotes make me excited to go somewhere beautiful place 🙂 Thnx for the delightful quotes!
Thanks for sharing this! Loved reading the quotes… makes us excited for our travels! Happy travel and we hope to read more great content from you guys.
May I add a couple of more from Mark Twain?
Mark Twain wrote:
…nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.
– Letter to San Francisco Alta California newspaper, dated May 18th, 1867; published June 23, 1867
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.
– Innocents Abroad
Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Hope, one feels once more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood. . . . A journey, in fact, appeals to the Imagination, to Memory, to Hope,—the three sister Graces of our moral being.
—Sir Richard Burton, Zanzibar (London, 1872), vol. 1, pp. 16-17
Great quotes! Very inspiring.
“A traveling fool is better than a sitting wise person.” Old Mongolian Proverb
Actually, #27 is my favorite travel quote! 🙂
My favourite quotes are from an Italian Travel writer: Tiziano Terzani. If you get the chance to read one of his books you’ll love him!
Thanks for sharing!
My favorite: Though we tavel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I love the quote from St. Augustine : “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
I am so inspired to travel! I love number 2, its so blunt but so very true.
Mark Twain has always been a writer I’ve thoroughly enjoy and aspire to become like. His thoughts are timelines. His stories are thought provoking. And most of all he lived a life well-lived. So, out of this list his quote is the one that I find the best when it comes to living not just traveling.
Really inspirational and motivational. Specially like “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”.
Thanks for the great tips! I just hope a lot of people would benefit from these tips. I appreciate your effort.
A compilation of best travel quotes. My favorite one is by – Simon Raven “Life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better.” Looking forward to hearing from you more
A compilation of best travel quotes. My favorite one is by – Simon Raven “Life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better.” Looking forward to hearing from you more
I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.
Its my favourite one. I have it on my profile on worldee.com.
Thank you for article.
Great post there had fun reading it. anyway my favourite is It’s good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end
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
It’s my favorite quotation. I always try to follow it. It gives me a lot of inspiration.