Travelling is a great time to delve into some great travel books and there’s always plenty of time for it on the road too.
Reading can help you escape the inevitable boredom of waiting around for flights and buses, or just give you time to relax when on a trip and get transported to a different country or destination.
Books can also give you a great insight into the culture, history and people of a country you’re travelling to.
Here’s a list of some of my favourite travel books that transport you around the world.
Down Under by Bill Bryson
If you’re backpacking around Australia then this hilarious travel book by Bill Bryson is sure to provide entertainment on those long trips through the outback. Bryson gives a unique perspective on Oz and its people. OK so he may generalise quite a bit and have an unnatural fear of Australian wildlife, but it will have you laughing out loud whether you’re on the bus or in your hostel dorm room.
The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
A great book for anyone going to New Zealand, the Whale Rider is a beautiful novel detailing the story of a Maori tribe and one girl’s struggle to prove to her Grandfather, the Chief, that she’s just as strong and tough as any boy. It’s a book that brings Maori culture into modern times, while showing the stunning natural wonders of the country and its wildlife. Even if you’ve seen the film, we’d still recommend reading the book.
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung
This is a must read for anyone travelling to and around Cambodia to understand the tragedy and pain the Cambodian people suffered during the Khmer Rouge regime. It will help you to understand the country, its peoples and many of the tourist sites you may visit in the capital Phnom Penh. This book is told from the point of view of the author when she was a child and follows her and her family as they try to survive at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. This book may have you weeping, but you’ll be glad you read it.
Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham
This captivating novel takes you on a journey through Vietnam following Vietnamese-born American Andrew Pham as he cycles the length of the country, through gorgeous vistas and meetings with some interesting characters. The novel is a discovery of Vietnam, while at the same time delving into the views of the Vietnamese on the Americans and that of their own people who fled to go and live there.
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
This is a pretty epic book, for an epic country. A classic book on Chinese history and a true story told from the point of view of three generations of Chinese women, Jung Chang’s grandmother, her mother and herself. Unfortunately this book is still banned in China, but is well worth the read before you go. It will enable you to understand what the country was like before during and after the reign of Mao. This book is both heartbreaking and beautiful and will leave a lasting impression.
Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts Mumbai – India
Shantaram is an epic story! Based on truth, the book begins with Gregory escaping a high-security prison in Australia and fleeing to India using a fake passport. The book follows him getting robbed of everything, finding love, suffering heartbreak and submitting to desperation. He drags himself in and out of the depths of heroin, finds inner peace opening a free clinic in a Bombay slum where he lives, stars in Bollywood movies and finds himself working for the mafia. The entire book portrays this battle between what he feels is right and what he feels he deserves.
As soon as I got a little way into the book, I just had to go to India! And everywhere I went, I saw other backpackers reading it too! This book gives you an proper insight into the raw, underbelly of Mumbai. The drug dens, the slums, the whore houses, but still manages to make you fall in love with India. The smiling faces of friends, the people who risk their lives to save yours. It is a brilliant representation of two sides of the same coin that will make you want to book a one way ticket to experience the beauty and chaos of India for yourself.
Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert – Italy, India, Bali
Literally the definition of a feelgood story! This memoir strikes a chord on many of our heartstrings as we sympathise, relate and appreciate the road Elizabeth’s life takes.
The story begins with a woman living the life that many people long for – a high-earning job, a gorgeous husband, surrounded by lots of friends in an incredibly enviable apartment in New York. Elizabeth has an overwhelming feeling of being trapped, so she quits everything and spends a year travelling, learning how to be free. In Italy she eats. Indulging in everything, discovering the true meaning in ‘dolce far niente’. In India, she prays. She meets a Guru, practices yoga and searches for god. In Bali she looks for balance, makes lifelong friends and finally discovers true love.
Many of us have seen the famous movie adaptation of Eat, Pray, Love, which does stay fairly true to the novel, but books always give an added depth of detail that you just can’t get from a movie. The book transports you to each country making you long to travel there yourself. You can lose yourself in this book. You will laugh, cry, feel hurt, feel sad and feel truly, truly happy by the end.
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho – Egypt, Africa
We loved The Alchemist! An inspiring and powerful magical realism story about following your dreams to travel to foreign lands – which many of us travellers really relate to! Santiago is a humble shepherd living in Spain. He wants for very little in life: a flock of sheep, a little wine in his belly and a book in his bag. That is until he has a recurring dream of finding treasure at the base of a pyramid. He sells his flock and begins a quest to find the treasure, meeting various figures along the way who guide him and point him in the right direction. It’s a story bound deep in philosophical musings with almost every line being a quote you want to save for later use.
This isn’t so much one of our travel books to inspire you to go to any particular place, but a book to inspire you to follow your dreams, get up and just go to that place you’ve been dreaming of. It also shows the importance of it not being the destination which is important but the journey, treading the magical line between reality and spirituality. In the end, you’re left unsure whether what actually happened, happened. But, I think that’s the point – why does that really matter? A bit more philosophical than the previous reads but again, another common sight when on the road.
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green – Amsterdam, Netherlands
An incredibly moving novel turned movie. It’s despair, heartbreak, sadness at the same time as incredible iron hope, pure joy, true love and uplifting inspiration. It really is a roller coaster of emotions, but so inspiring! Hazel is a 17 year old girl who’s witty, funny, and smart but has to live with the fact that she has terminal cancer. She falls in love with Augustus who is in remission himself, and shares her favourite book with him, which is based in Amsterdam.
Augustus uses his wish from the ‘Make A Wish Foundation’, to take them both to Amsterdam. The book recounts their trip of finding the author, learning why he wrote it and exploring Amsterdam together before their time is up. I am not going to spoil the ending, but this one of the best inspirational travel books. If a couple who both have terminal cancer can still have the hope to follow their dreams, then so can anyone! So, who’s up for exploring ‘The Dam?!’
Long Way Round, Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor – World Travel
This is the best book for anyone who has taken or has thought about taking a trip somewhere by motorbike. Ewan McGregor realised whilst perusing a world map, that it was possible to travel the world on a motorbike with only one short hop on a ferry. Him and his friend (also and actor – Charley Boorman) and a fellow motorbike enthusiast, rode 20,000 miles in 4 months, and this book is a recount of their adventure.
It’s built by combining diary entries written campside, with thoughts along the way and a true telling of the events that unfolded on their epic journey. You’re privy to how their thoughts, wants, desires and their entire lives changed forever from the simple act of travel. They recount stories of problems they faced along the way, such as the funny tale of being served bulls testicles in Mongolia. What’s special about this book is the level of raw and unpolished writing. It’s simply a recount of 2 guys travelling the world, just because they can.
Vagabonding, Rolf Potts – World Travel
Vagabonding is a bit different to the other books featured in this list. It’s a guide to travelling for a prolonged period of time. But it’s definitely not just that! As well as providing key advice on how to finance your trip, how to adjust to life on the road, and ways to find work whilst your travelling, it’s also a guide on adding adventure into your life. A bible on how to inject curiosity and adventure into everyday, both on the road and when back to normality.
This book is perfect for those who have a seed of a dream to travel but just doesn’t know where to begin. It answers the big questions of what you would need to do, how you go about doing it, or if it is even possible. It shows us how you can be free, completely free. And it shows that it doesn’t matter who you are or what your life is like, it all comes down to priorities. A great source of inspiration to show that your travelling dreams are not as untouchable as you think!
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, Laurie Lee – Spain
An oldie but a goody! This unfaltering real memoir of a man who decides that small-town Cotswold life isn’t enough. One day he walks out on his home town and heads for London. He spends a year building a life in London only to realise that his heart craves further travel. So he sets out for Spain, with only his trusty violin, a blanket and a sense of overwhelming freedom. Walking from coast to coast, he plays for his dinner and sleeps wherever he can find a place to rest his head.
This book offers true insight into how a life of simplicity is freedom. It’s a raw but poetic account of a humble Spanish life, content in having no things or money. The eloquent language used describes the invigorating feeling of true freedom, zero ties and solo travel at your own pace. Definitely a must read, especially if you want eyes into Spanish culture and the stark beauty of the country before the civil war.
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Peter Frankopan – All over from East to West
This fascinating book explores the sacred place where East meets West, the birthplace of civilisation, the central point where the two sides met – the Silk Roads. This network of roads is where trade between the two sides began, where cultures, religions and ideologies surfaced, exchanged and were fed into each other’s worlds. The silk roads were a grid of organisation between the two sides of Europe which connected continents and oceans together. The tales told along this path span over centuries and whilst the book is full of academic facts and recognised history, it is peppered throughout with anecdotes stories and titbits and the authors own drawn insights.
Using trained eagles to hunt for and feed the convoy along the silk roads has been a Kyrgyz tradition for centuries and still remains to this day. What an incredible idea to ride along possibly the most important route known to civilisation.
A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome, Alberto Angela – Rome, Italy
If you are planning a journey into the past, to one of the most historically and architecturally significant capitals of the world, Rome, then you must read this book! The book guides you through 24 hours in the romantic city of Rome in the year 115 CE – when imperial Rome was at the height of its power. The main character steers you through the iconic landmarks that we all know such as the Forum and the Colosseum, but as they stood back then. The level of detail of the surroundings, the ambience, the commotion is so comprehensive and elaborate that you really do feel like you’ve gone back in time.
I bought my copy in a small bookstore close to the Museum and Crypt of Capuchins (where else would you?). I already felt that I knew ancient Rome through my love of the Lyndsey Davies’ Falco series (Marcus Didius Falco – a fictional character and narrator in a series of historical mystery crime novels 1989 – 2010) an ex Roman Legionnaire and now private investigator for Rome’s Emperor Vespasian. His musings as he walks the Aventine, his descriptions of the Aqueducts and baths makes you feel you could stroll the streets of the 1st Century Rome and know exactly where you were!
The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime, Miles Harvey
An usual alluring story in what amounts to an historical adventure! This book tells the story of Gilbert Bland – a bland man by all accounts – but one who made cartographic history by being one of the most prolific (and successful) map thieves of the 20th Century – the Al Capone of Cartography if you will. He travelled the world pinching over $500,000 antique maps from rare libraries and universities until he was finally apprehended at Baltimore’s Peabody Library in 1995. The book tells the story of his unravelling trail, through the beautiful stories of the maps he came into contact with.
Harvey documents Bland’s cartographic crimes whilst also embarking on his own discovery for his passion of historic maps. He takes readers through map-dealers offices, auction houses, rare-library rooms and cartographic studios all over the world to ‘map out’ the lost maps of the cartographic criminal.
I hope this list has given you some reading inspiration on your travels and that you find them every bit as captivating as I did.
