travel book title

• Botswana Botswana Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Egypt Egypt Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Kenya Kenya Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Malawi Malawi Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Mauritius Mauritius Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Morocco Morocco Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Mozambique Mozambique Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Namibia Namibia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Nigeria Nigeria Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories – See more at: http://www.thetraveltart.com/wp-admin/edit-tags.php?taxonomy=category#sthash.vNspdaTh.dpuf
• South Africa South Africa Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Sudan Sudan Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Tanzania Tanzania Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Zambia Zambia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Barbados Barbados Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Canada Canada Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Costa Rica Costa Rica Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Guatemala Guatemala Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Mexico Mexico Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Nicaragua Nicaragua Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• United States United States Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Argentina Argentina Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Bolivia Bolivia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Brazil Brazil Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Chile Chile Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Colombia Colombia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Ecuador Ecuador Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Peru Peru Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Uruguay Uruguay Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Antarctica Antarctica Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Afghanistan Afghanistan Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Bahrain Bahrain Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Bangladesh Bangladesh Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Cambodia Cambodia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• China China Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• India India Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Indonesia Indonesia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Israel Israel Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Japan Japan Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Jordan Jordan Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Kazakhstan Kazakhstan Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Laos Laos Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Malaysia Malaysia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Myanmar Myanmar Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Philippines Philippines Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Singapore Singapore Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• South Korea South Korea Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Taiwan Taiwan Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Thailand Thailand Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Turkey Turkey Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Vietnam Vietnam Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• England England Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Finland Finland Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• France France Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Germany Germany Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Greece Greece Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Hungary Hungary Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Iceland Iceland Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Ireland Ireland Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Italy Italy Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Kosovo Kosovo Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Netherlands Netherlands Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Norway Norway Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Poland Poland Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Portugal Portugal Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Russia Russia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Scotland Scotland Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Spain Spain Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Sweden Sweden Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Switzerland Switzerland Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Wales Wales Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Australia Australia Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Fiji Fiji Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Marshall Islands Marshall Islands Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• New Zealand New Zealand Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Samoa Samoa Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Solomon Islands Solomon Islands Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Vanuatu Vanuatu Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Gap Year Gap Year Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Party Tips Party Tips Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Interviews Travel Interviews on Funny Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information and Stories.
• Luxury Travel Luxury Travel Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Books Travel Books Funny Guides, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Clothes The Travel Clothes that you could possibly wear overseas!
• Travel Insurance Travel Insurance Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Jobs Travel Jobs Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Air Travel Air Travel Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Cruising Cruising Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Space Travel Outer Space Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Gadgets Travel Gadgets Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Photography Travel Photography Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Movies Travel Movies Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Podcasts Travel Podcasts Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Satire Travel Satire Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Songs Travel Songs Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel TV Travel TV Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Video Travel Video Funny Travel Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog Website includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Websites Travel Websites Funny Guide, Destination Tips, News, Advice, Information. Travel Blog includes Silly Photos, Videos, Weird Unusual Humor, WTF and Stories
• Travel Writing Examples
• Press Trips, Famils & Promotions
• Digital Content Creator & Marketer, SEO & Social Media Specialist
• Surviving Cancer

Best Travel Books – 100 Memoirs, Guides, Photography, Tips & Television Series Titles For Wanderlust

Today, I’ve put together a list of 100 of some of the Best Travel Books that I’ve come across that have inspired me to have itchy feet and take off travelling somewhere.

These are the ones that I’ve come across personally (or have been recommended to me), and they’re not necessarily My Top 5 Funny Travel Books or more Travel Books With a Laugh , but worthwile checking out depending on the particular aspect of travel you are interested in. Everyone has different tastes, so hopefully there’s something here for all of you!

No Shitting in the Toilet: The Travel Guide for When You’Ve Really Lost It – Peter Moore Round Ireland with a Fridge – Tony Hawks Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure – Sarah MacDonald Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus: Confessions of a Tour Leader – Brian Thacker Molvania: A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry (Jetlag Travel Guide)

The Best Travel Books – so far!

These ‘Best Travel Books’ range from Travel Literature, Travel Photography, Coffee Table Books, to Lifestyle Design and Travel Memoirs.

Here you go – some of the Best Travel Books out there! In no particular order!

Travel Humour

• No Shitting in the Toilet: The Travel Guide for When You’Ve Really Lost It – Peter Moore
• Round Ireland with a Fridge – Tony Hawks
• Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure – Sarah MacDonald
• The Wrong Way Home – Peter Moore
• Playing the Moldovans at Tennis – Tony Hawks
• Vroom By the Sea – Peter Moore
• 5 Ways to Carry a Goat: A Blogger’s World Tour – Ben Groundwater
• Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure – Tim Cahill
• Lonely Planet Signspotting: Absurd & Amusing Signs from Around the World – Doug Lansky
• The Full Montezuma – Peter Moore
• Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus: Confessions of a Tour Leader – Brian Thacker
• A Piano in the Pyrenees: The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains – Tony Hawks
• Holidays in Hell – P.J O-Rourke
• Americans’ Survival Guide to Australia and Australian-American Dictionary – Rusty Geller
• Travels with My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago – Tim Moore
• I’m Not Eating Any of That Foreign Muck: Travels with Me Dad – Brian Thacker
• French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France – Tim Moore
• Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin – Iris Bahr
• Where’s Wallis? – Brian Thacker
• Molvania: A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry (Jetlag Travel Guide)
• Swahili for the Broken-hearted – Peter Moore
• Sleeping Around: A Couch Surfing Tour of the Globe – Brian Thacker
• Funny Countries: Quotes from around the globe – Richard Breen
• The Naked Man Festival: And Other Excuses to Fly Around the World – Brian Thacker
• Vroom with a View: In Search of Italy’s Dolce Vita on a ’61 Vespa – Peter Moore
• Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid – J Maarten Troost
• Planes, Trains & Elephants – Brian Thacker
• Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism – Thomas Kohnstamm

Lifestyle Design

• The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated – Tim Ferriss
• Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel – Rolf Potts
• The Art of Travel – Alain de Botton

Motorbike and Bicycle Trips

• The Motorcycle Diaries – Ernesto Che Guevara
• Jupiters Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph – Ted Simon
• Around Africa on my Bicycle – Riaan Manser

Women’s Travel

• Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo – Beth Whitman
• 100 Places Every Woman Should Go (Travelers’ Tales) – Stephanie Elizondo
• Gutsy Women: More Travel Tips and Wisdom for the Road (Travelers’ Tales) – Marybeth Bond
• Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman – Alice Steinbech
• Safety and Security for Women Who Travel (Travelers’ Tales)
• Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel
• Go Your Own Way: Women Travel the World Solo – Faith Conlon
• The Thong Also Rises: Further Misadventures from Funny Women on the Road (Travelers’ Tales Guides)

Travel Writing Guides

• Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing
• Betty In the Sky With a Suitcase: Hilarious Stories of Air Travel by the World’s Favorite Flight Attendant

Where to Go Travel Guides

• Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips
• Lonely Planet Dive & Snorkeling Guides
• Off the Beaten Path: A Travel Guide to More Than 1000 Scenic and Interesting Places Still Uncrowded and Inviting
• The Road Less Travelled: 1,000 Amazing Places Off the Tourist Trail. Foreword by Bill Bryson
• Lonely Planet The Travel Book
• 100 Things to Do Before You Die: Travel Events You Just Can’t Miss – Neil Teplica
• Lonely Planet A Year of Adventures
• Make The Most Of Your Time On Earth: 1000 Ultimate Travel Experiences (Rough Guides)
• Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Experiences
• Where To Go When (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
• Food Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 Extraordinary Places to Eat Around the Globe

Offbeat Travel

• Offbeat South Africa: The Travel Guide to the Wacky and Wonderful – Richard George
• Timpson’s Other England: A Look at the Unusual and the Definitely Odd – John Timpson
• The Guide to Odd New York: Unusual Places, Weird Attractions and the City’s Most Curious Sights
• Batfishing in the Rainforest: Strange Tales of Travel and Fishing – Randy Wayne White
• It’s a Dog’s World: True Stories of Travel with Man’s Best Friend (Travelers’ Tales) – Christine Hunsicke
• Strange Country: Travels in a Very Different Australia – Mark Dapin

Travel Photography

• National Geographic Image Collection
• Early Travel Photography: The Greatest Traveler of His Time – Burton Holmes – Genoa Caldwell
• National Geographic: The Photographs (National Geographic Collectors Series)
• Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs (National Geographic Collectors Series) .

Travel Memoirs

• Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown – Paul Theroux
• The Great Railway Bazaar – Paul Theroux
• In a Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson
• The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas – Paul Theroux
• Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer
• Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe – Bill Bryson
• Travellers’ Tales : Stories from the ABC’s Foreign Correspondents – Trevor Borman
• Absurdistan – Eric Campbell
• Marco Polo Didn’t Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer (Travelers’ Tales Guides) – Rolf Potts
• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
• Bill Bryson’s African Diary – Bill Bryson
• Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
• On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) – Jack Kerouac

Old School Travel

• Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes – Robert Louis Stevensen
• Travels in the Land of Kubilai Khan – Marco Polo
• Gulliver’s Travels: The Classic Collection

Americana Travel

• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America – Bill Bryson
• Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States – Gary Younge
• I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away – Bill Bryson
• Ready to Roll: A Celebration of the Classic American Travel Trailer – Douglas Keister

Travel Tips

• Smart Packing for Today’s Traveler – Susan Foster
• Work Your Way Around the World: A Fresh and Fully Up-to-Date Guide for the Modern Working Traveller
• No Touch Monkey!: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late (Adventura Books Series) – Ayun Halliday
• The Rough Guide First-Time Around The World, 3rd Edition
• China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps – Larry Herzberg
• The World’s Cheapest Destinations: 21 Countries Where Your Money is Worth a Fortune, 3rd Edition
• The Smart Traveler’s Passport: 399 Tips from Seasoned Travelers
• The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel – Joshua Piven

Travel Television Series

• Around the World in Eighty Days – Michael Palin
• New Europe – Michael Palin
• Sahara – Michael Palin
• Tropic of Capricorn: A Remarkable Journey to the Forgotten Corners of the World – Simon Reeve

The Best Travel Books of All Time – What Are Yours?

How about you – are there any Best Travel Books that aren’t on this list that you’d like to suggest?

If so, feel free to leave a comment and leave your Best Travel Book Suggestion!

If you’re planning a trip soon, check out my best travel insurance tips , and get a quote on some Backpacker Travel Insurance.

1 thought on “Best Travel Books – 100 Memoirs, Guides, Photography, Tips & Television Series Titles For Wanderlust”

Kiss the Sunset Pig – Laurie Gough (I think)

It’s a great book about her previous travels, and trying to recapture those moments in her current trip.

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The 16 Best Travel Books to Inspire Wanderlust

Nothing inspires wanderlust like getting engrossed in a novel about traveling to a foreign land and the adventures that ensue. You can lose yourself in stories of love, heartbreak, redemption, and self-discovery whether you’re traveling abroad or back home planning your next adventure.

We have been traveling on and off for over 10 years, and along the way, we have taken a lot of long flights, train trips, and bus rides. We always make sure we have a good travel book tucked into our bag to get us through the journey. And if one of your friends is heading abroad, a good book with a heartfelt inscription from you on the front cover is a great travel gift !

Here is our list of the 16 best travel books that have inspired our trips around the globe! We hope that they inspire you to start planning your own adventure!

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase or booking through one of our links we may earn a small commission (don’t worry, it’s at no extra cost to you).

16 Great Travel Books to Inspire Wanderlust

1. A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisine

By anthony bourdain.

Anthony Bourdain changed the way the world thinks about food. He taught us to embrace all of the strange and unique cuisines across the globe and that some of the best meals are at a tiny plastic table down a random alleyway. Of course, most people are familiar with Bourdain due to his hit travel TV show , No Reservations . What most people don’t realize is that it was actually his take-no-prisoners, tell-all style of writing that launched his TV career.

A Cook’s Tour recounts Bourdain’s dining adventures across Portugal, France, Vietnam, Russia, Morocco, Japan, Cambodia, Mexico, and Spain . He eats a still-beating cobra heart in Hanoi (we’ve done this too!), samples half-formed duck embryos – otherwise known as balut  – in Cambodia (check!), and enjoys a  tagine in Morocco (been there too!).

Bourdain is a great storyteller, and by the end of this book, you’ll be both hungry and eager to plan your next trip.

2. The Beach

By alex garland.

If you’ve done a bit of traveling and can’t seem to get “off the beaten path,” then try giving Alex Garland’s The Beach a read.

Richard is a British backpacker who is disillusioned with the well-trodden tourist circuit of Southeast Asia. While staying in a cheap hotel on Khao San Road in Bangkok, he is given a mysterious map to a beautiful beach, unspoiled by tourism, hidden in the Gulf of Thailand. He befriends a French couple, Françoise and Étienne, and together they set off to find the secret beach.

It’s a tale of paradise found (and lost) with plenty of adventure, romance, betrayal, and cannabis. It’s truly one of the best travel books out there and anyone headed to Thailand for the first time should read it!

3. Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America’s Strangest Jail

By rusty young.

Although Marching Powder  was written by Rusty Young, it is really the story of Thomas McFadden, a British drug trafficker who was caught in Bolivia and imprisoned in Bolivia’s San Pedro prison.

San Pedro turns out not to be your typical prison. Inside its walls, you must pay rent for your jail cell and imprisoned drug lords are joined by their wives and children who enter and leave the prison freely. There is also an onsite cocaine manufacturing operation and a small bribe can get you out of (or into) the prison for a day.

Thomas begins running tours of the bizarre prison and they become a staple of the South American backpacker circuit. When Rusty hears about the tours he signs up for a night in the prison. He winds up staying for 3 months in order to document Thomas’ story and life in San Pedro.

We actually tried to visit the San Pedro prison when we were in La Paz, but by that time the Bolivian government had cracked down on the illegal tours.

4. The Cloud Garden: A True Story of Adventure, Survival, and Extreme Horticulture

By tom hart dyke and paul winder.

The Cloud Garden  tells the story of a fearless young backpacker, Paul, and an impetuous botanist, Tom. Together they decide to attempt a crossing of the impenetrable stretch of swamp and jungle between Panama and Colombia known as The Darién Gap. This no man’s land is also full of guerrillas (not to be confused with gorillas) and drug smugglers. It’s not exactly the kind of place you want to go on vacation but Paul is hunting for adventure, and Tom is hunting for orchids.

Unfortunately, just a short way from the Colombian border, they are captured by a paramilitary group and held against their will for 9-months. Their tale is chock full of suspense, wit, and even a bit of Stockholm syndrome.

We are often told by friends and family not to go somewhere because it is too dangerous. For the most part, we go anyways and discover friendly people and fun adventures. But this travel novel is an example of what happens when you push your luck just a little too far!

5. Shantaram

By gregory david roberts.

Shantaram is an epic saga of loss, hope, faith, and redemption. The protagonist is a convicted Australian bank robber who escapes prison and flees to Mumbai, India (called ‘Bombay’ at the time) to build a new life. Along the way, he works as a slum doctor, drug dealer, passport forger, weapons smuggler, and Bollywood actor.

While some of the events mirror the author’s life, much of the story is obviously fiction or at least significantly embellished. It’s a beautiful read full of gang fights, romance, and impossibly heroic moments. A bit like the main character in your own Bollywood movie.

While many of our book recommendations are quick reads, Shantaram is almost 1,000 pages. It’s the perfect travel novel if you have an extremely long bus ride or flight ahead of you.

6. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

By bill bryson.

A Walk in the Woods  recounts Bill Bryson’s attempt to hike the entire 2,100 miles of America’s Appalachian Trail with his overweight, chain-smoking friend, Stephen Katz. Along the way, they meet a host of interesting thru-hikers and develop a begrudging appreciation for the beautiful and fragile wilderness of the United States.

Bryson has a great sense of humor and all of his books will make you chuckle, though this one makes a particularly great gift for hikers. Many people prefer his travel novel about Australia, In a Sunburned Country,  but I have a soft spot in my heart for A Walk in the Woods. Perhaps because I grew up in East Tennessee, just 20 miles from the Appalachian Trail.

7. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

By robert m. pirsig.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is much more than just a travel book. It tells the story of a man and his son on a cross-country motorcycle trip from Minnesota to California. The book deviates from the main storyline quite often to delve into philosophical pondering (which is the real focus of the book).

It’s an incredibly interesting book if you have an interest in eastern philosophy or if you just want inspiration for a motorcycle trip across the US . Although according to the author, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance “should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It’s not very factual on motorcycles, either.”

8. Papillon

By henri charrière.

Papillon is the “autobiographical” story of Henri Charrière. He is a French safecracker wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to a life of hard labor on the penal colony of Devil’s Island (French Guiana). The ensuing tale spans 14 years and involves numerous jailbreak attempts – some successful, some not.

There is a question as to how much of the novel is true with some critics claiming it is about 90% fiction. Regardless, Charrière is a great storyteller and the book became an immediate success upon its release in 1969. It has since been translated into 21 languages and made into a movie three times.

9. Round Ireland with a Fridge

By tony hawks.

You’ve probably had a few too many drinks and made a ridiculous bet with your friends before. And you probably woke up the next morning with a hazy memory of the terms of your silly bet and never actually followed through with it. In the book  Round Ireland with a Fridge , Tony bets a friend that he can hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with a refrigerator in one month.

He realizes the foolishness of this claim when he wakes up hungover the next morning. But rather than take the easy way out, he decides to give it his best shot. So with his trusty mini-fridge in tow, he sticks out his thumb and heads off on an adventure that turns him into a national hero.

It’s a hilarious tale that will have you believing in the kindness of strangers and the luck of the Irish!

10. The Damage Done: Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison

By warren fellows.

Warren Fellows was a drug smuggler who trafficked heroin from Thailand to Australia and got caught. This book is not meant to proclaim his innocence. In fact, Fellows makes it clear that he was guilty (but mainly unlucky).

Fellows is given a life sentence in Bangkok’s notorious Bang Kwang prison. His account of the living conditions and punishment that he endured for over a decade makes prisons in the USA look like 5-star hotels.

It may be obvious to you at this point that I am very intrigued by foreign prisons. So intrigued, in fact, that I actually visited an inmate in Bangkwang prison during a trip to Bangkok in my youth. It turned out to be far less interesting than I was expecting and a bit strange as the inmate wanted me to deliver cryptic messages to people around Bangkok. Better to just stick to reading about them…

11. Heart of Darkness

By joseph conrad.

Heart of Darkness  was written over a century ago but still remains a fascinating read. It’s the tale of Charles Marlow, a riverboat captain and ivory transporter obsessed with the “blank places on the earth”. Otherwise known as those areas that are unmapped and uncivilized.

He journeys up the Congo River in Africa in search of the mysterious ivory trader, Krutz. Marlow’s trip into the heart of the African continent is full of vivid imagery and shines an uncomfortable light on the practice of imperialism in the 19th century.

While the story takes place in Africa, this book was the inspiration for the cult classic movie Apocalypse Now set in Vietnam (it’s also the namesake for one of the best new breweries in Saigon ). Whether you’re headed to Africa or Southeast Asia, this is a classic quick read.

12. Travels with Charley: In Search of America

By john steinbeck.

In Travels with Charley , John Steinbeck recounts his 1960s road trip around the United States with his French Poodle, Charley. Steinbeck was nearing the end of his life and wanted to see America one last time. So he bought a GMC pickup truck, outfitted it with a camper named Rocinante (after Don Quixote’s horse), and set off on his epic journey to rediscover the country he spent his life writing about.

It’s best to not take the story as an actual autobiography. His older son later remarked that “Steinbeck was at heart a novelist” who would never let the truth get in the way of a good story. And it is a great story. In fact, it’s one of the best travel books for anyone planning an American road trip .

13. The Alchemist

By paulo coelho.

Recommending The Alchemist  may be a bit cliché. However, it’s one of the best travel books in the world for good reason. The Alchemist is the quintessential traveler’s tale of learning to listen to your heart and following your dreams.

Santiago is a young Andalusian shepherd who decides to give up his flock of sheep and journey to Africa in pursuit of his personal “treasure” which he believes is at the Pyramids. Along the way, he loses everything he owns (a few times), meets a king, falls in love, and much more.

The Alchemist is a quick, easy read and is a great place to start if you’re looking for a little travel inspiration.

14. The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World

By lonely planet.

Lonely Planet’s The Travel Book is not actually a travel novel. It’s a brief overview of every country in the world. Each entry includes beautiful photos, fun facts, and a few key phrases in the local language. Lonely Planet describes it as “850 images. 230 countries. One complete picture.”

At approximately 450 pages, the Travel Book is huge and heavy. So you certainly wouldn’t want to bring it along on your trip. But it’s the perfect coffee table book to help you find inspiration to plan your next exotic vacation.

15. Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders

By joshua foer, dylan thuras, and ella morton.

If you prefer visiting obscure destinations overstaying in 5-star hotels,  Atlas Obscura  is the perfect travel book for you! “Inspiring equal parts wonder and wanderlust”, this oddball travel book details 700 of the most bizarre sites around the world.

It’s another book that is better suited for the coffee table at home than your suitcase. But, flipping through the Atlas Obscura will definitely make even the most content homebody curious about visiting some of these off-the-beaten-path adventures.

16. Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes

By alastair humphreys.

Alastair offers a fresh take on the concepts of travel and adventure in his book Microadventures . He believes that you can take the spirit of a great big adventure and squeeze it into a short time period with a small budget.

He challenges everyone to get out of their comfort zone. Even if it’s just spending the weekend camped on a nearby hillside or taking a swim in a lake close by. You don’t have to book a plane ticket to experience adventure, sometimes it’s waiting for you right in your own backyard!

What’s your favorite travel book? Tell us in the comments so we can add it to our list!

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About the Author:

Nick took his first solo trip abroad to Ireland and Scotland when he was just 19. Since then he has visited over 70 countries around the world (plus 45 states in the USA). He coupled his passion for travel photography with Val’s passion for writing and thus Wandering Wheatleys was born. He now lives in Asheville with his two rambunctious kids, Humphrey and Wilhelminha. Besides photography, Nick loves eating the weirdest food he can find in a country (sheep’s brain currently sits in first place) and making Val get up an hour before sunrise to make sure he gets “the good light”.

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12 thoughts on “the 16 best travel books to inspire wanderlust”.

These are amazing books on the list that I noted everything except for the Alchemist as I’ve been reading that a lot of times already, it’s my favorite travel book that’s why. Although I am passionate about travel books, I’ve never heard the rest of the list so this is a good information for me. I will definitely start with “A Cook’s Tour” by Anthony Bourdain, that got me interested more.

Being passionate about books from childhood, books have always been the wings that fueled my travel imagination. Many of the places that I visit today are places that I have already visited through the books that I have read. This is an awesome list of books. I have read quite a few of them. my all time favourites are Papillon and The Alchemist.

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65 Books for Travelers: Curing Your Wanderlust One Page at a Time

Home » Blog » Personal Stuff » 65 Books for Travelers: Curing Your Wanderlust One Page at a Time

You don’t need a plane ticket or a packed suitcase to escape on an adventure… All you need is a good travel book. With a bit of imagination, you can be on a wild journey in a matter of moments, all from the comfort of your living room (or seat on a train…).

We’ve curated a giant list of books for travelers including titles we’ve read (and loved!) ourselves, as well as some books that are on our personal to-read list.

We’ve done our best to round up a variety of different kinds of stories — from funny fictional tales to heart-wrenching memoirs to historical accounts of epic adventures – you’ll find ‘em all on this list: education, inspiration, and just a good old fashioned escape from reality!

Whether you’re stuck at home and need a little “armchair adventure” or you’re looking for a good book to bring along on your next trip, we hope you’ll find something on this list that speaks to you.

Types of Travel Books

Jump to the type of book you prefer and see all the options we’ve gathered just for you!

Travel Stories and Memoirs

Travel Books for Foodies

Books about travel adventures, tales of romance & travel, books about travel & history, self-help style guides based on travel, fictional books about places around the world, coffee table books about travel, read these books for free.

If you don’t already have a library card, now’s the time to get one (especially if you have an e-reader ). Not only is it free, but you can rent the digital versions of books and have them sent straight to your Kindle without even stepping foot in the library.

You can do this through the free app, Libby . It’s kind of amazing, especially when you’re traveling and not able to physically go to your local library.

Our thoughts on e-readers: We love real, hard-covered books with actual paper pages you can – gasp! – flip! But while physical books will always have our hearts, the convenience of a Kindle has won over our practical minds… especially when it comes to packing books for travel. I mean, you only need to pack one slim device, and the options are limitless — you can read 100 books if you want. Packing even one “real” book becomes a bit of a bulky burden if you travel light like we do.

Have you ever tried Audio Books?

When I was young, I loved renting audiobooks from my local library. They were just cassette tapes, usually with a semi-boring narrator, but I loved that I could have someone read the story to me.

Funny story: One of my favorite books wasn’t on audio book yet, so 12-year-old me decided to record myself reading the story (with voices for each character!) so my family could listen to it on our spring break road trip. Oh, what I would pay to listen to that “audio book” now!

Lucky for you, you don’t have to listen to 12-year-old Katie or a boring narrator! Within the Libby app, you can switch your preferences to search for audiobooks, and again, you can borrow them for free to your phone!

Travel Stories & Memoirs

Travel vicariously through the stories and lessons these authors have written. From entertaining short stories to lesson-filled memoirs, this list is a great place to start for any traveler looking for their next read.

At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe

By: Tsh Oxenreider

Uprooting their lives to go on a 9-month family “gap year” of sorts, author Tsh Oxenreider chronicles her family’s adventures as they discover what life is like all over the world. This one is near the top of our to-read list!

The World | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story

By: Tony & Maureen Wheeler

Written by the founders of Lonely Planet, this is the autobiographical story of their personal journeys and how the business was born.

The World | Autobiography/Travel Literature | Buy on Amazon

A Woman Alone: Travel Tales from Around the World

Edited by: Faith Conlon, Ingrid Emerick and Christina Henry de Tessan

Solo female travelers tell their funny and sometimes terrifying, albeit ultimately transformative tales of navigating some of the more unusual destinations around the globe.

The World | Short stories/Humor | Buy on Amazon

What I was Doing While You Were Breeding

By: Kristin Newman

Sitcom writer, Kristin Newman, takes readers along on a hilarious journey through her many solo vacations and the romances and blunders she’s faced along the way.

“Equal parts laugh-out-loud storytelling, candid reflection, and wanderlust-inspiring travel tales,  What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding  is a compelling debut that will have readers rushing to renew their passports.” – Amazon

The World | Memoir/Humor | Buy on Amazon

Hold the Enlightenment: More Travel, Less Bliss

By: Tim Cahill

Author Tim Cahill presents a hilarious and insightful collection of essays about his far-flung adventures in unique places around the world, from diving with great white sharks in South Africa to staving off enlightenment at a yoga retreat in Jamaica.

The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca

By: Tahir Shah

After uprooting his family from London, author Tahir Shah shares a highly entertaining account of his family’s adventures in renovating an abandoned mansion by the sea in Casablanca.

Morocco | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

Marching Powder

By: Rusty Young and Thomas McFadden

This memoir is the account of a British man sentenced to time in the world’s most bizarre prisons in La Paz, Bolivia (which was once a tourist attraction). As a reader, you’ll get a glimpse of the drugs, crimes and humanity inside the prison. While not exactly a book about travel , this memoir encapsulates what it’s like for an outsider to be locked up abroad (in South America’s strangest jail, nonetheless).

Our personal thoughts: Right after quitting our jobs in 2014, we headed to South America on a 3-month backpacking trip. And I can’t count the number of people who recommended this book along the way. Once I downloaded it onto my Kindle , I couldn’t put it down. The story is absolutely crazy (and kind of hard to believe it’s true!).

La Paz, Bolivia | Memoir/True Crime | Buy on Amazon

The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country

By: Helen Russell

Given the opportunity, author and Londoner Helen Russell, packs up her life and moves to the Danish countryside where she discovers the secrets to the happiness of Danish people and where that happiness comes from.

Denmark | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide

By: Peter Allison

In his collection of essays, author Peter Allison recounts hilarious and sometimes terrifying tales of his life living in the African bush as a safari guide, coming face to face with some of the fiercest wild animals, and managing the hordes of camera-toting tourists. If you like this one, be sure to check out Don’t Look Behind You, his other book.

Botswana | Short Stories/Humor | Buy on Amazon

In a Sunburned Country

By: Bill Bryson

In a Sunburned Country is popular travel writer Bill Bryson’s account of his personal adventures in the hottest, driest country on earth filled with the friendliest people and the most dangerous wildlife.

Australia | Memoir/Guidebook/Humor | Buy on Amazon

Epic Solitude: A Story of Survival and a Quest for Meaning in the Far North

By: Katherine Keith

Katherine and her husband create their idyllic life of solitude in northern Alaska. But after suffering a tremendous loss, Katherine must push on with her infant daughter. She finds a new purpose when she enters the world of long-distance dog sledding.

USA | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

We strongly believe that one of the best ways to learn about a country and its culture is to learn about its cuisine. What ingredients are important can tell you a lot about a place and its people. If you love food, eat your way around the world with these culinary delights.

A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures Around the World

Features stories by: Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Mark Kurlansky, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris and more. Edited by Don George.

Featuring stories from a variety of well-known writers, A Moveable Feast celebrates food from all over the world and how it nourishes humanity physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

The World | Short Stories | Buy on Amazon

Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook

By: Anthony Bourdain

A follow-up to his best-selling memoir Kitchen Confidential , Medium Raw focuses on Anthony Bourdain’s rise to fame as he takes aim at some of the biggest names in the foodie world.

“If Hunter S. Thompson had written a book about the restaurant business, it could have been  Medium Raw.” – Amazon

Cuban Flavor: Exploring the Island’s Unique Places, People & Cuisine

By: Liza Gershman

A photojournalistic journey through the streets of Cuba, its paladars, and its flavorful cuisine. More than just a cookbook, this volume is an introduction to a revolutionary era of Cuban cuisine.

Cuba | Cookbook/Memoir/Travel Literature | Buy on Amazon

A Fork in the Road: Tales of Food, Pleasure & Discovery on the Road

Features stories by: James Oseland, Madhur Jaffrey, Frances Mayes, Padma Lakshmi, Marcus Samuelsson and more.

Featuring stories of life-changing food experiences around the world from a variety of food-obsessed writers and chefs.

“The dubious joy of a Twinkie, the hunger-sauced rhapsody of fish heads, the grand celebration of an Indian wedding feast; the things we eat and the people we eat with remain powerful signposts in our memories, long after the plates have been cleared. Tuck in, and bon appetit!” – Amazon

Under the Tuscan Sun

By: Frances Mayes

Discover the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy along with the author when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the Tuscan countryside.

“This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one.  But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself.”— USA Today

Italy | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines

Another one from everyone’s favorite food and travel writer, Anthony Bourdain. This New York Times bestseller chronicles his culinary adventures around the globe in search of the perfect meal.

An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude

By: Ann Vanderhoof

Canadians Ann Vanderhoof and her husband Steve decided to leave their 9-to-5s in pursuit of cultural and culinary discovery in the Caribbean. Their two-year journey living on a sailboat brings them to drop anchor in 16 different countries where they explore local cuisine and record the dishes they encounter along the way.

Our personal thoughts: This book was recommended highly to us by a good friend.

The World | Cookbook/Memoir | Buy on Amazon

Bon Appetit: Travels Through France with a Knife, Fork & a Corkscrew

By: Peter Mayle

A retired schoolmaster from Provence, author Peter Mayle believes that the religion of France is food… and wine of course! This hilarious and witty memoir brings to life the culture of food in France.

France | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

For our fellow outdoor adventure lovers, this list of books will transport you on some epic journeys around the world. From through-treks in the USA to mountaineering feats in the Himalayas and African safaris, your heart will beat a little harder while reading these adventurous tales.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

By: Cheryl Strayed

After losing her mother and her marriage crumbling, author Cheryl Strayed makes the impulsive decision to hike over 1,000 of the Pacific Crest Trail from California to Washington, with no experience or training, completely solo.

Our personal thoughts: This is the story of a transformative journey, and being that we currently live very close to the PCT, this book is making us itch to hike a (short!) portion of it soon.

Pacific Crest Trail, USA | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

This funny account of one man and his ill-prepared companion’s attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail.

Our personal thoughts: A humorous and adventurous quick read, Ben and I both loved this book and even got my parents hooked on it too. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud at several points of this story.

Appalachian Trail, USA | Memoir/Humor | Buy on Amazon

A Fortune Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

By: Tiziano Terzani

After being warned by a fortune teller not to risk flying for an entire year, author Tiziano Terzani travels by every other means possible across the continent of Asia, consulting soothsayers, sorcerers, and shamans to receive advice and ultimately gain an understanding, respect and even fear for the older ways of life that are now threatened by modernity.

Asia | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

By: Jon Krakauer

Making it to the summit was the easy part. In this thrilling personal account of the 1996 catastrophic storm that hit Mt. Everest and claimed 5 lives, Jon Krakauer provides a detailed picture of the people and events he witnessed on his disastrous descent.

Our personal thoughts: We actually read this book as we did the trek to Everest Base Camp , which made our hike seem like a cake walk!

Mt. Everest | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town

By: Paul Theroux

“In  Dark Star Safari  the wittily observant and endearingly irascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train. In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, he endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances.” – Amazon

Africa | Memoir | Free for Kindle

Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road

By: Kate Harris

A born explorer, Kate Harris sets off to pedal the Silk Road by bicycle, chronicling her journey while examining the importance of personal boundaries, the stories behind physical borders, and a meditation on the longing to explore.

China | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

Turn Right at Machu Picchu

By: Mark Adams

Follow along on this fascinating and funny account of adventure writer (but real adventure novice) Mark Adam’s journey to recreate the original 1911 expedition to Machu Picchu.

Psst! If this book has you inspired, why not look into planning your own trip to Machu Picchu .

Peru | Memoir/Humor | Buy on Amazon

Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains

By: Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

In this transformative tale, Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent shares her journey traveling through one of the least explored regions in India. Along the way she encounters shamans, lamas, hunters, opium farmers, fantastic tribal festivals and discovers a way of life that is soon to be changed forever.

India | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

Marrakech Express

By: Peter Millar

Inspired by the 1969 Crosby, Stills & Nash anthem ‘Marrakech Express,’ author Peter Millar decides to reverse engineer the train journey from the song through the country of Morocco.

Morocco | Memoir/Guidebook| Buy on Amazon

Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey

By: Alison Wearing

“Peppered with accounts of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and political analyses of the country,  Honeymoon in Purdah  is a departure from our conventional perception of Iran. Alison Wearing give Iranians the chance to wander beyond headlines and stereotypes and in so doing, reveals the poetry of their lives.” – Amazon

Iran | Memoir | Buy on Amazon

If you’re looking for something a little lighter with a splash of romance, browse through this list of stories that combine two of life’s biggest adventures: love and travel.

Love With a Chance of Drowning

By: Torre DeRoche

City-girl Torre DeRoche is determined to keep the man of her dreams by joining him on a sailing adventure around the world, even though she is terrified of deep water.

“I was positively swept away by this large-hearted, hilarious story about how deeply and unexpectedly a person can be transformed by love.”  – Suzanne Morrison,  Yoga Bitch

Crazy Rich Asians

By: Kevin Kwan

This is the hilarious and heart-warming tale of a New York City girl who agrees to spend the summer with her boyfriend in Singapore, only to discover he is not only crazy-rich but one of the country’s most eligible bachelors.

You’ll want to check out the rest of the trilogy after you’ve read this first installment.

Singapore | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

My Summer of Love and Misfortune

By: Lindsay Wong

Iris is having a rough time coping with a breakup and her identity when her parents decide to send her to Beijing for the summer to stay with family and reconnect with her roots. There she gets swept up in the glamorous lifestyle of Beijing’s elite leading her to discover romance and a little bit about her herself along the way.

China | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

Eat Pray Love

By: Elizabeth Gilbert

Leaving behind her comfortable life and a marriage she was no longer happy in, Elizabeth Gilbert takes readers on her journey of self-discovery eating her way through Italy, practicing meditation in India, and finding love in Bali, Indonesia.

Our personal thoughts: About as much of a “cliché travel book” as you can get, this memoir from Elizabeth Gilbert is still an entertaining read that both inspires and tugs at your heart.

Love & Gelato

By: Jenna Evans Welch

Lena spends the summer in Tuscany to honor her mother’s dying wish to get to know her father. After discovering a journal her mother kept when she lived in Italy, Lena follows along in her mother’s footsteps exploring the magical country, uncovering secrets about her family, and finding love.

Italy | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

If you’re a history buff and prefer your books to be somewhat educational, this list is a great place to start. Each book in this section has ties to history, whether a memoir or a historical fiction piece, these stories will bring you around the world and back in time all at once.

Seven Years in Tibet

By: Heinrich Harrer

After being imprisoned in China during the second world war, Heinrich recounts his escape and journey across the frozen Himalayas to finally be one of the first Europeans to enter Tibet and the Forbidden City of Lhasa where he befriends the Dalai Lama.

Tibet | Memoir/Historical | Buy on Amazon

The Great Railway Bazaar

First published over 30 years ago, Paul Theroux gives a humorous and engrossing account of his early adventures on an unusual journey across the continent of Asia by railway, from London’s Victoria Station to Tokyo Central and back.

Asia | Memoir/Historical | Buy on Amazon

The Signature of All Things

Spanning the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this story follows the extraordinary Whittaker family in a tale that crosses the globe —from London to Peru to Philadelphia to Tahiti to Amsterdam, and beyond.

The World | Historical Fiction | Buy on Amazon

Homage to Catalonia

By: George Orwell

Author George Orwell was meant to travel to Spain in 1936 to report on the Civil War. Instead he joined the army and fight against the Fascists. This is his personal account of the war and Orwell’s own experiences.

Spain | Memoir/Historical | Buy on Amazon

The Road to Oxiana

By: Robert Byron

“ The Road to Oxiana  is the brilliant account of Robert Byron’s ten-month journey to Iran and Afghanistan in 1933–34. This classic travelogue is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing.” – Amazon

Afghanistan | Memoir/Historical | Buy on Amazon

The Mountains Sing: A Novel

By: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

This is the multigenerational tale of the Trần family during the Vietnam war and the following conflicts that lasted for generations.

Vietnam | Historical Fiction | Buy on Amazon

On the Road

By: Jack Kerouac

Inspired by his own adventures with Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and experience.

Our personal thoughts: My favorite professor in university was obsessed with this book. He taught creative writing and is a NYT best selling author himself, so I trust his taste in books and this one is near the top of my list!

USA | Historical Fiction | Buy on Amazon

Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands: 50 Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will

By: Judith Schalansky

Using historic events and scientific reports, author Judith Schalansky paints a picture of remote islands, whose histories are largely based on speculation and lore, with a poetic romanticism.

The World | Atlas/Travel Literature/Historical Non-Fiction | Buy on Amazon

The Island of Sea Women

By: Lisa See

A story that spans decades, beginning during Japanese colonialism in the 1930’s, this is the tale of two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective.

Psst! Wondering what the island of Jeju is like in real life? We tell you all about it in this article .

South Korea | Historical Fiction | Buy on Amazon

A little travel, a little self-reflection… these books weave travel and life lessons all into one package.

The Art of Travel

By: Alain de Botton

Follow along on the author’s personal travels as he considers everything from the anticipation to the exotic allure. This witty book is not going to tell you where to go, but why you should travel and how to do it well.

The World | Memoir/Travel Literature | Buy on Amazon

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Place in the World

By: Eric Weiner

In a unique mix of travel stories, psychology and humor, author Eric Weiner takes his readers on a journey around the world to find out not what happiness is, but where it is. Answering questions along the way like: Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? 

Laws of the Jungle: Jaguars Don’t Need Self-Help Books

By: Yossi Ghinsberg

Yossi Ghinsberg was lost in the Amazon jungle for twenty-eight days, alone with no food, supplies or weapons, and against all odds, he survived. In this book, Ghinsberg shares the profound truths the treacherous Amazon taught him.

Check out his personal account of his time in the Amazon next in his book Jungle.

Amazon Jungle | Memoir/Humor | Buy on Amazon

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

By: Rolf Potts

In this one-of-a-kind handbook, travel writer Rolf Potts teaches readers how to discover and experience the world on their own terms with steps for achieving the dream of long-term overseas travel.

“One incredible trip, especially a long-term trip, can change your life forever. And  Vagabonding  teaches you how to travel (and think), not just for one trip, but for the rest of your life.”—Tim Ferriss, from the foreword

Psst! We have a wealth of other articles for aspiring digital nomads !

The World | Auto-biography/Handbook | Buy on Amazon

Be swept off your feet (or couch!) as you journey across the world with these fictional stories that take place all around the globe. These books will bring you on adventures that don’t require any packing!

By: Alex Garland

This story starts with an American backpacker in Thailand who hears of an island paradise. When he reaches this idyllic community on a remote Thai island, he finds people from all around the world living together in what appears to be a utopia. But the longer he stays, the more dark secrets are revealed… And yes, you may know this book from the 2000 thriller starring none other than Leonardo DiCaprio.

Our personal thoughts: This is one of those books that it seems all backpackers have read and can be found dog-eared in those hostel book exchange “libraries”. It’s kind of like a “rite of passage” for backpackers, and while some readers aren’t all that enthused, we both really liked the story and the themes of this book.

Read about our real-life experience visiting “The Beach” in Thailand.

Thailand | Fiction/Thriller | Buy on Amazon

If I Had Your Face

By: Frances Cha

“A riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania.” – Amazon

We spent a year living in South Korea while teaching English and while our experience was quite different than the main characters, the descriptions of living in Seoul felt very familiar.

Korea | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

Black Sunday

By: Tola Rotimi Abraham

This story follows the fate of twin sisters Bibike and Ariyik and their family as their comfortable life in Lagos unravels with a series of unfortunate events and over the following two decades.

Nigeria | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

The Garden of Burning Sand

By: Corban Addison

Set in Zambia, an American lawyer and local policeman uncover a crime against a girl who was attacked and left for dead. Despite cultural differences and radically different upbringings, they need to work together to help the girl recover and ensure that justice is served.

Zambia | Fiction/Thriller | Buy on Amazon

By: Gregory David Roberts

Shantaram is the story of an escaped convict who flees a maximum security prison in Australia, fleeing to Bombay with his guide and companion, where they can disappear forever in the criminal underworld.

India | Fiction/Crime Thriller | Buy on Amazon

The Alchemist

By: Paulo Coelho

A classic traveler’s tale, this is the story of a young shepherd who follows a vision that promises he will find treasure and good fortune. His journey takes him through the deserts of Egypt and is full of metaphors and beautiful prose. The underlying themes of forging your own path and seeking your destiny speak to people from all walks of life.

Our personal thoughts: This is a book I’ve read a couple of times, and each time I read it, I find new lessons that resonate. Ben loves this one too!

The World | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

Sharks in the Time of Saviors

By: Kawai Strong Washburn

After being miraculously saved by a shark while on vacation with his family in Hawaii in his youth, Nainoa and his family drift apart in their separate corners of the country. Nainoa it seems has also inherited strange new abilities. Supernatural events revisit the family in adulthood in Hawaii and force them to face each other and test their bonds.

USA | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

What We Were Promised

By: Lucy Tan

After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family returns to China to live a luxurious existence with Shanghai’s elite. When younger brother Qiang resurfaces in Shanghai after years on the run with a local gang, the family is forced to confront their past and what this means for their future.

The Tusk That Did the Damage

By: Tania James

A story set in southern India about the moral complexities of the Ivory trade, told through the eyes of a poacher, a documentary filmmaker and a notorious elephant known as the Gravedigger.

India | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

Once Upon a Sunset

By: Tif Marcelo

After suffering loss and heartbreak, a forced sabbatical leads DC OB/GYN Diana to discover family members in the Philippines she never knew existed. Determined to reconnect, she sets off on an adventure that will change her life forever.

If you are looking for more armchair travel inspiration, check out our articles on the Philippines .

Philippines | Fiction | Buy on Amazon

Angels & Demons

By: Dan Brown

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon finds himself in the middle of a plot to take down the Vatican. With a mixture of historical truths and modern fiction you’ll learn more about the secrets of Rome than you ever thought possible.

Afterwards, you’ll want to pick up the rest of the Robert Langdon series for similar glimpses into Paris, Washington DC, Venice and Barcelona.

Italy | Fiction/Thriller | Buy on Amazon

Lonely Planet’s 1000 Ultimate Experiences

The book is a collection of all sorts of experiences — from epic hikes to festivals to wildlife encounters — it is packed to the brim of things to add to your bucket list.

Our personal thoughts: This book was one of our first purchases together and was a way for us to daydream of all the adventures we’d take together around the world. We used to open this book and circle the adventures we’d take someday, and now it’s fun to look back on some of the adventures we’ve been lucky enough to experience for ourselves and mark the book with the date of our own experience. If you look at the photo above, you’ll even see our notes!

The World | Non-Fiction | Buy on Amazon

Vanlife Diaries: Finding Freedom on the Open Road

By: Kathleen Morton, Jonny Dustow, and Jaren Melrose

“Step into the world of a new generation of modern gypsies: a range of professionals and creatives who have ditched conventional houses for the freedom of the road and the beauty of the outdoors.” – Amazon

Vanlife Diaries is a a collection of imagery, interviews and advice celebrating this community of nomads who have embraced vanlife.

USA | Non-Fiction/Self-Help | Buy on Amazon

She Explores: Stories of Life-Changing Adventures on the Road and in the Wild

By: Gale Straub

“For every woman who has ever been called outdoorsy comes a collection of stories that inspires unforgettable adventure.” – Amazon

This book combines incredible photography with the fascinating personal accounts of 40 diverse women and their unforgettable journeys in nature.

100 Dives of a Lifetime: The World’s Ultimate Underwater Destinations

By: Carrie Miller & Brian Skerry

“Explore 100 breathtaking scuba diving sites around the world–from the cenotes of Mexico to the best wreck in Micronesia–through stunning National Geographic photography, expert tips, and cutting-edge travel advice.” – Amazon

If you are looking for more diving inspiration, we’ve rounded up the sites for the best scuba diving in the world in one article.

The Bucket List: Places to Find Peace and Quiet

By: Victoria Ward

“Explore hard-to-find quiet spots in urban jungles, ultimate wilderness hideouts, the world’s best mindfulness and meditation retreats, and ancient centers of spiritual succor and artistic solace – perfect for whether you want to find yourself or get completely lost.” – Amazon

Life From Above: Epic Stories of the Natural World

By: Michael Bright & Chloe Sarosh

Created after the hit PBS Docuseries: Life From Above , this book compiles over 200 spectacular images using advanced satellite technology to view the earth’s surface — from its megastructures to its natural wonders — in breathtaking detail.

Destinations of a Lifetime: 225 of the World’s Most Amazing Places

Published By: National Geographic

Take a photographic tour of the world’s most exciting and visually alluring destinations that will inspire you to get started planning your next trip .This book features spectacular images from hundreds of locations — from ancient wonders to electric cityscapes to deserted beaches to architectural feats — taken by the world-class National Geographic photographers.

You may also like…

Staying Home Survival Guide

The Ultimate Travel Planning Guide

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We want to hear from you!

What travel books are on your to-read list? Did we miss one of your favorites? Comment below and we’ll do our best to get back to you!

Comments (12) on “ 65 Books for Travelers: Curing Your Wanderlust One Page at a Time ”

This post was truly worthwhile to read. I wanted to say thank you for the key points you have pointed out as they are enlightening.

I recommend this blog in general, it has always something worth following up and even if there are books you are not going to read, you will learn something new and may find books you never thought of reading

Glad you enjoyed it 🙂

Love this. Such an extensive list. Some total classics are on here, like Eat Pray Love, but also love seeing some books I’m not familiar with like Whatever You Do Don’t Run. Thanks for a great lizt.

Thanks! We tried to have a pretty well-rounded variety for all types of readers (or people like me who prefer all different types of reading depending on their mood!).

Oh also, Destinations of a Lifetime: 225 of the World’s Most Amazing Places is another I’m going to get my hands on!

Ohh, good tip!

I love this post! I have read some of the classics like The Year of Living Danishly, In a Sunburned Country, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Whatever you Do, Don’t Run. I have been looking for a post like this for a while, because I really want to start reading the classics and getting to know their writing styles. I’m definitely going to buy What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding: A Memoir!

That book is super high on my list too! I’ve heard great things, so I can’t wait to read it myself 🙂

I love to read and this list just made me so happy! Perfect timing to order some books online! There are so many that look interesting!

Happy you liked it! There are lots on this list that I’ve been meaning to read for a while! Trying to make it a priority now 🙂

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The 38 Best Travel Books for Readers with Wanderlust

If you like to read and you like to travel, you’re my people and you’ve come to the right place. Get ready to discover the 38 best travel books for readers with wanderlust!

As a lifelong reader and traveller, my favourite thing is when my two passions collide. Since 2019, I have read 50+ travel books and would love to introduce some of my favourites to you.

To me, the best travel books are engaging and evocative. They have a story throughout about a person or family I can connect to, rather than just nice descriptions of pretty places. The writing is sharp and funny – never too high-brow, poetic or overly-exclamatory.

My favourite travel stories are true tales (so mostly memoirs about travel) that span multiple countries (around the world trips are my favourite) completed by ordinary people (not athletes or expeditioners). Not all of the books below fit into this category, but it is my go to!

On this list of my favourite travel reads you won’t find:

• Anything historic . I prefer more modern books where the adventures happened in the last 20-ish years.
• Epic adventures or survivor tales . While I believe all of the trips below are adventurous, I’m not drawn to stories of people summiting mountains or surviving shipwrecks. I’m sure those books are great, but they’re not for me.
• Books I read a long time ago . All of the books below I’ve read between 2019 and 2023, so these are my recent thoughts on them (though many were published before then).
• Books I disliked . Obviously, since this is a list of the best travel books, I’ve left off about a dozen books about travel that I’ve read recently, but can’t honestly recommend.

With that out of the way, let’s get to my recommendations and find you your next best book about travel!

Need more reading inspiration? Check out 27 Travel Books that Will Inspire You to See the World , 32 Beach Reads for Every Summer Reading Mood , my favourite non-fiction books , my favourite true crime books , and 12 Memoirs You Should Read .

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning if you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Table of Contents

Best books about travel around the world trips

Below are some of my favourite books that feature around the world trips. If you love the idea of setting off on a huge RTW trip, traveling the world for a year or seeing every country on earth, these adventurous travel stories are for you!

Not Afraid of the Fall by Kyle James

Review : I enjoyed following Kyle and Ashley’s travels around the world in this diary-style book. Though I think it lacked a narrative theme, the diary-style does make it feel like you’re out on the road with them through Europe and Asia.

• The Catch Me If You Can by Jessica Nabongo

Review : This might be the best book for traveling the world since Jessica has literally been to every country! I’ve been following Jessica Nabongo on Instagram for years and loved hearing about her travels, as a Black woman and African woman, to every country in the world, especially the less touristed ones. While I loved listening to this as an audiobook to hear directly from Jessica, I want to check out the print version to see her beautiful photography!

World Travel by Anthony Bourdain & Laurie Woolever

Review : Sadly, Anthony Bourdain was only involved in the outline of this book before his passing. However, it’s filled with his words and beautiful essays from his friends on travel, life and food with Tony. I wish the book had been exclusively these essays and Bourdain’s quotes, instead of also trying to be a guidebook. It felt really out of place, and frankly boring, to also read about how to get from the airport to the city centre and what websites to check out to book airfare.

Home Sweet Anywhere by Lynne Martin

Review : I loved hearing about this adventurous couple in their 70’s who decide to sell it all and live home-free. Their excitement jumped off the page and I loved the little travel stories they shared. At times the book felt a bit dated and dull, but overall their motto of “postpone nothing” was very empowering.

Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh

Synopsis : Packing up her rucksack – and her fiance, Jem – Monisha embarks on an unforgettable adventure that will take her from London’s St Pancras station to the vast expanses of Russia and Mongolia, North Korea, Canada, Kazakhstan, and beyond. The ensuing journey is one of constant movement and mayhem, as the pair strike up friendships and swap stories with the hilarious, irksome and ultimately endearing travellers they meet on board, all while taking in some of the earth’s most breathtaking views.

Review : I will admit that I have been listening to the audio version of this book on and off for what has now been years. Every time I listen, I really enjoy it! Monisha does a great job of making train ride after train ride interesting and weaves in the history and culture of the places she’d riding past. But, much like riding a train, I do find my mind wanders which maybe explains why I haven’t finished it yet.

Best memoirs about travel

My favourite genre of book is probably memoirs about travel. I love hearing directly from the traveller all about their adventurous highs and lows. I specifically selected the below true travel reads as each of these life stories is particularly emotional, impactful and inspiring.

• From Scratch by Tembi Locke

Review : I read this book back in 2020 and remember absolutely bawling during the early chapters. I know it’s on Netflix now but I’m almost too nervous to watch it because I know I’ll be emotional. While tissues are necessary, I highly recommend the book. It almost reads like poetry and Tembi’s love for her husband, her family and his, her daughter, Italy, Italian food and finally, herself, jump off the page.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Review : This memoir was both hilarious, as we’d expect from a late night comedian, and incredibly personal and serious. It was a beautiful tribute to Trevor’s mom and a hard look at life in South Africa. My only complaint is that the book bounced around so much chronologically that I was sometimes confused about where we were.

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett

Review : This was one of the first and only books I stayed up late to finish – closing my e-reader at 4:30am! While it started slow, I was immediately drawn to Amanda’s love of travel. Once she’s kidnapped, the book is brutally honest and, apologies for the pun, incredibly captivating.

What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman

Review : This was a funny and sweet read, perfect for solo travellers who are sick of being asked when they’re going to settle down. While it was an enjoyable read, I wish it was a bit more about travel than relationships.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Review : I couldn’t write a post about the best travel books and not include Eat, Pray, Love now could I? I know it’s a cliche but I would be lying if I didn’t say I really enjoyed this book (and the movie!). I think it’s a powerful read and Liz beautifully tells her story through Italy, India and Indonesia.

A Trip of One’s Own by Kate Wills

Review : Kate is a brilliant storyteller. Whether it’s dealing with the aftermath of her divorce in London, getting back out on the road, reflecting on past travels or telling the stories of female travellers before her, I’m drawn to it all, inspired and engaged!

The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw

Review : This was an amazing look at Ruth Shaw’s life, full of loss and adventure, throughout New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Each chapter ends with a tale from her bookstore that just prove how charming small town life is, how kind Ruth is and how much she loves books and the humans who buy them. PS: We’re planning to visit Ruth’s bookstore when we’re in New Zealand this month!

Best books for traveling food lovers

Looking for the best book about travel AND food? Then this next section is for you! So often a love of travel inspires a love of food or vice versa, as we travel the world eating the best meals . Try not to drool all over these recommendations!

Somebody Feed Phil the Book by Phil Rosenthal

Review : If you’re a fan of the travel TV show Somebody Feed Phil (and you should be!) this is the perfect companion book. Personally, I found the recipes to be pretty advanced for your average home chef but loved all of the photos and essays. Caution: Don’t read while hungry!

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Review : This memoir was a tough read but really resonated with me as a mixed-Asian person. A beautiful exploration of grief, the power of culture and food, and travel from the US to Korea.

Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

Synopsis : As a young chef, Onwuachi was forced to grapple with just how unwelcoming the world of fine dining can be for people of color, and his first restaurant, the culmination of years of planning, shuttered just months after opening. Notes from a Young Black Chef is one man’s pursuit of his passions, despite the odds.

Review : I really enjoyed Chef Kwame’s story and everything that influenced his cooking, from growing up in the Bronx with Southern US heritage to moving to Africa to live with relatives. He also includes recipes in his memoir, which was a fun touch! And there’s a YA version of Notes from a Young Black Chef which I think younger readers would enjoy.

• Chop Suey Nation by Ann Hui

Review : I loved learning about the culture of Chinese restaurants across Canada, as well as Ann’s family history. It was incredibly empowering for me, as a Chinese Canadian, to recognize so many places and dishes from this book. It felt like home!

Taste by Stanley Tucci

Review : Stanley Tucci (or The Tuc, as he’s known in our house) is a great storyteller and his love for food, from his childhood home in New York to moving abroad to Italy with his parents to recreating dishes in his London home during lockdown, shines through in this yummy book.

Best books about traveling the world with kids

While I don’t have kids myself, I love the idea of families travelling together and I hope to do an epic trip with my future family one day. In hopes of inspiring you too, I’ll introduce my contenders for best book for traveling the world with kids!

One Year Off by David Elliot Cohen

Review : As someone who hopes to travel around the world with a future family one day, I’m a sucker for anyone who has done a big trip with their kids. I really enjoyed hearing about the Cohens’ adventures around the world though the book did feel quite dated, as their trip happened in 1996.

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

Review : This was the first book I ever read (or listened to, actually) in one sitting. I loved the idea of Anthony moving his family to Rome for a year while he worked on a book. Sometimes the book focused too much on art or nature for my liking, but the sections on daily life in Rome worked well for me.

At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider

Synopsis : At Home in the World follows Tsh and her family’s journey from China to New Zealand, Ethiopia to England, and more. And all the while Tsh grapples with the concept of home, as she learns what it means to be lost—yet at home—in the world.

Review : I resonated most with this book when Tsh said, “I was infected by an incurable case of wanderlust but I was also a homebody.” That’s so me! I was so inspired by this family’s journey around the world with their kids and how they didn’t let having kids stop them from travelling. There is quite a bit of spirituality and religion throughout the book (including a smidge of white saviour-ism), but it’s mostly tolerable.

• We Came, We Saw, We Left by Charles Wheelan

Review : Another inspiring family adventure! I really enjoyed how this book not only documented the Wheelans’ travels but also why they wanted to go, how they made the trip possible and the family dynamics throughout.

Falling for London by Sean Mallen

Synopsis : Veteran journalist Sean Mallen was ecstatic when he unexpectedly got the chance he’d always craved: to be a London-based foreign correspondent. Falling for London is the hilarious and touching story of how he convinced his wife and daughter to move to London with him, how they learned to live in and love that wondrous but challenging city, and how his dream came true in ways he could have never expected.

Review : It was really interesting to hear Sean’s take not only on moving to London for a year but also as a foreign correspondent reporting news from around Europe. The only part I couldn’t wrap my head around was his wife and daughter not wanting to come (and boy did they complain about it!). Who wouldn’t want to live in London?

How to Be a Family by Dan Kois

Review : I loved following along as the Kois family lived in four different places over the course of a year, learning how to set up life, parent and become a family in each one. Sometimes the story felt a bit bland but I did like how Dan pointed out both the failures and the wins. His realistic approach (“This trip didn’t change our lives, it was our lives”) really resonated with me.

How to Survive Family Holidays by Jack Whitehall, Hilary Whitehall & Michael Whitehall

Review : If you’re a fan of comedian Jack Whitehall or his travel series, Travels with My Father, you’ll definitely want to pick up this book. It’s a fun listen where the Whitehalls swap family travel stories and lighthearted advice. I recommend listening to the audiobook as each person reads and they even include bloopers and reactions.

Best books on traveling Europe

I think because I lived in Europe and have spent a lot of time travelling there, I’m drawn to travel stories set in Europe. Below are some of the best travel books on traveling Europe – with quite a few dedicated to Paris and France for my francophiles!

Paris in Love by Eloisa James

Review : In this book about a family who moves to Paris for a year, Eloisa shares snapshots from their daily life. While slightly romanticized, I liked the idea of just being dropped into their real life and reading the vivid descriptions of mundane things like buying groceries or walking to school.

The Temporary European by Cameron Hewitt

Review : I really enjoyed this one! Cameron shares essays from his travels through Europe (he’s spent a third of each year there since the 1990’s), as well as stories about working for travel legend Rick Steves, running tours, writing guide books, producing his TV show or being back in the Seattle office. While some essays interested me more than others, I really liked Cameron’s overall travel ethos and enjoyed being transported to Europe with him.

For the Love of Europe by Rick Steves

Review : I couldn’t mention Cameron’s book and not include one by Rick himself! If you’re a fan of Rick Steves or just need some more wanderlust inspiration on all things Europe, this is a great read. However, if you’ve seen every episode of his TV show, you may find yourself reading some of the same stories.

Do Not Go Gentle. Go to Paris. by Gail Schilling

Synopsis : Rattled by fears that she is losing her keys, her looks, her job, and her sweetheart, Gail, 62, rashly announces that she will go to Paris, a dream postponed for 40 years. By the end of her journey, Gail recognizes the joie de vivre beneath the wrinkles of bygone beauty in French women. Now she awakens to her own joy of living and finds that it has no expiration date.

Review : I loved the lesson Gail shared about it never being too late to change your life and go after your dreams, but also to go now because you don’t know how long you have. It was so nice to experience her joy in visiting Paris and travelling through France, even if she had to wait until her 60’s to make it happen.

Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod

Review : In this “American moves to Paris” (yes, that’s a genre!) book, Janice shares how she wrote herself out of her boring office job and made it to Paris. I loved hearing how she made the most of her time abroad and leapt into her new life.

No Baggage by Clara Bensen

Review : I was both horrified and inspired by this story of a brand new couple travelling the world with only what they could fit in a fanny bag. While the premise was cool, some of the book felt a bit dull to read. I did, however, enjoy how they represented mental health.

My Good Life in France by Janine Marsh

Review : This time we have a Brit moving to France! While I didn’t love the writing itself, I did enjoy hearing about Janine’s trials and tribulations with expat life in rural France. I have no desire to renovate my own French barn but I like hearing about it!

Eat, Pray, #FML by Gabrielle Stone

Review : Consider this the millennial version of Eat, Pray, Love, but not as cringe-inducing as the title might make it seem. I really appreciated Gabrille’s honesty as she travelled through Europe to try and heal her broken heart. This reads like you’re sitting down with a girlfriend to chat relationships and travel. Note: There are a few fatphobic lines.

Best fiction travel stories

While memoirs about travel and other non-fiction travel books are my favourite, I know that travel fiction is a great genre too. So if you’re a novel reader, check out these adventurous, fictitious and often romantic travel tales!

• One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

Review : Rebecca Serle is probably my favourite fiction author so this was a must-read for me! I find her writing to be so good – the perfect mix of evocative and smart without being too pretentious or heavy, but also without going the other way and being too cheesy and cringe-inducing. While a love story, this book is also about the love between a mother and daughter and the love for a beautiful place in Italy.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Review : If you’re looking for a fun and light rom com with a few fun travel stories throughout, this is the novel for you!

The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman

Review : This book hooked me right from the start and I stayed up all night to finish it. It’s all about love, family and Italy. While I did find some of the dialogue a bit cheesy, I loved the descriptions of Italy, the flashbacks and how all of the characters grew.

The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary

Review : This was a really enjoyable read! I was a bit worried about the dual narrators, as I usually end up preferring one voice over the other, but liked both. While some of the characters bugged me, it was overall a very fun road trip!

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Review : I loved this book, told mostly through letters and the daughter’s perspective, all about a mom who disappears and the adventure to find her. It was super engaging with great writing and a fun mystery element.

His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

Review : I loved learning more about Ghana and especially the divide between city life in Accra and rural life in Afi’s hometown, Ho. While I liked Afi’s feminist journey, I wish we saw more of it, as some of her feelings seemed to come out of nowhere. But overall a great read!

Final thoughts: My top 5 best travel books

Out of all of the books about travel I’ve shared above, I decided to narrow it down to my top five best travel books. After much deliberation, my top five (in no particular order) are:

I hope my list of travel reads has inspired you and you have a few new books to add to your TBR. I’d love to know, what’s your favourite travel-related book? 

Looking for more book recommendations? Check out my reading lists:

• What to Read Based on Your Latest Netflix Binge
• 10 True Crime Books for a Truly Spine-Chilling Time
• 15 Books to Help You Escape
• 27 Travel Books that Will Inspire You to See the World

Riana Ang-Canning is a travel writer who has been sharing her global adventures as the founder of Teaspoon of Adventure since 2012. In that time, Riana has travelled to almost 50 countries on 6 continents, including interning in Eswatini, working in Tokyo, road tripping New Zealand and living abroad in Prague. Riana helps everyday travellers discover the world on a mid-budget, proving that you don't have to be athletic, wealthy or nomadic to have an adventure!

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Love this list! I’ve read a few, but certainly not all. Thanks for the recs.

Thanks for checking it out, Saskia! Hope you find a good new read!

Great list, Riana! I need to get busy.

Thanks so much, Kellye!

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9 best travel books to inspire your next adventure

From eco-minded ventures, to holidays by train – explore these wanderlust-fuelling titles, article bookmarked.

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A good book is always transportive. Especially a good travel book – which can have you scaling mountains, traversing deserts or exploring tropical islands with the turn of every page. The best travel reads not only make us feel like we’re there with the author, but they make us feel like the journey is our own.

After a couple of years of travel starvation, we are hungrier than ever for globetrotting reading. Even though we’re starting to explore in real life once more, packing up for beach breaks and city weekends, that hunger is difficult to satisfy.

The reality is that, for most of us, there are only so many calendar days in the year for real-life travelling – especially if you’re on a 28-day holiday allowance.

And so, we’ve brought you the list of our current favourite travel reads to inspire your next adventure and satiate your burning wanderlust.

Some are snapshots of a single place, presented in first-person by an enthusiastic author. Others are compendiums of individual essays, perfect if you need more general inspiration. Some employ the idea of travel a bit more broadly, speaking about ways of movement – the journey itself – rather than the destination.

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How we tested

What our best travel books are not, are guidebooks. While there are many stellar examples of guidebooks around, when choosing our favourite travel books we were looking primarily for inspirational reads, not how-to information. Our best travel books are also not novels. While many fictitious reads are full of colour and insights, we don’t quite consider them “travel books”, as such.

Finally, we looked for a mix of reads that would appeal to different travellers. Not every book on this list will be for you, of course, but that’s OK. Not every destination will be either. That’s part of the joy of discovery.

The best travel books for 2022 are:

• Best overall – The Best British Travel Writing of the 21st Century, edited by Jessica Vincent: £16.99, Waterstones.com
• Best eco-travel read – Zero Altitude by Helen Coffey, published by Flint: £15.63, Whsmith.co.uk
• Best for family inspiration – Shape of a Boy by Kate Wickers, published by Aurum Press: £16.99, Waterstones.com
• Best for off the beaten track discovery – Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn: £8.49, Waterstones.com
• Best for walkers – Where My Feet Fall by Duncan Minshull: £18.99, Waterstones.com
• Best for rail junkies – Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh: £10.99, Waterstones.com
• Best classic – Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: £9.99, Waterstones.com
• Best for Nordic adventure – Farewell Mr Puffin by Paul Heiney: £12.99, Waterstones.com
• Best non-guidebook guidebook – Scotland The Best: The Islands: £15.99, Waterstones.com

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The Best British Travel Writing of the 21st Century, edited by Jessica Vincent, published by Octopus Publishing Group

Best: Overall

Rating: 9/10

If you want a proper adventure from your armchair, this compendium of travel articles by some of the country’s best storytellers will fit the bill. When travel writer Jessica Vincent was grounded during the pandemic she had the brainwave to pull together some of the most inspiring essays published in British media in the past two decades, with extracts from the likes of Conde Nast Traveller , National Geographic Traveller and Suitcase Magazine .

The 30 reads are short – just a few pages each – but big in scope, rushing you along the tracks of a train in Baghdad, tracking snow leopards in Ladakh or sleeping under the stars in Malawi. Destinations are deliberately skewed in favour of the world’s lesser-known destinations and champion some emerging writers, providing bitesized nibbles of places you may never have dreamed of going – until now.

This book is as transportive as they come and yet compact enough for soaking up over a few spare moments on the tube, in the bath or when you’re tucked under the covers before bed.

Zero Altitude by Helen Coffey, published by Flint

Best: Eco-travel read

Rating: 8.5/10

Penned by The Independent ’s very own travel editor, Helen Coffey, this is a personal account of how one frequent flyer became convinced to go cold-turkey on the holiday industry’s biggest convenience: air travel. After years of zooming around on a near-weekly basis, Coffey had a revelation in 2019 when researching a story on flygskam (the Scandi concept of “flight shame”). In short, she realised quite how bad flying is for the environment.

This read traces her (not always easy) journey to becoming a frequent traveller at “zero altitude”, detailing what she’s learned so far and how she’s managed trips as diverse as the Scilly Isles and Croatia. Coffey manages to weave in the hard-hitting detail in a light manner, which means even when the book is delivering its most serious of arguments – such as the fact that polluting air travel is predicted to double by 2037 – it never feels preachy. Rather, you’ll feel inspired to make a change of your own.

Shape of a Boy by Kate Wickers, published by Aurum Press

Best: For family inspiration

Rating: 8/10

If you think zigzagging in a Cambodian rickshaw or sourcing dinner in Borneo sounds tricky, just imagine doing it with three young boys in tow. Kate Wicker’s funny and moving account of living her mantra, “have baby, will travel”, shows that being a parent doesn’t have to hold you back from exploring the world – in fact, it can even make your experiences richer. Kicking off with a visit to Israel and Jordan in 2000 while pregnant, then rambling through the years and destinations like Mallorca and Thailand with her growing brood of sons – Josh, Ben and Freddie – Wicker details the lessons that they learn from each place, and each other. It makes travelling the world as a family something to get excited about.

Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn, published by HarperCollins Publishers

Best: For off the beaten track discovery

Most travel books are about places people want to go. This one is different. It’s about those other, forgotten kinds of places. Places people have fled from, due to catastrophe (for example, Chernobyl), unrest (the Buffer Zone in Cyprus) or shifting politics (communist Harju fields in Estonia); places that have fallen from glory, such as industrial Detroit; and ones that nature has reclaimed, such as Amani botanical gardens in Tanzania.

Author Cal Flyn has meticulously researched the destinations and brings their stories to life through evocative writing. It can make for dark reading at times, but this book makes you realise travel and discovery is as much about the places we choose to avoid as much as it is about those we embrace.

Where My Feet Fall by Duncan Minshull, published by HarperCollins Publishers

Best: For walkers

If you think great travel writing is all about moving through places in another person’s shoes, then you need this collection of essays from 20 writers about the pleasure of putting one foot in front of another. From bustling walks through Karachi with Kamila Shamsie, to rain-soaked treks in Germany with Jessica J Lee, every entry comes with its own unique flavour and makes you realise that this most rudimentary form of transport can be one of the most evocative. Editor Duncan Minshull, who pulled the collection together, has written three books about walking, so he knows a thing or two about it.

Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh, published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Best: For rail junkies

Does anything really sum up the thrill of travel like a rail journey? Whether you’ve fantasised about chugging your way across Europe or boarding a carriage further afield – say, the Trans-Siberian Express towards Beijing – this account by award-winning travel writer Monisha Rajesh will bring the dream to life. Rajesh’s easy, witty writing style is a big part of the joy, including her descriptions of the (sometimes quirky) characters she meets along the way. If you like this read, you may also want to give Rajesh’s preceding book, Around India in 80 Trains, a read.

Scotland The Best: The Islands

Best: Non-guidebook guidebook

Rating: 7.5/10

While we generally chose to omit guidebooks from this list, we’ve made an exception here – because it’s more of a photography book than anything else. The latest by bestselling travel writer Peter Irvine brings the islands of Scotland, big and small, to life through a collection of unexpected images. Some are snapshots of the big sights, such as the Callanish Stones – a rock formation on the Hebrides older than Stonehenge. Others are far less expected, such as a group of peat cutters or The Butty Bus – a fish and chips takeaway van on Harris.

Chapters are divided by geography. At the end of each one, Irvine lists a handful of his top recommendations of where to eat, stay and walk. But ultimately this is a book that inspires you to discover Scotland’s beautiful corners through your own lens.

The verdict: Travel books

If you want one book to transport you with every turn of the page, it has to be The Best British Travel Writing of the 21st Century . The fact that the writing is great is only one benefit – the digestible nature and mix of lesser-known destinations makes reading it feel like a proper adventure.

For any travellers who are conscious of our carbon impact – and that should be all of us – Zero Altitude is an eye-opener. Not only is Coffey’s writing style fun and engaging, but it packs in plenty of urgent detail on the impact of our addiction to air travel.

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Nomadic Notes

Travel blog and weekly travel newsletter

Top 200 Travel Books

If you are looking for a great travel read I have compiled a list of the worlds top 200 travel books.

What denotes a best or top travel book is a subjective process (unless you are measuring purely on known sales), so this list has been through an editorial process. I have listed my selection methods below.

Travel Book Definition

For the purpose of this list I have defined travel books as personal narratives and historic travel journals. I was keeping travel fiction on this list but I have since removed them and I will make a new list for best travel fiction.

Also not included on the list are travel guide books or history books about cities and countries that aren’t personal narratives.

Some book lists also include books set in places from the perspective of a writer who lives there. I have not included those books. If you are interested in books about place I recommend looking through A year of reading the world , which lists one book for every nation in the world.

I was listing history books but I have now moved those into the travel guides section . For example City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas can be found in the Venice travel guide, and Vietnam: A History can be found in the Vietnam travel guide.

Travel Book Selection

This list is derived from a combination of books I’ve read, an aggregation of prominent top travel book lists (listed below), books that have been recommended to me, and books that are considered classics of the genre yet that have been overlooked by modern lists.

The list is ordered alphabetically (how do you even rank something so subjective?) and not sorted into sub-categories. This might change out of necessity if the list continues to grow.

In the interest of diversity I have selected only one book per author, otherwise I would have (happily) listed Bill Bryson seven times. If you like what an author writes you can research their back-catalogue for more reading.

While many of these are the books you always see on the top 10 travel books list, there are some obscure titles that I found on random bookshelves that still haven’t made their way to Kindle format. I’m continually adding more to the list as I go. You can leave a comment on the Facebook page if you have any more book suggestions.

My Reading Count

I’ve read over 50 travel books, though not all of them are on this list. Omitted books include authors with multiple book titles (such as the other Bill Bryson books), travel fiction, and books that didn’t make the cut.

My current reading count is 34/200.

List Of The Best Travel Books

A Cook’s Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain.

Dodging minefields in Cambodia, diving into the icy waters outside a Russian bath, Bourdain travels the world over in search of the ultimate meal. The only thing Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling, and A Cook’s Tour is the shotgun marriage of his two greatest passions. Inspired by the question, ‘What would be the perfect meal?’, he sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail.

A Dragon Apparent: Travels in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam by Norman Lewis.

Originally published in 1951, it is said that A Dragon Apparent inspired Graham Greene to go to Vietnam and write The Quiet American. Norman Lewis traveled in Indo-China during the precarious last years of the French colonial regime. Much of the charm and grandeur of the ancient native civilizations survived until the devastation of the Vietnam War.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Solnit’s own life to explore issues of wandering, being lost, and the uses of the unknown. The result is a distinctive, stimulating, and poignant voyage of discovery.

A Fortune-Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani.

In 1976 Tiziano Terzani was told by a fortuneteller in Hong Kong that he must not fly 1993 as there will be a grave risk of him dying. In 1993 Terzani took heed to the reading and decided not to fly for the year. As a journalist based in Asia he travelled by land and sea, visiting fortunetellers, oracles, and sorcerers along the way and revealing the superstitious ways of life in Asia.

A Handful of Honey: Away to the Palm Groves of Morocco and Algeria by Annie Hawes.

Aiming to track down a small oasis town deep in the Sahara, some of whose generous inhabitants came to her rescue on a black day in her adolescence, Annie Hawes leaves her home in the olive groves of Italy and sets off along the south coast of the Mediterranean, travelling through Morocco and Algeria.

A House in Bali by Colin McPhee.

A House in Bali tells the story of Balinese culture through a history of Balinese music. First published in 1947, it tells the story of the writer and composer Colin McPhee’s obsession with Balinese music, and of his journey to Bali to experience it firsthand, and he spent almost a decade there during the 1930’s.

Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail by Suzanne Roberts.

In 1993, Roberts had just finished college when her friend suggested they hike California’s John Muir Trail. It sounded like the perfect distraction from home life and thoughts about the future. Part memoir, part nature writing, part travelogue, Almost Somewhere is Roberts’s account of that hike.

American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China by Matthew Polly.

American Shaolin is the story of the two years Matthew Polly spent in China living, studying, and performing with the Shaolin monks. This is both the story of Matthew’s journey and a portrait of the real lives of the Shaolin monks, who struggle to overcome rampant corruption and the restrictions of an authoritarian government.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.

You could file this under “France Travel” but I should perhaps make a category called “Time Travel”, because this makes me want to visit Paris in the 1920’s. This is an autobiography of Ernest Hemingway’s time in Paris as a struggling artist, hanging out with other notable writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald.

An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church’s Strangest Relic in Italy’s Oddest Town by David Farley.

In December 1983, a priest in the Italian hill town of Calcata shared shocking news with his congregation: the pride of their town, the foreskin of Jesus, had been stolen. In 2006, travel writer David Farley moved to Calcata, determined to find the missing foreskin, or at least find out the truth behind its disappearance.

An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale.

Thomas Francis “Tom” Neale (1902 – 1977) was a New Zealand bushcraft and survival enthusiast who spent much of his life in the Cook Islands and 16 years in three sessions living alone on the island of Anchorage in the Suwarrow atoll, which was the basis of this autobiography.

Annapurna: The First Conquest Of An 8,000-Meter Peak by Maurice Herzog.

In 1950, when no mountain taller than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed, Maurice Herzog led an expedition of French climbers to the summit of an 8,075-meter Himalayan peak called Annapurna. But unlike other climbs, the routes up Annapurna had never been charted. Herzog and his team had to locate the mountain using crude maps, pick out a single untried route, and go for the summit.

Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent by Gabrielle Walker.

Drawing on her travels across the continent, Gabrielle Walker illuminates what it feels like to be there and why it draws so many different kinds of people. Witness cutting-edge science experiments, visit the South Pole, lodge with American, Italian, and French researchers, drive snowdozers, drill ice cores, and listen for the message Antarctica is sending us about our future in an age of global warming.

Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger.

Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesiger’s record of his journey through the “Empty Quarter” of Arabia. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life, “the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets.” In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European.

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez.

Barry Lopez offers a thorough examination of the Far North-its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. Based on 15 extended trips to the Canadian far north over a five-year period, Arctic Dreams celebrates the mysteries of what documentarians fondly call “last frontiers.”

Around Africa on my Bicycle by Riaan Manser.

In September 2003, Riaan Manser rode out of Cape Town, determined to become the first person to circumnavigate Africa by bicycle. He thought it would take him a year – it took him over two. At the end of 2005, he cycled back into Cape Town, 14kg lighter and having covered 36,500 km through thirty-four countries.

Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana by Stephanie Elizondo Griest.

Desperate to escape South Texas, Stephanie Elizondo Griest dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. So she headed to Russia looking for some excitement—commencing what would become a four-year, twelve-nation Communist bloc tour that shattered her preconceived notions of the “Evil Empire.”

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby.

Eric Newby’s iconic account of his journey through one of the most remote and beautiful wildernesses on earth. In 1956 he travelled with his friend Hugh Carless from Mayfair to Afghanistan, and the mountains of the Hindu Kush, north-east of Kabul. Inexperienced and ill prepared, the amateurish rogues embark on a month of adventure and hardship in one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee.

For Laurie Lee, as for much of the world, 1936 was the end of innocence. Lee recalls the first great journey of his young life, in which he walks through Spain and becomes entangled in the passionate, bloody struggle that was the Spanish Civil War. This memoir, written with the excitement and wonder of a twenty-year-old, is also infused with the prescience of a young adult who sees what lies ahead.

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell.

Sarah Vowell embarks on a road trip to sites of political violence, from Washington DC to Alaska, to better understand the USA’s ever-evolving political system and history. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other — a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.

A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

At the age of eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set off from London in 1934 on an epic journey—to walk to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the rich account of his adventures as far as Hungary, after which Between the Woods and the Water continues the story to the Iron Gates that divide the Carpathian and Balkan mountains.

Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals: Adventures in Love and Danger by Wendy Dale.

From crossing international borders unconventionally to dodging bombs in Lebanon, Wendy manages to find herself in adventurous situations. Case in point—a jail in Costa Rica may not be everyone’s idea of a place to find a date, but Wendy soon falls in love with a man and risks everything she has to clear his name.

A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins.

“I started out searching for myself and my country,” Peter Jenkins writes, “and found both.” A disillusioned young man set out on a walk across America; this is the book he wrote about that journey. He describes how disillusionment with society in the 1970s drove him out onto the road on a walk across America. Many miles later, he learned lessons about his country and himself that resonate to this day.

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle.

Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days.

Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban.

In 1909 maps still identified Montana as the Great American Desert. In that year Congress offered 320-acre tracts of land to anyone bold or foolish enough to stake a claim to them. Countless homesteaders went west to make their fortunes. Most failed. In Bad Land, Jonathan Raban travels through the unforgiving country that was the scene of their dreams and undoing, and makes their stories come alive.

Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia by Tony Horwitz.

Horwitz was a foreign correspondent in the Middle East the late 1980s. He chews qat with the Yemenis, plays soccer with the Sudanese Dinka refugees and listens to an endless refrain of “You are the perfume of Iraq, oh Saddam” in Baghdad.

Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History by Robert D. Kaplan.

From the assassination that triggered World War I to the ethnic warfare in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, the Balkans have been the crucible of the twentieth century, the place where terrorism and genocide first became tools of policy. Kaplan’s political travelogue is already a modern classic. This new edition includes six opinion pieces written by Robert Kaplan about the Balkans between l996 and 2000.

Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan by Jamie Zeppa.

Jamie Zeppa was 24 when she left a stagnant life at home and signed a contract to teach for two years in the Buddhist hermit kingdom of Bhutan. Much more than just a travel memoir, Beyond the Sky and the Earth is the story of her time in a Himalayan village, immersed in Bhutanese culture and the wonders of new and lasting love.

Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell.

Durrell tells the story of his experiences on Cyprus between 1953 and 1956-first as a visitor, then as a householder and teacher, and finally as Press Advisor to a government coping with armed rebellion. He writes about the sunlit villages and people, the ancient buildings, mountains and sea-and the somber political tragedy that finally engulfed the island.

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West.

Written on the brink of World War II, this examination of the history, people, and politics of Yugoslavia illuminates a region that is still a focus of international concern. A blend of travel journal, cultural commentary, and historical insight, this book probes the troubled history of the Balkans and the uneasy relationships among its ethnic groups.

Blood River: The Terrifying Journey Through The World’s Most Dangerous Country by Tim Butcher.

The story of Tim Butcher’s forty-four-day journey along the Congo River and his retracing H. M. Stanley’s famous 1874 expedition in which he mapped the Congo River. Despite warnings that his plan was suicidal, Butcher set out for the Congo’s eastern border with just a backpack and a few thousand dollars in his boots.

Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon.

William Least Heat-Moon set out with a sense of curiosity about “those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill.” His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie.

This is a road novel in the form of autobiography. When the Depression arrived, Guthrie hit the road and travelled round America. He became a folksinger, guitarist, merchant seaman, actor, artist and broadcaster. Guthrie incarnated for generations of Americans the artist as free spirit. This is the book that created the legend.

Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham.

Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as “boat people.” His sister committed suicide, prompting him to quit his job. He sold all of his possessions and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him to Mexico, Japan, and to Saigon, where he finds “nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness.”

Chasing The Monsoon: A Modern Pilgrimage Through India by Alexander Frater.

On 20th May the Indian summer monsoon begins to envelop the country in two great wet arms, one coming from the east, the other from the west. They are united over central India around 10th July, a date that can be calculated within seven or eight days. Alexander Frater aims to follow the monsoon, sometimes behind it, sometimes in front of it, while watching the impact of this extraordinary phenomenon.

Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia by Tom Bissell.

In 1996, Tom Bissell went to Uzbekistan as a Peace Corps volunteer. Though he lasted only a few months before illness and personal crisis forced him home, Bissell found himself entranced by this remote land. Five years later he returned to explore the shrinking Aral Sea, destroyed by Soviet irrigation policies.

City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple.

William Dalrymple explores the seven “dead” cities of Delhi as well as the eighth city—today’s Delhi. Underlying his quest is the legend of the djinns, fire-formed spirits that are said to assure the city’s Phoenix-like regeneration no matter how many times it is destroyed. Entertaining, fascinating, and informative, City of Djinns is an irresistible blend of research and adventure.

Coming into the Country by John McPhee.

Coming into the Country is an account of Alaska and Alaskans. It is a rich tapestry of vivid characters, observed landscapes, and descriptive narrative, in three principal segments that deal, respectively, with a total wilderness, with urban Alaska, and with life in the remoteness of the bush.

Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu by Kira Salak.

Kira Salak grew up relishing the exploits of the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park and set herself the daunting goal of retracing his fatal journey down West Africa’s Niger river for 600 miles to Timbuktu. In so doing she became the first person to travel alone from Mali’s Old Segou to “the golden city of the Middle Ages”.

Cruising Attitude by Heather Poole.

Real-life flight attendant Heather Poole’s account of life and work in the not-always-friendly skies. In her fifteen years of flight experience she recounts crazy airline passengers and crew drama, overcrowded crashpads, and finding love at 35,000 feet. Poole not only shares great stories, but also explains the ins and outs of flying, as seen from the flight attendant’s jump seat.

Danube: A Sentimental Journey from the Source to the Black Sea by Claudio Magris.

Part history, part philosophy, part travelogue, Claudio Magris tracks the Danube River, setting his finger on the pulse of Central Europe. A journey through the history and culture of the Danube lands, from the Bavarian hills through Austro-Hungary and the Balkans to the Black Sea.

Danziger’s Travels: Beyond Forbidden Frontiers by Nick Danziger.

In 1984 Nick Danziger started an 18-month journey from Istanbul to Peking, following the old Silk route. With minimal gear and disguised as an itinerant Muslim, he hitch-hiked and walked through southern Turkey, and the Iran of the Ayatollahs, entering Afghanistan illegally in the wake of a convoy of Chinese weapons and then spent months dodging Russian helicopter gunships with the rebel guerillas.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey.

First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire was written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah. Desert Solitaire is a view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest form.

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism by Thomas Kohnstamm.

Kohnstamm unveils the underside of the travel industry and its often-harrowing effect on writers, travellers, and the destinations themselves.

Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney.

When Rosemary Mahoney, in 1998, took a solo trip down the Nile in a seven-foot rowboat, she discovered modern Egypt for herself. As a rower, she faced crocodiles and testy river currents; as a female, she confronted deeply-held beliefs about foreign women while cautiously remaining open to genuine friendship; and, as a traveler, she experienced events that ranged from the humorous to the hair-raising.

Driving Mr Albert by Michael Paterniti.

The true story of how in 1997 writer Michael Paterniti agreed to take a road trip from New Jersey to California, reuniting the preserved brain of Albert Einstein with his granddaughter Evelyn. Paterniti’s improbable travelling companion is 84-year-old Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who not only removed Einstein’s brain from his head during the autopsy but purloined it from Princeton Hospital.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I was recommended to read this book and was unaware of the hype, so I enjoyed it without any expectation. The story of Elizabeth Gilbert’s year of travel to Italy, India, and Indonesia is her journey of self-discovery while recovering from her divorce.

Facing the Congo: A Modern-Day Journey into the Heart of Darkness by Jeffrey Tayler.

Jeffrey Tayler set out to re-create the British explorer Henry Stanley’s trip down the Congo in a dugout canoe, stocked with food, medicine, and a gun-toting guide. Once his tiny boat pushed off the banks of this mysterious river, Tayler realised he was in a place where maps and supplies would have no bearing on his survival.

Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann.

Ernest K. Gann’s classic memoir is an account of the treacherous early days of commercial aviation. He had flown in both peace and war and came close to death many times. The book recalls the characters he met and the dramas he experienced, portraying fate (or death) as a hunter constantly in pursuit of pilots. This is a wondeful account of the history of aviation and one man’s life in the air.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson.

Hunter S. Thompson’s best known work is the tale of a drug-addled long weekend road trip to Las Vegas. Under the pseudonym of Raoul Duke, Thompson travels with his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, on assignment from a sports magazine to cover “the fabulous Mint 400” – a free-for-all biker’s race in the Nevada desert.

Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin.

Emma Larkin tells of the year she spent traveling through Burma using the life and work of George Orwell as her compass. Going from Mandalay and Rangoon to poor delta backwaters and up to the old hill-station towns in the mountains of Burma’s far north, Larkin visits the places where Orwell worked and lived, and the places his books live still.

Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea by Kira Salak.

Following the route taken by British explorer Ivan Champion in 1927, Salak travelled across Papua New Guinea by dugout canoe and on foot. Along the way, she stayed in a village where cannibalism was still practiced behind the backs of missionaries, met the leader of the separatist guerrilla movement opposing the Indonesian occupation of Western New Guinea, and undertook an epic trek through the jungle.

Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr.

Living in Rome for a year, Doerr visits the piazzas and temples, attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II, and takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. His family are embraced by the neighborhood merchants, whose stories and child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself.

Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain by George Mahood.

George and Ben have three weeks to cycle 1000 miles from the bottom of England to the top of Scotland, but they have no bikes, no clothes, no food and no money. Setting off in just a pair of Union Jack boxer shorts, they attempt to rely on the generosity of the British public for everything from bikes to beer.

Full Circle: One Man’s Journey by Air, Train, Boat and Occasionally Very Sore Feet Around the 20.000 Miles of the Pacific Rim by Michael Palin.

For almost a year, Michael Palin travelled through 18 countries on the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean, in a journey of contrasts, drama and beauty. From head-hunters in Borneo to a meal of maggots in Mexico, his route takes him to some of the most politically volatile and physically demanding places on Earth.

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle by Dervla Murphy.

Based on her daily diary, this is Dervla Murphy’s account of her ride, in 1963, across frozen Europe and through Persia and Afghanistan, over the Himalayas to Pakistan and into India, during one of the worst winters in memory.

Give Me the World by Leila Hadley.

Bored with her New York PR job, Leila Hadley buys two tickets aboard a cargo ship headed for Hong Kong: for herself, and for her 6-year-old son Kippy. This sets her life on an entirely new course. After Manila, Hong Kong and Bangkok, their travels take an unexpected turn: she meets 4 young men sailing their boat around the world, and convinces them to let her and Kippy join them.

God’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre by Richard Grant.

Twenty miles south of the Arizona-Mexico border, the rugged Sierra Madre mountains is home to bandits, drug smugglers, and assorted outcasts. Richard Grant developed what he calls “an unfortunate fascination” with this lawless place. Locals warned that he would meet his death there, but he didn’t believe them – until his last trip.

Great Plains by Ian Frazier.

Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains. A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull’s cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde, to the scene of the murders chronicled in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.

Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip by Matthew Algeo.

From Missouri to New York and back again, this recounting of an amazing journey chronicles the road trip of America’s last citizen-president and his wife and their failed attempts to keep a low profile. Diners, bellhops, and cabbies shouted out “Hiya, Harry!” whenever they recognized the former president.

Here is New York by E.B. White.

Perceptive, funny, and nostalgic, E.B. White’s stroll around Manhattan remains the quintessential love letter to the city, written by one of America’s foremost literary figures. The New York Times has named Here is New York one of the ten best books ever written about the metropolis, and The New Yorker calls it “the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city.

Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan by Will Ferguson.

It had never been done before. Not in 4000 years of Japanese recorded history had anyone followed the Cherry Blossom Front from one end of the country to the other. Nor had anyone hitchhiked the length of Japan. But, heady on sakura and sake, Will Ferguson bet he could do both.

Holidays in Hell by P. J. O’Rourke.

Holidays in Hell: In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World’s Worst Places and Asks, “What’s Funny About This”. P. J. O’Rourke’s guided tour of the world’s most desolate, dangerous, and desperate places.

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald.

India is a place that has some people swearing never to return. That was the case with Sarah Macdonald, who went backpacking there when she was 21. Twelve years later her new boyfriend – a correspondent for ABC (Australia) – is posted to New Delhi and she returns with him.

How Not to Travel the World: Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker by Lauren Juliff.

Lauren Juliff quit her job and sold everything she owned to travel the world. It wasn’t an easy decision: she suffered from anxiety and an eating disorder, and she had never eaten rice or been on a bus. This book is about following your dreams, getting out of your comfort zone, and falling in love with life on the road.

Iberia by James A. Michener.

Iberia is Michener’s tribute to his cherished second home. He not only reveals the celebrated history of bullfighters and warrior kings, painters and processions, cathedrals and olive orchards, he also shares the intimate, often hidden country he came to know, where the congeniality of living souls is thrust against the dark weight of history.

I’m Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago by Hape Kerkeling.

Overweight, overworked, and disenchanted, Kerkeling was an unlikely candidate to make the pilgrimage to the Spanish shrine of St. James, but he decided to get off the couch and do it anyway. Lonely and searching for meaning along the way, he began the journal that turned into this engaging book.

In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams by Tahir Shah.

Shah travels Morocco to uncover mysteries hidden for centuries from Western eyes. As he wends his way through the labyrinthine medinas of Fez and Marrakech, traverses the Sahara sands, and samples the hospitality of ordinary Moroccans, Tahir collects a treasury of traditional wisdom stories which open the doors to layers of culture most visitors hardly realize exist.

India: A Million Mutinies Now by V.S. Naipaul.

Arising out of Naipaul’s lifelong obsession and passion for a country that is at once his and totally alien, India: A Million Mutinies Now relates the stories of many of the people he met traveling there. He explores how they have been steered by the innumerable frictions present in Indian society—the contradictions and compromises of religious faith, the whim and chaos of random political forces.

Indonesia, Etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation by Elizabeth Pisani.

Declaring independence in 1945, Indonesia said it would “work out the details of the transfer of power etc. as soon as possible.” With over 300 ethnic groups spread across over 13,500 islands, the world’s fourth most populous nation has been working on that “etc.” ever since. Author Elizabeth Pisani traveled 26,000 miles in search of the links that bind this disparate nation.

In Morocco by Edith Wharton.

Edith Wharton here gives us her colorful and textured travel memoir “In Morocco” (1920). This account explores the culture, history, and beauty of a Morocco, depicting the customs and manners, and written with the eye of a documentarian.

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin.

In Patagonia was an instant classic upon publication in 1977. Bruce Chatwin’s account of his journey through Patagonia is filled with remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes. Chatwin treks through “the uttermost part of the earth” in search of almost-forgotten legends, the descendants of Welsh immigrants, and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy.

In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta Ahmed.

Denied a visa to remain in the USA, Qanta Ahmed, a young British Muslim doctor, accepts a position in Saudi Arabia. This is a chance at adventure in an exotic land she thinks she understands. Instead she finds rejection and scorn in the places she believed would most embrace her, but also humour, honesty, loyalty and love.

In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer’s Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road by Allan Weisbecker.

In 1996, Allan Weisbecker sold his home and his possessions, loaded his dog and surfboards into his truck, and set off in search of his long-time surfing companion, Patrick, who had vanished in Central America. He describes the people he befriended, the bandits he evaded, the waves he caught while on his quest.

In the Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars by Kevin Sites.

Venturing alone into the dark heart of war, Kevin Sites covered virtually every major global hot spot as the first Internet correspondent for Yahoo! News. Beginning his journey with in Somalia in September 2005 and ending with the Israeli-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006, Sites talks with the people on every side, including those caught in the cross fire.

In the Shadow of the Buddha: One Man’s Journey of Discovery in Tibet by Matteo Pistono.

For nearly a decade, Matteo Pistono smuggled out of Tibet evidence of atrocities by the Chinese government, showing it to the U.S. government, human rights organizations, and anyone who would listen. Yet Pistono did not originally intend to fight for social justice in Tibet-he had gone there as a Buddhist pilgrim.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.

In April 1992 Christopher Johnson McCandless hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the story of Into the Wild.

Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman.

In 1982, Salzman flew off to teach English in Changsha, China. He writes of bureaucrats, students and Cultural Revolution survivors, stripping none of their complexity and humanity. Though he writes of history and of classical lore, this is mostly a personal tale.

I Wouldn’t Start from Here: The 21st Century and Where It All Went Wrong by Andrew Mueller.

Andrew Mueller, a jaded rock journalist, travels around the globe from failed state to ravaged war zone to desolate no-man’s-land to try to unpick why we humans seem so prone to plucking war from the jaws of peace. Places visited include Sarajevo, Jerusalem, Kabul, Belfast, Kosovo, Gaza, Basra, and New York City.

Journey Without Maps by Graham Greene.

His mind crowded with vivid images of Africa, Graham Greene set off in 1935 to discover Liberia, a remote and unfamiliar republic founded for released slaves. Journey Without Maps is the record of Greene’s journey. Crossing the red-clay terrain from Sierra Leone to the coast of Grand Bassa with a chain of porters, he came to know one of the few areas of Africa untouched by colonization.

Jupiters Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph by Ted Simon.

Simon rode a motorcycle around the world in the seventies, when such a thing was unheard of. In four years he covered 78,000 miles through 45 countries, living with peasants and presidents, in prisons and palaces, through wars and revolutions. This book has inspired many to travel, including Ewan McGregor.

Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft by Thor Heyerdahl.

On a primitive raft made of forty-foot balsa logs and named “Kon-Tiki” in honor of a legendary sun king, Heyerdahl and five companions deliberately risked their lives to show that the ancient Peruvians could have made the 4,300-mile voyage to the Polynesian islands on a similar craft.

Last of the Donkey Pilgrims by Kevin O’Hara.

Kevin O’Hara’s journey of self-discovery begins as a mad lark: who in their right mind would try to circle the entire coastline of Ireland on foot—with a donkey and cart? But Kevin had promised his homesick Irish mother that he would explore the whole of the Old Country and bring back the sights and the stories to their home in Massachusetts.

Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.

Poring over a map of the world one afternoon, Ewan McGregor noticed that it was possible to ride all the way round the world, with just one short hop across the Bering Strait from Russia to Alaska. So he picked up the phone and called his fellow actor-slash-biker friend Charley Boorman and told him it was time to hit the road.

Lost City of the Incas by Hiram Bingham.

Early in the 20th century, Bingham ventured into the wild and then unknown country of the Eastern Peruvian Andes–and in 1911 came upon the fabulous Inca city that made him famous: Machu Picchu. In the space of one short season he went on to discover two more lost cities, including Vitcos, where the last Incan Emperor was assassinated.

Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche.

The true-life story of Torre DeRoche who meets an Argentinean man in a San Francisco bar, just as he’s about to voyage around the world on his small sailboat. Torre is terrified of deep water but decides to follow the man of her dreams and join him on his journey.

Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know: The Autobiography by Ranulph Fiennes.

Ranulph Fiennes has travelled to the most dangerous and inaccessible places on earth. He discovered the lost city of Ubar in Oman and attempted to walk solo and unsupported to the South Pole. He was the first man to reach both poles by surface travel and the first to cross the Antarctic Continent unsupported. Fiennes describes here in his own words his incredible journey through life.

Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America’s Strangest Jail by Thomas McFadden and Rusty Young.

Rusty Young was backpacking in South America when he heard about Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia’s notorious San Pedro prison. Intrigued, he went to La Paz where they formed a friendship and became partners in an attempt to record Thomas’s experiences in the jail.

Marco Polo Didn’t Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer by Rolf Potts.

A collection of travel tales by Rolf Potts from his writings at National Geographic Traveler, Salon.com, and The New York Times Magazine. The book is a unique window into travel writing, with each chapter containing endnotes that reveal the ragged edges behind the experience and creation of each tale.

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta.

This city biography is written from the perspective of Bombay native, Suketu Mehta, who returns to his home city (since renamed Mumbai) after living in the US for 21 years. The book covers tensions between Hindus and Muslims gangs, the sex industry, and life in Bollywood.

McCarthy’s Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland by Pete McCarthy.

Despite the many exotic places Pete McCarthy has visited, he finds that nowhere else can match the particular magic of Ireland, his mother’s homeland. His journey begins in Cork and at all times he obeys the rule, “never pass a bar that has your name on it”. He encounters McCarthy’s bars up and down the land, meeting fascinating people along the way.

Miles from Nowhere: A Round the World Bicycle Adventure by Barbara Savage.

The story of an around-the-world bicycle trip taken by Barbara and Larry Savage, which took two years through 25 countries. Along the way, the cyclists encountered warm-hearted strangers, bicycle-hating drivers, rock-throwing Egyptians, over-protective Thai policemen, and great personal joys.

Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, And A Journey To The Ends Of The Earth by Daniel Glick.

After losing his brother to cancer and a divorce that left him in charge of two children, environmental reporter Daniel Glick needed some rejuvenation. In 2001, they set off on a six-month tour to see the world’s most exotic and endangered habitats. He offers intimate reflection on life, fatherhood, change, and the fragile health of our planet.

Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea by Eric Hansen.

In 1978 Eric Hansen was shipwrecked on a desert island in the Red Sea. When goat smugglers offered him passage to Yemen, he buried seven years’ worth of travel journals in the sand and left on a boat bound for a country that he’d never planned to visit. He tells of the seas that stranded him and of his efforts to retrieve his buried journals when he returned to Yemen ten years later.

Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat by Sarah Murray.

We have travel books and books about travelling for food, but how often do you stop to think about how much travel your food has done? Moveable Feasts tell the story of how food has been transported over the centuries, such as the ancient Romans shipping olive oil around the Mediterranean, and the Berlin airlift of 1948.

My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City by Alexandra David-Neel.

A travelogue of David–Neel’s 1923 expedition to Llasa, Tibet. To reach Lhasa, she used her fluency of Tibetan dialects and culture, disguised herself as a beggar with yak hair extensions and inked skin and tackled some of the roughest terrain in the World. She was the first Western woman to have been received by any Dalai Lama.

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson.

In the early seventies, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe—in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. He was accompanied by Stephen Katz (who will be familiar to readers of Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods). Twenty years later, he decided to retrace his journey.

News from Tartary: An Epic Journey Across Central Asia by Peter Fleming.

News from Tartary describes Peter Fleming’s overland journey from Peking to Kashmir. The journey took seven months and covered about 3,500 miles. and Motivated largely by curiosity, he set out with his companion Ella Maillart across a China torn by civil war to journey through Xinjiang to British India.

No Hurry to Get Home: The Memoir of the New Yorker Writer Whose Unconventional Life and Adventures Spanned the 20th Century by Emily Hahn.

Born in St. Louis in 1905, Emily Hahn traveled alone to the Belgian Congo at age 25, was the concubine of a Chinese poet in Shanghai, bore the child of the head of the British Secret Service before World War II, and finally returned to New York to live and write in Greenwich Village.

No Mercy: A Journey Into the Heart of the Congo by Redmond O’Hanlon.

Redmond O’Hanlon – accompanied by Lary Shaffer – enters the unmapped swamp-forests of the People’s Republic of the Congo, in search of a dinosaur rumored to have survived in a remote prehistoric lake.

Occupants by Henry Rollins.

Henry Rollins has searched out the most desolate corners of the Earth and shows that the greatest statements can be made with the simplest of acts: to just bear witness, to be present. The book pairs his photographs with writings that not only provide context but also lift them to the level of political commentary.

Odyssey: Ten Years on the Hippie Trail by Ananda G Brady.

From Kansas to Kathmandu, Brady’s tale is not only of his travels but of a life consciously unfolding. Casting his fate to the wind he set out, with little money but a shaky confidence that he’d find ways and means of survival when his bankroll hit bottom. Choosing to shun scamming, smuggling or fruit-picking in favor of creative and artistic means to earn his living he kept some cash in his pocket.

On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads by Tim Cope.

The Mongols of the 13th century, under the leadership of Genghis Khan, created the largest contiguous land empire in history. Cope embarked on a journey that hadn’t been completed since those times: to travel on horseback across the Eurasian steppe, from Karakorum, the old capital of Mongolia, to the Danube River in Hungary.

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen.

Out of Africa is a memoir by Danish author Karen Blixen (pen name Isak Dinesen). The book, published in 1937, recounts events of the seventeen years when she made her home in Kenya, then called British East Africa. The book is about life on her coffee plantation, and a tribute to the people in her life there. It also provides a glimpse of African colonial life in the last decades of the British Empire.

Outposts by Simon Winchester.

Simon Winchester visited the far-flung remnants of the British Empire during the 1980’s. Places like the British Indian Ocean Territory, Ascension Island, and St. Helena are so remote that few people visit. Half of the adventure is getting there and the backstory of why these places are still British is interesting as well.

Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists by Tony Perrottet.

The ancient Romans were responsible for many remarkable achievements but one of their lesser-known contributions was the creation of the tourist industry. The first people in history to enjoy safe and easy travel, Romans embarked on the original Grand Tour. Intrigued by the possibility of re-creating the tour, Perrottet, accompanied by his pregnant girlfriend, sets off to discover life as an ancient Roman.

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (Volume 1) by Richard Burton.

Posing as a wandering dervish, Burton gained admittance to the holy Kaabah and to the tomb of the prophet at Medina and participated in all the rituals of the Hadj (pilgrimage). A treasury of material on Arab life, beliefs, manners and morals. Volume One starts with the Preface to the Memorial Edition by his wife, Isabel Burton.

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis by Tony Hawks.

After a pointless argument with a friend Tony Hawks is challenged to a bet that he can’t beat all eleven members of the Moldovan soccer team at tennis. The loser of the bet has to strip naked on Balham High Road and sing the Moldovan national anthem.

Psychogeography by Will Self.

Psychogeography: Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Place rounds up Will Self’s Psychogeography columns for the Independent , with illustrations by Ralph Steadman. Walking to New York is my favourite article, where he walks from his South London to Heathrow, then from JFK to Manhattan.

Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan’s Food Culture by Matt Goulding.

Matt Goulding journeys through the noodle shops, tempura temples, and teahouses of Japan, navigating the intersection between food, history, and culture. Goulding is a founding editor of the online travel magazine Roads & Kingdoms. His article on Hiroshima is a great taste of his writing on Japan.

Rick Steves’ Postcards from Europe: Travel Tales from America’s Favorite Guidebook Writer by Rick Steves.

In Postcards from Europe, Rick Steves takes you on a private tour through the heart of Europe — introducing you to his local friends and sharing his favorite travel moments — from the Netherlands through Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, with a grand Parisian finale.

Ring of Fire: An Indonesia Odyssey by Lawrence Blair.

Ring of Fire charts the Blair brothers’ 10-year journey through the world’s largest archipelago–the islands of Indonesia. Amid seemingly impenetrable rain forests, erupting volcanoes, and unimaginable natural beauty, the brothers hoped to capture on film and in words the customs, beliefs, and wisdon of the islands’ inhabitants.

River of Time: A Memoir of Vietnam and Cambodia by Jon Swain.

“A splendid memoir…a tale, at once tragic and beautiful, of love and loss, of coming of age and of witnessing the end of Indochina as the West had known it for more than a century.”—Los Angleles Times Book Review. From the writer immortalized in the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields .

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler.

In the heart of China’s Sichuan province lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in China, Fuling is heading down the path of change and growth. Peter Hessler came to teach English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society.

Road Fever by Tim Cahill.

Tim Cahill reports on the road trip to end all road trips: a journey that took him from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in a record-breaking twenty three and a half days.

Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia by Peter Theroux.

As a journalist stationed in the insular Arabian capital of Riyadh, Theroux sharply etches what it is like to be an American when speaking Arabic virtually brands one a spy and reading Saudi novels is a forbidden pleasure. A colorful picture of a complex society teeming with contradictions.

Sea and Sardinia by D. H. Lawrence.

Sea and Sardinia is a travel book by the English writer D. H. Lawrence. It describes a brief excursion undertaken in January 1921 by Lawrence and Frieda, his wife aka Queen Bee, from Taormina in Sicily to the interior of Sardinia.

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer.

The adventure classic about life in Tibet just before the Chinese Communist takeover. Originally published in 1953, the book recounts Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer’s 1943 escape from a British internment camp in India, his trek across the Himalayas, and his travels in Tibet.

Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop.

After fifteen years spent exploring China and its food, Fuchsia Dunlop finds herself in an English kitchen, deciding whether to eat a caterpillar she has accidentally cooked in some home-grown vegetables. How can something she has eaten readily in China seem grotesque in England?

Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles.

Paul Bowles examines the ways in which Americans apprehend an alien culture—and the ways in which their incomprehension destroys them. The story of three American travelers adrift in the cities and deserts of North Africa after World War II, it etches the limits of human reason and intelligence—perhaps even the limits of human life—when they touch the unfathomable emptiness and impassive cruelty of the desert.

Sihpromatum – I Grew my Boobs in China by Savannah Grace.

Sihpromatum is a memoir series of one family’s introspective, four-year backpacking adventure. In 2005, 14-year-old Savannah Grace’s world is shattered when her mother announces that the family would leave everything they know behind to travel the world. The book takes the reader through China and Mongolia (the first of 80 countries visited).

Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot by Mark Vanhoenacker.

The twenty-first century has relegated airplane flight—a once remarkable feat of human ingenuity—to the realm of the mundane. Mark Vanhoenacker, a 747 pilot who left academia and a career in the business world to pursue his childhood dream of flight, asks us to reimagine what we—both as pilots and as passengers—are actually doing when we enter the world between departure and discovery.

Surviving Paradise: One Year On A Disappearing Island by Peter Rudiak-Gould.

Peter Rudiak-Gould moved to Ujae, a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands, where he taught English at the island school. The atoll is home to just 450 people and can be walked around in an afternoon. It is apparent straight away that Ujae is not an idyllic tropical paradise island, yet Peter lasted a year and writes about his own personal life on the island intertwined with insights to the Marshall Islands.

Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman.

At the age of 48, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces.

Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler.

Sara Wheeler spent seven months in Antarctica, living with its scientists and dreamers. It is the coldest, windiest, driest place on earth, an icy desert of unearthly beauty and stubborn impenetrability. For centuries, Antarctica has captured the imagination of our greatest scientists and explorers, lingering in the spirit long after their return. Terra Incognita is a classic of polar literature.

The Art of Travel by Alain De Botton.

Alain de Botton considers the pleasures of anticipation; the allure of the exotic, and the value of noticing everything from a seascape in Barbados to the takeoffs at Heathrow. He also cites fellow-travelers as Baudelaire, Wordsworth, Van Gogh, the biologist Alexander von Humboldt, and the 18th-century eccentric Xavier de Maistre, who catalogued the wonders of his bedroom.

The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures by Louis Theroux.

Louis Theroux revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to discover what motivates them, why they believe what they believe, and to find out what’s happened to them since he last saw them. Along the way Louis thinks about what drives him to spend so much time among weird people, and considers whether he’s learned anything about himself in the course of ten years working with them.

The Carpet Wars by Christopher Kremmer.

Foreign correspondent Christopher Kremmer’s account of a decade spent living, travelling and reporting from Asia and the Middle East. During this time he formed an obsession with carpets and the ‘perfect rug’ – an obsession that saw him trace the threads of the carpet-making trade through the Islamic nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller.

Colossus of Maroussi, a paean to Greece drawn out of a nine-month visit, stands as a seminal classic in travel literature. Miller headed out with his friend Lawrence Durrell to explore the Grecian countryside: a flock of sheep nearly tramples the two as they lie naked on a beach, and they stay in hotels that “have seen better days, but which have an aroma of the past.”

The Desert and the Sown: Travels in Palestine and Syria by Gertrude Bell.

Transcending the social constraints of Victorian England, Gertrude Bell left the comforts of her privileged life for the unconventional world of the Middle East. She travelled to Persia and became passionately drawn to the Arab people, the language, and their architecture. A skilled archeologist, historian, and linguist, Bell traveled the world and wrote compelling, perceptive accounts of her journeys.

The Devil’s Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee by Stewart Lee Allen.

Stewart Lee Allen gives a brief history of coffee by visiting significant coffee destinations around the world. From the origins of coffee in Ethiopia to Parisian cafés where the French Revolution was born, Allen fuses personal narrative with his quest to find if the advent of coffee gave birth to an enlightened western civilisation.

The Devil’s Picnic: Travels Through the Underworld of Food and Drink by Taras Grescoe.

An investigation into what thrills us, what terrifies us, and what would make us travel ten thousand miles and evade the local authorities, The Devil’s Picnic is a delicious and compelling expedition into the heart of vice and desire.

The Gentleman In The Parlour by W Somerset Maugham.

Somerset Maugham’s success as a writer enabled him to indulge his love of travel, and he recorded the sights and sounds of his wide-ranging journeys with an urbane, wry style all his own. The Gentleman in the Parlour is an account of the author’s trip through what was then Burma and Siam, ending in Haiphong, Vietnam.

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner.

I enjoy travel books where there is a quest/common theme involved. Eric Weiner (a self-confessed grump) travels the world in search of happiness. From Bhutan with its Gross National Happiness index, to life in grim Moldova, Weiner looks for what makes a place happy.

The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure by Rachel Friedman.

Rachel Friedman has always been the consummate good girl who plays it safe, so she surprises no one more than herself when, on a whim she buys a ticket to Ireland, a place she has never visited. There she forms an unlikely bond with a free-spirited Australian girl who spurs Rachel on to a yearlong odyssey.

The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux.

Theroux’s Great Railway Bazaar is perhaps the ultimate travel book about train travel. Most of the book is about the journey and not the destination, as he travels from London to Japan and back again over a period of four months in 1975.

The Impossible Country: A Journey Through the Last Days of Yugoslavia by Brian Hall.

Hall relates his encounters with Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, “real people, likeable people” who are now overcome with suspicions and anxiety about one another. What emerges is a portrait of a country that possibly should never have been, and is in the process of insuring that it will never be again.

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

The Innocents Abroad was published in 1869 and chronicles Twain’s voyage from New York City to Europe and the Holy Land. He writes observations of the Old World: Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Constantinople, Sebastopol, Balaklava, Damascus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. It was his best-selling work in his lifetime, and is one of the best-selling travel books of all time.

The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America by Mike McIntyre.

Stuck in a job he no longer found fulfilling, Mike McIntyre felt his life was quickly passing him by. So one day he hit the road to trek across the USA with little more than the clothes on his back and without a single penny in his pocket. Through his travels, he found varying degrees of kindness in strangers from all walks of life, and discovered more about people and values in America than he’d ever thought possible.

The Last Pink Bits: Travels Through the Remnants of the British Empire by Harry Ritchie.

Harry Ritchie takes a trip around the vestiges of the British Empire—the last pink bits on the world map—belatedly attempting to answer the question asked by George V—How is the Empire?

The Longest Way Home: One Man’s Quest for the Courage to Settle Down by Andrew McCarthy.

Andrew McCarthy takes us on a deeply personal journey played out amid some of the world’s most evocative locales. Unable to commit to his fiancée of nearly four years—and with no clear understanding of what’s holding him back— McCarthy finds himself at a crossroads, plagued by doubts that have clung to him for a lifetime.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann.

In 1925, British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” David Grann interweaves the stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.

The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, Amanda Pressner.

Three friends, each on the brink of a quarter-life crisis, make a pact to quit their high pressure New York City media jobs and leave behind their friends, boyfriends, and everything familiar to embark on a year-long backpacking adventure around the world in The Lost Girls.

The Lost Heart of Asia by Colin Thubron.

In The Lost Heart of Asia, acclaimed, bestselling travel writer Colin Thubron carries readers on an extraordinary journey through this little understood, rarely visited, yet increasingly important corner of the world. A land of enormous proportions, countless secrets, and incredible history, Central Asia was the heart of the great Mongol empire of Tamerlane and scene of Stalin’s cruelest deportations.

The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World…via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman.

Indonesian Ferry Sinks. Peruvian Bus Plunges Off Cliff. African Train Attacked by Mobs. Whenever he read the news, Carl Hoffman noticed those news bulletins, which seemed about as far from the idea of tourism as it was possible to get. So off he went, spending six months circumnavigating the globe on the world’s worst conveyances.

The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa by Neil Peart.

Dysentery, drunken soldiers, and corrupt officials provide the background for Neil Peart’s physical and spiritual cycling journey through West Africa. The drummer for the rock band Rush travels through villages and relates his story through photographs, journal entries, and tales of adventure, while addressing issues such as differences in culture, psychology, and labels.

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy by Joe McGinniss.

When Joe McGinniss sets out for the remote Italian village of Castel di Sangro, he merely intends to spend a season with the village’s soccer team, which only weeks before had, miraculously, reached the second-highest-ranking professional league in the land. He finds himself embroiled with an absurd yet irresistible cast of characters.

The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara.

The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey is the travel diary of 23-year-old Ernesto on his trip across South America in the 1950’s

The Naked Tourist: In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall by Lawrence Osborne.

Lawrence Osborne explores the psychological underpinnings of tourism. He took a six-month journey across the so-called Asian Highway―a swathe of Southeast Asia that has seduced generations of tourists with its manufactured dreams of the exotic Orient.

The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt by Isabelle Eberhardt

Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) was born the illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic Russian emigree. Her journal chronicles her travels in the Sahara on horseback, disguised as an Arab man and having adopted Islam.

The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino.

Part memoir, part travelogue, part love letter to the people who live and work on a magical street in Paris. Elaine Sciolino, the former Paris Bureau Chief of the New York Times, invites us on a tour of her favorite Parisian street, offering an homage to street life and the pleasures of Parisian living.

The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck.

Spanning two thousand miles and traversing six states from Missouri to the Pacific coast, the Oregon Trail is the route that made America. Over the course of four months, Buck is accompanied by three mules, his brother, Nick, and a Jack Russell terrier named Olive Oyl, as they go about recreating this epic journey.

The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho.

Paulo Coelho details his journey across Spain along the legendary road of San Tiago, which pilgrims have travelled since Middle Ages. His first book not only paved the way for the perennial travellers favourite The Alchemist , but it also fully expresses his humanist philosophy and the depth of his unique search for meaning.

The Places In Between by Rory Stewart.

In 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan-surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. By day he passed through snow-covered mountains, hamlets destroyed by the Taliban, and communities thriving amid the remains of medieval civilizations. By night he slept on villagers’ floors, shared their meals, and listened to their stories of the past.

The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald.

In August 1992, W.G. Sebald set off on a walking tour of Suffolk, one of England’s least populated and most striking counties. Initially his tour was a carefree one. Soon, however, Sebald was to happen upon “traces of destruction, reaching far back into the past,” in a series of encounters so intense that a year later he found himself in a state of collapse in a Norwich hospital.

The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma by Thant Myint-U.

I would like to find a book for every country where you can say, “if you read only one book about this country, read x…” This is such a book for Myanmar (Burma), which gives an excellent overview of how Burma ended up the way it did.

The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth.

Travelling only along small back roads, Alan Booth traversed Japan’s entire length on foot, from Soya at the country’s northernmost tip, to Cape Sata in the extreme south, across three islands and some 2,000 miles of rural Japan. The Roads to Sata is his wry, witty, inimitable account of that prodigious trek.

The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron.

In 1933, the delightfully eccentric travel writer Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana, near the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Throughout, he kept a thoroughly captivating record of his encounters, discoveries, and frequent misadventures.

The Royal Road to Romance by Richard Halliburton.

When Richard Halliburton graduated from college, he chose adventure over a career, traveling the world with almost no money. The Royal Road to Romance chronicles what happened as a result, from a breakthrough Matterhorn ascent to being jailed for taking forbidden pictures on Gibraltar. Published in 1925, Halliburton wanted to be remembered as the most-traveled man who had ever lived.

The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic by Wade Davis.

In 1982, ethnobotanist Wade Davis arrived in Haiti to investigate two documented cases of zombis—people who had reappeared years after they had been officially declared dead and had been buried. In the course of his investigation, Davis came to realise that the story of vodoun is the history of Haiti.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost.

At the age of twenty-six, J. Maarten Troost decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better.

The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski.

In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland’s state newspaper. From the early days of independence in Ghana to the ongoing ethnic genocide in Rwanda, Kapuscinski has crisscrossed vast distances pursuing the swift, and often violent, events that followed liberation.

The Size of the World by Jeff Greenwald.

By the time that travel writer Jeff Greenwald hit his late thirties, he had covered more ground than Magellan, Marco Polo, and Columbus combined. But he also came to a sobering conclusion: airplanes had reduced his exotic explorations to a series of long commutes. So he set out to rediscover the mass, the gravity, and the size of the world. His mission: to circle the earth without leaving its surface.

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen.

In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller visited the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Zen Buddhism, was also on a quest to find the Lama of Shey on Crystal Mountain. He charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty.

The Travels of Ibn Battutah by Ibn Battutah.

Ibn Battutah was just 21 when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another 29 years, having visited more than 40 countries on the modern map, and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China, and as far south as Tanzania.

The Turk Who Loved Apples: And Other Tales of Losing My Way Around the World by Matt Gross.

While writing the Frugal Traveler column for the New York Times, Matt Gross began the Getting Lost series, and Gross began a more immersive form of travel that allowed him to “lose his way all over the globe”. The Turk Who Loved Apples is about breaking free of the constraints of modern travel and letting the place itself guide you.

The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes by Scott Wallace.

The true story of a journey into the Amazon to track one of the last uncontacted tribes. Wallace chronicles an expedition discovering the rainforest’s secrets while moving closer to a possible encounter with the mysterious flecheiros, or “People of the Arrow,” warriors known to repulse all intruders with showers of deadly arrows.

The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels by Freya Stark.

Hailed as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, The Valleys of the Assassins firmly established Freya Stark as one of her generation’s most intrepid explorers. The book chronicles her travels into Luristan, the mountainous terrain between Iraq and present-day Iran, often with only a single guide and on a shoestring budget.

The Way of the World by Nicolas Bouvier.

In 1953, Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way.

The Way of Wanderlust: The Best Travel Writing of Don George by Don George.

As a professional travel writer and editor for over 40 years, Don George’s articles have been published in magazines, newspapers, and websites around the globe and have won more awards than almost any other travel writer alive. The Way of Wanderlust: The Best Travel Writing of Don George is a collection of published articles from one of America’s most acclaimed and beloved travel writers.

The White Masai: My Exotic Tale of Love and Adventure by Corinne Hofmann.

Corinne Hofmann tells how she falls in love with an African warrior while on holiday in Kenya. After overcoming severe obstacles, she moves into a tiny hut with him and his mother, and spends four years in his Kenyan village. Slowly but surely, the dream starts to crumble, and she hatches a plan to return home with her daughter, a baby born of the seemingly indestructible love between a European woman and a Masai.

The Wilder Shores of Love by Leslie Blanch.

The biography of four 19th century women who leave behind the west for Arabia. Isabel Burton, the wife of Richard Burton; Jane Digby, who exchanged European society for adventure; Aimée Dubucq de Rivery, a Frenchwoman captured by pirates who became a member of the Turkish sultan’s harem; and Isabelle Eberhardt, a Swiss woman who dressed as a man and lived among the Arabs of Algeria.

The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

The Worst Journey in the World recounts Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard—the youngest member of Scott’s team and one of three men to make and survive the notorious Winter Journey—draws on his firsthand experiences as well as the diaries of his compatriots to create a stirring and detailed account of Scott’s legendary expedition.

The Yogurt Man Cometh by Kevin Revolinski.

Part travelogue, part memoir, The Yogurt Man Cometh is the story of Kevin Revolinski’s year-long adventure as an English teacher in Turkey. Revolinski relates in candid style his encounters in a foreign culture, all told with an open mind and a sense of humor. An enjoyable read for anyone who has spent time in Turkey or who plans to do so.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson.

Following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s K2, Greg Mortenson was inspired by an encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built 55 schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth.

To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism by Chuck Thompson.

From the author of Smile When You’re Lying , Chuck Thompson goes out to discover if some of the world’s most ill-reputed destinations live up to their bad raps, while confronting a few of his own travel anxieties in the process. He sets out to face his worst fears in Africa, India, Mexico City, and―most terrifying of all―at Disney World.

Tony Wheeler’s Bad Lands by Tony Wheeler.

Written by the founder of Lonely Planet , Bad Lands is a first-hand account of Tony Wheeler’s travels through places often perceived as having some of the most repressive and dangerous regimes in the world: Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

To the Moon and Timbuktu: A Trek Through the Heart of Africa by Nina Sovich.

At the age of thirty-four Nina Sovich found she had unwittingly had followed life’s script, so she packed her bags and travelled to West Africa in search of adventure. Sovich travels through Western Sahara, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, bringing their textures and flavors into vivid relief.

Tracks: One Woman’s Journey Across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson.

Tracks is the true story of Robyn Davidson’s journey across the Australian desert, walking 1,700 miles between Alice Springs and the Indian Ocean with her dog—and four camels. She writes about the Red Centre of Australia, aboriginal culture, and of her loveable and cranky camels.

Travels in the Land of Kublilai Khan by Marco Polo.

A profound influence on medieval Europe’s view of the wider world, this thirteenth-century account of a Venetian merchant’s amazing experiences in the court of the great Mongol leader, Kubilai Khan, remains one of the most fascinating tales of exploration ever written.

Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley.

Until 1893, Mary Kingsley led a secluded life in Victorian England. But at age 30, defying every convention of womanhood of the time, she left for West Africa to collect botanical specimens for a book left unfinished by her father at his death. Traveling through western and equatorial Africa and becoming the first European to enter some parts of Gabon, Kingsley’s story would become an enduring tale of adventure.

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The wild Cevennes region of France forms the backdrop for the pioneering travelogue Travels with a Donkey, written by a young Robert Louis Stevenson. Ever hopeful of encountering the adventure he yearned for and raising much needed finance at the start of his writing career, Stevenson embarked on the 120 mile, 12 day trek and recorded his experiences in this journal.

Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam’s Greatest Traveler by Tim Mackintosh-Smith.

In 1325, Ibn Battutah set out from his native Tangier on pilgrimage to Mecca. By the time he returned nearly thirty years later, he had seen most of the known world. Captivated by Battutah’s account of his journey, Tim Mackintosh-Smith set out to follow in the peripatetic Moroccan’s footsteps.

Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck.

In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante.

Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life by Daniel Klein.

Daniel Klein visits the Greek island Hydra to discover the secrets of ageing happily. Drawing on the inspiring lives of his Greek friends and philosophers ranging from Epicurus to Sartre, Klein uncovers the simple pleasures that are available late in life, as well as the refined pleasures that only a mature mind can fully appreciate.

Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir by Martha Gellhorn.

As a journalist, Gellhorn covered every military conflict from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua. She also bewitched Eleanor Roosevelt’s secret love and enraptured Ernest Hemingway with her courage as they dodged shell fire together. Hemingway is the unnamed “other” in the title of this memoir, first published in 1979, in which Gellhorn describes her travels, both accompanied and alone.

Trieste And The Meaning Of Nowhere by Jan Morris.

After visiting Trieste for more than half a century, Jan Morris has come to see the city as a touchstone for her interests and preoccupations: cities, seas, empires. It has even come to reflect her own life in its loves, disillusionments, and memories. Her meditation on the place is characteristically layered with history and sprinkled with stories of famous visitors from James Joyce to Sigmund Freud.

Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams.

In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and “discovered” Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer’s perilous path in search of the truth—except he’d written about adventure far more than he’d actually lived it.

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella L. Bird.

A classic travel book which details Bird’s 1878 trip to Japan, where she sets out alone to explore the interior. She describes in fascinating detail the complex culture and the lives of the people in Japan.

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes.

Frances Mayes opens the door to a new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the Tuscan countryside. She brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. Mayes writes about the tastes and pleasures of a foreign country with gusto and passion.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman.

In 1986, fresh out of college, Gilman and her friend Claire yearned to do something daring and original that did not involve getting a job. They decided to embark on an ambitious trip around the globe, starting in the People’s Republic of China. At that point, China had only recently open to independent travelers.

Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies by Alastair Bonnett.

A tour of the world’s hidden geographies—from disappearing islands to forbidden deserts—and a testament to how mysterious the world remains today. In Unruly Places, Alastair Bonnett goes to some of the most unexpected, offbeat places in the world, including moving villages, secret cities, no man’s lands, and floating islands.

Video Night in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer.

Mohawk hair-cuts in Bali, yuppies in Hong Kong and Rambo rip-offs in the movie houses of Bombay are just a few of the jarring images that Iyer brings back from the Far East. Published in 1989, Video Night in Kathmandu is also a time capsule of travel in Asia just before the age the internet.

Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World’s Most Polluted Places by Andrew Blackwell.

A jaunt through the most polluted places on Earth. From the lifeless moonscape of Canada’s oil sand strip mines, to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Visit Sunny Chernobyl fuses immersive first-person reporting with satire and analysis, making the case that it’s time to start appreciating our planet as-is–not as we wish it to be.

Vroom With A View by Peter Moore.

In the summer he turned forty Peter bought an old Vespa on eBay and rode it from Milan to Rome. The Vespa was a beautiful coffee coloured ’61 model with saddle seats and a little too much chrome. Peter called her Sophia after Sophia Loren and the Italians loved her as much as he did. From the Italian Alps to the hilltop towns of Tuscany she showed Peter a side of Italy very few people get to see.

West With The Night by Beryl Markham.

West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham and her adventurous life in the Kenya of the 1920s and ’30s. An aviator, she transport live cargo, hunters, scientists and explorers on her single engine plane. She was known to be one of the best pilots that you could find and count on.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

In the wake of her mother’s death, with her family scattered, and in the ashes of a failed marriage, Cheryl Strayed made the impulsive decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Wild tells the story of her adventure, capturing the terrors and pleasures of a young woman hiking solo and the healing power of her trip.

Wild Coast: Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge by John Gimlette.

John Gimlette sets off along the barely explored coast of Guyana, Suriname and Guyane Française. His journey takes him deep into the jungle, from the hideouts of runaway slaves to penal colonies, outlandish forts, remote Amerindian villages, a ‘Little Paris’ and a space port. He meets rebels, outlaws and sorcerers, and ponders a love-affair that changed the face of slavery.

Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

From the author of The Little Prince , Wind, Sand and Stars captures the grandeur, danger, and isolation of flight. Its exciting account of air adventure, combined with lyrical prose and the spirit of a philosopher, makes it one of the most popular works ever written about flying.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Persig.

Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an examination of how we live and a meditation on how to live better. The narrative of a father on a summer motorcycle trip across America’s Northwest with his young son, it becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into life’s fundamental questions.

For reading while on the road I personally recommend getting a Kindle Paperwhite . I can order books from anywhere in the world, so I’m no longer at the whim of what books are left on the guesthouse bookshelf. Read my Kindle Paperwhite review .

If you don’t have a Kindle you can still read e-books purchased on Amazon by downloading a free Kindle reading app.

Nomadic Notes is an affiliate of Amazon.com, and purchases via Amazon may earn Nomadic Notes a commission. The book images and book descriptions of the books I haven’t read are via the Amazon.com listing.

What’s your favourite travel book?

Have an opinion on any of the listed books (good or bad?) Is there a favourite that I have left out? Join the discussion on the Facebook Page .

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100 Must-Read Travel Books

Rebecca Hussey

Rebecca holds a PhD in English and is a professor at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut. She teaches courses in composition, literature, and the arts. When she’s not reading or grading papers, she’s hanging out with her husband and son and/or riding her bike and/or buying books. She can't get enough of reading and writing about books, so she writes the bookish newsletter "Reading Indie," focusing on small press books and translations. Newsletter: Reading Indie Twitter: @ofbooksandbikes

View All posts by Rebecca Hussey

Real travel is awesome when we can manage it, but sometimes we just have to travel from our armchairs, right? When armchair travel is the most we can do, it’s good to have many reading options from which to choose. So I put together a list of 100 of the best travel books that will take you around the world without requiring any more effort than lifting your hand to turn the pages.

I did my best to organize these by geographical region, although sometimes that’s tricky since there are many ways to divide up the regions of the world. And I had to include a large category of “various locations” since some travel books really do take you everywhere. Within the geographical region, the books are organized chronologically.

I hope you will find some books on this list that pique your interest and can help you find adventures from the safety of your own home. Or maybe they will inspire you to go on a journey, or prepare you for an upcoming trip. Maybe you will read one of these on an airplane. Whatever the case, if travel is something that interests you, I hope this list helps you find new books to love.

Best Travel Books Set In Europe

Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796)

“ Originally published in 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft’s account of her trip to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, is compelling both in its picture of countries rarely visited in Regency times and insights into Mary’s personal life. ”

Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879)

“ Ever hopeful of encountering the adventure he yearned for and raising much needed finance at the start of his writing career, Stevenson embarked on the120 mile, 12 day trek and recorded his experiences in this journal.”

Edith Wharton, A Motor-Flight Through France (1908)

“ Shedding the turn-of-the-century social confines she felt existed for women in America, Edith Wharton set out in the newly invented ‘motor-car’ to explore the cities and countryside of France.”

D.H. Lawrence, Sea and Sardinia (1921)

“ Written after the First World War when he was living in Sicily, Sea and Sardinia records Lawrence’s journey to Sardinia and back in January 1921. It reveals his response to a new landscape and people and his ability to transmute the spirit of place into literary art.”

George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)

“ This unusual fictional account – in good part autobiographical – narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-out of two great cities. ”

Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941)

“ Written on the brink of World War II, Rebecca West’s classic examination of the history, people, and politics of Yugoslavia illuminates a region that is still a focus of international concern .”

Mary McCarthy, The Stones of Florence (1956)

“ Mary McCarthy offers a unique history of Florence, from its inception to the dominant role it came to play in the world of art, architecture, and Italian culture, that captures the brilliant Florentine spirit and revisits the legendary figures Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and others who exemplify it so iconically.”

Jan Morris, The World of Venice (1960)

“ Often hailed as one of the best travel books ever written, Venice is neither a guide nor a history book, but a beautifully written immersion in Venetian life and character, set against the background of the city’s past. ”

Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts (1977)

“ In 1933, at the age of 18, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on an extraordinary journey by foot – from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the first volume in a trilogy recounting the trip, and takes the reader with him as far as Hungary.”

Tété-Michel Kpomassie, An African in Greenland (1981)

“ Tété-Michel Kpomassie was a teenager in Togo when he discovered a book about Greenland—and knew that he must go there. Working his way north over nearly a decade, Kpomassie finally arrived in the country of his dreams. ”

Peter Mayle, A Year in Provence (1989)

“ In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. ”

Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun (1996)

“ Frances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. ”

Adam Gopnik, Paris to the Moon (2000)

“ Paris. The name alone conjures images of chestnut-lined boulevards, sidewalk cafés, breathtaking façades around every corner–in short, an exquisite romanticism that has captured the American imagination for as long as there have been Americans.”

Lori Tharps , Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain (2008)

“ Magazine writer and editor Lori Tharps was born and raised in the comfortable but mostly White suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was often the only person of color in her school and neighborhood. At an early age, Lori decided that her destiny would be discovered in Spain. ”

Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor, Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story (2009)

“ Between 1998 and 2000, Sue and Ann travel throughout Greece and France. Sue, coming to grips with aging, caught in a creative vacuum, longing to reconnect with her grown daughter, struggles to enlarge a vision of swarming bees into a novel. Ann, just graduated from college, heartbroken and benumbed by the classic question about what to do with her life, grapples with a painful depression. ”

André Aciman, Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere (2011)

“ From beautiful and moving pieces about the memory evoked by the scent of lavender; to meditations on cities like Barcelona, Rome, Paris, and New York; to his sheer ability to unearth life secrets from an ordinary street corner,  Alibis  reminds the reader that Aciman is a master of the personal essay. ”

Sarah Moss, Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland (2012)

“ Novelist Sarah Moss had a childhood dream of moving to Iceland, sustained by a wild summer there when she was nineteen. In 2009, she saw an advertisement for a job at the University of Iceland and applied on a whim, despite having two young children and a comfortable life in an English cathedral city.”

Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (2012)

“ In this exquisitely written book, Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge, England, home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove roads, and sea paths that crisscross both the British landscape and its waters and territories beyond. ”

Best Travel Books Set In  Latin America

Zora Neale Hurston, Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938)

“ Based on Zora Neale Hurston’s personal experience in Haiti and Jamaica, where she participated as an initiate rather than just an observer of voodoo practices during her visits in the 1930s, this travelogue into a dark world paints a vividly authentic picture of ceremonies and customs and superstitions of great cultural interest. ”

Sybille Bedford, A Visit to Don Otavio (1953)

“ In the mid-1940s, Sybille Bedford set off from Grand Central Station for Mexico, accompanied by her friend E., a hamper of food and drink (Virginia ham, cherries, watercress, a flute of bread, Portuguese rosé), books, a writing board, and paper. Her resulting travelogue captures the rich and violent beauty of the country as it was then. ”

V.S. Naipaul, The Middle Passage , (1962)

“ In 1960 the government of Trinidad invited V. S. Naipaul to revisit his native country and record his impressions. In this classic of modern travel writing he has created a deft and remarkably prescient portrait of Trinidad and four adjacent Caribbean societies–countries haunted by the legacies of slavery and colonialism .”

Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia (1977)

“ An exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land, Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia teems with evocative descriptions, remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes.”

Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas (1979)

“ Beginning his journey in Boston, where he boarded the subway commuter train, and catching trains of all kinds on the way, Paul Theroux tells of his voyage from ice-bound Massachusetts and Illinois to the arid plateau of Argentina’s most southerly tip. ”

Salman Rushdie, The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987)

“ In this brilliantly focused and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Salman Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of a revolution. ”

Mary Morris, Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone (1987)

“ Traveling from the highland desert of northern Mexico to the steaming jungles of Honduras, from the seashore of the Caribbean to the exquisite highlands of Guatemala, Mary Morris, a celebrated writer of both fiction and nonfiction, confronts the realities of place, poverty, machismo, and selfhood. ”

Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988)

“ Lyrical, sardonic, and forthright, A Small Place magnifies our vision of one small place with Swiftian wit and precision. Jamaica Kincaid’s expansive essay candidly appraises the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up, and makes palpable the impact of European colonization and tourism. ”

Isabel Allende, My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile (2003)

“ Isabel Allende evokes the magnificent landscapes of her country; a charming, idiosyncratic Chilean people with a violent history and an indomitable spirit, and the politics, religion, myth, and magic of her homeland that she carries with her even today. ”

Best Travel Books Set In  North America

Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)

“ Widely admired for its vivid accounts of the slave trade, Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography — the first slave narrative to attract a significant readership — reveals many aspects of the eighteenth-century Western world through the experiences of one individual. ”

Isabella Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)

“ Bird was born in 1831 in Cheshire, England, and became one of a distinguished group of female travellers famous in the nineteenth century–a time when it was considered that a lady’s place should be confined to the home. Isabella travelled and explored the world extensively and became a notable writer and natural historian.”

John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962)

“ In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people.”

Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire (1968)

“ This is a rare view of a quest to experience nature in its purest form — the silence, the struggle, the overwhelming beauty. But this is also the gripping, anguished cry of a man of character who challenges the growing exploitation of the wilderness by oil and mining interests, as well as by the tourist industry. ”

Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974)

“ A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, the book becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. ”

Edmund White, States of Desire: Travels in Gay America (1980)

“ In this city-by-city description of the way homosexual men lived in the late seventies, Edmund White gives us a picture of Gay America that will surprise gay and straight readers alike.”

William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways: A Journey into America (1982)

“ William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity … His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.”

Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces (1984)

“ Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the first in a series of documentaries when her partner died. Ehrlich stayed on and found she couldn’t leave. The Solace of Open Spaces is a chronicle of her first years on “the planet of Wyoming,” a personal journey into a place, a feeling, and a way of life. ”

Jonathan Raban, Bad Land: An American Romance (1985)

“ In towns named Terry, Calypso, and Ismay (which changed its name to Joe, Montana, in an effort to attract football fans), and in the landscape in between, Raban unearths a vanished episode of American history, with its own ruins, its own heroes and heroines, its own hopeful myths and bitter memories. ”

Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild (1996)

“ In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. ”

Jenny Diski, Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking Around America with Interruptions (2002)

“ Using two cross-country trips on Amtrak as her narrative vehicles, British writer Jenny Diski connects the humming rails, taking her into the heart of America with the track-like scars leading back to her own past. ”

Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost (2005)

“ A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Solnit’s own life to explore the issues of wandering, being lost, and the uses of the unknown. The result is a distinctive, stimulating, and poignant voyage of discovery. ”

Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation (2005)

“ With Assassination Vacation, [Vowell] takes us on a road trip like no other—a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage. ”

Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (2012)

“ At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life.”

Suzanne Roberts, Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (2012)

“ It was 1993, Suzanne Roberts had just finished college, and when her friend suggested they hike California’s John Muir Trail, the adventure sounded like the perfect distraction from a difficult home life and thoughts about the future. But she never imagined that the twenty-eight-day hike would change her life. ”

Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road (2015)

“ Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an on-the-road kind of life, traveling, listening to people, learning, and creating change. ”

Best Travel Books Set In  Asia

Matsuo Bashō, The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1689)

“ In later life Basho turned to Zen Buddhism, and the travel sketched in this volume reflect his attempts to cast off earthly attachments and reach out to spiritual fulfillment. The sketches are written in the ‘haibun’ style–a linking of verse and prose. ”

Alexandra David-Néel, My Journey to Lhasa (1927)

“ In order to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa, she used her fluency of Tibetan dialects and culture, disguised herself as a beggar with yak hair extensions and inked skin and tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate in the World.”

Eric Newby, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958)

“ No mountaineer, Newby set out with a friend to explore the formidable peaks of the Nuristan Mountains in northeast Afghanistan. His witty, unorthodox report is packed with incidents both ghastly and ecstatic as he takes us where few Western feet have trod.”

Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (1978)

“ When Matthiessen went to Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and, possibly, to glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard, he undertook his five-week trek as winter snows were sweeping into the high passes. This is a radiant and deeply moving account of a ‘true pilgrimage, a journey of the heart.'”

Michael Ondaatje, Running in the Family (1982)

“ In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that ‘pendant off the ear of India,’ Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. ”

Vikram Seth, From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkian and Tibet (1983)

“ After two years as a postgraduate student at Nanjing University in China, Vikram Seth hitch-hiked back to his home in New Delhi, via Tibet. From Heaven Lake is the story of his remarkable journey and his encounters with nomadic Muslims, Chinese officials, Buddhists and others. ”

Christina Dodwell, Traveller in China (1985)

“ Christina Dodwell s wanderlust, combined with her inventive and unorthodox methods of travel and her unquenchable curiosity about people, make her the ideal guide to the remoter parts of China’s vast territory. ”

Pico Iyer, Video Night in Kathmandu (1988)

“ Why did Dire Straits blast out over Hiroshima, Bruce Springsteen over Bali and Madonna over all? The author was eager to learn where East meets West, how pop culture and imperialism penetrated through the world’s most ancient civilisations. Then, the truths he began to uncover were more startling, subtle, and more complex than he ever anticipated. ”

Pankaj Mishra, Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India (1995)

“ From a convent-educated beauty pageant aspirant to small shopkeepers planning their vacation in London, Pankaj Mishra paints a vivid picture of a people rushing headlong to their tryst with modernity. ”

Andrew Pham, Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam (1999)

“ Catfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey—a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam—made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland.”

Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China (2001)

“ In 1983, at the age of thirty, dissident artist Ma Jian finds himself divorced by his wife, separated from his daughter, betrayed by his girlfriend, facing arrest for ‘Spiritual Pollution,’ and severely disillusioned with the confines of life in Beijing. So with little more than a change of clothes and two bars of soap, Ma takes off to immerse himself in the remotest parts of China. ”

Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (2004)

“ The book combines elements of memoir, travel writing as well as socio-political analysis of the history and people of Mumbai. Mehta writes as a person who is at one level outsider to this magnificent city and on the other hand is the one who is born here and has lived his childhood in the city then known as Bombay. ”

Faith Adiele, Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun (2004)

“ Reluctantly leaving behind Pop Tarts and pop culture to battle flying rats, hissing cobras, forest fires, and decomposing corpses, Faith Adiele shows readers in this personal narrative, with accompanying journal entries, that the path to faith is full of conflicts for even the most devout. ”

Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (2009)

“ Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years–a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population. ”

Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012)

“ In this brilliant, breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. ”

Best Travel Books Set In  Africa

Mary Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (1897)

“ Upon her sudden freedom from family obligations, a sheltered Victorian spinster traded her stifling middle-class existence for an incredible expedition in the Congo. ”

Beryl Markham, West with the Night (1942)

“[Markham’s] successes and her failures—and her deep, lifelong love of the ‘soul of Africa’—are all chronicled here with wrenching honesty and agile wit. Hailed by National Geographic as one of the greatest adventure books of all time, West with the Night is the sweeping account of a fearless and dedicated woman. ”

Maya Angelou, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986)

“ Once again, the poet casts her spell as she resumes one of the greatest personal narratives of our time. In this continuation, Angelou relates how she joins a “colony” of Black American expatriates in Ghana–only to discover no one ever goes home again. ”

Eddy L. Harris, Native Stranger: A Black American’s Journey into the Heart of Africa (1992)

“ Recounting his journey into the heart of Africa, an African American describes his encounters with beggars and bureaucrats, his visit to Soweto, a night in a Liberian jail cell, and more. ”

Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (1998)

“ Philip Gourevitch’s haunting work is an anatomy of the killings in Rwanda, a vivid history of the genocide’s background, and an unforgettable account of what it means to survive in its aftermath. ”

Colleen McElroy, Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar (1999)

“ McElroy’s tale of an African American woman’s travels among the people of Madagascar is told with wit, insight, and humor. Throughout it she interweaves English translations of Malagasy stories of heroism and morality, royalty and commoners, love and revenge, and the magic of tricksters and shapechangers. ”

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa’s Renaissance (2006)

“ In New News Out of Africa , this eminent reporter offers a fresh and surprisingly optimistic assessment of modern Africa, revealing that there is more to the continent than the bad news of disease, disaster, and despair.”

Noo Saro-Wiwa, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria (2012)

“ She finds [Nigeria] as exasperating as ever, and frequently despairs at the corruption and inefficiency she encounters. But she also discovers that it is far more beautiful and varied than she had ever imagined, with its captivating thick tropical rainforest and ancient palaces and monuments.”

Best Travel Books Set In The  South Pacific

Robyn Davidson, Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback (1980)

“ Robyn Davidson’s opens the memoir of her perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company with the following words: ‘I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there’s no going back.'”

Dea Birkett, Serpent in Paradise (1997)

“ Acclaimed British travel writer and journalist Dea Birkett, obsessed like many with the island’s image as a secluded Eden and its connection to the mysterious and intriguing Bounty legend, traveled across the Pacific on a cargo ship and became one of the very few outsiders permitted to land on Pitcairn. ”

Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country (2000)

“ Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes, even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path. ”

Kira Salak, Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua, New Guinea (2001)

“ Traveling by dugout canoe and on foot, confronting the dangers and wonders of a largely untouched world, [Salak] became the first woman to traverse this remote country and write about it. ”

Best Travel Books Set In The  Middle East/North Africa

Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters (1716)

“ Her lively letters offer insights into the paradoxical freedoms conferred on Muslim women by the veil, the value of experimental work by Turkish doctors on inoculation, and the beauty of Arab poetry and culture. ”

Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana (1937)

“ In 1933 the delightfully eccentric Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana -the country of the Oxus, the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. ”

Isabelle Eberhardt, The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt (1987, written in late 19th century)

“ Eberhardt’s journal chronicles the daring adventures of a late 19th- century European woman who traveled the Sahara desert disguised as an Arab man and adopted Islam.”

Sara Suleri, Meatless Days (1989)

“ In this finely wrought memoir of life in postcolonial Pakistan, Suleri intertwines the violent history of Pakistan’s independence with her own most intimate memories—of her Welsh mother; of her Pakistani father, prominent political journalist Z.A. Suleri; of her tenacious grandmother Dadi and five siblings; and of her own passage to the West. ”

Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler’s Tale (1993)

“ Interspersing his quest with accounts of his stay in ‘Masr’ and the people he met, Ghosh weaves together a narrative packed with exuberant detail, exposing ties that have bound together India and Egypt, and Hindus and Muslims and Jews, from the Crusades to Operation Desert Storm.”

Rory Stewart, The Places in Between (2004)

“ In January 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan–surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers … Along the way Stewart met heroes and rogues, tribal elders and teenage soldiers, Taliban commanders and foreign-aid workers. ”

Colin Thubron, Shadow of the Silk Road (2007)

“ Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart, and camel, Colin Thubron covered some seven thousand miles in eight months out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey and explored an ancient world in modern ferment. ”

Gertrude Bell, A Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert (2015, written in early 20th century)

“ This is the epic story of Bell’s life, told through her letters, military dispatches, diary entries, and other writings. It offers a unique and intimate look behind the public mask of a woman who shaped nations. ”

Lynsey Addario, It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War (2015)

“ Lynsey Addario was just finding her way as a young photographer when September 11 changed the world. One of the few photojournalists with experience in Afghanistan, she gets the call to return and cover the American invasion.”

Best Travel Books Set In  Arctic/Antarctic

Ernest Shackleton, South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition, 1914-1917 (1919)

“ In an epic struggle of man versus the elements, Shackleton leads his team on a harrowing quest for survival over some of the most unforgiving terrain in the world.”

Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams (2001)

“ Lopez offers a thorough examination of this obscure world-its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires, and dreams. ”

Sara Wheeler, Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica (1996)

“ Terra Incognita is a meditation on the landscape, myths and history of one of the remotest parts of the globe, as well as an encounter with the international temporary residents of the region – living in close confinement despite the surrounding acres of white space – and the mechanics of day-to-day life in extraordinary conditions. ”

Gretchen Legler, On the Ice: An Intimate Portrait of Life at McMurdo Station, Antarctica (2005)

“ Sent to Antarctica as an observer by the National Science Foundation, Gretchen Legler arrives at McMurdo Station in midwinter, a time of -70 degree temperatures and months of near-total darkness. ”

Various Locations

Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Battuta , (14th century)

“ Ibn Battutah—ethnographer, bigrapher, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist—was just 21 when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgramage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another 29 years, traveling instead through more than 40 countries on the modern map, covering 75,000 miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China, and as far south as Tanzania. ”

Martha Gellhorn, Travels With Myself and Another (1979): “ Out of a lifetime of travelling, Martha Gellhorn has selected her ‘best horror journeys.’ She bumps through rain-sodden, war-torn China to meet Chiang Kai-Shek, floats listlessly in search of u-boats in the wartime Caribbean and visits a dissident writer in the Soviet Union against her better judgment.”

Barbara Savage, Miles from Nowhere: A Round-The World Bicycle Adventure (1983)

“ This is the story of Barbara and Larry Savage’s sometimes dangerous, often zany, but ultimately rewarding 23,000 miles global bicycle odyssey, which took them through 25 countries in two years.”

Elaine Lee, editor, Go Girl!: The Black Woman’s Book of Travel and Adventure (1997)

“Globe-trotting attorney Lee assembled 52 travel pieces presenting the uncommon perspective of black women, mostly African Americans. Assembled under the headings ‘Back to Africa,’ ‘Sistren Travelin’,’ and ‘Trippin’ All Over the World,’ many initially appeared in popular women’s or travel magazines.”

Cheryl J. Fish, editor, A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African-American Travel Writing (1999)

“ Dispatches, diaries, memoirs, and letters by African-American travelers in search of home, justice, and adventure-from the Wild West to Australia. ”

Caryl Phillips, The Atlantic Sound (2000)

“ Liverpool, England; Accra, Ghana; Charleston, South Carolina. These were the points of the triangle forming the major route of the transatlantic slave trade. And these are the cities that acclaimed author Caryl Phillips explores–physically, historically, psychologically–in this wide-ranging meditation on the legacy of slavery. ”

Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel (2002)

“ Any Baedeker will tell us where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why … de Botton considers the pleasures of anticipation; the allure of the exotic, and the value of noticing everything from a seascape in Barbados to the takeoffs at Heathrow.”

Geoff Dyer, Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It (2003)

“ As he travels from Amsterdam to Cambodia, Rome to Indonesia, Libya to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert, Dyer flounders about in a sea of grievances, with fleeting moments of transcendental calm his only reward for living in a perpetual state of motion. ”

Susan Orlean, My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere (2004)

“ In this irresistible collection of adventures far and near, Orlean conducts a tour of the world via its subcultures, from the heart of the African music scene in Paris to the World Taxidermy Championships in Springfield, Illinois–and even into her own apartment, where she imagines a very famous houseguest taking advantage of her hospitality. ”

Ryszard Kapuściński , Travels with Herodotus (2004)

“J ust out of university in 1955, Kapuscinski told his editor that he’d like to go abroad. Dreaming no farther than Czechoslovakia, the young reporter found himself sent to India. Wide-eyed and captivated, he would discover in those days his life’s work—to understand and describe the world in its remotest reaches, in all its multiplicity.”

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (2006)

“ Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. ”

Tahir Shah, Travels with Myself (2011)

“ Travels with Myself is a collection of selected writings by Tahir Shah, acclaimed Anglo-Afghan author and champion of the intrepid. Written over twenty years, the many pieces form an eclectic treasury of stories from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and beyond.

Elisabeth Eaves, Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents (2011)

“ Spanning 15 years of travel, beginning when she is a sophomore in college, Wanderlust documents Elisabeth Eaves’s insatiable hunger for the rush of the unfamiliar and the experience of encountering new people and cultures. ”

Paula Young Lee, Deer Hunting in Paris: A Memoir of God, Guns, and Game Meat (2013)

“ What happens when a Korean-American preacher’s kid refuses to get married, travels the world, and quits being vegetarian? She meets her polar opposite on an online dating site while sitting at a café in Paris, France and ends up in Paris, Maine, learning how to hunt. ”

Emily Raboteau, Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora (2013)

“ On her ten-year journey back in time and around the globe, through the Bush years and into the age of Obama, Raboteau wanders to Jamaica, Ethiopia, Ghana, and the American South to explore the complex and contradictory perspectives of Black Zionists. ”

Amanda Epe, A Fly Girl: Travel Tales of an Exotic British Airways Cabin Crew (2014)

“ A Fly Girl gives insight to the highs and lows in the world of a former BA cabin crew, in an intriguing travel writing memoir. In the global landscape the memoirist meticulously documents personal adventures, social structures and political history throughout her daring and exciting expeditions.”

Robert Moor, On Trails: An Exploration (2016)

“ Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic—the oft-overlooked trail—sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents?”

What do you think are the best travel books? Check out even more recommendations for travel memoirs here !

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October 1, 2020 | 9:24 AM

31 titles to inspire travel during national book month.

If you're anything like our team of travel experts, you really miss being on the road. Thankfully, we've found comfort in the pages of a book. From classic tales to photo journals, books transport us to familiar haunts and new adventures. Since today marks the start of National Book Month, a time to celebrate literature and honor top authors, we put together a list of books we loved reading (or can't wait to read) that will help you bring travel destinations to life. 

Scroll through the list to uncover literary adventures for every age!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Mark Twain General Travel & Adventure, Middle School and above

Hop aboard Huck's raft for a riveting ride down the mighty Mississippi! Likely based on the author's childhood friend, Tom Blankenship, this coming-of-age tale sees Huckleberry Finn flee his father and the constraints of civilized society. Joined by Jim, Miss Watson's fugitive slave, the search for freedom leads Huck to an unlikely friendship , a deeper connection to nature, and a feeling of empathy for the society he left behind. Required reading for many students, this American classic is an assignment any lifelong learner can appreciate.

The Alchemist , Paulo Coelho Spain & Egypt, High School and above

Fueled by a dream of faraway treasure, the young shepherd Santiago leaves behind his home in Andalucía and heads off to the pyramids of Egypt. The journey and the return home are an allegorical tale empowering us all to follow our dreams. Originally written in Portuguese (and in only two weeks! ), this best-selling novel has been translated into more than 80 languages and published in over 100 countries. In 2013, Coelho set a "quirky" Guinness World Record when he signed 53 different translations of the book at a fair in Germany.

Examine our national identity from an outside perspective as you follow along the author's graphic novel-style memoir. An epic road trip along "the Mother Road" from Santa Monica to Chicago leads Shing Yin Khor, a Malaysian immigrant, to reconcile her two visions of America—glitz and glamour versus poverty and desolation—all while witnessing iconic landmarks across the Southwest.

Around the World in 80 Days , Jules Verne General Travel & Adventure, Middle School and above

How far would you go to win a bet? After hearing that a new train route in India makes it possible to travel around the world in 80 days, Phileas Fogg accepts a wager and recruits his valet to join him on this transcontinental dare from London, with stops in Egypt, India, America, and more. While most of us envision a hot air balloon when we think of this tale, the journey is completed on railways and by sea. Since the novel's publication in the 1870s, many have attempted to recreate the adventure—most famously, journalist Nellie Bly did it in 72 days . 

The Art of Travel , Alain de Botton General Travel, College and above

While most travel guides suggest where you should go , "we hear little of why we should go and how we could be more fulfilled doing so." De Botton combines personal experiences and historical accounts from famous writers and travelers to delve into the " peculiar activity of travelling ‘for pleasure.'"

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders , Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton General Travel, High School and above

From a " global community of explorers " comes an "off-the-beaten-path travel guide to the entire world... like traveling with a local , rather than relying on... top-voted spots ." This thorough and comprehensive tome reminds us how many treasures are waiting to be discovered " and actively encourages its readers to explore the world, rather than travel it."

Charming readers for over 60 years, this childhood classic introduced a very prim bear with a love of marmalade, a well-traveled suitcase, and an uncanny knack for finding trouble. Originally from Perú, the bear is found wandering Paddington Station and taken in by the Brown family. Bond based his inventive tale on a lone bear he found at the railway station's gift shop and on " the groups of children he saw on station platforms in London during the war. "

The Bucket List: 1000 Adventures Big & Small , Kath Stathers General Travel & Adventure, High School and above

Travel the world with a purpose! A great read for visual learners, this adventure guide features must-do activities in specific destinations around the world. From the deep blue sea to the tallest mountaintops—and everything in between—Stathers' guide will have you building a travel wish list across the continents. 

The Call of the Wild , Jack London Alaska, Middle School and above

Become one with nature as a dog named Buck takes you from California deep into the Alaskan wilderness. Surviving the "brutal cruelty from humans and the wilderness," he ends up leading his dogsled team and is eventually rescued by John Thornton. The story's backdrop is the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, which Jack London joined to escape his impoverished roots in Northern California. The animal cruelty he witnessed there led to classic tales and "unforgettable adventures."

Destinations of a Lifetime: 225 of the World's Most Amazing Places General Travel, Middle School and above

The experts at National Geographic have compiled a collection of stunning photographs and write-ups from around the world that will motivate even reluctant readers to learn and explore across the globe.

Written and illustrated by a student for her peers, this graphic novel provides a refreshing and relatable look at the search for home and identity. Inzer crafts " a humorous account of her rediscovering her place of birth" after ten years of living in the States. Coming home from Japan with notes and illustrations, she self-published the book in 2014 before it was picked up for wide release a year later.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul , Jeff Kinney Road Trips, Elementary & Middle School

What do you get when you cross a cartoonist with a teenage diary? A best-selling, record-breaking book series! In the ninth installment, follow Greg Heffley and his family on a disastrous road trip that gives way to an unforgettable adventure.  

For Whom the Bell Tolls , Ernest Hemingway   Spain, High School and above

One of Hemingway's most influential books, this war novel places us near Segovia in the 1930s, where a young volunteer joins the Spanish Civil War. " All of life—hope, fear, and love—plays out in three days of intense action ." B ased on the author's experiences as a news correspondent at the time, "his finest novel" is an early look at political and military strife at the dawn of World War II.

Gulliver's Travels , Jonathan Swift General Travel & Adventure, Middle School and above

Did you know this is a "satirical masterpiece that's never been out of print "? The voyages of Lemuel Gulliver take him to strange lands, giving him the distance necessary to examine the benefits and challenges of his own society back home. Since its anonymous publication in 1726, adults have appreciated the cultural and political commentary, and children respond to the fantastical journeys. For teachers , the book is a lesson in literary satire, historical allusions, and unreliable narrators .

Let a best-selling travel writer be your humorous, knowledgeable guide across " the country that doubles as a continent." Though Australia lays claim to vicious wildlife and a sometimes unforgiving climate, Bryson also brings to life the "the beauty of this country, home to ravishing beaches and countless unique species ." If a trip Down Under isn't on your bucket list, it's sure to be after this captivating read!

The Innocents Abroad , Mark Twain Europe, Egypt & the Middle East, High School and above

Twain's "irreverent" and fictional retelling of his own excursion through Europe and into Egypt and the Holy Land is another example of literature helping us define ourselves by encountering "what we are not."   The author famously claimed that "travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness," and he brought American and international readers along on trips to faraway places some could scarcely imagine. Since being published in 1869, illustrated versions have helped Twain's "portraiture" of American tourists on a world tour come to life.

When his father passes away and his uncle disappears, Hugo hides away maintaining the clocks in a Paris train station. Determined to restore the automaton first discovered by his father in a museum, Hugo's adventures connect him to "an eccentric, bookish girl" and a toymaker with a big secret. Anchored by hundreds of intriguing illustrations, this prize-winning book has a cinematic feel independent of its film adaptation.

Julia and the Art of Practical Travel , Leslie M. M. Bloom General Travel & Adventure, Middle School and above

The search for home and family takes 11-year old Julia Lancaster and her aunt from New York to California in the late 1960s. They pack up "only the most practical travel things " (like candlesticks and carpets) for a journey that introduces the pair to hippies, a voodoo queen, and a sheriff who wears many hats in his town-of-one. Through the windows of their station wagon and the lens of her camera, Julia documents the people and places that shape her as she tracks down her long-lost mom.

In  The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the nooks and spires of the cathedral became a supporting character, but in Hugo's epic saga of the Romantic era, the city itself becomes a driving force. As we follow Jean Valjean from prisoner to businessman to father, the sights and sounds of 1800s Paris help us understand its people, society, and politics. Selling out its first edition in 24 hours ,  Les Misérables is both deeply local and a universal tale of love and loss, poverty and wealth, oppression and defiance, struggle and redemption.

Love & Gelato , Jenna Evans Welch Italy & Road Trips, Middle School and above

Lina begrudgingly spends a summer in Italy to honor her sick mother's final wish—that father and daughter get to know each other. While there, she discovers her mother's old journals and sets off on a " road trip across Tuscany" that helps her cope with her grief and introduces her first love. 

Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes , Alastair Humphreys General Travel & Adventure, College and above

Travel doesn't have to be a big production. Humphreys takes the spirit of big adventure and squeezes it into a few days—or even a few hours! If you're looking for a trip idea " that is short, simple, local, cheap—yet still fun, exciting, challenging, refreshing and rewarding," your search begins here .

Matar won the Pulitzer Prize for 2016's The Return , documenting his travels to Libya to unearth the truth about the kidnapping of his father, a political dissident. In his next memoir, he explores his connection to Sienese paintings , crafting a story " as much about the city and its people as it is about the famous artworks." These masterpieces helped him mourn his father decades earlier and became a " refuge and a way to think about the world outside the urgencies of the present."

On the Road , Jack Kerouac Road Trips, High School and above

No travel book list is complete without the quintessential novel of the Beat generation . Searching for " the moment when you know all and everything is decided forever," main characters Sal and Dean "zig zag across the continent,"  much like their real-life versions, Kerouac and his friend Neal. Controversial for its portrayal of drug use and counter-culture since its publication in 1957, it's also "revered" for featuring jazz & bebop and other experimental aspects of post-war America.

The only spy novel on our list, this British comedy gives modern audiences a look at Cuba in the late 1950s — before Castro. James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, begins working with MI6 for sheer convenience, selling them false information and skimming funds by recruiting fake agents. A former intelligence officer  himself, Greene is quite adept at poking holes in the world of espionage.

Peak , Roland Smith New York, Thailand & Mt. Everest, High School and above

The next time you hear a student say reading is boring, hand them this antidote ! A best-selling author of young adult fiction, Smith reaches new heights with the tale of 14-year old Peak Marcello, who loves to climb. After he's arrested trying to scale a Manhattan skyscraper, he's sent to live with his father... whose team is preparing to climb Mount Everest. He soon realizes his father's selfish interests, pushing Peak to become the youngest climber to reach the Summit. Will he give into the appeal of fame and glory — even though it could cost him everything? 

The Penguin Lessons , Tom Michell South America, Elementary School and above

While teaching in Argentina in 1975, 23-year-old British expat Tom Michell spends a weekend in Uruguay, where he rescues a penguin from an oil spill, nurses it to health, and attempts to return him to the ocean. But "the bird won't go," and as we witness Michell's "explorations" smuggling his penguin companion into a country under threat of military coup, we must ask—who's saving whom?

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise , Dan Gemeinhart Road Trips, Elementary School and above

Since losing her mom and sisters in a car accident, Coyote and her dad have lived on the road for five years . They've turned an old school bus into their home, " never staying in any one place for very long." When she gets word that her old park is being demolished (along with the treasure she buried there), Coyote embarks on her toughest journey yet—going home. 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1947, Tennessee Williams' tumultuous family drama is still a must-read in high school and college English classes. Down on her luck after losing Belle Reve, their family's old plantation, Blanche DuBois rides the famously-named streetcar through New Orleans and shows up at her sister's apartment uninvited and unannounced. The cramped quarters heighten tensions between Blanche, her pregnant sister Stella, Stella's Polish-American working-class husband Stanley, and his friend Mitch. Through the striking metaphors in this "fine and deeply disturbing " Southern Gothic play, Williams explores the pitfalls of desire, masculinity and femininity, delusion versus truth, and the decline of the Old South—all while depicting the Vieux Carré as equal parts poetry and despair.

Ten Years a Nomad , Matthew Kepnes General Travel, College and above

A true travel journal, Kepnes' guide " takes you on a trip around the world from start to finish : getting the bug, the planning, setting off, the highs, the lows, the friends, what happens when you come back ." He recounts his decade of travel as a lifestyle and not a vacation, how travel made him reevaluate his priorities and requirements for a good life, and how his wanderlust affected his personal relationships and led him to put down roots. Part guide and part philosopher, Kepnes' " stories will have readers plotting trips of their own ."

The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World General Travel, Elementary School and above

The experts at Lonely Planet created a comprehensive guide with an accurate and inspiring title! With 850 photos of 230 countries, you'll learn not only where to go and when, and what to see or do when you get there, but " how to learn more about the country’s culture from its film, music, food and drink."

Giving a new meaning to "road trip," Steven Newman put his feet to the pavement for a four-year walk around the world—21 countries and five continents! From the Midwest to the Mediterranean and back again, this memoir reminds us we can make friends wherever we go, we learn the most about ourselves when we get out of our comfort zones, and adventure can be found anytime, anywhere.

What's the next chapter in your travel journal? Browse our destinations for ideas!

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17 Best Travel Adventure Books

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Dreaming of an adventure? These travel adventure books will spark your wanderlust!

While I am an avid traveler, I am also a bit of a wimp. The extent of my “extreme” travel adventures was attempting (and failing) to summit a volcano in Guatemala.

When it came down to it, I opted to stay in the warmth of my tent instead of scrambling the final 1,000 feet to the top in the pitch darkness at four in the morning.

So it’s safe to say that while I may not be that adventurous myself, I LOVE getting swept away reading about crazy adventures that happened to other people.

There is nothing like being on the edge of my seat as I read about people facing peril and defying death as they survive after being stranded in the wilderness, hiking solo across large swaths of land, or brave a deathly mountain summit. It transports me without leaving the comfort of home!

So if you are craving an adventure too, these are the best travel adventure books that will fuel your wanderlust and have you staying up late to finish them.

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Best Travel Adventure Books

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

This travel memoir follows Cheryl’s journey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail solo. Driven by grief after her mother’s death, she embarked on a hike more than one thousand miles long at age twenty-six for an unforgettable experienced that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Buy on Amazon | View in Goodreads

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

This gripping nonfiction account of a disastrous Mount Everest expedition is told in a way that will have you flipping the pages long through the night until you’ve finished it. Jon Krakauer is a journalist who was invited along on a fateful expedition that left several of his fellow hikers dead.

Bad Karma by Paul Wilson

In the summer of 1978, twenty-one-year-old Paul Wilson jumps at the chance to join two local icons on a dream surf trip to Mexico, unaware their ultimate destination lies in the heart of drug cartel country. This exhilarating travel memoir will make you feel like you are there.

Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris

Canadian Kate Harris dreamed of adventures ever since she was young. In between studying at Oxford and MIT, she set off with her childhood friend on the adventure of a lifetime: bicycling the Silk Road. Her memoir follows her journey exploring remote Central Asia by bike.

Tracks by Robyn Davidson

Robyn Davidson completed an epic adventure when she walked alone more than 1,700 miles through the Australian Outback with four camels and her dog at age twenty-seven. Tracks is her memoir detailing the experience and the people she met along the way.

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

Journalist Douglas Preston and a team of scientists embark on a harrowing adventure into the heart of Honduras, in search of a legendary lost city in the middle of the jungle.

Alone in Antarctica by Felicity Aston

Felicity Aston, physicist and meteorologist, took two months off from all human contact as she became the first woman, and only the third person in history, to ski across the entire continent of Antarctica alone. With just her cross-country skis, she embarked on an epic journey across the ice.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

The Appalachian Trail is one of America’s biggest adventures, stretching over 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine, a journey not for the faint of heart. Travel writer Bill Bryson tackles the trail and writes about his experience in this memoir, which is both funny and moving.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

In 1925, a British explorer ventured into the Amazon rainforest in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Eighty years later, a journalist retraces his footsteps in an attempt to find out what really happened, and discover the truth of this mythical Amazonian city.

Wild by Nature by Sarah Marquis

Adventurer Sarah Marquis chronicles her ambitious journey hiking solo over 10,000 miles around the world, from the Gobi Desert to Siberia, in this travel memoir.

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

This harrowing story follows two young hikers attempting to complete an unclimbed route in the Peruvian Andes when a horrific accident during their descent occurs.

438 Days by Jonathan Franklin

This is a remarkable true survival story about a Salvadoran fisherman working in Mexico when he got lost at sea for 438 days before washing ashore on the far side of the Pacific.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost

He expected paradise, but what he got was an entirely different story. This memoir chronicles the author’s hilarious two-year odyssey in the distant South Pacific island nation of Kiribati, and all the mishaps and misadventures he had along the way while he was there.

Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux

A rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train are just some manners of transportation Paul Theroux takes on his overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town. In the course of his epic voyage, he endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances.

The Beach by Alex Garland

This is the book that inspired thousands of backpackers to make their way to Thailand in search of paradise. This novel is about a young backpacker who arrives in Bangkok, learning about a mythical location known only as “The Beach” that is the closest thing to Eden on Earth.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

Part travel memoir and part practical how-to guide, this book provides advice for the art of long-term travel, as told by veteran budget traveler Rolf Potts.

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Travel writer Bill Bryson provides a wonderful glimpse into traveling Australia in his book  In a Sunburned Country . He brings to life the land of the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet.

These are some of the best travel adventure books.

Have you read any of these travel adventure books? Do you have any other favorite books that I should add to this list? Let me know in the comments below!

Related:  25 Brilliant Travel Memoirs by Women

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21 Best Travel Books to Ignite Your Wanderlust

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Looking for your next bedside or plane read? From memoirs to novels, add these titles to your reading list!

Best Travel Books

Written By: Laura Pulling

Table Of Contents

Inspirational travel books must-reads, best books for travelers in search of their next destination .

1000 Places to See Before You Die

If you are looking for something to pick up and flick through, 1000 Places to See Before you Die is touted as the “ best travel book for inspiration” by TFG readers. Each country is listed by places of interest, plus it includes top picks such as events, restaurants, and hotels for your stay. 

A great choice for if you are going to someplace new and want some insider details, or to help you find less obvious hidden gems to explore in the future.

You’ll want to look your best when you travel! Read my travel tips to Pack Light Stylishly !

The Bucket List by Kath Stathers

The Bucket List: 1000 Adventures Big and Small  

Arranged from north of the earth, to the south, The Bucket List contains magical travel ideas to plan your next vacations. As one of the best books on travel , it contains tons of ideas, from things you would never dream of doing, to things you never even knew you could. Top tips are interspersed with beautiful images in this coffee table book of wanderlust dreams.

Another travel picture book by the same publisher is, The Bucket List: Places to Find Peace and Quiet which is full of serene and calming destinations to visit.

The Travel Book by Lonely Planet

The Travel Book : Journey Through Every Country in the World

Stunning photographs accompany travel tips and facts as you explore each country on earth, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe . The Travel Book, by Lonely Planet , is a coffee table masterpiece that certainly won’t be going with you on any travels (as it weighs a whopping 8 lbs) but will certainly make you want to get out that passport and book your next flights.

Journeys of a Lifetime by National Geographic

Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips

Journeys of a Lifetime is an inspirational travel guide that reveals 500 loved and lesser-known destinations around the globe. From ocean cruises in Antarctica to horse treks in the Andes, this National Geographic journey book contains beautiful photographs, which capture the beauty of the world.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

Vagabonding is the travelers book  that is not for vacationers. It compiles the experience of years of traveling and creates this wanderlust book of quirky anecdotes, practical tips and things to know for anyone who has an adventurous spirit and is looking to escape and explore the world for a while.

World Heritage Sites by UNESCO

World Heritage Sites: A Complete Guide to 1073 UNESCO World Heritage Sites  

World Heritage Sites is a world travel book that contains everything you want to know about heritage sites. Each time you flick through the pages, you are guaranteed to find out something new about this fascinating world we live in and add another location to your ever-growing travel list.

Although readers do comment that they find the organization difficult to navigate, as the book lists each site in the date it was added, making it a little challenging to plan a trip to a particular country or region.

Best Travel Memoirs

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat Pray Love : One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

A number one bestseller, and raved about by TFG readers, Eat Pray Love is a travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery . This intelligently witty recount of a year’s travels, from a woman who has fallen out of love with her husband and is looking to find herself, will make the perfect book of travels to slip into your carry-on for your next read on the airplane or on a beach!

The best travel shoes for Italy to avoid looking like a tourist!

Ten Years a Nomad by Matthew Kepnes

Ten Years a Nomad: a Traveler’s Journey Home  

Ten Years a Nomad is vagabond book that’s part memoir and part philosophical look at why people travel. Filled with stories of the author’s many adventures abroad, the theme explores the meaning of wanderlust and how travel can make you, and the world, a better place.

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

Under the Tuscan Sun

The beautifully written memoir, Under the Tuscan Sun , will have you feeling the heat of the beating sun, smelling the rain in the air and salivating at the tastes of local cuisine. This bestseller is another of the popular wanderlust books among TFG readers and for anyone captivated with the magic of Italy .

Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson

Notes From a Small Island

This top travel book is a delightful look at the UK, from Downing Street to Loch Ness. Written by an American who relocated to Britain, Notes From a Small Island gives a wonderful tour that any Anglophile will enjoy.

Indeed, TFG readers love this book (and author)! They say, “If you want to laugh out loud, Bill Bryson’s books are wonderful.” And another quips, “Really anything by Bryson is usually travel related. Always humorous—love his books!”

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Wild : From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

This is the memoir of a woman who’s life had been destroyed. She then takes a reckless journey across the Pacific Crest Trail. Against the odds, and with no experience, she does it alone. 

Wild is a number one bestseller and was also chosen for Oprah’s Book Club. Readers love the raw, visceral writing and honesty on what it means to go solo.

Here’s the clothing list for the Pacific Northwest Trail !

How Not To Travel The World by Lauren Juliff

How Not To Travel The World : Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker

This relatable and enjoyable read, How Not To Travel The World , shares how the author becomes a backpacker and all of the trials and tribulations along the way. Reviewers that love books about travel and adventure comment on how connected they become to the character and actually feel as though they are on the journey with her.

Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gelhorn

Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir

Travels with Myself and Another recounts the personal travel journeys of Martha Gelhorn, known, as the wife of Ernest Hemingway.

The book focuses mainly on four ‘horror’ trips (as she calls them). First China , in the early war years; then the pre-development Caribbean . A late 60s trans- Africa trip. Lastly, a week in Moscow .

One TFG reader says of this historical memoir, “Should make you feel grateful your travels have been much more pleasant.”  Despite the less than smooth account, this is still one of the best travel adventure books for anyone wanting to cut their teeth.

Best Fiction Books About Travel

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist 

Recommended by both TFG readers and TFG Editor-in-Chief, Alex, The Alchemist is a dazzling travel fiction story of a shepherd boy from Andalucia who adventures to the pyramids of Egypt in search of treasures. This easy to read book is perfect for beside the pool on your next vacation, or feel inspired while home.

Read these 15 expat tips to help you plan your Egypt packing list !

Death at Venice by Donna Leon

Death at Venice Novel Series

TFG readers put us on to this series. Death at Venice is just book one in a thrilling novel saga, based in Italy . 

One TFG reader shares, “Love Donna Leon’s series set in Venice starring Guido Brunetti, uno commissario di policia. Just the descriptions of the foods and the eating traditions makes these books worth reading, as do the descriptions of various locations, including an aqua alta event!”

The Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell

The Corfu Trilogy 

The Corfu Trilogy gives you three books in one. A set of three shorter stories about the Durrell family as they settle on Corfu during the years preceding WWII, these stories have captivated readers and even inspired a TV series. 

One TFG reader shares, “My favourite! I was going to Corfu for my birthday in June having read this book regularly since childhood.” And TFG’s own Rebecca also loves it, “Great for setting the scene for Corfu and it is also really funny.”

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions 

As one TFG reviewer puts it, “This book is a hoot!!!” Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions is a witty mystery set in the tranquil landscape of Sicily (along with the delicious foods and culture). 

Another TFG reader explains,  “Someone was asking about travel related media-books, films and TV series. I recently finished this book set in Sicily. It was a wonderful backdrop for this cozy mystery.”

More Traveling Books : Honorable Mentions

Revolutionary Ride by Lois Pryce

Revolutionary Ride: On the Search of Real Iran

Busting prejudices and finding the true side of Iran is at the heart, Revolutionary Ride is an adventurous tale of one woman, a motorcycle and the people she meets along the way. One reader recommends this book, saying, “ I love reading travel memoirs (especially by women) and this is one of my top picks.”

Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks

Round Ireland with a Fridge 

The title, Round Ireland with a Fridge , gives you the overall gist of this funny and witty memoir of a man who tries to win a drunken bet. Whilst sharing the delights of Ireland , this is one that will make you want to visit the emerald isle yourself.

A TFG reader shares, “Brought this based on the reviews and I wasn’t disappointed.”

Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman

Tales of a Female Nomad : Living at Large in the World

Tales of a Female Nomad is a memoir of a fo rty-eight year old woman, who on the verge of a divorce, left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dreams of traveling the world. One TFG reader shares her review , “One of my all time favorite books. Highly recommend Tales of a Female Nomad.”

A Little More About Me by Pam Houston

A Little More About Me 

Called “a great wanderlust guide,” by TFG readers, A Little More About Me is a celebration of real-life adventures by renowned author Pam Houston. This memoir shares how she follows her heart to experiences that most people can only dream about.

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

Four Seasons in Rome : On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

TFG readers “love” this book. Four Seasons in Rome  is a heartfelt story of an author recounting his move to Italy with his wife and new twin boys is beautifully captured, alongside the sights, smells, and seasons of the city. 

A TFG reader shares, “Beautiful writing and such a great visceral portrait of Rome beyond the tourist view.”

We’ve got the do’s and don’ts of what to add to your  Rome packing list  when visiting this fabulous city!

Top Travel Books Comparison Chart

What are your favorite books to read while traveling or just get inspired? Share your list below!

Looking for other travel activities, please read:

• Best Adult Travel Coloring Books
• Best Travel Puzzles
• Best Travel Games

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10 of the best travel books

We may not be able to venture far right now, but these travel books, from classics to comic travelogues, take us on journeys around the world Share your favourites in the comments below

Venice by Jan Morris

Recent reports suggest the now-quiet canals of Venice are at their clearest for 60 years, with swans spotted in recent days. The city, of course, has always had a touch of fantasy about it. “Venice is a cheek-by-jowl, back-of-the-hand, under-the-counter, higgledy-piggledy, anecdotal city,” writes Jan Morris in this 1960 masterpiece . “She is rich in piquant wrinkled things, like an assortment of bric-a-brac in the house of a wayward connoisseur, or parasites on an oyster-shell.” The book pens a portrait of a city thick with atmosphere and stuffed with history, conjuring an intoxicating sense of place with Morris’s trademark wit and wisdom. Faber

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy de Lisle

Canadian cartoonist Guy de Lisle is no standard travel writer – and his books are far from standard travelogues. Using simple, unfussy, comic-strip illustrations, he recounts his first-hand experiences of living in some of the world’s knottiest destinations, from Myanmar to North Korea. The result is a series of graphic memoirs that brilliantly juggle the subtleties and oddities of being a stranger in a strange town. Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City is the product of a year-long stay in the region and, over the course of more than 300 pages, tries to make sense of somewhere rarely less than complex. Jonathan Cape

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle by Dervla Murphy

Few travel writers of any era compare to Dervla Murphy. Now in her late 80s, she’s been responsible for dozens of travel books , dwelling on destinations as varied as Cuba, Laos, Romania and Cameroon. Her 1965 debut remains her best known work, and tells the account of an astonishing solo bicycle expedition to Delhi. “Within a few weeks my journey had degenerated from a happy-go-lucky cycle trek to a grim struggle for progress by any means,” she writes, before encountering wolves, broken ribs and heat exhaustion. She also packs a .25 pistol, and has more than one cause to use it. Eland

The Crossway by Guy Stagg

This searingly honest account of an on-foot, 10-month journey from Canterbury to Jerusalem found its way onto more than one awards shortlist following its publication in 2018, and for good reason. Guy Stagg, a self-proclaimed non-believer and non-hiker, undertakes the trek as a form of self-healing, following years of coping with depressive thoughts that “stung and reeled”. If the pretext is downbeat, the journey itself is an odyssey, encountering memorable characters and a rippled patchwork of different cultures and beliefs. Almost unbelievably, he sets off from Kent in the dead of winter, requiring a crossing of the Alps in snow. And he writes like a dream. Picador

Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America with Interruptions by Jenny Diski

After spending three weeks crossing the Atlantic on a cargo ship (“at night, the rabble of stars demanded to be watched”), Jenny Diski travels around the perimeter of the USA by rail . The joy of the book lies as much in her portrayal of characters she encounters en route as the immersive detail of the country she’s passing through. Or, as she writes, “it is much more as if America is passing through you, what you are, what you’ve known”. Part-memoir, and written around 20 years ago, Stranger On A Train captures an America that still feels familiar – albeit with cigarettes in place of smartphones. Virag

French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France by Tim Moore

Few writers since Bill Bryson have nailed the comic travelogue as well as Tim Moore. Dogged in pursuit of an adventure, he’s pedalled the former Iron Curtain on an East German shopping bike, walked the Camino de Santiago with a donkey and, most recently, crossed the USA in a breakdown-prone Model T Ford. He’s also properly, consistently funny, as evidenced in 2001’s French Revolutions , which sees him attempt to cycle the entire course of the Tour de France. The acknowledgement in the title pages (“The Tour de France press office, without whom none of this would have been difficult”) sets the tone for a hugely entertaining read. Yellow Jersey

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West

Readers get evangelical about this vast book, originally published in two volumes, which ostensibly describes Rebecca West’s travels through what was then Yugoslavia in 1937 . It is, however, far more than just a keen-eyed journal. Gathering up centuries of history and blending them with her own often piercing observations, West uses the book to paint a deep and intricate picture of a region on the brink of the second world war. The New York Times has called it a “masterpiece of history and travel”, while Time magazine would later describe West as “indisputably the world’s number one woman writer”. Canongate

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux

“All news out of Africa is bad. It made me want to go there…” So run the opening words of Paul Theroux’s 2002 classic, Dark Star Safari . Written more than two decades after his first long-distance travelogues, and some four decades after living in Africa as a young teacher, the book follows Theroux on a compelling, north-to-south journey down the continent. The narrative doesn’t shy away from harsh judgements – in Kenya “tourists yawned at the animals and the animals yawned back”, while aid workers also come in for some barbed criticism – but the people and landscapes he encounters are portrayed so vividly you can almost feel the equatorial heat from the pages. Penguin

Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-mile Adventure by Monisha Rajesh

Monisha Rajesh has form when it comes to rail travel. This globe-straddling journey is the follow-up to 2010’s well received Around India In 80 Trains , and sees her undertake a 45,000-mile (72,000km) journey through Europe, Asia and North America. Her gift for detail means characters, as well as places, are brought to life. And from a high-altitude ride into Tibet to a trans-Canadian epic – not to mention a homecoming trip on the Venice Simplon Orient Express – the book does a fine job of affirming the things, large and small, that make rail travel such an absorbing way of seeing the world. Bloomsbury

A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush Eric Newby

“CAN YOU TRAVEL NURISTAN JUNE?” With this 1956 telegram – sent by disillusioned London fashion executive Eric Newby to a diplomat friend – begins an engrossing, at times comical, mountaineering journey into Afghanistan. The pair lack anything like the requisite climbing experience, but undergo a brief training period in Wales before travelling to the unforgiving peaks of Asia, with the aim of conquering the 5,800-metre Mir Samir. Newby’s prose is sharp and lively throughout , drawing the reader into remote villages and the “spiky and barren-looking” Hindu Kush, where hardships (and a chance hillside encounter with steely adventurer Wilfred Thesiger, who sneers at their air-beds) await. HarperCollins

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10,000+ good book titles to inspire you..

Generate a random story title that’s relevant to your genre. You can pick between fantasy, crime, mystery, romance, or sci-fi. Simply click the button below to get started.

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How to come up with book title ideas.

Need an original book title, and fast? We got you. Here are 8 ways to come up with book title ideas. 

1. Start free writing to find keywords

Write absolutely anything that comes into your head: words, phrases, names, places, adjectives — the works. You’ll be surprised how much workable content comes out from such a strange exercise.

2. Experiment with word patterns

Obviously, we’re not advocating plagiarism, but try playing around with formats like:

“The _____ of _______”

“______ and the _____”

These will work for certain genres, though they are by no means the only patterns you can play around with. Have you noticed how many blockbuster thrillers these days feature the word “woman” or “ girl” somewhere in the title?

3. Draw inspiration from your characters 

If your central character has a quirky name or a title (like Doctor or Detective) you can definitely incorporate this into your book title. Just look at Jane Eyre, Percy Jackson, or Harry Potter, for instance — working with one or more or your characters’ names is a surefire way to get some title ideas down. Equally, you can add a little detail, like Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, to add a little color to a name and make it title-worthy.

4. Keep your setting in mind

Is your book set somewhere particularly interesting or significant? Even if your title isn’t just where the action takes place (like Middlemarch by George Eliot), it’s something to have in the back of your mind. You can include other details, like The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum or Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, to give your readers a sense of action and character, as well as setting (which tend to be linked).

5. Look for book title ideas in famous phrases 

Think Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird here — this is a central symbol and significant piece of dialogue in the novel. It’s enigmatic (what does it even mean? Is it a warning? An instruction?) and makes us really sit up when these words appear in the text itself. Try and think of your inspiration for writing your book or sum up your central theme in a few words, and see if these inspire anything.

6. Analyze the book titles of other books

You might be surprised at how many books refer to other works in their titles ( The Fault in Our Stars by John Green comes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar , and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men takes its inspiration from a Robert Burns poem). Going this route allows authors to use an already beautiful and poetic turn of phrase that alludes to a theme in their own book. From Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials , so many books have used this technique that might also work for you.

7. Don’t forget the subtitle

In non-fiction publishing, there’s a trend of evocative or abstract titles, followed by a subtitle that communicates the content (and is packed with delicious keywords that the Amazon search engine can’t resist). This is also another way to get around long titles — and to add a little panache to an otherwise dry subject matter. In the United States, it’s also quite common to have “A Novel” as a subtitle (if, you know, it’s a novel). In the United Kingdom, this practice is much rarer.

8. Generate a book name through a book title generator

If you’ve gone through all of the above and are still wringing out your brain trying to come up with the golden formula — fear not! There are other ways to get the cogs whirring and inspiration brewing, such as title generators.

And speaking of cogs whirring, let us present you with the...

15 best book titles of all time

Witty, eye-catching, memorable — these famous book titles have it all. Without further ado, here are 15 best book titles you can take inspiration from.

• I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
• The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
• Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
• The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

Looking for even more story title ideas?

If you’re agonizing over your book title, you’re not alone! Some of the best book titles today emerged only after much teeth gnashing. The Sun Also Rises was once titled Fiesta ; Pride and Prejudice was once First Impressions . Then there was F. Scott Fitzgerald, who reportedly took forever to think of a good title. He ultimately discarded a dozen ( Gold-Hatted Gatsby , The High-Bouncing Lover , and Trimalchio in West Egg included) before reluctantly picking The Great Gatsby .

So it’s tough out there for a novelist, which is why we built this generator: to try and give you some inspiration. Any of the titles that you score through it are yours to use. We’d be even more delighted if you dropped us the success story at [email protected] ! If you find that you need even more of a spark beyond our generator, the Internet’s got you covered. Here are some of our other favorite generators on the web:

Fantasy Book Title Generators : Fantasy Name Generator , Serendipity: Fantasy Novel Titles

• Sci-Fi Novel Title Generators : Book Title Creator , Story Title Generator

Romance Book Title Generators : Romance Title Generator

Crime Book Title Generators : Tara Sparling’s Crime Thriller Titles , Ruddenberg’s Generator

Mystery Novel Title Generators : The Generator .

Or if you think that generators are fun and all — but that you’d rather create your own book title? Great 👍 Kick off with this post, which is all about how to choose your book title . And once you've got the words down, make sure you capitalize your title correctly .

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Tools & Resources

Find the perfect title for your nonfiction or fiction book with our Book Title Generator. Save time and unleash your creativity by generating a unique and captivating title tailored to your target audience.

Don't like it?

Why use a book title generator tool?

Do you need help coming up with a title for your book? Have too many ideas and need help narrowing it down? Our book title generator tool can help!

It will create a working title that sets the stage for your book, with the ability to instantly come up with 1000s of variations to choose from. Simply follow the prompts on the tool and click “Generate” to get your title and subtitle ideas. Use it as many times as you need to come up with new combinations and get the creative juices flowing. 

No book (yet)? No problem! 

You can use our title generator for book inspiration. For many, having an initial idea for their book title inspires them to get started. But for others, it is a daunting task that towers over the actual act of writing their book. 

How to craft the perfect book title (with a generator tool)

When people ask us how to write a book , we help them break it down into smaller, achievable steps. And one of those early steps is creating a working title.

A “working” title is meant to be used as a placeholder when you first start writing your book. And a quick way to craft one is with a book title generator.

Here are some tips for using an AI book title generator to come up with the winning book title ideas:

1. Start with a few specific words or phrases

A great nonfiction book title should reflect what the book is about, what the person will learn, or the end result they’ll achieve after reading your book.

Fiction books aren’t as straightforward. It’s a creative process that requires establishing the style and tone you want for your title and book cover – and then using a book title generator to help you rapidly test different word combinations, phrases, and title lengths.

2. Do some research within your genre

Search for other books in your genre and subgenre, taking note of the types of titles and trends you see. Which are you drawn to? Do they include a lot of adjectives? Are they long or short? This will help you create a running list of the type of title format you want, and help you steer clear of title formats you want to avoid.

If you aren’t sure about your genre, you can use a list of book genres to find where your story is best aligned.

3. Get inspiration from your characters, setting, or location

Many books have been named after the hero (think: Harry Potter, Oliver Twist , or Macbeth ), the location in which the story or a significant scene occurs ( The Wizard of Oz ), or something that makes a character stand out ( The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ). A unique name or fantasy world can create intrigue and mystery in your book title.

4. Use – or imply – foreshadowing

They Both Die at the End tells the reader what’s going to happen before they even turn to the first page. But that’s part of the reason you want to pick it up. How could the author possibly surprise you after spoiling the ending?

Meanwhile, titles like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King or As I Lay Dying , aren’t as obvious but still pull you in.

5. Consider your audience

Writing a YA book title is different from writing an adult high fantasy book title. That’s why our book title generator asks who your audience is. It will help you brainstorm an age (and genre) appropriate title for your book.

6. Draft a book description

A description will give the book title generator tool keywords and context, resulting in more specific titles.

Understanding how to write a book description that captures someone’s attention and draws them into the story is an art form in itself. It’s like the trailer of your book. And should be intentionally thought out before you publish and market your book. But at this point in the journey, you don’t need to have your description in its final form.

7. Input everything into the book title generator tool

While it’s certainly not required, taking the time to think about all of the above points will help you create stronger inputs for the AI book title generator. Changing the different things you choose to highlight in the tool’s fields will give you a wide mix of titles. You could even come up with 1000’s of book titles (though we don’t recommend that)!

8. Choose between your top three ideas

We recommend using the “Generate” button on the book title generator until you find a couple of possible working titles. You don’t want to give yourself so many options that you are overwhelmed, but 3-4 solid working book titles are just enough to help you move on to the rough draft .

Related: How to Title a Book

Remember that the first milestone for writing a book is getting (imperfect) words on paper.

Then, when you actually write your entire book and complete it, you can revisit the idea of your book title and dig more into how to subtitle your book . You will have a more fine-tuned approach as to what your book title should include, and you’ll be better prepared to hone in on your best-selling idea.

As a self-published author, your title is not set in stone. In fact, many independent authors change their book titles even after they have published their book; they simply release their book with a new title name, especially if they discover after publication that the original isn’t effective in communicating what the book is about.

So, ready to get started?

MORE HELPFUL TOOLS

• Idea Generators

Book Title Generator 📚

Looking for the perfect book title? Our brilliant Book Title Generator has over 1,000 creative ideas to spark your imagination. From fun and quirky to mysterious and poetic, this handy tool makes coming up with a catchy title for your masterpiece easy. Keep reading for loads of title inspiration!

• Book Title Generator

Sometimes the inspiration you need is in a book title. If you’re struggling to come up with a solid story idea , then this book title generator is for you! With over 1,000 unique book title ideas, you’re sure to find the inspiration you need for your next story. Feel free to edit and re-adjust these book titles to suit your own story.

Keep on reading this post for tips on creating your own book title and our free book title generator printable. You might also like our daily book title challenge , where you are given a new book title each day to write about.

Other Book Title Generators

Download our app, online book title generator, tips for creating a good book title, create your own book title, random book titles ideas, how do i come up with a title for my book, can you publish a book with no title, can i use any title for my book.

View over 10,000 book title ideas offline, with our brand new Ideas Wizard App . Everything from romance, fantasy and even sci-fi book title ideas. Available now on the Google Play Store:

Just a reminder, our book title generator has been created to give you ideas for potential stories to write. You may need to adjust these titles so that they suit your story. If you’re looking for more book title ideas, please see our free story title generator which is built inside our story creator with thousands of book title ideas to discover:

For more book title ideas, check out our festive Christmas book title generator – The perfect inspiration for your Christmas stories. And if you’re writing a fantasy novel, then you should check out this fantasy book title generator for some magical book title ideas.

What makes a good book title? A good book title summarises your story without giving too much away. It is enticing, exciting and mysterious. Here are some tips for creating an awesome book title for your story:

• Think about the genre: If you’re writing a horror book , then you’ll need a scary or dark book title to suit your story. If you’re writing a children’s story , make sure you think about words that your target readers will understand. Keep your genre in mind when coming up with book titles. And keep your audience in mind! 
• Make a list of descriptive words: What is your story about? Who is the main character? What objects are used throughout? Where is your story set? These are all things you might want to think about when making a list of words that describe your story. This list will come in handy when writing your own book title.
• Leave the book title until the end: It is easier to come up with a good book title when your story is written. The more familiar you are with your story, the easier it is to summarise it in a few words. 
• Review your book title: If you have written your book title before writing the story, then reviewing it at the end is important. You might want to double-check if your book title is still relevant and if it can be further improved. A common theme we’ve seen with writers is that they normally start with a nice, romantic tale, which slowly turns dark and twisted. In which case, the title they gave at the beginning may no longer be relevant after their story is written.
• Don’t overcomplicate it: Avoid making your book title too long or wordy, as this can put potential readers off. Keep it as simple as possible, preferably under five words or even less. When it comes to book titles the shorter, the better – Try to keep the mystery of your book hidden until your readers read it. Similarly, you should try to avoid complicated or technical words in your story. Even if your story is about physics or time travel, try to give it a name that everyone can understand. 
• Keep it relevant: Your book title must have some relevance to your storyline or plot. Don’t go completely off-topic, by giving your book a title that just sounds, ‘cool’, but has no meaning behind it. For instance, you wouldn’t want to read a story called Forbidden Dragons that has no references to dragons in the story at all – How disappointing would that be!

Book titles are hard. And sadly there is no secret formula for creating the perfect book title. However there is a useful exercise you can do to create your own book title (or at least an early draft of it). The easiest way to come up with a basic book title is to think of an adjective and a noun relevant to your story. 

Take for example you have a gothic story about a dragon. Following the adjective and noun technique, you might come up with the following potential book title ideas:

• The Dark Dragon
• The Grim Dragon
• The Gothic Dragon
• The Blood Dragon
• Bone Dragon

As you can see the above example book titles start with an adjective and then are followed by a noun. Including ‘The’ at the beginning is entirely optional. Using this basic technique you should be able to come up with hundreds of potential book titles for your story. 

It may not be a perfect technique for creating your own book title, but it’s a great start. More importantly, it’s a marvellous way to get your brain thinking and to get those creative juices flowing. And you never know, using this technique you’ll be able to come up with the best story title ever! So go on…Give it a go! 

Using this technique we have created a printable book title generator. Here you can use the first letter of your first name and surname to generate a random book title for your next story:

To get you started here is a list of over 160 book titles to inspire you:

• The Magic Tree
• Winter Fairy
• Wizards of Ice
• Call of the Forest
• The Enchanted Ones
• A Spell Too Far
• A Potion For The Wise
• Tower To The Stars
• Me, Moonie and Magic
• The Last Flame
• Lost Warriors Of Elysium
• Night Light
• Eye of the Wolf
• The Hollow Spirit
• Love of Tomorrow
• Never Again
• Eternal Soul
• When Love Lasts
• Nothing In This World
• Tales of the Heart
• Stolen Love
• Yes, Maybe, No
• Together For A Day
• Burning Poem
• Whispers of a Ghost
• Dead Man’s WIsh
• Skeletons in the House
• The Lost Soul
• A Party For Ghouls
• Monster Strike
• See Zombie and Run
• Don’t Go There
• Signs of the Past
• The Monster In The Dark
• Horror Stories In The Dark
• Soulless Dead
• Lonesome Shadow
• Space Galaxy Adventure
• Into The Stars
• The Happy Alien
• Aliens of a New Kind
• Earth To Unknown
• Dark New World
• The One After Mars
• Martian Boy
• Signs of Life on Jupiter
• Dangerous Moon
• Bizarre Robot
• Imaginary Gravity
• Mysterious Cyborg
• Stay Hidden
• What’s Over There?
• Clues And More Clues
• Never to be Solved
• The Mystery of Mr Watkins
• Who Took My Book?
• Who Stole My Homework?
• The Meaning of Z
• The Secrets Of Mr. Miller
• Who Is Mary Walker?
• The Crimes of Martin
• The Lost Portrait
• Blank Paper
• Behind the Door
• Who Were They?
• Bad Surprise
• The Cover Up
• The Perfect Thief
• The Secret Witness
• Season For Revenge
• Innocent Eyes
• Long Road To Go
• One Boy And The World
• Neverending Trip
• Point A to Z
• The Search For Bella
• Travelling To New Lands
• One Car And The Road
• Captain’s Lost Treasure
• Unsolved Crimes
• Who Stole My Cat?
• The Judgement
• Judge of Crime
• Detective Collins and the Van
• Nice Try John
• Get Away And Run Away
• A Sharp Punishment
• Unofficial Crimes
• The New Kind
• Fear Of Those
• We Are Powerful
• Elite of the Unknowns
• We Still Exist
• The New Days
• One Way Ride
• Bang, Crash and Boom
• A Boring Day
• Action Pack Man
• The Bad Guy
• A Cowboy’s Story
• Lone Cowboy
• Riders Of The West
• Cowboys In A Storm
• Horse With No Rider
• Yee-haw! Let’s Get Em!
• Cattles And Horses
• Quest Of The West
• The Two-Cent Men
• Burning The Breeze
• Ridin’ To Roscoe
• The Prince of Darkness
• Cursed Queen
• Warrior Princess
• Slay Like a Princess
• The Blue Knight
• Arealia, Forest Princess
• Iceman: The Melt Down
• The Power Seekers
• Fire And Water
• The Amazing Adventures of Ice Boy
• Homeless Heroes
• Mutant Academy
• Unique And Powerful
• Cupcake Kitty
• Christmas Turtle
• The Angel And The Star
• Snow This Christmas
• A Turkey For Christmas
• Changing Times
• Never The Same
• Back In TIme
• World of Tomorrow
• World of Yesterday
• Yesterday is Today
• Before The Past
• Standing Still
• An Elephant’s Journey
• Cats, Dogs And Other Pets
• The Other Animals
• Swimming With Sharks
• My Best Friend The Lion
• Snail’s Speedy Adventures
• Once Upon A Rat
• Rain On Those
• Miss Minnie And The Bees
• Galaxy Bugs
• Invaders of the Earth
• Trapped Like A Bug
• One Mole And A Cat
• Secrets Of Mara
• The Unwanted Toy
• My Neighbour The Alien
• One Spell Away
• Caveman in the City
• Dragon Invasion
• Talking Trees
• Ninja Cats Rescue Mission
• The Strange Key
• Message in a Bottle
• Whispers in the Wind
• Beyond the Horizon
• Chronicles of Celestia
• Shadow Dance
• The Forgotten Kingdom
• Cogs of Time
• Starlight Serenade
• Veil of Illusions
• The Sapphire Crown
• Phoenix Reborn
• Secrets of the Silver Forest
• Echoes of Eternity
• Midnight Mirage
• Song of the Sirens
• Celestial Dreamscape
• Shattered Realms
• The Astral Alchemist
• Serpent’s Embrace
• Quantum Quill
• Twilight Reverie
• Oracle’s Overture
• Whirlwind of Wonders
• Beyond the Veil
• Enigma of the Ember Stone
• Aurora’s Embrace
• Nexus of Nebulae
• Stormweaver’s Saga
• Labyrinth of Legends
• Whispers of the Waning Moon
• Chronicles of the Crystal Citadel
• Quantum Quasar
• Ember’s Lullaby
• The Velvet Veil
• Enchanted Odyssey
• Moonlit Mosaic
• Scepter of Shadows
• Astral Symphony
• The Chronicles of Evermore
• Echoes of Eldoria
• Sapphire Serenity
• The Stargazer’s Sonnet
• Whims of the Whispering Willow
• Enigma’s End
• Celestial Sonnet
• Oracle’s Odyssey
• Cogs and Chronicles
• Symphony of Shadows
• Echoes in the Silence
• Threads of Destiny
• Silent Reverie
• Whispers of Yesterday
• The Art of Letting Go
• Shadows of Reflection
• Kaleidoscope of Memories
• Uncharted Waters
• Mosaic of Moments
• Fragments of Time
• The Color of Tomorrow
• In the Blink of an Eye
• Footprints in the Sand
• A Symphony of Souls
• The Language of Rain
• Dancing with Shadows
• Serendipity’s Song
• The Road Less Traveled
• Wandering Hearts
• Windows to the Soul
• Notes from Nowhere
• Reflections in Blue
• The Art of Beginning Again
• Whispers of Wisdom
• The Silent Symphony
• Tangled Threads
• The Canvas of Life
• Pages of Possibility
• Trailblazers and Tribulations
• Ripple Effect
• The Unseen Canvas
• Echoes of Tomorrow
• Silent Sparks
• The Tapestry of Time
• The Alchemy of Change
• Veins of Vulnerability
• Footprints of Fate
• The Palette of Promise
• Shattered Illusions
• The Stillness Within
• Untold Stories
• The Journey Home
• Melodies of the Mind
• Hidden Harmony
• Echoes of Euphoria
• Shadows in the Attic
• The Patchwork Path
• The Language of Light
• Whispers of Wonder
• A Symphony of Silence
• Echoes of Myra
• Beyond the Surface
• The Quiet Revolution
• Serendipity’s Edge
• The Canvas of Tomorrow
• Footprints Across Time
• The Art of Balance
• Shadows in the Mirror
• Mosaic Moments
• The Color of Rain
• Songs of Serenity
• Kaleidoscope of Reflection
• Windows to Yesterday
• Echoes of Evolution
• The Ripple Effect
• The Dance of Shadows
• The Road Not Taken
• Pages of Serendipity
• The Unseen Symphony
• The Echo Chamber
• A Palette of Promises
• Shadows of Tomorrow
• Fragments of Fate
• Whispers in the Attic
• Trails of Transformation
• My Mind’s Mystery

Can you create your own book title using the adjective and noun technique or from the ideas in our book title generator? Share your book titles with us in the comments below.

Coming up with the perfect title for your book can be tricky! A good title should be catchy, descriptive and make readers want to pick up your book. When brainstorming ideas, think about your target audience, genre and the main themes or topics of your story.

Using the book title generator can give you a huge list of creative options to get your imagination going. Pick words and phrases that sum up the essence of your book or capture something intriguing about the plot or characters. You can combine interesting adjectives with nouns related to the setting or conflict.

Also consider literary or poetic devices like alliteration, rhyme, repetition and wordplay. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different possibilities until you find the ideal title that captures the spirit of your writing. The most important thing is to choose something memorable that will appeal to readers browsing bookshelves or online listings.

See our guide on how to come up with a good book title .

While it may seem tempting for a book to have no title and let the writing speak for itself, publishers will require books to have a title before being published. Some key reasons for this include:

• Titles are crucial for marketing and helping readers quickly identify what a book is about. Without a title, it’s very difficult to promote or sell a book effectively.
• Titles give structure and context when a book is added to a catalogue or bookshelf. They allow books to be organized and categorized.
• Many online book retailers require a title field when submitting book information. Title-less books would likely get rejected.
• Readers browse books by title all the time. No title means no way for potential readers to easily reference the book.
• Titles provide convenient shorthand to refer to a book in conversation or reviews.

So while a purely content-focused book with no title may sound avant-garde, it’s highly impractical from a publishing and marketing perspective. The title plays a critical role in a book’s discoverability and commercial viability. That’s why publishers require even the most experimental literary works to have a title before hitting the shelves.

When choosing a title for your book, you do have a lot of creative freedom, but you can’t use just any title you want. Here are some important considerations around book titles:

• You can’t use a title that is already in use by another book. Titles need to be unique to avoid copyright issues. Doing a quick search on Amazon or Google Books can help check if your desired title is taken.
• Be cautious about using titles with branded names or trademarks. You may need permission to use words like Band-Aid, Kleenex etc.
• Don’t use misleading titles that have nothing to do with the book’s subject matter, as readers will feel deceived.
• Check if the title is search-friendly. Extremely vague, odd or cryptic titles can get buried in search results.
• Be sensitive with provocative or offensive titles that may turn off readers or distributors.
• Steer clear of book titles with clickbait-y wording, as readers dislike misleading hype.

While the book title space is vast, do your research to ensure your chosen title is distinct, accurate, marketable and in line with industry norms and reader expectations. The right title can excite readers and set your book up for success.

Our Book Title Generator provides an endless supply of creative and unique book titles to spark your imagination. Let us know in the comments if you found the perfect title for your story among our suggestions.

What’s your favourite title idea from our generator? We’d love to hear how this tool helped you in your writing journey. Keep using it to brainstorm titles until you discover that ideal attention-grabbing name for your masterpiece!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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20 drinks mentioned in book titles

Posted: October 2, 2023 | Last updated: October 2, 2023

Sometimes there’s nothing better than relaxing with a good book and a refreshing pitcher of lemonade, glass of wine, or cup of coffee. And bonus points if the book happens to have a drink right in the name! To complement our article about famous books that include food , here are 20 drinks mentioned in book titles.

Whisky Galore (1947)

During the Second World War, a cargo ship runs aground on a Scottish island while carrying 50,000 cases of whisky. The locals rush to save the shipment of spirits, which they must then defend from the authorities. That’s the plot of Compton Mackenzie’s “Whisky Galore,” which is based on a true story, and is also the inspiration for both a 1949 British comedy movie and a play!

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Dandelion Wine (1957)

Four years after Ray Bradbury published his most famous work, the dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451,” the author released “Dandelion Wine.” A much simpler work that focused on the small-town lifestyle, much of “Dandelion Wine” was based on Bradbury’s own upbringing in the Chicago suburb of Waukegan, Illinois.

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Hop on Pop (1963)

The “pop” in “Hop on Pop” actually refers to a father character, but it’s the closest thing to a drink in the title of any Dr. Seuss book! Plus, we love this classic collection of poems that aims to teach kids the basics of phonics and reading. You may refer to fizzy drinks by another name (soda or Coke), but did you know that roughly 25% of America uses the term “pop”?

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Sam, Bangs & Moonshine (1966)

“Sam, Bangs & Moonshine” has a title that sounds a bit adult-oriented, but it’s actually a children’s book written by Evaline Ness in 1966. The titular moonshine isn’t referring to high-proof homemade liquor, but instead a slang term for foolish fantasies or ideas. As for the rest of the title: Sam is the book’s protagonist and Bangs is her cat.

Coffee, Tea or Me? (1967)

In 1967, flight attendants Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones penned the tell-all memoir “Coffee, Tea or Me?” Readers were tickled by this humorous recounting of the ups and downs (no pun intended) of working in the airline industry, and the book eventually spawned three sequels that sold millions of copies. The only problem? Trudy and Rachel weren’t real people, but instead fictitious authors created by an American Airlines public relations employee named Donald Bain.

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The Master and Margarita (1967)

The devil went down to…the Soviet Union? That’s the plot of “The Master and Margarita,” a masterpiece written by Russian playwright Mikhail Bulgakov during Stalin’s reign in the 1930s. Due to its controversial anti-communist content, “The Master and Margarita” wasn’t published until 1967, posthumously, as Bulgakov died in 1940. The “Margarita” in the title does not refer to the drink, but instead the protagonist's name.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)

For three weeks in the mid-1960s, author Tom Wolfe joined Ken Kesey as he and his crew of Merry Pranksters traversed America in a brightly colored school bus called Further. The resulting book, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” was lauded as an accurate portrayal of the blossoming hippie movement and a pioneering example of the New Journalism style. The title refers to the parties the Pranksters would often throw or attend that included LSD-laced punch as an important element.

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Freckle Juice (1971)

Freckle juice isn’t a real thing. Instead, it’s the subject of a Judy Blume children’s book about a little boy who wants freckles and drinks a concoction suggested by a swindler schoolmate looking to make a quick buck. (Although it was actually 50 cents because the book came out in 1971…and they’re children.)

The Cider House Rules (1985)

Not only did John Irving write the 1985 novel “The Cider House Rules,” but he also wrote the screenplay for the 1999 film version that starred Toby Maguire, Michael Caine, and Charlize Theron. In addition to being a box-office success, “The Cider House Rules” nabbed two Academy Awards, including a Best Adapted Screenplay win for Irving. 

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The Face on the Milk Carton (1990)

“The Face on the Milk Carton” was quite popular when it came out in the ‘90s — for both good and bad reasons. The young adult novel was an enthralling story of a little girl who sees her picture on the side of a milk carton and begins to question her upbringing and parents. (And yes, milk cartons were indeed where posters of missing children used to be displayed.) The book also contained mature themes, which got it banned by some schools. In addition to selling millions of copies, “The Face on the Milk Carton” was adapted as a made-for-TV movie in 1995.

Rum Punch (1992)

Elmore Leonard wrote numerous popular Western and crime novels, including “Hombre” (1960), “Get Shorty” (1990), “Rum Punch” (1992), and “Out of Sight” (1996). Even if Leonard isn’t on your reading radar, you may know these films because each one was made into a movie. While the film versions of “Hombre,” “Get Shorty,” and “Out of Sight” all used the book titles, “Rum Punch” was given another name when it was adapted by Quentin Tarantino: “Jackie Brown.”

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Cuba Libre (1998)

Back-to-back Elmore Leonard books! Six years after publishing “Rum Punch,” Leonard released “Cuba Libre,” a crime caper about a cowboy seeking justice in Cuba during the onset of the Spanish-American war. “Cuba libre,” in case you’re not aware, is also another name for a rum and coke!

The Rum Diary (1998)

Chronologically, “The Rum Diary” was the first novel Hunter S. Thompson wrote — as it was based on his time working for a struggling newspaper in Puerto Rico in the 1960s — but it wasn’t actually published until 1998. That was well after Thompson had earned notoriety for his gonzo journalism and books like “Hell’s Angels” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

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Espresso Tales (2005)

First published as a serial novel in a Scottish newspaper, “Espresso Tales” is Alexander McCall Smith’s continuation of “44 Scotland Street,” another serial novel. Both stories center on the amusing everyday lives of Pat MacGregor, her friends, and the people with which she shares an Edinburgh apartment.

Three Cups of Tea (2006)

We already had a coffee entry for “Coffee, Tea or Me?” but skipped right over the tea part, so here it is again. “Three Cups of Tea” is a 2006 memoir by Greg Mortenson, who co-founded a non-profit that helped build more than 171 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson was hailed as a hero, but he has since tarnished his reputation thanks to some shady financial dealings within the nonprofit.

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Water for Elephants (2006)

“Water for Elephants,” the story of an old man in a nursing home who recalls how he joined the circus and found the love of his life, is the most famous of Sara Gruen’s novels. Not only did it earn numerous awards and carve out a spot in the New York Times Bestseller List for a dozen weeks in 2006, but it was also adapted into a 2011 feature film starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz. 

The Lemonade War (2007)

“The Lemonade War” is the name of a trilogy of children’s books by Jacqueline Davies. The eponymous first installment, released in 2007, revolves around a sibling rivalry between Evan and Jessie, who are competing to sell the most lemonade at their respective stands. Although they first focus on solid business tactics, the kids eventually turn to sabotage when the competition gets the better of them.

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Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea (2008)

Comedian Chelsea Handler has already published six New York Times bestsellers, including the 2008 book “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.” The book is a collection of stories from her life, and the title is a spoof of the book “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” which was written by an author we mentioned earlier in this list: Judy Blume.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2017)

“The Greatest Beer Run Ever” is the true story of how Chickie Donohue, a former Marine, decided to lift the spirits of his friends fighting in the Vietnam War by delivering beers to them on the front lines. Donohue’s tale didn’t become a book until 2017, but Hollywood wasted no time adapting it into a feature film starring Zac Efron, which was released in 2022.

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A Good Day for Chardonnay (2021)

If you haven’t sampled the works of New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones, pick up one of the books in the witty and engaging Sunshine Vicram series. The second installment, 2021’s “A Good Day for Chardonnay,” follows Sheriff Vicram as she tries to keep the peace in her small New Mexico town while simultaneously attempting to piece together her own past. It’s suspenseful, a little romantic, and laugh-out-loud funny.

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