97 Backpacking Quotes to Inspire Your Next Trip

Are you about to start your first backpacking adventure? Or maybe you’ve already got the hang of it but you’re looking for a great quote to go with that gorgeous picture you shot during your travels? I got you! In this post, you can find 97 backpacking quotes that you can use for Instagram or to inspire you to make the backpacking trip of your dreams!

Backpacking

Backpacking in Georgia.

Backpacking is a form of travel that is all about just taking the necessities with you in a backpack and taking off for an adventure of a lifetime. Many travelers feel so inspired afterward that they search for jobs to earn some quick money so they can embark on a second adventure.

It is a myth that you can only backpack in your twenties by taking a gap year. If you are in your thirties or even forties or fifties and you feel like you missed out on traveling when you were younger the only thing I can say is: GO. Take that trip. Be scared and do it anyway. Whether it’s solo, with a friend, or with a partner, the life lessons you will learn while on the road are invaluable.

Here are the best backpacking travel quotes to inspire you to take that backpacking trip you have always dreamed about!

Backpack travel quotes

Backpacking in Indonesia.

“When you backpack, for the first time in a long time, you feel like you belong and are connected not only with the world but also with your inner self.”

FORREST CURRAN

“Travel like Gandhi, with simple clothes, open eyes, and an uncluttered mind.”

RICK STEVES

“If at some point you don’t ask yourself, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ then you’re not doing it right.”

ROLAND GAU

“I am a traveler. I am a nomad. I rarely sleep in the same bed more than three or four nights. And I know hotel life better than anyone.”

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

“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

“I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.”

BILL BRYSON

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

LIN YUTANG

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

FRANK HERBERT

“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote, To travel is to live.”

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

MARK TWAIN

“Traveling is brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends.”

CESARE PAVESE

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

FREYA STARK

“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

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

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR.

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.”

PAUL THEROUX

Funny backpacking quotes

Backpacking Costa Rica.

“I haven’t been everywhere, but I act as I have.”

SUSAN SONTAG

“My backpack is my best friend. We’ve been through a lot together.”

“Jet lag is for amateurs.”

DICK CLARKE

“Backpacking is a luxury. Not everyone can afford to leave everything behind and travel the world.

“That’s the difference between backpackers and holidaymakers. The former can’t help but invite hassle whilst the latter pays to escape it.”

HARRY WHITEWOLF

“I just travel the world with my backpack and my cameras and a bunch of Clif bars.”

HENRY ROLLINS

“When traveling with someone, take large doses of patience and tolerance with your morning coffee.”

HELEN HAYES

Solo backpacking quotes

Backpacking in Cambodia (Mondulkiri)

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

DR. SEUSS

“I love waking up in the morning not knowing what’s gonna happen or who I’m gonna meet, where I’m gonna wind up.”

JACK DAWSON

“If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.”

SETH GODIN

“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

DR. SEUSS

“There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.”

CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON

“There is sometimes a misconception that you have to be self-assured, oozing with confidence, a social butterfly, and comfortable with your own company to long-term solo travel. But that is simply not true”

AMIT VAIDYA

“Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.”

THE DHAMMAPADA

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

RACHEL WOLCHIN

“You don’t have to be rich to travel well.”

EUGENE FODOR

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

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

“Don’t be scared to walk alone. Don’t be scared to like it.”

JOHN MAYER

“To travel, to experience and learn: that is to live.”

TENZING NORGAY

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

RUMI

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

MARTIN BUBER

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

ANAÏS NIN

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

ANITA DESAI

“There are some places in life where you can only go alone. Embrace the beauty of your solo journey.”

MANDY HALE

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

ALDOUS HUXLEY

“I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone because they reflect more.”

THOMAS JEFFERSON

THE BEST BACKPACKING RESOURCES

ACCOMMODATION

Booking.com: For the best cheap guesthouses and homestays or small hotels

Hostelworld: To find the best hostels all over the world

Homestay: For unique immersive homestays around the world

TRANSPORT

12GO: The best transport website for trains, buses, ferries and flights, especially for South-East Asia.

RailEurope: The go-to website for train travel in Europe. If offer multi-trip rail passes at affordable prices.

Directferries: Best website to book ferries worldwide

Bikes Booking: Booking site for bikes and motorbikes in over 40 countries

ACTIVITIES

Get Your Guide: The largest booking website for activities all around the world

Eatwith: Join locals in their homes for immersive culinary experiences

With Locals: Book private tours with locals worldwide for a unique experience

“I am never happier than when I am alone in a foreign city; it is as if I had become invisible.”

STORM JAMESON

“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

“One day you will wake up & there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now!”

PAULO COELHO

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Have the courage to follow your heart.”

STEVE JOBS

Short backpacking quotes

Spotting orangutans while backpacking Borneo.

“I don’t know where I’m going, but I promise it won’t be boring.”

DAVID BOWIE

“Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else.”

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

“Take only memories, leave only footprints.”

CHIEF SEATTLE

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

SUSAN SONTAG

“Say yes, and you’ll figure it out afterwards.”

MANDY HALE

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

LAO TZU

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

“My favorite thing to do is to go where I’ve never been.”

DIANE ARBUS

“See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream.”

RAY BRADBURY

“What I love most about this crazy life is the adventure of it.”

JULIETTE BINOCHE

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.”

OPRAH WINFREY

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.”

JACK KEROUAC

“I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.”

GEORGE SHAW

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step”

LAO TZU

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it’s lethal.”

PAULO COELHO

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

JIM ROHN

“Life is an adventure, it’s not a package tour.”

ECKHART TOLLE

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

JACK KEROUAC

“You might be poor on money, but rich on life.”

KASPER RAUNHOLST

Backpacking captions

A visit to Koh Chang island while Backpacking Thailand.

“I would gladly live out of a backpack if it meant I could see the world.”

“Backpacking is the cure for greediness.”

“Don’t be a tourist, be a traveler.”

“Keep calm and backpack the world.”

“There’s no greater adventure than backpacking to unknown places.”

Quotes about packing

Hiking El Valle de Anton while backpacking Panama.

“I travel light. I never want to check a bag. My only standards are a few sets of clothes, my white sneakers, my blue backpack, and my laptop. I don’t have any special things otherwise.”

GILLIAN TANS

“Just me and my backpack.”

HELEN HAYES

“Everything you own must be able to fit inside one suitcase; then your mind might be free.”

CHARLES BUKOWSKI

“Carry as little as possible but choose that little with care.”

EARL SHAFFER

I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are.

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

“Backpacking is the art of knowing what not to take.”

SHERIDAN ANDERSON

“My dream is to walk around the world. A smallish backpack, all essentials neatly in place.”

MAIRA KALMAN

More quotes about backpacking

Making a pitstop in Singapore while backpacking SE Asia.

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

WALLACE STEVENS

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

“I’m gonna tell my momma that I’m a traveler. I’m gonna follow the sun.”

PAROV STELAR

. “The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.”

G.K. CHESTERTON

“There is part of me that still wants to go out and grab a backpack and unplug- not take a cellphone or even a camera and just get out there and experience the world and travel. I have yet to do that, but someday I hope.”

EMILIO ESTEVEZ

“Leave home, leave the country, leave the familiar. Only then can routine experience – buying bread, eating vegetables, even saying hello – become new all over again.”

ANTHONY DOERR

“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

“It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B. It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild.”

CHERYL STRAYED

“Long-term travel doesn’t require a massive bundle of cash; it requires only that we walk through the world in a more deliberate way.”

ROLF POTTS

“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

“I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about; I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people – Americans and Europeans – come back and go, ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on.”

HENRY ROLLINS

“Of the gladdest moments in human life…is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands.”

RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON

“Own only what you can always carry with you: known languages, known countries, known people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”

ALEXANDR SOLZHENITSYN

Please be a traveler, not a tourist. Try new things, meet new people, and look beyond what’s right in front of you. Those are the keys to understanding this amazing world we live in.

ANDREW ZIMMERN

“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

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

“Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.”

ISABELLE EBERHARDT

The best travel backpack

The Wayks globetrotter bundle

Taking a good backpack with you is one of the most important things to do on a backpacking trip. I have tried and tested a few backpacks over the past years and one thing I learned is that a modular backpack is the best travel companion you can have.

Aside from that, I also want it to be a sustainable backpack, preferably made of recycled materials and fabrics and with a focus on good working conditions in the factories where they are made.

I found that all in the WAYKS Globetrotter Bundle. This modular backpack actually consists of five different items which all can be zipped together into one backpack. This is super convenient when traveling!

It consists of a large backpack, a cube (that can be used for shoes, camera gear, a beauty case, or even as a cooler bag), a day pack, and a sling that can be worn in three different ways. You can check it out for yourself at the Wayks website. They offer the perfect combination of comfort, style, and convenience.

I know the price tag is pretty high but I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed buying this backpack. If you have any questions about it, you can drop a comment below, give me a message through my contact page or DM me on Instagram.

I also wrote a comprehensive Wayks backpack review about my experience traveling with this backpack for four months through Southeast Asia!

Backpacking quotes: final thoughts

There you go! I hope you enjoyed this post with inspirational backpacking quotes. I hope it encourages you to take that trip, explore the world and discover your favorite spots. Traveling is an eye-opening experience whether you like to experience it by taking a backpacking trip in nature or to a faraway country where you don’t know the local customs and habits.

ENJOY!

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links. If you click on them, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Fancy more travel quotes?

November 29, 2022

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Hi! I am Annelies and this is Travelers & Dreamers, a blog about conscious travel which means traveling in a more mindful way, with a positive impact on the world and yourself!

On this website, I cover different topics like slow travel, plant-based food guides, responsible travel, sustainable packing, eco-travel, and more!