Travel Books to Spark Your Next Adventure
Some trips start with a flight search. Others start with a book that won't let you stop thinking about a place. Here's a shelf worth picking up, whether you're planning a trip or just traveling from the couch for a while.
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First-Person Journeys
Travel Memoirs & Travelogues
First-person journeys that capture what a place actually feels like to move through, not just what it looks like.
Well-Known Titles to Consider
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- Wild by Cheryl Strayed — a solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail and the reckoning that comes with it.
- In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin — a genre-defining travelogue through remote South America.
- A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson — a wry, funny account of attempting the Appalachian Trail.
- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert — a year split between Italy, India, and Indonesia after a personal upheaval.
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Actually Getting There
Practical Guidebooks
Less about narrative, more about actually getting somewhere.
Well-Known Series to Consider
- Lonely Planet guides — broad coverage, good for first-time visits to a country or region.
- Rick Steves guides — especially strong for Europe, with a practical, unpretentious tone.
- DK Eyewitness Travel guides — heavy on maps and visuals, good for visual planners.
- National Geographic traveler guides — strong on cultural and historical context alongside the practical details.
A Place as a Character
Travel Fiction
Novels that make a place a character in its own right — good for building anticipation before a trip or reliving one after.
Well-Known Titles to Consider
- A Room with a View by E.M. Forster — Florence and the English countryside, and the gap between the two.
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho — a journey across North Africa framed as a search for purpose.
- The Beach by Alex Garland — Thailand's backpacker trail taken to its extreme.
When Travel Gets Hard
Adventure & Exploration Classics
For readers drawn to the harder, higher-stakes side of travel — mountaineering, survival, and journeys that didn't go as planned.
Well-Known Titles to Consider
- Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer — the 1996 Everest disaster, told from inside it.
- Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer — a young man's journey into the Alaskan wilderness.
- The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto "Che" Guevara — a young man's motorcycle trip across South America.
For the Coffee Table
Travel Photography Books
Less to read cover to cover, more to leave out and flip through — good gift territory too.
Well-Known Series to Consider
- National Geographic photography collections.
- "Wonders of the World"-style visual guides.
The best trips usually start before you ever book a flight — sometimes they start on a page.