One of the most common book recommendation requests I get—be that in my inbox, on the podcast, or in the MMD Book Club—is escapist reads. Believe it or not, this was a familiar query long before a pandemic upended all our travel plans!
Longtime readers know that a good book, carefully chosen, can take you on a grand adventure—even while you never leave the comfy chair in your living room.
Today, I’m sharing a list of books that invite you to come along on a vicarious vacation, or inspire your future travels. This mix of nonfiction and fiction features a variety of enviable vacations, from family cruises to solo backpacking adventures to sun-drenched island getaways.
I also included a little bonus category packed with vacations-gone-wrong. These thrillers might not stir up daydreams about faraway locations, but they will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next, and the action unfolds in interesting and should-have-been idyllic locales.
This summer, I hope you find the restorative escape you need, whether by plane, on the road, or in the pages of a good book.
10 books to inspire wanderlust
World Travel: An Irreverent Guide
Sex and Vanity
Sag Harbor
The Enchanted April
The Vacationers
The Unhoneymooners
Loveboat, Taipei
Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman
A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller
People We Meet on Vacation
5 books about vacations gone horribly, terribly wrong
Descent
Do Not Become Alarmed
Liv and Nora are cousins, close as sisters. After a rough year and lots of family drama, they're in desperate need of a low-key family getaway. The cruise was going to be perfect. And it is, for a while. But then on a normal—almost boring—Central American shore excursion, a series of misunderstandings and misjudgments ends with terrifying confusion—where are the children? Soon enough, the adults realize six children have vanished—and from alternating points of view, we discover where they went, and why, and who's to blame. (There's lots to go around.) Readers take note: this is messy, and a little racy.
More info →Nine Perfect Strangers
The River at Night: A Novel
Death on the Nile
What books have YOU enjoyed as a vicarious escape? We’d love to hear your recommendations—please share them in the comments section!
P.S. Keep traveling with 20 novels that will transport you to the shore, 20 travel memoirs to take you around the world, or 20 more books for armchair travel and vicarious adventures. You can find more literary tourism posts here.
36 comments
What a fun list! (Descent is soooo good- but yes, a vacation gone horribly wrong…)
I totally agree. I liked it even better than his more recent book The Current!
I love Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island. It’s my all time favorite travel memoir. A close second, however, would be Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence.
Bill Bryson is a great addition to this list! I haven’t read Peter Mayle but I’ve heard great things.
You haven’t read Peter Mayle?????? Oh please do!!
Without Reservations is a fantastic book! I read it a long time ago but seeing it here made me want to read it again!
Yes, I completely agree! She also wrote a longer travel memoir called Educating Alice that is also very good.
Susan same! I loved Without Reservations as much as I hated Eat,Pray,Love (I know, NOT a popular take on that book!) Definitely moved Without to my TBR-again pile!
Thank you for THE BEST list I’ve seen. I’ve added six (!) of these titles to my Audible list. Summer reading list complete!
Woohoo!
Such a fabulous list! Adding some of these to my TBR list… I read Nine Perfect Strangers when it was released a couple of years ago, and didn’t enjoy it as much as other Liane Moriarty books, so it will be interesting to see how the series does.
Totally agree!! It’s my least favorite of hers!
A kindred spirit! Yes, it just fell flat for me.
Do not become alarmed was right at my threshold for scary books — but so good! Frances Mayes had a new one come out a few years ago that didn’t get much press but really made me want to return to Italy — women in sunlight. Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams is set really well in London, Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan is perfectly set in Capri, Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn in NYC
In the vacations gone horribly wrong category, I would add Departure by A. G. Riddle. Very suspenseful, lots of interesting twists and turns. The audio book is also very good.
I love this! I’m putting several on hold and looking forward to reading other recommendations in the comments. Thank you!
Oh Enchanted April is wonderful – both the book, and the sweet film they made from it. Could read it every year.
Three books in the grand adventure category for me and make me want to lace up hiking shoes and grab a walking stick:
Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
Also enjoyed House on the River by Nessa Rapaport (about a houseboat jaunt.)
I loved Grandma Gatewood’s Walk & Wild! I also like Heather Anderson’s books about her Pacific Crest hike and AT hike.
I am excited to read some of these!
My recommendation to add would be The Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell. That’s my ultimate escapist book.
For vacations gone horribly wrong, I’d add Leave the World Behind. It’s extremely dark (not “boo!” type of scary, but definitely creeping sense of horror), but I absolutely couldn’t put it down and it really made me think. I also liked The River for the same category, which was a reading recommendation that I got from your blog! I’d second the vote for Bill Bryson – I particularly love A Walk in the Woods.
That’s a wonderful addition to this list!
https://www.amazon.com/Ladys-Life-Rocky-Mountains-Colorado/dp/0359013848
This is a great one to read and compare to modern travel in the Rockies.
We are huge Rick Steves fans! We’ve been watching a lot of his Monday Night Travels Zoom meetings. Good food and lots of adventure! We also use his books as we travel…obviously not a novel, but he does tell some good stories!
I recently shared a list of my favorite books for family vacations on our children’s book blog! https://themiraculousjourneyofbooks.com/family-vacation/
My favorite on the list is Kate DiCamillo’s book Louisiana’s Way Home. It’s a beautiful story and definitely “takes you places.”
Just finished People We Meet On Vacation. Not my normal go-to genre, but I enjoyed it. Would have liked a lot less profanity, but overall a 4 star read for me.
I’m reading People We Meet on Vacation now. It’s fun visiting the different locations. Adding a couple more from this list to create a book flight for the summer. Thanks.
This series isn’t new, but I re-read this four book series by CA Belmond starting with the first book ‘A Rather Lovely Inheritance’ every other year. The audiobook books are wonderful, read by the stellar Katherine Kellgren, and the madcap adventures take place in exotic locals all over Europe. There aren’t many books that tick all the boxes for me like these do.
Great list, of course…but what I really want to know is your thoughts on Lightning Strike (pictured)! 😉
My husband and I both love Bill Bryson’s “In a Sunburned Country” (Australia), especially his description of listening to a cricket game on the radio as he was driving.
I have not read Peter Mayle’s “A Year in Provence,” but I did read his “Toujours Provence” and “French Lessons” many years ago and loved them both.
If you consider buying a second home in France a vacation (I do!) or doing an exchange year, besides A Year in Provence, you might be interested in these favorites of mine:
Almost French by Sarah Turnbull
French Impressions by John Littell
Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
At Home in France, by Ann Barry
I’ll Never Be French, Mark Greenside
My Grape Year, Laura Bradbury
And I’ll add, Juliet went to Guernsey in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society, and Anthony Doerr went to Rome in Four Seasons in Rome.
So many books added to my TBR list!
I love the travel memoirs “At Home in the World” by Tsh Oxenreider and “A Home is a Roof over a Pig” by Aminta Arrington
Fabulous recommendations (as always), Anne! I would add Less by Andrew Sean Greer to your list – all the warmth and laughs of a light comedy, with some wonderful satire and world travel built in.
That’s a great addition to this list!
Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin is a fantastic novel that would fall in the vacations gone wrong section. Thought-provoking, beautiful prose.
I loved Beach Read and definitely need to read People We Meet on Vacation ASAP!! The Unhoneymooners has also been on my list for a while and nine perfect strangers sounds so interesting. Loveboat also sounds like my kind of book 🙂
I recently read and enjoyed We Came, We Saw, We Left by Charles Wheelan, about his family’s gap year traveling around the world, mostly to developing countries.