The Absolute WORST Travel Quotes On Pinterest

Ok, before you get your back up, I admit that I love travel quotes. I pin them to my heart’s content actually. In fact I have a whole board dedicated to them on Pinterest. So I’m not slagging travel quotes in general, alright?

I’ll even start off by treating you to a few of my personal favourites…

I bloody love them. Travel quotes can be inspiring and nostalgic and push you to book a trip you’ve been putting off. Yes I even got one tattooed on my foot (I’m such a backpacker cliché).

However, I’m not a fan of all of them.

Here’s the absolute worst of travel quotes on Pinterest and why I dislike them so.

 

Go Find Yourself

It’s a classic right? People go travelling to ‘find themselves’… but what does that even mean? That you’re on a journey of self-discovery? Sure, tell yourself that when you’re downing buckets of whiskey on Koh Phi Phi with other gap year kids…

Ok, I sound mean. Soz.

I’m not trying to put down anyone that goes travelling to learn more about themselves and to grow as a person. I definitely came away from my RTW trip with both of those things. But I just think saying you’re going to ‘find yourself’ is pretentious and a little dickish.

It’s also putting way too much pressure on yourself. What exactly are you looking for? Are you searching for the meaning of life or your place in this world? Because let me be the first to tell you that you’re not going to find it in Sydney’s backpacker bars.

Are you looking to find out what career you should pursue? Because you don’t find it by not working. It’s trial and error, dude. It’s not going to come to you in an epiphany in a yoga retreat in India.

Alright, I feel like this is too bitchy. I’m all for learning about yourself and being introspective, I just think the expression ‘finding yourself’ is unrealistic. Be more specific in your goals otherwise they’re unattainable.

 

Eleutheromania

Ugh. A pet peeve of mine is these pins with ridiculously long words and their supposed description, they just annoy me. To be honest, I’ve always thought that they were just made up by a hipster teenager with Photoshop. But despite my iPhone and my computer underlining it in red, I checked the dictionary on this one and apparently it’s right… I’ll let you have this one, Pinterest.

Nevertheless, it’s still annoying. Are you really going to use this word in real life? Are you even going to remember this word a minute after you pin it? Didn’t think so.

 

Quit Your Job, Buy A Ticket, Get A Tan, Fall In Love, Never Return.

Ok, I’m certain this one is responsible for a lot of lonely backpacker hearts around the world. And the issue with it is the same issue my boyfriend has with Rom-Coms – it gives us unrealistic expectations!

I can’t tell you how many girls I’ve met on the road that are desperately hoping to meet their soulmate and fall in love whilst travelling. And they’re disappointed when they don’t. And to be honest I don’t think looking for ‘the one’ is a good enough reason to travel the world, you’re better than that.

I know a lot of people do meet their other half on their travels, but they’re the lucky ones. Just don’t pin all your hopes on finding Mr. Right at Niagara Falls, OK?

 

If It Scares You, It Might Be A Good Thing To Try

Or it could be a terrible idea and be legit dangerous. Don’t do everything that scares you, it’s probably scaring you for good reason.

I went on the dangerous zip lines in Vang Vieng (Laos), whilst drunk I might add, over rocks I could have died on, just for a laugh. 27 people died on the river doing shit like this the year I visited. I’m an idiot.

All I’m saying is, think about it and be safe, kids!

 

Travel While You’re Young And Able. Don’t Worry About The Money, Just Make It Work. Experience Is Far More Valuable Than Money Will Ever Be.

This one is dangerous as well, but in an entirely different way. It encourages people to say ‘Fuck it’ and put 3 months of bumming around Australia on their credit cards.

I’ve met a load of people who have said ‘YOLO’ to life and got themselves into debt to travel, and they’re still paying it off. I know it’s a legit life choice and you could say that saving for a year before you travel is just the same as travelling and then paying it off for a year, just in reverse.

It’s a fair comment but I just think that you never know what life is going to deal you. You could come back from travelling and be knocked up in a couple of months (it happens). Or someone could be taken ill (touch wood). How are you going to pay for shit when you’re in debt? I also know someone who has been back from travelling for a few years, has met ‘the one’ and he wants them to save for a mortgage together… But she’s still in several thousand pounds worth of travel debt…

I think it’s smarter to save the money before you spend it. But hey, that’s just me.

Alright, rant over. Sorry this was a particularly bitchy post today.

What do you think, are you with me on this? Any other travel quotes you’ve got issues with? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me @HeelsInBackpack!

*Disclaimer: All travel quotes were found on Pinterest with no discernible source. Apologies if I’ve used your quote/artwork in this post, please let me know if any problems and I will credit them or take them down. Not sorry about the rant though.