Travel Writing & Commentary

The wonder of the night train: headlamps ablaze, passengers boarding after sunset and leaving before sunrise, slipping in and out of compartments unseen.

Brought to you by Penguin. When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he was about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history? Abroad in...

Paul Rosolie’s extraordinary adventure in the uncharted tributaries of the Western Amazon - a tale of discovery that vividly captures the awe, beauty, and isolation of this endangered land....

After backpacking her way around India, Sarah Macdonald decides she hates the country with a passion. When a beggar at the airport reads her palm and insists she will one day return - and for love - she screams 'Never!' and gives the country, and him, the finger.

Brought to you by Penguin. No sex. No kids. No future? When Tom Feiling moved to Tokyo as a student in the early nineties, Japan was a beacon of the future: a rising superpower, a technology giant, and a global symbol of prosperity, civility and success. When he returned twenty-four years later...

A life worth living is lived at the edges where it is wild. At the beginning of his memoir Life Lived Wild: Adventures at the Edge of the Map, Rick Ridgeway tells us that if you add up all his many expeditions, he’s spent over five years of his life sleeping in tents: “And most of that in...

Come aboard with Heyward and Charlotte as they transform a worn-out hull into a first-class blue water cruiser. Then take off and cross oceans with them, feeling their desperation when equipment failures force ingenious workarounds in the middle of the Pacific Ocean....

A 2026 Audie Awards Finalist! 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...

'An epic quest - in which the journey is at least as entertaining as the end result' - Stephen Moss, author of Ten Birds That Changed the World 'Humorous, touching and refreshingly unsentimental' - Colin Thubron, author of Shadow of the Silk Road 'Highly entertaining and gloriously obsessional'...

It's exhausting being Irish. The constant self-flagellation is enough to put anybody off their breakfast. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Is it the postcolonial overhang following centuries of oppression at the hands of a litany of foreign invaders? Or is it collective guilt for sending...

Herodotus, the fifth-century chronicler, scarcely figured in the curriculum when famed Polish writer and traveler Ryszard Kapuscinski attended university in the 1950s. Ryszard became a foreign correspondent who hoped to go abroad. His companion on his travels was a volume of Herodotus....

“Open-hearted and buoyant, the book weaves together her hands-on experiences in Europe and introduces us to a rich cast of people who make, sell and care about these traditions.” —Jenny Linford, author of The Missing Ingredient In this delightful tour of France, England, and Italy, YouTube...

Squeezed between Colombia in the north and Peru in the south, Ecuador is named for its location on the Equator and has a landscape so varied that it has been described as a microcosm of every microclimate found in South America. This diversity makes it a magnet for tourists, mountain trekkers...

Hardly anyone ever leaves Des Moines, Iowa. But Bill Bryson did....

A revitalised edition of this much-loved best seller. Truly hilarious books are rare. Even rarer are those based on real events. Join A.J. Mackinnon, your charming and eccentric guide, on an amazing voyage in a boat called Jack de Crow. A couple of quiet weeks sailing the River Severn was the...

The New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss and The Geography of Genius embarks on a rollicking intellectual journey, following in the footsteps of history’s greatest thinkers and showing us how each—from Epicurus to Gandhi, Thoreau to Beauvoir—offers practical and...

“Powerful. . . . A candid, highly informative, and heartfelt tale of forgiveness between former fierce enemies in the Vietnam War.” —St. Petersburg Times The #1 New York Times bestseller We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young brought to life one of the most pivotal and heartbreaking battles...

From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere, comes a deeply personal memoir full of fascinating adventures as he travels everywhere....

With the cyclone season fast approaching, Alone Australia contestant and solo adventurer Mike Atkinson sets sail on an extraordinary 1500-kilometre journey to the northern tip of Australia. His aim is to live entirely off the land and sea....

In this uproarious collection of travel essays, Chelsea Handler sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers her most absurd and hilarious stories ever. "If you’re one of the millions who enjoy Handler’s sarcastic, self-deprecating humor (and her tendency to be pantless), then...

Full Tilt is the inspiring true story of Dervla Murphy's 1963 journey from Ireland to India on an Armstrong Cadet bicycle, and the trials, landscapes, and cultures she encountered along the way....

"Safari" in Swahili means a journey, typically a long one. In Dark Star Safari, Theroux's itinerary is African, from Cairo to Cape Town—down the Nile, through Sudan and Ethiopia, to Kenya, Uganda and beyond to South Africa.

Joshua Slocum was believed to be the first man to sail single-handed around the world....

More than just a companion to the hugely popular Travel Channel show, No Reservations is Bourdain's journal of his far-flung travels.

Gail Muller was told she’d be in a wheelchair by the age of 40. At 41, she set out to hike one of the world’s toughest treks: the Appalachian Trail - a 2,200-mile journey that would help her reclaim her life and heal her mind and body....

旅の思い出は、奪われることのない宝。時は明治、鉄道開通に揺れる滋賀県草津の村長・南信太郎は駅の開業に尽くし、立売り弁当販売を始める。

Als Fiona Robertson ihren Mann an den Krebs verliert, begibt sie sich auf eine Reise durch Großbritannien zu den großen prähistorischen Menhiren des Landes. Die alten Steine werden für die langjährige Megalith-Enthusiastin in der schweren Zeit des Abschieds und des Verlusts wichtiger denn je. Aufgerichtet vor Tausenden von Jahren, sind die Megalithen Symbole für Beständigkeit und Überdauern. In Stone Lands lässt uns Robertson in die reiche Geschichte Großbritanniens eintauchen und teilt die Freude und den Trost, der von diesen Stätten ausgeht.

O caldeirão da Velha Chica e outras histórias brasileiras, de Alexandre Staut, traz uma pesquisa informal e apaixonada sobre alimentação popular brasileira, que dura mais de 15 anos. O autor se vale do jornalismo literário, de relatos de viagem, da história oral, da antropologia e até de ficção, para falar deste tema bastante saboroso. A obra foi dividida em cinco partes. Na primeira, o autor visita a culinária dos povos originários em passeios por aldeias indígenas do Mato Grosso e do litoral do Rio de Janeiro...

Elizabeth “Betsy” Aden, a twenty-something anthropology student, is clinging to academia as a safety net—until she’s offered a grant to spend the summer on a remote island in Melanesia, famously home to cannibals. Adventure calls, and Betsy doesn’t hesitate. Once she arrives, though, reality hits: no running water, no electricity, and no Western medicine. Inspired by her experiences, Betsy returns to school with a new perspective and changes her field from cultural anthropology to biomedical anthropology.

L'autrice, la scrittrice scozzese Nan Shepherd, lo ha esplorato per tutta la vita, percorrendolo in lungo e in largo in un eterno ritornare, scoprire, ricordare. Muoversi negli spazi di queste montagne significa per lei entrare in contatto con la vera essenza della natura e di se stessi. In quel moto che è al tempo stesso contemplazione, i sensi si acuiscono per percepire suoni, colori, profumi e consistenze e la mente li accompagna, dapprima rapita e poi forte di una nuova consapevolezza.

E. B. White's greatest stories, asides, essays, jokes, and tall tales about the city he arguably saw clearest, loved best, and skewered most mercilessly. Over more than fifty years at the New Yorker, E. B. White came to define a kind of ideal American prose: clear, casual, democratic, and urbane...

Pulitzer Prize–winning author of G-Man and acclaimed historian Beverly Gage takes the ultimate road trip into the American past. Ride along with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments...

In the heart of the Great Depression, a young life began within the walls of a Manhattan orphanage: a beginning defined by absence and longing. But Searching For Myself is more than a story of survival; it is a sweeping odyssey of discovery.

In this lyrical and unconventional memoir, a road trip to California's Central Coast becomes an epic journey through family history, loss, and connection. When three generations of women—a middle-aged narrator, her seventy-seven-year-old mother, and her twenty-two-year-old Gen Z daughter—set out for a quick trip to California's Central Coast, their road trip transforms into something far richer: a modern-day Odyssey.

Somewhere and Back Again: An Architecture Student’s Grand Tour of Europe and the Middle East takes listeners on a captivating journey through the eyes of John E. Tingley, an architecture student, as he ventures far beyond the classroom to explore the vibrant cultures, historical landmarks, and architectural wonders of Europe and the Middle East.