Hello, I’m Ryan, and I am addicted to travel. And inspirational travel quotes.
Whether you need to kick in the travel mojo, electrify the vagabond soul in you, or just scratch a wanderlust itch until you hit the road again — travel quotes are one of the best ways to find inspiration.
After all, travel has taught me so many life lessons that it makes sense to look to travel for a mood boost or motivation.
It is a bit cliché. Every backpacker has their favorite bunch of travel quotes tucked into a corner of their brain or, if you’re like me, scribbled onto pages of your journal or underlined in a novel. And there are a bajillion websites with travel quotes all over them.
But heck, it seriously helps when you’re feeling burnt out when traveling or while at home dreaming of far away places and to reflect on ones that connect with you. It’s an excellent way to get the oomf to start traveling the world.
Speaking of, don’t forget to check out my awesome guide of 5 simple steps to become a world traveler HERE!
I created this list just as I turned the big three zero (dun dun dunnn) and after nearly 6 years of adventure (and plenty of misadventures *🤦♂️*) I still haven’t slowed down. And my passion for travel hasn’t dwindled one bit, and what travel means to me has evolved but not changed much.
But sometimes you need a pick-me-up, and I know when I’m feeling a bit depressed or unmotivated, I look up quotes.
Some people approach 25 or 30 and have a quarter-life crisis, as if that creeping number means the world is over and so is the fun. For myself, I feel as if every coming year since I first began traveling has been the best year of my life.
As a little anniversary post, I’ve picked some of my favorite inspirational travel quotes to help give YOU a little wanderlust. And hopefully to inspire you to get out and explore this damn beautiful world of ours.
I’ve tried to list some quotes that aren’t as well known as others, but if you have favorites as well feel free to share yours in the comments! Here we go…
31 Inspirational Travel Quotes that will give you SERIOUS Wanderlust!
“It feels good to be lost in the right direction”
— Unknown
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
— Lao Tzu
“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 Innocents Abroad
“Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.”
— Judith Thurman
“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.”
— Mary Anne Radmacher
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
— 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, On the Road
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
— Andre Gide
“To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.”
— Freya Stark
“Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
— Ray Bradbury
“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
“Everything I was I carry with me, everything I will be lies waiting on the road ahead.”
— Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”
— Anonymous
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
— Mark Twain
“Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.”
— Anonymous
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
— Helen Keller
“Let me tell you something kid; Everybody gets one chance to do something great. Most people never take the chance, either because they’re too scared, or they don’t recognize it when it spits on their shoes.”
— Babe Ruth, Sandlot Movie
“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
Watch this video of visiting the bhang lassi shop Anthony Bourdain visited in India HERE!
“My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”
— Rumi
“It’s not the destination, but the glory of the ride”
— Edward Monkton
“And then there is the most dangerous risk of all — the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”
— Randy Komisar
“So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless and don’t be sorry”
— Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels
“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 Eriksson
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
— Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
— C.S. Lewis
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
— Neale Donald Walsch
“The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will’. Consider nothing impossible then treat possibilities as probabilities.”
— Charles Dickens
“Once a year go someplace you’ve never been before.”
— Dalai Lama
“Actually, the best gift you could have given her was a lifetime of adventures.”
— Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
“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
“Not all who are lost need to be found”
— Ryan Brown, Lost Boy Memoirs
Yes, I know I quoted myself there in the end. But hey, I can make up my own nifty travel quote too! And that quote I associate with and the one I use often on this blog is a way of life I feel most connected with.
People always assumed I was traveling or “lost” because I was looking for something or running away from something. But, like the quote says, sometimes you don’t need to be found.
I hope these quotes and photos have provided even a tickle of wanderlust.
Most of these were collected from books I’ve read (Jack Kerouac and Mark Twain are favorites while traveling) or while flipping through Pinterest and Instagram when I need a boost. And as the pressure of turning 30 is tossed at me by society, I’ll be looking to these to keep the free spirit flying.
Whether you’re on the road traveling now or hoping to soon, I’d be honored if you shared your favorite quote and your story in the comments below.
Like the quotes? Pin it to share with others!
