Looking for some inspiration to take it slow on your next trip? Or maybe you need some new caption ideas! Here are 40+ quotes to inspire and share, all about Slow Travel adventure.
I labored over each and every one so that you can save the ones you like in a picture format!
Slow travel is all about enjoying the journey and getting deeper into the culture of a place, so I tried to pick mostly quotes that reflect this.
Short Travel Quotes
These travel and slow living quotes are short but sweet!
“It doesn’t matter where you’re going, it’s who you have beside you.” – Anonymous
“A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu
“Wherever you are, be all there.” – Jim Elliott
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Louis Charles Fougeret de Monbron
This has got to be one of the best known travel quotes out there, and is widely credited to Saint Augustine.
So imagine my surprise when I was fact checking and I found that isn’t the right credit at all!
Apparently it is paraphrased from a french book, and the actual quote is loosely translated as:
“The universe is a sort of book, whose first page one has read when one has seen only one’s own country.”
So pretty close actually. Someone summarized it well over the years and made it into plain English.
The post I was reading elaborates on the fact that Saint Augustine didn’t appear to like travel at all, so if you’re interested here is the article of 7 fake travel quotes that I found!
Anyways, still a great quote, I credited the French author Louis Charles Fougeret de Monbron.
Back to the list!
“Live simply, so that others may simply live.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Not exactly a travel quote, but I like this one because it makes me think of slow and sustainable travel.
When we visit a destination and spend time there, living simply, we support locals and their economy so that they can earn a living.
Especially when we are travelling in poorer countries, this quote can be taken quite literally. Some areas depend on tourism for survival, and it’s higher stakes if they don’t make any money.
We started slow travelling because it suited us better and we don’t like busy schedules or crowds.
Now that I’ve spent more time with it, I realize how damaging fast travel can be to a local economy.
When we rush around and spend no more than a day in any given place, we put a strain on the infrastructure and wear down their attractions, but we don’t support local beyond an entrance fee or transit.
I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad, or take the fun out of travel, I really do think there’s a balance, but it’s crazy how many benefits there are to taking it slow!
“Not all who wander all lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
Arguably THE best known travel quote, but it’s a good one, so here we are!
I actually had no idea it was from the Lord of the Rings.
“I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way.” – Voltaire
“The journey is the reward.” – Chineste proverb, Steve Jobs, or Walter Isaacson
This quote is widely credited to Steve Jobs on Pinterest, but I also found sources crediting Walter Isaacson, and others citing “Chinese proverb.”
From what I could tell, a Taoist saying would predate both Steve Jobs and someone named Walter, so I went with “Chinese proverb.”
I mean, I have no doubt that Steve Jobs said it at some point, but probably as a quote.
“Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing.” – Dr. Seuss
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
True dat, Ralph.
“We travel, not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Unknown
“You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about it’s width and depth.” – H.L. Mencken
I’m not 100% convinced that I even like this quote, because I already tend to be very conscious of my mortality, but it is a wise one.
“It is better to travel well than to arrive.” – Buddha or Robert Louis Stevenson
This is one of the first one’s that I fact-checked, because it just doesn’t sound like something that Buddha would trouble himself with.
I was correct.
Also, today I learned that there is an entire site dedicated to fake Buddha quotes!
Apparently the quote is paraphrased from Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote:
“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.”
So this is a modernized version, widely embraced by the internet.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
“The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.” Henry David Thoreau
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber
“The best things in life aren’t things.” – Art Buchwald
I love, love, love this quote!
While it isn’t travel specific it definitely makes me think of minimalism and embracing our time and experiences.
For example, I think one of the best things in life is travel!
“There is only today, with holes in our pockets, with time spilling out. We cannot keep it for tomorrow.” – Erin Loechner
This one makes me sad, but it’s eloquent…so there’s that.
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu
“Let’s find some beautiful place to get lost.” – Unknown
“Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A ship in harbour is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.” – William Shedd
I discovered this quote while I was working on this post, and it’s stored in my heart forever now!
“Home is not just the place where you happen to be born, it’s the place where you become yourself.” – Pico Iyer
This quote makes me think of Bulgaria.
We adopted our daughter from Bulgaria and therefore I officially became a Mom there (and started the hardest journey of my life!)
So in a way, it’s the place I became this person, and it honestly does feel like I’m connected to that it.
Slow Travel Quotes to Inspire
“I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and spent them lavishly; nor do I regret that I did not waste more of them in the workshop or the teacher’s desk.” – Henry David Thoreau
This quote just would NOT fit eloquently onto a small photo like this, so I cropped it to my favourite part.
Very often travelling is a choice between having more money or seeing more of the world. I would rather be rich in sunny hours and summer days.
“We’re so caught up in trying to do everything, experience all the essential things, not miss out on anything important…Life is better when we don’t try to do everything. Learn to enjoy the slice of life you experience, and life turns out to be wonderful.” – Leo Babauta
“Material goods rarely alter our levels of happiness, unlike emotional experience. Having can never replace being.” – Ilsa Crawford
To me this is a perfect slow travel (and minimalism) quote.
You can collect all the check marks you want, and take pictures of all the things, but that can’t replace truly experiencing somewhere.
“The difference between a tourist and a traveller is that a tourist doesn’t know where he’s been, and a traveller doesn’t know where he’s going.” – unknown
This travel quote is as relevant as it gets for slow travel!
We all know that feeling of visiting a place and allowing too little time for it. You end up rushing around from place to place, taking a few photos, and moving on.
When it’s all over, you don’t remember much, and you didn’t learn much about the places that you visited.
“…a tourist doesn’t know where [they’ve] been.”
Ouch!
“A traveller doesn’t know where [they’re] going.”
Allowing a place to take you on a journey is what makes us travellers.
“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” – John Steinback
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost
A classic road-less-travelled quote.
“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
Isn’t this why we all travel? We might know some of the things that we plan to see and do, but if we knew it all by staying home, then we wouldn’t leave.
The not knowing, is what inspires us to go out and discover for ourselves, what we couldn’t possibly experience from home.
“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark
A nice little shout out for solo travel.
“Ask a bird how to fly, and it might tell you to remove the weight from your wings.” – Erin Loechner
Not exactly a travel quote, but I think it relates well. A lot of people say that they wish they could travel more but it won’t work because of xyz.
I think if you work backwards from the goal, and remove the weight from your wings (the obstacles,) you can find ways to make it work.
“It’s a dangerous business…going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
Another Lord of the Rings travel quote. I did insert the standard ellipses instead of having “Frodo” in the quote, just to make it a little more relevant.
“If you’re always racing to the next moment, what happens to the one you’re in?” – Nanette Mathews
“Joy comes to us in ordinary moments, we risk missing out when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.” – Brene Brown
“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 five 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 a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.” – Bill Bryson
Ridiculously difficult to fit onto one shareable photo, but I did my best! It’s such a great quote.
“It is not the destination where you end up, but the mishaps and memories you create along the way.” – Penelope Riley
“You’re in love with something bigger than love
You believe in something stronger than trust.
Wanderlust” – The Weeknd
Had to slide a lyric in here since it literally has the word “Wanderlust” in it.
Anthony Bourdain Slow Travel Quotes
When I started, I had no idea I would need an entire sub category dedicated to the late, great, Anthony Bourdain.
Turns out he was full of quotable quotes!
“The journey is part of the experience – an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.” – Anthony Bourdain
“One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.” is officially one of my favourite travel quotes. It just reeks of disdain which for some reason is incredibly funny to me.
“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
Literally, slow travel in a nutshell.
“I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find the perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.” – Anthony Bourdain
My only issue with Anthony Bourdain’s travel quotes, is that he was so dang wordy!
A proposed shorter version could be:
“I’m a big believer in winging it…You’re never going to find the perfect…travel experience…without the constant willingness to experience a bad one.”
But that’s an awful lot of ellipses! I did shorten it for the quote picture, because it was just never going to fit:
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you – it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you…Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” – Anthony Bourdain
Another wonderful but wordy quote by Anthony Bourdain.
This one I split into two because I though both halves make a good quote by themselves too.
“It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be.” – Anthony Bourdain
That brings us to the end of the list! That was 44 slow travel quotes to get your wanderlust juices flowing.
What is your favourite travel quote?
Want more?
