Travel the World, One Book at a Time

From Page to Passport: Travelogues & Guides to Inspire Your Journey

Nothing fuels wanderlust quite like a great book. Whether you're an armchair traveler or planning your next big trip, these travelogues and guides offer insight, inspiration, and practical tips from seasoned explorers and first-time adventurers alike.

From Anthony Bourdain’s culinary adventures to Ari Shapiro’s global storytelling, these authors take you deep into new cultures, cuisines, and landscapes. Whether you crave off-the-beaten-path destinations or expert travel hacks, their stories will change the way you see the world.

So pack your bags, bring along a few of these books, and let's hit the road, Jack!

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Travelogues and Guidebooks:

American Cheese

by Joe Berkowitz

Joe Berkowitz loves cheese. Or at least he thought he did. After stumbling upon an artisinal tasting at an upscale cheese shop one Valentine's Day, he realized he'd hardly even scratched the surface. These cheeses were like nothing he had ever tasted--a visceral drug-punch that reverbrated deliciousness--and they were from America.

American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal

by Neil King

A stunning, revelatory memoir about a 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City--an unforgettable pilgrimage to the heart of America across some of our oldest common ground.

Neil King Jr.'s desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession. By the spring of 2021, events had intervened that gave his desire greater urgency. His neighborhood still reeled from the January 6th insurrection. Covid lockdowns and a rancorous election had deepened America's divides. Neil himself bore the imprints of a long battle with cancer.

Determined to rediscover what matters in life and to see our national story with new eyes, Neil turned north with a small satchel on his back and one mission in mind: To pay close attention to the land he crossed and the people he met.

The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening

by Ari Shapiro

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From the beloved host of NPR's All Things Considered, a stirring memoir-in-essays that is also a lover letter to journalism.

In his first book, broadcaster Ari Shapiro takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad.

As the self-reinforcing bubbles we live in become more impenetrable, Ari Shapiro keeps seeking ways to help people listen to one another; to find connection and commonality with those who may seem different; to remind us that, before religion, or nationality, or politics, we are all human.

Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones: A Memoir

by Priyanka Mattoo

From a wry, insightful, and very funny new voice, here is one woman's search for home, from Kashmir to England to Saudi Arabia to Michigan to Rome and, finally, to Los Angeles--standalone essays that together form a sweeping portrait of a peripatetic life.

Priyanka Mattoo was born into a wooden house in the Himalayas, as were most of her ancestors. In 1989, however, mounting violence in the region forced Mattoo's community to flee. The home into which her family poured their dreams was reduced to a pile of rubble.

Mattoo never moved back to her beloved Kashmir--because it no longer existed. She and her family just kept packing and unpacking and moving on. In forty years, Mattoo accumulated thirty-two different addresses, and she chronicles her nomadic existence with wit, wisdom, and an inimitable eye for light within the darkest moments.

Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Travels

by Caroline Eden

From the author of Red Sands, a New Yorker "Best Cookbook of the Year," a cozy, thoughtful memoir recalling food and travel in Eastern Europe and Central Asia from a basement Edinburgh kitchen, featuring a delicious recipe at the end of each chapter.

"With its union of practicality and magic," Caroline Eden understands a kitchen as a portal, "offering opportunities to cook, imagine and create ways back into other times, other lives and other territories."

A welcoming refuge with its tempting pantry, shelves of books, and inquisitive dog, Caroline Eden's basement Edinburgh kitchen offers her comfort away from the road. Join her as she cooks recipes from her travels, reflects on past adventures, and contemplates the kitchen's unique ability to tell human stories.

Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America

by Peter Wohlleben - Jane Billinghurst

When you walk in the woods, do you use all five senses to explore your surroundings? For most of us, the answer is no--but when we do, a walk in the woods can go from pleasant to immersive and restorative. Forest Walking teaches you how to engage with the forest by decoding nature's signs and awakening to the ancient past and thrilling present of the ecosystem around you.

Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide

by Cecily Wong - Dylan Thuras - Atlas Obscura Atlas Obscura

A New York Times, USA Today, and national indie bestseller.

Created by the ever-curious minds behind Atlas Obscura, this breathtaking guide transforms our sense of what people around the world eat and drink. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders.

Ready for a beer made from fog in Chile? Sardinia's "Threads of God" pasta? Egypt's 2000-year-old egg ovens? But far more than a menu of curious minds delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food's central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on history-trace the network of ancient Roman fish sauce factories. Culture-picture four million women gathering to make rice pudding. Travel-scale China's sacred Mount Hua to reach a tea house. Festivals-feed wild macaques pyramid of fruit at Thailand's Monkey Buffet Festival. And hidden gems that might be right around the corner, like the vending machine in Texas dispensing full sized pecan pies. Dig in and feed your sense of wonder.

Imagine a City: A Pilot's Journey Across the Urban World

by Mark Vanhoenacker

In his small New England hometown, Mark Vanhoenacker spent his childhood dreaming of elsewhere-- of the distant, real cities he found on the illuminated globe in his bedroom, and of one perfect metropolis that existed only in his imagination. These cities were the sources of endless comfort and escape, and of a lasting fascination. Streets unspooled, towers shone, and anonymous crowds bustled in the places where Mark hoped he could someday be anyone--perhaps even himself.

Into the Ice: The Northwest Passage, the Polar Sun, and a 175-Year-Old Mystery

by Mark Synnott

New York Times bestselling author Mark Synnott has climbed with Alex Honnold. He's scaled Mt. Everest. But in 2022, he realized there was a dream he'd never realized--to sail the Northwest Passage in his own boat, a feat only four hundred or so sailors had ever accomplished--and in doing so, try to solve the mystery of what happened to legendary nineteenth-century explorer Sir John Franklin and his ships, HMS Erebus and Terror.

Only a few hundred vessels have ever transited the Northwest Passage, stretching through Canada's north from Maine to Alaska--and substantially fewer have completed the treacherous journey in a fiberglass-hulled boat like Polar Sun. But Mark Synnott was determined to add his name to the list, and in doing so, also investigate a 175-year-old mystery, that of what happened to the legendary captain Sir John Franklin and his crew aboard the legendary HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.

The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-Mile Horseback Journey Into the Old West

by Will Grant

USA Today Bestseller!
Selected by the Smithsonian as Best Travel Books of the Year

The Pony Express was a fast-horse frontier mail service that spanned the American West-- the high, dry, and undeniably lonesome part of North America. While in operation during the 1860s, it carried letter mail on a blistering ten-day schedule between Missouri and San Francisco, running through a vast and mostly uninhabited wilderness. It covered a massive distance--akin to running horses between Madrid and Moscow-- and to this day, the Pony Express is irrefutably the greatest display of American horsemanship to ever color the pages of a history book.

A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast

by Dorthe Nors

A celebrated Danish writer explores the unsung histories and geographies of her beloved slice of the world.

Dorthe Nors's first nonfiction book chronicles a year she spent traveling along the North Sea coast--from Skagen at the northern tip of Denmark to the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. In fourteen expansive essays, Nors traces the history, geography, and culture of the places she visits while reflecting on her childhood and her family and ancestors' ties to the region as well as her decision to move there from Copenhagen. She writes about the ritual burning of witch effigies on Midsummer's Eve; the environmental activist who opposed a chemical factory in the 1950s; the quiet fishing villages that surfers transformed into an area known as Cold Hawaii starting in the 1970s.

On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer

by Rick Steves

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Stow away with Rick Steves for a glimpse into the unforgettable moments, misadventures, and memories of his 1978 journey on the legendary Hippie Trail.

In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied "Hippie Trail" from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year-old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world.

Strange Bewildering Time: Istanbul to Kathmandu in the Last Year of the Hippie Trail

by Mark Abley

A poet and journalist looks back on a remarkable journey from Turkey to Nepal in 1978, when the region was on the brink of massive transformation.
In the spring of 1978, at age twenty-two, Mark Abley put aside his studies at Oxford and set off with a friend on a three-month trek across the celebrated Hippie Trail -- a sprawling route between Europe and South Asia, peppered with Western bohemians and vagabonds. It was a time when the Shah of Iran still reigned supreme, Afghanistan lay at peace, and city streets from Turkey to India teemed with unrest. Within a year, many of the places he visited would become inaccessible to foreign travellers.

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide

by Anthony Bourdain - Laurie Woolever

A guide to some of the world's most fascinating places, as seen and experienced by writer, television host, and relentlessly curious traveler Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to Tanzania's utter beauty and the stunning desert solitude of Oman's Empty Quarter--and many places beyond.

WANT TO WIN FREE TRAVEL NOVELS? TRY YOUR LUCK WITH THE TRAVEL AFAR BOOK BUNDLE GIVEAWAY! CLICK HERE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!

So grab a book, start dreaming, and let these pages transport you. Whether you're looking for hidden gems, cultural deep dives, or just a little inspiration to book that ticket, these travelogues and guides will expand your horizons before you even pack a bag.

The best journeys start with curiosity, and the right book can be the spark that sets your next adventure in motion. So why wait? Pick up a travel book today and see where it takes you—no passport required.

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