About this blog: This contains 38 unique and creative travel words that you can use in your travel vocabulary. Use them in your travel captions or use them for naming your blog.
Oh, yes! We love to travel. And we love to get amazed at new experiences. We love to look over in awe at the jaw-dropping scenery before us. At times, words fail. The feeling, the emotions that we encounter after scaling a summit, or after having a scuba diving experience cannot often be described with words. I am sure all of us have these moments when we fall short of words. But there are some beautiful and creative travel words that describe these various feelings very well. Some of these words might not have English equivalents.
As a traveller and writer, I often keep looking for words to describe my feelings. The more I look into these words, the more I fall in love with them. These words have such powerful emotions and feelings! So we decided to share some of our favourite unusual and creative travel words with you.
UNUSUAL AND CREATIVE TRAVEL WORDS
Peregrinate (v.)
Origin: Latin
Definition: To travel or wander around from place to place
The feeling we have whenever we are visiting any new place. We love to wander around and discover the hidden and not so hidden gems. And Darjeeling happens to be one of our favourite places to wander around. What’s yours?
Nemophilist (n.)
Origin: English
Definition: One who is fond of the forest
Serendipity (n.)
Origin: English
Definition: The fact of finding interesting or valuable by chance
Trouvaille (n.)
Origin: French
Definition: Something lovely discovered by chance
These two words are so close to our hearts. That we would be together was destiny, but our meeting was definitely serendipity! We had been travelling together for a long time, but it was only after our Amarnath Yatra, that we truly realized what travel means to us and what we actually want of our life.
Eudaimonia (n.)
Origin: Greek
Definition: The contented happy state when you travel
Eleutheromania (n.)
Origin: Greek
Definition: The intense desire for freedom
These two Greek words so wonderfully summarize our feeling when we travel. Travelling makes us contented and happy.
Sonder (n.)
Origin: Unknown
Definition: The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own
Resfeber (n.)
Origin: Swedish
Definition: The tangled feelings of fear and excitement before a journey
This always happens before a journey. There is a perpetual state of excitement as well as nervousness before I start any journey. And I enjoy both the state.
Before our trip to Uzbekistan, I had a bad case of travel anxiety after I read about Airbnb scams. It was only after I found out methods to detect Airbnb scam, I caught a break.
Fernweh (n.)
Origin: German
Definition: An urge to travel even stronger than wanderlust; farsickness
Dérive (n.)
Origin: French
Definition: To drift unplanned, only led by the landscape and architect around you.
Have you done this? Have you travelled without any fixed plan? Often it is the unexpectedness of a journey that makes it even better. When we went to Majuli, we did not know where we would visit next. It was an impromptu decision to next visit Meghalaya. And this time we decided to give Shillong and Cherrapunji a miss and visit the offbeat places in Meghalaya. It was surely a memorable trip!
Solivagant (adj.)
Origin: Latin
Definition: Wandering alone. A solitary adventurer who travels and wanders the globe.
Strikhedonia (n.)
Origin: Greek
Definition: The joy of being able to say “to hell with it”
The feeling we had when we visited Ladakh!
Numinous (n.)
Origin: Latin
Definition: The powerful, personal feeling of being overwhelmed and inspired
I had this feeling when I trekked the Rupin Pass summit. It was an overwhelming experience to stand there and look at the Kinner-Kailash range before me.
Forelsket (n.)
Origin: Norwegian
Definition: The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love
This is such a beautiful and creative travel word. The first time we fell in love with each other, it was confusing. But the tangled emotion that I was feeling at that time was probably known as “forelsket”! And I think it is the same feeling when we fall in love with each other after completing every trek or doing something that we never thought we would do.
Hireath (n.)
Origin: Welsh
Definition: A homesickness for a home which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was.
Sehnsucht (n.)
Origin: German
Definition: A wistful longing and yearning in the heart for travels that have been and travels to come.
Livsnjutare (n.)
Origin: German
Definition: Someone who loves life deeply and enjoys life
Sturmfrei (n.)
Origin: German
Definition: The freedom of being alone and having the ability to do whatever you want.
Sometimes, being alone is the best thing that we can gift ourselves.
Coddiwomple (v.)
Origin: English
Definition: To travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination
Nefelibata (n.)
Origin: Portugese
Definition: One who lives in the cloud of their own imagination; an unconventional person
This word so describes me. I love to live in my own imagination.
Hodophile (adj.)
Origin: Greek
Definition: A lover of roads. One who loves to travel.
Schwellenangst (n.)
Origin: German
Definition: Fear of crossing a threshold to embark on something new.
Don’t we all have the fear while starting anything new? It might be a new job, or a new life at a different city, or even changing our lifestyle. I was always very complacent with my life with a high paying job. But there was a void somewhere. Even after I knew that I have to take the leap, the fear hold me back. The fear of uncertainty was keeping me back from doing what I loved.
Today, I have crossed that threshold. And let me tell you the joy that it brings is totally worth all the difficulties and problems and hard work that went. What is the fear that is holding you back?
Vagary (v.)
Origin: Latin
Definition: A wandering or roaming journey
Saudade (n.)
Origin: Portugese
Definition: A nostalgic longing to be near something or someone who is distant.
Hygge (n.)
Origin: Danish
Definition: The cosy feeling you get when you are enjoying the good things in life with friends
Commuovere (v.)
Origin: Italian
Definition: To stir, to touch, to move to tears
The feeling we had after completing the Chadar Frozen River Trek.
Yūgen (n.)
Origin: Japanese
Definition: A profound and mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe
Onism (n.)
Origin: Danish
Definition: Awareness of how little of the world you will experience
These two words sum it all. The universe, the world is so mysteriously beautiful. We can feel and experience only a part of this beauty!
Petrichor (n.)
Origin: English
Definition: The smell of earth after rain
Flâuner (n.)
Origin: French
Definition: A person of leisure, deliberately aimless, simply wandering the streets, soaking in the city
Whenever we visit any city, we love to walk around. It is the best way to discover the charm of a city. We loved to roam around Yangon and explore the city on foot discovering its gems, hidden or otherwise!
Sometimes Kolkata, our hometown does this to us. We simply wander around, soaking in the little delights, wandering around the lanes and bye lanes and falling in love over and over again with the city. And so does Delhi!
Jijivisha (n.)
Origin: Sanskrit
Definition: The strong eternal desire to live and continue living
Rasasvada (n.)
Origin: Sanskrit
Definition: The taste of bliss in the absence of all thoughts
Exactly what we felt after seeing the Everest and Kanchenjunga ranges in front of us from the Phalut. The Sandakphu-Phalut Trek is a great experience.
Smultronställe(n.)
Origin: Swedish
Definition: Lit. “Place of wild strawberries”; a special place discovered, treasured, returned to for solace and relaxation; a personal idyll free from stress and sadness.
Darjeeling and Sikkim is our “place of wild strawberries”. What is yours?
Querencia (adj.)
Origin: Spanish
Definition: A place where one feels safe, A place where one feels at home
Musafir (n.)
Origin: Urdu
Definition: Traveller
Vuslat (n.)
Origin: Turkish
Definition: A union or reunion after being apart for a long time with one’s beloved
This is one of my favourite creative travel words.
Thalassophile (n.)
Origin: Greek
Definition: A lover of ocean
Waldeinsamkeit (n.)
Origin: German
Definition: The feeling of being alone in the woods
So did you find your travel inspiration from these beautiful and unusual travel words? What is your favourite? Let us know in comments.
Pin this post for a later dose of inspiration!
Hi,
If you love to travel and excited to know different places in world then pack your bag and travel to India. India the birth place of yoga. Good for peace your mind and relaxing body.
Brilliant post, some of these descriptive words I read for the first time. Bookmarked for future reference. Thanks for Sharing.
Thank you Anahita. Glad that you liked the post.
These are indeed words that provide full expression to the meaning of travel. Thanks for adding to my vocabulary. this is indeed the serendipity of reading travel blogs.
Thank you Sandy and Vyjay!
This post was such a treat! I love travel and I love words, and it was nice to recognise a few that I knew, and learn new ones that I didn’t!
Thank you so much! So glad that you liked the post.
I am not just inspired but so well educated too now.
Y next travel will now be so well-informed.
Thank you Sanjay!
Thanks for sharing this, great to know these word and their meaning. And yes I can say now I am Nemophilist. 🙂
Thank you Sundeep!
That is a very unique topic for a blog. Though I would want to identify myself with all the term, but I find myself closest to be a Nemophilist and Trouvaille. I also identify with Resfeber. No matter how much I have travelled, I still get a little nervous (and excited) before a foreign trip.
Thanks Abhinav. I can understand that nervous and excited feeling before a foreign trip!
Such words , very useful must say. I love to read and learn new things. These will definitely help me to increase my vocab.
Thank you Pamela!
Woow so many beautiful, unique travel words i am unaware off. Love it
Thank you Gurjeet!
Wow that made for an interesting read. Adding them to my dictionary right away!
Thanks so much.
Thanks for enhancing my vocabulary.. none them was familiar to me so far.
Thank you Sapna! I did not know a few before writing this.
Always admire your writting skills and this time thanks for introducing new words in my dictionary. Great way to increase ones vocabulary with pictures origin and all.
Thank you Pallavi. So glad that you liked the post.
Excellent post..very informative!!
Amazing list! This should keep me busy for a while. I would like to add French noun Flânerie – Aimless strolling or sauntering without a set plan or defined destination; walking at a leisurely pace, simply observing as you’re being taken along. Sometimes I write about similar topics. Here is an example post I wrote in case you or any of your readers find it interesting. Our content complements each other nicely, perhaps we can collab in some way in the future. Keep up the good work. Can’t wait to see something new from you! Cheers!
Thank you so much for the comment and another beautiful word. You blog is amazing too. Maybe we can connect over for a collab in some way. Looking forward.