trip, tour, travel, journey trip= short distance + for pleasure tour= short distance + for work - pleasure travel= go from place to place ( long distance ) journey = go from place to place ( far distance ) Trip: a journey to a place and back again, especially a short one for pleasure or a particular purpose example : Did you have a good trip? We went on a trip to the mountains. ............................ Tour : a journey made for pleasure during which several different towns, countries, etc. are visited: a walking / sightseeing, etc. tour Example : a coach tour of northern France a tour operator (= a person or company that organizes tours) ........................................................... Travel to go from one place to another, especially over a long distance examples : to travel around the world I go to bed early if I’m travelling the next day. I love travelling by train. ......................................................... Journey : examples : an act of travelling from one place to another, especially when they are far apart: They went on a long train journey across India. Source : Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary

A "trip" is a noun: it can be a vacation, a business trip, or simply a visit to the supermarket. A "tour" is a verb and noun: it means to see some places. To "travel" is a verb meaning to take a trip over a long distance for a more extended time period. A "journey" is a long trip: it can be a verb or noun. Example: We took a trip to the museum in the next city. We toured London / We took a tour of London. We traveled to China by plane, and took a tour of the Forbidden City. We journeyed / made a long journey from one end of Europe to the other.

Want some other clues? Look at the origins of the words. Trip - no-one is really sure, apparently this had to do with sailing. But it's very similar to the Dutch "trippen" (to skip, hop). Either way, a trip sounds like fun. Tour - French! It relates to "turn", but also a round-trip. So the suggestion is you'll arrive back where you started. Travel - this sounds like some effort. It's French again, it means to *make* a journey, but also related to the modern French "travailler", to work. Journey - French "journée". Basically whatever you do during the whole day(jour). In this context, travel. It also sounds much more formal than "trip". Compare these explanations to Brad's and Angela's examples above.