I’m always planning my next adventure. Years of living abroad and traveling the world has done nothing to quench my thirst for new sights, smells, and tastes, instead, it’s just left me wanting more and more.
Instead of quieting that voice, I amplify it.
I’ve gone from being a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador to a tour guide in Panama, hopping across the ocean to work on a yacht in the South of France then teaching English in South Korea. I most recently lived in Vietnam for 3 years and am now building out my van to give a vanlife a go. All while squeezing in as many trips as I can along the way.
If I believe in anything, it’s that life is for the living. And there are loads of different ways to live. For me, living means traveling and continuously putting myself out of my comfort zone, and testing my limits. And for you, since you’re here reading this, I’m going to guess you agree with me.
Whether you’re gearing up for your first big trip, solo or with your partner, or are years into a nomadic journey like me, let these travel quotes inspire you to continue to seek the next big adventure.
Planning your first trip abroad or deciding to move abroad is bigger than feeling inspired by a few quotes though. Use these travel tips to plan your next trip, then when the wanderlust hits, you’ll have no excuse but to go:
- Go somewhere realistic. If you’re having trouble saving for a big trip or finding the time off work, start small. Plan a trip to somewhere you’ve never been that’s only a few hours away and you can visit in a weekend. Travel is more than resorts and spa days, save money by booking homestays or boutique hotels. Eat local and use local transportation to really immerse yourself (and save money).
- Don’t listen to the doubters. People will give you unsolicited advice all day as to why you shouldn’t go all day long if you let them. Learn to know when to listen and when to kindly ignore their thoughts. Remember, it’s your life, not theirs, so chase your dreams, not their fears.
- Go ahead and book it so you can’t procrastinate. The sooner you have set dates and it’s in your calendar, the more likely you are to get on that plane, train, or car to take you on your next adventure.
- Save money by housesitting via TrustedHousesitters or volunteering with Workaway or Worldpackers.
- If you’re waiting for someone else to go, go solo! Even though I’m happily married, my husband and I still travel solo. Why wait on someone else when you can have an amazing time on your own?
- Be flexible with where you go and what you do. Part of the excitement of traveling is that things hardly go as planned. Be ready for those curveballs by being flexible with your schedule and open to trying new things and meeting new people. Even being flexible with where you go can lead to some amazing adventures that you might never had imagined.
- Have fun! Traveling to new places is the most fun thing I can possibly do. Plan your trip with fun in mind. For me that means beaches, hiking, scuba diving and driving mopeds in new places. For you, that could mean spas, museums, big cities. Regardless, find your happy place and go there.
Let these 40 quotes push you take your 1st trip or your 30th.
Need bonus inspo? Right-click on any image to save it and set it as your phone wallpaper to keep your favorite short travel quote as a close reminder. Or save them to your travel bucket list on Pinterest!
We’re not a regular travel blog; we’re a collection of women living around the world, all with different backgrounds, jobs, desires, & nationalities. What do we have in common? A passion for life abroad. Each article is written from the 1st-hand perspective of a woman who has actually done or experienced what she writes about.
Learn more about the author by clicking her bio pic at the start or end of each article.
Starting off the list with a bang! This is my favorite travel quote and has become a personal mantra for me. Anytime you’re feeling stuck or unsure if you should make your next move or plan your next big trip, remember you don’t have roots for a reason.
“If you don’t like where you are, move. You are not a tree.” Jim Rohn
“Travel. As much as you can. As far as you can. As long as you can.” Unknown
“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it.” Nora Roberts
“Do what makes you feel alive.” Sarah Centrella
“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A comfort zone is a beautiful thing but nothing ever grows there.” Gina Milicia
“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
“Dare to live the life you’ve always wanted.” Unknown
“But what I hope you’ll find in the end is that in leaving, you don’t just find love, adventure, or freedom. You find yourself.” Unknown
“I don’t know where I’m going but I promise it won’t be boring.” David Bowie
“Life is meant for good friends and good adventures.” Unknown
“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” Mary Ritter Beard
“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” Unknown
“I have an insane calling to be where I’m not.” Unknown
“You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.” Evan Esar
“Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret.” Oscar Wilde
“I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are 5 years old again. You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can’t even reliably cross the street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.” Bill Bryson
“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed is you.” Scott Fitzgerald
“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” Mary Anne Radmacher
“Because in the end you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.” Jack Kerouac
“A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places.” Isabelle Eberhardt
“A person susceptible to wanderlust is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.” Pico Iyer
“I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” Douglas Adams
“The freedom of the open road is seductive, serendipitous, and absolutely liberating.” Aaron Lauristen
“Life itself is a privilege, but to live life to the fullest- well, that is a choice.” Andy Andrews
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city.” Roman Payne
“All good things are wild and free.” Henry David Thoreau
“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
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” John Steinbeck
“Life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better.” Simon Raven
“To wander is to be free.” Roman Payne
“People don’t take trips, trips take people.” John Steinbeck
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” Henry David Thoreau
“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” G.K. Chesterton
“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
“Maybe the next moment of your life will be on your next big adventure.” Siya Zarrabi
“Live with no excuses and travel with no regrets.” Oscar Wilde
“If you think adventures are dangerous, try routine: it’s lethal.” Paulo Coelho
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