20 Inspirational travel TED Talks to increase your wanderlust

TED is on a mission to ‘spread ideas’ in order to encourage a deeper understanding of the world. It is a non-profit organisation and stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. TED organizes conferences around the world where motivating participants are invited to deliver a short and powerful talk. During the last years, many interesting participants shared amazing stories about travel related subjects. In this article, I selected 20 TED talks I feel very passionate about. I hope they will increase your wanderlust or help you to understand the value of travelling.

Pico Iyer: Where is home? 
Is home where you were born? Where you grew up or where you feel the most comfortable? It’s such a simple question, but the answer could be more complicated. Listen to Pico’s story about his home.

Tomislav Perko: How to travel the world with almost no money
Tomislav Perko is a Croatian travel writer who lost his job and decided to travel the world. If you ask most people to travel, they will say they want to go travelling but “can’t afford it”. Tomislav’s TED talk shows that travelling does not have to be expensive.

Karen Bass: Unseen footage, untamed nature
Filmmaker Karen Bass travels across the world trying to get the perfect shot and to catch animal behavior, never seen before.

Jimmy Nelson: Photographing vanishing tribes
Jimmy has a very deep passion for photographing the beauty of people from all over the world. In this talk he tries to explain you the lessons he learned while travelling.

Ben Saunders: Why bother leaving the house?
Joy is the way of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. Polor explorer Ben, tells you about his life philosophy.

Naná Vasconcelos, Vincent Moon: Hidden music rituals around the world
A guy who is crazy about music and tries to share this with the world in a different way. He travels the world with a backpack and a camera, creating music and rituals the world rarely sees.

Kitra Cahana: A glimpse of life on the road
Economic failure or a feeling of freedom? How is it to live freely on the road? Kitra photographs other vagabonds and nomads in their temporary homes.

Taiye Selasi: Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m a local
‘History was real, cultures reveal, but countries were invented’. Do you know how to answer if somebody asks you where you are from?  Taiye Selasi does not. She more less feels like a multi-local.

Chris Burkard: The joy of surfing in ice-cold water
Instead of surfing at exotic destinations, Chris choose the danger of surfing in ice-cold water. Perhaps a new sport to try?

Dame Ellen MacArthur: The surprising thing I learned sailing solo around the world
From the age of 4, Ellen developed an extreme wanderlust to sail solo around the world. It was though, but the sunsets, the wildlife and the remoteness, were absolutely breathtaking. Listen in this video to her entire inspiring story.

John Francis: Walk the earth … my 17-year vow of silence
When John was 27 years old, he decided not to speak for one entire day. Later, he did not talked for 17 years and decided to travel the globe by foot and sail with a message of environmental respect and responsibility.

Joe Gebbia: How Airbnb designs for trust
‘I have an airbed and you can stay in my living room’ says Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb. First afraid of host somebody for the first time, but then totally used to it. Together with a friend he discovered it was possible to make friends while earning rent.

Roz Savage: Why I’m Rowing Across the Pacific
Five years ago, Roz Savage quit her job to become an ocean rower. She sat down one day and thought about what she wanted to do with her life. She decided to go rowing, alone, over the Atlantic ocean. Why has she done it? Hear her reasons.

Rick Steves: The Value of Travel
For the last 30 years, Rick was living out of a suitcase for four months each year. In this video he tells you all about his enriched life and travel experience.

Elora Hardy: Magical houses, made of bamboo
Elora shows you a stunning bamboo house built in Bali, Indonesia. The bamboo material is very sustainable and strong.

Robin Esrock: Learn To Travel: Travel To Learn
Robin has travelled to over more than 24 countries during his one year solo round the world backpacking trip. He learned many things one the way. ‘Either you are running away for something, or looking’. Certainly Robin was looking for something during his trip.

Graham Hughes: One Man. Every Country. No flights.
Graham visited 201 countries between 2009 and 2012 by taking nearly every mode of transport except a plane. In this video, he shows a variety of countries and talks about what it’s like to see 7 countries in one day!

Judith Fein: Deep Travel – Connecting on the road and in life.
Judith shows you how to have meaningful interactions with the people you meet while you are travelling. This talk has inspired me to interact more with locals. Hope it will inspire you as well. 

Tony Wheeler: The road less travelled.
Tony travelled together with his wife from London to Australia. Amazing experiences, interesting points and though moments will be discussed in this talk.

Francis Tapon: How and Why Travel Transforms You
‘How would you rate your life on a scale from 1-10?’ That is a question Francis asked himself back in time. In this video he will share some of his traveling adventures, which include walking across America four times, and explains why he rated his own life with a seven.

I hope you enjoyed listening to those TED talks as much as I did. If you know another inspirational travel related TED talk, please feel free to share it in the comment section below.

Author: Daphne

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