bon voyage meaning

all about french

Learn French with Audio Stories

HOME > FRENCH PHRASES

Everything about the French sentence "Bon voyage"

You are in the right place to find out all the things you need to know about the basic sentence "Bon voyage". To be more specific, this includes a detailed explanation of what it is and how to use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. Along with the useful things we sprinkled like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, synonyms and more!

French to English translation

Translation : Have a nice trip

Register : Neutral - Basic

Audio pronunciation

IPA : / bɔ̃ vwajaʒ /

What does bon voyage mean?

It literally means:

• Voyage → Trip

It means "Have a good trip " or "Have a nice trip ". We use it when saying goodbye to someone (or a group of people) leaving for a trip, to wish a safe and nice time during the trip.

Cool thing: "bon voyage " is also used in English with the exact same meaning.

When you want to wish a safe and good trip to someone or a group of people, you can simply add "Bon voyage ". 

If you want to make a sentence out of it, you can say: "Fais bon voyage " (Have a nice/good trip). And for a formal version, use instead: "Je vous souhaite un bon voyage → I wish you a good/nice trip "

If the trip involves driving on the road, you can use "Bonne route → Have a nice (trip on the) road ". And if it's a flight: "Bon vol → Have a good/nice flight ".

Finally, if the trip is about going home, you can also use "Bon retour → Have a good/nice journey home ".

A little trick, if you add "bon(ne) " before a noun, it will mean: "enjoy *noun* " or "have a nice/good *noun* ".

Few examples:

• Bonne journée → Have a nice day
• Bon week-end → Have a nice weekend
• Bon appétit → Enjoy your meal
• Bonne visite → Enjoy your visit
• Bon match → Enjoy the game
• Je vous souhaite un bon voyage → I wish you a good/nice trip
• Fais bon voyage → Have a good/nice trip
• Bonne route → Have a nice (trip on the) road / Be safe on the road
• Bon vol → Have a good/nice flight
• Bon retour → Have a good/nice journey home

Example in a dialogue with French audio

Allez, on y va !

Come on, let's go!

Ça marche ! Bon voyage !

All right! Have a nice trip

Merci ! À plus tard !

Thanks! See you later!

Learn French the easy way with our French - English parallel texts with slow French audio

C'est n'importe quoi

To vocabulary list

C'est combien ?

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Definition of bon voyage exclamation from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Definitions on the go

Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.

All About the Phrase “Bon Voyage” – and the Travel Habits of the French

French people have been wishing each other Bon voyage (Have a nice trip) for centuries. The saying is so common that it’s one of those French phrases that’s been adopted into other languages, including English .

Despite how frequently you might hear it, like any ultimate travel destination, bon voyage offers a lot more to discover than you might expect.

Let’s take a guided tour of Bon voyage  and learn about the travel habits of the French along the way!

What does bon voyage mean?

Bon voyage means “Have a good trip”. But as you can see, there aren’t quite as many words to it. Literally, it’s just “Good trip/voyage”.  So, how did we get there?

Wishes in French with bon(ne)(s)

Bon voyage is a shortened form of a phrase like Je vous souhaite un bon voyage. (I wish you a good trip.) or Fais bon voyage (Have a good trip.).

Both of these sentences are still used today, but they tend to be more formal (for the first) or uncommon (for the second).  This is because the French like to keep things brief, so why not just say it in two words?

Bon voyage isn’t the only phrase that expresses a wish like this. There’s a whole list of them, and you may know at least a few already.

These include:

• Bonne année  – Happy New Year
• Bonnes vacances – Have a nice vacation
• Bon appétit – Enjoy your meal
• Bonne journée / Bonne soirée – Have a nice day/evening
• Bon weekend – Have a nice weekend
• Bonne route – Have a good/safe drive
• Bon anniversaire – Happy birthday! This is a less common equivalent of Joyeux anniversaire .

You’ll frequently hear and see these phrases – and you may discover some others, as well. In French, you can add Bon , Bonne, Bons, or Bonnes to a noun (often a gerund (a noun that describes an action)) to say “Have a good….” or “Enjoy…”.

For instance, if you run into someone as you’re headed to the movies, they might tell you << Bon film !>> (“Enjoy the movie!”).

Or you could hear Bonne baignade ! (Have a nice swim!),  and so on.

The structure Bon(ne)(s) + noun works for so many situations, but it can be tricky for us non-native speakers sometimes. For instance, if you want to say “Enjoy the book!”, you can’t use the word livre (book); it would be Bonne lecture! (Happy reading!).

Expressing a complex wish, like “Have a nice day at work!” can also be confusing. You can’t just say Bon travail ! – that literally means “Good work/Good job!”. 

So, what can you do to be sure you get these phrases right?

Sometimes, using these expressions is something that will come from listening to and absorbing French.

Other times, you might be able to correct yourself if you realize you’re using an expression that already means something, as in the case of Bon travail . 

And when it comes to one of those complex wishes, like “Have a good day at work,” it’s probably best to just say it in a different way – it’s not a simple idea, after all.

So, “Have a good day at work” could be Passe une bonne journée au bureau! or in a more formal conversation, Je te/vous souhaite une bonne journ é e au bureau!

….Then again, since the French prefer to keep things concise, you could probably just say Bonne journ ée and leave it at that.

If this seems overwhelming, don’t worry. The phrases with bon(ne)(s) that I’ve listed, as well as a few others , are the most common ones, and are important to know. But if you feel unsure about using bon(ne)(s) + noun otherwise, remember that there are always other ways to say what you want.

For example, I could say «  J’esp è re que tu passeras une bonne journée au travail. » (I hope you’ll have a good day at work) or « J’esp ère que ce livre te plaira. »  (I hope you’ll like this book.). Just think about the meaning behind the wish.

Other ways to wish people well in French using bon(ne)(s)

The expressions we’ve just learned about translate to “Have a good____”. But there are some other expressions in French that use bon(ne)(s) to wish people well in a slightly different way.

In these cases, instead of talking about something concrete or expected, these expressions refer to things like luck or the future.

You’ve probably come across one of the most famous before:

Bonne chance – Good luck

Other common phrases like this include:

• Bonne continuation   – Keep it up! or Good luck with your future endeavors!
• Bon rétablissement – Get well soon
• Bon courage – Hang in there (Although this phrase isn’t necessarily as informal is “Hang in there,” and can be used in most situations)

There’s no major difference between these expressions and others like them , and the ones we looked at earlier, but there are two subtle ones you may come across:

• These well-wishes tend to stay in their original structure. Whether they’re stand-alone statements, or used in a longer phrase (ex: Je vous souhaite une  bonne continuation ), you wouldn’t replace Bon/Bonne with Super in any of these phrases.

• When you’re talking about events, like your continued career or your path back to health, you add un or une before bon/bonne when it’s used in a sentence, as you can see in the example in the previous paragraph. But when you talk about a totally abstract concept or feeling like luck or courage, you don’t use an article (ex: Je te souhaite bon courage. ) .

How to take bon voyage to the next level

Although you can’t add to or change the core phrases we saw in the last section, you can modify bon voyage and its closest cousins a bit.

Most of the time, Bon voyage is a perfectly normal way to wish someone a good trip. But maybe you want them to know you hope they have an EXTRA good trip.

In this case, you can add tr è s (very), like so: Passe(z) un tr è s bon voyage. or Je vous/te souhaites un tr è s bon voyage.

In informal situations, like when you’re talking to a friend, you could replace tr ès bon or just tr ès with super.  For example: Passe(z) un super voyage OR Passe(z) un super bon voyage.

For more formal situations, excellent would be a good replacement.  For example: Je vous souhaite un excellent voyage.

You’ve probably realized that when you add tr ès, super , or excellent , you can’t just use Bon voyage on its own, though.

Do the French say Bon voyage a lot?:  The French and travel

The average working French person gets five weeks of paid vacation a year, plus about a week’s worth of personal days. There are also a number of national holidays in France, and schools have two-week vacations every six weeks, plus two months of summer vacation. Train tickets are usually affordable, and low-cost airlines operate out of many French airports. So it’s no wonder that the French are among the nationalities that travel the most . 

Where and when do the French travel?

But where do they like to go?  It turns out that most French people tend to travel primarily within France .

Part of this can be explained by the French rail system, which is highly developed and fairly affordable. It’s easy to go to major cities or even small towns, and since many trains are high speed, a trip like that might only take a few hours. Add to this the wide range of landscapes to be found in mainland France alone – from the warm beaches of the Côte d’Azur, to the ski slopes of the Alps, to attractions in major cities like Paris. France is even home to Europe’s only Disney theme park.

And of course, many French people use at least some of their vacation time to visit family and friends who also live in France.

As for when the French travel, there are some traditions around that. But it turns out they don’t totally reflect reality.

For instance, French people typically go on their longest or even only vacation in summer. August is considered a month when everything shuts down (well, except in vacation/tourism destinations, of course). Entire businesses will close their doors because everyone is on vacation.

But with globalization, as well as new, strategic ways of thinking, that’s changed in recent years. According to recent statistics, 69% of the French population takes a summer vacation. But many companies have at least a few employees who stay behind in August – and those people aren’t always disappointed about it. Some French people prefer to work during this time because their offices are usually calmer since so many of their coworkers and bosses are away. They take a vacation another time – when most destinations will be less crowded and pricey, besides.

Similarly, in winter, especially during the winter school holidays, French people traditionally go on ski trips. And yet, it turns out that only 1 in 10 French people go skiing every year.

Part of these lower-than-expected numbers is due to cost. Not everyone can afford to travel – especially taking a ski trip, which involves a lot of expenses beyond room and board.

Which countries do the French travel to most?

Although France itself is the number-one travel destination for French people, the French do go abroad, as well. And when you think about it, with all of the vacation time they have, a majority of a French person’s travel might be national, but they might go beyond their borders for at least one of those trips.

The top countries visited by the French in 2019 include Spain, Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt, and Russia, as well as Canada and the United States.

What do people think of French tourists?

All of this traveling has earned the French  a reputation in the hospitality and tourism industries, as well as with locals in certain places. The typical French tourist is known to be critical, curious, cheap, and seductive.

As some of the people interviewed in this article suggest , seemingly negative traits like being critical may also make them have a more in-depth travel experience. For instance, a tour guide in India explains that instead of saying that they like or don’t like an ice cream flavor, a French tourist will often ask about what’s in it.

They might also make suggestions for how its taste might be improved, which goes with another way the French are perceived: as comparing everything to how good it is or how much it costs back in France.

None of this is to say that the French are terrible tourists (even though they often joke about this amongst themselves). After all, tourists from every country have their good and bad points , and a lot of times it has to do with how well their culture meshes with the local one.

For what it’s worth, one thing I’ve noticed about French people who travel to other countries is that whether or not they complained or made comparisons to France on-site, they generally seem to see their experience as positive, even as a way to expand their knowledge and perspective on the world. Whether they spent a week sunbathing on a beach somewhere, or visited a new city or monument, they come home with a sense of having learned something, and (understandably) often nostalgia for the place they left.

This Egyptian tour guide agrees with me. She loves French tourists because [ i]ls sont très cultivés, ils s’intéressent aux monuments. Ils ne voyagent pas seulement pour prendre des photos (They’re very educated, they’re interested in monuments. They don’t travel just to take pictures.).”

A recent survey shows that 53% of French people see taking a vacation as important and something they’re willing to make sacrifices for.  In addition to self-care and getting away from it all, I think some of this could also be chalked up to wanderlust and a natural curiosity and fascination with other places.

Do you have a favorite place to travel? How about somewhere you dream of going – particularly in France? Whether you’re planning a trip or just armchair traveling, Bon voyage!

• What are the best French learning apps in 2024?
• The 16 best websites and apps for French conversation practice
• Duolingo French review: The good, the bad and the ugly

Alysa Salzberg

Alysa Salzberg is an American writer, worrier, teacher, and cookie enthusiast who has lived in Paris, France, for more than a decade. She has taught English and French for more than ten years, most notably as an assistante de langue vivante for L'Education Nationale. She recently published her first novel, Hearts at Dawn , a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling that takes place during the 1870 Siege of Paris. You can read about her adventures here , or feel free to stop by her website .

• 1.1 Etymology
• 1.2 Pronunciation
• 1.3.1 Translations
• 2.1 Pronunciation
• 2.2.1 See also

Borrowed from French bon voyage ( “ bon voyage, (have a) good journey ” ) , from bon ( “ good ” ) + voyage ( “ journey ” ) .

Pronunciation

• IPA ( key ) : /ˌbɒn vwaɪˈɑːʒ/ , /ˌbɒn vɔɪˈɑːʒ/

Interjection

• 2009 May 13, Pete Docter , Bob Peterson , Up , spoken by newsreel announcer ( David Kaye ), Walt Disney Pictures & Pixar Animation Studios : Bon voyage , Charles Muntz, and good luck capturing the monster of Paradise Falls!

Translations

• IPA ( key ) : /bɔ̃ vwa.jaʒ/
• bon voyage , have a good journey, have a good trip
• bonne route

• English phrasebook
• English terms borrowed from French
• English terms derived from French
• English terms with IPA pronunciation
• English terms with audio links
• English lemmas
• English interjections
• English multiword terms
• English terms with quotations
• English farewells
• French terms with IPA pronunciation
• French terms with audio links
• French lemmas
• French interjections
• French multiword terms
• French phrasebook
• French farewells
• Terms with Afrikaans translations
• Terms with Albanian translations
• Terms with Amharic translations
• Arabic terms with non-redundant manual transliterations
• Terms with Arabic translations
• Terms with Moroccan Arabic translations
• Terms with Armenian translations
• Terms with Azerbaijani translations
• Terms with Belarusian translations
• Terms with Bengali translations
• Terms with Bulgarian translations
• Requests for translations into Burmese
• Terms with Carpathian Rusyn translations
• Terms with Catalan translations
• Cantonese terms with redundant transliterations
• Terms with Cantonese translations
• Terms with Hokkien translations
• Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations
• Terms with Mandarin translations
• Terms with Czech translations
• Terms with Danish translations
• Terms with Dutch translations
• Terms with Esperanto translations
• Terms with Estonian translations
• Terms with Faroese translations
• Terms with Finnish translations
• Terms with French translations
• Terms with Galician translations
• Terms with Georgian translations
• Terms with German translations
• Terms with Greek translations
• Terms with Hebrew translations
• Terms with Hindi translations
• Terms with Hungarian translations
• Terms with Icelandic translations
• Terms with Ido translations
• Terms with Indonesian translations
• Terms with Ingrian translations
• Terms with Irish translations
• Terms with Italian translations
• Terms with Jamaican Creole translations
• Terms with Japanese translations
• Terms with Kannada translations
• Terms with Kazakh translations
• Terms with Khmer translations
• Terms with Korean translations
• Terms with Ladino translations
• Requests for translations into Lao
• Terms with Latin translations
• Terms with Latvian translations
• Terms with Lithuanian translations
• Terms with Macedonian translations
• Terms with Malay translations
• Terms with Maltese translations
• Terms with Mòcheno translations
• Terms with Mongolian translations
• Terms with Norwegian translations
• Terms with Persian translations
• Terms with Polish translations
• Terms with Portuguese translations
• Terms with Romani translations
• Terms with Romanian translations
• Terms with Russian translations
• Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations
• Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations
• Terms with Sinhalese translations
• Terms with Slovak translations
• Terms with Slovene translations
• Terms with Spanish translations
• Terms with Swahili translations
• Terms with Swedish translations
• Terms with Tagalog translations
• Terms with Tamil translations
• Terms with Telugu translations
• Terms with Thai translations
• Requests for translations into Tigrinya
• Terms with Turkish translations
• Terms with Ukrainian translations
• Terms with Urdu translations
• Terms with Uyghur translations
• Terms with Vietnamese translations
• Terms with Walloon translations
• Terms with Welsh translations
• Terms with Yiddish translations

Navigation menu

• Vocabulary exercises help you to learn synonyms, collocations and idioms.
• Intermediate and Advanced level grammar practice with progress tests.
• Listening and pronunciation, exam preparation and more!

Explore topics

• Daily Crossword
• Word Puzzle
• Word Finder
• Word of the Day
• Synonym of the Day
• Word of the Year
• Language stories
• All featured
• Gender and sexuality
• All pop culture
• Writing hub
• Grammar essentials
• Commonly confused
• All writing tips
• Pop culture
• Writing tips

Advertisement

[ bon voi- ahzh ; French baw n vw a - yazh ]

interjection

• (have a) pleasant trip.

/ bɔ̃ vwajaʒ /

sentence substitute

• a phrase used to wish a traveller a pleasant journey

Discover More

Word history and origins.

Origin of bon voyage 1

Bon Voyage: French Vocabulary Explained

• Pronunciation & Conversation
• Resources For Teachers

Expression: Bon voyage Pronunciation: [bo(n) vwa yazh] Meaning: have a good trip Literal translation: good trip Register : normal Notes: The expression bon voyage is used in both French and English to say goodbye to travelers and wish them well.

Related Expressions

• bonnes vacances - enjoy your vacation/holiday
• bonne route - safe journey, drive safely
• bon retour - safe journey home

In French, bon can be added to pretty much any noun to wish someone well:

• bon appétit - enjoy your meal
• bon match - enjoy the game, have a good game
• bonne promenade - have a nice walk, enjoy your walk
• bon vélo - have a nice bike ride, enjoy your bike ride
• bon week-end - have a nice weekend

And it means "happy" in relation to special occasions:

• bonne année - happy New Year
• bon anniversaire - happy birthday
• "Bon Anniversaire": Saying Happy Birthday in French
• The Universal Wish: 'Bon appétit'
• French Idiomatic Expressions With 'Bon'
• Common French Phrases
• Understanding the French Expression "Avoir l'air"
• Typical New Year's Greetings in French
• Vocabulary Lesson: French for Travelers
• French Vocabulary: Hobbies, Sports, and Games
• Must-Know Vocabulary for French Restaurant Dining
• How to Use the French Adverb 'Enfin' ('At Last, Finally')
• French Idiomatic Expressions With Matin and Matinée
• Using the French Expression "À la rentrée"
• 11 Synonyms for "Great" in French
• The French Expression "Meilleurs Vœux"
• French Vocabulary: Driving and Cars

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of bon voyage in English

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

• acciaccatura
• pas de deux
• the Internationale
• vivacissimo

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

• Flora's voice wished me " bon voyage " in a most friendly but tremulous tone.  
• He wished us bon voyage, removed his hand, and we were off.  
• It's best to say 'good-bye' and 'bon voyage' right here.  
• Numerous devoted friends were on hand to say good bye and "bon voyage", but they were permitted only on the dock.  
• There was a short drive to the river amid polite calls of "good-bye" and " bon voyage," and there lay the Mayflower, like a great white bird with comfortably folded wings.  

Translations of bon voyage

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

(especially of earth or crops) dried out because of too much heat and not enough rain

Fakes and forgeries (Things that are not what they seem to be)

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• English    Exclamation
• Translations
• All translations

To add bon voyage to a word list please sign up or log in.

Add bon voyage to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

• Constructed scripts
• Multilingual Pages

Bon voyage / have a good journey in many languages

Jump to phrases

How to wish people a good or safe journey. The phrase, bon voyage, is used in English without change, though the pronunciation is quite like the French.

People who have contributed to this section

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me .

http://www.nypl.org/branch/central/dlc/df/expressions/bonvoyage.html

Other phrases

Welcome | Hello | How are you? | Long time no see | What's your name? | Where are you from? | Pleased to meet you | Good morning | Good afternoon | Good evening | Good night | Goodbye | Good luck | Cheers! | Have a nice day | Have a nice weekend | Bon appetit | Bon voyage | Yes, No | Maybe | I don't know | Do you understand? | I understand | I don't understand | Please speak more slowly | Please say that again | Please write it down | Do you speak English? | Do you speak [your language]? | I'm learning [your language] | How do you say ... in [your language]? | Speak to me in [your language] | Excuse me | I would like ... | How much is this? | Sorry | Please | Thank you | Where's the toilet? | This gentleman/lady will pay for everything | Would you like to dance? | Do you come here often? | I miss you | I love you | Get well soon | Go away! | Leave me alone! | Help! | Fire! | Stop! | Call the police! | Merry Christmas | Happy New Year | Happy Easter | Happy Birthday | Congratulations | One language is never enough | My hovercraft is full of eels

728x90 (Best VPN)

Why not share this page:

If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon , or by contributing in other ways . Omniglot is how I make my living.

Get a 30-day Free Trial of Amazon Prime (UK)

• Learn languages quickly
• One-to-one Chinese lessons
• Learn languages with Varsity Tutors
• Green Web Hosting
• Daily bite-size stories in Mandarin
• EnglishScore Tutors
• English Like a Native
• Learn French Online
•   Learn languages with MosaLingua
• Learn languages with Ling
• Find Visa information for all countries
• Writing systems
• Con-scripts
• Useful phrases
• Language learning
• Multilingual pages
• Advertising

Synonyms of bon voyage

• as in farewell
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Thesaurus Definition of bon voyage

Synonyms & Similar Words

• leave - taking

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• greeting(s)

Thesaurus Entries Near bon voyage

bon voyages

Cite this Entry

“Bon voyage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bon%20voyage. Accessed 19 Jun. 2024.

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Plural and possessive names: a guide, more commonly misspelled words, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, popular in wordplay, 8 words for lesser-known musical instruments, birds say the darndest things, 10 words from taylor swift songs (merriam's version), 10 scrabble words without any vowels, 12 more bird names that sound like insults (and sometimes are), games & quizzes.

Definition of 'bon voyage'

bon voyage in American English

Bon voyage in british english, examples of 'bon voyage' in a sentence bon voyage, trends of bon voyage.

View usage over: Since Exist Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

Browse alphabetically bon voyage

• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'B'

Wordle Helper

Scrabble Tools

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5