The Best Captions and Quotes for Instagram — from A to Z (2024)

Avid social media users know the power of the right caption in a successful Instagram post. But when you're posting on the fly, it's all too easy to find yourself at a loss for words. With that in mind, we've compiled an extensive list of captions and quotes for Instagram that perfectly complement every travel scenario and occasion.

Meaningful travel quotes often make great Instagram captions. If you need inspiration, you can never go wrong with using a well-loved quote like Anthony Bourdain's “Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown" or Susan Sontag’s “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”

Emojis are another useful tool when you're crafting captions for Instagram. They can be used to save space (the camera emoji concisely assigns photo credit) or create a clever pun (rather than writing “I’m nuts about this destination,” employ a chestnut emoji).

Looking to expand your reach? Try connecting with bloggers, publications, and companies in the travel industry by tagging your photos with popular travel hashtags, including Travel + Leisure’s own #TLPicks.

Whether you're looking for a witty beach pun or a quote about winter to pair with your latest reel, we've got you covered with this A-to-Z list of captions and quotes for Instagram.

A - Instagram Captions

Anniversary Captions

“In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.” — Maya Angelou

My favorite place in the world is next to you.

“I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart). I am never without it.” — E.E. Cummings

“Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” — Elizabeth Browning

Animal Captions

“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” — James Herriot

“Lots of people talk to animals. Not very many listen, though.” — Benjamin Hoff

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Artsy Captions

“Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist.” — W.H. Auden

"Creativity is intelligence having fun." — Albert Einstein

“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

Art is what happens when you dare to be who you really are.

“What is art anyway?” — Georgia O’Keeffe

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Best Friend Captions

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

"No road is long with good company.” — Turkish proverb

“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

“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.” — Jim Morrison

Beach Captions

“On the beach, you can live in bliss.” — Dennis Wilson

Life's a beach.

I'm done adulting. Let's be mermaids.

“Don’t grow up too quickly, lest you forget how much you love the beach.” — Michelle Held

How to get a beach body: 1. Have a body. 2. Go to the beach.

All I need is a good dose of vitamin sea.

High tides and good vibes.

“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.” — Rachel Carson

Brother Captions

“Brothers don’t let each other wander in the dark alone.” — Jolene Perry

“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Help your brother’s boat across, and your own will reach the shore.” — Hindu proverb

Brunch Captions

But first, brunch.

Brunch without Champagne is just a sad breakfast.

Waffles are just pancakes with abs.

Today's forecast: 100% chance of Champagne.

Break-up Captions

“Like our wines, our love could neither mature nor travel.” — Graham Greene

“It is sheer good fortune to miss somebody long before they leave you.” — Toni Morrison

“The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected.” — Nicholas Sparks

Boat Captions

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea … ” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Be an anchor in a world of waves.

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

Take time to coast.

Boat hair, don’t care.

I love you a yacht.

Always take the sea-nic route.

“To reach a port we must set sail. Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Cat Captions

“That’s the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: make them follow you.” — Ray Bradbury

Not all angels have wings. Sometimes they have whiskers.

“I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.” — Eckhart Tolle

The road to my heart is paved with paw prints.

“Time spent with cats is never wasted.” — Sigmund Freud

Couple Captions

“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

“Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.” — Ernest Hemingway

“Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So, today is my new favorite day.” — A. A. Milne

Christmas Captions

“At Christmas, all roads lead home.” — Marjorie Holmes

Merry everything and happy always.

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” — Norman Vincent Peale

It is the season to sparkle.

Simply having a wonderful Christmastime.

May your days be merry and bright.

“Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.” — Washington Irving

Change Captions

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

“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.” — Anthony Bourdain

“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

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Dance Captions

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

My superpower is dancing in heels.

“Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul’s weather to all who can read it.” — Martha Graham

Dessert Captions

“A party without cake is just a meeting.” — Julia Child

“May you eat an unfamiliar dessert in a strange land at least once every three years … ” — Rob Brezsny

“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” — Ernestine Ulmer

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Eating Captions

“To eat well in England you should have breakfast three times a day.” — W. Somerset Maugham

I want someone to look at me the way I look at food.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” — Virginia Woolf

“Dinner is not what you do in the evening before something else. Dinner is the evening.” — Art Buchwald

Explorer Captions

“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

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

“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

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Family Captions

“Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.” — Brad Henry

“There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more … secure.” — Jim Butcher

“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

Funny Captions About Travel

“Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas — take your next trip in kilometers.” — George Carlin

“Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversations.” — Elizabeth Drew

“Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year.” — Anonymous

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Golf Captions

“As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.” — Ben Hogan

“Of all hazards, fear is the worst.” — Sam Snead

Graduation Captions

The tassel was worth the hassle.

“I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.” — George Fairman

“The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

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Happy Captions

“Remember this: that very little is needed to make a happy life.” — Marcus Aurelius

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

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

Hiking Captions

“Hiking is a bit like life: The journey only requires you to put one foot in front of the other … again and again and again. And if you allow yourself the opportunity to be present throughout the entirety of the trek, you will witness beauty every step of the way, not just at the summit.” — Anonymous

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

“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

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Island Captions

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” — John Donne

“If you go anywhere, even paradise, you will miss your home.” — Malala Yousafzai

“You have to remember how the islands move. If you forget that, you’re lost.” — Mau Piailug

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Jumping Photo Captions

“You can’t always wait for the perfect time. Sometimes you must dare to jump.” — Anonymous

“You have got to jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down.” — Ray Bradbury

Fourth of July Captions

“Liberty is the breath of life to nations.” — George Bernard Shaw

“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.” — William Faulkner

“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.” — Albert Camus

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Kayaking Captions

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.” — A.A. Milne

Worry less, paddle more.

“The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us.” — John Muir

“Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.” — Henry David Thoreau

“As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.” — Katharine Hepburn

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Laughing Captions

“I would say laughter is the best medicine. But it’s more than that. It’s an entire regime of antibiotics and steroids.” — Stephen Colbert

“Laughter is an instant vacation.” — Milton Berle

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” — E.E. Cummings

Lake Captions

“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.” — Wallace Stevens

“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Make your heart like a lake with a calm, still surface and great depths of kindness.” — Lao Tzu

Love Captions

“Travel is like love, 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 Iyer

“Home is where the heart is, and my heart is wherever I am at the moment.” — Lily Leung

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson

Luck Captions

“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.’ — Dalai Lama

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.” — Cormac McCarthy

“Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes, you are ready.” — Ernest Hemingway

Lyric Captions

“I’m sitting in the railway station. Got a ticket to my destination.” — Simon & Garfunkel

“Walking fast, faces pass and I’m home bound” — Vanessa Carlton

“Goin’ places that I’ve never been, seein’ things that I may never see again.” — Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson

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Museum Captions

“If you think museums are boring, then you’re doing it wrong.” — Anonymous

“A museum is a place where one should lose one’s head.” — Renzo Piano

“Give me a museum and I’ll fill it.” — Pablo Picasso

Mountain Captions

“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.” — St. Augustine

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” — Muhammad Ali

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.” — Andy Rooney

Motivational Captions

“If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” — Steve Jobs

“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain

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New Year’s Captions

“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” — Ranier Maria Rilke

“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” — Brad Paisley

Night Out Captions

“Here’s to the nights we felt alive.” — Eve 6

“No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they had plenty of sleep.” — Anonymous

Nature Captions

“Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.” — Blaise Pascal

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” — Gary Snyder

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery — air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.’” — Sylvia Plath

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Ocean Captions

“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” — Andre Gide

“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” — Kate Chopin

“We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.” — Mother Teresa

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Party Captions

“If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.” — Katharine Hepburn

Keep calm and party on.

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Quest Captions

“You never know how a good quest is going to end.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

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

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Rainy Day Captions

“When life throws you a rainy day, play in the puddles.” — Anonymous

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” — Dolly Parton

“You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud, too. That’s a part of it.” — Denzel Washington

Running Captions

“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” — Dean Karnazes

“Running is alone time that lets my brain unspool the tangles that build up over days.” — Rob Haneisen

“Your body will argue that there is no justifiable reason to continue. Your only recourse is to call on your spirit, which fortunately functions independently of logic.” — Tim Noakes

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Selfie Captions

I’m sending my selfie to NASA, because I’m a star.

I need a six-month holiday, twice a year.

Reality called, so I hung up.

Sister Captions

“A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves — a special kind of double.” — Toni Morrison

“Don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.” — Maya Angelou

“A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.” — Marion Garretty

Summer Captions

Summer is a state of mind.

“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” — Henry James

Tomorrow may rain, so today I'll follow the sun.

"I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June." — L.M. Montgomery

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Travel Captions

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

Take only pictures, leave only footprints.

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

"Maybe you can’t buy happiness, but you can buy plane tickets (and that's kind of the same thing).

“I don’t know where I am going, but I’m on my way.” — Carl Sagan

I travel so my life isn’t disrupted by routine.

Teacher Captions

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

“Just to travel is rather boring, but to travel with a purpose is educational and exciting.” — Sargent Shriver

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X

Time Captions

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” — Michael Altshuler

“Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.” — John Lennon

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Underwater Captions

“Reality whistles a different tune underwater.” — Tom Robbins

"The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish." — Jacques Cousteau

“Perhaps I am the turtle, able to live simply anywhere, even underwater for short periods, with my home on my back.” — Kurt Vonnegut

“From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to Earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.” — Jacques Cousteau

Unique Instagram Captions

“Who wants to be normal when you can be unique?” — Helena Bonham Carter

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” — Coco Chanel

“Individuality is freedom lived.” — John Dos Passos

“Life’s no piece of cake, mind you, but the recipe’s my own to fool with.” — Haruki Murakami

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” — Maya Angelou

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Vacation Captions

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

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

It’s bad manners to keep a vacation waiting.

“Like Salvador Dalí’s paintings of watches melting in the sand, time wanders at its own curious pace whenever you’re on vacation in a foreign country.” — Laurie Nadel

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

Valentine’s Day Captions

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The world needs more love and fewer emails.

You have the passport to my heart.

"True love stories never have endings." — Richard Bach

"You are my sun, my moon, and all of my stars." — E.E. Cummings

"Love is friendship that has caught on fire." — Ann Landers

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Waterfall Captions

“There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!” — Mehmet Murat lldan

Sorry, TLC. I chased the waterfall.

“Just let go — and fall like a little waterfall.” — Bob Ross

Livestreaming. Literally.

Water-falling in love with this place.

“As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.” — John Muir

Wedding Captions

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

It’s the "ugly crying at weddings" time of the year.

Can I fit in your honeymoon luggage?

Better than any Pinterest wedding board I've ever seen.

“Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?” — Walt Whitman

Winter Captions

“Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.” — Pietro Aretino

When life gives you snow, make snow angels.

Sweater weather is better together.

“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.” — John Burroughs

The powder is falling, and the mountains are calling.

Love at frost sight.

“Winter is coming.” — Ned Stark, Game of Thrones

Working Out Captions

Fit is not a destination, it’s a way of life.

Does running late count as cardio?

Workouts are my happy hour.

“The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit.” — Morihei Ueshiba

The only bad workout is the one that didn’t happen.

Keep your squats low, and your standards high.

Sore today, stronger tomorrow.

Exercise in the morning, before your brain figures out what you’re doing.

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XOXO Captions

“Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.” — Lisa St. Aubin de Terán

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."— Ingrid Bergman

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Youth Captions

“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

“Youth has no age.” — Pablo Picasso

“Age considers; youth ventures.” — Rabindranath Tagore

Yoga Captions

“Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are.” — Jason Crandell

“You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state.” — Sharon Gannon

“Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.” — "The Bhagavad Gita"

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Zoo Captions

Where the wild things are.

Happy as a hippo.

When in doubt, add more animals.

You’re never too old to go to the zoo.

Take a walk on the wild side.

Zip Lining Captions

Exploring new heights.

If you need me, I’ll be up in the trees.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Riding the winds of adventure.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane … no, it’s just me on a zip line adventure.

“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