There is a particular kind of longing that vintage travel posters produce — a nostalgia not just for specific places, but for the idea of travel as it existed in a more romantic era. An era before budget airlines and luggage weight limits, when a journey to the French Riviera or the Swiss Alps was an event worthy of a great poster.
These works were never meant to be art. They were commercial propaganda — produced to fill trains and ocean liners with passengers. But in becoming the most effective advertising of their age, they also became some of the most enduring images of the twentieth century.
The Golden Age: 1920s–1950s
The great age of the travel poster coincides precisely with the interwar period, when rail travel, ocean liners, and early aviation opened the world to a new class of traveller. The aesthetic was shaped by Art Deco: geometric simplification, bold flat colours, and a glamorous modernity that promised the exotic made accessible.
Railway companies were the great commissioners. The Paris, Lyon and Mediterranean Railway (PLM), the Southern Railway in England, and the LNER in Scotland all invested heavily in poster campaigns. Airlines followed: Air France, Qantas, Swissair. So did national tourism boards, municipalities, and ski resorts.
The result was an extraordinary body of work, produced by some of the finest graphic artists of the day, under commercial conditions that demanded clarity and immediate impact.
Roger Broders and the PLM School
If one artist defines the genre, it is Roger Broders (1883–1953). Commissioned by the PLM to produce posters for the French Riviera, the Alps, and the Côte d'Azur, Broders developed a style of extraordinary clarity: bold flat planes of colour, simplified landscapes, and a sunlit palette that made the south of France look like paradise.
His Bandol — Land of Sun and Flowers is a masterwork of the form: a single dominant colour field, a woman glimpsed against sea and sky, the destination announced in clean lettering. Everything unnecessary has been removed. What remains is pure desire.
His Brighton — The Most Charming English Seaside Resort demonstrates how the same aesthetic language could be applied to more temperate destinations — the format imposing glamour on the grey English Channel through sheer graphic confidence.
The French Riviera as Subject
No destination produced more iconic travel posters than the French Riviera. Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Antibes, Sainte-Maxime — each received the treatment from multiple artists across multiple decades. The competition between resort towns for their share of wealthy visitors drove constant commissioning.
The Cannes vintage travel poster captures the defining appeal of the Côte d'Azur: blue sea, white buildings, and the implicit promise of sun. The Nice — French Riviera poster and the Sainte-Maxime poster work the same territory with different compositions.
Monaco's poster output was particularly rich, shaped by the glamour of the Grand Prix and the casino. The Monte Carlo travel poster managed to fold natural beauty, sophistication, and aspiration into a single image.
The Alpine Tradition
Switzerland and the French and Austrian Alps produced a parallel tradition of ski and mountain resort posters that are among the most collected in the genre. The visual language was different from the coastal posters — more dynamic, with figures in motion, steep diagonals, and the drama of altitude.
The Chamonix Mont Blanc poster is among the finest: a composition that conveys the scale of the mountains while making them look inviting rather than threatening. The St Moritz Engadin aerial ski poster takes the opposite approach — a bird's-eye view that turns the ski runs into abstract graphic forms.
The Ad Astra Aero airline poster for Zurich captures the excitement of early aviation applied to Swiss tourism — a reminder that these posters weren't just selling destinations but an entirely new relationship with travel itself.
Australia: A Nation Selling Itself
Australian vintage travel posters occupy a fascinating position in the genre. Produced largely in the 1930s through 1950s, they were part of a national project of self-promotion — encouraging both domestic tourism and immigration from Britain and Europe.
James Northfield's work for the Victorian Railways and the Australian National Travel Association is particularly celebrated. His posters combine the international Art Deco visual language with specifically Australian subjects — sunlight, surf, and vast open landscapes that were genuinely unlike anything European tourists had seen.
The Australia Surf Club vintage poster and the Bondi Beach summer poster capture the beach culture that would become Australia's most exported identity. The Blue Mountains NSW poster shows the same technique applied to the interior — making the strange Australian landscape look both dramatic and accessible.
How to Style Vintage Travel Posters
The destination gallery. Group posters by region — all French Riviera, all Swiss Alps, all Australian — for a cohesive themed wall. The different artists and slightly different colour palettes create visual variety while the subject matter provides unity.
The wanderlust wall. Mix destinations freely: a French poster of Annecy alongside an Australian surf poster alongside a Venice Lido Italian poster. What unifies them is the graphic language of the era — the flat colour, the bold typography — not the geography.
The single statement. A large-format travel poster — A1 or larger — as a standalone on a feature wall. These were designed to stop people in their tracks. They still do.
Framing. Simple black or natural wood frames are the classic pairing. The posters were designed for public display and have the scale to carry a frame without being overwhelmed by it.
From Our Collection
Browse our full range of vintage travel posters, or explore some favourites below:
Some vintage travel prints from the Galrie collection:
