Recently updated on August 20th, 2025 at 11:31 pm
From writers like Mark Twain to explorers such as Ibn Battuta, famous travellers have long used sayings and stories to inspire others to set off on an adventure. In fact, the internet is full of memorable quotes and memes encouraging people around the world to explore. Whether you’re planning a solo trip or booking a tour with loved ones, read on to discover our favourite inspirational travel quotes of all time.
- “All that is gold does not glitter; just as not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R.R. Tolkien
- “People don’t take trips… trips take people.” – John Steinbeck
- “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert
- “Travelling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta
- “Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” – Lawrence Block
- “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.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
- “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
- “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Augustine
- “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
- “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
- “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac
- “When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” – H. Lawrence
- “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
- “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.” – Martin Buber
- “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travellers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux
- “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “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
- “Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli
- “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” – Seth Godin
- “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Seuss
- ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’ – Lao Tzu
- ‘A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ – Lao Tzu
- ‘Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.’ – André Gide
- ‘The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.’ – Wallace Stevens
- ‘A person susceptible to “wanderlust” is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.’ – Pico Iyer
- ‘We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.’ – Anaïs Nin
- ‘Nothing develops intelligence like travel’ – Emile Zola
- ‘See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream.’ – Ray Bradbury
- ‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.’ – Helen Keller
- ‘There is a kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.’ – Kate Douglas Wiggin
- ‘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
- ‘I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself.’ – James Baldwin
- ‘I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on earth and then I ask myself the same question.’ – Harun Yahya
- ‘We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.’ – Anonymous
- ‘Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.’ – Anonymous
FAQ: All about the most inspirational travel quotes
What are some inspirational solo travel quotes?
“Solo travel: because life is too short to wait for someone else to join your adventure” is a reminder to go after what you want, when you want.
“Sometimes the best journeys are those that start when we do not plan” is a great solo travel quote for showing that many experiences can be found along the way.
What are some inspirational family travel quotes?
“In the end, kids won’t remember that fancy toy you bought them, they will remember the time you spent with them,” by Kevin Heath, is a great reminder of how travel can bring people together and create lasting memories.
“The world is your playground,” is a well-known saying that will suit any family-focused traveler as it reminds them about how wide the possibilities are.
What are the best inspirational travel quotes for Instagram captions?
To push the wanderlust and show followers all about your travel memories, there are some quotes which make for great Instagram captions.
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing,” from Helen Keller is a short and snappy quote that would work nicely with images of an adventure travel trip.
For the travelers amongst us, “I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on earth and then I ask myself the same question” will sum up social media posts (on Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest, etc) well.
What are some motivational quotes to overcome travel anxiety?
“I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself,” by James Baldwin is a powerful travel quote for those looking to overcome travel anxiety as it shows how this pastime can help people learn more about themselves.
“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living,” by Miriam Beard is another travel quote that packs a punch. It emphasizes how travel can influence people in such deep ways that it can change their way of living life.
“Courage is found in unlikely places,” by J.R.R. Tolkien is another beautiful travel quote for those looking to overcome anxiety.
Feeling empowered by these inspirational travel quotes? Book a tour and discover the world and all its wonders with Trafalgar.
Image Credits: Big Tropical River © iStock/littlehenrabi. Beach Footprints © iStock/friendwithlove. New York Skyline © iStock/Oneinchpunch. Rainforest Bridge © iStock/Fred Froese. Kayak © iStock/mihtiander. Notepad © iStock/Fly_dragonfly.