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Reading books based in other countries is a great way to learn more about a place. The best books about travel will also inspire you to see new places.
Books are a great way to explore the world from the comfort of your own home, or wherever you may be. The best books about travel are not necessarily a country or city guide, sometimes they take the form of a great piece of fiction or even a biography. The best way to get an insight into a country is by reading books written by authors of that country, so I've compiled a list of some of my favourite books set in other countries.
Recommended Reading: These 58 Wildlife Books Should Be On Your Reading ListIntroducing Bookshop
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BOOKS ABOUT AFRICA
Everyone warned Kobie Krüger that being the wife of a game warden at a remote ranger station in South Africa's largest national park would be an arduous move.
The heat was unbearable, malaria would be a constant danger, her husband would have to be away for long stretches, there were no schools or nearby doctors for their three daughters, and of course, the area teemed with wild animals.
Yet for Kobie and her family, the seventeen years at South Africa's Kruger National Park were the most magical of their lives.
Now, in The Wilderness Family, Kobie recounts the enchanting adventures and extraordinary encounters they experienced in this vast reserve where wildlife has right of way.
In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she began a vital poor people's environmental movement. It was focused on the empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa.
Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personal losses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathai continued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya's forests and to restore democracy to her beloved country. Infused with her unique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai's remarkable story of courage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspire generations to come.
Recommended Reading: 20 Nature Puzzles: Challenging and Beautiful Puzzles You will Love to DoBOOKS ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA
In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and "discovered" Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artefacts and credit for finding the great archaeological site, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer's perilous path in search of the truth-except he'd written about adventure far more than he'd actually lived it. In fact, he'd never even slept in a tent.
Turn Right at Machu Picchu is Adams' fascinating and funny account of his journey through some of the world's most majestic, historic, and remote landscapes guided only by a hard-as-nails Australian survivalist and one nagging question: Just what was Machu Picchu? This is one of the best books out there that will help you understand travel to Machu Picchu.
Recommended Reading: 12 Travel Board Games Every Traveler Needs to TryBOOKS ABOUT NORTH AMERICA
Recommended Reading: 64 of The Best Adventure Books Ever WrittenBOOKS ABOUT ASIA
With reminiscences of the early days of female climbers on Everest, the deaths of fellow mountaineers, Tabei's pursuit of Mount Tomur, a cancer diagnosis, and efforts to restore a love for nature in the surviving youth of the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, this beautifully curated collection of essays captures the essence of a notable time and the strength of character of one of the 20th and 21st centuries' female mountaineering pioneers.
BOOKS ABOUT AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
Recommended Reading: 38 Hiking Quotes to Give You The Inspiration You NeedBOOKS ABOUT EUROPE
Twenty years ago, Frances Mayes-widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer-introduced readers to a wondrous new world when she bought and restored an abandoned villa called Bramasole in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. Under the Tuscan Sun inspired generations to embark on their own journeys-whether that be flying to a foreign country in search of themselves, savoring one of the book's dozens of delicious seasonal recipes, or simply being transported by Mayes's signature evocative, sensory language
In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January's frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine. A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days.
"Exterminate All the Brutes" is a searching examination of Europe's dark history in Africa and the origins of genocide. Using Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as his point of departure, Sven Lindqvist takes us on a haunting tour through the colonial past, interwoven with a modern-day travelogue.
Retracing the steps of European explorers, missionaries, politicians, and historians in Africa from the late eighteenth century onward, the author exposes the roots of genocide in Africa via his own journey through the Saharan desert. As Lindqvist shows, fantasies not merely of white superiority but of actual extermination-"cleansing" the earth of the so-called lesser races-deeply informed European colonialism and racist ideology that ultimately culminated in Europe's own Holocaust.
BOOKS ABOUT WORLD TRAVEL
The Atlas of Remote Islands, Judith Schalansky's beautiful and deeply personal account of the islands that have held a place in her heart throughout her lifelong love of cartography, has captured the imaginations of readers everywhere. Using historic events and scientific reports as a springboard, she creates a story around each island: fantastical, inscrutable stories, mixtures of fact, and imagination that produce worlds for the reader to explore.
Gorgeously illustrated and with new, vibrant colors for the Pocket edition, the atlas shows all fifty islands on the same scale, in order of the oceans, they are found. Schalansky lures us to fifty remote destinations-from Tristan da Cunha to Clipperton Atoll, from Christmas Island to Easter Island-and proves that the most adventurous journeys still take place in the mind, with one finger pointing at a map.
It was hitting rock bottom that convinced Lauren to quit her job, sell everything she owned, and travel the world alone. It wasn't an easy decision: she suffered from debilitating anxiety, was battling an eating disorder, and had just had her heart broken. Not only that, but she had so little life experience that she had never eaten rice or been on a bus.
She'd hoped leaving everything behind would help her find and heal herself, but instead Lauren's travels were full of bad luck and near-death experiences. She was scammed and assaulted; lost teeth and swallowed a cockroach. She fell into leech-infested rice paddies, was caught up in a tsunami, had the brakes of her motorbike fail, and experienced a very unhappy ending in Thailand. It was just as she was about to give up on travel when she stumbled across a handsome New Zealander with a love of challenges.
In Marshall Island Legends and Stories, Daniel A. Kelin II preserves the qualities of oral storytelling in 50 stories recorded from 18 storytellers on 8 islands and atolls. This lively collection includes something for everyone: origin stories tales of mejenkwaad and other demons, tricksters, disobedient children, wronged husbands, foolish suitors, and reunited families - all relaying the importance of traditional Marshallese values and customs.
Mike doesn't get why people think he's boring. Sure, he doesn't have many friends. (OK, zero friends.) And everyone laughs at him when he reads his essays out loud in class. And he's never invited to parties.
But one day Tschick, the odd new boy at school, shows up at Mike's house out of the blue. He dares him to go on a road trip with him. No parents, no map, no destination. Will they get hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere? Probably. Will they meet crazy people and get into serious trouble? Definitely. But will they ever be called boring again?
