Travel Reads/Books

Books and apps to travel with and because of. What's helpful, hot, or simply cool in print out there these days?' Weigh in on our comment wall and discussion groups below!

Cover photo: Bulat Silvia

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6 of the greatest English-language travel books of all time

Peshkova Long before cheap flights and map apps, travel writing offered vicarious passage to distant places, and that impulse remains powerful. A good travel book collapses distance and time, letting us inhabit landscapes, cultures, and states of mind we may never physically reach. Even today, when information is abundant, good, thoughtful travel writing offers something rarer: meaning shaped by experience, not just facts.One obvious pleasure is vicarious escape. Travel books allow readers to…

Started by Paul Varmuza

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The fascinating story of a medieval Buddhist pilgrim's 5,000-mile odyssey

Travel usually involves a lot of planning and packing and booking and backtracking. At age 70, though, there are many new ways to travel. For one thing, there is time travel, which is what I call revisiting a place that I visited long ago, just to see all the ch-ch-ch-changes, maybe even recognize somebody from the old days. I’d done this before and did it again during the pandemic, when my usual Asian haunts were locked down tighter than a you-fill-in-the-blank and so I reverted to my…

Started by Tripatini

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10 terrific adventure travel books to inspire wanderlust

Bulat Silvia Adventure travel is all about delving into the unknown, and more often than not, also getting out of your comfort zone. So if that appeals to you, here's a dozen terrific travel reads from people who left their own comfort zones to follow their dreams and seek out new cultures and experiences. There's something old and something new; several you might know, and many others you probably haven't heard of, plus a good representation of female voices. What they have in common is…

Started by Tripatini

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Best travel reads of the year

The top ten picks of the 2022 crop from the award-winning outdoor adventure blog Atlas & Boots include a grumpy hiker’s outing in the mountains; one man’s take on slavery and racism in the oldest city on the Mississippi River; a mother’s attempt to escape poverty by tracing whales to Alaska; and a historian’s portrait of the most isolated tribe in the world, on North Sentinel Island. To check it out, click here.

Started by Riccardo R

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Giselle Balido February 12, 2026 at 11:40pm

As a Cuban exile (brought to the United States by my parents in 1967), I have a great interest in the island of my birth, and one book which does a very good job in capturing the good, the bad, and the ugly is called Cuba: The Land of Miracles – A Journey Through Modern Cuba, in which British journalist Stephen Smith relats his travels across the island not just in Havana but also Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Trinidad, Varadero, and Santa Clara, along with small towns and the countryside – in a 1955 Chevrolet to illuminate the realities and culture of everyday people as well as issues like the effects of foreign tourism, revolutionary mythmaking, cultural identity and pride, and much more. And it´s colored by Smith´s self-reflection, irony (because irony has abounded in Cuba for decades) and even a touch of humor.

The catch is that this was written in 1999, at the end of the “special period” of hardship in the ´90s provoked by the collapse of the Soviet Union and therefore of its huge lifeline to Cuba´s Communist régime. Despite that, Cubans soldiered on. The situation right now after the cutting off of oil and other support from Venezuela is turning out to be even more drastic, so what happens next is anyone´s guess. Nonetheless, many of the observations here remain completely valid and relevant today. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand and travel to contemporary Cuba (although I wouldn´t recommend traveling there now, as besides relentless blackouts, garbage building up everywhere and other hardships, health wise it´s very dangerous, with mosquito-borne viruses like dengue and chikungunya with nasty, nasty symptoms causing a catastrophic health crisis that can affect visitors as much as locals).
Dave Acton February 10, 2026 at 1:02pm

I happened to catch this after summer, but anyway, an interesting mix of books here, from The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide from Lonely Planet to very literary takes like Giovanni´s Room by James Baldwin, which I read many years ago and now am curious to reread https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/queer-travel-books

10 Queer Travel Books to Read This Summer

From Paris to Antartica, these LGBTQ+ reads explore the world through continent-spanning bus rides and meandering road trips.
Maria de los Angeles January 30, 2025 at 6:38pm

I recently read this very informative and thought-provoking book, called "The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel" by Paige McClanahan, which has landed on a number of 2024 "best travel books" lists. It´s not a travelogue but a look at tourism globally and the issues that surround it, such as overtourism and climate change. And for me one of the key takeaways is "travel mindfully." Highly recommended!
Barbara Necker December 28, 2024 at 3:30pm

Nomadic Matt is one of the travel websites I enjoy following, and here´s his recently updated list of travel reads - a mix of contemporary and older classics: https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/thirteen-travel-books/

Best Travel Books: 15 Books to Give You Serious Wanderlust
Max Pesling January 7, 2023 at 2:16pm

As one of its "best for 2023" articles, Condé Nast Traveler just published its list of nine must-read travel books: https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/books-to-spark-your-wanderlust

9 Books to Spark Your Wanderlust in 2023

Our editors on their favorite books they read over the past year.
José Balido November 11, 2022 at 5:24pm

Last year the British Condé Nast Traveller came out with a distinguished list of literary works to inform your travels before visiting a number of destinations: a moveable feast, indeed: https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/best-travel-books
David Paul Appell March 11, 2022 at 12:06pm

A pretty interesting piece just came out in the Washington Post on the future of travel guidebooks post pandemic (if that's what you can call the period we're in), including imput from Rick Steves and my old friend and onetime colleague Pauline Frommer: https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/03/04/guidebooks-travel-...

Travel guidebooks aren’t dead, but they’ll never be the same. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Rapidly changing guidebook styles can tell us a lot about the evolution of travel.
Sarah Irving January 12, 2012 at 12:09am

Veteran travel writer Dervla Murphy just reviewed my new guidebook to Palestine in British travel glossy Wanderlust... more in my blog post here.
Linda Ballou December 29, 2011 at 7:06am

Lost Angel Walkabout on top ten for 2011

My travel collection was selected author Yolanda Renee's top ten for 2011. She shares what when into her choices in this half hour radio show.

Cheers and Happy New Year Linda
inka piegsa-quischotte November 4, 2011 at 9:28am

I'd like to introduce me new literaryv travel guide to Istanbul.Istanbul, City of the Green_Eyed Beauty. Following the footsteps of writers Pierre Loti, Barbara Nadel and Orhan Pamuk, I explore districts abd sites of Istanbul which are off the beaten path as well as shedding a different light on some better known places. Read the introduction and a summary and look at some of the book's pictures on the special page of my blog, www.glamourgrannytravels.com/book.