Ready to be taken on an adventure or two? No matter where you’ve always dreamed of going, these masterworks will undoubtedly leave you itching for some real-life globe trotting. These travel-inspired and all-around inspiring books are consistently acclaimed for their powerful insights, exciting explorations, and hard-earned travel tips. Best of all, they have the unique ability to magically transport the reader to another place and time.
But don’t just take my word for it. These best-selling authors are always ready to take you on the trip of a lifetime. So if you’re looking for an unusually cozy, cost-friendly, and profoundly fulfilling way to satisfy your wanderlust, check out these must-read travel books immediately.
Oregon to Patagonia: To Shake The Sleeping Self, Jedidiah Jenkins
This New York Times bestseller never goes out of style, especially for those craving self-reflection. Jedidiah Jenkins brings us on his soul-shaking journey across two continents in this moving memoir. If your day-to-day feels a bit mundane or you worry about losing touch with yourself, this one will resonate. I don’t know anyone who has read it that didn’t have a fire lit under them to hit the road and find themselves.
Jenkins wrote To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret after leaving his “dream job” with a single mission in mind. He embarked on a six-month bicycle trip from Oregon to Patagonia, fully open to what he might find. In this tale of self-discovery, Jenkins stunningly captures the world around him, and within him, in a remarkably fresh, cathartic, and captivating way.
NYC: Bright Lights Big City, Jay McInerney
Obviously, this isn’t the only book that takes us to New York City, but it’s arguably one of the best. The Big Apple is not an easy place to capture in its entirety, but Jay McInerney masterfully pulled it off. To this day, Bright Lights, Big City continue to be revered for its alluringly honest depiction of NYC’s identity, complex personality, and eternal spark.
Even the hard-to-impress crowd at Vanity Fair once wrote, “Bright Lights, Big City defined, and even determined, the mood of this whole town.” While it debuted in 1984, it’s not as dated as you might worry. In fact, many critics still say this sharp bestseller was “ahead of its time.” If nothing else, the infamously fast pace of our most celebrated sleepless city still rings true. With that said, it’s very much the epitome of Manhattan in the 80s in the most amusing of ways too. And if you’re looking for a book that genuinely feels like New York in every way, I’d start here.
The West Coast & The Deep South: South And West, Joan Didion
Joan Didion’s keen eye and cutting observations never go out of style. A California native, Didion believed that to understand the west, it was crucial to understand the south, so she set out to explore them both. The prolific writer and acute observer hit the road with a theory: the two regions’ stark juxtaposition and seemingly opposite modes of operating (as well as terrain and climate) actually connected them in nuanced and significant ways.
On a monthlong trip in the 1970s, Didion took her pen and paper across the American southwest, and then made her way to the deep south. Initially, South and West was just the notebook she kept. And the result is nothing short of magical.
Engaging and haunting. . . . Didion’s observations of the South are remarkable to read, dripping with a sense of unease. . . . Didion at her most unfiltered. Those who admire her will find this glimpse into her notebooks exhilarating.
Paste
Australia: In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson is by far one of the most celebrated travel writers and journalists to ever grace the planet. In turn, picking only one of this award-winning author’s exceptional works was no picnic. Ultimately, In a Sunburned Country is the rightful winner for various travel-friendly reasons, even if only by a hair. But you’ll have to discover why for yourself.
Making his way from east to west Australia, Bryson attempts to show us, “there’s nowhere else like it on earth.” From encounters with the deadliest of deadly insects to unimaginably gorgeous and forgotten coastal cities, you never know where this book will take you next. The New York Times called this one “Vastly entertaining… If there is one book with which to get oriented before departure or en route to Australia, this is it.”
U.S. Road Trip: On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s real-life adventures with Neal Cassady, you’ll get more than you bargained for with this 1957 classic. The official description reads: “Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naiveté and wild ambition and imbued with Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.”
When this timeless travel novel was first published, it quickly defined the post-war Beat and Counterculture Generation in a powerful way. And to this day, On The Road speaks to the heart of anyone longing to hit the open road without hesitation and with shameless self-exploration in mind.
Latin America: Motorcycle Diaries, Ernesto “Che” Guevara
As the real-life legend goes, a twenty-something Ernesto “Che” Guevara was in medical school in the 1950s. But the life of a doctor wasn’t really what he wanted. Soon enough, one decision, and one road trip, changed the trajectory of his entire life. Switching gears, Guevara famously hopped on a motorized bicycle with a friend. From there, they embarked on a nine-month-long, 3,000-mile, “figure it out as we go” trip through South America.
If you somehow haven’t read it yet, he kept one heck of a diary. The Motorcycle Diaries explores the not-so-smooth terrain of Latin America’s complex history in an introspective way. Visceral, scenic, and profoundly striking, come along for this wild ride through Latin America as the budding Marxist finds his unforgettable voice.
Paris: A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
If you’re a literary buff, you likely already know that Ernest Hemingway spent most of his twenties as an expatriate in Paris. Most notably, this was a magical period where he spent time rubbing elbows with other famous artists and iconic writers. His unfathomably famous inner circle included people like F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, and James Joyce, to name a few. But that’s just part of what makes this destination-inspired memoir an enthralling, juicy read.
During this brief and wondrous time, Hemingway was said to be uncharacteristically happy. Looking at life with an unusually rosy glow, old Paris is forever immortalized and romanticized in A Movable Feast. Adding to its poignancy, this masterwork was completed a year before his death, and the literary legend reveals himself in ways we’ve never seen him before.
Suppose you dream of a starry-eyed vacay to the city of lights. In that case, you’ll instantly be swept up by his awe-inspiring yet classically simple descriptions of the historic streets, quintessential cafés, and the collective mood that gives Paris that je ne sais quoi.
Mumbai: Maximum City, by Suketu Mehta
Care to be dropped in the middle of an Indian “megalopolis” in the most exciting of ways? Now’s your chance, adventure seeker. Maximum City is glitzy, gritty, and vastly layered. The Bombay native turned NYC fiction writer Suketu Mehta gives readers a rare and raw insider’s view of his homeland.
Dubbed “a revelation of an ancient and ever-changing world,” this critically acclaimed work turned Mehta into a Pulitzer Prize finalist. And it’s not hard to see why once you read it. When it comes to illuminating and intimate portraits of a city, it doesn’t get more intimate and illuminating than this one.
What Dickens did for London, what Joseph Mitchell did for New York City, Suketu Mehta has done for Bombay. . . . A candid, extensive, and wholly entertaining portrait.”
San Diego Tribune
Globe Trotting: The Best American Travel Writing, Susan Orlean
Sure, there are many volumes of this annual anthology. But if you can only pick up one in your lifetime, go with the 2007 edition. Year after year, this particular collection of The Best American Travel Writing continues living up to its name. No matter what you seek, each essay will take you somewhere refreshingly new and special.
Travel is not about finding something. It’s about getting lost — that is, it is about losing yourself in a place and a moment. The little things that tether you to what’s familiar are gone, and you become a conduit through which the sensation of the place is felt.
Susan Orlean
Written by American writers, these “best of the best” globe-trotting essays were carefully selected from magazines, newspapers, and online publications. No matter where you start, this book will awaken the traveler within before you finish it. So don’t be surprised if you’re suddenly inspired to seize the day and see the world. Just make sure you pick a budget-friendly destination before you pack those bags!
