I’m a big fan of travel that doesn’t need a six-month plan, a new suitcase, or a huge life overhaul. My style is usually day trips, weekend breaks, one-night city escapes, quick flights that somehow still manage to reset your brain a bit.
Sometimes all you need is a free weekend, a decent flight deal, and the willingness to get out the door.
So it seemed only right to put together a list of short travel quotes too.
Some are thoughtful, some are exciting, and some just make you want to open Skyscanner and start making questionable decisions.
But all of them capture something about why we go in the first place, whether that’s to see somewhere new, clear our heads, or just eat a pastry in a different country and call it character-building.
You might also like: 120 Travel Journaling Prompts (So You Never Forget A Trip)
Need to book a trip?
These are my go-to sites for booking trips:
So here are 90 short travel quotes that might inspire your next trip, your next caption, or at the very least, your next midnight flight search scroll.
PIN FOR LATER!
1. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page — Saint Augustine
2. To travel is to live — Hans Christian Andersen
3. Not all those who wander are lost — J.R.R. Tolkien
4. Adventure is worthwhile — Aesop
5. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing — Helen Keller
Travel brings power and love back into your life
Rumi
7. I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. — Robert Louis Stevenson
8. Collect moments, not things. — Unknown
9. The journey, not the arrival, matters. — T.S. Eliot
10. Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow. — Anita Desai
11. Travel is never a matter of money but of courage. — Paulo Coelho
12. One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. — Henry Miller
13. Travel far enough, you meet yourself. — David Mitchell
14. The gladdest moment in human life is a departure into unknown lands. — Sir Richard Burton
Escaping and getting away from it all? You bet I love it
unknown
16. To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. — Freya Stark
17. We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls. — Anaïs Nin
18. The traveller sees what he sees. — G.K. Chesterton
19. Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. — Gustave Flaubert
20. Wherever you go, go with all your heart. — Confucius
21. Travel is rebellion in its purest form. — Unknown
22. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before. — Dalai Lama
23. To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. — Aldous Huxley
Take only memories, leave only footprints
chief seattle
25. Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. — Seneca
26. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. — Marcel Proust
27. Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures. — Lovelle Drachman
28. We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. — Hilaire Belloc
29. Let the adventure begin. — Unknown
30. There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign. — Robert Louis Stevenson
31. A good traveller has no fixed plans. — Lao Tzu
32. He who would travel happily must travel light. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
33. Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions. — Peter Hoeg
34. The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life. — Agnes Repplier
35. Paris is always a good idea. — Audrey Hepburn
To move, to breathe, to fly, to float
Hans Christian Andersen
37. The best view comes after the hardest climb. — Unknown
38. Live your life by a compass, not a clock. — Stephen Covey
39. I read, I travel, I become. — Derek Walcott
40. Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times. — Asian proverb
41. Go where you feel most alive. — Unknown
42. Stop worrying about the potholes and enjoy the journey. — Babs Hoffman
43. Never go on trips with anyone you do not love. — Ernest Hemingway
44. Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. — Ibn Battuta
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Lao tzu
46. Say yes to new adventures. — Unknown
47. I’m in love with places I’ve never been to. — Melody Truong
48. Home is where you park it. — Unknown
49. People don’t take trips, trips take people. — John Steinbeck
50. The best dreams happen when you’re awake. — Cherie Gilderbloom
51. Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. — Anatole France
52. Travel is fatal to prejudice. — Mark Twain
53. Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer. — Unknown
54. The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality. — Samuel Johnson
I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list
susan sontag
56. We live in a wonderful world full of beauty, charm and adventure. — Jawaharlal Nehru
57. Travel sparks our imagination, feeds our curiosity, and reminds us how much we all have in common. — Deborah Lloyd
58. It feels good to be lost in the right direction. — Unknown
59. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. — André Gide
60. The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have. — Anna Quindlen
61. The farther I go, the closer to me I get. — Andrew McCarthy
62. Travel is glamorous only in retrospect. — Paul Theroux
63. If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home. — James A. Michener
64. One of the great things about travel is that you find out how many good, kind people there are. — Edith Wharton
65. There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it. — Charles Dudley Warner
Travel is an investment in yourself
unknown
67. All travel has its advantages. — Samuel Johnson
68. There’s no time to be bored in a world as beautiful as this. — Unknown
69. A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles. — Tim Cahill
70. To travel is to evolve. — Pierre Bernardo
71. A nomad I will remain for life. — Isabelle Eberhardt
72. The tans will fade, but the memories will last forever. — Unknown
73. Oh, the places you’ll go. — Dr. Seuss
74. Fill your life with experiences, not things. — Unknown
The road is there, it will always be there
Chris Humphrey
76. Travel far, pay no fare. — Unknown
77. The adventure is out there. — Up
78. I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world. — Mary Anne Radmacher
79. Born to roam. — Unknown
80. Let’s find some beautiful place to get lost. — Unknown
81. Roam if you want to. — The B-52’s
82. Keep calm and travel on. — Unknown
83. Jobs fill your pocket, but adventures fill your soul. — Jaime Lyn Beatty
84. Wander often, wonder always. — Unknown
Let the adventure begin
unknown
86. Leave the road, take the trails. — Pythagoras
87. Travel is my therapy. — Unknown
88. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream. — Ray Bradbury
89. Work, save, travel, repeat. — Unknown
90. Every trip leaves you with something, even if it’s just a new way of looking at home. — Me!
I hope these short travel quotes gave you a little burst of inspiration. Sometimes all it takes is one good line to remind you why travel matters in the first place. And if this list has left you wanting to pack a bag, well, that was kind of the point!
