Travel guide

This page describes the various ways to move around on the maps of World of Warcraft.

The table above guides you to instructions for specific routes. If you want or need a travel route added to this table, please put your request in the discussion page.

Some material in this guide is outdated. See the Cataclysm travel guide for up-to-date information about traveling post-Cataclysm.

Help from other players
If you are a low level character and wish to travel somewhere but the way is too dangerous, a good option is to have a mage portal you to the capital cities of your faction. Alternatively a warlock can use Ritual of Summoning with two other players to get you almost anywhere. Either method should get you closer to where you want to go.

The faction city portals were removed from Shattrath and Dalaran with the Cataclysm. See the Cataclysm travel guide and living without portal hubs for some suggestions.

Most players will need to use traditional methods of travel to reach destinations in the Old World, such as boats and zeppelins. See the Cataclysm travel guide and living without portal hubs for some suggestions.

Alliance mages get the portals to Ironforge, Stormwind and Exodar at level 40, and Darnassus at level 50.

Horde mages get the portals to Undercity, Orgrimmar and Silvermoon at level 40, and Thunder Bluff at level 50.

All mages can learn the Shattrath portal spell at level 65 and the Dalaran portal spell at level 74.

All warlocks can learn Ritual of Summoning at level 42.

You should be prepared to give the mage some coin. Each portal consumes a Rune of Portals, which costs 20 silver each. It is generally considered common courtesy to include a tip for the mage's trouble. As with all player characters, mages vary in temperament and helpfulness, although 2-3 gold is usually sufficient to buy a portal from any mage. Warlocks need a Soul Shard and two party members present (with the Warlock), to perform a summons so they don't commonly perform one unless you are already in their party or in their guild.

Of course these methods can cost money and if you are not hiking you will not pick up flight path points. Still the above options the fastest ways if you simply want to reach Stormwind as a level 6 night elf just because all your friends are one of the three other races and you want to level with them.

Inns and the Hearthstone
When each player starts a new character, they automatically receive a hearthstone in their inventory that can be used for instant travel back to whatever inn it is bound to. Binding at an inn involves speaking to the innkeeper and selecting the "Make this inn my home" option. The hearthstone can only be used once every 30 minutes, though shaman have a spell (called Astral Recall) with the same effect, but with a much shorter timer (15 min). Shamans don't get it until level 30. If you accidentally delete your hearthstone, don't panic. Simply speak with an innkeeper, make that inn your new home and you will receive a new hearthstone.

Wyverns, Gryphons, Bats, Dragonhawks and Hippogryphs

 * [[File:pointer flight on 32x32.png]] interact with flight master [[File:pointer flight off 32x32.png]] flight master out of range

One of the most common forms of transportation in World of Warcraft is flying. Gryphons and Hippogryphs provide this for the Alliance, while Wyverns, Dragonhawks and Bats are aligned with the Horde. Many settlements have a flight point, with an NPC who will allow you to travel to various connected points for a fee. Before you can use a flight path you must travel to it on foot and "learn" the path by clicking on the flight path NPC who will have a green ! above their heads. (There are a few exceptions: All characters start with the flight point of their racial capital. Death knights automatically know every flight point in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Some Outland and Northrend flight points are learned automatically or through quests.) Flight paths are fixed; you cannot control the creature you are on, so sit back and enjoy the view.

While in flight, you cannot perform any skills (except for activating certain auras), but you can tinker with macro functions, set up your action bar, equip gear, chat, and adjust your game configuration settings. This is an excellent time to change your video settings, especially if your computer is slow to change them. (The color-depth settings are reset to default each time you load the game.)

Zeppelins and Boats
Travel between the two continents and to locations more remote than are accessible via flight path is done via large Zeppelins, Boats, or similar. These cost nothing to use, and operate on a fairly rapid schedule. They are also a relatively safe way to travel, for those with the correct faction alignment, as they usually have guards stationed at the stops. Anyone can use any of these travel options, but the guards will try to kill you if you are not liked by their faction, of course.

The Horde has zeppelin services, operated by the goblins, between Orgrimmar (Durotar) and Undercity (Tirisfal Glades); Orgrimmar and Grom'gol Base Camp (Stranglethorn Vale); Undercity and Grom'gol Base Camp; Undercity and Vengeance Landing (Howling Fjord) ; and Orgrimmar and Warsong Hold (Borean Tundra).

The Alliance has boat routes that provide service between Rut'Theran Village (Teldrassil) and Auberdine (Darkshore); Auberdine and Stormwind Harbor (Stormwind City); Menethil Harbor (Wetlands) and Theramore Isle (Dustwallow Marsh); Forgotten Coast (Feralas) and Feathermoon Stronghold (Feralas); Auberdine and Valaar's Berth (Azuremyst Isle) ; Menethil Harbor and Valgarde (Howling Fjord) ; and Stormwind Harbor and Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra).

The Goblins run a neutral (all players start neutral to Steamwheedle Cartel) boat service between Ratchet (Barrens) and Booty Bay (Stranglethorn Vale).

The Tuskarr run neutral boat services between Moa'ki Harbor (Dragonblight) and Unu'pe (Borean Tundra) and between Moa'ki Harbor and Kamagua (Howling Fjord).

For more details see: Zeppelin, Boat

Personal Travel
Certain classes, such as mages, druids, hunters and shaman, have different means of personal travel which help them get places faster. The Engineering profession also allows use of four trinkets that allow personal teleportation to either Everlook and Area 52 if you took Goblin Engineering specialization or Gadgetzan and Toshley's Station if you took up gnomish specialization.

At level 20, all classes can purchase mounts. These aren't overly expensive, costing only for training and  for the mount, and can be reduced in price by gaining higher reputation with your faction (up to 20% discount), and provide a faster means of transportation than traveling everywhere by foot. Paladins and Warlocks get mounts and apprentice riding training for at level 20, after speaking to their class trainer.

At level 40, all classes can upgrade to epic mounts. These mounts are more expensive ( for training and for the mount), but provide a greater speed increase than does a normal mount—which becomes quite useful when traversing the larger zones intended for level 40+ characters. Again, Paladins and Warlocks get special mounts. Prior to patch 3.0.3, these mounts all required completion of long and costly questlines. Now, the quest is a Feat of Strength and Paladins and Warlocks may now train their epic mounts at 40, provided they have already picked up the Journeyman Riding skill. For Death knights, a Deathcharger is automatically received for free after completing [55]. You may buy the mounts of another allied race (IE a Dwarf purchasing human horse mounts) if you are of exalted rank with that race's home city. You cannot buy mounts of the opposite faction, though some generically available mounts do resemble racial mounts, such as the Swift Razzashi Raptor, which resembles Darkspear Raptors.

Also at level 40, you may purchase black-colored PVP variant of racial mounts for 50,000 Honor Points, which you receive by competing in PvP combat. You must still pay for the riding training. You may purchase mounts of the same faction but different race, even if you are not exalted (i.e, a Draenei can purchase a Black War Horse even if he or she is not exalted with Stormwind.) You can never gain Black PVP variants of the other faction's mounts.

At level 60, all classes can purchase flying mounts for use only in Outland and Northrend. Basic flying mounts ( for training, for the mount) are the same speed on the ground as regular (level 20) mounts, and fly at 150% speed. Epic flying mounts are also available; they're much more expensive ( for training, for the mount), but also much faster (same speed on land as an epic mount and +280% speed in the air). To fly in Northrend, players must also reach level 77 and train Cold Weather Flying for. There are certain mounts that fly even faster, +310% speed, but these still require spending on training and are exceedingly hard to obtain.

There are no special mounts for Paladins and Warlocks in Outland. Druids can learn a flight form from their class trainer at level 60. At level 70, Swift Flight Form becomes available through a long but fun questline once you have paid the for the artisan riding skill. Since patch 3.0.3, druids can also obtain Swift Flight Form from their trainers at level 71, but the quest is still available to get it one level earlier, and counts as a Feat of Strength.

The Deeprun Tram
The Deeprun Tram provides free transportation between Stormwind and Ironforge. The entrances to the tram are found in the Dwarven District in Stormwind and in Tinkertown in Ironforge. There are 2 Trams and each of them will need 2 min to get to Ironforge (from Stormwind) and back, meaning that one has to wait 1 min at maximum.

It is also the only safe way to travel between Stormwind and Ironforge for low-level characters the first time as you cannot use flightpaths until they are discovered. The areas between the two cities are for much higher-level characters.

Portals
There are a few cities that provide free portal travel between major cities. In the eastern room off of the courtyard in Undercity, there is a portal that leads to Silvermoon City, which leads players to the Inner Sanctum. This is the only portal that can be used to go both ways (Undercity → Silvermoon City, Silvermoon City → Undercity). As the portal is Horde-aligned, it cannot be used by Alliance characters because it would trivialize raiding of Silvermoon City.

Every capital city has a portal heading to the Blasted Lands right by the Dark Portal, which is useful for level 58 characters ready to head to Outland. In the faction camps just beyond the portal there are portals to Stormwind and Orgrimmar. You can use this combo to save hearthstone's cooldown.

Prior to Cataclysm, there were portals in Dalaran and Shattrath City to each faction's major cities. These portals were removed in patch 4.0.3a. Players now need to use more traditional methods of travel to reach destinations in the Old World. See living without portal hubs and Cataclysm travel guide for some suggestions.