Every human has an instinct to explore — a desire to go somewhere different and see the world in a new light. Our planet is big and varied and overwhelming at times, but it is also an endless well of opportunity. Some of us dream of scouring the globe for the perfect meal. Others seek a connection to nature and its wonders. Many yearn for new experiences, to meet new people, and to immerse themselves in a new culture. All of us, I’d like to believe, search for a more meaningful sense of both the world and ourselves.
But life often gets in the way. It stalls us, daunts us, and convinces us of more pressing responsibilities until dreams of travel feel more and more unachievable. Sometimes all we need is a push — a reminder that the world is out there waiting for us. These seven travel memoirs will surely excite your wanderlust and inspire you to make your travel aspirations a reality.
How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones
Award-winning poet Saeed Jones writes a stunning meditation on the crossroads of race, gender, sexuality, and power through his experiences growing up in and traveling America. This coming-of-age memoir chronicles the life of a young gay Black man from the South seeking and etching out a sense of belonging within the confines of his family, country, and mind.
Jones recounts his childhood, adolescence, complicated and influential family relationships, and the strangers, friends, and lovers who have shaped him on his expedition across the American landscape. These descriptions, beautifully brought to life through a mix of poetry and prose, come together to form raw and introspective examinations of power and vulnerability, race and queerness, love and loss, and the way we discover who we truly are. Jones’ masterful memoir is a testament to human reliance, resilience, and resolve and a stunning portrayal of how travel can lead us back to ourselves.
Travels With Charley: In Search Of America by John Steinbeck
On a quest to find the soul of real America, one of the country’s most celebrated literary minds recounts his experiences driving across the US with his French poodle Charley by his side. In this 1962 memoir, Steinbeck writes of the places and people he met on his road trip from Northern Maine to California’s Monterey Peninsula. Already well into his successful career, at 58 Steinbeck set out to reconnect with the land he’d made his living off of by driving the interstate and serene country roads, dining with truckers at rest stops, seeing old friends, and encountering wildlife in some of the most stunning nature America has to offer. Steeped in reflections about the American character, racial injustice and hostility littering the country, and a certain type of loneliness Steinbeck views as intrinsic to the US, Travels with Charley shows readers the power of connecting with the world and its strangers.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The cultural phenomenon Eat, Pray, Love focuses on one woman’s journey to self-discovery and fulfillment. After a failed marriage, love affair, and loss of connection with herself, Elizabeth Gilbert chose to seek out three crucial things that had been missing from her life: pleasure, devotion, and balance. On a year-long adventure split across three locations, Gilbert rediscovers herself.
In Rome, she learns Italian, indulges in any food she chooses, and gains 25 pounds. Feeling full and nourished for the first time in a long time, Elizabeth heads to an ashram in India in search of enlightenment. After her spiritual journey, she completes her year in Bali where she visits a medicine man who teaches her a new way to find peace: sitting still, in silence, and smiling. In Bali, she finds freedom, bliss, and a new all-encompassing love. This woman’s daring decision to reforge her life through the wisdom and people she meets along her travels is enough to excite anyone’s urge to leave their world behind.
Due North by Lola Akinmade Åkerström
Award-winning travel writer and photographer Lola Akinmade Åkerström shares a collection of her travel experiences, reflections, and photographs showing the vibrancy of the various people, cultures, countries, and landscapes she encountered along the way. In Due North, self-published in 2017, Åkerström sought an answer to why we as people seek out travel but also why she was traveling. What was she looking and hoping for? Åkerström has a gift for writing with humility, a deep reverence for other cultures, and a rare ability to not make herself the center of attention in a book from her point of view. From the talented National Geographic journalist comes this unmissable documentation of her experiences submerging into other cultures and environments around the globe.
A Cook’s Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain
World-famous chef, explorer, and TV personality Anthony Bourdain documents his trot around the globe seeking out the perfect meal. Searching for the culinary holy grail, Bourdain takes us from California to Cambodia and redefines what “perfect” means when discussing food. America’s bravest, most brazen chef chronicles his journeys and in the process creates some unmissable inspiration for foodies around the world. Anthony Bourdain’s voice is striking, unapologetic, and blunt, capturing the cultures, people, and dishes he describes with tact and mischief. Skip the Michelin-star restaurant, and let Bourdain teach you what an amazing meal really means.
Wild: From Lost To Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Cheryl Strayed documents her 1,100-mile journey along the Pacific Crest Trail in the aftermath of her mother’s death, the dismantling of her family and marriage, and her struggles with her identity. At only 26 and with no experience or training, Strayed set out on her journey alone with nothing to lose. From the Pacific to the Mojave Desert, from California to Oregon, Strayed takes her readers along on her grueling trek with all its maddening and difficult turns. A memoir of self-discovery and the power personal triumphs have to heal the self, Wild is a warm, funny, and inspiring depiction of a woman with nothing gaining everything.
Cypria: A Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean by Alex Christofi
Blending the geographical, cultural, and political history of Cyprus with stunning reflections on time, place, and belonging, Christofi writes a poetic and potent history of Cyprus and the Mediterranean. Christofi reframes Cyprus as the ultimate intersection between Christian and Arab cultures, the nexus of a plethora of empires including the British, Ottoman, Byzantine, Roman, and Egyptian, and a location historically rife with struggle between fascist and communist ideologies.
Cyprus is not only a historical epicenter, but a literary one. Christofi’s memoir is named after the lost prequel to Homer’s The Odyssey. Beginning with the storytelling that burns bright in the heart of Mediterranean culture and the legends of the Cyclops, Cypria is an all-encompassing analysis. Christofi documents his travels between salt lakes, mosques, and unsettling towns damaged and deserted at the start of the 1974 war. His journeys, deep knowledge, and respect for the land he depicts make Cypria a fantastic travel memoir.
The world is waiting for us! The tools, experiences, and connections we seek for fulfillment are right at our fingertips, just a tap away. Travel need not be an expensive flight, a tropical location, an all-inclusive resort, or an impossibility. Take a note from Jones’ or Steinbeck’s or Strayed’s book and reconnect with the people and the land all around you by hopping in your car and observing the scenery or walking the beautiful nature reserves of the United States. Follow Bourdain’s cue and go in search of the pleasure of food in places most people wouldn’t think to look, or scratch your historical itch by basing a trip off something that sets your mind aglow like Christofi. Reconnect with yourself and create a journey that seeks out the parts of you that have been hiding away like Gilbert.
Travel is one of the best joys life has to offer. Until your plans to explore come to fruition, walk in the shoes of these great authors documenting the way travel changed them.
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