Your most basic mode of Transportation. For most of the game you will travel across the lands on foot from town to town, causing random encounters, which are vital to gain EXP. and GP. This will also be your way of getting around in dungeons. Because Chocobos were not introduced until later in the series, by foot will have to do for traveling across the land.
A great way to travel across to other continents. On the Ship you can still get random encounters, but this will still be helpful for building up. Although it sails across large bodies of water, the Ship cannot sail up rivers. To land you must find docks located all over the world map near towns. You can land at the mouth of a river once you have the Canoe.
The Canoe is a great way of reaching new places on the world map by traveling up rivers. With it, you can also dock your ship and the mouths of rivers. Although a great mode of transportation, you may run into some difficult random encounters, so be careful.
Once you have acquired your Air Ship, you may now travel across to many new places with no random encounters, over water, land or mountains. It's the fastest way to travel and most convenient. One downside is that the Air Ship can only land is grass areas or plains.