20 travel memoirs to take you around the world (from the comfort of your couch)

How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir

by Saeed Jones

Winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography. Jones's remarkable coming-of-age memoir about being a Black gay man from the South is told in a series of moments and scenes from his childhood through young adulthood. My husband Will cited this one as a favorite in What Should I Read Next Episode 214: Deconstructing your best reading year yet because of Jones's storytelling. Note: the audiobook, read by the author, is excellent.

Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

by Andrew X. Pham

Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California, after his family came to the US as "boat people." After his sister died by suicide, he set off on a year-long exploration by bicycle, taking off for Mexico, Japan, and Vietnam, hoping to make sense of his cultural identity along the way.

Rudy’s Rules for Travel: Life Lessons from Around the Globe

by Mary K. Jensen

Relationships require adaptation and for chronic worrier Mary K. Jensen, her marriage to her spontaneous, frugal husband Rudy involved learning his rules of travel. No matter what they faced, he had a rule for it all. They might be opposites but their travels brought them together, leading to good lessons for us all.

A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller

by Frances Mayes

Frances Mayes is best known for her memoirs exploring life as an expat in Tuscany but here she shares about travels to Spain, Portugal, France, the British Isles, Turkey, Greece, the South of Italy, and North Africa. As much as possible, she rented a house and did her best to shop and eat like a local, thinking all the while about what it would be like to call that place home.

Waking Up On the Appalachian Trail: A Story of War, Brotherhood, and the Pursuit of Truth

by N. B. Hankes

After coming home from a tour in Iraq, Nate Hankes and his recent college grad brother set off to hike the entire Appalachian trail. As their journey unfolds, Nate reckons with his identity now that he’s no longer in the Army, makes sense of his military career, and figures out where life will take him next.

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle

by Dervla Murphy

In 1963, Dervla Murphy biked her way across Europe, through Persia and Afghanistan, over the Himalayas to Pakistan and finally India. All that on a bicycle and during a horrible winter, no less.

Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park

by Conor Knighton

After weathering a broken engagement, CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Conor Knighton decided to spend the year visiting every single National Park. Read his account and then watch the On the Trail news segments that followed.

Hardly Working: A Travel Memoir of Sorts

by Zukiswa Wanner

Author Zukiswa Wanner celebrated 10 years since her debut novel The Madams was published by having a reading in as many countries in Africa and Europe as possible. WIth her partner and son along for the ride, she documents their road trip with humor and passion.

Due North

by Lola A Åkerström

Award-winning travel writer and photographer Lola Akinmade Åkerström put together this collection of essays from her two decades of travel. The stories bring her photos alive in a whole new way.

The Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground

by Rosemary Mahoney

A lapsed Catholic, Rosemary Mahoney invites readers along as she undergoes a pilgrimage of six revered sites, including an Anglican shrine to Saint Mary in Walsingham, England, the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, and India’s holiest city Varanasi.

Around India in 80 Trains

by Monisha Rajesh

In 1991, Monisha Rejesh’s family left England for Madras but returned to England after only two years after a lackluster experience. Twenty years later, Rajesh returned, hoping to connect with her country of origin. Inspired by Jules Verne, she experienced over 40,000 km of India by 80 different trains.

A Walk in the Woods

by Bill Bryson

Renowned travel writer Bryson takes to the Appalachian Trail in this laugh-out-loud travel memoir. After returning to America after 20 years in England, Bryson reconnects with his home country by walking 800 of the AT’s 2100 miles, many of them with his cranky companion Katz, who serves as a brilliant foil to Bryson’s scholarly wit. A superb hiking memoir that skillfully combines laugh-out-loud anecdotes with serious discussions about history, ecology, and wilderness trivia. Droll, witty, entertaining.

A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines

by Anthony Bourdain

If you enjoyed Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations, you’ll love following him on his quest for the culinary holy grail from California to Cambodia. No one writes about food or adventure quite like Bourdain.

Travels with Charley in Search of America

by John Steinbeck

From the publisher: "Travels with Charley in Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life—a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South—which Steinbeck witnessed firsthand—Travels with Charley is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade."

How to Be a Family: The Year I Dragged My Kids Around the World to Find a New Way to Be Together

by Dan Kois

The co-host of the podcast Mom and Dad Are Fighting, Dan Kois and his wife decide to travel with their two pre-teen daughters for a year in order to reconnect and get out of the cycle of busyness and distraction. They spend four months each in New Zealand, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and small-town Kansas. But of course, changing locations doesn’t make all your problems disappear and Kois offers reflections about what they learned along the way.

At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe

by Tsh Oxenreider

As a homebody with a healthy dose of wanderlust, I've been fascinated by Tsh's around-the-world adventure since the moment I first heard about it. With her husband and three kids under ten, Tsh leaves the States behind to travel to China and Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, Croatia and Germany and England and everywhere in between, for nine solid months. I so enjoyed getting to tag along on her family's global adventures, which were nothing at all like I expected—both more strange and more familiar than I had imagined.

Paddling with Spirits: A Solo Kayak Journey

by Irene Skyriver

For her 40th birthday, Irene Skyriver undertook a 700+ mile solo kayak trip from Alaska to her home in Washington’s San Juan Islands. She also shares stories about her Native heritage (Makkah and Tlingit), from her great-grandparents on down.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

by Cheryl Strayed

In desperate need of a fresh start after the death of her mother and divorcing her husband, Cheryl Strayed decided to hike more than 1000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail by herself, even though she had little hiking experience. What follows is a journey of ups and downs, hope and despair, as she moves toward healing and making sense of her past.

Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

by Stephanie Rosenbloom

For New York Times travel writer Stephanie Rosenbloom, traveling alone helps us become more aware of the world around us. Divided into four parts and set in Paris, Istanbul, Florence, and New York, she highlights the benefits of alone time and the ways it can enrich our lives.

Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

by Alice Steinbach

This is a wonderful guide for anyone contemplating solo travel. Journalist Alice Steinbach took a four-month sabbatical from work to travel to London, Oxford, Paris, and Milan when she was in her 50s. Her memoir is as much about the places she goes as it is about the people she befriends.

20 travel memoirs to take you around the world (from the comfort of your couch)

How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir

Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

Rudy’s Rules for Travel: Life Lessons from Around the Globe

A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller

Waking Up On the Appalachian Trail: A Story of War, Brotherhood, and the Pursuit of Truth

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle

Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park

Hardly Working: A Travel Memoir of Sorts

Due North

The Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground

Around India in 80 Trains

A Walk in the Woods

A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines

Travels with Charley in Search of America

How to Be a Family: The Year I Dragged My Kids Around the World to Find a New Way to Be Together

At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe

Paddling with Spirits: A Solo Kayak Journey

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

Find your next read with:

100 Book recommendations
for every mood

20 travel memoirs to take you around the world (from the comfort of your couch)

Find your next read with:

100 Book recommendations for every mood

100 Book recommendations
for every mood