90+ Family Road Trip Quotes to Inspire you to hit the road

Kids running towards water, stopping on a family road trip

What is it about planning road trips that get me all sentimental?  Is it fond memories of my own childhood with countless hours spend bumping along rutted country roads in Australia in an XF Falcon, or the memories I know I am creating for my own children with each mile we travel?

I won’t deny those hours spent in the car with our tiny kids was tough. Not something I thought I’d want to repeat at the time, but I’m already looking just those few short years back with some nostalgia (ok perhaps rose-tinted glasses!)

Me crossing the Nullarbor with my family in Australia c1986

So whether you’re looking to gear yourself up that your next family road trip is something not just to be endured but enjoyed, or you want to be ready for some witty comebacks when things don’t entirely go to plan – here’s our selection of family road trip quotes to take along every step of your journey.

Let us know in the comments if you have any more suggestions (or any attributions we may have missed! )

This post is part of our family road trip series – you can see all of our road trip destination guides and handy road trip advice.


Family Road Trip Quotes – Inspiring you to plan that trip

Building up expectations and planning the journey can be half the fun. Let’s see why you should be planning a journey together as a family and adventure quotes for kids get you inspired to hit the road:

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

“Jobs fill your pocket, but adventures fill your souls.” – Jamie Lyn Beatty

“The road is there, it will always be there. You just have to decide when to take it.” Chris Humphrey

“Road trips are the equivalent of human wings. Ask me to go on one, anywhere. We’ll stop in every small town and learn the history and stories, feel the ground and capture the spirit. Then we’ll turn it into our own story that will live inside our history to carry with us, always. Because stories are more important than things.” – Victoria Erickson

“Happiness is… planning a trip to somewhere new, with someone you love.” Unknown

“The best education you will ever get is traveling. Nothing teaches you more than exploring the world and accumulating experiences.” – Mark Paterson

The freedom of the open road is seductive, serendipitous and absolutely liberating.” – Aaron Lauritsen

To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure. You have no idea of what is in store for you, but you will, if you are wise and know the art of travel, let yourself go on the stream of the unknown.” – Freya Stark

We all have that one friend who is either on a road-trip or planning a road-trip or thinking about a road-trip or talking to people who are on road-trip or posting quotes about road-trip.” – Crestless Wave

“We must take adventures in order to know where we truly belong.” – Unknown

Life is too short to not go on that spontaneous road trip.” – Unknown

“Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save fuel, take your next trip in Kilometers.” – George Carlin

You can be writing every day. When you go on a road trip, the trip itself becomes part of the story.” ― Steve Rushin

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

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

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

I travel not to go anywhere but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“Kids don’t remember their best day of television.” – Unknown

“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

“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

“When you travel with your children you are giving them something that can never be taken away … experience, exposure and a way of life.” – Pamela T. Chandler

“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

“Having kids is a reason to travel, never a reason to stop.” – Unknown


Family road trip quotes – Family, company & togetherness

We know that travel is a beautiful way to bring you together – even if it’s trying at times! Everyday life can be too busy so let’s treasure these moments – some light-hearted, some much deeper and sentimental to reflect on as you take off on your family road trip together:

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“A road trip is a way for the whole family to spend time together and annoy each other in interesting new places.” – Tom Lichtenheld

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

“May your adventures bring you closer together, even as they take you far away from home” – Trenton Lee Stewart

“In the end, kids won’t remember that fancy toy you bought them, they will remember the time you spent with them.” – Kevin Heath 

“Every day we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” — Charles R Swindoll

“When you travel with children you are giving something that can never be taken away… experience, exposure and a way of life.” – Pamela T. Chandler

“Travel sparks our imagination, feeds our curiosity and reminds us how much we all have in common.” – Deborah Lloyd

“The greatest legacy we can leave our children is happy memories.” – Og Mandino

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

“Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion.” – Leigh Hunt

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

“People forget the years and remember moments”  Anne Beattie

“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” – Izaak Walton

“It doesn’t matter where you are going. It’s who you have beside you.” – Unknown

“Joy is portable, bring it with you.” – Unknown

“As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen” – A. A. Milne

“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

“Travelling the company of those we love is home in motion.” Leigh Hunt

“What’s your favourite place?” “I don’t have a favourite place, I have my favourite people. And, whenever I’m with my favourite people, it becomes by favourite place.” – Late Night Tales, Nivaz Ahemad

“At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, a parent.” – Barbara Bush

Some roads aren’t meant to be travelled alone.” ― Chinese Proverb

No road is long with good company.” – Turkish Proverb



Family road trip quotes – enjoying your journey

Now you’re under way let the fun of your family road trip begin, here’s whay we love a good family road trip!

Road trips required a couple of things: a well-balanced diet of caffeine, salt and sugar and an excellent selection of tunes—oh, and directions.– Jenn McKinlay

That’s why I love road trips, dude. It’s like doing something without actually doing anything.” – John Green

If you’re on a road trip, you need driving music.– Edgar Wright

“Happiness is… a car, the open road, and a best friend.” – Unknown

The best part of a road trip isn’t arriving at your destination … it’s the fast food along the way.— Unknown

“The freedom of the open road is seductive, serendipitous and absolutely liberating.” – Aaron Lauritsen

I love road trips. You get into this Zen rhythm; throw the sense of time out the window.” – Miriam Toews

Now, on this road trip, my mind seemed to uncrinkle, to breathe, to present to itself a cure for a disease it had not, until now, known it had.” – Elizabeth Berg

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” – Margaret Lee Runbeck

“The road goes on forever and the party never ends.” – Unknown

I climb behind the steering wheel… I drive off immediately without once looking back; it’s a long journey but it leads to freedom.” – Corinne Hofmann


Family road trip quotes – When things start to go slightly off the intended path, all is not lost!

Ok let’s be frank, there’s bound to be a point where road trips don’t take the intended path. I don’t know about you, but this is where I really need to draw on inspiration from those far wiser than me!

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Remember to keep some of these up your sleeve if tensions are getting frayed or you’re questioning your decisions!

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

“I’m not lost. I’m exploring.” – Jana Stanfield

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

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

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

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

“Map out your future – but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip.” – Jon Bon Jovi

“Road trips aren’t measured by mile markers, but by moments.” – Unknown

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

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”– Lewis Carroll

Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself.— Unknown

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

“Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you’re riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind.” – Bob Marley

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.– Douglas Adams

I just go with the flow, I follow the yellow brick road. I don’t know where it’s going to lead me, but I follow it.– Grace Jones

God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.– Isak Dinesen

“Sometimes, the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to – it’s not for them.” – Joubert Botha

“Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take.”– Angela N. Blount

“When all’s said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it’s not so much which road you take, as how you take it.” – Charles de Lint

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

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

 “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.– Jerry Seinfeld

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.– Lewis Carroll

“No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn around.” – Turkish Proverb


Family Road Trip Quotes – it’s about the journey, not just the destination

It’s all about the journey, right? OK, tell me this 6 hours into an epic driving day when the snacks are running low… but there’s a lot of truth here too.

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I hope this collection will be the final inspiration you need to get out there and hit the road:

Roads were made for journeys, not destinations.” – Confucius

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

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

“The greatest legacy we can leave our children is happy memories”Og Mandino

“Life is like a road trip – Enjoy each day and don’t carry too much luggage.” Unknown

Road trips aren’t measured by mile markers, but by moments.— Unknown

What it takes to realize everything is fine around you? A road trip to the mountains where your soul dwells in the echoes of the winds that carry fragments of clouds with them. What it takes to realize world is going back to chaos and infinite hurry? End of the aforementioned road trip.– Crestless Wave

“Of all the paths you take in life make sure a few of them are dirty.” – John Muir

“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

 “Every journey is simultaneously a beginning and an ending: I was leaving my old life behind and starting on a road trip to find a new me.– Debi Tolbert Duggar

“There are no perfect parents and there are no perfect children, but there are plenty of perfect moments along the way.— Dave Willis

“At the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy and your eyes sparkling.– Shanti

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


Looking for more great road trip inspiration?

You’ve come to the right place, why not check out these road trip guides:

And if you haven’t had quite enough quotes yet we have an incredible selection of 200 family travel quotes over here covering everything from education and travel to adventures, camping and escaping to nature.


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