The others have explained the meanings. Note that these two words are completely unrelated. “Traverse” comes from Latin “to cross”, composed of “trans” (across), and “vers-” (to turn). “Travel” comes from Latin “tripaliare” (to torture someone, originally with a 3-pointed weapon — “tri-” means three, and pal- means pole, stick, stake), via French (where “travailler” means “to work”, the idea being that work was like being tortured), to English (the idea being that travel was difficult — true back in the days before they had modern transportation and nice hotels).

Like David mentioned, there is a difference in the meaning. When you travel, you take a trip or make a journey. When you traverse, you move through an area. Also, while "travel" can be used as both a verb and a noun, "traverse" is only used as a verb.

Traverse is more likely to be used in an academic context. It would be considered a bit old-fashioned in conversation when we would usually say " cross"

"travel" is general-purpose and can be used for any journey of reasonable length. "traverse" is usually transitive ("he traversed the country") whereas "travel" can be either transitive ("he travelled the world") or intransitive ("he travelled regularly").

traverse VERB 横穿;横越;穿过 If someone or something traverses an area of land or water, they go across it. I traversed the narrow pedestrian bridge. 我走过狭窄的人行天桥。 ......................................................................... travel 1. VERB (常指长途)旅行，行进 If you travel, you go from one place to another, often to a place that is far away. You had better travel to Helsinki tomorrow... 你最好明天赶赴赫尔辛基。 2. VERB 周游;走遍;在…游历 If you travel the world, the country, or the area, you go to many different places in the world or in a particular country or area. Dr Ryan travelled the world gathering material for his book... 瑞安博士周游世界为他的书搜集资料。