This post may contain affiliate links that I earn a small commission from at no cost to you. Please see my disclosure page for information.

That One Travel Song

That One Travel Song Music

I have a favourite travel song I’ve never shared with anyone.

It started with my 21st birthday party when I collated a playlist of songs from the year I was born. Some are classics but others were new to me, with that year not being one I remember terribly well…

Disastrously at my party I fell ill and the second half of the night my pillow kept me company while I listened to my friends party on to my playlist without me.

In the months that followed, with hours of law study to slog through I often listened to that playlist, and a year plus relationship break up later one of those songs began to be my backup song. A pick-me-up. The song I listened to when I needed a boost, the one that lifted my spirits and helped me think I was on some sort of “meant to be” path.

My fight song, if you will.

I started listening to it every time I headed somewhere new, or faced a challenge. When I moved to Canada on a study abroad, and after a summer of travel returned to New Zealand unsure of what I was supposed to do with actual adult life. On the flight to the Gold Coast, kickstarting my journey towards the United Kingdom on a working holiday visa. I was still thrashing the song after one of the best adventures of my life backpacking through South East Asia, and travelling on to Edinburgh.

Especially when I had to leave the UK because my visa ended and I ran out of money.

I suppose you get the idea that this song featured regularly on the “Soundtrack of Sonja’s Life”, if such a thing existed, and particularly in the travel song category.

Travel provides a lot of chances to listen to music. Think airports, planes, buses, trains, and road trips. It’s also a step outside the normal zone of life, where experiences can be both exhilarating and challenging.

I think we all have those songs that instantly transport us back to a different time or place, especially a travel adventure, or remind us of someone we once met. It’s a great quirk of our senses and and one of my favourite ways to remember trips I’ve taken. Years later a song will trigger a travel memory so strong it’s like it only just happened today.

Seven years on and I think this one song is here to stay. I can obsess over other – usually more current – songs, but this is my one consistent travel song. It comes with me on almost every trip, and is especially awesome as a loud car sing-a-long.

Curious?

Here I Go Again On My Own – Whitesnake.

I am an 80s baby afterall! Get past the slow beginning and it gets awesome…I swear… (Click through if it won’t let you play here).

“Here I go again on my own, going down the only road I’ve ever known…”

I have other songs:

Living on a Prayer, Bon Jovi – A humid Kansas night, not long before I left

500 Miles, The Proclaimers – A winter road trip around Vancouver Island

Gangam Style, Psy & Call Me Maybe, Carly Rae Jepson – Backpacking South East Asia (also special mention to Hangover, Tiao Cruz“I got a Chiangover”…)

Don’t You (Forget About Me), Simple Minds – My first overseas trip from the UK, to Ireland

Can’t Hold Us, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Hanging out the windows of a limo driving through Times Square, New York.

Hotel California – Breaking out spontaneously into song in the back of a cab in Vietnam, on our way to motorbiking through the Central Highlands. No clue what we were in for.

But Here I Go Again On My Own, Whitesnake… that’s my one travel song.

Do you have a travel song like this? Or a song that transports you to a certain time and place? Share below!

Sonja x

23 thoughts on “That One Travel Song

  1. Cora says:

    Wouah the good part just kicked in, that’s a good one !
    That’s a beautiful post, it’s true that sounds and smells can sometimes trigger memories and just send us back there in every way that matters.
    Myself I’m just putting the entire Hairspray soundtrack when I need a boost, also works better than coffee when you need to keep working even though you just want to sleep !

    • Migrating Miss says:

      Haha I love when it really ramps up! Definitely play it loud in the car with the windows down…
      Thanks I’m glad you enjoyed the post 🙂 I absolutely love when a random song comes on the radio or pops up on shuffle that takes me back to an awesome travel adventure.
      I’ll have to check the Hairspray soundtrack out! Should probably cut down on the coffee intake…

  2. Nikita says:

    I could never settle on one song! I wrote a playlist and I may make another one, as I keep on thinking of songs I’ve missed.
    I love that you included Don’t You (Forget About Me)… I’ve definitely played that in my head while saying goodbye to very good travel buddies.

  3. Shelly says:

    Awesome! Love that song. 500 Miles will always hold a place in my heart as well. My new travel song is Summer – Calvin Harris. Our neighbor in Panama would play that song over and over, but I never got sick of it.

    • Migrating Miss says:

      I love Calvin Harris! Summer is my song from a music festival I went to in Scotland last year where he headlined and it poured with rain during this song and I didn’t even care it was so awesome! Such a good one 🙂

  4. Dave (Silverbackpacker) says:

    Great song. I have my own “personal” song….. Daveys on the Road again by Manfred Mann but there are many others that i can relate to when travelling.
    Bob Dylan – One more cup of coffee accompanied me overland to India back in 1977
    Vanity Fare – Hitchin a ride from my teens when hitching all over the UK
    and many many more. I have made youtube lists of them too.

    • Migrating Miss says:

      I do love it haha. I must admit I haven’t heard some of these but I’m definitely inspired to listen. I think I feel a collaborative travel bloggers post on our favourite travel music and where it comes from in the works! It sounds like you’ve had some amazing travel experiences.

    • Migrating Miss says:

      What a great memory to have :). It’s funny how sometimes the song is because of what’s popular at the time and so you hear it everywhere, and sometimes it’s completely random and could have come from anything!

  5. Mary Hood says:

    Hahah that was not what I was expecting, but I love it! Anything that keeps you pumped and lifts you up is a great song to listen to on repeat. I tend to listen to the same song obsessively for a few months but then move on. Right now my favorite travel song is “Intro” by The XX. It’s just an instrumental, but for some reason it always puts me in a traveling mood 😛

  6. Linda Bahnan says:

    ‘The train headed eastward and onward. The lush green landscape became sparser and habitation more dense. Lee rode with the rhythm of the train, singing “Hotel California”. Everybody sang along until memory deficit prevented anyone offering any discernible words.’ novelines from ‘Hot Times in Goa’. I write travel novels instead of articles but I really enjoy yours.

  7. Carol says:

    “Here I Go Again” wasn’t my TRAVEL song…..it was my DIVORCE song, lol! Got me thru the breakup, heartache and back on my feet as a single mother (in the late 80’s)! Didn’t listen to it for years but now (in my 60’s) and looking for a completely new life that will include travel I just may need to download that song and fire up my anthem as….here I go again! Thank you for the memory and the song suggestions from all the comments….never too old to appreciate and connect to good people & music? Happy travels!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *