50 Best Backpacking Europe Songs for IG Reels & Stories
Best Songs for Backpacking Across Europe for Instagram Reels and Stories
There’s a strange kind of freedom that sneaks in when you’re backpacking through Europe. Train stations blur together, your hostel keycard never works right, and you’re trying to remember what city you woke up in. Then a song hits your headphones and the whole trip folds into one dizzy feeling. It’s not polished travel magic. It’s missed buses, damp clothes, laughing in the wrong language, and still finding yourself grinning. These tracks fit that half-chaotic, half-euphoric space, even if some of them are not literally tied to traveling.
The thing about soundtracking a trip like this is that you don’t want anything too smooth. You want songs that crack a little at the edges. The kind that lets the noise in. A Dayglow track buzzing against the train hum, or a rock chorus that feels too big for the tiny cobblestone street you’re walking down. There’s something in mixing pop, rock, country, and R&B songs together that makes a playlist messy in the best way, which is exactly how backpacking feels when you’re actually in the middle of it.
Stories and reels are where this really lands. Someone posts a shaky clip of Prague at sunrise or a late-night crowd in Barcelona and the right track makes the whole thing pop off the screen. You don’t need the songs to tell you where you are, you just need them to catch that restless movement. Some lean nostalgic, some hit like pure adrenaline, but they all give your travel clips that pulse that scrolling strangers stop on. Here are the best backpacking Europe songs for Instagram reels and stories.
Top 10 Backpacking Songs
1. 'Good Life' by OneRepublic
2. 'Galway Girl' by Ed Sheeran
3. 'Home' by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
4. 'Riptide' by Vance Joy
5. 'Budapest' by George Ezra
6. 'On the Road Again' by Willie Nelson
7. 'I Lived' by OneRepublic
8. 'Come Fly with Me' by Frank Sinatra
9. 'No Roots' by Alice Merton
10. 'Big Jet Plane' by Angus & Julia Stone
More Top Backpacking Songs #11 to 20
11. 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' by John Denver
12. 'Life is a Highway' by Tom Cochrane
13. 'Adventure of a Lifetime' by Coldplay
14. 'Send Me On My Way' by Rusted Root
15. 'Traveling Song' by Ryn Weaver
16. 'Road to Nowhere' by Talking Heads
17. 'Follow the Sun' by Xavier Rudd
18. 'Ends of the Earth' by Lord Huron
19. 'Down Under' by Men At Work
20. 'I've Been Everywhere' by Johnny Cash
Songs for Europe Backpacking #21 to 30
21. 'Here Comes the Sun' by The Beatles
22. 'Wake Me Up' by Avicii
23. 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' by Tears for Fears
24. 'Walking on Sunshine' by Katrina & The Waves
25. 'Kokomo' by The Beach Boys
26. 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' by The Proclaimers
27. 'Go Your Own Way' by Fleetwood Mac
28. 'Open Road' by Bryan Adams
29. 'Into the Wild' by LP
30. 'Runaway (U & I)' by Galantis
More Europe Backpacking Songs #31 to 40
31. 'Born to Run' by Bruce Springsteen
32. 'Fast Car' by Tracy Chapman
33. 'Say Hey (I Love You)' by Michael Franti & Spearhead
34. 'Lovely Day' by Bill Withers
35. 'Shotgun' by George Ezra
36. 'Island in the Sun' by Weezer
37. 'A Thousand Miles' by Vanessa Carlton
38. 'On Top of the World' by Imagine Dragons
39. 'Free Fallin'' by Tom Petty
40. 'Walking in Memphis' by Marc Cohn
Songs for Europe Travel #41 to 50
41. 'Vienna' by Billy Joel
42. 'The Passenger' by Iggy Pop
43. 'Africa' by Toto
44. 'Come Away with Me' by Norah Jones
45. 'Hotel California' by Eagles
46. 'Paris' by The Chainsmokers
47. 'California Dreamin'' by The Mamas & The Papas
48. 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' by John Denver
49. 'Sweet Caroline' by Neil Diamond
50. 'Don't Stop Believin'' by Journey
© 2025 Carson McQueen
