Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. Written in 1961, I believe.

Entertaining, wonderfully written and insightful. And a fascinating comparison with today.

Anything by Jim Perrin who is a mountaineer, rock-climber and travel writer. He often writes for national newspapers such as The Guardian His style is wonderful; he writes vividly of the characters he's met and places he's visited - all over the world. He went across Canada on a Harley Davidson, for instance. He's based in Wales and often writes about it, incorporating information on ancient legends and their locations in with his general descriptions. The book SPIRIT OF PLACE is illustrated with photographs; TRAVELS WITH THE FLEA is about setting off exploring mid Wales with his Jack Russell called The Flea.

Dido

"No Mercy" by Red O'Hanlon is on my TBR pile. Someone described O'Hanlon as an English Bill Bryson. This is about a trip he took in Africa.

I really liked "Into Thin Air". While this is about a treacherous mountain climbing experience, it is somewhat related to travel writing.

If you don't mind a curmudgeon writer, Paul Theroux is excellent. Read his early stuff tho - Riding the Red Rooster, and Kingdom by the Sea are probably his most accessible (I can't read him anymore, he attitude has turned me off)

For some time traveling, check out Patrick Leigh Fehmoor. Recently re released, his two volumes A Time of Gifts and Between Woods and Water are about his journey from Amsterdam to Istanbul in 1936 as a 17 year old. An amazing mixture of travel, history, literature, I highly recommend him.

A good way to be acquainted with some travel writing is to pick up the collection called The Best American Travel Writing. Its published each year. There is also Traveler's Tales. I find the collections about different countries much more interesting then the collections other titles.

Other authors: Eric Newby, Pico Iyer, Bruce Chatwin, Laurie Lee.

If you read March by Geraldine Brooks, you might want to take a look at Foreign Correspondens, which she wrote about visiting her elementary penpal after many years. Good stuff

Heide's Alp is tons of fun; mother and four daughters to to visit Europe fairyland.

Two possibilities: 1) Honeymoon with My Brother in which a guy gets dumped at the altar and ends up taking the planned honeymoon with his brother instead. This leads to a year or two of world travel and lots of interesting destinations.
2) Books by Tim Cahill -- the description below came from the link below.

"Over the past two decades, Tim Cahill has established a reputation as America's best known (and funniest) adventure travel writer. A founding editor of "Outside Magazine," he is the author of seven books, including Hold the Enlightenment, Pass the Butterworms, A Wolverine is Eating My Leg, Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, Pecked to Death By Ducks, and Road Fever. In April, his book about Yellowstone, Lost in My Own Backyard, will be published as part of the Crown Journeys series. He is an editor at large for Outside, and his work appears in National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times Book Review, and other national publications."

Here is a link that might be useful: Travel Writing Site

"Journey Without Maps" Graham Greene
I haven't read it, yet; but sounds interesting

His mind crowded with vivid images of Africa, Graham Greene set off in 1935 to discover Liberia, a remote and unfamiliar republic founded for released slaves. Now with a new introduction by Paul Theroux, "Journey Without Maps" is the spellbinding record of Greene's journey. Crossing the red-clay terrain from Sierra Leone to the coast of Grand Bassa with a chain of porters, he came to know one of the few areas of Africa untouched by colonization. Western civilization had not yet impinged on either the human psyche or the social structure, and neither poverty, disease, nor hunger seemed able to quell the native spirit. BACKCOVER: "One of the best travel books [of the twentieth] century."
-- Norman Sherry
""Journey Without Maps" and "The Lawless Roads" reveal Greene's ravening spiritual hunger, a desperate need to touch rock bottom within the self and in the humanly created world."
" -- The Times Higher Education Supplement"

I occasionally find myself in the mood for a good travelogue or book about a journey/exploration. Attached is a link to a Salon article that mentions some of the classics of this genre. I've enjoyed several of Peter Matthiessen's.

Here is a link that might be useful: The top 10 travel books of the century

I second Laurie Lee's "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" ( his journey through Spain before WW II).

Another fan of Paul Theroux, here -- unbeatable descriptions of travel by train.

Adam, you might enjoy some of Norman Lewis's books. Although his work takes in Central and Latin America to Burma to Indo China with places in-between he is far more than a mere traveller. In The Missionaries for eg he takes a stand against what he sees as the destructive influences of the church in the Pacific Islands and among the Indian people of S America.
His Naples '44 is considered in the UK to be one of the best books on WWII.

Here is a link that might be useful: Norman Lewis

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - Byron. The Classic, historical, European Grand Tour with the personal touch of the poet himself.

Another wonderful site, specializes in books for and about traveling. Its dangerous - I could easily spend too much money there is I browse too long!

Here is a link that might be useful: Longitude Books

Eric Newby was a great and funny travel writer, especially A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.

If you can find it, Frank Kusy's Kevin and I in India is a wonderfully funny book composed of entries from Kusy's travel journal, about his journey around India with Kevin, whom he met on the flight over.

Polly Evans showed some promise in It's not about the tapas (around Spain by bicycle). She writes in a tone similar to Bryson and has since had two more travel books published, one about China and another one about New Zealand.

Many liken Tim Moore to Bryson, but I find him very uneven. The book I like best by him is Frost on my moustache, about travelling in the footsteps of 19th century traveller Lord Dufferin (whose Letters From High Latitudes, about the same journey, has been called the prototype of the comic travelogue).

Letters from Iceland by W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice is quite funny in parts and an interesting look at travelling in Iceland in the 1930s.

Freya Stark travelled extensively in the Middle East when few Western women dared set foot there, and she visited some places few Europeans had ever seen. I have only read The Southern Gates of Arabia, which I liked enough to try to find the rest of her travel books.

Also try Dervla Murphy (e.g. Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle, On a Shoestring to Coorg: An Experience of South India, and Eight Feet in the Andes: Travels With a Mule in Unknown Peru), Peter Fleming (News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir), Robert Byron (The Road to Oxiana (Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan in the 1930s)), Tim Severin (Crusader or just about any of his other books tracing the world's ancient travel routes and/or famous journeys), Alexandra David-Neel (My Journey to Lhasa), Colin Thubron (e.g. Among the Russians, In Siberia, Behind the Wall (about China), and The Lost Heart of Asia (about the central Asian "-stans"), William Dalrymple (In Xanadu (the Silk Road)), Lawrence Millman (Last Places (following the Viking migration routes)), Evelyn Waugh (e.g. A Tourist In Africa) and Pico Iyer(Video Night in Kathmandu (travels in Asia)).

I will come back and add more if and when I remember them.

Blue Highways-William Least Heat Moon

netla you have similar taste in travel books - I've read most of those! A few on that list I haven't and plan on doing so now. By the way, anouther Evelyn Waugh travel book that I just found out about is When the going was good.

>Freya Stark travelled extensively in the Middle East when few Western women dared set foot there, and she visited some places few Europeans had ever seen. I have only read The Southern Gates of Arabia, which I liked enough to try to find the rest of her travel books.

I tend to be very picky about biographies (they either diss the subject or make her a saint) but one of the best I've read is the bio of Freya Stark - The Passionate Nomad. I have also read Southern Gates, as well as The Valley of the Assassins, about her travels through Persia.

Tony Horowitz Blue Latitudes takes him on Cooks journey of discovery in the South Pacific. Very well done, and brings Cook into a very different light than the one we get in our history books

Some others:
Unexpected Light by Jason Elliot (travels in Afghanistan),

anything by Stanley Stewart (English author)

I See By My Outfit Peter Beagle (interesting older version of Brysons Sunburnt Country),

Hunter Davies: A Walk along the Wall: A journey along Hadrians Wall;

Their heads are green and their hands are blue by Paul Bowles: about his life in North Africa (btw, Theroux has a wonderful chapter in one of his books when he got to meet that great writer) Journey Through Europe by John Hilaby (anything by him, tho they are dated)

A walk through Wales by Anthony Bailey

Things you get for free Michael McGirr Author is a former priest who takes his mother on a trip through Europe

A way to see the world by Thomas Swick (Travel editor for a Florida newspaper, very well written)

Miles from Nowhere Barbara Savage About her round the world bicycle trip with her husband. A few years later she died in a bicycling accident. Poignant to read, and fascinating.

Reeling in Russia by Fen Montaigne. He is a fisherman who travels the length of the new country. Don't let disinterest in fishing put you off. There is much here to enjoy, and consider, as he discusses the enviornmental impact that the old Soviet Union had on the lakes, rivers of the area and the wildlife that depends on them.

I have more if you need :)

Thanks everyone - for your passion and willingness to share your knowledge. There are many books in this genre that are worth taking the time to read, and I will archive this thread and save the links, as a way to select interesting travel writing in the future.

BTW I saw an interview programme the other day featuring Bill Bryson. He says he is working on a book about the life of Shakespeare. He is writing the book by interviewing experts or academics that specialise in Shakespeare, and the book isn't a long one either. He was commissioned to write it as part of a series on famous people. He is in Australia promoting his recent memoir. Anyone read "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" and liked it?

There's one book which I could mention here - it's One Man and his Bog by Barry Pilton. Despite not being what you might call an enthusiast for exercise in any way, for some reason he decided to walk the Pennine Way - and this is the very entertaining story. It's got a little introductory paragraph:-

If, after reading this book, anyone should feel inspired to walk the Pennine Way themselves, the author suggests that they should go back and read the book again more carefully.

Great fun.

I enjoyed the Thunderbolt Kid. Interesting to see what a huge amount of freedom the young Bryson was given with no set meal or bed or school times so unlike an English childhood in the '50's . . .and probably for most people in the US/Canada/Aus. Perhaps this is why he became such a free spirit.
I was glad to see he has got away from the habit of telling some 'tale' and then saying "Well no, I made that bit up" Quite unnecessary as he has plenty to say that is both true and humorous.

I enjoyed Thunderbolt Kid, too. Bryson is one of a handful of authors whose books I buy hardcover without reading any preliminary reviews, I love his work so much. I can't wait to read his take on Shakespeare!

A lot of my favorite travel books have already been listed above, but I'll suggest anything France-related by Peter Mayle, Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart, the Frances Mayes Italy books, Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks, and absolutely anything by her husband, Tony Horwitz.

A few responders mentioned An Unexpected Light by Jason Elliot. I read this after our book club read The Kite Runner. (I was the only one in the group that didn't like it. Truthfully, it was the book I liked least in ten years of book club.) Wanting to get another perspective on Afghanistan I picked up Elliot's book. It was wonderful: he's a prosaic writer and captured culture and landscape beautifully. It's worth the time.

I just finished No Mercy: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo by Redmond O'Hanlon (a good follow-up to The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver). I saw O'Hanlon's book mentioned and wanted to add a comment on it: If you are a feminist, take note. It is difficult to believe this was written in 1997. There are moments of blatant chauvinism and rip-roaring testosterone. If you can take it with a grain of salt, there is good stuff here. Just be aware.

sharon, I read the Elliot book soon after 9/11. It was the perfect read not only in understanding the history and culture of Afghanistan's past, but what happened after the Soviets came in. His stories he tells of the people he met opened my eyes

A couple of books about living in Paris are excellent for the traveler as well: Sarah Turnbull Almost French: love and a new life in Paris, and Thad Carthart The piano shop on the left bank.

I just finished EAT,PRAY,LOVE and really enjoyed it.
The author wrote it as a memoir of her search for balance and spiritual growth while traveling to Italy, India and Indonesia.
She has a great wit and some good insights......also some interesting experiences.

I'll add Alice Steinbach to the list of fun travel writers. She was a long time columnist here in Baltimore who, divorced and with the kids grown and out of the house, took a 6 month sabbatical to travel. She wrote Without Reservations and never came back. I liked the example of a single woman traveling alone. Plus, she is a graceful writer.

Once upon a time, I was searching for travel literature via blogs, and I found this list which I saved on my computer (just found where I saved it). Some of these authors/books have been mentioned above, but there might be a few new ones in here, too. I would also add (if you don't mind a bit of natural history) the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, Homboldt's Cosmos, which describes his journeys in Meso/South America.

The following are 100 great travel literature arranged alphabetically by authorÂs name:

#01 Desert Solitaire (1968) / Edward Abbey
#02 London (2000) / Peter Ackroyd
#03 A Visit to Don Otavio (1953) / Sybille Bedford
#04 Chasing the Sea (2003) / Tom Bissell
#05 Down Under (published as In a Sunburned Country in the U.S.) (2000) / Bill Bryson
#06 A Walk in the Woods (1997) / Bill Bryson
#07 The Lost Continent (1989) / Bill Bryson
#08 The Road to Oxiana (1937) / Robert Byron
#09 Road Fever (1991) / Tim Cahill
#10 The Muses are Heard (1956) / Truman Capote
#11 The Songlines (1987) / Bruce Chatwin
#12 In Patagonia (1977) / Bruce Chatwin
#13 The Age of Kali (1998) / William Dalrymple
#14 From the Holy Mountain (1997) / William Dalrymple
#15 City of Djinns (1993) / William Dalrymple
#16 In Xanadu (1990) / William Dalrymple
#17 Out of Africa (1937) / Isak Dinesen
#18 Stranger on a Train (2002) / Jenny Diski
#19 My Family and Other Animals (1956) / Gerald Durrell
#20 Bitter Lemons of Cyprus (1957) / Lawrence Durrell
#21 An Unexpected Light (1999) / Jason Elliot
#22 The Snow Geese (2002) / William Fiennes
#23 Europe, Europe (1989) / Hans Magnus Enzensberger
#24 All the Wrong Places (1988) / James Fenton
#25 Chasing the Monsoon (1991) / Alexander Frater
#26 In an Antique Land (1993) / Amitav Ghosh
#27 Paris to the Moon (2000) / Adam Gopnik
#28 Ghost Riders (2003) / Richard Grant
#29 The Size of the World (1997) / Jeff Greenwald
#30 Seven Years in Tibet (1953) / Heinrich Harrer
#31 A Moveable Feast (1964) / Ernest Hemingway
#32 Oracle Bones: A Journey Between ChinaÂs Past and Present (2006) / Peter Hessler
#33 River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (2001) / Peter Hessler
#34 Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft (1950) / Thor Heyerdahl
#35 Barcelona (1992) / Robert Hughes
#36 Video Night in Kathmandu (1988) / Pico Iyer
#37 Ghost Train Through the Andes: On My GrandfatherÂs Trail in Chile and Bolivia (2006) / Michael Jacobs
#38 Balkan Ghosts (1993) / Robert D. Kaplan
#39 The Shadow of the Sun (2001) / Ryszard KapuÂciñski
#40 Sea and Sardinia (1921) / D.H. Lawrence
#41 Blue Highways (1982) / William Least Heat-Moon
#42 Between the Woods and the Water (1986) / Patrick Leigh Fermor
#43 A Time of Gifts (1977) / Patrick Leigh Fermor
#44 Golden Earth (1952) / Norman Lewis
#45 Artic Dreams (1986) / Barry Lopez
#46 Red Dust (2001) / Ma Jian
#47 Fabled Shore: From the Pyrenees to Portugal by Road (1949) / Rose Macaulay
#48 The Hall of a Thousand Columns (2005) / Tim Mackintosh-Smith

>She wrote Without Reservations

I loved that. You'd probably enjoy Educating Alice, about more of her travels and some of the classes she took in different places, including a cooking class with the top chef in Paris.

Georgia, I've read several of those, but also realized how many I've not read or even heard about! Thanks for the list.

Great list, Georgia.

Thanks, Cindy, I remember reading about that cooking class book, but never actually read it. I was reminded of it while listening to the latest Frances Mayes,' A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller. Mayes and her husband track down a Portuguese restaurateur who gives cooking lessons. He waves them off his class; it is designed to teach local people how to do foreign dishes such as sushi. Instead he invites them to his kitchen where he cooks dinner for them, talking Portuguese cuisine the entire time.

I've met people who travel to do cooking classes - The Smithsonian Associates usually offer at least one such class every year.

I have just finished "America's Best Travel Writing" for 2006. Edited by Tim Cahill, it's a wonderful selection of various pieces of travel writing taken from different sources such as GQ, Outside magazine, The New Yorker etc. Interesting selection - even from authors like David Sedaris who is hilarious - that covers all sorts of travel and destinations. I read it coming back from England to US the other day when I was trapped on a plane for ten hours. Great armchair travelling!

Have you read any of the rest of the series? They really are quite good. The Cahill one is probably the best, tho the one that Bryson edited is good as well. Well worth reading, and indeed perfect for a trip!

Cindy -

Haven't read any of the other series, but now I have discovered them, I will be looking in second hand shops for older copies. I really enjoyed this one. I imagine that different editors lead to a slightly different slant on the topic?

Yes, which I why I find them enjoyable every year. The 2006 one was certainly much more sobering and powerful, than the selections by Bryson, which were more fun, but still very interesting. I do love that the list of editors looks like a who's who of travel writing. Their essays as introduction gives you a good idea of the direction he took when he made his choices, as well as just being very interesting notes on travel and travel writing.

FYI the rest of the series:

2000 - Bill Bryson
2001 - Paul Theroux
2002 - Frances Mayes
2003 - Ian Frazier
2004 - Pico Iyer
2005 - Jamaica Kincaid

I liked Shutterbabe by Deborah C. Kogan.

While I haven't read it, on the library shelf yesterday was "Best Women's Travel Writing 2007" edited by Lucy McCauley.