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365 awesome trip quotes for a year full of wanderlust

October 10, 2021 | Posted in: Random

Don't you just love a good quote? Especially, when they're about travel. Awesome trip quotes can really motivate you and inspire you to chase your dreams.

Unfortunately, when it comes to travel quotes, I always kept bumping into the same ones. I swear, if I have someone tell me one more time that not all those who wander are lost, I'm going to need more than a cup of tea to regain my calm.

But you can't whine if you don't take action, right? So I went in search of the 100 best travel quotes out there to help you stay motivated on your adventures, eager to keep on exploring and grateful for all the opportunities out there.

I admit, these aren't all the most unique travel quotes out there, but they'll surely make you want to see the world!

Not enough time to go through them all? This video shows you some of the best:

Want to get some cool home decoration, t-shirt, or gift with a travel quote on it? Then definitely check out Etsy!  

365 awesome trip quotes

2. “Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

3. “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharlal Nehru

4. “One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.” – André Gide, The Counterfeiters

5. “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all people cry, laugh, eat, worry and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou

6. “Camp out among the grass and gentians of glacier meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of Nature’s darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” – John Muir, John Muir. His life letters and other writings

7. “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley

8. “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

9. “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

10. “Always do what you are afraid to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

11. “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn

12. “The bold adventurer succeeds the best.” – Ovid, Metamorphoses

13. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference” – Robert Frost, Mountain Interval

14. “Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.” – Tom Robbins, Still life with woodpecker

15. “We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” – Hilaire Belloc

16. “We need the tonic of the wilderness, to wade sometimes in the marsh where the bitten and the meadow hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground.” – Henry David Thoreau

17. “Travel is very subjective. What one person loves, another loathes.” – Robin Leach

18. “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

19. “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu, The way of Lao Tzu

20. “The journey itself is my home.” – Matsuo Bashō

21. “Your past experiences will flavour your future ones, that is human nature.” – Deborah Cater, City chronicles

22. “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” – Oscar Wilde, The importance of being ernest

23. “The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.” – Amelia E. Barr

24. “No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

25. “Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli

26. “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.” – Helen Keller, The story of my life

27. “The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” – G.K. Chesterton, The temple of silence & other stories

28. “Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.” – Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings

29. “Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.” – Elizabeth Drew

30. “A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints.” – Wilfred Peterson

31. “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, Realism in romantic Japan

32. “Here’s to freedom, cheers to art. Here’s to having an excellent adventure and may the stopping never start.” – Jason Mraz

33. “Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.” – Paul Theroux

34. “It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves – in finding themselves.” – Andre Gidé

35. “Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.” – Anatole France

36. “He stood breathing, and the more he breathed the land in, the more he was filled up with all the details of the land. He was not empty. There was more than enough here to fill him. There would always be more than enough.” – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

37. “If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.” – Cesare Pavese or Glenn Clark

38. “Definition of ‘adventure': extreme circumstances recalled in tranquility.” – Jules the Kiwi

39. “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

40. “Travel empties out everything you’ve into the box called your life, all the things you accumulate to tell you who you are.” – Claire Fontaine, Comeback

41. “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

42. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius

43. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd, Salt from my attic

44. “The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey

45. “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” – Fitzhugh Mullan

46. “We will not cease from our exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T.S. Elliot

47. “I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question.” – Harun Yahya

48. “Travel is not really about leaving our homes, but leaving our habits.” – Pico Iyer

49. “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling – though careful research leads this quote back to T.S. Eliot

50. “Walking 10 thousand miles of world is better than reading 10 thousand scrolls of books.” — Chinese Proverb

51. “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharlal Nehru

52. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” — Nelson Mandela

53. “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

54. “You might be poor on money, but rich on life.” – Kasper Raunholst

55. “Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness.” – Ray Bradbury

56. “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon, > Blue highways. A journey into America

57. “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux

58. “Experience, travel – these are as education in themselves” – Euripides

59. “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” – Lillian Smith

60. “We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.” – John Hope Franklin

61. “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman

62. “You lose sight of things… and when you travel, everything balances out.” – Daranna Gidel

63. “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends… The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

64. “Make voyages! Attempt them… there's nothing else.” – Tennessee Williams

65. “People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes

66. “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – anonymous

67. “Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.” – Sir Francis Bacon

68. “To travel is to take a journey into yourself.” – Danny Kaye

69. “My travels led me to where I am today. Sometimes these steps have felt painful, difficult, but led me to greater happiness and opportunities.” – Diana Ross

70. “It is not down in any map; true places never are.” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick

71. “We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin, The diary of Anais Nin

72. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow! What a Ride!” – Hunter S. Thompson

73. “Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking.” – Antonio Machado

74. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

75. “Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.” – Lawrence Durrell

76. “The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” – Shirley MacLaine

77. “Travel can also be the spirit of adventure somewhat tamed, for those who desire to do something they are a bit afraid of.” – Ella Maillart

78. “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

79. “With age, comes wisdom. With travel, comes understanding.” — Sandra Lake

80. “You may not find a path, but you will find a way.” – Tom Wolfe

81. “One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.” – Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

82. “Travel penetrates your consciousness, but not in a rational way.” – Milton Glaser

83. “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner

84. “Traveling is almost like talking with men of other centuries.” – René Descartes

85. “The perfect journey is never finished, the goal is always just across the next river, round the shoulder of the next mountain. There is always one more track to follow, one more mirage to explore.” ― Rosita Forbes

86. “Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings.” – Hodding Carter

87. “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Saint Augustine

88. “The journey is my home.” — Muriel Rukeyser

89. “Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” – Lawrence Block

90. “To travel is to possess the world.” – Burton Holmes

91. “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” – Henry David Thoreau

92. “Keep things on your trip in perspective, and you'll be amazed at the perspective you gain on things back home while you're away…One's little world is put into perspective by the bigger world out there.” – Gail Rubin Bereny

93. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad

94. “One of the gladdest moments of human life, me thinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy.” – Sir Richard Burton

95. “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Dalai Lama

96. “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

97. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson, The Silverado squatters

98. “No place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be.” – Chuck Thompson, To hellholes and back

99. “Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled.” – Mohammed

100. “The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.” – Anna Quindlen

101. “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

102. “You don’t have to be rich to travel well.” – Eugene Fodor

103. “Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions.” — Peter Hoeg

104. “Every man can transform the world from one of monotony and drabness to one of excitement and adventure.” – Irving Wallace

105. “Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know why I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.” – Will Rogers

106. “There was nothing to talk about anymore. The only thing to do was go.” ― Jack Kerouac, On the road

107. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

108. “I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.” – Caskie Stinnett

109. “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag

110. “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch

111. “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson

112. “Oh the places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

113. “Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop

114. “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

115. “Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battutah, The travels of Ibn Battutah

116. “Admire beauty” ― Josephwedler

117. “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” – Moorish proverb

118. “Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

119. “And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” – Pico Lyer

120. “Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” – David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

121. “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck, Travels with Charlie in search of America

122. “Most of the time, beauty lies in the simplest of things.” – Winna Efendi

123. “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert

124. “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

125. “To travel is to live.” – Hans Christian Andersen, The fairy tale of my life

126. “You must give everything to make your life as beautiful as the dreams that dance in your imagination.” – Roman Payne, The Wanderess

127. “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang, The importance of living

128. “We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.” – Pascal Mercier

129. “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill, Jaguars ripped my flesh

130. “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

131. “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, Around the world in 80 days

132. “He who is outside his door has the hardest part of his journey behind him.” – Dutch Proverb

133. “When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” – Susan Heller

134. “Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.” – Kurt Vonnegut

135. “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

136. “I was not born for one corner. The whole world is my native land.” – Seneca

137. “I'm in love with countries I've never been to and fascinated by people I've never met.” – Paul Edwards

138. “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it’s lethal.” – Paulo Coelho

139. “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

140. “I am a passionate traveler, and from the time I was a child, travel formed me as much as my formal education.” – David Rockefeller

141. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller

142. “Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, 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.” – JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

143. “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” – Leonardo da Vinci

144. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

145. “The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau, >Walden or Life if the woods

146. “Every exit is an entry somewhere else.” – Tom Stoppard

147. “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

148. “You don’t choose the day you enter the world and you don’t choose the day you leave. It’s what you do in between that makes all the difference.” – Anita Septimus

149. “To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark

150. “A great way to learn about your country is to leave it.” – Henry Rollins

151. “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust, In search of lost time

152. “Only he that has traveled the road knows where the holes are deep.” – Chinese Proverb

153. “A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.” – Moslih Eddin Saadi

154. “The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life.” – Agnes Repplier

155. “If you can’t live longer, live deeper.” – Italian Proverb

156. “Travel teaches toleration.” – Benjamin Disraeli

157. “There is a kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.” – Kate Douglas Wiggin

158. “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber, The legend of Baal-Shem

159. “Personally I like going places where I don’t speak the language, don’t know anybody, don’t know my way around and don’t have any delusions that I’m in control. Disoriented, even frightened, I feel alive, awake in ways I never am at home.” – Michael Mewshaw

160. “To shut your eyes is to travel.” ― Emily Dickinson

161. “Here was something I already knew to be true about myself: Just as there are some wives who will occasionally need a break from their husbands in order to visit a spa for the weekend with their girlfriends, I will always be the sort of wife who occasionally needs a break from her husband in order to visit Cambodia. Just for a few days!” – Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, pray, love

162. “The value of your travels does not hinge on how many stamps you have in your passport when you get home — and the slow nuanced experience of a single country is always better than the hurried, superficial experience of forty countries.” – Rolf Potts

163. “For mine is a generation that circles the globe and searches for something we haven’t tried before. So never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite, and never outstay the welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience. And if it hurts, you know what? It’s probably worth it.” — Alex Garland, The Beach

164. “I heard an airplane passing overhead. I wished I was on it.” – Charles Bukowski

165. “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” — Maya Angelou

166. “How you live your life is up to you. You have to go out and grab the world by the horns. Rope it before it ties you down and decides for you.” – Sarah Reijonen

167. “One of the inescapable encumbrances of leading an interesting life is that there have to be moments when you almost lose it.” – Jimmy Buffett, A pirate looks at fifty

168. “Traveling is not something you’re good at. It’s something you do. Like breathing.” — Gayle Forman

169. “Roam abroad in the world, and take thy fill of its enjoyments before the day shall come when thou must quit it for good.” – Saadi

170. “Don’t ever live vicariously. This is your life. Live.” – Lavinia Spalding

171. “…life is short and the world is wide.” — Simon Raven

172. “But that’s the wonderful thing about foreign travel, suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything, you have only the most basic 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 Bryan

173. “We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

174. “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.” — Edward Abbey, Desert solitaire

175. “Whenever you go on a trip to visit foreign lands or distant places, remember that they are all someone’s home and backyard.” – Vera Nazarian

176. “Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of food, your closet full of clothes — with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That’s not always comfortable, bit it is always invigorating.” — Michael Crichton

177. “I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.” — Cheryl Strayed, Wild

178. “Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.” – Tahir Shah

179. “Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.” — Mother Teresa

180. “If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you are always in the same place.” — Nora Roberts

181. “… adventure has the gravitational pull of a black hole. The more you do it, the more you find a way to keep doing it.” – Josh Gates, Destination truth

182. “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi

183. “And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the unforgettable thread of wasted time.” — Donald Miller, A million miles in a thousand years

184. “The best way to know a city is to eat it.” – Scott Westerfeld, Afterworlds

185. “Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.” – Barry Finlay, Kilimanjaro and beyond. A life-changing journey

186. “Traveling carries with it the curse of being at home everywhere and yet nowhere, for wherever one is, some part of oneself remains on another continent.” — Margot Fonteyn

187. “What gives value to travel is fear. It breaks down a kind of inner structure we all have.” – Elizabeth Benedict

188. “One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.” – William Feather

189. “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, Fahrenheit 451

190. “Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told.” – Alan Keightley, The gates of Janus

191. “I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” — Diane Ackerman

192. “Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” – Jennifer Lee

193. “It is better to travel than to arrive.” – Buddha

194. “Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times.” – Uzbek proberb

195. “If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.” – Dan Rather

196. “Adventure may hurt you but monotony will kill you.” – Anonymous

197. “It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.” – W. Somerset Maugham

198. “All you need to know is that it’s possible.” – Wolf, an Appalachian Trail Hiker

199. “The most beautiful in the world is, of course, the world itself.” – Wallace Stevens

200. “You develop a sympathy for all human beings when you travel a lot.” – Shakuntala Devi

201. “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

202. “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson

203. “All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell

204. “Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.” – Aldous Huxley

205. “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.” – D. H. Lawrence

206. “Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” – Freya Stark

207. “A wise traveler never despises his own country.” – Carlo Goldoni

208. “How safe do we want to be? How much of ourselves are we willing to give up for it?” – Sarah Hepola

209. “I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.” – George Bernard Shaw

210. “Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in an office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.” – Jack Kerouac

211. “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” – Carl Sandburg

212. “There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, ‘Yes, I’ve got dreams, of course I’ve got dreams.’ Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they’re still there.” – Emma Bombeck

213. “Don’t be scared to walk alone. Don’t be scared to like it.” – John Mayer

214. “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

215. “The farther I travel, the closer I am to myself.” –Andrew McCarthy

216. “People don’t take trips; trips take people.” – John Steinbeck

217. “When overseas you learn more about your own country, than you do the place you’re visiting.” – Clint Borgen

218. “Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.” – John Steinbeck.

219. “The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway.” – Henry Boye

220. “Uncertainty and anticipation are the joys of travel.” – Ken Hundert

221. “Borders…? I have never seen one… But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people…” – Thor Heyerdahl

222. “Heroes takes journeys, confront dragons, and discovers the treasure of their true selves.” – Carol Pearson

223. “No road is long with good company.” – Turkish proverb

224. “As long as we don't die, this is gonna be one hell of a story.” – John Green

225. “I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

226. “Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” – Roy M. Goodman

227. “Take only memories, leave only footprints.” – Chief Seattle

228. “Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.” — Erol Ozan

229. “Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.” – Wendell Berry

230. “By seeing how small the world is, I realize how capable I am. I can conquer anything. Anywhere. Anyone.” — Tawny Lara

231. “Adventure begins with a thought, decision and action.” — Lailah Gifty Akita

232. “Don’t let your luggage define your travels, each life unravels differently.” — Shane Koyczan

233. “The world is full of wonderful things you haven’t seen yet. Don’t ever give up on the chance of seeing them.” — J.K. Rowling

234. “Every journey is personal. Every journey is spiritual. You can’t compare them, can’t replace, can’t repeat. You can bring back the memories but they only bring tears to your eyes.” — Diana Ambarsari

235. “Life is a magical journey, so travel endlessly to unfold its profound and heart touching beauty.” — Debasish Mridha

236. “Travel, leave everything, copy the birds. The home is one of civilization’s sadnesses.” — Gustave Flaubert

237. “Life is about the adventures you take and the memories you make. So travel often and live life with open eyes and an open heart.” — Katie Grissom

238. “Look for chances to take the less-traveled roads. There are no wrong turns.” — Susan Magsamen

239. “The real home of man is not his house but the road. Life itself is a travel that has to be done by foot.” — Bruce Chitin

240. “I travel to be replenished with beauty, for travel makes the beauty of this world seem like a Christmas that never ends.” — Carew Papritz

241. “I tramp a perpetual journey.” — Walt Whitman

242. “Adventure can be an end in itself. Self-discovery is the secret ingredient.” — Grace Lichtenstein

243. “Some journeys in life can only be traveled alone.” — Ken Poirot

244. “When you’re traveling, you are what you are, right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” — William Least Heat-Moon

245. “By traveling to all the corners of the globe it allows me to further define the ever-changing world we live in, which in turn helps me to redefine myself, therefore it is an important process towards becoming a complete person.” — Andrew James Pritchard

246. “You can travel the world but if you cannot let go of the past, you will never move on.” — Gerald Freeman

247. “You must go on adventures to find out where you belong.” — Sue Fitzmaurice

248. “How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you?” — Socrates

249. “A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change.” – Katharine Butler Hathaway

250. “Two great talkers will not travel far together.” – Spanish Proverb

251. “It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks.” — Anatole France

252. “I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more.” — Thomas Jefferson

253. “Traveling solo does not always mean you’re alone. Most often, you meet marvelous people along the way and make connections that last a lifetime.” — Jacqueline Boone

254. “I travel because I become uncomfortable being too comfortable.” — Carew Papritz

255. “You think of travellers as bold, but our guilty secret is that travel is one of the laziest ways on earth of passing the time.” — Paul Theroux

256. “The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.” — Alain de Botton

257. “Travel doesn’t become adventure until you leave yourself behind.” — Marty Rubin

258. “I travel light; as light, that is, as a man can travel who will still carry his body around because of its sentimental value.” — Christopher Fry

259. “There ain’t no journey what don’t change you some.” — David Mitchell

260. “Wanderlust is like itchy feet. It’s when you can’t settle down. But Wanderlove is much deeper than that…it’s a compulsion. It’s the difference between lust and love.” — Kirsten Hubbard

261. “Because the greatest part of a road trip isn’t arriving at your destination. It’s all the wild stuff that happens along the way.” — Emma Chase

262. “This wasn’t a strange place; it was a new one.” — Paolo Coehlo

263. “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” — Jack Kerouac

264. “The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist.” – Russell Baker

265. “I guess the lesson is you can’t go everywhere. You should still go everywhere you can.” — Charles Finch

266. “The road never ends…only our vision does.” — Amit Reddy

267. “The best tourist is one without a camera.” — Kamand Kojouri

268. “Life is beautiful if you are on the road to somewhere.” — Orhan Pamuk

269. “You have to taste a culture to understand it.” — Deborah Cater

270. “There are no tips for life neither for travelling.” — Guido Colombo

271. “Everybody has a unique path to travel.” — Lailah Gifty Akita

272. “Travel has a way of making the world a much smaller place.” — Janna Graber

273. “See it, learn it, do it ALL.” — Jamie McCall

274. “The Wanderlust has got me…by the belly-aching fire.” — Robert W. Service

275. “Wander, and leave a trail of freedom wherever you go.” — Marty Rubin

276. “Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.” — Alain de Botton

277. “I want to urge you very strongly to travel as much as you can, and to evolve yourself as an internationalist. It’s as important a part of your education as a radical as the reading of any book.” — Christopher Hitchens

278. “One does not travel, any more than one falls in love, to collect material. It is simply part of one’s life.” — Evelyn Waugh

279. “Travel experiences are emotionally loaded. Often there is excitement and stimulation. The tingle-factor though comes partly from the fact that we’re stressed, just a little.” — Jane Wilson-Howarth

280. “You have not traveled enough,” she said. “Or you'd know that every journey makes its own map across your heart.” ― Sharon Shinn, Mystic and Rider

281. “Living in another culture, not just visiting it, has reshaped our view of the world.” — Nancy Petralia

282. “To the tourist, travel is a means to an end; to the traveler, it’s an end in itself.” — Marty Rubin

283. “There’s a part of me that thinks perhaps we go on existing in a place even after we’ve left it.” — Colum McCann

284. “Ownership of most things is overrated. Ownership of worldly experience is not.” — Dave Levant

285. “Traveling can never be taken for granted, no matter how meticulous the preparations.” — Eugene Linden

286. “The best journeys are the ones that answer questions that at the outset you never even thought to ask.” — Rick Ridgeway

287. “To live is to travel, on a voyage more epic than the odysseys of myth – not from place to place, but through the poignant strangeness of time.” — T.L Rese

288. “Travel is the best teacher. The only way to an open mind is by taking a plane out into the open world.” — C. JoyBell C.

289. “For me, a place unvisited is like an unrequited love. A dull ache that—try as you might to think it away, to convince yourself that she really wasn’t the right country for you—just won’t leave you in peace.” — Eric Weiner

290. “Do you think it’s so snobbish, to want to see something besides one’s fellow citizens abroad?” — Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis

291. “People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.” – St. Augustine

292. “They change their climate, not their soul, who rush across the sea.” — Horace

293. “I travel because it makes me realize how much I haven’t seen, how much I’m not going to see, and how much I still need to see.” — Carew Papritz

294. “Travel opens your mind as few other things do. It is its own form of hypnotism, and I am forever under its spell.” — Libya Bray

295. “Those who visit foreign nations, but who associate only with their own countrymen, change their climate, but not their customs; they … return home with travelled bodies, but untravelled minds.” – Charles Caleb Colton

296. “If you travel, it must be to seek difference.” – Kathleen Lee

297. “Travel is like an endless university. You never stop learning.” – Harvey Lloyd

298. “You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” – Yogi Berra

299. “To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.” – Frantz Fanon

300. “Nothing develops intelligence like travel.” – Emile Zola

301. “Never hesitate to go far away, beyond all seas, all frontiers, all countries, all beliefs.” – Amin Maalouf

302. “Through we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

303. “The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.” – Charles Kuralt

304. “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

305. “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” ― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

306. “I read; I travel; I become” ― Derek Walcott

307. “I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself.” – James Baldwin

308. “Never did the world make a queen of a girl who hides in houses and dreams without traveling.” ― Roman Payne, The Wanderess

309. “Travel brings wisdom only to the wise. It renders the ignorant more ignorant than ever.” ― Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings

310. “Every hundred feet the world changes.” ― Roberto Bolaño, 2666

311. “The farther you go, however, the harder it is to return. The world has many edges, and it's easy to fall off.” ― Anderson Cooper

312. “I wonder if the ocean smells different on the other side of the world.” ― J.A. Redmerski, The Edge of Never

313. “If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.” ― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

314. “A good traveller is one who knows how to travel with the mind.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson, Master of Maxims

315. “You can't control the past, but you can control where you go next.” ― Kirsten Hubbard, Wanderlove

316. “But the beauty is in the walking — we are betrayed by destinations.” ― Gwyn Thomas

317. “Maybe you had to leave in order to miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.” ― Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care

318. “Travelling, one accepts everything; indignation stays at home. One looks, one listens, one is roused to enthusiasm by the most dreadful things because they are new. Good travellers are heartless.” ― Elias Canetti, The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit

319. “Traveling outgrows its motives. It soon proves sufficient in itself. You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making you – or unmaking you.” ― Nicolas Bouvier, The Way of the World

320. “I am looking for the people who have always been there, and belong to the places they live. The others I do not wish to see.” ― Norman Lewis

321. “I probably did too much thinking in India. I blame it on the roads, for they were superb…” ― Robert Edison Fulton Jr., One Man Caravan

322. “I may be going nowhere, but what a ride.” ― Shaun Hick

323. “Any country where I am not bored is a country that teaches me nothing.” ― Albert Camus

324. “I travel, always arriving in the same place.” ― Dejan Stojanovic, The Shape

325. “A book is the cheapest ticket you will ever hold.” ― Stefanos Livos

326. “Where you come from does matter — but not nearly as much as where you are headed.” ― Jodi Picoult

327. “Serendipity was my tour guide, assisted by caprice.” ― Pico Iyer

328. “Ships are my arrows, the sea my bow, the world my target.” ― Robert Thier, Storm and Silence

329. “That’s the place to get to—nowhere. One wants to wander away from the world’s somewheres, into our own nowhere.” ― D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love

330. “You sell off the kingdom piece by piece and trade it for a horse that will take you anywhere.” ― Colin Wright, My Exile Lifestyle

331. “Your comfort zone is a place where you keep yourself in a self-illusion and nothing can grow there but your potentiality can grow only when you can think and grow out of that zone.” ― Rashedur Ryan Rahman

332. “A journey of observation must leave as much as possible to chance. Random movement is the best plan for maximum observation.” ― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

333. “She wasn't where she had been. She wasn't where she was going, but she was on her way.” ― Jodi Hills

334. “Our work is directly proportional to the distances our dreams travel across, as force (power) is a constant facto.” ― Israelmore Ayivor

335. “Adventure rewrites the routine of our lives and wakes us sharply from the comforts of the familiar. It allows us to see how vast the expanse of our experience. Our ability to grow is no longer linear but becomes unrestricted to any direction we wish to run.” ― Josh Gates, Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter

336. “Travel moulds a man, people mould his wisdom and experiences mould his life!” ― Sujit Lalwani, Life Simplified!

337. “I speak to maps. And sometimes they something back to me. This is not as strange as it sounds, nor is it an unheard of thing. Before maps, the world was limitless. It was maps that gave it shape and made it seem like territory, like something that could be possessed, not just laid waste and plundered. Maps made places on the edges of the imagination seem graspable and placable.” ― Abdulrazak Gurnah, By the Sea

338. “If the body is the register of the real, then reading with one's feet is real in a way reading with one's eyes alone is not.” ― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

339. “Travel, for me, is a breathtaking experience. A humbling for the soul and the realization that we are all in this together.” ― Michael Holbrook, Dear You, Live! Love, Life

340. “To create abundance in life, travel and touch everyone you meet with your infinite love.” ― Debasish Mridha

341. “It's like rock n' roll for your eyes.” ― Paul Howard, Vagrants in Paradise: a travel-humor essay

342. “Loveyoubye.” ― Jen Malone, Wanderlost

343. “Travel is a set of corrective lenses that helps focus the planet's blurred reality.” ― Andrew Solomon, Far & Away: Places on the Brink of Change: Seven Continents, Twenty-Five Years

344. “For of this world one never sees enough and to dine in harmony with nature is one of the gentlest and loveliest things we can do.” ― James A. Michener, Iberia

345. “No one likes a straight road but the man who pays for it, or who, when he travels, is brute enough to wish to get to his journey's end.” ― J. Sheridan Le Fanu, The Haunted Baronet And Others: Ghost Stories 1861-70

346. “The true adventurer sees his glass as half full even when there are things swimming in it.” ― Randy Ross, God Bless Cambodia

347. “The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

348. “Traveling in other countries is especially fun because others often attribute your differences to the less-stigmatizing idea that you're like this only because you're a foreigner.” ― Michael John Carley, Asperger's From the Inside Out: A Supportive and Practical Guide for Anyone with Asperger's Syndrome

349. “But wherever there is man, there must be some sort of route.” ― Robert Edison Fulton Jr., One Man Caravan

350. “I like to believe that the road is sharpening my mind and lengthening my life with surprise.” ― Gloria Steinem

351. “Don't expect the unexpected. Let the unexpected expect you.” ― Kiara Maharaj

352. “I suppose that every wanderer started in a garden somewhere. So few of us are born into motion.” ― Candas Jane Dorsey, Black Wine

353. “Where the fog is thickest, begin.” ― Marty Rubin

354. “To reduce your age,increase your experiences.” ― Subbu Peteti, Anti-Aging Secrets on the Highway

355. “When coming back, we may notice we have changed because others haven’t.” ― Lauren Klarfeld

356. “And I keep wandering in search of a nothingness…” ― Avijeet Das

357. “Perhaps it is the setting; rules tend to reduce their grip when you cross borders.” ― Rita Golden Gelman, Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

358. “Those who travel outward seek completeness in things; those who gaze inward find sufficiency in themselves.” ― Liezi, The Book of Master Lie

359. “We take to the breeze, we go as we please.” ― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

360. “A girl who travels has learned how to dance barefoot. She’s learned to place her toes in the sand and dance through rhythm, not through rehearsed footwork. She’s learned to follow what she likes, not what she needs to like.” ― lauren klarfeld

361. “Real traveling is not about visiting places but about ‘re-visiting' our inner-self.” ― Sorrab Singha

362. “For walk where we will, we tread upon some story.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

363. “What we glean from travelers' vivid descriptions has a special charm; whatever is far off and suggestive excites our imagination; such pleasures tempt us far more than anything we may daily experience in the narrow circle of sedentary life.” ― Alexander von Humboldt

364. “What matter it how far we go?” his scaly friend replied. “There is another shore, you know, upon the other side.” ― Lewis Carroll

And for our last quote about traveling:

365. “The map? I will first make it.” ― Patrick White, Voss &nbsp,

And that's it! I hope at least one of these quotes for traveling endlessly has motivated you. Tell me, which one is your favorite?

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The editorial team at Wonderful Wanderings brings together travel experts with backgrounds in travel writing, web development and digital marketing. The team, through their collaborative effort, provides readers with relevant travel experiences and up-to-date digital content. The vast expertise within the team ensures an informative blend of travel stories and useful online travel guides and trip experiences, built on a foundation of both industry recognition and hands-on global adventures. Learn more about Wonderful Wanderings

Agness of eTramping says

Each quote will be good for each day in a year of travel. This post is so cool, Sofie.

Exactly! Glad you like it :)

Shanawar Abbasi says

Waow. Nice quotes,

Thanks, just gathered them :)

Avijeet Das says

Thank you for liking and posting my quote. My quote is at 356. Loved reading all the quotes.

Wow so awesome that you found this! :)

Guido Colombo says

Thrilled and humbled that my phrase made it to your blog. Thank you!

I thank you :-)

Awesome post!! I’ll be using some on a website I’m developing/designing. The first one has a slight typo though. Says “babance”. Awesome read.

Thanks for letting me know!

kamran says

Excellent quotes which give us good lesson in our lives

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11 Ways to Make Every Trip You Take More Meaningful

We're partnering with Capital One to launch our new Purposeful Travel Hub . If you have unique ways you like to pay it forward when you travel or just love exploring new places with family and friends, we want to hear about it. Share your most treasured travel moments and purposeful travel tips with us using #MeaningfulMoments .

Looking to bring back something from your travels besides a tan and a few kitschy souvenirs? It's possible to create meaningful, unforgettable moments while traveling, even if you can't dedicate an entire trip to volunteering in Ghana or meditating at an ashram in India. There are easy ways to add purpose to an already-planned trip, even if that trip is primarily about relaxing on vacation.

1. Read About Your Destination

Literature is a wonderful way to learn about a particular place before your visit. Whether it be fiction, memoir or even a guidebook, understanding the history, culture and traditions of your destination can really enhance your trip — and help you forge a deeper connection with a land and its people prior to arrival.

(Photo by Hitoshi Suzuki via Unsplash)

Before a trip to see the famed temples at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I dug into a copy of "Tomb Raider." But I also read a biography by Loung Ung, who described her experience as a child soldier during the Khmer Rouge years. Understanding the regime and how these tragedies affected the country and its citizens gave me an entirely new outlook on the culture and its resilience, enriching my trip even further.

2. Meet the Locals

Talking to locals can help you develop a far more nuanced understanding of a destination. Even if you trip is to an all-inclusive resort, it's important to take time to talk to people at the local markets, to ask your tour guide questions about local customs and chat with resort staff, many of whom live in the city or region you're visiting.

Several years ago, I was invited to dine with a local family in Mandalay, Myanmar after chatting to a local who rented me a bicycle. Tourism was relatively new at the time, and locals were excited to interact with visitors. Sitting on pillows on the floor of their hut by the river; eating oily curry and rice with my fingers; chatting in broken English; watching their children laugh and play was an intimate experience I'll never forget.

You don't have to end up in a family home to meet locals, of course. Simply initiating conversation with your taxi driver can be a fun way to find out colorful information about the destination you're visiting.

3. Learn the Language

Obviously, this can be difficult, especially if you're traveling to a country with a complicated or less common language. But it's very special to see people's eyes light up — and smiles widen — when you attempt to say even a word or two in their language.

When traveling in Laos, I learned how to say a couple words in Lao: thank you, good morning and goodbye. While I felt a little silly saying them at first (I'm sure my pronunciation was horrendous), the locals were thrilled I had taken the time to try and, as a result, treated me with even more kindness, telling me stories and personal anecdotes, even introducing me to their family members or sharing their snacks with me, which gave me immense insight to the Lao way of life and made me forge a more personal connection with Laos.

Download a language app such as Duolingo so you can brush up on your vocabulary and practice pronunciation.

4. Stay, Eat and Shop Local

Using points at brand hotels around the world is a great way to save money and redeem rewards on travel. But consider spending cash on a stay at a boutique hotel, B&B or homestay for at least one night instead. Doing so supports the local economy even more, and can also give you a better look at how locals live and work, too.

5. Lend a Hand

You don't have to plan a whole voluntourism trip to give back during your travels. With organizations such as Pack For a Purpose , you can identify items that are needed in local communities (think: school or medical supplies), bring them in your suitcase and drop them off at various hotels or schools at your chosen destination.

Meanwhile, Give A Day Global helps connect travelers with one-day volunteer opportunities all over the world. And some hotels offer volunteer opportunities where you can help out with conservation programs, animal protection or work at local schools for an afternoon. Remember, it's not about quantity, it's about quality. And a little help can go a long way.

6. Go Beyond Tourist Centers — Responsibly

There may be plenty to see in the city center, but make an effort to go off-the-beaten path, to communities that haven't yet been commercialized or influenced by tourism.

If you decide to do a tour, opt for one that explores less-frequented areas. For example, Comuna 13 Grafitti Tours in Medellín, Colombia take travelers through an area of the city, the 13th District, that many tourists don't get to see. Tourists are encouraged to interact with the residents while respecting the local community. You may even get to meet some of the artists who've contributed to the vibrant street art scene.

(Photo by Fancycrave via Unsplash)

7. Ride Public Transport

Riding the bus or metro with locals is a great way to embrace the vibes of your destination — and get from A to B quickly, too

During a recent trip to Sri Lanka, I took the bus from Sigiriya to see the ancient ruins of Polonnaruwa. Not only did I save almost $30 by taking the bus (which cost just a couple dollars roundtrip) instead of a private car or tuk tuk, but I was thrown straight into Sri Lankan society. The colorful lights flashing over the Buddhist statues on the bus and the Hindi music blaring added to the fun, and I even saw a few wild elephants out of the window during the hour-long adventure.

8. Travel More Slowly

While it may be tempting to squeeze a couple countries or cities into your weeklong adventure, consider traveling more slowly to really get a feel for the destination. To truly experience a city — its people, its culture — take your time, and don't rush.

Every day, make an effort to think about where you are, why you're there and how lucky you are to be able to travel. This will give you a whole new outlook on the journey. Plus, you'll actually feel rested and relaxed after your trip.

Carla Sánchez , co-founder of Secret Yoga Club and The Holistic Concept who guides yoga and meditation retreats and workshops around the world, told TPG that, "Time is valuable and we are always in a rush in our daily life. Slowing down your travel allows you to enjoy and find meaning in every single detail and experience — a true luxury!"

9. Take a Solo Trip

Traveling alone for the first time can be intimidating. You may not want to experience a place alone, or feel guilty for not bringing your partner or family along. But taking a solo trip can be incredibly rewarding, granting you time — and solitude — to reflect on yourself, on the place you're visiting and on why you love to travel in the first place. Even a few days on your own can bring real perspective to your trip — and you may very well find that you make lifelong friends along the way.

10. Get Out Into Nature

Even if you're visiting a busy metropolis, getting outside of the city into nature — even just for a day trip — can be really special. If you can't get out of the city, try instead to build in time for a picnic in a city park or botanical garden. Seeing nature's wonders, be they modest groves of trees or grand waterfalls, can remind you that beauty is everywhere.

11. Put Down Your Phone

The last, but possibly most important way to add meaning to every trip you take, is to put down your phone, live in the moment and truly experience your destination. While it can be tempting to photograph everything or document your time on social media, it can be a distraction.

Test yourself by shutting off your phone or leaving it in the hotel safe, even for just an hour or two, to get the most out of your travels. If you're worried you'll forget an epic experience without a chance to photograph it, take a camera along or, better yet, a pen and notepad, so you can document your adventures by hand. It may be just the therapeutic escape you need.

“How was your trip?” Strategies for the Perfect Reply

By: Author Hiuyan Lam

Posted on Last updated: October 20, 2023

Categories Social Responses

When your friends, family, and even coworkers know you were away for a trip, it’s common for them to ask about it. The next time you see them, you’ll get questions like “How was your trip?”, and others asking for details about your trip.

Your response will depend on different things, most importantly how close the person is to you, and secondly how your trip actually went. We’ll guide you on how to navigate the “How was your trip?” question in several situations so you don’t become overwhelmed by everyone asking.

Things to pay attention to before replying to someone not close to you

  People you are not so close to will ask you “How was your trip?” as a form of small talk, or even as their way to be a bit nosy. It’s up to you to decide if you want to share the details with this person or not.   Here are some things we think you should pay attention to before replying to someone you are not close to when they ask, “How was your trip?”:  

How To Answer, “How Was Your Trip?”

  When we don’t mind sharing the details about how our trip went with the people we are close to, we can sometimes be short in our responses. Saying your trip went ‘well’ or was ‘good’ to your close friends is simply not enough and they deserve better answers than that.   These 10 questions will help you to better answer “How was your trip?”:   1. What was your favorite part of the trip?   2. What did you learn on this trip?   3. How are you going to use what you learned from this trip in the future?   4. What is one thing that surprised you most on this trip?   5. Tell them about the best meal or drink that you had while traveling   6. What is the difference between how people live there and here?   7. How did you get around?   8. Is there anything you wish you had packed?   9. What advice would you give to anyone going there for the first time?   10. Would you go back?   Once you can answer these questions for yourself, you can use these responses to curate more detailed and better answers to “How was your trip?” 

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If it’s a business trip

  When you get asked “How was your trip?” and it was for business, you’ll want to avoid using words such as good and bad, especially when speaking to your boss and colleagues. Instead, mention the highlights of your trip or anything that stood out.   This is what you can say:  

When the boss asked

When a colleague asked

If the trip was amazing

  When you go off for holiday, whether it’s for a week or just the weekend, the people you told beforehand will likely ask you about it the next time you see them.   When you have had an amazing time, this is what you can say when asked “How was your trip?”:  

When friends or family ask

When colleagues or neighbors ask

If the holiday trip was bad

  When the trip hasn’t gone so well, it’s harder to come up with an answer to “How was your trip?”. Still, your friends, relatives, and others that ask the question will expect a response.   Here’s an idea of what you can say when asked “How was your trip?” :  

15 Sincerest Thank You Notes for Your Business Partner

  After your trip, the most important thing you should be focused on is getting back into the groove of everyday life. When you’re asked, “How was your trip?”, don’t stress yourself for an answer.   We’ve given you 30. Just pick one!  

125 Good Travels and Have a Safe Trip Messages [w/ Quotes]

Here is a look at some of the best ways to wish someone a fun and safe trip for various situations, whether a family member, a best friend, or an acquaintance.

#1 You are about to join the ranks of worldly explorers. As you voyage to new lands in search of adventure, I hope you find it to be all you dreamed of and more. May your sailing be as smooth as your stay is exciting. I hope you have an unforgettable time. I will be here, awaiting your return. Have a safe flight and a pleasant journey.

#2 Take every new breath deeply and enjoy the places you visit. Find new food, new music, new friends, and see life through new eyes. Fill your heart with new joy, and try different things. You may just find something you love around every corner. Happy travels!

#3 Whether you’ll be swimming through rivers or climbing over mountains, I wish you a safe journey and lots of sweet memories. So dive in, take your time, appreciate the moments, and return safely when it’s time. Have a wonderful trip and happy trails!

#4 Traveling the globe allows us to see and experience a great many things. I hope that your eyes drink in all the scenery, that your ears soak in every language, and that your heart fills up with each step you take on foreign soil. Safe travels on your trip.

#5 I hope your trip is as safe as a padded panic room. I wish you nothing but good food, great company, and warm days. I look forward to enjoying the photos and stories you bring back with you. And if there are gifts included, even better! Unless it is a postcard – you can leave that behind. Have a wonderful trip.

#6 Regardless of where your trip is taking you, be sure to embrace the journey. Whether you are far or near, there are plenty of good things to see. With every winding road comes a new opportunity to explore and uncover more joy. So open your mind to all the possibilities of each adventure and have a safe trip back home!

#7 Smooth travels to you. I know you will be back, but while you are gone, living the good life, I will be here missing you. Be safe and make it count. As glad as I am that you are getting this incredible opportunity, I hope you will not make a habit of it!

#8 There is no place like home. But it is only by leaving that we appreciate how true this is. I hope you have a splendid trip, with no shortage of laughter and fun. When you return, I hope the memories you have made will be enough to last a lifetime. Mostly, I wish you safe travels and a very good time along the way.

#9 I hope you have a wonderful visit with welcoming people and sunny skies. And even though it will not be as awesome without me, I hope you have fun all the same. But next time, please take me with you! For now, a souvenir will buy my forgiveness. (Better make it a good one.) Have a safe trip back!

#10 Have fun on your trip! If it is anything like we have seen in the movies, you are about to discover a whole new side to yourself. There is nothing quite like stepping out of your comfort zone and pushing yourself to do new things. Do not underestimate how courageous you are. I wish you a safe and enjoyable journey.

#11 Hey globetrotter! I hope you have a good trip. I will miss seeing your face around town, but I look forward to countless photographs when you get back. I hope your trip there is short, smooth, and hassle-free. May you have as much rest as you do fun. I am so happy that you have this incredible opportunity to travel.

#12 You are going on a trip? I am green with envy. I have no choice but to live vicariously through you on social media. So you had better make sure this experience is worthy of an audience. Make new friends. Have new experiences. Do things most of us would not dare to. And next time, take me with you. Have an extraordinary trip!

#13 Bon voyage! I hope your trip is the stuff of epic novels. The excitement of new adventures. The hypnotic sounds of an undiscovered world. The inviting blend of smells in the air. May your senses be awakened in extraordinary ways. I cannot wait to hear the tales you bring back upon your return. Sending you safe journey wishes.

#14 As you embark on this journey, I hope you discover new things and explore new cultures. May the people you encounter be full of life. May the places you visit be luxurious and historic. May your experiences be so extraordinary they entwine with the fabric of who you. May you return slightly different to when you left. Have a safe and memorable trip.

#15 You’re off to see tremendous sights. You’ll reach new heights and find new favorite places. Congratulations on the memories you’ll create, and all the people you’ll meet. Don’t forget to take pictures. Have a safe and wonderful trip!

#16 Wanderlust is a driving force of life. It calls us to see more of the world than we ever thought possible. We learn with every step outside our comfort zone. I’m so excited for you to begin your adventures. Good luck, and don’t forget to write. Bon Voyage!

#17 You’ve seen what you wanted to see, and now it’s time to return home. Do not be troubled by the time that has passed. I hope you find warmth in the experiences you’ve created. Until we meet again, may the wind never blow you off course. Have a safe trip home.

#18 Life is full of opportunity. I hope your travels bring you an abundance of fun and joy every minute of your trip. Stay safe and please keep in touch. I would love to hear about the great places you have seen and the adventures you have had.

#19 If I could collect all the flowers in a field, I would give them all to you as I say farewell. Let your daydreams become your reality and choose to go where nobody ever dreamed you’d be. Traveling is the best medicine for your soul. I wish you serenity and safe travels as you embark on this journey of a lifetime.

#20 When you return from your travels, you won’t be the same person. Your body will be more relaxed and your mind clearer. Little things won’t matter anymore. It’s one of the most satisfying moments in life to be able to travel and explore the planet. Take this time to embrace the changes and have a nice journey.

#21 Don’t allow fear to get in the way of your exploring. Forget about planning or any type of schedule, and just embrace your freedoms. Look for the places that warm your heart and allow them to write lots of wonderful memories. Be free, be safe and step on all the cracks! These will lead you to the places most people are afraid to explore.

#22 A voyage is a unique experience that allows us to learn about the world and meet new people. It is through this opportunity that we are newly shaped as we take these encounters with us forever. I want to wish you safe travels and I hope you enjoy your trip.

#23 Taking your first trip is like taking a sip of water for the first time. It will give you not only a thirst for more travel, but you will not be able to quell that thirst with anything else but more trips. I wish you safe and good travels.

#24 Whether you travel by car, by train, by boat, or by airplane, taking any kind of journey is an exciting venture that should be experienced by all. It is more than just a stamp in a passport, but a door to new worlds. I hope you have a safe trip.

#25 Traveling is an addictive and enjoyable pursuit. Much like the ocean wind that calls out to the sailor in port, once it gets in your skin, you will never look back. It will call to you regularly and soon you will able to think of nothing else. Enjoy your travels.

#26 Making the decision to travel comes with the knowledge that you may experience some bumps in the road. So, to you I say, may your luggage never be lost, your flights all feel like short naps, and your passport always be full of stamps. Have a fun and safe trip.

#27 Whether this is your first time traveling or your one-hundredth trip, whether it feels like a new world you are visiting or like coming home, may you never lose the desire to explore our planet and seek out new adventures. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip.

#28 The dream of travel can draw us in like a moth to a flame. It can inspire us to learn new languages, to try new cuisines, and can even change our way of thinking. May your dreams of traveling always be alive. I hope you have a safe trip.

#29 I believe that traveling is what allows us to learn about the world and is what makes us human, for it is when we stop traveling that we cease to learn. I encourage you to never stop learning about the world around you. I hope you enjoy your trip.

#30 I know that traveling can be like a bug that we can’t quite shake off. It can infect us and give us a restless spirit to always want to see more. Good travels to you and may you never run out of new destinations to check off your list.

#31 Wishing you all the best on your travels. May you stay safe and happy in your adventure to new places. I am excited for you and look forward to hearing how things go. You are my best friend and our friendship will continue to span all the miles you will ever cross.

#32 Dear friend, I am hoping your trip goes well. May the road you take lead to much personal happiness in the future. Though there may be mountain tops and valleys, I am sure you will find the path that leads to your best future. Stay on it when you find it.

#33 Hoping all your plans go well and that your journey brings the sense of beginning a new season to your life. Traveling can be tiring but so rewarding, especially when you meet kind people on the way. Trusting that will be your experience. Wishing you smooth sailing and happy travels.

#34 As you travel mile upon mile, please know that you are thought of in the kindest way. I am sure all will go well for you, and that this will become an amazing time to cherish for years to come. Remember your destination is only part of the experience, so enjoy the scenery on the way.

#35 Airports are fascinating places, so don’t get distracted with the people-watching and miss your flight home. I hope that everything goes according to plan as you buckle up and take off. Warm thoughts for a safe flight and a happy journey are winging their way to you right now.

#36 Hope that your journey is full of blue skies, with interesting people and beautiful places. May you travel safely to your destination and find that you feel right at home there. Settling in somewhere will take longer than getting there, but I am sure you are going to love it.

#37 Wishing you all the best on your travels. Remember that gas stations are not readily found in the middle of nowhere. Rooting for you as you embark on this expedition. Soon you will be a long way from where you were, as future opportunities lie ahead, beckoning you into new things. Have a wonderful time.

#38 I hope your journey is sprinkled with fun surprises, and plenty of time to take in the view as you go. They say road trips are an opportunity to think and process. Stay safe and awake as you drive. We would love to know when you make it safely home.

#39 Wherever you go, know that warm thoughts and hopes for a safe journey accompany you. You will never really be alone if you reach out and make new connections. It will be an amazing experience. Hope you can be present in the moment and make the most of every new sight. Have a great trip.

#40 There’s an entire universe out there waiting to be explored. Now is your chance to dig deep and find whatever it is you’re looking for. Whether you choose to climb the impossible or just take a dip in the pool to soothe your soul, have a wonderful and safe trip.

Have a Safe Trip & Safe Travel Quotes

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” Amelia Earhart

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” Confucius

“Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret.” Oscar Wilde

“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” Mary Anne Radmacher

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by.” Robert Frost

“People don’t take trips, trips take people.” John Steinbeck

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” Helen Keller

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” Anaïs Nin

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Andre Gide

“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.” Erol Ozan

“Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.” Lawrence Durrell

“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.” Cesare Pavese

“Actually, the best gift you could have given her was a lifetime of adventures.” Lewis Carroll

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” Mark Twain

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” Tim Cahill

“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have travelled.” Mohammed

“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” Charles Dudley Warner

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” Aldous Huxley

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Mark Twain

“Once a year, go somewhere you have never been before.” Dalai Lama

“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

“Every man can transform the world from one of monotony and drabness to one of excitement and adventure.” Irving Wallace

“Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.” Lovelle Drachman

“I’m in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met.” Melody Truong

“Because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars.” Jack Kerouac

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Martin Buber

“Not all those who wander are lost.” J.R.R. Tolkien

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” Henry David Thoreau

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.” James Michener

“The gladdest moment in human life is a departure into unknown lands.” Sir Richard Burton

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” Gustav Flaubert

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” Babs Hoffman

“I travel because it makes me realize how much I haven’t seen, how much I’m not going to see, and how much I still need to see.” Carew Papritz

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” Henry Miller

“The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.” Anna Quindlen

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” Mark Twain

“Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” Frank Herbert

“The journey not the arrival matters.” T.S. Eliot

“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” Hilaire Belloc

“Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” Roy M. Goodman

“Surely, of all the wonders of the world, the horizon is the greatest.” Freya Stark

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” Susan Sontag

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” Jack Kerouac

“He who would travel happily must travel light.” Antoine de St. Exupery

“Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” David Mitchell

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” Seneca

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Neale Donald Walsch

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal.” Paulo Coelho

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” Anita Desai

“To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” Freya Stark

“Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” Paul Theroux

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” Ibn Battuta

“Jobs fill your pocket, but adventures fill your soul.” Jamie Lyn Beatty Thi

“The most beautiful in the world is, of course, the world itself.” Wallace Stevens

“The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” Shirley MacLaine

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” John A. Shedd

“Oh the places you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss

“Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.” Suzanne Collins

“It is better to travel well than to arrive.” Buddha

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” Lao Tzu

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” Saint Augustine

“Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” Jennifer Lee

“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

“Travel is never a matter of money but of courage.” Paulo Coelho

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” Oscar Wilde

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” Samuel Johnson

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” John Steinbeck

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” Benjamin Disraeli

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” Mark Twain

“If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.” Rachel Wolchin

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao Tzu

“We travel for romance, we travel for architecture, and we travel to be lost.” Ray Bradbury

“Travel makes a wise man better but a fool worse.” Thomas Fuller

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” Robert Louis Stevenson

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” Lin Yutang

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” Rudyard Kipling

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” G.K. Chesterton

“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” Lawrence Block

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” Robert Louis Stevenson

“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

“I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on earth, then I ask myself the same question.” Harun Yahya

“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

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” Jawaharial Nehru

100+ Enjoy Your Vacation Wishes and Messages

Vacation Wishes : Vacations provide a delightful escape from our hectic and repetitive routine, allowing us to unwind and recharge. It is important to seize every chance to take a break and enjoy the benefits of a vacation. When our loved ones embark on a vacation, it’s important to extend warm wishes for a joyful and memorable time. To help you express your care and concern, we have compiled a selection of vacation wishes suitable for your friends, boss, colleagues, or loved ones. Share these messages with them and show them how much they mean to you.

Vacation Wishes

I wish you all the best for your vacation. Have fun and enjoy it.

May this vacation be one to remember! Have lots of fun and enjoy your vacation.

I hope this vacation brings you endless sweet memories and a refreshed mind. Enjoy your vacation!

I hope the holidays bring you joy, love, and goodwill in abundance. Enjoy your holiday!

Hope your trip is safe, happy, and filled with lasting memories! Have a great vacation!

Have a wonderful trip. I hope you had a relaxing vacation.

This vacation is a great opportunity for you to take a break from your stressful life. Enjoy your vacation.

Happy Vacation! I hope you have a nice, pleasant and refreshing vacation.

I hope you have a fantastic time on your trip. Have a wonderful vacation.

I hope you will have the most beautiful vacation this time. I can’t wait to hear many new stories from you when you return. Until then, enjoy your time to the fullest! Come back safely!

Finally, you’ve got some time for yourself. Enjoy your Holiday!

I hope you enjoy every moment of your vacation. Take care of yourself.

I hope you experience one of the best vacations of your life. Stay safe.

Happy vacation! I hope you rest well during this holiday.

May this vacation help you make many new memories. Have a wonderful vacation, friend!

Make this vacation a beautiful memory to think of when life gives you a ton of headaches to worry about. I wish you will have a great time with your family during this vacation. Take care and stay safe!

I will miss you a lot but I really hope you will meet some good people there to enjoy the vacation with. Bring some fresh memories for me when you come back. May God keep you safe always!

Enjoy your holiday and have a great vacation with your family and friends.

You deserve this relaxing time. Take advantage of it and spend all day with your loved ones. Wishing you a joyful vacation!

I hope God blesses you during your travels and vacation. I will pray for your safe passage and I look forward to hearing about your vacation as soon as you get back. God Bless.

I wish you have a great vacation there with your beautiful wife and amazing kids. I’m sure you will come back with a lot of new experiences this time. Looking forward to seeing you then. Take care!

Have a safe and fabulous vacation. Wishing you all the best for your vacation.

I hope you have a great time on your vacation with your family. Waiting to see you soon.

May this vacation sweep away your tiredness and worries. Enjoy your vacation!

Explore the beautiful places and soothe your mind. Have a nice vacation.

The more you travel the more you learn about new places, new cultures, and new people. This is your time to explore the unknown and see the unseen. Make the best out of it. Stay safe and enjoy!

Leave your worries and sufferings behind and enjoy the vacation. Enjoy yourself.

Have a nice vacation! Go to beautiful places, enjoy the countryside, go to the beach, go shopping, enjoy!

Have A Safe Trip And Enjoy Your Vacation

Hope you have a safe and smooth trip! Enjoy an amazing vacation that fulfills your mind and soul.

Take this trip as your recharge period and let yourself relax. Be safe and enjoy your holidays!

Have a safe trip my love! Wish you a cheerful vacation full of laughter and relaxation.

Wish you some fantastic holidays during this trip! May each moment pass sweetly and bring you enormous happiness.

May this one be the best vacation of your life. Have a safe trip and enjoy these days!

Wishing you an enjoyable vacation! Listen to your heart and pamper yourself on the trip.

After all these stressful days, you deserve a great vacation. Hope you get to relax and make memories. Have a safe trip!

Have a happy trip! Here’s hoping you enjoy your trip! May every single minute, in every way, hold only good times in it!

Vacation Wishes To Colleague

I’m going to miss your presence at the office but I’m also happy that you have got this opportunity to visit your favorite place. Wishing you the best vacation of your life.

Wishing you a great vacation! Hope your vacation is the greatest, and may each new day bring you happy memories to cherish when you get back! Have a wonderful time!

Wishing you a lot of happiness and fun for your vacation. I hope you have the fun of your life during this desired break that you wanted for long. I hope you enjoy and utilize every moment of your vacation.

Don’t worry about work; instead, focus on having a fun time on your holiday, my dear colleague. Have a great vacation!

Make the trip you always wanted, travel with your family and take lots of pictures, and get energy for when you return to work. We are waiting to see your smiling and stress-free face!

The holidays are a time to rest and relax from all the effort you put every day into your work. Relax to recharge your energy again. Congratulations and enjoy your vacations!

You have worked so hard over the previous few months that you deserve this time off. Enjoy your vacation, my dear coworker.

You need this vacation, so don’t stress about work and deadlines, and have a great time with your family and friends. You can trust us; we got this.

We miss you at work, but we’re pleased you’re taking this time off. Take advantage of your vacation, my diligent coworker.

You are an incredible person and you should have nothing less than the very best. I hope you have the most wonderful trip of your life.

Related: Business Trip Wishes

Vacation Wishes To Boss

I wish you a fun and adventurous vacation, boss. Have a safe and enjoyable journey.

Wishing you a relaxing and refreshing vacation, boss. I hope your vacation relieves you of all your tension and tiredness.

You have been working so hard and the vacation was a must for you. Relax and enjoy your vacation to the fullest. I hope you’ll have a great time.

Dear boss, I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing holiday with your family. Enjoy your time off.

Have a fun vacation! May your vacation be filled with exciting places, smiling faces, wonderful weather, and many wonderful memories to cherish.

Have a great vacation. May each day of your vacation hold something special. And may you return with happy memories of a wonderful and exciting time. Have a great time!

You have properly guided us all these years, boss, so don’t worry, we will be able to take care of the company for you for a few days. Just enjoy your time off with your family during the vacation.

After all of your hard work and dedication to our company, you deserve a relaxing holiday with your family, boss. Enjoy your vacation.

Forget about all of the work; we’ve got you covered. Have a good time with your family, boss.

Read More: Vacation Messages For Boss

Vacation Wishes To Friend

I hope you have a wonderful vacation! Explore all the locations you’ve always wanted to see, go have fun, and live each day to the fullest.

You have really worked so hard for a very long time, and this vacation is a must for you. Make it the best experience of your life. Enjoy yourself and have fun! Happy vacation!

Wishing you a wonderful trip! May every minute contain just the best moments in every way! This is your vacation; enjoy every second of it.

May you be renewed in body and mind as you take some time to rest. I hope your trip is relaxing for you and your family. Enjoy your holiday.

Make the most of each second of your vacation. Enjoy yourself to the fullest since you never know when a chance like this will come up again. Happy holiday !

I know how badly you needed this vacation. As you have got a chance, enjoy every moment. Explore new places, try new foods, and make new friends. Best wishes!

Vacation Wishes To Student

This is the best period of your life to learn and explore different places. So, enjoy your holidays and learn different things from different places. Best wishes for your vacation.

Wishing you all the best for your vacation. I hope you’ll utilize your vacation time and come home with a head full of knowledge and experience. Enjoy your vacation.

Enjoy your holiday to the fullest. Create lasting moments with your friends and family.

These vacations have been postponed for a long time, but finally, you have the opportunity to enjoy them, so I want you to enjoy them very much and return with lots of energy. Enjoy these vacations!

It is good you can finally go on vacation, you’ve worked hard all the time, so you deserve to have a fun time. Enjoy your vacations!

I want you to have a time of relaxation. Get out on a trip with your family, and have fun with your friends. Do what the rest of the year you cannot. Happy vacations.

This vacation is highly earned for you after working so hard all year at school. Make use of it to the utmost.

I hope this vacation helps you gather the energy to study hard again after the break.

Summer Vacation Wishes

May this summer bring you a lot of joy and happiness. I hope you have a great summer vacation.

May this summer vacation be full of joy and happiness. I hope you enjoy this summer vacation to the fullest. Wishing you happy summer days.

Summer won’t last long. Enjoy as much as you can. Visit all the places and explore new experiences. Enjoy the warmth of summer. Wishing you happy summer vacation.

I know how much you want to spend your vacation in the summer. Finally, the warm season has arrived. I hope you’ll have some beautiful moments with your family in this lovely season. Enjoy your summer holidays.

I hope you have a pleasant time throughout your summer vacation. Have a safe trip.

I wish you a wonderful and enjoyable summer vacation. I hope you enjoy your time off.

There is nothing in the world better than enjoying the vacation in summer. I know how excited you are for your vacation days. Enjoy this summer to the fullest.

The summer has arrived and this is a chance to visit beautiful places. Enjoy your summer vacation and make some memories so that it takes away all your stress.

Leave your stress and frustration at home and make the most of your summer vacation. Spend time with your family and friends. Enjoy your trip!

Read More: Summer Vacation Wishes

Enjoy Your Vacation Messages

Enjoy time with your family, engage in an activity that will be rewarding, and make the most of your vacation time. Let the good times flow on your next trip!

I hope your vacation gives you the pleasure you need so that you don’t have to think of any problems back at home. Enjoy your vacation.

I feel great joy for you, my dear friend because you’re about to go on vacation. I wish you a wonderful trip, rest a lot and have lots of fun. Enjoy your vacation!

I hope you will have a safe and journey. Never forget to take good care of yourself. Enjoy your vacation till the last moment of it. You deserve some good days in that paradise my friend. Best of luck!

Go have fun and spend these days with your wife. Venture to do different activities; it will fill you with joy. And surely don’t forget to make new adventures.

You are very lucky because you have the opportunity to break with the routine of work, so have a great time with your family and enjoy very much these vacations. Have a good vacation!

I hope you have a nice vacation. It is time to relax and forget all tension in your employment. Have excellent vacations. Bon Voyage ! Wishing you a wonderful trip with days full of sunshine, excitement and fun!

Have a wonderful summer vacation. Go to the beach, sip fresh fruit juice, and dance with your friends and family. Enjoy it to the fullest.

The most awaited season of the year is when we take a vacation, just worry about having a good time and enjoying. Go beyond the track and enjoy as much as you can! Happy vacations!

We wish you have some great vacations full of joy and sunshine. Have a great time and don’t forget that we will be waiting for you back with a bunch of photos from the trip.

The more you see the world, the more you learn about other cultures and individuals. Right now, is your chance to get out and discover new things. Take heart and make the most of the situation. Be careful, but have fun!

Vacation Quotes

“Life’s short. Eat dessert first, work less and vacation MORE.” – Lea Mishell

“A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” – Earl Wilson

“No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.” – Elbert Hubbard

“Don’t wait for a vacation to enjoy life. Start to enjoy it now, today, wherever you are.” – Debasish Mridha

“Take vacations, go as many places as you can, you can always make money, you can’t awakes to make memories.” – Unknown

“A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.” – Robert Orben

“If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation.” – Unknown

“The vacation we often need is freedom from our own mind.” – Jack Adam Weber

“A vacation should be just long enough for the boss to miss you, and not long enough for him to discover how well he can get along without you.” – Jacob Morton Braude

“Vacations prove that a life of pleasure is overrated.” – Mason Cooley

“A vacation is like love: anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia.” – Evan Esar

“Vacation: a period of travel and relaxation when you take twice the clothes and half the money you need.” – Jerry Smith

“Travel brings power and love back into your life.” – Rumi

“Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation.” – Leo Tolstoy

Also Read: Safe Journey Wishes

Funny Vacation Wishes

Have a wonderful vacation. Make sure to have a relaxing time, and we will make sure that the new heaps of work are kept for you.

You may enjoy your trip; I promise we won’t burn down the office while you’re gone.

You’re on vacation, so you should be free; if I email you one of my assignments, can you do it for me? I’m joking. Have a wonderful break!

Make sure you bring a souvenir for me or I won’t talk to you! I am joking! Enjoy your holiday! Come back safe and sound!

I was afraid your head might explode if you didn’t take a vacation but thank God you did. Please enjoy your vacation.

You are the first person who has to be persuaded to take a holiday. Please make the most of it, or will I have to ask you for it as well?

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home. Just kidding…go and make the most colorful moment of your life!

You can send these vacation wishes to your loved ones to show love and care for them. These vacation messages will refresh their minds during their vacation time. It is a nice idea to wish our friends or family a nice holiday. For this purpose, we are giving you some short and meaningful vacation wishes and messages. We hope you will like our vacation wishes, quotes and send them to your family, friends, and close ones. Choose the best vacation wish and send it to the person going on a vacation.

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21 Travel Tips That Will Ensure Your Trip is a Success

• July 20, 2023

As a travel expert, I’m always asked to share my best travel tips, so here are my top bits of advice and best practices I’ve learned traveling the globe.

1. Hang that Do Not Disturb sign proudly.

2. Drink coffee wisely.

3. The seat pocket is not your friend.

4. Hello. Please. Thank you. Enough said.

5. Keep your crummy ol’ shoes for your next vacation.

6. Check out the gym, even if you don’t plan on breaking a sweat.

7. Restaurant week. Know it. Love it.

8. Free wifi isn’t always free.

9. It’s a long shot, but you never know. #CYA

10. Make the neck scarf your #1 travel accessory.

11. Get lost.

12. The best way to board an airplane with a baby.

13. Explore the side streets!

14. Rituals make travel so much more meaningful.

15. We’ve all been here.

16. Zap the stress out of your morning.

17. Forget your charger? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

18. It’s always important to get your bearings!

19. Playgrounds are a parent’s best friend.

20. Peanut butter = a traveler’s survival food.

21. It’s subtle, but important.

This Post Has 87 Comments

Samantha Brown, you are the best!!

Always pack coffee mug & Via coffee packets. Almost all hotel rooms have a microwave. You will great coffee within seconds without leaving your room. Also NEVER unpack must have items in your carry on when you arrive home. Save for next trip. Cuts down on packing time next time!!!!!!!

Virtually NO European or Asian hotels of any level have a microwave in the room or on the premises.

LOVE this Sam! So informative and entertaining to read, apply, and EXPERIENCE! You. Are. The. Best. ~ Jim in Orlando. 😉

#11 and 13 may be good advice in many cities but not in New Orleans.

Even Austin Texas can be very dangerous after dark.

Most “lists” are chock-full of “No duh!” items…not this one! Great suggestions, Samantha! Thanks!

Good list, good suggestions. Jan in Wis

Not only do I leave old sneakers behind, I also pack older underwear and pj’s — I wear them, and then discard along the way. That makes for lots of room to bring home the souvenir goodies!

Lol, I thought that I was the only one who dies this. And I love coming home to a new selection of undies!

Thank you Sam….great reminder tips to get the most from your trip!

Thank you so much for the great tips . Things that seem obvious are not . I appreciate what you do . Happy traveling

We travel with “Sam’s rules.”

As usual, you have very good suggestions, like an old one of never missing the opportunity to pee : ) I follow that faithfully! I love the idea about the hotel gyms and the usual free water and fruit available. I’ll have to try that out! Thanks!

I have been watching your programs on Foxtel for a number of years now. Sadly, in Qld, Australia we no longer get them.. We all miss you. I love that I can now see your wisdom via this medium.

I love to take peanutbutter, too, to supplement carb-only breakfasts. Was so disappointed to know I can’t take it in a carryon. Bummer.

Check your grocery store for PB2. It is a low calorie powder peanut butter that you can travel with and just add water after security.

Did you know that peanut butter or almond butter comes in to go packets? Can be found at Whole Foods.

There is a powdered PB available in US stores and on Amazon. PB Fit, I think it’s called. Just have to add water.

Enjoyed your presentation at the San Diego travel show today. I always want to go on a trip the next day after hearing you speak. Traveling is all about meeting new people, experiencing cultures and adventures and going with the flow.

Love #20. I ALWAYS travel with peanut butter. Not only is an easy and healthy snack, but it’s so cheap too!

Good suggestions Samantha. Also would like to add, remember to bring ample cash. Atms don’t always work specially in off-beat destinations, save on foreign transaction fees too. US$ & € are easily convertible.

Great tips. I would add to # 15 identify the shampoo and conditioner and separate them. In the morning you can’t tell the difference most times.

Thank you so much! I’ve watched your shows for years (I know — you were 2 when you started.) I am almost an empty-nester, and plan to make tour directing/management/guiding my second-chance career. I’m prepping by learning tips and hints for successful travel.

I’ll pass on the baby tip to my daughter; that’s a good one 🙂

LOVE #9 – I always forget to take a picture on the PHONE!

Thank you Samantha for the wonderful tips. Traveling with your know how and luggage makes a trip more enjoyable! It’s the little things that count the most!

I also take shirts that are a couple of seasons old & leave them over there. Additionally, panty liners save slacks!!

Love the peanut butter idea and “old shoe” trick! Someone also told me once that she did the same think with her older undergarments. Headed on a two week trip in October, and think I might just have to try them all!

Pack cheap washcloths & leave behind!!

I love the old shoe idea – I’ve thrown out so many pairs over the years. I do it with clothes, swimsuits and especially underwear. Just started following you on twitter. Thanks for the tips!

I always do #14 when in Paris….every afternoon, have coffee or wine at a local cafe and do some people watching…so much fun!

I swear you must have been an anthropologist in a former life. Such great, practical tips. I think you are helping so many with these ideas, especially women. Looking forward to learning more!

We found #14 to be great in Barcelona. Our breakfast place was friendly and over the few days we were there we saw how they took care of their elderly regulars. They seemed to like seeing us each morning and treated us so well.

Hi Sam the tips are great I will take some with me on the next trip me and my girlfriend take i like specially the one to take a pic of your passport and drivers license you never know what could happen my girlfriend has not traveled much like me but now she is starting to love it just like me . We have been to a few places in SoCal allready . As always you do a great job thank for the tips .

We were leaving from Edinburgh to come home and I decided to leave my paperbacks for our host to put in her library. I left them on the bed and didn’t say anything about them. About a month later they arrived in the mail! I wrote them a note thanking them for returning them!

I always set my watch to the time zone that I’m traveling to. Mind game but it works.

AWESOME TIPS U are the Best!!!

I love your tips! We took our first trip to England/ Scotland at the first of the year and I agree with another commenter about taking old wash cloths- didn’t have one in any hotels we stayed- one small thing, just a personal preference, there were no top sheets on the beds, just duvets- I’m not a fan, is there a solution? Or a just-have-to-deal-with-it situation?

Put a bath towel between you and the duvet. At least you know the towel is fresh.

Look on Amazon for silk travel liner. This may make you feel more comfortable

Since my trip to Cornwall, England in 2016, I have not used a top sheet. I just hang our duvet out to air out. And wash it as needed.

Our feet feel so much more free.

As a Brasilian, I always travel with sarongs. Great for the beach, but also use as a small sheet, scarf, warp, etc.

Totally agree about the travel with old clothes and leave them. I always wear old undies and an old tshirt on an overnight flight and pitch them as soon as I get there. I’ve even done this with pants. Love all these tips.

Downy wrinkle releaser……….. Never I mean NEVER leave home without it! It’s great for a quick fix for those wrinkly clothes in your bag.

Take a picture of your lodgings so you don’t forget the name and location.

You think you can find your way back to your hotel, but our last trip we took a walk after dinner the first night, to the business district in Seville and ducked into a big department store to look around. When we came out it was dark and we unknowingly exited a different door than we entered. We walked and walked and nothing looked familiar. Unfortunately, no one spoke English. Luckily, my husband had picked up a card at our hotel reception desk so we finally stopped at another hotel and showed the night clerk the card and he walked us outside and got us started on our way to our hotel. It was a little frightening to be lost after dark walking in a strange city.

I travel with a 15′ multi-plug extension cord. I can charge my phone and iPad at the same time. Or dry my hair while my curling iron is heating up. There are never enough plugs in hotel rooms nor are they ever in a convenient place. Now you can use the one across the room while you sit in bed and use your computer. We were in LA waiting for the last leg of a flight home. The wife of a newly married couple sitting across from us in the waiting area realized she hadn’t charged up her phone and they were waiting to get on a 12 hour flight. I gave her my extension cord so she could charge her phone before they left. Honeymoon disaster averted.

Thanks for the great tips Sam, and maybe I’m stating the obvious, but as a frequent and spontaneous traveler, my best weapon is to download onto my iPad before I leave, your show! Rick and Anthony are also complimentary. Watch on the plane, arrive completely informed!!

I have learned to take a picture on my phone of the front of b&b,hotel, etc. In Europe especial! So many places look alike! I also take a few photos of streets as I leave. It has saved me from wandering in circles!

In addition to taking a picture of your hotel, try to have one member of your party take a picture with a cell phone of your cab or Uber as it is driving away. Get the license number in case there has been some kind of skulduggery or theft.

My uncle taught me this one- always travel with a small flashlight. Very useful at night when going to the loo!

I got mine at Walmart. They are about $3.00 and four inches long.

Bring a night light. Better than a flash light because it’s always on!!!

Love# 12!!!!

i save every one of your tips on m ipad

Great tips! One thing I always do is take enough money that I think I will need that day and put it in my wallet that goes in my crossbody purse. Then extra money goes in a lightweight money belt around my waist. If I need more money, I just use the bathroom stall to extract more out of my money belt.

I’ve done the sneaker trick for years. The only problem is some of the older ones aren’t so great for support. I buy some fresh insoles before I go to help with that.

And not just undergarments as well, but also pajamas – old t-shirts and shorts that I can leave behind to make room for gifts. I try to make about 1/4 of my departure suitcase “disposable” items.

I also carry a cheap empty duffle bag -if I need to suck it up and pay the extra $25 for an extra bag, at least I don’t have to buy the bag too.

It is now 2023. Checking bags are no longer$25! Many times it’s over$100, and weight restrictions in cabin make checking a bag often a necessity.

Pack light, and if you need extra clothing, stop by the Goodwill or a second hand store. I was in Colorado during the summer and suddenly there was a cold snap and I wasn’t prepared. Found a great sweatshirt at the Goodwill for under $5!

I’m curious whether she has first hand experience with the passport/licence phone photo actually working. That tip sounds extremely unlikely, akin to an urban myth, rather than a fun helpful travel tip.

We always travel with a smoke/carbon monoxide portable devise, put it on the night stand. It doesn’t matter where you travel, in the US, abroad or on a cruise. It’s not expensive and may save your life.

Great tips!! I also pack a couple of kitchen zipper bags (Zip Lock) at least one large and one small. It never fails that I find some use for them.

One trip, I gathered snacks along the way; cookies, tea bags, crackers etc. We ate a late lunch and didn’t want dinner so we raided the snack bag. We also have stopped at local grocery store for snacks, pastries or a light meal.

#9 is most definfelty FALSE in the US. I used to work for the TSA and they will not accept that AT ALL as a valid form of identification. It will assist them when they make calls to verify your identity but there is no guarantee they will let you pass through security at all.

Bring clothes that don’t need ironing. Leave your expensive clothes at home unless you will be attending a wedding. One nice outfit will be good. Get your pictures taken in front of landmarks with your own camera. That way you can get inexpensive reprints of the photos. Try to bring a pocket size camera or a point and shoot camera. They are easier to carry around but put the camera in your bag that you will be taking with you on the plane personally. Bring a small flashlight with you just in case you need to find something in a dark location or if there is going to be a blackout. I got mine at Walmart for about $3.00, and it is four inches long. Bring backup batteries. For those of you have long hair bring a wide tooth comb. It can serve as a brush also, and it is not bulky. If you have to wear jewelry bring costume jewelry. Just in case your jewelry get stolen it won’t be an expensive lost. My sister has her real wedding ring set and a costume wedding ring set. She wears the costume wedding ring wet when she travels.

Getting some great info all around. My husband and I check out a local grocery store for inexpensive gifts/ souvenirs. Can’t go wrong with European chocolate or Japanese snacks!

And unless you need to be up at 3am, check that the alarm clock isn’t set before you go to sleep- have had a couple blaring wake-ups in the wee hours when we forgot that one! Hard to identify the small buttons in the dark and turning the light on just blinds you.

I always carry a nylon string backpack rolled up in my purse. We usually start the day wearing jackets, but as the day warms up we want to shed those. Out comes the backpack and we’re still hands-free. It’s great for souvenirs or snacks purchased throughout the day.

Thanks for the great insight! I just started traveling with my toddler (13 months) and can’t wait to follow your advice and take her to some playgrounds and connect with the locals. On that note, I have found that window gels are a load of fun for her on the plane. They can also be used in a hotel room on their sliding glass doors. It helps when there are only the few toys you have packed as well as when weather is too poor to go to the playground.

such helpful tips for my upcoming trip! thank you! love the idea for bringing with crummy ol’ shoes!

Take pictures of everyone’s passports and use those when completing customs forms. Easier to go through pictures than flipping those passport pages. You can also zoom in the passport numbers.

If a scarf is a female traveler’s best friend, then a male traveler ‘s best gadget is a cotton handkerchief. Use it as a bib, cellphone prop, emergency bandage, bandana and for mopping you face. Probably many more uses too!

Love ALL the travel tips, thank you. We carry small bills in the native currency for tips and small purchases. Food wise, we travel with wholesome, homemade, easy-to-pack oatmeal cookies–tasty and nutritious. Odd but true, our car was valet-parked (at a great hotel) and..surprisingly, among other things, spare glasses and a small make-up bag tucked in the side door were taken! Lesson learned.

These are really great ideas, many I have never thought of before. One thing I always do now is pack several days of extra medications. You never know when your flight will be cancelled and you will have to stay over another day or even two.

I agree with you Peggy. I always carry extra of my important meds. Ones I must take everyday. One never knows when a flight could be detained and you need an extra stay over.

I like how you said to hang a do not disturb sign proudly at your hotel. We are going on a trip this summer and I really want to just relax. Thanks for the travel tips!

Sam are you still on the Travel Channel? What night? My adult children and I want your job. We are all Gypsies at heart.

Samantha’s new show, Places to Love, is on PBS & Create TV! New season premiering in January. 🙂

These are really great ideas, many I have never thought of before. One thing I always do now is pack several days of extra medications. Also pack some foods so that whenever you are unlucky and had a cancelled flight or delayed flight, you can munch on your food although there’s a canteen or a store somewhere inside an airport but those things sells foods over priced!

My favorite tip that you put was that Hello, Please, and Thank You are the most important words you can know in a country’s language. My sister and I are considering traveling to Europe in the summer, and it can get a little overwhelming when considering all the different languages that are spoken there. Only having to remember three words in those languages would make things a lot easier, and that’s always a good thing.

Super travel tips . I love the idea for bringing with crummy ol’ shoes.

I have packed old shoes and left them behind. Really a great idea& space for gifts on way home!

Leave/donate your gently-worn clothes throughout the world. Many times the ladies who clean your room could use your hats, scarfs, blouses or other items. Ask them, then leave a note indicating that you are “gifting/donating” the items (so that the housekeeping dept mgr knows your intentions). This has always worked for me and it has been a blessing to the recipients. While in Italy, a young pregnant girl begged for money outside the hotel. I asked if she wanted some clothes and suggested that she could keep the clothes or sell them. She agreed, so I gave her a large shopping bag of clothes and also gave her 20 Euros. We are so blessed. Pass the blessings along to others! Happy travels!

I lost my passport in Rome and it was a weekend when the Embassy was closed. I tried to get a room at two hotels, but neither would accept my real US drivers license with a photo copy of my passport. Only the real passport was acceptable.

I lost my passport in Rome and it was a weekend when the Embassy was closed. I tried to get a room at two hotels, but neither would accept my real US drivers license with a photo copy of my passport. Only the real passport was acceptable. This was Rome. I can’t speak for any other city in Italy.

Thanks for sharing these tips. I am also using peanut butter while traveling because it is easy to carry and has high amount of protein also.

Love these. The gym one would never have occurred to me. My tips : – all my toiletries are solids – (toothpaste, shampoo etc), no leaks and no pulling out at security. – A simple twist tie, like you get with garbage bags, is a great way to secure zippers of backpacks or purses if you are walking in areas where you are worried about pickpockets. – Take a picture of any bags you must check, if they get lost it is much easier to look for when they have a picture, but obviously, never check bags if at all possible. – I don’t take real pajamas as pajamas. Depending on weather i either take a pair of lightweight leggings or black bike shorts, and a tank top or tshirt that I intend to use as pjs. but, they also can be used for active wear if I really need them. – bring a laundry sheets (the sheet form of detergent), again, no spills and easy to wash some things in a sink if you need too (and a flat rubber sink stopper is good to have if you are staying in lower budget places, they often don’t have sink plugs!) Happy travels.

These are all great! Some made me laugh but those are spot on! I travel quite a bit, but I still picked up a few pointers from this. Thank you!

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How To Take Better Vacation Photos

Aug 4, 2020

The bags are packed, the itinerary is perfected, your camera batteries are charged. Get ready to capture your best vacation yet.

Using your camera to document incredible memories during your trip shouldn’t feel like an impossible task, and using your camera shouldn’t bring more feelings of anxiety than excitement. We’ve compiled our best tips for taking vacation photos you’ll love from our professional photographers, so you always feel confident capturing once-in-a-lifetime memories.

Photo: Claudia in Lisbon for Flytographer

Photo: Miltos in Santorini for Flytographer

You can also get creative with your composition by using the city around you. If you’re walking along the canals of Amsterdam , try using the reflections of the buildings in the water for a unique perspective. If you’re walking the colourful streets of Cartagena in Colombia, use the streets to create “leading lines” to draw your eye across the photo. If you’re exploring the stone streets of Dubrovnik , match the sea of red roofs with your outfit for a coordinating pop of colour. Wherever you are, let the city inspire you.

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50+ tips on how to look amazing in photos 📸, travel inspiration, top destinations, recent posts.

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An Instagram Star’s Tricks for Making Your Travel Photos Look Amazing

These tips are pretty much priceless..

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A reflection is perfectly captured in Norway.

Photo by Marianna Jamadi

Marianna Jamadi has spent a lifetime capturing what words often fail to convey. As a full-time professional travel photographer, Jamadi has traveled the world—from Finland to Mongolia, Nicaragua to Colombia—creating a time capsule of images embodying the essence and soul of a place. When not documenting her travels via iPhone on her Instagram feed, @nomadic_habit , her camera of choice is a Canon Mark III. We caught up with the jetsetter herself to learn how we can all take better photographs while on trips, no matter our photography equipment at hand.

At Mercado Bazurto in Cartagena, Colombia, Jamadi frames this shot around light pouring in from the open canopy above.

1. Discover light and play with shadows Light may be one of the most important elements of photography. It changes the way a landscape and setting appears, and the balance can be a key factor in creating the most dramatic photos. “Play with capturing light and shadows in various forms at various times of day. I find early morning light to be the most incredible,” Jamadi says.

Jamadi first asked these New Delhi men permission before photographing them, allowing their vibrant personalities to shine forth.

2. Make a connection Taking candid portraits of locals can be a sensitive matter. All cultures are different, and some people may be flattered if you ask to photograph them, while others will be more cautious. “It’s always a good idea to ask permission if you feel you are intruding upon someone’s personal space. If you’re lucky, locals are more than excited to show their personality,” Jamadi says.

Jamadi captures fire dancers in motion at Koh Phi Phi beach in Thailand.

3. Play with motion Motion, whether crisp or clear, creates the most dynamic images, triggering a sense of emotion, which often adds another layer of feeling to a photograph. “Just because something is blurry does not mean you should automatically discard it. Whether it’s a moving car, train, person, or object, remember that traveling is all about momentum,” Jamadi says.

Jamadi uses a person to show the vastness and scale of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert landscape.

4. Explore the sense of scale Sometimes photographs don’t accurately capture what the naked eye sees. A breathtaking landscape can be before you, but the image doesn’t represent the grandeur you’re witnessing. To combat this, Jamadi suggests creating a sense of scale through objects and people. “Inserting a person or object into the scene can help create the drama and gravity of a landscape,” Jamadi says.

Jamadi snapped this photograph while riding in a van down a bumpy dirt road in Mongolia.

5. Photograph from windows The best photographs don’t necessarily come from actually being in a place. You can be moving through it, by land or air, and still take beautiful images. “Just because you’re traveling by car, train, or tuk-tuk does not mean your camera has to be put away. I’ve captured some of my favorite shots out of a moving car,” Jamadi says.

To keep up with Jamadi’s travels, follow her on Instagram.

>>Next: A Pro’s Quick 5-Step Guide to Travel Photography

21 EASY Travel Photography Tips (Make Better Pictures with Little Effort)

By Author Jurga

Posted on Last updated: December 8, 2022

Are you looking for simple travel photography tips to help you take better pictures? You came to the right place! In this guide, we share some easy, actionable tips and tricks that will help to improve your travel photos with very little effort. No photography course or fancy equipment needed – find out!

Travel photography has become an essential part of any trip and any vacation. We all want to capture those special moments of our travels, keep them for later, and share them with our family and friends…

But how often do you find yourself in a situation where you feel that your travel pictures just don’t do justice to all the amazing things you saw and experienced?

With ever-improving technology, it’s now easier to take good travel photos without much effort than ever before. However, by preparing well and applying a few simple tricks, you can easily transform your travel photography from good to great! And no, you don’t need a professional camera or any special knowledge for that.

So if you looking for travel photography tips to improve your vacation pictures, this guide should help you do just that. In this article, we share some simple photography tips, but also some important travel tricks.

These tips will not only take your travel photography to the next level but will also help you have a more unique travel experience. Find out!

How this article is structured. First, you’ll find general tips for travel photography, followed by simple photography tips that will help you take better pictures without much effort. Further, you’ll find some useful practical tips and things to consider when preparing for your trip (with photography in mind).

Take a look!

These are our best travel photography tips:

1. Get to Know Your Camera

First, let me make one thing clear. You do not necessarily need expensive camera gear in order to take really nice pictures. Smartphones and entry-level point-and-shoot digital cameras like this one offer excellent quality. Quality that’s more than good enough for a family album, social media stories, or a print to hang on the wall.

However, no matter what kind of camera or smartphone you use for travel photography, it’s always useful to take some time and familiarize yourself with it. After all, you don’t want to miss some unique photo opportunities because of the time it takes you to set up your camera.

Each device has somewhat different settings and a big range of possibilities. Even if you use just a few of those settings once in a while, you’ll improve your photography skills and get better pictures.

Here you can find our hand-picked selection of some really good cameras for travel for all budgets sold on Amazon .

2. Do Some Research for Trip-Specific Photography Tips

Now that I told you that you don’t need any special gear, I also have to add that some types of travel photography might indeed require some special equipment or knowledge.

For example, if you are visiting Nordic countries in winter, you’ll probably want to learn the basics of the Northern Lights photography . You may want to research if there are any special aurora photography apps for your phone. However – if you want some decent pictures – you’ll definitely need a good tripod and a somewhat better camera with manual settings for this type of travel photography.

This is also the case for a trip where you are planning to take pictures of wildlife. Often, your smartphone and cheaper cameras will just not be sufficient for really good pictures. So if you are planning a safari in Africa, you may want to research what kind of cameras and lenses you need for wildlife photography .

3. Experiment with Camera Settings

Don’t be afraid to exit the ‘auto’ mode of your camera and experiment with the settings. Even something as simple as switching off or forcing the flash, can make a huge difference already.

If you are using a smartphone, you probably just use the standard photo and video settings. But if you look a bit deeper, you’ll see that there are other options as well.

Most smartphones also have panorama mode (great for wide panoramas in the mountains or cityscapes), selective focus mode (nice for portraits), or even one for food or night photography. Usually, there’s also a ‘pro’ mode where you can play with different white balance settings, etc.

If you have a DSLR camera , you may want to learn just a little bit about white balance, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. Change the white balance and your pictures taken on a grey rainy day will become warmer. Change the shutter speed and you have a silky waterfall. Change the ISO sensitivity and you’ll be able to take pictures in low light without the flash…

4. Look for Different Angles

Standing in front of a landmark you visit, you suddenly realize everyone around you is holding cameras and smartphones, taking the exact same pictures… Sounds familiar?

Do you want your travel pictures to be different? It’s easier than you think! All you have to do is simply use your legs. 

Sit down, kneel down, even lie down if necessary. Or try to climb somewhat higher. Get closer to your subject or move further away. Go left, go right, go behind… You get the picture. Literally – you get a better, more unique picture just by changing the angle.

5. Try Different Compositions

One of the easiest ways to improve your photography skills is by learning how to make a good composition. Sometimes by simply recomposing your shot just a bit differently, you get a picture that tells a more powerful story.

Most people take pictures with the subject right in the middle. And while sometimes it can result in a beautiful shot, more often you get an ordinary image. Often, you can really bring your pictures to life by simply moving your subject away from the center.

You may have heard of the famous  rule of thirds . Divide your picture frame into 3 imaginary lines and 3 columns and place the subject at the intersection of those lines. Take a look at the sleeping koala picture to see what I mean.

Shooting landscapes? Put your horizon at either top or bottom third of the photo. Also, use natural lines, such as a forest path or a twist in the road to help guide the viewer through your photograph.

Taking pictures of people or animals? Try to also place your subject in such a way that they are looking towards your picture and not away from it.

6. Explore Deeper

Some of the best travel pictures are not those that are taken right in front of famous landmarks. For more authentic travel photography, try to get just a bit off the beaten path.

If you are walking around the city, don’t stick to a plan or try to follow the map exactly. If you see an interesting side street or an alley, turn in and check it out. If you are road-tripping and stumble upon some interesting roadside attractions or local events, stop and check it out…

Also, ask locals or other tourists for some cool spots and hidden gems. You’ll be surprised at how many incredible locations are not mentioned in any travel guides. Don’t be afraid to talk to people and ask for some tips.

We have had some amazing travel experiences just because we talked to people. And even if it doesn’t always lead to the best photo spots, you might find delicious local food, quirky shops, or some interesting street art.

7. Include People or Objects

Another easy way to improve your travel photography is by including people or objects in your pictures. Not only do you get better and more unique photos, but they also tell a story.

Look around for  something or someone you can include in your picture to give it a different feeling or perspective .

Think of people (locals, kids, really old people – don’t forget to ask for permission!), animals, flowers, tree branches, road signs… For a more personal perspective, try including your own arms or legs, etc.

Even just including a few wildflowers in your composition can make your landscape pictures stand out. You can also frame your images using tree branches and leaves. You can show the size of a building or a tree by including people or cars in that same image.

There are so many ways to be creative; often you only have to look around with different eyes!

8. Look for Colors

When traveling, always  keep an eye out for bold, vivid colors . Pictures with strong colors are often more powerful and bring the place back to life in your photos.

It can be anything from colorful buildings (focus on details like walls, doors), to cars, buses, bikes, or scooters. But also local markets and traditional clothing often give you a chance to take some unique colorful travel pictures.

TIP: If you are traveling to a place that isn’t really known for being colorful, wear some bright clothing yourself. A bright jacket can make all your gloomy vacation pictures so much more special.

9. Look for Details

For more interesting travel pictures, try to look for some interesting details everywhere you travel. It can be something local, something unique to that place, or maybe a special detail in the architecture of a building.

Also, get close, really close to your subject. Very often, details tell a stronger story than the whole!

Sometimes you get frustrated because you can’t fit the whole building into a picture. Or you are at a colorful lively market, but your pictures don’t portray any of that special atmosphere… Remember that often less is more and concentrate on a few details rather than trying to capture everything.

10. Have Your Camera Ready

Some of our best travel pictures are often taken unexpectedly, without any planning. It’s especially so with trips that involve wildlife . You just never know when you’ll get to see animals or what they’ll do, so you should always have your camera at hand and ready to take a picture.

Of course, pictures that you take unexpectedly will often not be perfect in composition, or maybe even a bit blurry. You can often solve it with some post-editing afterwards. But at least you got the shot!

Another example of the importance of having your camera ready is when you’re taking a picture of something that you only do once and it moves fast (like in our picture on the fun zip-line experience in Switzerland – see below). You have to be ready to take a picture and it helps if you put your camera in continuous shooting mode. That way, you can take lots of pictures in just a few seconds, and afterwards keep the best ones.

11. Do Something Fun

It’s impossible to get spontaneous pictures of the whole family if you don’t have a photographer following you around the whole day. So if you want to take some fun vacation pictures, the best way to go about it is to actually do something fun.

If you are taking pictures of your kids or your travel companions, simply ask them to do something and actually pose for a picture.

We all want candid shots, but they hardly ever happen, especially when you want to get several people in the same picture. But if you make an effort, you can easily take some really nice vacation pictures of you and your family.

12. Be Patient & Take Your Time

Travel photography is what you make of it. You can just take a picture and move on, but for the best pictures, you need to take your time and be patient.

Often, you don’t have much time when we travel, and you find yourself running from one place to the other. But even if you slow down just a little bit, even if you wait just a few moments, you might be able to take a much better picture.

It might mean waiting for the perfect light or for another person to move away from your composition, but it usually pays off.

13. Just Take That Picture!

Sometimes, you see a beautiful place, but you have no time to stop for a picture, or the light is not perfect, or the weather isn’t ideal, or there are too many clouds… So you swear to do it later or on your way back.

But then the weather changes for even worse, the mist comes up, or something else happens, and you never get a second chance.

This happened several times to us. So now we always take a picture when we see an interesting opportunity. Even if it’s not perfect, at least you got the shot. And if you do come back and the conditions are better indeed, you can always take another picture.

And sometimes, you get some really interesting pictures that way.

14. Travel Light

It’s always so tempting to pack the perfect camera or lens for all the possible situations you might encounter on your trip. But that also means that you’re always carrying so much unnecessary gear. Not only is it expensive to buy and heavy to carry around, but it also limits your flexibility. Not even to mention that expensive camera gear can put you at risk in certain places you visit.

Often, having more photography gear to deal with might actually lead to you missing the best photo opportunities. You may find that you are constantly switching lenses trying to get that perfect shot while your travel companions are simply enjoying the scenery.

So pack wisely, considering what kind of pictures you think you’ll be taking. My personal rule is to never pack more than two lenses for my DSLR camera. If we visit cities, I usually just go with one lens. For nature and wildlife, I pack a good telelens as well. Sometimes, it’s a tough choice which lenses to pack, but you also learn to be more creative that way.

TIP: If you are not a professional or a semi-professional photographer and don’t absolutely need a DSLR camera for your travel photography, simply get a really good point-and-shoot camera with a good optical zoom (something like this ). That way you always have the right ‘lens’ with you. There are so many versatile cameras nowadays that offer great quality. So don’t make your trip more stressful than necessary.

15. Pack a Tripod

Now that I told you to travel light, I also have to say that – for some trips – you really should consider packing a good tripod . It can be bulky and heavy to carry around, but it is also unmissable for certain types of photography.

If you are planning to take pictures early in the morning or late in the evening, if you are photographing waterfalls or Northern Lights, a tripod is a must. But even if you simply want to have the whole family in one picture, it’s often useful to have a tripod. And yes, you can also ask other people to take a picture, but we all know how those pictures usually turn out to be…

There are many different kinds of tripods and you should get one that can steadily hold your camera. For the smallest cameras or smartphones, you can use something like a GorillaPod . For heavier DSLR cameras, we recommend Manfrotto tripods – they are available in many different sizes and models.

My experience shows that for travel photography, the more compact and lighter the tripod is, the more you’ll use it. Just make sure that it can hold the camera and the lens that you have.

16. Pack Enough Memory Cards & Extra Batteries

Always, always pack more memory cards than you think you’d need. They are really not that expensive anymore and as the camera quality gets better and the picture size larger, you may run out of space on your memory card. So always have a few extra cards.

Also, get memory cards that are fast so that you don’t need to wait for the camera to save a picture before you can take a new one. If you are traveling to places with extremely hot or cold weather, make sure that you have quality memory cards that can work in any conditions.

We use and recommend Sandisk SD Extreme and Sandisk SD Extreme Pro cards. They offer an excellent price-quality ratio.

Always pack at least one backup battery set (and make sure that it’s charged) and carry it with you. There’s no use in having a set of extra batteries in your hotel room or in the car; they should always be at hand.

If you are using your smartphone for photography, take a power bank and a cable so that you can easily recharge your phone during the day. In any case, a good light and compact power bank is a must for any trip these days!

17. Be Respectful & Be Careful

One of the most important things any traveler should remember is to be respectful. Respect other people, nature, and local rules and regulations. Also, just use common sense and don’t do things that you wouldn’t want others to do to you.

Don’t go trampling wildflowers even if there are no signs asking not to do that. And definitely don’t go past the signs asking you not to – there’s always a reason for that, even if it might not look obvious to you. Don’t go on private property and try to always ask people before taking a picture of them. When in doubt, don’t take the shot.

Also, don’t go jumping at the edge of a cliff just because it looks cool or you saw someone else post crazy pictures like that on Instagram. Too many accidents happen every year because people are trying to get some perfect angle for their picture and misstep too far… No picture is worth it!

Having said that, we also have quite some pictures taken at places that look quite dangerous. But in our case, it’s more about finding the right angle to make it look more special. We are always extremely careful and we do our best to always stay on paths and never cross the line or a sign asking not to do it.

18. Get up Early & Stay Late

Photography is all about the light, and it’s not a secret that the best times for pictures are at dawn and at dusk. Photographers call this the Golden Hour . So one of the best travel photography tips I can give you is to make an extra effort and get out of bed early in the morning and stay up late.

Not only will you get better pictures this way, but you will also experience some incredible sunsets and sunrises that will make your trip more special!

Another advantage of getting up early is that you can explore even the most popular travel destinations without the crowds. Most tourists never get to their destination before 9-10 AM, so those few hours in the morning will not only help you get better travel pictures but will also make your travel experience so much more unique.

Unfortunately, this is not really the case at sunset at most destinations, because many people love to stay up for sunset. However, you’ll still have more beautiful light and more special colors for your pictures. Also, some destinations that are popular with day-trippers, are very quiet in the evening. So if you can, book accommodation very close-by and stay longer! This brings me to the next two points.

19. Book Your Accommodation Wisely

This might look like a strange tip for travel photography, but the location of your accommodation can have a huge influence on your trip and on the pictures you’ll be able to take.

Spending a night at a popular day trip destination will allow you to explore the place without the crowds of day-trippers. Staying close to a specific landmark might give you unique opportunities to photograph it in a different light and at different times during the day.

Staying inside a national park might mean that you’ll be able to explore it from dawn to dark and even at night. You might be able to photograph incredible skies at night or get to see wildlife just at your doorstep at dawn. Even just booking a room with a nice view can give you chances to take pictures you’d never be able to get otherwise.

So keep this in mind when choosing your accommodation. Some of the most special travel experiences we had during our trips wouldn’t have been possible if we had chosen another accommodation.

Some of those include watching whales from our hotel in Ilulissat, Greenland , or exploring the fairytale castles of San Marino at sunset with hardly anyone else around, or watching wildlife at dusk and in the dark in Etosha National Park in Namibia … And these are just a few examples.

20. Research the Best Photography Spots and Locations

If you want to take some really nice pictures while traveling, it’s helpful to do some research in advance. Once you are on a trip, you hardly ever have the time to scout the best photography locations. It’s very easy to overlook some nice places or special angles when you’re visiting somewhere for the first time.

One of the best ways to research the best locations is by checking images of your destination online. Just type in your destination name on Google Image search, and you’ll see what kind of images come up. You can then try to find their exact location and potentially even mark it in your Google Maps account.

Another good way to find some of the nicest photo spots is by looking on Instagram. However, this also often leads to ‘Instagram tourism’ and everyone taking the exact same pictures of the same ‘instagrammable’ places…

For some places, it might be important to research when the light is best for photography. This usually highly depends on the direction of the sun. Which brings us to the last tip…

21. Don’t Forget Why You Travel & Enjoy Your Trip

If you are on vacation, it will be impossible to always be in the right place at the best possible time. Also, the weather will play a role and some unforeseen circumstances. So no matter how much research you do or which camera gear you have, often, you simply won’t be able to get the best pictures.

Remember that those perfect images that you see in the travel brochures were usually taken by professional photographers. Usually, they stay at the same location for at least a few days, scout out the best times and angles, and go back to the same place a few times in order to capture that perfect light and composition.

So unless photography is the main goal of your trip, don’t stress about it. Remember why you travel in the first place and enjoy your vacation instead of trying to get that one perfect shot!

So, these are some of the basic travel photography tips that I wanted to share with you. As you can see, most of them have nothing to do with the camera you have or the settings you use. It’s more about being creative, looking for different angles, doing something fun, or catching the perfect light. It’s also a matter of practice. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.

I truly hope that our tips will help you get better travel pictures. But I also hope that these tips will help you have more special trips and create better memories.

Explore, take your time to look for little details, get off the beaten path, and once in a while splurge for some well-located accommodation. Trust me, it will be worth it!

READ ALSO: Our Favorite Destinations Worldwide

If you found this post helpful, don’t forget to bookmark it and share it with your friends. Are you on Pinterest? Pin these images!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Wednesday 13th of April 2022

Do you have any tips on how to present the photos and videos that you take on your travels? For instance do you create photobooks or videos that include video clips and photos?

Tuesday 19th of April 2022

@Jurga, Awesome, thank you very much. :)

Thursday 14th of April 2022

Hi Vanessa, yes, we sometimes make a photo book with our pictures and my husband also makes a nice video of each bigger trip too. It's all more meant as a nice memory for the kids and they loved watching older photos/videos of themselves :). We don't usually mix the two though - so pictures and videos are separate.

Michael Anthony Cicchi

Tuesday 6th of July 2021

You make gorgeous photos 🙂

Wednesday 21st of July 2021

Thank you, Michael!

Saturday 26th of December 2020

Great general tipps & some beautiful shots there! keep it up :)

Monday 28th of December 2020

Thank you, Lisa!

Michael Cicchi

Sunday 13th of December 2020

A very nice article, Jurga! Great tips.

Thank you, Michael! Always such a loyal reader!

Winter is here! Check out the winter wonderlands at these 5 amazing winter destinations in Montana

• Travel Tips

How To Plan A Trip: An Easy Travel Planning Guide

Published: November 16, 2023

Modified: December 28, 2023

by Rodi Kindle

• Plan Your Trip

Introduction

Planning a trip can be both exciting and overwhelming. Whether you’re embarking on a solo adventure, a romantic getaway, or a family vacation, careful planning is crucial to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience. From choosing the perfect destination to booking flights and accommodations, travel planning requires careful consideration of various factors. In this easy travel planning guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps to plan your trip effectively.

Travel planning allows you to make the most of your time and resources, ensuring that you don’t miss out on any must-visit attractions or experiences. By following these recommendations and tips, you’ll be well-prepared to create a memorable and stress-free travel itinerary.

Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or this is your first time planning a trip, this guide will provide you with valuable insights and practical advice to help you make the most out of your travel experience. So, let’s dive into the essential steps of travel planning and get ready for your next adventure!

Step 1: Determine your destination

The first step in planning any trip is deciding on the destination. Consider your interests, preferences, and the type of experience you’re seeking. Do you want to relax on a tropical beach, explore historic landmarks, immerse yourself in a different culture, or embark on an outdoor adventure? Research various destinations and make a list of places that align with your interests.

Factors to consider when choosing a destination include the time of year, weather conditions, and your budget. If you’re traveling during peak tourist season, popular destinations may be crowded and prices for flights and accommodations could be higher. Alternatively, visiting during the off-peak season may offer more affordable options and fewer crowds.

Think about the distance you’re willing to travel and the transportation options available to reach your chosen destination. Consider whether you prefer a domestic or international trip, and take into account any visa requirements or travel restrictions.

Furthermore, take the time to research the safety and political situation of your potential destinations. Check for any travel advisories or warnings issued by your government, and read reviews from other travelers to gain insight into the current state of your desired location.

Ultimately, the choice of your destination should align with your interests, budget, and the kind of experience you’re looking for. Once you have narrowed down your options, you can move on to the next step of the planning process.

Step 2: Set a budget

Setting a budget is an essential step in travel planning as it helps you determine how much you can realistically spend on your trip. Consider your financial situation and allocate funds for transportation, accommodations, meals, activities, and any other expenses that may arise during your journey.

Start by determining how much you are willing to spend overall on your trip. This will give you a rough estimate of how much you can allocate to each aspect of your travel, such as flights, accommodation, and daily expenses.

Research the average costs of your chosen destination to get an idea of how much you need to budget. Take into account the cost of living, transportation, attractions, and dining options in the area. Consider whether you prefer a luxurious or budget-friendly experience, and adjust your budget accordingly.

Be sure to factor in any additional expenses such as travel insurance, visa fees, and transportation to and from the airport. It’s also important to set aside some extra funds for unexpected expenses or emergencies that may arise during your trip.

Consider ways to save money during your trip. Look for deals on flights and accommodations, consider alternative modes of transportation such as buses or trains, and opt for budget-friendly dining options like street food or local eateries.

Keep track of your expenses as you plan and throughout your journey. This will help you stay within your budget and make adjustments if necessary. Use online travel budget calculators or mobile apps to assist you in managing your finances effectively.

Remember, setting a budget allows you to plan your trip within your means and ensures that you can fully enjoy your travel experience without financial stress. So, take the time to assess your expenses and allocate your funds wisely before moving on to the next step of travel planning.

Step 3: Decide on the duration of your trip

Deciding on the duration of your trip is an important step in travel planning as it helps you determine how much time you can allocate to each destination and activity. Consider your schedule, budget, and the attractions you want to explore.

Start by assessing the amount of time you can take off from work or other commitments. Take into account any travel restrictions or visa limitations that may affect the duration of your trip.

If you have a specific destination in mind, research the recommended duration for visiting that location. Some places may require a longer stay to fully experience their culture, attractions, and activities, while others can be explored in a shorter timeframe.

Consider your travel pace and personal preferences. Do you prefer a leisurely trip with plenty of downtime, or do you prefer a fast-paced adventure packed with sightseeing? Factor in travel time and any jet lag that may affect your energy levels upon arrival.

If you plan to visit multiple destinations, allocate sufficient time for each location based on your interests and the activities you wish to engage in. Remember to account for travel time between destinations and consider the feasibility of fitting everything into your desired timeframe.

Keep in mind that a longer trip may require a larger budget due to increased accommodation, dining, and transportation costs. Balance your desire to spend more time in certain locations with the overall cost of your trip.

Once you have determined the duration of your trip, you can move on to the next steps of travel planning, such as researching and gathering information about your chosen destinations and booking flights or transportation.

Remember, the duration of your trip should align with your interests, budget, and available time off. So, take the time to carefully consider these factors to ensure a well-balanced travel experience.

Step 4: Research and gather information about your destination

Researching and gathering information about your destination is a crucial step in travel planning. It allows you to familiarize yourself with the local culture, attractions, customs, and practical information essential for a smooth and enriching travel experience.

Start by reading travel guides, online resources, and blogs to gather insights about your chosen destination. Look for information about popular tourist sites, local customs, transportation options, safety precautions, and visa requirements.

Check out travel forums and social media groups to connect with fellow travelers who have been to your destination. Seek their advice, recommendations, and firsthand experiences to gain valuable insights and tips.

Research the best time to visit your destination. Consider factors such as weather conditions, peak tourist seasons, and any festivals or events that may be happening during your trip. This information will help you plan your itinerary and determine which attractions or activities to prioritize.

Learn about the local culture and customs. Familiarize yourself with local greetings, etiquette, clothing norms, and any specific cultural practices or taboos. This will help you show respect to the local community and avoid any cultural misunderstandings.

Research transportation options within your destination. Find out about public transportation systems, availability of rental cars, and the cost of taxis or ridesharing services. Knowing how to get around will help you save time and money during your trip.

Look for recommendations on accommodations, dining options, and local cuisines. Read reviews and compare prices to find the best options that fit your preferences and budget. Consider the proximity of your accommodation to major attractions and amenities.

Make a list of the top attractions and activities you want to experience. Prioritize them based on your interests and available time. Research entry fees, operating hours, and any restrictions or reservations required for certain attractions.

By conducting thorough research and gathering information about your destination, you’ll be well-prepared to create an itinerary, make informed decisions, and make the most out of your travel experience.

So take the time to delve into the details and immerse yourself in the charm and wonders your chosen destination has to offer.

Step 5: Book flights or transportation

Once you have determined your destination and gathered information about it, it’s time to book your flights or transportation. This step is crucial, as it often affects your budget and can impact the overall logistics of your trip.

If you’re planning to travel by air, start by researching flights to your destination. Use flight comparison websites or online travel agencies to find the best deals and compare prices. Consider factors such as flight duration, layovers, and airline reputation.

Flexibility in your travel dates can help you find cheaper flights. Consider flying during off-peak seasons or on weekdays, as prices tend to be lower during these times. Be sure to book your flights well in advance to secure the best rates.

If you’re traveling by other means of transportation, such as trains, buses, or ferries, research the schedules, fares, and availability. Look for reliable booking platforms or official websites of transportation providers to make your reservations.

Consider the proximity of your accommodation to the airport or transportation hubs. It’s convenient to choose accommodations that offer easy access to public transportation or provide shuttle services to and from the airport.

When booking your flights or transportation, it’s essential to consider travel insurance. Travel insurance provides coverage for unexpected events such as flight cancellations, delays, or medical emergencies. Consider purchasing travel insurance to protect yourself and your investment.

Before finalizing your bookings, double-check the details to ensure accuracy. Verify the departure and arrival dates, times, and terminals. Make note of any luggage restrictions or additional fees that may apply.

Once your flights or transportation are booked, it’s a good idea to set up travel alerts or notifications to stay updated with any changes or delays. Save electronic copies of your itineraries, e-tickets, or reservation confirmations for easy access during your trip.

Booking your flights or transportation early ensures that you have the best options available and allows you to focus on other aspects of your travel planning.

So, take the time to research and make your bookings, ensuring a smooth and seamless journey to your destination.

Step 6: Find accommodation

Finding suitable accommodation is a crucial step in travel planning as it directly impacts your comfort and overall experience during your trip. Here are some steps to help you find the perfect accommodation.

1. Determine your budget: Set a budget for your accommodation. Consider how much you are willing to spend per night and allocate a portion of your overall trip budget to accommodations.

2. Research the options: Use online travel platforms and booking websites to explore various types of accommodations. Consider factors such as location, amenities, and reviews from previous guests.

3. Consider your preferences: Determine the type of accommodation that suits your needs. Options include hotels, hostels, guesthouses, vacation rentals, or even unconventional options such as homestays or house swaps.

4. Location: Consider the location of the accommodation in relation to your planned activities and attractions. It’s convenient to stay in a central location or near public transportation for easy access to the places you want to visit.

5. Read reviews: Take the time to read reviews from previous guests to get an understanding of the quality and service provided by the accommodation. Look out for any common issues or concerns mentioned in the reviews.

6. Compare prices: Compare prices of different accommodations that fit your criteria. Consider any added charges or fees, such as resort fees or taxes, when comparing prices to ensure you are getting the best value for your money.

7. Book in advance: Once you have found the perfect accommodation, book it as soon as possible to secure your reservation. Popular accommodations can fill up quickly, especially during peak seasons.

8. Check the cancellation policy: Before making your reservation, carefully read and understand the cancellation policy of the accommodation. This will help you navigate any potential changes or cancellations in your travel plans.

9. Contact the accommodation: If you have any specific requests or questions, reach out to the accommodation directly. This could include inquiries about special amenities, room preferences, or any other concerns you may have.

10. Confirm your booking: After making your reservation, double-check your booking confirmation for accuracy. Take note of any important information, such as check-in and check-out times or any special instructions given by the accommodation.

By following these steps, you can find the perfect accommodation that meets your needs, budget, and preferences, ensuring a comfortable and enjoyable stay during your trip.

So take the time to explore your options and secure your ideal accommodation in advance.

Step 7: Create an itinerary

Creating an itinerary is an essential step in travel planning as it helps you organize your time, prioritize your activities, and make the most out of your trip. Here’s how to create an effective itinerary:

1. Identify your must-see attractions: Make a list of the top attractions or activities you don’t want to miss in your chosen destination. Research their opening hours, ticket prices, and any specific requirements.

2. Consider time and logistics: Take into account the duration of your trip and the time it takes to travel between attractions. Be realistic about how many activities you can fit into each day, allowing for breaks and downtime.

3. Prioritize your interests: Determine your main areas of interest – whether it’s historical sites, museums, outdoor activities, or cultural experiences. Allocate more time for the activities or attractions that align with your interests.

4. Plan for flexibility: While it’s important to have a schedule, leave room for spontaneity and unexpected discoveries. It’s impossible to predict everything, so allow yourself time to explore and embrace new experiences.

5. Group activities by proximity: Cluster activities or attractions that are located close to each other. This will help you maximize your time and reduce travel time between destinations.

6. Consider the local culture: Take into account any cultural or religious practices that may affect the opening hours or availability of certain attractions. Plan your itinerary accordingly to make the most of your visit.

7. Explore local cuisine: Include time for trying local dishes and exploring different dining options. Research popular local foods or restaurants in each area you plan to visit and add them to your itinerary.

8. Pace yourself: Avoid overloading your itinerary with too many activities in a short amount of time. Give yourself time to relax and enjoy the surroundings. Remember, quality experiences are better than rushing through a long list of attractions.

9. Utilize travel apps and resources: Make use of travel apps or websites that offer itinerary planning tools or suggestions for your destination. These resources can help you create a well-structured and efficient itinerary.

10. Be mindful of your energy levels: Take into consideration your own energy levels and travel preferences. Avoid cramming too many strenuous activities in a row, and allow for rest or leisurely exploration.

Remember that an itinerary is a tool to guide you, but it’s okay to deviate from the plan if you discover new opportunities or if unexpected circumstances arise. Flexibility and spontaneity can lead to unexpected joy and memorable experiences.

So, take the time to create a thoughtful and well-balanced itinerary that allows you to fully enjoy your trip and make the most out of your chosen destination.

Step 8: Pack your bags

Packing your bags is a crucial step in travel planning, ensuring that you have everything you need for a comfortable and enjoyable trip. Here’s how to pack efficiently:

1. Make a packing list: Create a comprehensive packing list to ensure you don’t forget any essentials. Include clothing, toiletries, travel documents, electronics, and any other items you may need.

2. Check the weather: Research the weather conditions of your destination during the time of your visit. Pack appropriate clothing and accessories, such as jackets, hats, or sunscreen, to suit the climate.

3. Pack versatile clothing: Opt for clothing items that can be mixed and matched easily. Choose neutral colors and versatile pieces that can be dressed up or down to maximize outfit options while minimizing luggage weight.

4. Consider local customs: Take into account the cultural or dress norms of your destination. Pack appropriate clothing that respects local customs, especially if you plan to visit religious sites or conservative areas.

5. Pack travel-sized toiletries: To save space and comply with carry-on restrictions, transfer your toiletries into travel-sized containers. Remember to adhere to airline regulations regarding liquid quantities.

6. Organize your belongings: Use packing cubes or separate bags to categorize and organize your clothes and belongings. This will not only keep your suitcase tidy but also make it easier to find what you need during your trip.

7. Keep important documents together: Gather all your travel documents, including passports, tickets, accommodation reservations, and any necessary visas. Keep them in a secure and easily accessible place.

8. Pack essential electronics: Bring along the necessary electronics for your trip, such as smartphones, cameras, chargers, and adapters. Consider the voltage requirements of your destination and pack the appropriate adapters.

9. Don’t forget medication and first aid: If you take any prescription medications, ensure that you have an ample supply for the duration of your trip. Pack a basic first aid kit with essentials like band-aids, pain relievers, and any necessary medications.

10. Travel with essential valuables: Keep your valuable items, such as cash, credit cards, and jewelry, in a secure bag or pouch that you can carry with you at all times. Consider using a money belt or a hidden travel wallet for added security.

Remember to pack light and avoid overpacking, as it can be cumbersome and may incur additional luggage fees. Consider doing a trial pack beforehand to ensure that everything fits and that your luggage is within weight restrictions.

By following these packing tips, you’ll be well-prepared for your trip, ensuring that you have everything you need while avoiding the stress of overpacking. So, pack smart and travel with convenience and peace of mind.

Step 9: Plan your meals and dining options

Planning your meals and dining options is an important step in travel planning, especially if you’re a food lover or have specific dietary requirements. Here’s how to make the most of your culinary experiences during your trip:

1. Research local cuisine: Familiarize yourself with the local cuisine of your destination. Look for signature dishes, traditional specialties, and popular food markets or street food scenes. Researching local cuisine beforehand allows you to anticipate and embrace the flavors of your chosen destination.

2. Make a dining wish list: Create a list of restaurants, cafes, or food stalls that you’re interested in trying. Read reviews, consult travel guides, or seek recommendations from locals and fellow travelers. Prioritize your list based on your preferences and budget.

3. Consider dietary restrictions: If you have specific dietary restrictions or allergies, research restaurants or eateries that cater to your needs. Look for places with gluten-free, vegetarian, or vegan options, and ensure that you communicate your dietary requirements clearly when ordering.

4. Explore local markets: Visit local markets or supermarkets to immerse yourself in the food culture of your destination. Purchase fresh ingredients, local produce, or unique snacks to enjoy during your trip. It’s a great way to experience the local lifestyle and culinary offerings.

5. Learn basic phrases: If you’re traveling to a destination with a different language, learn basic phrases related to dining, such as “hello,” “thank you,” and “menu.” This will help you communicate your preferences and dietary needs to restaurant staff.

6. Embrace street food: Street food can offer some of the most authentic and delicious culinary experiences. Research popular street food markets or vendors in your destination. Follow local recommendations and observe cleanliness and hygiene practices when selecting street food options.

7. Be open to culinary adventures: Don’t be afraid to try new dishes or flavors. Push yourself outside your comfort zone and embrace new culinary experiences. You may discover unexpected favorites and create memorable food memories.

8. Consider meal timings: Take into account local dining customs and meal timings. Some cultures have specific meal times, such as a siesta or late-night dining. Adjust your plans accordingly to ensure you don’t miss out on local dining experiences.

9. Allow for spontaneity: While it’s good to have a plan, allow room for spontaneous dining experiences. Leave a few empty meal slots or explore local recommendations from friendly locals or fellow travelers you meet along the way.

10. Stay hydrated and practice food safety: Drink plenty of water, especially in warmer climates, and be mindful of food safety practices. Wash your hands regularly, opt for bottled water in areas with unsafe tap water, and choose restaurants or street food vendors with a good reputation for cleanliness.

By planning your meals and dining options in advance, you can truly savor the flavors and culinary delights of your destination. So, research, embrace, and indulge in the local food scene during your trip.

Step 10: Prepare necessary travel documents

Preparing the necessary travel documents is a crucial step in ensuring a smooth and hassle-free trip. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Check your passport: Ensure that your passport is valid for at least six months beyond your planned travel dates. If it’s expiring soon, renew it well in advance to avoid any last-minute complications.

2. Apply for visas: Research the visa requirements of your destination country. Check if you need a visa and apply for it early to allow sufficient processing time. Follow the instructions provided by the consulate or embassy and submit all required documents.

3. Organize travel insurance: Travel insurance provides crucial coverage in case of medical emergencies, trip cancellations, or lost belongings. Research and purchase a travel insurance policy that suits your needs and provides adequate coverage for the duration of your trip.

4. Make copies of important documents: Make photocopies or take pictures of your passport, visa, travel insurance, and other important documents. Leave copies with a trusted person at home and keep digital copies accessible while traveling.

5. Check entry requirements: Research and familiarize yourself with the entry requirements of your destination. Check if you need to present return tickets, proof of accommodation, or other supporting documents upon arrival.

6. Research health and vaccination requirements: Check if there are any specific health requirements or vaccination recommendations for your destination. Consult your healthcare provider or a travel clinic to ensure that you are up to date on any necessary vaccinations.

7. Register with your embassy: Consider registering with your home country’s embassy or consulate at your destination. This allows them to provide assistance or contact you in case of emergencies or unexpected situations.

8. Check travel advisories: Stay updated with any travel advisories or warnings issued by your government for your destination. Adjust your travel plans accordingly and be aware of any safety or security concerns.

9. Prepare a travel wallet: Organize all your travel documents in a secure travel wallet or folder. This makes it easy to access them when needed and helps keep them safe and organized throughout your journey.

10. Share your itinerary: Inform a trusted family member or friend about your travel plans. Share your itinerary, contact details, and any important information with them. In case of emergencies, they will know how to reach you and provide necessary assistance.

By preparing and ensuring that you have all the necessary travel documents in order, you can travel with peace of mind and avoid any potential complications or delays. So, take the time to check and organize your travel documents prior to your departure.

Step 11: Make necessary reservations and bookings

Making necessary reservations and bookings is an important step in travel planning to secure accommodations, activities, and transportation during your trip. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Book accommodations: Based on your research and preferences, make reservations for your accommodations in advance. Consider factors such as location, amenities, and budget. Popular accommodations can fill up quickly, so ensure you book early to secure your desired options.

2. Reserve transportation: If you plan to use public transportation or rent a car at your destination, make any necessary reservations in advance. Look for deals or discounts and ensure your transportation arrangements align with your itinerary.

3. Purchase attraction tickets: For popular attractions, consider purchasing tickets in advance to skip the long lines and secure your entry. Many attractions offer timed entry or online ticket options that allow for a more seamless experience.

4. Arrange for guided tours: If you’re interested in guided tours or activities, book them in advance to secure your spot. This allows you to plan your itinerary more effectively and ensures availability for popular tours or experiences.

5. Reserve dining options: If you have specific restaurants or dining experiences in mind, make reservations ahead of time, especially for popular or highly sought-after establishments. Booking in advance guarantees you a table and avoids disappointment.

6. Consider transportation between locations: If you plan to visit multiple destinations during your trip, book transportation tickets or passes between locations. This could include flights, train tickets, or intercity bus passes.

7. Research and book special experiences: If you’re interested in unique experiences such as cooking classes, adventure activities, or cultural performances, research and make the necessary bookings in advance. These experiences often have limited availability.

8. Check cancellation policies: Before finalizing any bookings, make sure to review the cancellation policies. Life is unpredictable, and having flexibility in your reservations can be beneficial in case of any unforeseen changes in your travel plans.

9. Stay organized: Keep a record of all your reservations, confirmations, and receipts in a centralized place for easy reference. This helps ensure a smooth travel experience and allows you to stay organized throughout your trip.

10. Double-check details: Before your departure, double-check all your reservations and bookings to ensure accuracy. Confirm dates, times, and any specific instructions provided by the service providers.

By making necessary reservations and bookings in advance, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your important travel components are secured, allowing you to focus on enjoying your trip to the fullest.

So take the time to plan and make your necessary reservations, ensuring a well-prepared and smooth travel experience.

Step 12: Plan for transportation at your destination

Planning for transportation at your destination is an important step in travel planning to ensure smooth and convenient travel within the area. Here’s how to navigate transportation options effectively:

1. Research transportation options: Familiarize yourself with the available transportation options at your destination. This may include public transportation systems such as buses, trains, or trams, as well as taxi services, ridesharing apps, or bike-sharing programs.

2. Learn about local public transportation: Understand the local public transportation system, including routes, schedules, and fares. Study maps of subway or bus routes and identify key stops or interchanges that will be relevant to your itinerary.

3. Consider purchasing travel passes or cards: Depending on your length of stay and anticipated usage, determine if it’s worth purchasing travel passes or cards that offer unlimited or discounted rides on public transportation. These passes can save you time and money.

4. Plan for airport transfers: If you’re arriving at an airport, research and decide on the most convenient mode of transportation to your accommodation. Options may include airport shuttles, public transit, or pre-arranged private transfers.

5. Check for ridesharing or taxi services: If you prefer more flexibility or convenience, look into ridesharing apps or taxi services available at your destination. Check if they are widely used and reliable for getting around.

6. Consider walking or cycling: Depending on the location and infrastructure, walking or cycling may be a feasible and enjoyable mode of transportation for shorter distances. Research pedestrian-friendly areas and bike rental options if applicable.

7. Navigate driving regulations: If you plan to rent a car at your destination, familiarize yourself with local driving regulations, including license requirements, traffic rules, and parking availability. Research and book car rentals in advance to secure the best rates.

8. Stay informed about disruptions or closures: Check for any planned closures or disruptions to public transportation routes or services during your travel dates. Stay updated through official transport authority websites or mobile apps to avoid any inconvenience.

9. Embrace local culture and etiquette: Be respectful of the local culture and etiquette when using public transportation. Familiarize yourself with any unwritten rules, such as offering seats to elderly or pregnant passengers, and follow local customs for purchasing tickets or validating passes.

10. Stay safe and be aware of scams: Use trusted transportation services and be cautious of potential scams. Avoid unlicensed taxis, be mindful of your belongings, and stay vigilant while using public transportation, especially in crowded areas.

By planning for transportation at your destination, you’ll be able to navigate the area efficiently and maximize your time exploring the attractions. So, research your options, consider convenience and cost-effectiveness, and choose the transportation modes that best suit your needs.

Step 13: Research local customs and etiquette

Researching the local customs and etiquette of your destination is an important step in travel planning. Understanding and respecting the cultural norms of the place you’re visiting can enhance your travel experience and help you connect with the local community. Here’s what you should do:

1. Learn basic greetings: Familiarize yourself with common greetings and phrases in the local language. Learning to say “hello,” “thank you,” and “excuse me” shows respect and can help break the ice in your interactions with locals.

2. Dress appropriately: Respect the local dress code and customs. In some cultures, modest attire is expected, especially when visiting religious sites or conservative areas. Research the clothing norms and pack accordingly to avoid any unintended cultural offense.

3. Respect religious customs: If your destination has religious traditions, familiarize yourself with the customs and practices related to them. Follow any dress codes or guidelines when visiting religious sites, and be mindful of appropriate behavior and photography restrictions.

4. Observe local customs and traditions: Familiarize yourself with local customs and traditions, such as greetings, gestures, or table manners. Understanding and respecting these cultural nuances can enrich your interactions with locals and demonstrate your appreciation for their way of life.

5. Be aware of gestures and body language: Gestures and body language can vary across cultures and may have different meanings or interpretations. Research common gestures to avoid any unintentional misunderstandings or offense. When in doubt, observe and follow the lead of locals.

6. Respect personal space: Different countries and cultures have varying concepts of personal space. Be mindful of personal boundaries and avoid unnecessary physical contact unless it’s customary or welcomed in the local culture.

7. Follow local dining etiquette: If you plan to dine at local restaurants or with locals, be aware of proper dining etiquette. Pay attention to table manners, serving customs, and any specific traditions, such as tasting a dish before adding seasoning.

8. Know appropriate tipping practices: Research the tipping customs of your destination. In some countries, tipping is expected, while in others, it may not be common practice. Understand the appropriate amount and the preferred method of giving tips.

9. Respect local customs and traditions: Be mindful of and respect local customs, festivals, and traditions. Familiarize yourself with any practices or events happening during your visit, and observe them respectfully, even if you don’t fully understand them.

10. Smile and be polite: A friendly demeanor, a smile, and basic politeness can go a long way in any culture. Approach interactions with locals with an open and respectful attitude, and be open to learning from their customs and traditions.

By researching and embracing the local customs and etiquette, you can show respect for the local culture, connect with the community, and create meaningful experiences during your trip.

So take the time to learn and appreciate the customs of your destination, and enjoy your journey with cultural sensitivity and understanding.

Step 14: Make a checklist of essentials to bring

Making a checklist of essentials to bring is a crucial step in travel planning to ensure you have everything you need for a comfortable and stress-free trip. Here’s how to create a comprehensive checklist:

1. Travel documents: Include your passport, visa, travel insurance documents, identification cards, and any necessary permits or licenses for your destination.

2. Money and cards: Bring sufficient cash in the local currency and consider carrying a mix of payment options, such as credit cards, debit cards, or a travel money card. Don’t forget to notify your bank and credit card companies of your travel plans to avoid any issues with your cards.

3. Medications and prescriptions: Pack any necessary medications, along with copies of prescriptions or doctor’s notes. If you have specific medical conditions, consider wearing a medical ID bracelet or carrying relevant medical information in case of emergencies.

4. First aid kit: Include a basic first aid kit with items such as adhesive bandages, antiseptic wipes, pain relievers, antihistamines, and any special prescriptions or medical supplies you may need.

5. Clothing and accessories: Pack clothing suitable for the climate and activities at your destination. Include underwear, socks, comfortable shoes, weather-appropriate attire, swimwear, and any specialized gear required for activities such as hiking or skiing.

6. Toiletries and personal care items: Bring travel-sized toiletries, including toothbrush and toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, soap or body wash, moisturizer, sunscreen, and any essential personal care items you use on a daily basis.

7. Electronics and chargers: Don’t forget your essential electronics, such as phone, laptop or tablet, camera, chargers, adapters, and power banks. Consider bringing a portable Wi-Fi device or SIM card if you need internet access on the go.

8. Travel accessories: Include a travel adapter, travel pillow, lightweight towel, reusable water bottle, earplugs, eye mask, and any other accessories that enhance your comfort during the journey.

9. Entertainment and reading materials: Pack books, magazines, or e-readers to keep you entertained during travel or downtime. Don’t forget to bring headphones or earphones for listening to music or watching movies.

10. Miscellaneous items: Consider items such as a travel lock, a universal sink plug, a portable umbrella, a reusable shopping bag, a pen and notepad, and any other personal items that you find essential or useful in your day-to-day routine.

Remember to tailor your checklist based on your specific needs, the nature of your trip, and the destination you’re visiting. Keep in mind any restrictions or guidelines in place for carry-on luggage or liquids when packing.

By using a checklist, you can ensure that you have all the essentials you need for a comfortable and organized trip. So take the time to create a comprehensive checklist, double-check it before departure, and enjoy a worry-free journey.

Step 15: Ensure travel safety and security

Ensuring travel safety and security is a vital step in travel planning to protect yourself and your belongings during your trip. Here’s what you should do:

1. Research the destination: Familiarize yourself with local safety and security conditions of your destination. Check travel advisories or warnings issued by your government, stay updated on current events, and be aware of any potential risks or concerns.

2. Secure your accommodations: Choose accommodations in safe areas and research their security measures. Consider factors such as secure locks, in-room safes, and 24/7 reception or security staff.

3. Protect your belongings: Take precautions to protect your belongings from theft or loss. Use luggage locks, carry a theft-proof bag, and be mindful of your surroundings. Avoid displaying expensive items and keep your valuables secured in a hotel safe or a hidden travel wallet.

4. Use reliable transportation: Opt for licensed transportation services and be cautious when using public transportation, especially in unfamiliar areas. Research reputable taxi companies or use ridesharing apps that have a reliable track record.

5. Stay connected: Ensure you have a way to stay connected with family, friends, or emergency contacts during your trip. Share your itinerary with a trusted person and keep them updated about your whereabouts.

6. Register with your embassy: Consider registering with your home country’s embassy or consulate at your destination. By doing so, they can provide you with important updates or assistance in case of emergencies or unexpected situations.

7. Practice caution with strangers: Be cautious when interacting with strangers and avoid sharing personal information or details about your travel plans. Use common sense and trust your instincts when approached by unfamiliar individuals.

8. Use secure Wi-Fi connections: Be cautious when using public Wi-Fi networks, especially for accessing personal accounts or making financial transactions. Whenever possible, connect to secure and password-protected networks or use a trusted virtual private network (VPN) for added security.

9. Stay informed about local laws: Research and familiarize yourself with the local laws and regulations of your destination. Be respectful of local customs, traditions, and social norms to avoid unintentional offenses or legal issues.

10. Purchase travel insurance: Travel insurance is essential for protecting yourself against unforeseen events or emergencies. Make sure your insurance policy provides coverage for medical expenses, trip cancellations, and lost or stolen belongings.

Always prioritize your personal safety and security during your travels. Stay alert, be aware of your surroundings, and take necessary precautions to mitigate risks. Remember, being proactive and prepared can greatly contribute to a safe and enjoyable travel experience.

So, take the time to ensure travel safety and security, and embark on your journey with confidence and peace of mind.

Step 16: Enjoy your trip!

After all the planning and preparations, it’s finally time to embark on your much-awaited trip! Here are some tips to help you make the most of your travel experience:

1. Embrace the adventure: Approach your trip with an open mind and a spirit of adventure. Embrace new experiences, try local cuisine, and immerse yourself in the local culture.

2. Stay flexible: Despite careful planning, unexpected situations may arise. Stay flexible and adapt to any changes or detours that come your way. Sometimes, the most memorable experiences happen when plans change.

3. Engage with the locals: Interact with the locals and learn about their customs, traditions, and way of life. Engaging with the local community can provide unique insights and create meaningful connections.

4. Seek off-the-beaten-path experiences: While popular tourist attractions are worth visiting, don’t be afraid to explore lesser-known places or hidden gems. You may stumble upon hidden treasures and have a more authentic experience.

5. Take breaks and relax: Travel can be exhilarating but also exhausting. Allow yourself time to rest and relax. Take breaks from sightseeing, enjoy leisurely meals, and recharge to fully appreciate your journey.

6. Capture memories: Take photos, keep a travel journal, or create videos to capture the memories of your trip. These mementos will allow you to relive your experiences and share them with others.

7. Try new activities: Step out of your comfort zone and try new activities that are unique to your destination. Whether it’s learning to surf, taking a cooking class, or going on a thrilling adventure, these experiences can create lifelong memories.

8. Stay mindful and respectful: Remember to be respectful of the local customs, traditions, and environment. Practice responsible tourism, minimize your impact on the environment, and leave a positive impression wherever you go.

9. Stay present in the moment: Put away your devices and take time to fully experience your surroundings. Be present in the moment, savor the sights, sounds, and flavors around you, and create meaningful connections with the places you visit.

10. Embrace the unexpected: Travel is full of surprises and the unexpected. Embrace and appreciate the unexpected moments or detours that come your way, as these can often lead to the most incredible and memorable experiences.

Remember, the purpose of your trip is to enjoy, relax, and create lifelong memories. So, be open to new experiences, embrace the unknown, and allow yourself to fully enjoy the journey.

Wishing you a fantastic trip filled with exploration, adventure, and unforgettable moments!

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15 Creative Ways to Track and Document Your Travels

• August 17, 2020
• Travel Tips
• 16 Comments

Documenting your travels is all about recording your adventures in some way, so that you can look back on your experiences and share them with your friends and family.

Most people (myself included) will take pictures when they’re abroad, and then post them onto social media. This is one way of documenting your travels, but there’s so many other cool ways to do it! This post will be looking at some of those methods.

For each method I’ll try to give a brief description of what it is, share a few pictures of what it looks like, and help explain how you can do it yourself. But if you’ve got any questions about anything on this list, feel free to leave a comment and ask about it! 🙂

1. Photo Albums

This is the easiest way to create a physical photo book for your trips. It involves printing out photos (normally in a 6×4 dimension) , and then putting them into a photo album.

A lot of photo albums, like the one above, have an area for captions. With this, you can add in locations, or give a little background to your photo!  I personally think they’re super cool, and a great way to share your experiences with your friends and family.

How to Make One

The albums are really easy to make! You’ll first need to organize (and ideally edit) your photos. Then you just need to have them printed off, and get an album for them. 

I get my photos printed through  ‘FreePrints’ . This is a app which gives you 45 ‘free’ 6×4 prints a month, with you just paying for shipping. After the 45 free prints, it’s only 9p for additional prints, so it won’t break the bank!

For the album, you can pick one up in lots of different places. But the best selection and prices will probably be on Amazon. You can specifically look for ‘Travel Photo Albums’ to find some really cool travel themed ones! 

Price / Effort Involved

The album I shared above cost me about £30 in total. That was £12 for the Album, and £18 for the photo prints  (215 of them!) . But for a smaller album of 50 photos, you would probably be looking at a cost of £10-15. 

If you were wondering, it isn’t much effort at all! The hard part is choosing what photos to use, and then editing them. Once you’ve got the album and the prints, it’s just a matter of sliding the photos into their sockets, and writing down the captions.  

2. Photo Books

These are the natural step up from photo albums! They involve creating a custom designed photo book with all of your travel photos in it. You can also expand on this by including some stories, statistics, annotated maps, and so much more! 

I make a photo book up for each trip I go on, and I love how they turn out. I hope to continue adding to the collection, and eventually have a bookcase full of them! If you want to know about my books, or read through them, check out my books page  here .

I design my books with Adobe inDesign, and then get them printed through  Blurb . Blurb has a  plugin  for inDesign, which makes the design process pretty easy! Although, this will still be pretty complicated if you’ve not used inDesign before.

Luckily, Blurb also offers a free piece of software called ‘ BookWright ‘. I’ve not tried it before, but it looks good, and pretty straightforward to use. You should be able to create something similar to my books above through BookWright.

Of course, Blurb aren’t the only providers of Photo Books, they’re just the one I use! Have a look around and see if any look better to you.

The price of a Photo Book will vary depending on how many pages are in it. For the ones I get made, a 20 page book is priced at £25. The larger one, which has 220 pages, is priced at £115… yikes!  Although, that is the ‘full’ price, before any discounts. 

You shouldn’t need to pay that, as Blurb always has a sale going on. I suggest not ordering unless you’re saving at least 35%. If you can, wait until black Friday, where they do a 50% off sale. That’s when I order my books, and it saves me so much money!

The amount of effort involved really just depends on what kind of book you want. My books take a while to create, as they have quite a lot of custom design and content. It takes me maybe 10 – 15 hours for a 20 page book, which includes editing the photos, creating the map, writing the captions, arranging the photos, and everything else! 

But for a more basic book, you could probably design it within a few hours. 

3. Journal / Sketch Books

While I don’t personally use one of these, I’ve bumped into a few travellers on the road who do, and they always look amazing! I love the idea of being able to record your experiences, with your own hands, while you’re in the middle of it.

There’s just something about it which feels more personal, and a better way of doing it than simply taking a photo, or writing about your trip once it’s done with. Even more so, I love the idea of filling a sketch book with your hand-drawn favourite travel moments. 

Unfortunately, I suck at drawing. And I’ve never been good at keeping a diary! So this method maybe isn’t right for me. But if you’re an artsy type, then definitely think about it! It would be a great way to document your travels, and people would love seeing it. 

The photos above are some examples I found online, and I think they’re brilliant! The links to the authors are in the image captions if you want to see more. I especially love the sketches from Marc-Antoine Mouilleron-Vignon, which you can see more of  here . 

(If you’ve ever played the Life is Strange video game series, especially the second one, the sketchbooks from that are the kind of thing I’m talking about!)

Nothing complex about these! Just get a book and start writing. 

The diary entries can be daily, weekly, or just whenever you have something worth writing about. The sketch entries can be planned, or just spur of the moment. 

If I were to make one, I would focus on the sketches, and write a diary entry at the same time. I’d find somewhere quiet to sit down near a landmark or scenic spot, and just start sketching with a pen! I’d probably keep them simple, and just stick to black and white. 

Other than a book and a few pens (which shouldn’t be expensive) , there’s no real cost involved here! Although, writing the diary entries and drawing the sketches could be time consuming, especially if you want to write a lot, or add in lots of details / colour. 

4. Scrapbooks

Okay, one last type of book!  Scrapbooks are just full of everything related to your trip. This can include boarding passes, museum entry tickets, subway passes, pamphlets, maps with routes on them, photos, and just about anything else you want to put in!

If you want, you can even make it into a sort of diary. Write a story about what you got up to each day, and then include any souvenirs you collected during the day next to it.

Personally, I’ve never made a scrapbook. Most of my creativity is in digital art and design, not so much with my hands. Plus, I use my ticket stubs and other collected scrap in a different way (entry number 5 of this post) . 

That being said, they could still be a great option for the right person. I found the above photos online, and I think they look really neat. Feel free to follow the links in the captions to see more of them, and get some inspiration for your own scrapbook! 

All you need to make a scrapbook is a blank book, some glue, and a lot of creativity!

Just make sure not to throw anything out when you’re on your trip. Keep every receipt , every ticket, and anything else you think might be neat to include. Plus, if there’s any maps, business cards, or pamphlets available, be sure to grab one!

All you’ll really need is a blank book and some glue, so there’s no huge cost involved. However, making a scrapbook does look like a pretty time consuming process.

5. Scrap / Photo Wall Displays

The next few methods on this post are going to be about ways to physically document  your travels inside your own home. Specifically, I’ll be sharing some of the ways I’ve covered my own bedroom walls with all my favourite travel memorabilia!

The first method is through scrap or photo wall displays. Similar to the scrap book mentioned above, the scrap wall display includes all of my random travel memorabilia. Stuff like ticket stubs, travel passes, foreign currency, and any leaflets I’ve picked up.

The photo wall display is just a collection of photos of myself, during some of my favourite travel moments! They’re mostly 6×4 prints, but I’ve also got a larger framed picture on there. It’s great to quickly glance at them, and have the memories flush back.

You’ll collect scrap throughout your travels naturally, so just try not to throw any of it away! You also might want to start up a little collection of specific things. Some good ideas are foreign currency (notes + coins) , travel cards, and flight boarding passes.

For the photos, you can get some cheap 6×4 ones printed off through ‘FreePrints’, or use a range of other websites to get larger prints created. 

Once you’ve got everything ready, try to visualize how you want it to look on your wall, and then get to work sticking it up there! I use a mixture of blu tack and small pins.

It’s not expensive to do this, unless you want to get a lot of large photos printed off. Smaller 6×4 photos are really cheap, as are the blu tac and pins to stick everything up. 

If you’ve got a lot of scrap and photos which you want to use in your display, then sticking everything up and making it look nice and even can be a massive pain! I re-arrange my walls once every couple of years, and it honestly takes me a full day to do it.

6. Postcards

You’d normally use a postcard to send a message to your loved ones back home (and make them super jealous) , but they’re also one of the best pieces of travel memorabilia you can collect. And once you’ve got them, they’re fantastic for displaying! 

I’ve got mine aligned up all along my wall, just next to my photo wall display. They’re really fascinating to look at, and are normally showing off a beautiful photo of the most memorable landmark of the place you were visiting. 

The great thing about postcards is that they’re sold everywhere. In the airport, in corner stores, and in every gift shop, ever. You won’t have any problem finding them!

When you’re picking them out, try to always get ones of a similar size. Having one postcard be landscape when the rest are portrait, or having a single postcard which is twice the size as the rest, is a real pain when it comes to trying to displaying them.

I’d suggest buying a few at a time. There’s normally a deal on, such as 3 for $1, so you may as well. Then you can keep your favourite, and give the others away as little gifts.

To display them, you can stick them on your wall, put them into a scrap book, or even just leave them inside an old box and look through them every once in a while. They’re about the same size as 6×4 photo prints, so you might want to combine your postcards with a photo wall display, or put them into a photo album you’ve made up.

Postcards are really cheap! You’ll normally be able to pick up a few of them for £1. 

They’re also really lightweight, so carrying a bunch of them around won’t be a hassle. But if you want to, you can always just buy a stamp and send them back to your house, to pick up when you get home. Conveniently, they’re quite good for that!

When it comes to displaying them, it shouldn’t be much work. Having them all be a similar size makes sticking them onto a wall, or into a book, a really easy task. 

7. Fridge Magnets

Fridge magnets are one of the most generic ways to document your travels, but they’re also one of the best! Most people will already have a few of them on their fridge, brought back as a gift from family / friends who were away on their holidays.

But buying your own is also an option, which is something I’ve been doing for the last few years. My collection actually got too big for the fridge, so I’ve ended up moving them into my bedroom and just sticking them onto my wall! I think they look brilliant.

Each magnet has it’s own style which resembles the location and reminds you of your time there. For example, my Hollywood magnet, which is in the shape of a walk of fame star, covered in glitter. Or my Barcelona magnet, which is bordered with the famous Gaudi artwork patterns found throughout the city.   

Similar to postcards, fridge magnets can be found just about everywhere. They’ll be cheapest in the little gift shops throughout the city, but if you forget to pick one up, then you’ll normally be able to grab one from the airport as you’re heading back home . 

Try to get ones with some personality to them. The simple squared fridge magnets with a photo on them will be the cheapest, but they’re also quite boring. If you can, go for something with a bit more depth, which will make your display look nicer. 

When it comes to displaying them, the obvious choice is to stick them on your fridge. They’ll look great, and you can reminisce  every time you go to get some food! But you can also display them on your walls, either by sticking them up with blu tack, or by getting a magnetic display board to hang up and then putting them on there. 

Depending on where you are, magnets can be somewhat expensive. The most I’ve ever paid for one is about $10 in the USA. But you should normally be able to pick one up for under $5. The larger and more artistic ones will be more expensive, but I think it’s worth the expense to get them over the more generic, flat squared image magnets. 

When making the display, it’s actually really easy, especially if you’re sticking them up on the fridge. It should only take a few minutes to do.

8. Scratch Off Maps

Scratch off maps are another one of the more popular ways to document your travels, and they are a common feature inside the home of any avid traveller! 

Most people get a global scratch off map, but you can also get maps limited to a specific country or region. In additional to my global map, I’ve also got one for the USA states.

The maps are covered in a thin layer, which hide world beneath it. You can then use a penny to scratch this layer off, just like you would on a lottery scratch card. The end result is your own map, showing where you’ve been, and where you’ve yet to go!

There’s plenty of places to buy scratch off maps, but I find Amazon to have the widest selection. There’s literally thousands on there, giving you plenty of options!

The maps range in detail, and often have some neat features attached. My USA map for example, tells you about the most ‘famous’ part of each state, and has a little picture of it. Other maps might also include scratch off flags, national animals, or other neat stuff.

Once you’ve got it, you’ll need to scratch off where you’ve already been, then hang the map up. And in the future, you’ll just scratch off any new places when you visit them. 

Scratch off maps vary in price quite a lot, but they’re not too expensive. You should be able to get a good quality one for about £15. I got my global map as a gift so I’m not too sure how much it was, but my  USA map  was from Amazon, and cost £15.

When it comes to scratching the areas off the map, it’s actually quite tricky, especially when you’re trying to navigate around the borders with a penny! Scratching off large sections of the map can be quite time consuming, if you want to keep things neat.

When I got my USA map and had to scratch off 13 states, it took about 2 hours, and left my hand aching for a while afterwards.  But that amount of effort was a one time thing, and updating it in the future will be pretty quick and easy. (unless I ever visit Texas..)

9. Digital Maps

These are just like physical scratch off maps.. but in a digital form! You just tick off all the countries / regions you’ve been to, and the map will colour them in for you!

You can even add pins to show exactly where you’ve visited, and add in colours to all the countries which are on your bucket list, to show where you want to visit in the future!

The above maps are ones I’ve made for myself. The first one shows every county / US state I’ve been to, and all the countries / states which I want to visit in the future. 

The other two maps are the ones I use on this site in my  destination  pages.  They show what regions of a country I’ve been to, and where exactly I went to in those regions. I think they’re a great way to show where you’ve been, in a digital format. 

I make mine through a WordPress plugin called ‘MapSVG’. But unless you’re running your own travel blog, you’re probably not going to want to spend the $50 to buy that. So instead,  I had a look around and found a few pretty good free options! 

The first is ‘ Been ‘. This is a free app for IOS/Android, that allows you to check off countries/US states you visit. It also shows you how many places you’ve been to overall in the form of a percentage number, which I think is a pretty cool feature! 

The second is ‘ MyTravelMap ‘. This is an easy to use website that allows you to track where you’ve been, with larger countries broken down into smaller regions. Like Been, it also shows you how much of the world you’ve seen as a percentage number.

The third is ‘ Matador Network Travel Map ‘. This one is more basic than the above, but it allows you to add countries to your bucket list, which is a great feature! 

Personally, I like MyTravelMap the most, and that is what I would use if I weren’t using MapSVG. But it’s worth trying them all out, and any others you come across, to see which one works the best for you. 

The three digital maps mentioned above are free, and checking off all the places you’ve been to should only take a few minutes.

10. Google Maps Location History

If you’ve got the Google Maps app on your phone, then there’s a pretty good chance that it has been tracking everywhere you go. A bit creepy, but also super cool if you’re interested in the data! Go to  this link  and sign into your Google account to check. 

If you’ve had the option turned on, then you’ll see that it has been tracking every single place you’ve visited. It can tell you where you went, when you went there, what route you followed, and even what modes of transport you took. 

You can see a general overview of every place you’ve been (like in the first image) , or look at a specific day and see what you got up during it  (like in the second image) .

You can even use a third party website called ‘Location History Visualizer’ to create a heatmap of your travels! I used it to create the above image of the UK. You can see where I live, where I’ve visited, and even that I’ve took the train to London a few times.

Just make sure you have Google Maps on your phone, and have location history turned on. You can learn more about how to do that  here . It should work even if you don’t have any internet connection due to GPS tracking! Plus, it doesn’t use up any extra battery. 

Your trips and location history will automatically track, and you can view it in the timeline tab of Google Maps. It won’t be 100% accurate, but it will be close. If you want to, you can manually adjust your location history to make it more accurate. 

For the heatmap, just visit  this page  and follow the instructions provided. 

There’s no costs for this, and no real effort either, unless you want to manually edit your location history. The only time I do any manual editing is to fix the red dots which appear in the overview map of all the places I’ve been.

Sometimes I’ll get a dot for somewhere I’ve not been, or a dot will randomly appear in the middle of the ocean during a flight! If you’ve got a lot of dots on your map already and want to fix them, or add in any new ones, then it might be pretty time consuming.

The heatmap above is also free, and only takes 5 minutes to set up.

11. Destination Tracker Spreadsheet

If you know me, then you know I love my spreadsheets! They’re a brilliant way to stay organized, and they’re also the perfect way to keep track of your travelling. 

I create a spreadsheet for each trip I go on, but I’ve also got a separate spreadsheet to keep track of everywhere I’ve been, and to log all of my travel related statistics.

The spreadsheet I’ve made lets me create a bucket list of places I want to visit, and see how far along it I am. It also lets me visually see where I’ve been, how long I’ve spent away from home, how much I’ve spent, and some other cool statistics / information! 

I use Microsoft Excel for my spreadsheets, but Google Sheets is a good free alternative. 

There’s no easy way to really describe how you make one, you just.. do it! Try to plan out all of the information you want to include, and then build the spreadsheet around that. If you can, try to use formulas and attractive formatting to make things user friendly! 

If you want, you can click  here  to download a copy of mine and use that as a template. It isn’t fully automated, but if you’ve got some experience in using excel then you should be able to work it out. I’ve put some tips in there too, which should help you set it up! 

Google Sheets is free, but Microsoft Excel is part of Microsoft 365, which costs about £50 a year. With Microsoft 365 you also get 1TB of OneDrive storage (I back up all my photos/videos on there) , and 60 minutes of free Skype calls (great for making free international calls) . I personally think the £50 a year is well worth it!

As for effort involved, well that really just depends on how advanced you want your spreadsheet to be. You could make a basic one within an hour, or you could spend a whole week making one! I think mine took me about 10 hours, but it is fairly complex.

12. myFlightradar24

FlightRadar24 is a pretty cool website where you can view and track every flight that is currently in the sky across the planet. Even better, they also have a related page called ‘ myFlightradar24 ‘, which allows users to keep track of their own flight history.

The above images show what my profile looks like on myFlightradar24! If you want to see it in more detail, you can view my page  here . 

I think it’s really neat! I love being able to see how far I’ve flown, and how long I’ve spent in a plane ( far too long ). I also love seeing my most visited airports, and the map that gets created is a fairly good way to see everywhere you’ve travelled to. 

Once you’ve signed up, you need to add information about your past flights. Depending on how many flights you’ve been on, this could be easy, or a total nightmare! 

You can manually add flights on the page. If you have your flights flight number and departure date, then there’s a neat little lookup tool which you can use to find your flight, and then the rest of the details about that flight will self populate for you. 

If this doesn’t work, then you’ll need to manually enter the data. I had to do this for some of mine, and it sucked! You don’t need fill every section, but I suggest doing what you can. I only left the ‘aircraft type’ information out of mine, as that was hard to find. 

You can also import your flight history into myFlightradar24 from TripIt. And you can easily import your flight history into TripIt if you still have the booking confirmation emails saved.. so that might be worth looking into if you’ve got a lot of flights to add. 

There’s no cost to use myFlightradar24. However, if you need to import tens or hundreds of previous flights, then that could take a while! But once you’ve done that, adding new flights in the future will only take a couple of minutes each time. 

13. Travel Videos

Travel videos are a great way to document a trip! I personally find them to be really inspirational, and I love watching the videos that other people put together. They’re one of the main things which inspired me to start travelling and see more of the world. 

The first video above is one I put together in 2019, showing my travels over the previous year. The second is one of my favourite videos on YouTube, showing a couple travelling all across the world and having some great experiences over a period of 200 days.

Videos like these allow you to document your trip more vividly, in comparison to just taking pictures or writing about it. When I re-watch the old videos I’ve taken during my trips, it really brings me back to the moment, and makes me smile like a fool!

If you want to see more travel videos, I’ve created a playlist of my favourite ones  here .  

Obviously to record the videos you’ll need some kind of video recorder. Using a smart phone will work, but for a better quality video you might want to get something like a Go-Pro, or a camera which has good video recording capabilities / stabilization.

During your trip, you can record lots of short clips (under 10 seconds each) and then combine them all together into a longer montage. Or you could create vlogs, where you talk to the camera for a while and give updates on how your trip is going. 

There’s really no set way on how to make a travel video, but hopefully the playlist I shared above will give you some good ideas on what sort of video you want to make. 

Once you’re back home, you’ll need to organize your footage and then edit it together with a piece of video editing software. Try to align the clips with some fun music (copyright free) , add some colour correction, and then upload the final video to YouTube. 

Unfortunately, getting everything you need to create a nice travel video can be pretty expensive. A GoPro + the recommended accessories will set you back about £300. A nice camera and a gimbal to go with it will be even more expensive than that. 

There’s some free video editing software out there, but if you want to make a better video with more effects in it, then you’ll probably want to invest in a piece of software like Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro, or Premiere Pro. They range in price from £40 – £300.

The actual editing process can take a few hours, or a few weeks. It just depends on how much footage you have, and how complex you want your style of editing to be. My ’23’ travel video shown above took me around 15 hours to put together! 

My personal advice would be to get a GoPro + the recommended accessories, and then buy Sony Vegas Movie Studio for £40. A GoPro is waterproof, lightweight, durable, and has fantastic stabilization. Sony Vegas Movie Studio is pretty cheap, and while it lacks some pro features, you should still be able to create a quality travel video with it.

14. Social Media

You probably already do it, but if not, then you should know than social media is a great way to document your trips and share them with your friends. The most common way is through Instagram, but Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat are all great for it too. 

Instagram is great for creating a collection of all your favourite travel photos. And Facebook is perfect for uploading all of your photos from a trip into an ‘album’, and sharing it with all your friends and family. I mean, who doesn’t have Facebook?

But the coolest social media feature, in my opinion, are ‘highlights’. They originated on Snapchat, but I think they’re best done on Instagram now. You can post little ‘in the moment’ story updates during your trip, and then collate them all into a ‘highlight’. 

If you look at my Instagram  here , you can see the highlights I’ve created in the past.

There’s nothing complex about using social media. Just, try to not post every single picture you take. People don’t want to see a billion photos, so just share the best ones!

To make an Instagram highlight, you’ll want to take pictures and post them to your ‘story’ as you along on your trip. Try to include some videos where you can, and make good use of text, hashtags, and location tags to help identify things!

Then when your trip is over with, go onto your profile and create a new ‘highlight’. This lets you combine multiple story posts into one, and allow anyone who visits your profile to see them all. They’re super cool, and will appear as little circles just under your bio!

Using social media is free, and posting your photos there isn’t time consuming at all. The only effort involved will be when you’re trying to decide what photos to post, and what filter looks best on them!

15. Travel Blog

The final item on this list is… making a travel blog! They’re one of the best ways to really write in depth about your travel experiences, and share them with the world.  

I started Travelling Tabby because I wanted to do just that. I also wanted to help others with their own travelling, by giving out any advice or inspiration which I could. That’s why I’ve made little ‘destination’ pages, and also why I’ve got a ‘resources + tips’ page.

You can do that too, or you can just use your blog to write about your own experiences on the road, almost like an online diary. This can then be shared with your friends and family, or even shared publicly so that the whole world can read about your adventures.

Making a travel blog can be complex, or very easy! It just depends what you want from it. In my case, I wanted more of a travel website, which was customized to my own needs and preferences. As a result, my website took months of work to make.

If you want to know more about how I made my website, I’ve included some questions on it in my FAQ  here . Although that is quite basic, and I do plan on making a longer post about it one day. In the meantime, if you’ve got any questions, feel free to get in touch!

In short, you basically need to set up your own website. This can be time consuming and somewhat complex. But if you just want a simple blog to document your travels and write sort of ‘diary entries’, or columns with pictures attached, then it’s much easier.

In that case, there’s a number of websites you can set your blog up with, such as Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Squarespace, ect. I’ve not used any so I’ve not got much advice there, but there’s lots of posts about it online! 

The simple blogs I mentioned above will be free and quick to set up. As a trade off, you won’t be able to do too much customization, you may not get your own custom URL, and you may not be able to have ads on your blog to potentially generate income. 

On the other hand, the more complex blogs where you make your own website can be very complex and time consuming! They’re a better option if you want a professional blog, but just be aware that it will probably take weeks, if not months to set up.

The complex blogs won’t be free, but they won’t break the bank either. For reference, my blog cost about £60 to create, and has a running cost of £32 a year. (although this running cost may increase in the future if I gain more followers)

The nice thing about blogs is that they can actually earn you some money too. However, this isn’t an easy thing to do. So don’t start a blog with the sole intention of making money, as chances are you won’t make any. Only start a blog if you really want to do it.

Honorary Mentions

Well, there you have it! Fifteen different ways you can document and keep track of your travels. Everything from tracking them into a spreadsheet, to creating a photo book, to sticking up postcards on your wall. I hope this post gave you some ideas for yourself! 🙂

Of course, there’s plenty of other methods out there. In addition to the above 15, I’m going to quickly mention a few additional ones below. And if you document your travels in some other way, I’d love for you to leave a comment and let me know how!

When I say souvenirs, I’m specifically talking about physical things which remind you of a destination. Maybe ‘trinkets’ is a better word. For example, some which I have are: a traditional handheld fan from China, a Harley Davidson motorbike figurine / a baseball from the USA, and a little glass bottle of sand from Spain.

Just little items like that which remind you of a location. Maybe you could fill a bookcase with them, which would be really neat. Each item would have it’s own story!

Unfortunately the issue here is that these little souvenirs can be expensive, and they can take up quite a bit of space. Not a huge issue if you’re just visiting one location, but if you’re travelling to 3+ places in one trip, then picking up 3 souvenirs like this will be a pain, in comparison to just picking up 3 postcards, or 3 fridge magnets. 

These are probably next in line after postcards and fridge magnets. They’ll be cheap, lightweight, and widely available. Once you’ve got a collection, you can display them in a number of ways, such as sticking them up on a wall, or just leaving them in a box. 

You’ll probably collect too many to put on your personal set of keys, but the neat thing here is that you can add your favourite keyring to your daily set of keys! And you can change them around from time to time, reminding yourself of different memories. 

This is a really cool travel app, which tracks your journey for you. Admittedly I’ve not used it before so I’m not sure exactly how it works. But from what I’ve seen, it should automatically track your trip for you, saving what route you took and where you went.

It’ll then compile all of this into a little interactive story, which also keeps track of your distance travelled, what the weather was like, and other neat stuff like that. You can add in photos and little diary entry type posts, before sharing the story with your friends and family so that they can follow your journey.  Check out an example of what I mean  here . 

These stories are saved onto your profile so that you can build a collection. Your profile will also track some travel stats for you, such as  what countries you’ve visited, your time spent travelling, and it will even tell you the furthest you’ve been from home! 

And finally, the app will create photo books for you out of your stories. Not just generic photo books, but they’ll also include maps of your route, your diary entries, your distance travelled, your dates, and more. The books are very nicely designed, and I assume you can customize them to your needs, before you share / print them off.

Honestly, the app looks fantastic, and I’ll definitely be trying it out on future trips. My only complaint is that adding a past trip into it is a pain, and looks very time consuming.

In short, the app covers half this list on it’s own. It can be a travel blog, a social media post, a photo book (both digital and physical), and a destination tracker spreadsheet. It’s a great ‘all in one’ alternative to tracking your travels through other means.

Hey, I’m John!

Just a normal guy from Scotland who has an obsession with travel, and a totally rational love of cats. 

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16 responses.

Full of interesting information and how to do it, Very informative, really helpful.

With all of your travels so far and your age you’re going to have a lifetime ahead of you of wonderful trips I imagine, I will look forward to reading your blog

Thank you so much! 🙂

Wow, great information, details, explanations and very easy to follow. Loved it!

Thank you! 🙂

Thank you for the information.

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Great post! Thank you for all the useful tips! I bought the GoPro Cam you suggested 🙈!

Thank you, and oh I hope you make good use of it!! I’ll be getting one too for my next trip! 🙂

Great information documenting trips ✈️

great content, thanks for sharing

Interesting information. Thanks for that. I’m looking for an App that I can use to document an old journey. I have reconstructed a travel from approximately 50 years ago from letters, photos and memories. I would like to store that in in a Polarsteps like App. All those kind of Apps however are made for recording current travels. Any suggestions?

I’m not sure if there would be a better option, but you could still try Polarsteps! It works best for recording current trips, but you can manually add in past trips too. You can add the dates/locations, attach photos, and write little journey entries. Then it should map it out for you, and display it like it does for any other trip.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article, which is an excellent guide for anyone who loves to document their travels. The writer starts by emphasizing the importance of recording your adventures, not just for personal nostalgia but also for sharing them with friends and family. What sets this piece apart is the writer’s acknowledgment that there are more creative and diverse ways to document your travels beyond just posting pictures on social media. The promise of providing descriptions, pictures, and practical tips for each method is exciting. It’s an engaging and informative read that leaves you eager to explore new ways to capture your travel experiences.

Thank you, very informative in assisting me with my research before I start my own travels.

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• posted on September 27, 2023
• posted in Style
• posted in Travel

25 Chic travel outfits: How to look stylish on vacation

Fall happens to be one of my favorite times of year to plan trips and vacations. Coincidentally, also one of my favorite seasons to dress for. (So, hello chic travel outfits!)

You have the hustle of summer vacation behind you,  you’ve got more time to spare, not to mention–the weather is cooler in warmer climates and much better for walking around and exploring all day! (But don’t worry, if you’re heading somewhere with warm weather, I’ve got you covered too–I cover all seasons and weather in this post!)

Maybe you’re prepping for a European adventure and need some inspo for the long flight ahead of you. (Also, you must read my Europe packing list !) Perhaps you’re headed to Cabo and need to know how to look stylish on vacation without sweating through everything you packed.

Maybe you’re planning a business trip and you need some casual but polished outfit ideas you can mix and match? (A work capsule wardrobe of sorts ?)

Hopefully you’ll come away with a few ideas you can incorporate into your own personal style, no matter what your trip calls for.

Keep reading for my best tips for putting together chic travel outfits, my recommendations for the best travel clothes, plus over 25 options of cute travel outfits to copy! (Make sure to bookmark this page for your next trip!) 

First, let’s get into my tips!

How to look stylish on vacation:

My 7 tips for putting together chic travel outfits in 2023-2024.

#1: For the most chic travel outfits, plan outfits around your shoes 

The easiest place to start when you’re building stylish outfits for a vacation or a trip is  shoes . This is true especially in winter, when you’re packing and coordinating heavy shoes like boots, which IMO also happen to be the hardest kinds of shoes to style because you tend to need different pants for different boots and vice versa. This is easier in the summer months because you can easily pack 4-5 pairs of sandals or ballet flats and take up little to no room in a suitcase. The overarching rule of thumb here is that neutral colors are your friend, as it’s easier to mix and match to create the perfect outfit with very little fuss. 

Here’s how I’d typically approach packing shoes by season… 

One pair of cute white sneakers or even slip-on sneakers (worn on plane–maximum comfort is key here), 1-2 pair of flat sandals (usually in a nude color, secondary color would likely be black, depending on what other clothes I’m packing), maybe one pair of ballet flats, which are a great option if you’re packing for moderate temps and an occasion where you want to look polished, but don’t want to wear heels. 

One pair of cute white sneakers (worn on plane), one pair flat or low-heel booties, one pair of ballet flats, one pair of loafers 

One pair cute white sneakers, two pairs booties (neutral and black)–at least one of these pairs should be water resistant or waterproof. One pair of flats or loafers. 

Winter: (Assuming very cold weather/snow/slush/rain)

Two pairs booties–at least one of these pairs should be water resistant or waterproof. I typically pack the least amount of shoes in winter as they take up the most room AND I also have to account for super bulky layers in a suitcase–I don’t have space for multiple shoes AND multiple sweaters, jackets, etc. 

Old Able jumpsuit ( similar here ) // white court sneakers ( reviewed here )

#2: One piece outfits are your best friend (dresses, jumpsuits) 

I LOVE one-piece outfits, and I think this applies particularly in the summer months, when all you really need to create a great outfit is a dress or a jumpsuit. Summer months are PRIME for this–if I’m heading to a tropical vacation, I am packing mostly dresses made of breathable fabrics and maybe a jumpsuit or two! Since you aren’t “mixing and matching” anything (because, it’s one piece) go wild–prints (florals! stripes!) fun cut-outs–whatever! 

The only rule for these items is that they MUST be able to be dressed up and down, and worn with multiple types of shoes and accessories. (In my case, this usually means something can be worn with sneakers for a casual look to walk around in all day with a pair of small subtle hoops and maybe a scarf, and then swapped for a dressier shoe–a pair of sandals for example–and a pair of statement earrings, for going out to dinner/drinks.) 

I think this is harder to do in cold weather, but it can absolutely still be done! For example, I wore an olive utility jumpsuit multiple times for different occasions last year in Ireland where it was wet and chilly. It looked cute with both a denim jacket and a leather jacket layered over the top. A “one and done” outfit makes packing considerably easier, and also allows you to pack a  lot  less stuff! 

Sweater:  similar here  // Pants:  Everlane straight leg crop pants in Sandstone  (TTS), similar here // Jacket:  ABLE Maha leather jacket (I sized up so it’s roomier but it’s TTS.), similar here  // Scarf: Old, similar h ere // Sunglasses: Ray ban // Headband:  similar here 

#3: Consider a color scheme and lean into neutral colors

Now, this only applies to things that need to be mixed and matched. I don’t count “one piece outfits” as needing to be part of a color scheme, because if you’re packing only neutral accessories and you have a one-piece outfit, it doesn’t really matter what color it is, you know? But if you’re packing mostly tops and bottoms, it will be  much  easier to put stylish outfits together if you have a color scheme in mind when packing! 

Now, this doesn’t necessarily HAVE to mean you should only pack neutral colors, but I find that it’s often easier to gravitate toward neutrals for my main pieces and incorporate pops of color with accessories, lipstick, and shoes. I’m always itching for more color in the spring and summer, whereas for fall and winter, I usually feel most chic and put together in minimalist color schemes, like creams, camels and black, and using patterns and accessories to make my outfits most visually interesting! 

Want to strike a balance somewhere in the middle? Consider neutrals along with a more muted version of a color–for example, a mustard, deep burgundy, or burnt orange for fall, which pairs easily with blacks and browns, or a muted dusty pink for dusty blue for spring, which pairs easily with the same neutrals–white, black, brown. 

J.Crew turtleneck (old): similar here // Skirt: similar here // Zara coat: similar here //  Everlane Day Boots (their city boots are also very similar with amazing reviews.) They make AMAZINGLY comfortable shoes!

#4: Lean into prints (especially stripes!) 

I have never met a stripe I didn’t love, and it’s rare that I take a trip or vacation without at least a couple of striped items in my suitcase. (This is especially true in the fall and winter months, when I’m dressing in layers!) Why? Because stripes just make everything look a little more pulled together, visually interesting, and stylish! They’re not trendy, so they’re always in style, and they look a lot more intentional than just a plain old t-shirt.

A pattern of any kind is a great way to make any outfit more fashionable, so after considering your color scheme, start thinking of options that fit within that color scheme that  also  have a bit of pattern! The easiest way I find to accomplish this is with t-shirts, sweaters, and scarves. 

What about mixing prints? I give that a hard YES. Just make sure when you’re mixing prints to vary the scale and choose coordinating/complimentary colors. One print should be larger and bolder and one print should be smaller and more subtle. (You can see examples above where I’m wearing patterned hair scarves with my striped tops!) Even a floral print can be a surprisingly versatile option! 

Amazon Dress // Similar Head Scarf

#5: Always pack a scarf or two

I’m guessing you’ve gathered by now that I wear a LOT of scarves on vacation. In fact, it’s my #1 style hack. If you take nothing away from this post, I hope this is what you remember! Truly, the easiest way to spice up any outfit–day or night–is with a scarf. Tie one in your hair to keep it out of your face on a hot day, disguise unwashed hair (bc who has time to wash and style on vacation?!) or just as a way to make your outfit more interesting. For cooler weather, I love a cute bandana or neck scarf! 

ABLE Leather jacket (c/o–reviewed here) // Similar Black Tee // A.Golde Riley jeans (took my normal size, they feel small but will stretch out, but size up if you want them roomier) ABLE Karla belt bag – use code JESSKEYS15 for 15% off! (c/o) Also reviewed it here!

#6: When in doubt, a great lipstick makes everything stylish: 

Exhibit A: Candid photo taken in Dublin where I hadn’t washed my (air dried) hair in a couple of days, and I’m wearing a very simple outfit of a black tee, black Moto jacket, and jeans–yet somehow, the red lipstick makes it all look intentional. 😂 I swear lipstick can take the most boring, even disheveled comfortable travel look and make it “perfectly undone.” Some of my favorite lipsticks are  Ilia  (they have amazing shades but if you want something a little more subtle–Cinnabar is an amazing brick red!) and  Merit’s lipsticks  that make your lips pop without being too much to wear during the day! 

Striped Turtle Neck: similar here // Coat: updated style here // Scarf: similar here // Denim: similar here // Similar White Sneakers

#7: Don’t forget about coordinating outer layers + accessories! 

Just like you want to ensure all your tops and bottoms can be mixed and matched, ensure that your outer layers can also be worn with everything you’re packing!

This doesn’t mean you can’t wear a statement color–for example, the coat I wore in Lisbon my first time visiting was a mustardy yellow camel color–it added so much punch to my outfits (and photos!) but still coordinated with everything else I had in my suitcase.

Same with my favorite dusty blue coat–it’s neutral enough to where it doesn’t clash with anything, and it adds a lot of personality (and of course, extra warmth) to all my outfits! If you want to bring a bright red crossbody purse–go for it, as long as you can wear it with everything else in your wardrobe!

Like I said, accessories are the easiest ways to add color into your outfits.

More stylish vacation outfits:

Striped tee & head scarf:.

Striped Tee: similar here // White Denim Skirt:  similar here // Scarf: similar here

Stripes are always a good idea when it comes to chic travel outfits! Here I paired them with a white mini skirt (could also do shorts, white shorts or denim!) and of course, the hair scarf. Never not wearing a hair scarf on a Europe trip (especially when it’s hot!)

Bright and colorful romper:

Romper: Rented c/o Rent the Runway  // Boots: similar here

On my recent Napa trip I brought almost exclusively one-piece outfits. (Dresses and rompers!) I loved this one that I rented from Rent the Runway–I loved it so much I bought it! I barely needed any accessories–the colorful pattern did the talking! Renting is always a great option to ensure you are well-stocked with chic travel outfits without risk of breaking the bank!

A swing dress in breathable fabrics and red ballet flats:

Faherty Dress  //  Rothy’s Round-Toe Flats  ( reviewed here !)

An easy way to incorporate color into your travel wardrobe is with your accessories–including shoes! I love a little red ballet flat. Surprisingly, red goes with a lot of other colors–it’s easy to pair with other things in your wardrobe. You can read my Rothys review here!

The Nap Dress: one of the most versatile pieces you’ll pack for warm weather

Hill House Ellie Nap Dress  (this color/pattern is a few years old but they have so many cute colorways!)

The Hill House nap dress: my summer wardrobe work horse. I own it in 3 colors. I wore it day and night in August in Lisbon where it was sweltering! Their summery dresses are made of lightweight fabrics, and in my opinion, a great piece to always have in your suitcase for warm climates. 

The perfect versatile blouse for a classic look:

Headscarf: similar here // Faherty Willa blouse (c/o TTS) // A.Golde Riley jeans (took my normal size, they feel small but will stretch out, but size up if you want them roomier) // Loafers  (c/o TTS)

Chic casual basics in Napa (from my first trip in February a couple years ago!) This top has become one of my bestsellers for good reason–it just goes with everything! Here I’m styling it with jeans but would also look cute with wide-leg pants, trousers, and I’ve worn it in the summer with shorts!

Faherty Willa blouse (c/o) White Court Sneakers , A.Golde Riley jeans (took my normal size, they feel small but will stretch out, but size up if you want them roomier)

Exact same outfit, just with sneakers this time, (and sans hair scarf) in Dublin!

A versatile cardigan:

Similar Cardigan // Similar Silk Scarf

Very similar outfit for cooler weather–a cream cardigan instead of a blouse, and wearing that same scarf from my Napa outfit, this time around my neck instead of in my hair!

Neutrals and stripes for extra polish: (perfect for a business trip!)

Similar Finds: Trench Coat // Leather Bag // Trouser Pant // Stripe Tee // Similar Loafer

VERY old photo, but would still wear it all today! Mixing neutrals + stripes is always a very foolproof combo!

Black on black: always a winning combo

Black Turtleneck // Denim // Hair Scarf

Dinner in Lisbon: One of my favorite fall outfits–a black turtleneck, jeans, black boots, and a hair scarf!

the Sezane Gaspard cardigan:

Silk Scarf // Button Up Cardigan // Denim // White Court Sneakers

Okay, you get it, right? Neck scarves are cute. 😂 Another tip: I love bringing a cardigan along in my suitcase because it’s both a first layer (buttoned up the front) and a second layer (unbuttoned, over a tee or blouse!) The Sezane Gaspard cardigan that I’m wearing here is major mainstay in my fall/winter wardrobe and I own it in two colors!

A statement coat:

Mango coat  (sold out but  reviewed here !), similar here //   Sezane sweatshirt  (I’d size up, I went with M), similar here //  Sezane jeans  (see outfit #1 for details) //   New Balance sneakers  (TTS) //  J.Crew turtleneck  (TTS) //  similar headband

Here’s another example of a neutral but statement coat. I love this coat (got it from Mango last year) and it goes with so many things. I call this a “dusty seafoam” color and I think it makes the most basic outfits so cute. Also, another scarf, but a winter version. (Also Sezane! Don’t sleep on their accessories!)

Warm and cozy layers:

Weatherproof Boots // Weatherproof Parka // Layers: Turtleneck !

From my trip to Quebec City with Neal a few years back. Dressing for the coldest weather (we’re talking negative wind chill!) can be the most challenging of all, but I have one tip: black, black, and black. It’s the most guaranteed way to still feel chic even if you have to wear 5 layers. Also: coordinating your hats, gloves, and boots. Make sure you’re factoring your accessories into your outfits–it helps avoid that “little kid on the playground” look. I brought one black beanie and one white/neutral beanie and I always felt warm and coordinated. And my warmest black parka. (Getting a slimmer design also helps!)

Best airport/travel outfits for long travel days and long-haul flights: 

I couldn’t publish this post without touching on chic travel outfits for day-of travel. If you’ve got a long journey ahead of you, the last thing you want to wear is a pair of–gasp– jeans! The perfect travel outfit can make those long haul flights go a lot quicker, so it’s worth a bit of planning ahead.

Where to begin? Coordinating loungewear makes some of the best travel outfits. Another great combo? Comfy black leggings and a cute tee that you’ll also get a lot of wear out of during your trip!

If it’s summer, a comfortable dress can actually make a great travel outfit too (I wear the famed Amazon mumu on the plane a lot) and a bonus: a dress is likely something you’ll wear over and over during your travels to warmer climates.

Another tip: consider easy on/off shoes for airport security (or plan ahead and wear socks so you aren’t barefoot on the airport floor!) 

This affordable Amazon sweatshirt and matching pair of sweatpants are two of my bestsellers. Wear them together or separately to make multiple comfy airport outfits

Abercrombie sweatshirt and sweatpants , Madewell court sneakers (reviewed here)

Quince cashmere cardigan (reviewed here!) Lululemon leggings (although for a long flight I’d choose something less supportive, like their Align leggings or my fave budget-dupes, the Aerie offline leggings ), Bombas socks , Kizik Lima sneakers , Lululemon city adventurer fanny pack , Amazon baseball cap

An oldie but goodie–this is still a go-to outfit formula for me: striped tee ( this is my fave ), loose cardigan (I love Quince’s cardigans for staple sweaters–great quality for the price!), and comfy black leggings . I also love my Delsey Paris Chatalet suitcases (reviewed here ) if you’re looking for a suitcase recommendation!

WHEW, you made it to the bottom! I hope you’re feeling much more prepared for your trip. Now you know how to look stylish on vacation no matter where you’re going! Safe travels and have fun!

Also make sure to check out:

How to tie a hair scarf or a neck scarf

How to tie a bandana scarf like a French girl

Best walking shoes for travel

How to choose your next vacation destination + planning tips:

How to take the best photos on vacation

Shop my favorites

Keep reading….

How to break in new shoes: My top tips & tricks

Resort-wear finds from Marshalls

Faherty holiday favorites + 20% off

Saugatuck, MI Fall family trip

7 Secrets that will Make Your Travel Look Amazing

Travel while working or working while traveling. There is a thin line between the two. In fact, there is none. Individuals work together today, even while on vacation. Working remotely is no longer a problem.

And if you really want your vacation to be excellent in the pictures, all you have to do is do it.

Do Some Research

Search where you are going. In this way you will be able to familiarize yourself with the important landmarks and unique architectural parts of this city. Not that you will not discover them when you are there. But to answer them before you travel , you will know the most beautiful places. This will help you when you click images to publish your Insta feed later. By clicking on the pictures of these monuments and buildings, your holiday becomes better and more attractive.

Instagram Community

In my opinion, it is better to contact the family or Instagram community than to invest in the travel guide. You will learn what visitors think of your destination. You will also learn about local restaurants, neighborhoods and shopping malls that you should visit. You can then choose to inform your subscribers of Instagram and Snapchat by making informative videos during your vacation.

Is Your Camera Ready?

Preparation is one thing, but you also need to prepare your camera for the journey. If you rely on your iPhone’s camera, be sure to have enough space to store all the photos you click on during your vacation. If you think your phone doesn’t have enough space, transfer the images to your laptop before traveling. Then click on amazing pictures of your trip and then keep some unique units.

Devil is in the Details

If you can, try to capture the smallest details. The details give depth to your photos. And they give a perspective that other images cannot. These details can be anything from a vintage door to a fruit stall you would like. Just keep an eye on the details and you’ll finally catch the best pictures.

Narrate a Story

What makes an image interesting is the idea that the second image is a continuation of the last. Tell a story through your photos. This will give a new angle to your photos. Viewers will also be more absorbed in your pictures and videos than they would be if each picture differs from the other. Let the sequence of pictures tell a travel story. Because sometimes words are not done justice. The pictures then speak.

Use the Appropriate Filter

There is no harm in applying filters to your images. Everyone does. They may agree or disagree. But everyone does. However, be sure to use the appropriate filter. Too often, a picture looks worse in the filtered version than in the raw version. With that, you must leave your aesthetics. If you have them well. If no, well…

Same Place, Different Angle

Experiment with angles and compositions. You may feel the need to click on a building or a billion dollar milestone at different angles. Just do it. Because you never know which angle it gives an elegant or unique look that you hope to grasp. It will take a lot of space on your phone. So make sure you have enough free space before you leave.

You can then share all the pictures with your friends and family to burn them. You can even show them the sights and views live via  technical support services . That should make everyone green with envy! But whatever you plan to do, don’t get hooked to your social media. Instead, try to have a digital detox!

Happy Vacationing!  

Thailand – The most amazing travel destination for everyone

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15 Easy Travel Journal Ideas to Make Your Trip Diary Look Amazing

By: Author Kim Tate

Posted on Published: June 18, 2019

With the new trend of bullet journaling, creating a trip diary on vacation is becoming a popular activity. They make great memory books from the trip and also help you remember and appreciate each new adventure. But what should you put in your journal? Here are 15 easy travel journal ideas that will help you create an amazing souvenir from the trip.

Snap Instant Photos

Map your journey, add ticket stubs, get creative with watercolor, accent with washi tape, keep a food log.

• Fun with Hand Lettering

Show Me the Money

Mail a postcard.

• Hotel Notepad Notes

Organize by Chronological and Thematic

Smell the flowers, time for reflection, just the facts, memorable quotes.

This post has been written in partnership with Best Buy and Canon. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

One of the best and easiest ideas to add color and dimension to your travel diary is with photos. Traveling with an instant photo camera works perfectly for snapping photos on your trip and quickly adding them on the fly.

I recently got the Canon IVY CLIQ camera and love how I can snap a photo and it prints directly from the camera – no ink or separate printer needed! The photos are printed with a heat process so you also don’t need to worry about waiting for ink to dry. And, the special Zink photo paper has a peel-and-stick backing so you can place it directly in your journal.

Pick up your own Canon IVY CLIQ at Best Buy .

You can buy a map of your destination or use a printed Google Map to mark spots you visited, or track your road trip journey. If you’re making a creative travel journal you might try drawing a map of your country with colorful pens and pencils.

Hand Lettering Travel Journal Ideas

Often when you think of journaling you imagine a big page of writing. However, having some fun with hand lettering and dressing up your simple text can make your journal look more exciting. You can watch some YouTube videos or check Pinterest for tutorials on brush lettering, or you can just add some color and lines or dots to your normal text.

Here’s a super easy thing to add to your journal, ticket stubs. Whether it’s for a fun train ride, great museum you visited, or even your luggage baggage claim ticket, add it to your journal for a fun memory.

If you’re creative and have some art ability, consider adding watercolor sketches to your travel journal. My friend Keryn has a great post about creating a watercolor journal . All it takes is bringing along a watercolor palette or you could even try watercolor pencils .

Washi tape is one of the most fun and inexpensive travel journal ideas. You can add some along the border of your page or use some as a headline box and write on top of the tape. Washi tape is also great for taping your ticket stubs and other collectibles to your journal pages.

Here’s a fun idea for what to write in your journal – make a food log! This could be a simple chart of the name of the restaurant and what you ordered, or you could make it a featured section and list all your memories about the restaurant and what you ate. Food is one of the best things about traveling to new places!

If you’re traveling internationally add some of the local currency to your travel journal. You might glue on a cool looking coin, or add a bill or two to a page. You can also add the conversion math, a fun memory to compare if you plan a return trip or just want to reminisce. You could also keep track of your vacation cost as part of this section.

This is a fun activity we’ve done with our girls on our vacations. You can buy a postcard and add it by itself to your travel journal, however, it’s more exciting to mail it home to yourself. Get a local stamp and mail off your postcard to home, save a page in your journal, and add it once you return home.

Hotel Notepad Notes & Keys

If you’re staying in fun and unique places, you’ll want to make sure you don’t forget where you stayed. Save a room key card to add to your journal. Or make some notes about what you loved about your hotel on the branded hotel notepad, then add that notepad page to your journal.

It seems obvious to create your journal entries in chronological order, however, consider possibly organizing your entries based on a theme. Perhaps you love architecture and want to create a section for entries just based on the amazing design and buildings you discovered. Or perhaps you love color and want to add notes and photos of all the colors you find during your trip.

Of course, the standard chronologically ordered diary also allows you to create a fabulous memory book.

Adding pressed flowers or leaves to your travel journal can add some great dimension and scent to your book. Perhaps there’s a popular tree or plant that is native to your destination. Or perhaps you just fell in love with the way a certain flower smelled. Please just be mindful that you’re not taking or harming the ecosystem by taking a piece of nature for your journal.

This is one of the travel journal ideas that could be the most impactful or important for memory keeping. Be sure you take time to reflect on your travel experiences and make notes about what you felt or the impact a certain experience made on you. Travel should be inspiring and even transformational, take time to be mindful about your emotions and reactions.

Travel also gives us the opportunity to learn! Whenever I travel somewhere new I feel like I’m always learning interesting travel facts and trivia about a destination or about the world. Your travel journal is the perfect place to keep track of all that trivia and it’ll help you recall the facts later on, too!

To wrap up my travel journal ideas list I’m recommending you try to listen more to others. Perhaps you’ll take a walking tour or have a chat with a local chef. Try to be mindful of anything they say that captures the spirit of your destination and make note of that quote in your travel journal. Quotes can be great ways to remember the people you met on your journey.

Using these creative travel journal ideas will help you fill-up the pages in your travel journals giving you long-lasting memories of your adventures. If you’re looking for help planning your trip, check out my travel planning workbook, Wanderlist . And if you want a large memento to track all your trips, check out this fun photo travel map idea !

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How to Make Your Travel Instagrams Look Amazing

So many of you ask me how I edit my Instagram photos, so here you go! In this video are my editing tips and tricks for making your travel photos look amazing for Instagram, whether you take them on your phone or on a camera.

Also– OBVIOUSLY you should follow me on Instagram if you aren’t already…

Mentioned in this video:

When taking photos for Instagram I usually use one of two different cameras. My Olympus is small so it’s great for travel, but my Nikon takes pretty awesome pictures too.

My Olympus PEN E-PL7 UK | US

My Nikon D3200 UK | US

The Olympus PEN has wifi built in but for the Nikon I have this little guy so that I can transfer the photos from my camera to my phone.

I also recently got the 45mm f/1.8 Micro Four Thirds lens for my Olympus PEN which takes gorgeous photos with a blurred background like this one. Get the lens: UK | US

The apps I use:

Afterlight Facetune

Here are some more things I use to take gahhhhhgeous travel photos  and that will help you improve your piccies too.

Thanks for watching and I hope you learned some things to help improve your Instagram photos. I want to know– what other travel tips do you want to see over on my Youtube channel ? Leave a comment below and I might make a video to help you out.

Jess Dante - Founder

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That was very helpful! I use Afterlight quite a bit, but haven’t experimented with Facetune. Downloading the app shortly!

xx Amanda (another American girl who married an English lad)

It’s worth the money Amanda, I use it lots! Thanks for watching 🙂

love this! Especially about how to erase stuff that can ruin a photo. Thanks for the great tips!

So glad you found it useful Corina, happy Instagramming 🙂

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The 17 Best Luggage Sets to Buy for Your Most Amazing Trip Yet, Vetted by a World Traveler

Look *and* feel like you're flying first-class.

PureWow editors select every item that appears on this page, and the company may earn compensation through affiliate links within the story. All prices are accurate upon date of publish. You can learn more about the affiliate process here .

I've been to six continents, and one constant wherever I've gone, from a southeast Asian spa resort to a Brazilian palace hotel, is that the better my luggage looks and holds up, the happier my trip goes. Because half the travel experience, besides booking my vacation and gawking at all the stunning Instagram photos of the destination, is carefully packing for the stay. Whether I'm traveling as part of a group or on my own,  flying internationally  or staying close to home ( New Yorkers and Angelenos , see PureWow's lists of staycations), having a solid set of luggage is crucial to keeping my belongings safe and organized. Additionally, I'm a sucker for insisting that whether I'm traveling with a backpack or a tricked-out carry-on suitcase, any luggage I use has got to be stylish. With that in mind, I consulted well-traveled PureWow colleagues, sorted through pages of reviews and interviewed a luggage expert to determine the 17 best luggage sets to buy now. Durable, stylish and full of special features, these sets are designed to make anyone's travel experience roll forward just a little more smoothly.

Meet the Expert

• Curtis Days is a luggage salesperson at Lazar's Luggage Superstore in Sherman Oaks, California. Since 1962, Lazar's has catered to the leisure and business traveler, and according to Days is one of the few on-site repair facilities for quality luggage operating in the United States.

Here’s Everything I Pack for a Family of 4 in a Single Carry-On & Backpack (Without Losing My Mind)

The Best Luggage Sets at a Glance

Best Budget

Amazon basics 2-piece luggage set.

Prettiest Luggage Set

Away 2-piece luggage set.

Best Modern Luggage Set

Baboon to the moon going places set.

Most Secure Luggage Set

Calpak ambeur 2-piece luggage set.

Best Overall

Coolife 4-piece luggage set, what to consider when shopping for a luggage set.

There are many things you should consider when shopping for a luggage set. From their size to maneuverability, these attributes will ensure you pick the best luggage set for your travels, wherever you're headed.

• Size: A great carry-on will do you no good if it’s too big to board your flight or train with. Carry-on size regulations vary by airline, but you’ll generally be safe with a bag that’s 22 inches by 14 inches by 9 inches from top to bottom.
• Weight: Even if your bags have wheels, you will be needing to hoist them into automobiles and overhead compartments and from baggage carousels. Days recommends looking for a carry-on bag around 7 pounds, but cautions that lighter isn't always better. "The heavier your bag is, the more protected your things are. It's your bag is too lightweight, it's like you're packing a paper bag," he says.
• Safety features: Without a lock, it will be easy for anyone to reach into your luggage and help themselves to your precious belongings. Look for a TSA lock, which will allow only you and airport personnel to open it up and inspect your things. Combination or key-style locks are both great bets, but you might be more likely to lose a key than, say, forget your combination code, which you can mark down somewhere discrete, like in the notes app of your phone.
• Extra compartments: While a large piece of luggage can help you transport your items in bulk, the addition of pockets, slips and compartments will be clutch for staying organized on the go. Look for mesh pockets to separate your shoes or dirty laundry from your clean clothes and dividers to split luggage space between two travelers.
• Hardware: When it comes to hardware, seek out metal zippers, clasps, locks and handles that won’t be prone to cracking, like plastic might. "It's better to have a handle with two telescoping handles" for balance and sturdiness, Days says. The luggage salesperson recommends a bag with a handle that retracts to the outside of the bag, as in Briggs & Riley designs.
• Maneuverability: The type of wheels your luggage is equipped with will determine how well you’re able to get around, so it pays to know what you’re looking for before picking out a set. The most common options are in-line skate wheels, which are durable and recessed into your bag, allowing it to be pulled behind you. Spinner wheels, by contrast, are external and rotate a full 360 degrees, so you can pull your bag alongside or in front of you. Days recommends investing in bags with four wheels rather than two, and says "double wheels are more durable and dependable than single wheeled designs."

Now that you know everything there is to know about picking out luggage, check out some of the best options below.

Want to save *big* this shopping season?  Sign up for our Deal of the Day email  to get all the best sales delivered straight to your inbox.

1. Amazon Basics 2-Piece Luggage Set

• less than $200
• scratch-resistant
• organized storage
• no TSA-lock
• buyers say the carry-on is too large for some airlines

Amazon Basics

• Exterior: ABS material
• Suitcase Sizes: 21-inch, 30-inch

Not everyone has the budget or desire to blow $200+ on a luggage set—or maybe you do, but you don’t travel enough to justify it. If you’re just looking for a good deal on a decent set, this is it. "I have the Amazon Basics carry-on size and I love it. The outer shell is surprisingly durable and the expandable option means it really does fit more than you'd expect," says Philip Mutz , PureWow VP of News and Entertainment. "Also, it comes in cute colors so people are often surprised when they compliment my luggage and I say, 'It's Amazon!'" This set includes a 21-inch and 30-inch hardside spinner, so you’ll have more than enough room for several outfits per day (beachwear, after all, is totally different than eveningwear, and one bathing suit just won’t do!) With a sturdy, telescoping handle, an expandable interior with an organizer, divider and zippered pockets and spinner wheels, what more could you ask for at this price?

2. Away 2-Piece Luggage Set

• mix and match sizes and colors
• customizable luggage tag
• steep price tag
• Exterior: polyurethane/aluminum material
• Suitcase Sizes: 21.7-inch, 26-inch

You'll get a $50 discount for creating your own set from two Away luggage pieces of your choice. The Carry-On , which measures 21.7-inches to fit regulations for most major aircrafts and features TSA locks, is the brand's quintessential luggage piece. "I’ve had my Away bag for about three years and aside from a few scuffs, it looks and performs as good as it did when I got it. I like that the shell is sleek and hard enough to be durable, but with just enough give that I can stuff the suitcase with one too many items and still get it to zip up. It rolls smoothly and makes me feel put together at the airport," says Katherine Gillen , PureWow senior food editor. It's got luxe leather detailing, including the tag, which can be customized with your initials. There's also a hidden laundry bag for keeping your soiled clothes separated from your clean ones. The Medium , meanwhile, features many of the same niceties, only in a more generous 26-inch size.

3. Baboon to the Moon Going Places Set

• bold colors
• lightweight

Baboon to the Moon

• Exterior: phthalate-free PVC fabric, polyester lining
• Suitcase Sizes: 18.5-inch and 20.5-inch duffles

"Though I haven’t been lucky enough to own a full set of Baboon to the Moon Go-Bags in their various sizes, I am absolutely head over heels for my Go-Bag Small," says PureWow assistant editor Delia Curtis . "After finding out that they have something called Adventure Sets—various configurations of their products paired together for a discounted rate of up to 15 percent—it has me convinced that I’ve got to look into investing in a luggage set. Whether you’re looking for a group of three different sized bags, a bag and a crossbody, an oversized tote and fanny pack or another thoughtful match, there’s a pairing for every occasion. Other than their fantastic rotating colorways, I think the best part of their adventure sets is being able to mix and match the hues of the items you pick (plus most packages allow you to pick from limited edition runs as well!). Their Go-Bags, with their open concept interiors, multiple pockets, exterior passport pocket, padded adjustable straps and four sides of handles, will have you ready for just about anything your trip throws at you. Only bummer is that their Go-Bags don’t have wheels, but you’ll have killer calves in no time." The Going Places bundle is wildly useful since the mini size can fit under an airline seat, and the small size falls within airline size parameters to fit in an overhead bin.

4. Calpak Ambeur 2-Piece Luggage Set

• sleek design
• dust bag included
• users report scratching
• Exterior: polycarbonate and ABS material
• Suitcase Sizes: 21-inch, 29.5-inch

If you're a nervous flyer, this set, which features a TSA-approved lock and a durable hard shell, will give you one less thing to worry about. "I currently have the  mini version  of the Ambeur luggage and it has such a fun, unique look (plus tons of functional features like zippered pockets and a cushioned top handle) that I want to snag the full set," says assistant commerce editor Natalie LaBarbera . To make things even better, each piece expands by up to two inches and comes with handy pocket dividers. But our favorite part? The luxurious metallic sheen that’ll make it easy to spot at baggage claim.

5. Coolife 4-Piece Luggage Set

• ergonomic handle
• nesting design
• no front pocket
• only expandable in size L
• Suitcase Sizes: 16-inch, 20-inch, 24-inch, 28 inch

Made from durable ABS material with a TSA-accepted security lock to help protect your belongings, this TikTok-approved set checks plenty of boxes, as evidenced by its best seller ranking. The 360-degree wheels will help you navigate the airport with ease, and each of the four pieces found in this set nest within one another for easy storage, so they’ll take up less space when not in use. As one happy customer raved: "Extremely impressed with this luggage! The quality is better than expected. ... You can’t beat it. Great storage pockets inside with separate zipped sides. Smooth wheels. Durable case... And the retractable handles feel top notch. Not to mention how absolutely gorgeous it is."

Best Travel Luggage Set

6. kenneth cole 3-piece reaction luggage set.

• lots of colors
• each piece expands up to 2 inches
• multi-directional wheels
• buys says shell is flimsy
• cracks easily

Kenneth Cole

• Suitcase Sizes: 20-inch, 24-inch, 28-inch

If you’re often on the go, you’ll want to invest in this sleek luggage set from Kenneth Cole. With a 20-inch carry-on and 24- and 28-inch checked suitcases, it's great for traveling since it's got multi-directional wheels that spin a full 360 degrees (Read: You won't be stumbling over yourself while rushing through the airport). Each piece expands by up to 2 inches should you overpack (which, let's face it, you probably will), and you can keep things organized thanks to the multiple pockets found within. Wrote one happy buyer: "I’m super pleased by this function in all three bags. They fit a TON. All of the extra pockets are such an added bonus."

Best Hard Luggage Set

7. samsonite novaire 2-piece luggage set.

• cratch-resistant
• non-expandable
• no interior cross straps
• Exterior: bayer makrolon polycarbonate material
• Suitcase Sizes: 21-inch, 29-inch

The definition of durable, this Makrolon (a form of polycarbonate) set, which consists of a carry-on and a spinner suitcase, comes in a textured finish that’ll help conceal scratches (and that's good news since reviewers say these can get nicked when slid into the overhead bin or thrown into the airplane's stowage area). "Definitely worth the buy—nice on the outside, and even nicer on the inside," says one reviewer. "So much better than using backpacks. A strap on the inside holds your belongings in place when in the upright position, and it has some nice organization sleeves. The wheels are smooth, making it easy for heavy packers." We’re also big fans of the built-in TSA combination locks that'll make you feel more secure.

Best Disney Luggage Set

8. american tourister 2-piece disney luggage set.

• kid-friendly

American Tourister

• Exterior: ABS material 
• Suitcase   Sizes:   20-inch, 28-inch

You don’t have to be en route to  Disneyland  to enjoy this whimsical luggage set (although we’re totally jealous if you are). Not only do the 20- and 28-inch spinners have a nostalgic Mickey Mouse print that lovers of the House of Mouse will go gaga for, they're practical, too, thanks to the interior cross straps that will prevent your items from jostling around and the spinner wheels, which are reportedly smooth enough for even a child to roll. "Sturdy and super easy to manage," wrote one happy buyer. "[Our granddaughters] are 6 and 8 and handled their own luggage."

Best Carry-On Luggage Set

9. traveler’s club 3-piece sky+ luggage set.

• buyers say the handle is unreliable

Traveler’s Club

• Suitcase Sizes: 20-inch, 15-inch boarding tote, 10-inch toiletry case

Sick of paying pesky check-in fees and waiting forever at baggage claim? This set includes three pieces that can all fit inside the plane, including a small 20-inch suitcase, a boarding tote that will fit over the suitcase's trolley handle and a travel kit. "Loved it," reports one reviewer. "I used it as my carry-on for a five-day trip to Florida. I was able to fit everything I needed in it. It rolled easily throughout the airport and on the airplane, and was small enough to fit in the overhead bin with ease." You'll also get the best of both worlds with this set's mix of hardshell and softshell pieces, which many Amazon reviewers cited as being extremely durable. All that for less than $60? Sign us up!

Best Smart Luggaget Set

10. wrangler smart 3-piece luggage set.

• phone and coffee cup holdee
• USB charging port
• battery pack is not included
• no TSA lock

"This product is very sturdy and stands a lot of travel throwing around," says one reviewer. "I have taken this now on the bus the train and yet to take it on an airplane. I love it—it’s convenient with a cupholder and a charger." They say it's the little things, and this Wrangler set just may be proof with their patented three-in-one cup holders on the backs of each of its 28-inch, 24-inch and 20-inch suitcases. And there’s also a USB port with a phone charging cliff to set your phone on, so you can sit anywhere you damn well please while you're waiting for takeoff. With multi-directional spinner wheels, you won't need to worry about moving through tight spaces: just glide the bags alongside you. Each one is expandable to fit more when needed, and the four side studs and side handles will help when you have to awkwardly hoist the bursting, just-shy-of-the-weight-limit suitcase on the conveyer for weigh-in.

Best Designer Luggage Set

11. badgley mischka 3-piece luggage set.

• chic exterior
• expandable bodies
• adjustable handles
• lining is thin

Badgley Mischka

• Suitcase Sizes: 22-inch, 26-inch, 30-inch

"Let me start out by saying that I have never received so many compliments on my luggage before! The gray snakeskin is seriously so pretty," says one reviewer. "I am so happy with this product. It is a very stylish gender-neutral design. The outside looks so expensive and high quality." Fashion gals will adore traveling with this glamorous set from designer label Badgley Mischka. If the trendy snakeskin pattern doesn’t sell you, the expandable bodies and multi-level trolley handles, which can be adjusted to best suit your height, definitely will.

Trendiest Luggage Set

12. béis luggage 2-piece set.

• weight indicator
• built-in laundry bags
• expensive price tag
• Exterior: polycarbonate material
• Suitcase Sizes: 22-inch, 27-inch

If you haven't heard of Béis luggage by now, prepare to be obsessed like reviewer Addison, who used the 22-inch carryon along with the attached Beis Weekender bag : "The best carry on!! Survived a two-week trip to Italy. Several flight, train rides and being drug many miles down Italian cobblestone streets without a scratch! Very roomy—I was able to pack for two weeks in this carry-on. And you can set the mini weekender bag on top of the carry on while traveling and makes it very easy to carry." Not only are these suitcases totally 'Gram-worthy (they were created by Pretty Little Liars star Shay Mitchell, after all), the designers really thought of everything as far as function goes. The built-in weight indicator ensures you never overpack, there's an included laundry bag for your dirty clothes, each one has TSA-locks and they're stain-resistant.

Best Luggage Set for Kids

13. travelers club kids' 5-piece luggage set.

• kid-friendly patterns
• perfectly sized for little ones
• buyers say the pieces aren't super durable

Travelers Club

• Suitcase Sizes: 18-inch, 15-inch backpack, 10-inch lunch bag

Getting a miniature luggage set to bring along clothing, books, toys, and, of course, electronics along for a family trip is like a rite of passage for a growing child. "I purchased this set for my three-year-old to use for a trip a few months ago, and she loves it. Everything is good quality, the hardcover suitcase held up really well during our trip, and my daughter is excited to use the backpack and lunchbox for school in the fall. Sizes of items are great, fit everything we needed and then some. The matching luggage tag is handy, and the entire set itself is so vibrant I don’t think it’s possible to lose track of it anywhere anyway," says one reviewer. This set comes in a variety of fun patterns and can be carried onto the plane in its entirety. Along with the 18-inch hardside suitcase, you'll get a 15-inch backpack (large enough for a tablet, stuffy, a pair of headphones and some books), a 10-inch lunch bag (perfect for filling with snacks), a neck pillow for in-air naps and a luggage tag. Buy it, and your young'un will feel like a grown-up ready to head out on an adventure.

Best Expandable Luggage Set

14. swissgear 3-piece sion luggage set.

• extra roomy
• all-direction wheels
• does not have TSA-locks
• gets dirty easily
• Exterior: polyester material
• Suitcase Sizes: 21-inch, 25-inch, 29-inch

If you’re like us, you always return from a vacation, or even a business trip, with more items than you left with. Expandable luggage sets are a godsend when, despite the temptation to resist, you ended up shopping ‘til you dropped and bringing home souvenirs for everyone. "We've done quite a few air travel vacations with this bag and impressed all around," says one reviewer. "It's very lightweight yet also very durable. The extended handle allows my laptop bag to attach and the bag is still maneuverable. Pretty spacious too and useful for an overnighter, long weekend bag." The largest suitcase in this set is 29 inches, but you can expand its midsection to fit more if needed. The set also includes an expandable 21-inch carry-on and 25-inch checked bag for shorter jaunts. There's also the 360-degree spinner wheels that make the luggage super easy to maneuver, even in a busy airport or street.

Best for Families

15. american flyer 5-piece madrid luggage set.

• good for large families
• reviewers say longevity may be an issue

American Flyer

• Suitcase Sizes: 22-inch, 26-inch, 28-inch

Even if you’re traveling with the whole fam, you won't need to drag along multiple sets of luggage if you've got this collection, which has enough bags to accommodate a family of five for a week away. "After two years, I can confidently say that this luggage set gives you the best value for its price. I have traveled endlessly with these pieces— they've weathered international flights, buses, trains, ferries, cobblestone streets and NYC concrete without enduring a single tear or broken part," says one reviewer. "Only one spinning wheel on my carry-on piece is now starting to get a little jammed, but it's nothing a little WD-40 hasn't been able to fix. And not only are these pieces so durable; they're stylish, too! I've received so many compliments on them." The set includes a large 28-inch upright spinner, a medium 26-inch carry-on, a small 22-inch spinner, an 18-inch wheeled duffle and a 17.5-inch personal bag—with all of them offering an extra two inches of expandability as needed. They also have plenty of front pocket storage for easy access to your daughter's  Kindle  or your son's AirPods . The unisex print will please everyone in the family, too, from your picky hubby to your moody teen.

Best Soft Carry-On Luggage Set

16. mark & graham 2-piece luggage set.

• vegan leather
• can be personalized
• likely to get dirty during transport
• no built-in TSA lock

Mark & Graham

• Exterior: polyurethane material
• Suitcase Sizes: 22-inch

The best part about soft luggage sets? They fit into tight places more easily and are less likely to go over weight limits, in large part thanks to the pliable, lightweight design. This one from Mark & Graham can be customized with your initials and is made with a sleek vegan leather that's friendly to animals, and ultra-chic to boot.

Best 2-Piece Luggage Set

17. july 2-piece luggage set.

• tons of features
• lifetime guarantee
• quite heavy
• Suitcase Sizes: 21.7-inch, 28.25-inch

Sure, it's pricey, but this two-piece collection from July also comes with a lifetime guarantee. And it has just about everything you could ever ask for in a luggage set, from the durable polycarbonate material to the water- and stain-resistant lining that will help protect your belongings. Leather detailing lends an air of luxury, and you won't ever have to worry about finding a place to charge your electronics at the airport; this baby has an ejectable power bank built right into the carry-on trunk. The checked trunk, meanwhile, is on the larger side at 26 inches, so you'll have plenty of room for extra storage. Writes one buyer: "I was able to ditch the majority of inner bags as the case has some clever spaces, such as the laundry bag and the compressor that is also a sleeve."

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between hard and soft luggage.

The difference between hard and soft luggage is actually pretty simple. Mainly, if you're traveling internationally, you'll need something more heavy-duty or hard, whereas a soft set of bags will do just fine if you're taking a roadtrip. But as with most things, each type has its pros and cons:

Soft Luggage : Those looking for a softside luggage set, which promises to be lighter and more storage-friendly, will want to opt for a durable polyester that will optimize packing and facilitate expansion. The polyester should also be padded to further protect belongings from potential impact (though it likely won't perform as well as a hard set would). Buyers will also want to take care of this type of luggage since it’s more prone to tears and stains.

Hardside Luggage : When it comes to hardside luggage, which will better protect your belongings and is easier to clean, you’ll largely be dealing with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (aka ABS plastic), a hardside material that's popular for its high strength-to-weight ratio and its ability to withstand corrosion and adverse environmental conditions. Polycarbonate , meanwhile, is a slightly stronger, more heat-resistant, malleable type of plastic that costs more, but gives your belongings better security. While this type of luggage can’t be beat in an under-carriage pile-up, it can also be heavy and not as spacious, with little room for expansion.

What Are Some Luggage Innovations to Look For?

For personal tote bags and carry-on satchels, Days says Lazar's Luggage customers appreciate ones outfitted with a piggyback strap that slips over their wheeled suitcase's retractable handle. Additionally, packing cubes, such as the Eagle Creek compression cubes set and the Eagle Creek Pack-It Isolate Clean/Dirty Cube are bestselling travel accessories at the store. "People say they don't want to try them, but once they do, they love them because then everything stays organized, and you don't forget to pack anything," Days says.

Do Travel-Size Hair Tools Actually Work? I Took Sutra’s Jetsetter Trio on the Road to Find Out

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Sunflowers, roses and wildflowers: A guide to New Jersey's most colorful gardens

From world-class flower farms to unknown gardens and trails, the Garden State has all the flowers to entice any plant lover looking for color.

Here are 8 great places to see the best flowers in New Jersey:

Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Summit

Nestled in Union County, the Reeves-Reed Arboretum is a floral oasis. Its vibrant landscape is filled with colors and scents, showcasing a rich variety of native and exotic blooms. From the delicate petals of springtime tulips to the bold splashes of summer roses, every season brings a new spectacle of floral beauty to delight visitors of all ages.

Greenway Meadows Park, Princeton

This expansive park offers a picturesque landscape of rolling meadows, shady groves, and flowery spots, providing a perfect escape for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts alike.

Among its many charms are the many flowers that live there. From the cheerful daisies and sunflowers to the delicate blooms of wildflowers, the park got a lot to delights visitors throughout the seasons.

With its ample green spaces, playgrounds, and picnic areas, this park is perfect for relaxed yet playful moments.

Durr's Bluebox Produce and Flowers, Wrightstown

This charming gem for flower enthusiasts has a bounty of fresh flowers on sale. You can pick up your own flowers from the ground and create a fresh bouquet. Edible produce is also available on this acclaimed farm market.

Five Ponds Loop, Ringwood

Looking for a retreat away from the crowds? If so, this trail got you covered.

Through this secluded, 5.7-mile hike you can enjoy wildflower beds scattered throughout the trail. The hike has many small ponds and is suitable for bikes too.

Dalton Farms, Swedesboro

Renowned for its vibrant fields of flowers, the farm offers visitors a breathtaking spectacle of color and fragrance. At this farm you can see fields covered with sunflowers, zinnias, lavender, dahlias and tulips. Dalton Farms is an unforgettable floral experience for many. Admission to this farm cost $14 online, or $20 at the entrance. Tulips and daffodils can be picked for $2 per stem or ten for $10.

Rutgers Gardens, North Brunswick

This 180-acre botanic garden features dozens of gardens filled with azaleas, irises, allium blooms and many other species. Every garden is different from one another containing a specific collection of flora, such as the Donald B. Lacey Garden, a photographers attraction known for its extensive beds of irises, herbs and vegetables.

Holland Ridge Farms, Cream Ridge

One of the biggest tulip farms in the country, this magical place is filled with flowers as far as the eye can see. When you visit, you'll find yourself surrounded by rows of colorful blooms of tulips and fragrant hyacinths.

This 300-acre farm has over 8 million tulips on display. Visitors can roam around, pick up some tulips and maybe take some photos.

A ticket is required to enter the farm. The are selling online for $15 and $17, depending on the day.

Brookdale Park Rose Garden, Montclair

Everywhere you look, there are roses in all shades and sizes, filling the air with their sweet scent. It's a peaceful place where you can stroll among the over 500 rose bushes in close to 150 varieties. While the garden is open year round, peak blooming times are in June and September.