The album also garnered the band two American Grammy Award nominations for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group or Duo ("Breakout") at the ceremony held in 1988.

For this album, Swing Out Sister consisted of vocalist Corinne Drewery, keyboardist Andy Connell and drummer Martin Jackson.

The title for the album was derived from a quote by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson: "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

[8] Caroline Sullivan of Melody Maker described the songs on It's Better to Travel as "spanking, sparkling, radio-friendly little tunes, dressed up in some Dagworthy/Galliano fashionwear and committed to vinyl by a good-looking girl and two male partners.

"[7] Lucy O'Brien of New Musical Express mentioned a "lush, laidback funky mix with nifty horn section" and stated that "it should be less a case of Swing than Break Out Sister.