In between your adventures, or even while you’re on them, it’s exciting to dive into a place through its words. A good book can transport you to a different time and place and make you better understand the author’s experiences. If I had to pick a favorite genre of book, it would almost always be a travel memoir because I feel like I’m actually there, something harder to manage with other types of books. Here are just a few of my favorites from over the years.
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Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
I’m a longtime follower of Torre’s blog so as soon as her self-published book was picked up by a publisher, I knew I’d want to read it. After spending time in San Francisco, Australian-born Torre meets a man one night in a bar. As she falls for this Argentinian, he drops a bomb that he will soon be leaving to sail around the world and wants her to join him.
But what she’s hesitant to tell him is that she is terrified of open water. Along the way they face literal life and death moments, relationship squabbles and breathtaking scenery in the Pacific islands.
Love with a Chance of Drowning on Amazon
Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner
After his fiancee broke off their engagement mere days before the wedding, Franz is left in a predicament with everything, including the honeymoon, already paid for. Instead of sinking into a deep depression, his brother joins him for a Costa Rican getaway that was supposed to be the beginning of a new life.
After a two week trip, the brothers decide to continue their journey, quitting their jobs, selling their homes and traveling through Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.
Honeymoon with My Brother: A Memoir on Amazon
The Lost Girls: Three Friends, Four Continents, One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett, Holly Corbett and Amanda Pressner
Based on another one of my favorite blogs that became a book, The Lost Girls details three friends living in New York City who decide to take a year off to travel the world together. The book is broken up into regions and written from each different girl’s perspective.
During their time overseas, they volunteer in Africa, go hiking in South America and drive (and later crash) a campervan in Australia. Along the way they learn both how little and much they have in common.
The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World. on Amazon
How Not to Travel the World: Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker by Lauren Juliff
I found a copy of fellow blogger Lauren’s book when traveling in London before it came out anywhere else. I read it in a matter of days. As a fellow anxiety sufferer, I connected with her stories of being afraid to leave the house. But after her boyfriend breaks up with her, she decides to take the long term trip she’s been dreaming of for years.
Her trip is full of disasters and mishaps, ranging from losing her way when looking for her hostel in China to almost getting hit by a typhoon in Thailand. Along the way she meets a handsome fellow blogger and falls in love.
How Not to Travel the World: Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker on Amazon
Radio Shangri-La: What I Discovered on My Accidental Journey to the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli
Resigned to living a life of singledom, Lisa hears from a friend of a friend about an opportunity to volunteer at a radio station in Bhutan. Despite her own personal tragedies, she finds happiness and friendship in the Himalayan kingdom known for having what they call “Gross National Happiness.” She adjusts to the slower pace of a country without a single traffic light.
Radio Shangri-La: What I Discovered on my Accidental Journey to the Happiest Kingdom on Earth on Amazon
Going Postal: The Ups and Downs of Travelling the World on a Postie Bike by Nathan Millward
I picked up this book at a thrift store in Australia about a young man who leaves the country after a work visa expires. He has an idea to buy a postal bike and drive it from Sydney to his hometown of London. Along the way he has to deal with border patrols, mechanical malfunctions and more than a few detours, which take him through Asia and Russia before arriving in Europe.
Going Postal: The Ups and Downs of Travelling the World on a Postie Bike on Amazon
Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
Charleston local Sue Monk Kidd wrote this travelogue with her daughter after traveling through the ancient areas of Greece, Turkey and France while both doing research and exploring. Each chapter tells a different part of the story from the mother and daughter perspectives, both dated and listed by the place. It was this book that made me want to visit the ruins of Ephesus and Mary’s house in Turkey.
These are just a few of the travel memoirs I’ve loved but to find out what else I’m reading, click on the GoodReads button below. Be sure to follow me there!
What’s your favorite travel memoir?
I received advance copies of a few of these books but enjoyed them enough to write about them here. There are also links to Amazon that provide me with a small commission at no cost to you.
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I love these posts! And you shared some books that I haven’t heard of yet! Thank you :) P.S How awesome is Love With a Chance of Drowning? Sailing is now on my bucket list because of that book!
Interesting and diverse list of books and their associated adventures. This post made me realize that I was, in part, inspired to right my travel book (Calabria: The Other Italy) by a few classic works written about this southern Italian region over 100 years ago. Norman Douglas, in particular, had such a colorful knack for description and putting the reader in his shoes in his “Old Calabria.” Good travel writing transports you not only to a place, but to a time in that place.