travel book f

The 69 Greatest Fiction Travel Books of All Time

By Boris Kachka

First things first, you may be thinking: What is a fiction travel book, anyway? Well, here's what we think: It's a book in which a place is as important a character as the protagonist; it's a book so informed by the writer's culture that it's impossible to read it without uncovering the life of the author behind it; it's a book that has shaped the way we see a certain place; it's a book whose events and characters could be set nowhere else. So for everyone who, like Michael Ondaatje, got his first glimpse of Japan through Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country; or, like Nathan Englander, found India in Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance; or discovered the world through Homer's Odyssey—this is the list to have. Read on.

Absurdistan

Gary Shteyngart (2006)

"It's probably the best contemporary travel novel," says Darin Strauss. "Certainly the most fun." The Russian immigrant's second book tops his first novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook, in screwball inventiveness, with a gluttonous character in the slothful tradition of Oblomov who (sometimes literally) flies over the Bronx and hails from an autonomous ex-Soviet republic that could exist only in Shteyngart's mind. "The sweep," Strauss says, "is matched only by the humor and exuberance of the prose" (Random House, $14).

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain (1885)

Huck and Jim's "downstream education," as Jonathan Raban puts it, is important for numerous reasons, but alongside its lessons in the American vernacular and the history of race, there is the canonization of the Mississippi. "The idea of the river as America's first great interstate arterial highway, at once a place of magical solitude in nature and of fraught encounters with society, survives even now," says Raban (Bantam, $6).

The Alexandria Quartet

Lawrence Durrell (1957-1960)

These four novels come as a set, with different perspectives on essentially the same forlorn story. They "play with time and point of view like a Charlie Kaufman script," says Darin Strauss, but "are worth reading not for their gimmickry—supposedly based on the theories of Einstein and Freud—but for their lush descriptions of Egypt. Durell was more famous as a poet than a novelist, and his pointillist evocations of Alexandria are breathtaking" (Penguin; set, $45).

Jim Crace (1992)

Inspired by London, the unnamed city of the master novelist's morality tale about a self-made millionaire and his utopian dreams almost upstages the Dickensian struggles at its heart. "There is so much life and strife and detail," says Amy Bloom. "An entire world has been conjured up, street by street, an imagined city with every cobblestone and desire and character made real" (out-of-print).

The Baron in the Trees

Italo Calvino (1977)

Imagine John Cheever's swimmer traveling via tree instead of suburban pool—for his entire life—and you have Calvino's fairy tale of an eighteenth-century Italian boy who climbs a tree one day and never comes down. Michael Ondaatje calls this world "a thrilling, unforgettable universe, beautifully evoked, completely real and believable—a landscape where there are great adventures and love affairs and politics and wars" (Harvest, $14).

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler (1939)

This caper redefined the city that W. H. Auden called "the great wrong place" and which Phillip Lopate dubs "the city that didn't want to be a city." Lopate loves that, contrary to its bright reputation, Chandler's Los Angeles is "portrayed as a very occult, secretive place." "Don't expect sunshine and palm trees," seconds David Ebershoff. "His L.A. is a shadowland—damp with fog, dark with night, and peopled with killers and cons" (Vintage, $14).

Prosper Mérimée (1841)

In the lamentably obscure French writer's most accomplished novel, a jaded colonel and his daughter journey to Corsica in search of untouched paradise, only to become immersed in international intrigue, culture clash, and a still-thriving ancient tradition of the vendetta. Fernanda Eberstadt calls it "a shrewd, dispassionate portrait of nineteenth-century Corsica" (Kessinger, $21).

Come to Africa and Save Your Marriage

Maria Thomas (1987)

This story collection is one of only three books by Thomas, who died in a 1989 plane crash en route to an Ethiopian refugee camp. Thomas wrote, "A language you don't understand reminds you how vulnerable you are," and it's through her writing and our own journeys, says Julia Alvarez, that "we discover that it is precisely this vulnerability which connects us with one another—a good enough reason to travel if nothing else" (Soho, $12).

Cousin Bette

Honoré de Balzac (1846)

Phillip Lopate says that his favorite Balzac novel, and what it has to say about life, are summarized in a single sentence from the book: "In the heart of Paris the close alliance between squalor and splendor…characterizes the queen of capitals." There's also Balzac's use of the courtesan, "the figure who threads her way through Paris and unites wealth and poverty by beauty." For this "cartographer of cities and societies," as Lopate calls him, the geography is just as important as the social intrigue (Oxford, $12).

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)

This map of the soul of modern man is also not too shabby at nailing St. Petersburg's crooked canals and alleyways. It inspires daily tours in the city, which has changed tremendously since the fall of communism—though not as much as you'd think. Francine Prose says that, beyond Nevsky Prospect and its Versace stores, "it's still the same. You feel Crime and Punishment all over the place" (Vintage, $16).

Matt Ortile

Scott Laird

Siobhan Reid

Meaghan Kenny

The Day of Judgment

Salvatorre Satta (1979)

Satta's posthumously published novel gets deep inside Sardinia at a time (a century ago) when it was a backwater, and his depiction of its "demoniacal sadness" is hardly the stuff of tourist brochures. Such inertia means a listless plot, but for Colin Thubron, the author's observations of "timeless, eccentric lives" make it worthy on its own terms (FSG, $14).

The Day of the Locust

Nathanael West (1939)

Drawing on West's stint as a screenwriter in Depression-era Hollywood, this iconic farce was fated to be repeated as noir in the Chandler era. "His L.A. is a hysteric pleasure dome that teems with grotesqueries and perversity," says Nathaniel Rich. "Ever since I read it, I can't go to L.A. without thinking of cockfighting" (Signet, $7).

Dead Lagoon

Michael Dibdin (1995)

This is the fifth in Dibdin's Aurelio Zen mystery series but the first in which the investigator from Rome revisits his native town. "Venice is a marvel," says Jonathan Raban. "A familiar place rendered strange and foreboding by the author's intimate familiarity with its streets—no gondolas for the pedestrian Zen. I greatly admire Thomas Mann, but it's the Venice of Dead Lagoon that I walk in my Italian dreams" (Vintage, $14).

Death in Venice

Thomas Mann (1912)

Tied for second place on our list of most-nominated books, this dark classic of pederast obsession resonates brilliantly with its setting. "Gray Venice in the high season, with its humid air and empty corridors, amplifies the story's meaning by a thousand," says David Ebershoff. "This small book is both a warning and a love letter to Venice and all who long to travel there. Heartbreak, decay, lethal regret? Sign me up." Also nominated by: Francine Prose, Jennifer Belle (HarperPerennial, $13).

Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes (1605)

How many travelers, seduced by fictional narratives, have flown to exotic destinations only to discover how comically pedestrian and daunting life can be no matter where they go? Quixote, besotted as he was with tales of chivalry, was the first to do that—even if it took a bit longer, in his case, for disillusion to set in. Nominated by: Matthew Sharpe (Penguin, $12).

The Epic of Gilgamesh

(circa 2500 B.C.)

There are many translations of the world's oldest epic poem (sorry, Homer), but Julia Alvarez recommends Herbert Mason's version of the story, in which the titular great king, inconsolable over a friend's death, goes off in search of "immortality and a way to keep loss at bay." Alvarez likes the tip he gets from a barmaid, "good advice for any traveler: 'Fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice' " (Mariner, $9).

Far Tortuga

Peter Matthiessen (1975)

Perhaps better known as a phenomenal travel memoirist, Matthiessen also wrote fiction as adventurous as its hardscrabble characters. In this elegy for a dying ecology and a dying livelihood, a boatful of turtle fishermen roam across the overfished Bahamas, riffing one another in pidgin dialects between encounters with near disaster and modern pirates. Nominated by: Michael Ondaatje (Vintage, $17).

A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry (1995)

Mistry manages his own fine balance between detail and scope in this Mumbai-set novel. "Few have taken us beneath India's intense surfaces and into its forgotten streets with the quiet, patient care of its native son," says Pico Iyer. "Going on a train ride with Mistry is amazing," adds Nathan Englander. "You can feel the people packed in and the lunch tins and the swarming city. It could be among my top five books of the last 25 years" (Vintage, $16).

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway (1940)

This taciturn tale of stoic warriors ground down by the Spanish Civil War reminds us, says Peter Hessler, that "Hemingway was a remarkable landscape writer. Sometimes this can be forgotten because we tend to focus on other—and more easily parodied—subjects and interests" (Scribner, $15).

Good Morning, Midnight

Jean Rhys (1939)

Decades before the Caribbean-born British writer became acclaimed for Wide Sargasso Sea, she evoked Paris through a glass very darkly in this first-person tale of a woman's melancholy return to the city. "This book transports me to Paris like no other book can," says Jennifer Belle. "In fact, I feel more like I'm in Paris when reading this book than when I'm actually in Paris" (Norton, $14).

A Hazard of New Fortunes

William Dean Howells (1890)

The critic Alfred Kazin credited Howells, onetime editor of Boston's Atlantic Monthly, with tilting the axis of literature south, to New York, when he moved there in the 1880s. His fictionalized account of the move was "about a city at a moment when it's bursting with promise," says Phillip Lopate, who wrote the introduction to this edition. Protagonist Basil March's encounters with teeming immigrant New York shift his politics, just as it turned Howells into a champion of the masses (Modern Library, $15).

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad (1902)

Not enough can be said of the influence of this imagined trip to the Congo. "Conrad established a genre in this novel," says Alexander McCall Smith, "and since then many writers have contributed to the canon of spiritually bleak, uncomfortable journeys into dark places. Unfortunately, it has established a mold for many a subsequent despairing literary vision of Africa" (Norton, $12).

A High Wind in Jamaica

Richard Hughes (1929)

Hughes's tale of warped children set upon by pirates reads like Lord of the Flies, but with irony. Nathaniel Rich relishes its depictions of Jamaica as "a country in the last throes of a losing battle with nature," while Jesse Ball loves what happens after the kids leave the island and hit the waters: "This book of books invests everything it touches with an indefinite but shimmering brilliance. Do you want to be hauled off by force along with your brothers and sisters? I do!" (NYRB, $14).

Julio Cortázar (1963)

The Argentine-Parisian novelist's very strangely structured novel—complete with contradictory instructions on how to read it—boils down to an evocative story of a man's obsession with a disappeared lover. Horacio Castellanos Moya reports that several generations of Latin American readers have gone to Paris primarily "to repeat the enchanting journey of Cortázar's fictional characters through the city. Warning: That journey ends in the cemetery of Montparnasse, where the author is buried" (Pantheon, $17).

A House for Mr. Biswas

V. S. Naipaul (1961)

Naipaul's breakthrough book, and arguably his best, is a travel novel writ large in that it tracks a whole culture in diaspora. Naipaul's Trinidad "kept reminding me of the India I grew up in," says Manil Suri. "And yet, it was different in so many ways—a tantalizing new universe waiting to be explored, to see how Indian culture had taken root and evolved on this faraway shore" (Vintage, $16).

The Inheritance of Loss

Kiran Desai (2006)

Desai's Booker Prize-winning novel of two generations straddling continents struck Phillip Lopate for its scenes of New York kitchens, "the new melting pot" of the city where struggling immigrants rub soiled shoulders. "It's really about two places," he says—New York City and an Indian backwater. "And so she keeps going back and forth between these two, and she's really writing about globalization" (Grove, $14).

Journey to the End of the Night

Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1934)

Wherever anti-hero Ferdinand Bardamu goes—World War I battlefields, French West Africa, the United States—Céline's unforgettably dark, caustic voice is there. Matthew Sharpe prefers the novel's less realistic moments: "There is, in Manhattan, a subterranean club where people go to defecate out in the open while conversing, smoking cigars, etc. Were some generous soul in real life to make the initial capital outlay for such a club, I would gladly be a founding member" (New Directions, $16).

D. H. Lawrence (1923)

Lawrence wrote this novel about a British émigré's encounter Down Under with a secret Fascist army after visiting for only a few weeks. "Lawrence is famously, furiously unfair at every turn—impatient, subjective, all over the place," says Pico Iyer. "Yet no writer had a keener nose or feel for place. Even now, when I return to Australia, the best guidebook I can find is this excessive and inflamed novel" (Cambridge, $60).

Banana Yoshimoto (1988)

Yoshimoto's interwoven family narratives make a new generation of Japanese life accessible to the rest of us. "If someone asks me if I've ever been to Japan, I have to think for a moment," says Jennifer Belle. "Thanks to Yoshimoto, I could swear I've been there. I could almost feel the tonkatsu between my chopsticks, see it sloshing into the dark brown sauce, taste it between my lips" (Black Cat, $13).

Lady Chatterley's Lover

D. H. Lawrence (1929)

Fernanda Eberstadt couldn't resist including Lawrence's novel, which, you must admit, goes places few others dare. She calls the author "the Van Gogh of travel writers, virulently moralistic, every nerve ending hallucinogenically receptive to light, landscape, vegetation, and the human characteristics forged by climate. It's not just a novel about anal sex: It's a great love poem to that most unloved of regions, the British Midlands" (Penguin, $14).

Life and Fate

Vasily Grossman (1959)

The dissident Soviet novelist's take on the Battle of Stalingrad—a book considered so dangerous that authorities destroyed the typewriter ribbons along with the manuscript—is "a very complex and ambitious novel," says Horacio Castellanos Moya, "but I think that the Volga River region itself is the main character." Reading it inspired him to find the Volga on Google Earth, "the first time I did that because of a novel" (NYRB, $23).

Little Infamies

Panos Karnezis (2002)

Karnezis, who moved from Greece to England 16 years ago, manages in these stories to skewer his homeland's inhabitants with a light touch. "He depicts the intricately and hilariously knitted world of a small Greek village so well," says Marisa Silver, "that it makes me want to find such a village and spend time there, meeting the priest and the doctor, the town whore and the barber" (Picador, $14).

The Little Sister

Raymond Chandler (1949)

California was an endless fount of "metaphors and parables" for Chandler, says Pico Iyer, but he likes this underrated caper because it's here that "his chivalric impulse leads him to Hollywood, and the ultimate palace of illusions and similes, which was for him an emblem of a grasping and seductive new world" (Vintage, $13).

Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

Once you get over the shock and the word games and the descriptive genius of this masterwork, you're ready for its cross-country trip into a land as dazzlingly innocent to Humbert as his young charge. "We often forget that the second half of this book is a road-trip novel," says Darin Strauss, "with the old foreign perv and the young nymphet discovering America" (Vintage, $14).

Marguerite Duras (1984)

What is it with travel and age-inappropriate relationships? Duras's novel about a French girl's seduction of a gentleman in '30s Saigon was Marisa Silver's ultimate travel fantasy: "The sensual, palpable languor of a city filled with secrets makes me want to hunt for modern Vietnam's hidden seductions" (Pantheon, $10).

Jamaica Kincaid (1990)

This spare novel about an au pair from the West Indies in an unnamed city that's unmistakably New York made Jennifer Belle see her town "as if for the first time. Through fresh eyes we see an elevator, a bridge, the winter sun." And in Lucy's memories, Barbados shimmers too. "By showing us the artificial smell of lemon-scented shampoo in America, we experience the freshness of a real lemon in her native land" (FSG, $13).

The Makioka Sisters

Junichiro Tanizaki (1948)

"It has a last line so bad that it's amazing," Nathan Englander warns about Tanizaki's chronicle of a declining noble Osaka family on the brink of both personal and national disaster. "But in terms of Osaka, it's just gorgeous. A beautiful wooden city that you know is going to be bombed [during World War II]. . . . It's this idea of reading a book set right before the end of the world" (Vintage, $16).

The Man Without Qualities

Robert Musil (1930-1942)

Some trips are longer than others, but Musil's never-finished 1,700-plus-page masterwork is worth the slog for its deep (yet funny) study of a shallow world. "To Musil, nothing was as absurd as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Vienna was the whipped cream heart of its absurdity," says Fernanda Eberstadt. "A zany tour of turn-of-the-century Vienna's bluestocking suburbs, its imperial hunting lodges, its working-class beer halls" (Vintage, Vol. 1: $22; Vol. 2: $26).

James Galvin (1992)

Heavily based in fact, Galvin's description of what four men did to tame an inaccessible piece of wilderness on the Wyoming-Colorado border is "an extended ode to an American West that is by now largely gone," says Jonathan Burnham Schwartz. The land is the main subject, and "Galvin knows it with an intimacy so deep it can only be imagined; he knows it like family, all its buried pains and stories" (Owl, $14).

Midnight's Children

Salman Rushdie (1980)

So many things are extraordinary about Rushdie's masterpiece of magical realism, in which fantasy and metaphor speak for a giant nation's post-colonial history, but Junot Díaz takes from it the lesson that the highest flights of imagination start with making places real. "Who can match Rushdie's fictional evocation of Bombay?" he asks. "In his lying is found much truth" (Random House, $15).

Martin Amis (1985)

Of all the writers to capture what was so very fast, exciting, and wrong about the eighties, Londoner Amis had one odd advantage: He was a self-styled outsider, like his ad-man narrator, John Self. Darin Strauss believes Self "understands New York in the eighties—and gets even those timeless qualities about the city's energy and indifference—in a way that only someone who's looking at it with a foreigner's peeled-eyeball curiosity could" (Penguin, $15).

André Breton (1928)

Breton's work of high surrealism, about a Parisian psychiatric patient with a serious identity crisis, has inspired many writers, including Jesse Ball. "Of books that circle Paris, that define it, that lay it on a thin spoon beside a dram of poison, there are a few," he says. "This book invests it with a great feeling of life, of chance—the whispering of curtains, footsteps, lights in the street, the calling out of voices in the night—in reply to what?" (Grove, $13).

Don DeLillo (1982)

DeLillo's first truly paranoid novel is also his first serious venture abroad—to Greece and the Middle East, where "businesspeople in transit" collude with intelligence services to make sure things go their way. Geoff Dyer calls it "a great and prophetic novel" but also "a fantastic travel essay, dense with amazed delight at the incidents and textures of this ancient and rapidly modernizing world" (Vintage, $15).

Joseph Conrad (1904)

Peter Hessler praises this book for giving "a remarkable sense of the Sulaco landscape"—its rocky peninsula and silent gulf ringed by mountains. It's an entirely made-up place, in a fictional South American country on the verge of revolution. But Hessler considers it "probably the most famous instance of how travel can inspire the creation of a place that feels more authentic than anything we see as tourists" (Penguin, $14).

The Odessa Tales

Isaac Babel (1920s)

The great Russian Jewish writer wrote fantastic war stories before he was killed by Stalin, but these tales of Jewish gangsters in Babel's birthplace make Nathan Englander feel almost certain he's been there. "I can see the overturned market or the guy in his wheelchair," he says. "The highest compliment a writer can get is when you recognize something in your memory but don't remember whether you've ever been to that place" (in Collected Stories; Penguin, $17).

The Odyssey

Homer (circa 750 B.C.)

Unsurprisingly, the book that made travel synonymous with literature when both were in their prehistory earns the most nominations from our writers. For Matthew Sharpe, it brings to mind a cascade of cultural successors: "Hansel and Gretel," E.T., and his favorite number by Steely Dan, which he quotes ("Still I remain tied to the mast . . ."). David Ebershoff simply calls it "the greatest work of travel literature. Period. Without this book, would we have any of the books on this list?" Also nominated by: Jonathan Raban, Marisa Silver (Penguin, $15).

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez (1967)

Macondo, the fictional setting of García Márquez's magical-realist magnum opus spanning Colombian history, has become such a vivid location in the minds of millions of readers—"everybody's fictional place," as Francine Prose puts it—that García Márquez's hometown actually tried to add Macondo to its name two years ago. Colum McCann says, "The imagination feels awakened with every word" (Harper Perennial, $15).

On the Road

Jack Kerouac (1957)

Alexander McCall Smith calls Kerouac's stream-of-consciousness road novel "a book to read when one is about eighteen," but here's a good reason for another look: last year's release of the even more unbridled "scroll" version, drawn from the 120-foot roll of paper on which Kerouac originally wrote it out. "The physical manuscript came to stand for the journey itself—long and rolling," says Smith. "This novel goes to the very heart of American restlessness" (Penguin, $15).

The Passion

Jeanette Winterson (1987)

Napoleon's cook, not at all thrilled with his posting in bleak wintertime Russia, falls in love with a mysterious Venetian web-footed female gondolier in the British writer's surreal and dazzling second novel. Myla Goldberg says it "made me want to go to Venice more than anything, and once I got there, Winterson's fantastical version added invaluable, invisible dimensions to the experience" (Grove, $13).

John Steinbeck (1947)

Steinbeck's otherwise timeless and placeless fable, in which an impoverished Mexican pearl diver unwittingly brings ruin on his family after pulling up the largest pearl known to man, is grounded in its beautiful landscape. "Yellow, brown, orange, white—these are the colors of Baja California," says David Ebershoff. "Their purity, their earthiness, are reflected in Steinbeck's simple prose and simple, devastating tale" (Penguin, $14).

Albert Camus (1947)

The Oran of Camus's novel, whose inhabitants are tested in the worst ways by a gruesome epidemic, is an actual Algerian city but feels so archetypal that Nathan Englander originally thought it was fictional. "It's a holy place to me, it's in my pantheon," says Englander, despite the horrors Camus depicts. "To literally lock the gates of the city—that's wonderful to me as a reader, and an excellent education as a novelist" (Vintage, $13).

The Professor's House

Willa Cather (1925)

Jane Hamilton treasures Cather because she "doesn't know another writer who has that power to transport us to the natural world," in this case America's great prairies. But it's the setting of Colorado's Mesa Verde in her melancholy seventh novel, "before it was discovered, before it was a destination," that appeals most. "She makes plain the grace of solitude in a place that is at once the loneliest spot and yet so strangely peopled" (Vintage, $13).

The Quiet American

Graham Greene (1955)

Greene's prescient Vietnam novel "captures the beauty, loneliness, and moral complexity of the expat experience," says Myla Goldberg, "and presents pre-war Vietnam as a fascinating and terrifying triangle of geography, politics, and history." Pico Iyer believes the place "brought out the heartbroken poet" in Greene, who "caught much in the country that might move a traveler today. Saigon, for all its new-generation motorbikes and frenzy, in its shadows and corners remains part of the Greene zone" (Penguin, $14).

The Raj Quartet

Paul Scott (1966-1974)

One way to understand India would be to look back at how it was constructed—and deconstructed—on the eve of independence, and Paul Scott's four epic novels fix and dramatize the lost world of British India like no others. "They provoke interest in a culture that no longer exists but in a place that does," says Ann Packer (Everyman's; each two-volume set, $33).

Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick

Herman Melville (1849-1851)

In three years, Melville produced possibly the world's three greatest seagoing novels. But aside from Bartleby, his work isn't generally associated with his home port of New York. Phillip Lopate finds astonishing detail in the Manhattan-based openings of both Moby-Dick and his lesser-known novel, Redburn, which has the added bonus of "great scenes in Liverpool" (Library of America, $40).

The Savage Detectives

Roberto Bolaño (1998)

Like W. G. Sebald, Bolaño died in middle age on the verge of enormous international acclaim. But his equally mind-bending fictional journeys are shaggier and more exuberant. Here, a radical group of Mexico City literati calling themselves Visceral Realists threaten the social order before scattering across the world—to Barcelona, Perpignan, Nicaragua—and later returning to their native country. Francine Prose says that she can no longer visit Mexico City without seeing writer-revolutionaries everywhere (Picador, $15).

The Sheltering Sky

Paul Bowles (1949)

One of the three books our authors cited most, Bowles's hallucinatory novel is "a journey into the primeval heart of Morocco, but really into the furthest reaches of the Other, the Unknown," says Manil Suri. Despite the book's being "not exactly a call to tourism," Suri was moved to travel there six months after reading it. Anthony Doerr believes that "Bowles explores, perhaps as well as Conrad or Camus, what it means to be a stranger," while Pico Iyer calls him "the greatest poet laureate of a traveler's dissolution" (HarperPerennial, $15).

The Shipping News

Annie Proulx (1993)

The writer of hard, spare modern-day Westerns (e.g., "Brokeback Mountain") may be at her best on entirely different terrain. Lara Vapnyar always marvels at "her ability to endow a place with the most complex personality," but slightly prefers her Newfoundland: "cold and gloomy, where the weather is dangerous and the best delicacy is the seal-flipper pie" (Scribner, $15).

Snow Country

Yasunari Kawabata (1948)

The northern reaches of Japan sometimes get as much wintertime snow as Buffalo, but there the comparisons end. In Kawabata's classic, the region's lonely beauty is the third party in a doomed love affair between a sophisticated Tokyo dilettante and a lowly backwater geisha, who stands in for Japan's neglected but enduring native culture. Nominated by: Michael Ondaatje (Vintage, $13).

A Sport and a Pastime

James Salter (1967)

Shades of Lolita (the erotic road-trip part) pass over what Salter has said is his best novel, the charged chronicle of an affair between a privileged Yale dropout and a French shopgirl, consummated in motels dotting the French countryside and observed by an admittedly unreliable voyeur. Nominated by: Michael Ondaatje (FSG, $13).

Cormac McCarthy (1979)

McCarthy's fourth novel is inextricably rooted in its place, namely the roughest parts of fifties Knoxville, seen by an ex-con drinking his life away. Anthony Doerr finds it "a funny, tragic, shocking, beautiful, and dirty portrait," one that "traces the collisions of industry and countryside, privilege and poverty, goatmen and policemen, humidity and snow, drinking and witchcraft—and the Tennessee River twists through all of it" (Vintage, $15).

Patrick Chamoiseau (1992)

Junot Díaz praises this "brilliant blaze of a novel" for encompassing the tangled history of Martinique (as Díaz did for the Dominican Republic in his recent Pulitzer Prize-winning novel). "In these pages and through these words," he says, "you can taste the shark, smell the burning fields of cane, wince under the sun, and feel the black riptide of Caribbean history, pulling, pulling. All that plus the finest evocation of Caribbean shantytown life ever put to paper" (Vintage, $16).

To the Slaughterhouse

Jean Giono (1931)

Better known for his best seller The Man Who Planted Trees, the French writer created some of the most horrific scenes of World War I ever seen in print and contrasted them with evidence of a subtler deterioration back in arid Haute Provence. Fernanda Eberstadt says, "This wildly poetic evocation of a pastoral people about to get decimated makes you love every rocky field and antiquated ram of his chosen homeland" (Peter Owen, $24).

The Tree of Man

Patrick White (1955)

A pioneer of literature from his pioneer country—and a winner of the Nobel Prize—White set the tenor of Australian literature as a constant clash between Western culture and the barren landscape beyond its shores. His saga of one family's attempt to domesticate the bush (only to later see it become suburbs) is "surely Australia's Book of Genesis," says Colin Thubron, and "has the rich sweep of a nineteenth-century Russian novel" (out-of-print).

James Joyce (1922)

How did a chaotically layered, almost impenetrable modernist masterpiece become the book that launched a thousand pub crawls? " Ulysses is an encyclopedic map of human nature, but it also maps Dublin in a perfect way," says Dubliner Colum McCann. Thus, McCann's ambivalence toward the "James Joyce tours and pubs and towels and snow globes": They're hokey but "better than the alternative of silence" (Vintage, $17).

Tony D'Souza (2006)

The most recent novelist to approach the well-trod terrain of Western aid work, D'Souza complicates his narrative by having do-gooder Jack Diaz, marooned on the Ivory Coast, sleep with a succession of natives. Peter Hessler praises D'Souza's handling of "the long-familiar relationships that shape a village, the way an outsider feels when he tries to penetrate this world, and the interplay between traditional folk beliefs and elements of modern city life" (Harcourt, $13).

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Haruki Murakami (1995)

Murakami's vacillations between realism and fable are generally aimed at making sense of contemporary Japan, but this essential novel also encompasses the atrocities of a previous generation. Those are the parts Peter Hessler likes best—"beautifully written set pieces of the Japanese occupation of China and northern Asia. They are really the most haunting chapters of the book" (Vintage, $16).

A Woman in Jerusalem

A. B. Yehoshua (2006)

Yulia, the woman in question, has died in a terrorist bombing, and the quest to clear her name and bury her properly sends characters through traumatized Jerusalem streets and later to the forlorn former Soviet republic where she was born. "I love people who can draw Israel for me," says Nathan Englander, who lived in the same Jerusalem neighborhood during that troubled period. "This book captured a very hard time really well" (Harvest, $14).

Zeno's Conscience

Italo Svevo (1923)

Svevo's comic study of a morally compromised man's Freudian rationalizations—and urban discoveries—was rescued from obscurity by James Joyce. So, thanks to this novel, was decrepit Austro-Hungarian Trieste, which Nathaniel Rich says "feels like a living organism" in this novel: "neurotic, conniving, sophisticated, and deranged—a mirror image of Zeno himself" (Vintage, $15).

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Best travel books of all time: see our top holiday picks

By Condé Nast Traveller

A good travel book means you can get lost trying to navigate the sleepy backwaters of Kerala , taste unidentifiable foods on the streets of Ho Chi Minh , and drive for miles across the wild plains of Africa , spotting nothing but wildebeest. Spend lazy days lying in a hammock strung between palm trees on an exotic beach and hazy evenings drinking the local brew in a shack in some hard-to-get-to village. Revisit a treasured spot or discover somewhere new.

Stories evoke a sense of place and reveal secrets about a destination , so here's our selection of inspiring novels set in foreign lands, from Alaska to Papua New Guinea , for armchair travellers and jet-setters.

Books that make you want to travel

TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY BY JOHN STEINBECK

Read it before you go to: the USA, on a road trip

'Nearly every American hungers to move.'

The book that is probably Steinbeck’s most endearing is not only a love letter to the USA , it’s also an ode to our innate desire and need to travel, and the joy and lifeblood it can breathe into us. 'A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike,' he says. 'And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.' At age 58, Steinbeck couldn’t fight his restlessness and, feeling he no longer knew or understood his country outside of New York , he hit the road for a year in a camper van, which he christened Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse. This riveting travelogue describes the many people he met along the way, the social and cultural patterns he noticed, the changing landscapes and seasons – and his heart-warming relationship with his sidekick, Charley the poodle. Buy now

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

Read it before you go to: Cartagena, Colombia

‘From the sky they could see, just as God saw them, the ruins of the very old and heroic city of Cartagena des Indias, the most beautiful in the world’

This is a book to start once you’re away, ten-minute bursts on the tube won’t do if you’re to keep up with Marquez’s lyrical language, which is crammed with detail, just like every cobbled street in Cartagena ’s Old Town. Magical realism comes close to reality in this city where the balconies of rainbow coloured houses heave with bougainvillaea, where locals knock back fiery aguardiente neat before noon, where squares shimmy to life with spinning salsa dancers at night. Here an epic love story unfolds over the course of a lifetime, and a passionate romance laced with an ugly seediness seems to crawl out from the very walls of this Spanish-colonial city on the Caribbean sea.

A MOVEABLE FEAST BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Read it before you go to: Paris

‘If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.’

This retrospective memoir by the American author documents his time as a struggling writer in the French capital during the early 1920s. He talks about the every day: the tables being washed down outside the cafés of Saint Germain first thing in the morning, lunches of cheese and baguette, on the days he can afford to eat – in some ways it is a very simple book about a city. But it's also a tale of the luminaries, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, that he meets along the way. Hemingway writes about the nature of love, and of the passing of time – with every sentence excruciatingly calculated in its simplicity.

BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY BY JAY MCINERNEY

Read it before you go to: New York

‘Tad’s mission in life is to have more fun than anyone else in New York City, and this involves a lot of moving around, since there is always the likelihood that where you aren’t is more fun than where you are. You are awed by his strict refusal to acknowledge any goal higher than the pursuit of pleasure.’

New York in the 1980s was a place of rampant corruption, extraordinary violence and moral degradation. It also boasted the best nightlife in all human history. McInerney’s novel is supposed to be a takedown of the city’s crass materialism, but he is too in love with the target of his satire to make any of the charges stick. Because really this is a paean to Manhattan and its glorious degraded glamour. The second person narration – ‘You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time in the morning’ – drags you in from the first page before you know it you are overcome with an urgent desire to stalk the Lower East Side at 6am, the consequences be damned.

CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN BY LOUIS DE BERNIERES

Read it before you go to: Ionian islands, Greece

‘Once the eyes have adjusted to the extreme vestal chastity of this light, the light of any other place is miserable and dank by comparison; it is nothing more than something to see by, a disappointment, a blemish. Even the seawater of Cephalonia is easier to see through than the air of any other place.’

The year is 1941 and even the idyllic paradise of Cephalonia is not immune to the onslaught of the second world war. With the arrival of Italian Captain Antonio Corelli, the young and beautiful Pelagia is torn between a new suiter and her Greek fisherman fiancé, Mandras. As war sweeps the island, desire builds and ‘a love delayed is a lust augmented.’ The pages burn with the heat of passion, the rage of war and the scorch of the sun. Against all this action the mythical beauty of the island becomes even more patent, a landscape that jingles with the bells of rambling goats, sways like a breeze through twisting olive groves and dances with bobbing fishing boats in blue seas.

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND BY ELENA FERRANTE

Read it before you go to: Naples or Ischia

‘In that period it became a daily exercise: the better off I had been in Ischia, the worse off Lila had been in the desolation of the neighbourhood; the more I had suffered upon leaving the island , the happier she had become. It was as if, because of an evil spell, the joy or sorrow of one required the sorrow or joy of the other; even our physical aspect, it seemed to me, shared in that swing.’

The author, who shuns publicity, and whose identity is a mystery, captures southern Italy’s grittiness on every page of this four-part series. The chaotic tale of friendship begins in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples in the 1950s. And through the lives of two girls, Elena and Lila, the story of a city is told in a way that transforms the relationships of the protagonists too. The star of the show, though, is Ischia . The 17-square mile island, just an hour’s ferry from Naples, is where Elena spends one memorable summer – fleeing from the heat, and poverty of Naples.

INTO THE WILD BY JON KRAKAUER

Read it before you go: on an American road trip

‘In reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.’

Into the Wild follows the heartbreaking internal struggle of Christopher McCandless, an Emory University graduate and the son of wealthy parents who abandons all ties to modern day society in search of freedom, and happiness in nature. From kayaking down the dusty Colorado River, prancing on branches on the Pacific Coast Trail, running with wild horses in South Dakota, dancing on Salvation Mountain to walking waist-deep in freezing water down the Stampede Trail in Alaska, this book will inspire a road trip through the American south-west or California .

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THE DRIVER’S SEAT BY MURIEL SPARK

Read it before you go to: Italy

‘I never trust the airlines from those countries where the pilots believe in the afterlife. You are safer when they don’t.’

There are books that inspire you to travel and then there are books that make you question why exactly you travel in the first place. The Driver’s Seat is an oddity of a novella, a short, staccato film noir, a crime story that’s not a crime story, about a woman, Lise, who flees 16 years of working in the same accountants’ office for an unnamed city in Italy . She dresses in garish, clashing colours – a yellow top, a skirt patterned with blue, mauve and orange, with a red-and-white-striped coat on top – so clashing that the porter of her hotel laughs at her. In her hands is a book she describes as 'a whydunnit in q-sharp and it has a message'. Though, actually, that works pretty well as a description of Spark's own work. Dark, witty and really quite disturbing.

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Olivia Morelli

Anna Prendergast

Sarah James

EAT PRAY LOVE BY ELIZABETH GILBERT

Read it before you go to: Italy, Indonesia, India – or anywhere solo

‘I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair.’

Often dismissed as light-hearted chick-lit, Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling memoir of her travels through Italy, India and Bali will have you salivating over pizza in Naples and checking into an ashram, such is the power of her words. There’s plenty of soul-searching, sure, but there’s also humour, friendship and a bucket load of satisfying symbolism found in the most unlikely of places.

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RUNNING IN THE FAMILY BY MICHAEL ONDAATJE

Read it before you go to: Sri Lanka

‘From ten until noon we sit talking and drinking ice-cold palmyras toddy from a bottle we have filled in the village. This is a drink which smells of raw rubber and is the juice drained from the flower of a coconut. We sip it slowly, feeling it continue to ferment in the stomach.'

There are so many extraordinary, evocative, almost sensual depictions of Sri Lanka in the country’s novels. But, turn to Michael Ondaatje to take you straight to the intoxicating tropical heat of an island where everything smells of coconut oil (from the street-side cooking to the slick sheen of schoolgirls’ plaits). The novel is ostensibly fiction, a constructed memoir, but Ondaatje spent his childhood in Colombo and clearly draws heavily on that. His depiction of the family network within Sri Lankan society is vivid and vibrant. You can feel the drops of sweat, hear the buzzing chirping barking sounds of the steamy nights, as the dialogue intersperses itself with anecdotes and chapters of poetry. It’s magic. And gets better on second, third, fourth reading. Or you can follow on with the numerous-award-winning Anil’s Ghost for a narrative rooted in the harrowing shadow of the country’s civil war.

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SHANTARAM BY GREGORY DAVID ROBERTS

Read it before you go to: Mumbai

'The open windows of our battered bus gave us the aromas of spices, perfumes, diesel smoke, and the manure of oxen, in a steamy but not unpleasant mix, and voices rose up everywhere above ripples of unfamiliar music. Every corner carried gigantic posters, advertising Indian films.'

The story goes that the manuscript for Shantaram was destroyed. Twice. By prison guards. But author Gregory David Roberts persisted, penning one of the longest travel tomes about India , and more specifically, Mumbai . It’s a (supposedly) autobiographical love story in which Roberts falls for a woman and a city, intoxicated by life in the slums and a hefty amount of opium. It’s raw, romantic and revealing of some of Mumbai’s inner workings – the good, the bad and the really, really ugly – and it’s utterly compelling.

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THE MINIATURIST BY JESSIE BURTON

Read it before you go to: Amsterdam

'Looming above the sludge-coloured canal, the houses are a phenomenon. Admiring their own symmetry on the water, they are stately and beautiful, jewels set within the city’s pride. Above their rooftops Nature is doing her best to keep up, and clouds in colours of saffron and apricot echo the spoils of the glorious republic.'

From a quiet, rural childhood, Nella Oortman finds herself delivered via marriage to a grand townhouse on the Herengracht. Here she navigates a city bubbling with dangerous contradictions, where the repressive atmosphere of the Protestant Reformation mingles with excessive wealth, prolific trade and greed. With vivid description Jessie Burton conjures an image of Amsterdam as beautifully as a Vermeer painting, from the bustling canals to the Dutch East India Company’s dock-side warehouses to the sugary bakeries and the intricacies of life within the merchant’s houses in the glittering Golden Age. Visit the Rijks Museum and see for yourself the dolls house of Petronella (Nella) Oortman that inspired the book.

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THE POISONWOOD BIBLE BY BARBARA KINGSOLVER

Read it before you go to: East Africa

‘In Congo, a slashed jungle quickly becomes a field of flowers, and scars become the ornaments of a particular face. Call it oppression, complicity, stupefaction, call it what you like, it doesn't matter. Africa swallowed the conqueror's music and sang a new song of her own.’

The Poisonwood Bible tells the story of an American missionary family who moves to the Congo in the late 1950s – a time of political instability in the fight to shake off colonial rule. This is a book that brings Africa alive; the flavours, the smells, the sense of community, the jungle, the reverence for nature. Set against a background of racism and oppression, as the family’s tale unravels an initially alien world becomes multi-faceted and familiar. And while the family is fictional, many of the events their story wraps around – from the Congolese Independence ceremony to the assassination of politician Patrice Lumumba – actually happened, making it an interesting insight into the history of the area too.

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FOOTSTEPS BY RICHARD HOLMES

Read it before you go to: the South of France

‘Then I went down to the Loire, here little more than a stream, and sat naked in a pool cleaning my teeth. Behind me the sun came out and the woodfire smoke turned blue. I felt rapturous and slightly mad.’

In 1964, when he was just eighteen, Richard Holmes, the future biographer of Shelley and Coleridge, decided to recreate Robert Louis Stevenson’s twelve-day hike recorded in his Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes . He then ventures to Paris during the tumult of ’68, an homage to Mary Wollstonecraft’s similar journey across the Channel in search of revolutionary fervour. Part autobiography, part biography, part hymn to the glory of France (and Italy in a later trip following Shelley), Footsteps is occasionally thrilling and always hilarious. Reading the book leaves you rapturous and utterly mad with the urge to travel.

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AROUND INDIA IN 80 TRAINS BY MONISHA RAJESH

Read it before you go to: India

'To understand India you have to see it, hear it, breathe it and feel it. Living through the good, the bad and the ugly is the only way to know where you fit in and where India fits into you.’

Rajesh spent four months travelling around India by train to try and get to know a country that had become a stranger to her. In that time she covered just over 40,000km – almost the circumference of the earth. Whether she’s trundling on a toy train to Darjeeling, hanging out of a rammed Mumbai local or watching cataract surgery on a hospital train, the author evokes sounds and smells and tastes that make you feel like you’re riding alongside her. Being a British Indian she’s both an insider and outsider: explaining mannerisms, translating conversation, and engaging her fellow passengers with wonderful wit and humour. Aside from being a hilarious travelogue, the book explains how to negotiate the railway ticketing system, which trains have the best food, and uncovers beautiful places off the typical tourist trail.

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Nonfiction Books » Travel » Best Travel Writing of 2023: The Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year

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Best Travel Writing of 2023: The Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year

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Last updated: December 30, 2023

The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards are hosted each year by Stanfords, the specialist map seller and travel bookshop in London's Covent Garden. The judges of the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year, who rotate each year, tend to be brilliant at highlighting the best new travel books in the form of an annual shortlist. This year the judges were the authors Colin Thubron , Sunny Singh, Julia Wheeler, Lois Pryce, and Caroline Eden, and the journalists Ash Bhardwaj and Jeremy Bassetti. Their 2023 shortlist comprised eight travel books, which we detail below.

In The Shadow of the Mountain

By silvia vasquez-lavado.

🏆 The Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year, 2023

Mountaineer and former Silicon Valley executive Silvia Vasquez-Lavado’s inspirational story intertwines her quest to summit Mount Everest with a vulnerable meditation on her traumatic Peruvian childhood and the story of her struggle to succeed as an immigrant in the United States. After witnessing domestic violence and becoming a victim of child sexual abuse, the author details her struggles with relationships, growing ambition, and coming to terms with her sexuality as a gay woman. Later, mountain climbing becomes a fixation, and a form of catharsis. “Reaching the top isn’t about the accomplishment,” she writes. “It’s about walking in the shadows long enough to see the other side, about learning how to roll with other women and men, and how to lean on and support others instead of white-knuckling life alone.” Kirkus described it as an “emotionally raw and courageous memoir”; the  New York Times said it was “cinematic.”

Read expert recommendations

My Family and Other Enemies: Life and Travels in Croatia’s Hinterland

By mary novakovich.

☆ Shortlisted for the 2023 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards Travel Book of the Year

In My Family and Other Enemies, the UK-based journalist Mary Novakovich explores her familial relationship with Lika, a region of central Croatia. "It's a region of wild beauty that has been battered by centuries of conflict," she explains. "Used as a buffer zone between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires for hundreds of years, Lika became a land of war and warriors. And when Yugoslavia started to disintegrate in 1991, it was here where some of the first shots were fired." Having first visited Lika as a child, Novakovich has returned many times throughout her life, but the relationship has been complicated by its—and her family's—troubled history. Although Novakovich has previously published several guidebooks to Croatia, this is her first travelogue.

Walking with Nomads

By alice morrison.

☆  Shortlisted for the 2023 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards Travel Book of the Year

The Scottish explorer and TV presenter Alice Morrison travels across Morocco , from the Sahara Desert to the Atlas Mountains, in the company of three Amazigh (once known as Berber) men and their camels. During her journeys, she encounters a lost city and dinosaur footprints, and does her best to avoid landmines, quicksand and poisonous snakes. She also encounters nomadic peoples travelling through this arid environment, who tell her about the challenges of life on the move, and the changes wrought by a warming climate.

Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia

By shafik meghji.

In Crossed off the Map , award-winning journalist and travel writer Shafik Meghji journeys from the Andes to the Amazon as he explores Bolivia's past and present, blending travel writing, history, and reportage to tell the story of the country's last 500 years. Published by the small independent press, Latin American Bureau , Crossed off the Map has an opportunity to reach a wider audience following its shortlisting at the Stanfords awards. Listen to an interesting interview with the author on the popular podcast Travel Writing World .

The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East

By rebecca lowe.

In  The Slow Road to Tehran , journalist Rebecca Lowe describes her solo bicycle ride through 20 countries and 8,000 miles during 2015 and 2016, the dramatic landscapes she passed through, the hardships she endured (in temperatures from -6 to 48˚C), and the people she met, as part of her efforts to truthfully portray the modern Middle East . The Times said it was a "funny and freewheeling account", noting that Lowe "has a forthright confidence that brings to mind those earlier Middle Eastern adventurers Freya Stark and Gertrude Bell"; despite her parents' worries (they warn her that they think she "will probably die" shortly before she sets off) traveling as a lone female brings her unusual insights that add weight to a humourous, even Bryson -esque account.

The Po: An Elegy for Italy's Longest River

By tobias jones.

The Po, Italy's longest river, is drying up. It's a tragedy both ecologically and culturally, given the powerful symbolism afforded the water body; to paraphrase Guido Ceronetti, to understand the Po is to understand Italy . At barely more than 400-miles long, Jones's journey down its banks by boat, bicycle, and train may be only minimally intrepid, but the route takes in historic cities, industrial heartlands, and generally serves as a cross-section of the nation. The Times Literary Supplement described it as "a delightful book that is part history, part travel, part a picture of contemporary Italy." To get a flavour of the book, this essay by the author in The Guardian offers a good introduction.

High: A Journey Across the Himalaya, Through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China

By erika fatland, translated by kari dickson.

Norwegian anthropologist and internationally bestselling author Erika Fatland ( Sovietistan ,  The Border ) details her journeys to isolated valleys, crowded base camps, and remote monasteries as she journeys through the Himalayan range—a region where Muslims, Buddhists , and Hindus brush shoulders with those still following ancient shamanic beliefs. "I wanted to discover what life stories and cultures were to be found there, beyond the well-trodden paths, high up in the valleys and villages of the mountains with the beautiful name," writes Fatland. "Soon I would travel both far and high."

The Last Overland: The Return Journey of the Iconic Land Rover Expedition

By alex bescoby.

In 1955, a group of students led by Tim Slessor drove 19,000 miles from London to Singapore in a Land Rover; the resulting documentary and book, First Overland , caught the public imagination in a time of post-war austerity. But it was a passing comment by Sir David Attenborough's on the fiftieth anniversary of the expedition—in which he suggested it was "a journey that I don't think could be made again today"—that proved an irresistible challenge for the filmmaker and adventurer Alex Bescoby. This book, and a Channel Four documentary series, are the result: a thrilling adventure in which nothing goes quite to plan, that offers an opportunity to reflect on how much has changed since the 1950s.

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The Best Books of 2022

This Year's Must-Reads

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2022

After two years of limited travel opportunities, we’re ready to explore the world once more

Jennifer Nalewicki

Travel Correspondent

Traveling is about much more than your destination—it’s about the people who live there, and for many travelers it’s the experiences they have alongside locals that are the most memorable. Take, for instance, the story of a journalist who lived with an Iñupiaq family of whale hunters in Alaska before setting off with her toddler to follow the gray whale migration, or a young woman who traveled solo 6,800 miles by bike from Europe to the Middle East, often turning to local farmers and villagers to help her navigate unfamiliar territory. Both women adapted their experiences into books where they relive the laughter (and the pain) they shared with members of the local communities that go far beyond anything found in a guidebook.

Here are ten travel book releases from 2022 that are inspiring us to dust off our passports and experience new locales alongside the people who make them unforgettable.

The Catch Me If You Can: One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World by Jessica Nabongo

Visiting all 195 countries in the world is no small feat and a goal that most people can only dream of. Luckily, armchair travelers can live vicariously through author Jessica Nabongo’s epic worldwide adventure in her book The Catch Me If You Can . From retelling the blow-by-blow of a scooter accident in Nauru (an island nation in Micronesia that also happens to be the world’s least visited country) and dog-sledding in Norway to swimming with humpback whales in Tonga and learning the art of making traditional takoyaki (octopus balls) in Japan, the 38-year-old, who’s also the first Black woman to travel to every nation in the world, introduces readers not only to bucket-list-worthy places but also to the people who live there.

The Catch Me If You Can: One Woman's Journey to Every Country in the World

In this inspiring travelogue, celebrated traveler and photographer Jessica Nabongo―the first Black woman on record to visit all 195 countries in the world―shares her journey around the globe with fascinating stories of adventure, culture, travel musts, and human connections.

Soundings: Journeys in the Company of Whales by Doreen Cunningham

In an everchanging world threatened by climate change, whales have learned to adapt. Irish British author Doreen Cunningham takes that notion to heart in Soundings , which blends science and nature writing with memoir as she shares her own experiences as a struggling single mother and journalist. Together with her toddler, she follows the migration route of gray whales as they make the long journey between Mexico and Alaska (where years earlier she spent time with Iñupiaq whalers), experiencing from a distance the familial bonds, not unlike her own close relationship with her son, of the marine mammals. “What at first seems a reckless, near-mystical pursuit of an imagined being leads her to find a human pod of her own,” writes the Guardian ’s Edward Posnett.

Soundings: Journeys in the Company of Whales: A Memoir

A story of courage and resilience, Soundings is about the migrating whales and all we can learn from them as they mother, adapt, and endure, their lives interrupted and threatened by global warming.

Bridges of the World by Giancarlo Ascari

Italian cartoonist and journalist Giancarlo Ascari has a degree in architecture, so it’s no wonder why he’s fascinated with bridges. Packed with illustrations by Pia Valentinis , Ascari’s book Bridges of the World highlights recognizable spans like the brightly painted Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Victorian Gothic-style Tower Bridge in London, while also highlighting less obvious examples, including the stretch of wire French high-wire artist Philippe Petit strung between the Twin Towers in New York City and dangerously crossed in 1974. In total, Bridges of the World features 50 human-made and natural wonders accented by interesting facts and anecdotes.

Bridges of the World

Fifty bridges from all over the world to be crossed on foot or with one's imagination.

Black Lion: Teachings from the Wilderness by Sicelo Mbatha

When Sicelo Mbatha was a child, he watched in horror as a crocodile viciously attacked his cousin. Rather than shy away from the cruel realities of nature, the Zulu author, who goes by the nickname Black Lion, confronted them head on to become a wilderness guide. Over the years, he’s volunteered at Imfolozi Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, a province located along the coast of South Africa. Because of his childhood encounter, he has learned to approach the savanna and the lions, elephants and other animals that inhabit it from a spiritual perspective. He has since fostered a deeper connection with the local fauna and hopes to pass that mindset on to visitors on his guided excursions as well as readers of Black Lion , his debut book.

Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness

Wilderness guide Sicelo Mbatha shares lessons learnt from a lifetime’s intimate association with Africa’s wildest nature.

The Writer’s Journey: In the Footsteps of the Literary Greats by Travis Elborough

Ask any writer, and they’ll likely confirm that a story’s setting plays as critical a role as its plot. Case in point: Would Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel Dracula be as compelling if it wasn’t set in macabre Transylvania? Like Stoker, many literary greats were inspired by places they traveled to before sitting down to write. In The Writer’s Journey , British author and cultural commentator Travis Elborough explores 35 experiences around the globe that influenced authors and helped shape their writings, including Herman Melville’s perilous 1841 whaling voyage on the Atlantic and Jack Kerouac’s cross-country escapades in the late 1940s over “all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast.”

The Writer's Journey: In the Footsteps of the Literary Greats

Follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors on the journeys which inspired their greatest works in this beautiful illustrated atlas.

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

What comes to mind when you think of the American South? The Civil War? College football? Gone with the Wind ? Imani Perry , an award-winning author and African American studies professor at Princeton University, tackles all of these topics in her New York Times best seller South to America . Combining history with culture, Perry brings readers on an eye-opening journey south of the Mason-Dixon line, from her native Alabama to Appalachia, focusing not only on past civil atrocities that have scarred the region and the country as a whole, but also on the immigrant communities, artists and innovators leading the way to a brighter future.

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South—and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America

The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride Through Europe and the Middle East by Rebecca Lowe

While the Syrian War rattled the Middle East in 2015, journalist Rebecca Lowe embarked on a yearlong 6,800-mile grand tour via a bicycle she affectionately named “Maud” from her home base of London to Tehran. During her epic ride, she cycled through Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and the Gulf, often relying on the knowledge and assistance of farmers, villagers and other locals she met along the way. For her travel memoir The Slow Road to Tehran , she weaves her own experiences as a woman traveling alone through the mountains and deserts of the Middle East with tales about the people and cultures she encountered. Tom Chesshyre of the Critic calls it “modern travel writing at its very best, full of vim and vigor, painstakingly researched, laced with wry humor, political (without being too political), adventurous and rich with anecdote.”

The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East

One woman, one bike and one richly entertaining, perception-altering journey of discovery.

Antarctica: A History in 100 Objects by Jean de Pomereu and Daniella McCahey

On January 17, 1773, Captain James Cook made the first crossing into the Antarctic Circle aboard the Royal Navy sloop Resolution . Now, on the 250th anniversary of this monumental journey, historical geographer Jean de Pomereu and historian Daniella McCahey have come together to highlight 100 objects (culled from the National Maritime Museum in London, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and many other collections) that define the world’s least-visited continent. Items that made the cut and are featured in their co-written book Antarctica include the tiny, 22-foot lifeboat used by Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew after their ship struck ice and sunk in 1915; a sealing club fashioned out of the penis bone of an elephant seal; and skis that Norwegian explorer Olav Bjaaland used in the early 1900s.

Antarctica: A History in 100 Objects

This stunning and powerfully relevant book tells the history of Antarctica through 100 varied and fascinating objects drawn from collections around the world.

This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments by McKenzie Long

Despite their federal designation as protected land, national monuments in the United States come under threat. Just look at Bears Ears National Monument, a 2,125-square-mile expanse of red sandstone, cliff dwellings and petroglyphs in the Utah desert held sacred by many Native Americans. The Trump administration decreased the monument in size by 85 percent to allow for oil drilling (only for the Biden administration to later restore its protections). In her debut book, This Contested Land , author and graphic artist McKenzie Long sets out by ski, foot and fin to explore 13 sites across the country, including Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Hawaii’s Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, in a series of compelling essays that convey the importance of protecting these natural resources from the threats of development and climate change.

This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments

One woman’s enlightening trek through the natural histories, cultural stories, and present perils of 13 national monuments, from Maine to Hawaii

Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia by Shafik Meghji

The world’s highest metropolis is La Paz, Bolivia, home to two million inhabitants living at 13,600 feet above sea level (higher than Mount Fuji). However, not many people know this fact, nor much about the South American country, for that matter. In Crossed Off the Map , author, travel expert and Amnesty International editorial consultant Shafik Meghji introduces readers to the landmarks, history and current issues of Bolivia. Fellow travel author Tim Hannigan says in the book blurb, “Shafik Meghji is a natural travel writer with a ready mastery of history, anecdote and atmosphere, and [this] is the best sort of travel book—an informed and informative portrait of Bolivia that doubles as a vicarious journey for readers on an epic scale, through high mountains, across the altiplano [high plains] and into deep tropical forests.”

Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia

Blending travel writing, history and reportage, Crossed off the Map: Travels in Bolivia journeys from the Andes to the Amazon to explore Bolivia’s turbulent past and contemporary challenges.

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Jennifer Nalewicki | | READ MORE

Jennifer Nalewicki is a Brooklyn-based journalist. Her articles have been published in The New York Times , Scientific American , Popular Mechanics , United Hemispheres and more. You can find more of her work at her website .

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DORDOGNE & THE LOT TRAVEL GUIDE 2024: Comprehensive Travel Companion for Exploring Quaint Villages, Historic Sites, Culinary Delights, and Natural Wonders in Southwest France. Kindle Edition

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Travel Books And Other Good Reads For Wanderers

I f you’re looking for reviews of the latest and best new travel books, I don’t have you covered. But if you’re looking for inspiration for your next trip, actionable travel advice or a better understanding of the world you’re exploring, this list is for you.

This running list of books has given me valuable insight into places and cultures, inspired me to travel or made me think more deeply about the way we move around the world. I’m lucky to count lots of excellent writers among my friends, and you’ll find some of their books—and mine—here.

Happy reading!

You can support this site by purchasing books through our partner links . We may earn commissions on these purchases, but the reviews and recommendations here are independent, not paid for by publishers or authors and not subject to external review.

Beginner’s Guide To Japan by Pico Iyer

I read this while cruising through Asia and ahead of a 12-hour layover in Tokyo, my first visit to Japan. If you’re looking for a practical guide with train tips and sightseeing recommendations, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking to better understand Japanese culture and Japanese people, A Beginner’s Guide to Japan is a must-read.

By sharing his perspective as a sort of local, Pico Iyer helped me better understand the sleeping businessmen I encountered on the train from Haneda International Airport, the giggling schoolgirls I came across in Shibuya and the unwritten rules I observed being followed all around me. Reading this before stepping off the plane in Tokyo helped me get more out of a short trip and has me inspired to head back to Japan already.

This isn’t a travel guide by any means. It’s more of a cultural guide, and it’s a must-read for anyone traveling to Japan.

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

If you’re into architecture, true crime or like to dive deep into the cities you visit, this book is for you. The Devil In The White City tells the stories of Daniel Burnham, the architect behind the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and H. H. Holmes, widely believed to be the first serial killer in the U.S.

This book is historical nonfiction that reads like a murder mystery novel. As a Law & Order addict, I was all in. Reading feels like walking through the streets of Old Town, a neighborhood filled with opulent mansions built in the late 1800s around the time of the World’s Fair. This book will transport you to Humboldt Park’s idyllic boat house, the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier and a shadier time in Chicago history.

Chicago Scavenger Hunt by Jessica Mlinaric

For a more up-to-date guide to Chicago, check out this interactive guidebook to the best of Chicago’s hidden treasures. With Chicago Scavenger Hunt , Chicago-based author Jessica Mlinaric takes visitors on an interactive adventure across the city. This journey will take you to 17 neighborhoods in search of 300 pieces of local treasure.

Use the clues in this book to find little-known museums, vibrant examples of public art and historical markers worth the stop. Have a drink at Chicago’s smallest bar. Walk the Yellow Brick Road. Visit the nation’s first Black art museum or stay in the city’s most unique accommodations—a Bed & Breakfast run by monks.

Lonely Planet Iceland

If you’ve asked me for Iceland travel tips over the years, I’ve now got an entire guidebook for you. I wrote several introductory chapters and chapters on Reykjavik and southwest Iceland for Lonely Planet Iceland . A couple of Icelandic colleagues and an American colleague covered the northern and eastern parts of the island and taught me so much more about the country.

For my sections, I dove deep into Icelandic history and nature. I visited the LAVA Center, which has turned out to be an especially insightful experience considering how many volcanic eruptions have happened in southwestern Iceland since. What I’m most proud of, however, is getting an entire section of reasons travelers shouldn’t mimic Justin Bieber by editors and having the perspective to mention Bollywood films shot here as well as Hollywood blockbusters.

We also include lots of money-saving tips and demystify everything from Iceland’s unusually broad array of milk choices to its cultural fascination with elves.

Lonely Planet New York City

New York is a beast of a city to have to find your way around even as a seasoned traveler. This Lonely Planet New York City guide from a team of expert writers and current/former residents is designed to help.

I wrote the Toolkit and History of New York City in 15 places for this guide, and am so glad I got to put all the research I’ve done on Stone Street, the city’s museums and countless points in between over the years. I’m also thrilled to have my work alongside others whose work I admire and to see mentions of several of my favorite places across the boroughs.

A few key tips for your trip to New York City:

• Don’t accept rides from airport hustlers.
• Don’t plan to experience everything in one trip. It took me about eight years of living in New York to experience most of the things I wanted to do in the city, and I still have a few upstate day trips to make.
• Expect to spend more on accommodations than in other cities, but remember many of the best things to do in New York City are free.
• Never pay full price for Broadway tickets.

The post Travel Books And Other Good Reads For Wanderers first appeared on Travel With Meena .

Find deals on flights from San Jose from $33

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Where can I fly from San Jose?

Flights from san jose - travel insights & trends, get data-powered insights and trends into flights from san jose to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more., which are the most popular places to fly to from san jose, based on kayak flight searches, the most popular place to fly from san jose is los angeles (16% of total searches). the next most popular destinations are new york (12%) and seattle/tacoma intl (10%)., what are the most popular international flights out of san jose, there are many international destinations you can fly to from san jose. the most popular international destinations among kayak users are shanghai , new delhi and paris ., what are the most popular countries to fly to from san jose, based on kayak flight searches, the most countries to fly to from san jose is united states (90% of total searches). the next most popular destinations are mexico (6%) and japan (4%)., which cities can i fly to direct from san jose, there are loads of places you can fly direct to from san jose. the most popular destinations for direct flights among kayak users are chicago , san diego , phoenix, los angeles and portland . on average, the cheapest of these destinations on kayak over the last 2 weeks for a return flight was san diego at $118, while the most expensive was phoenix, at $248., which international cities can i fly to direct from san jose, there are many international destinations you can fly to non-stop from san jose. the most popular international destinations from kayak users are zacatecas , san josé del cabo , puerto vallarta , guadalajara and morelia . on average, the cheapest of these destinations on kayak over the last 2 weeks for a return flight was morelia at $158, while the most expensive was zacatecas , at $384., what is the longest direct flight from san jose, the longest direct flight you can take from san jose is to tokyo, with a duration of 11h 10m. the next longest is lihue at 5h 46m, followed by a flight to boston at 5h 45m., good to know, faqs for booking flights out of san jose, do flights from san jose via sjc recognize persons with reduced mobility.

Flights from San Jose International Airport are widely acknowledged for people with limited mobility. Wheelchairs with attendants are available at the airport's arrival and departure terminals. These people are also encouraged to contact their airlines ahead of time to book wheelchairs and other special assistance.

Can I park my car at San Jose International Airport in San Jose?

For flights from San Jose, San Jose International Airport considers customers arriving by car. There are various parking facilities at the airport where you can consider parking your car before your trip. The airport offers valet, private, and public parking for all customers traveling by car.

Do flights from San Jose via SJC have layovers?

San Jose International Airport has direct and indirect flights depending on the dates and airlines you plan to fly from the city. For instance, flights from SJC to Cancun (CUN) have layovers in Texas through George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Los Angeles through Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Which airlines have lounges at San Jose International Airport?

Booking a ticket with Japan Airlines or Alaska Airlines, which feature lounges exclusively for airline members, is an option for passengers who need a moment to themselves before taking a flight. The lounges are located in Terminal A near the baggage claim area. You can utilize this lounge with your child because it is spacious enough to allow them to wander from one location to another.

What is San Jose also known as?

San Jose Airport’s airport code is SJC. It can also be referred to as Mineta San Jose, Norman Y. Mineta San José Intl, San Jose, San Jose Intl.

How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from San Jose?

KAYAK is a travel search engine. That means we look across the web to find the best prices we can find for our users. With over 2 billion flight queries processed yearly, we are able to display a variety of prices and options on flights from San Jose.

How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket from San Jose?

KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight from San Jose is likely to change within 7 days, so travelers know whether to wait or book now.

What is the Hacker Fare option on flights from San Jose?

Hacker Fares allow you to combine one-way tickets in order to save you money over a traditional round-trip ticket. You could then fly to your destination with an airline and back to San Jose with another airline.

What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from San Jose?

Sometimes travel dates aren't set in stone. If your preferred travel dates have some wiggle room, flexible dates will show you all the options when flying from San Jose up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

Top tips for finding a cheap flight out of San Jose

• Looking for a cheap flight? 25% of our users found tickets from San Jose to the following destinations at these prices or less: Dallas $164 one-way - $326 round-trip; Las Vegas $54 one-way - $103 round-trip; Los Angeles $108 one-way - $216 round-trip
• Morning departure is around 6% cheaper than an evening flight, on average*.
• Flights from San Jose depart from San Jose International Airport (SJC). If you are in the city center and need to catch your flight at San Jose International Airport, consider taking an Uber, taxi, or car rental, which will take around 9 minutes. Alternatively, you can use the Tuasa bus company or Station Wagon bus company to connect if you are not in a rush.
• Travelers planning to have the earliest flight from San Jose International Airport should consider staying close to the airport to avoid missing the flight. For instance, consider booking a room at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Jose. The hotel is a 2-minute drive to SJC, and you do not need to spend on transport, for it offers a complimentary shuttle to all guests.
• If you are planning to have a flight from San Jose with your pet via San Jose International Airport, you need not worry. SJC considers animals by structuring three pet relief areas onsite at the airport. These are at pre-security locations outside Terminals A and B and at post-security areas inside the passenger walkway between Gates 16 and 17.
• Parents with kids flying from San Jose International Airport should consider booking their tickets with Alaska Airlines. The aircraft in this airline has spacious, cozy seats with extra legroom area that makes parents with kids on laps comfortable throughout the flight. It also has kids' entertainment amenities such as video games, plane toys, and contemporary snacks, which keep the kids optimistic about the flight.
• Lactating mothers planning to fly from San Jose via San Jose International Airport are highly considered. SJC feature features lactating rooms located within the entrance of the women's restroom, except those at Gate 8. These rooms have comfortable sinks, chairs, outlets, and changing stations.

Top 5 airlines serving from San Jose to Anywhere

Flight was changed twice. Original flight was scheduled at 5:30pm. Weeks before flight, flight was changed to 7:00pm. On the date of flight, flight was delayed and departed at 9:00pm. This caused many problems and significantly affected our schedule at our destination.

I enjoyed the leg room at my seat, but I was in an exit row.

Stay away from there non refundable tickets, they don't have a medical exceptions.

Just another flight. No food, no entertainment. Left/arrived on time.

Flight itself was great! Snacks are never really good; in this case, the "butter braids" and Biscotti cookie were both hard. The attendants' were good. We felt we found a good deal on the cost. The check-in process was very smooth: Alaskan Airlines always does a good job. Boarding was pretty timely, too. We fly Alaskan whenever possible and will continue to do so.

The process was professional and really informative. I personally did not find any issue with thr process from start to finish.

Boarded the plain and had to wait 1 hour for crew Captain to arrive from another flight

The space for legs in coach is better than other Airlines you can even cross your legs!!

Comfortable seat, plenty of leg room which is so rare, overhead bin comfortably accommodated my carry-on bag. Deli box was tasty, service was good, bathrooms were clean. Uneventful flight, which I appreciate. Departed on time and landed early.

Honestly, there was not much they could do. Due to wind, the flight was delayed for several hours because we had to be diverted to San Jose where we needed to refuel before departing to Hawaii. Wish they had offered some snacks during the delays/diversion because we had to wait such a long time to finally get our food served during the flight after leaving California.

There was a loud squeaky sound the whole time we were flying.

I didn’t not like that I could not select my seat and ended up with the worse seat.

The landing was bad and the hostess came two times and i was sleeping but when she served the person that nexts to me I woke up and she didn’t even asked me if I need any drink or snacks two times!!!!

Plane was late because of a mechanical malfunction and the food listed as available was not. Flight attendants seem over worked and under paid. They just done seem happy. And that can be seen in their faces.

Waited 3 hours on a plane to de-ice due to manpower issues. Waited another hour and a half once we landed because of a gate issue. Missed my connections. Created. A total of 13 hours of delay.

Great, on time departure, friendly and accommodating crew, great leg room, Smith flight

Plane was turned around due to fog half way into the flight, Delta did not properly direct passengers to stay on same flight and instead failed to properly rebook on Alaska

Honestly, I didn’t expect that I will experience this long time wait during the check in. There was only one person who was taking care of the passengers for the economy class and it took us to wait about one hour to do our check i. As a result we barely get to the airplane as the gate was at the end of the airport. That is totally not professional where one crue is working at the registration desk with economy and 3-4 crues are helping for the business class.

Like most domestic flights in the US, you are basically on your own with this airline when it comes to food, so be sure to purchase meals and drinks ahead of time or expect to arrive starving and dehydrated (like I was).

You need to be a hacker to get the (Free) WiFi

I paid $380 for my one-way ticket from California to Minnesota. The fair did not include online check-in. I received instructions from their app to check in at a kiosk. At the kiosk, the boarding pass would not print until an actual person came to verify that I had a personal item and not a carry-on item, On the plane, the person next to me was drunk and allowed to continue to order alcohol. United is garbage I’d rather fly spirit.

Do not like the feeling of being in the basic economy. Everyone should feel good no matter what.

Terrible! The plane was old and you are required to connect your own device to their Wi-Fi rather than have entertainment options in the back of the seat in front of you. The Wi-Fi went out during the flight and there was only one plug for the devices every two seats. Three out of five surrounding my family did not work. The seats and spaces under them were so small I could not fit my backpack, which I’ve always brought on flights and fit before no problem. The crew were unpleasant and patronizing.

Due to one crew member not showing up to work, our flight was significantly delayed causing us to miss our connecting flight in Houston to Mississippi causing us to be delayed by more than 6 hours and missing our event all together. Very disappointing. All because ONE crew member called in sick. United did grant us a $15 meal voucher, which was a small but appreciated concession that I wasn’t able to use because I ordered my lunch and paid for it before applying the concession, and the staff said it was too late to use it. Ugh! We also had a TWO delay coming back from Mississippi, but that was on American Airlines and it was due to weather, so not their fault. Anyway, not at all impressed with United’s handling of our flight and the HUGE disappointment of missing our important family event for our 90 year old mother. All that money and all that stress and emotions for nothing. Having to wait the hour to bring an employee from LAX seemed like something that should not have happened. Why don’t you have a local back-up? Santa Ana is not a little airport in a rural area.

Hated every minute of it. This flight should have only taken 1.5hrs but was delayed over 10hours. Now I am being told I cannot be compensated or refunded my ticket price or extra leg room, which I purchased but did not receive, because the airline is throwing the blame on the 3rd party I purchased tickets through and 3rd party putting the blame on airline. No one wants to help. They received their money and that's all they care about. Im going on 3 days of still trying to get to my final destination, had to cancel car rental, car insurance and hotel. Currently staying in airport until hotels open up. Thank you Lufthansa, Kayak, Underpricer and United for making this trip the worst ever.

Crew was great and did their best to make us comfortable and captain came out at the beginning to announce why the flight was delayed, weather situation up ahead, and kept us updated throughout the flight.

United WiFi is consistently unusable (it can take 10 mins to load a single web page). If you need Wifi to do work, be prepared to lose half a day of productivity.

Awful. I got stuck next to a person carrying a dog and behind someone with a dog. People need to board these dogs downstairs. The cabin is crowded enough with your pets

Packed in like sardines, very uncomfortable. Sitting the aisle my shoulder was rammed into numerous times by rushing flight attendants. Also flight was very cold.

the head jack on my seat didn't work and the power outlet didn't work for my seat

Horrible - they lied to me about baggage & boarding, even though I specifically spoke to their agents the day before my flight about my issue. When I showed up they did not let me board and stranded me at my airport until I bought a new flight with money I did not have to spend.

Not sure why JAL partnered with American Airlines because their service is no where near similar. Flight attendants were not friendly and didn’t smile. Food was horrible…

The experience was great and much better than the flight going out. of course I was in first class but the service was excellent

Comfort of seats, ease of boarding. Food selection could be better

Food options were limited which is absolutely embarrassing for a Flight of this size The staff did not come around as much and I am not accustomed to such poor service from American Airlines Drinks I believe were limited to soda and water

Crew were attentive and friendly. Flight was smooth and early! I enjoyed the less crowded plane. Thank you!

We are gluten free, there were not any available complimentary gluten free options.

No meal on a cross country flight? SFO-MiA is pretty much the definition of a coast to coast flight. No meal provided. Sky high wi-fi rates too. Stop nickel and diming your customers.

The staff was unprofessional and didn’t communicate very well. The boarding process was very disheveled, potentially due to a power outage the previous day but there was no contingency plan to properly get passengers boarded the following day. Once boarded the aircraft stayed on the tarmac for over 45 minutes due to high winds. The communication was sporadic but an announcement was finally made an additional 30 minutes later that the flight was cancelled but we couldn’t get off the plane. Prior to deplaning one of the gate agents came on the plane and made an announcement for everyone to pickup their checked bags and take a card to rebook a new reservation because they didn’t have adequate staff. Flights were missed, passengers went to different airports and there was little to no assistance from AA.

You cancelled my flight by email then made it very difficult to get in contact with you. Then put me in a flight with a long layover in Mexico returning to the wrong airport in uk. Mind blowing my stressful. I missed see my grand dad because of you.

My mother was HARASSED AND ACCOSTED by the gate agent for her bag. I pre purchased the bag fee and the gate agent made my 78 year old mother board, deplane, re pay for her bag fee and board again. The gate agent made my mother pick up her own bag and REFUSED to help her, she is an older woman who wasn’t bothering anyone on a flight that had maybe 30’total passengers. I am going to sue this airlines for their HORRIBLE customer service and treatment of my mother, and all this occurred the day after Mother’s Day!!!

Horrible, first flight delayed. They switched my connecting flight while I was en route and even though I was originally supposed to be on the flight going back home to boston, refused to let me board and told me I would have to wait for next flight that was 14 hours later. Ended up renting a car and driving 6.5 hours back home. Still getting messages about flight and it is now showing that the other flight they put me on is now canceled and I would have to wait 24 hours for the next one. I will never book with spirit again

They stuck us with multiple extra fees. I will never fly spirit again

Overall it was a miserable experience... I will never fly spirit for more than a 3 hour flight or overnight.

Kayak does not know that spirit airlines charged me $70 to fly. But the bag check-in was $89 each way. This is false advertising to lure people. Spirit airlines sends bunch of emails after flight purchases to buy wifi, better seats, priority boarding, secure reserved seats. This is false advertising. Up front pricing. I would of flown jet blue or Alaska airlines.

One hour late taking off. Concerning, very hard landing. Uncomfortable seats with no recline. Extremely slow baggage claim. Very professional, knowledgeable flight attendants. Brand new, very clean plane.

Can’t say there was anything I particularly liked. Seats were very tight, leather wrapped plastic. I followed up a much longer and cheaper trip from Honolulu on southwest, everything was phenomenal, this flight was the exact opposite. Blows my mind they charge for water of all things. One of the attendants seemed very rude, I watched a taller gentleman a couple rows forward with his knees pressed into the back of the seat ahead, while the woman in that seat leaned forward the entire flight, I’m sure because she could feel his knees. I’ll be avoiding spirit like the plague from here forward.

Didn’t make the connecting flight due to a delay on our first flight.

I felt scam to have to pay $50 additional for my carry on luggage which was free for my other airline.

Enjoyed the experience, on time flights, friendly staff the WiFi was intros d kept cutting out.

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United States Travel Guide

Last Updated: April 14, 2024

The United States isn’t a popular destination for backpackers and budget travelers. Most overseas tourists come here for a short vacation, visit one or two cities, and then head home. They usually stick to the big coastal cities or places like Disney.

And it wasn’t until COVID that Americans en-masse bothered to hop in their cars and explore their backyard.

The U.S. is massive country that lacks a lot of tourist infrastructure or good cross-country transportation. Hostels haven’t quite caught on, trains don’t go to many places, and we don’t offer working holiday visas to attract young working backpackers. In short, it’s hard to get around.

However, the United States has a lot to offer: stunning national parks, gorgeous landscapes, incredible and diverse culture, world-class music, and a variety of delicious cuisine that varies from region to region.

I think the U.S. is one of the best destinations in the world to road trip . I’ve done several multi-month road trips across the United States . While the coastal cities are fun, the U.S. really reveals itself in the middle and countryside (it’s much more affordable there too). It’s in the nooks and crannies of America that you get a sense of its quirks.

But even if you aren’t spending months visiting the country in a car, there’s still a lot you can do via train, bus, or plane.

This travel guide to the United States can help you navigate the country, save money, and get off the beaten path.

Table of Contents

• Things to See and Do
• Typical Costs
• Suggested Budget
• Money-Saving Tips
• Where to Stay
• How to Get Around
• How to Stay Safe
• Best Places to Book Your Trip
• Related Blogs on the United States

Click Here for City Guides

Top 5 things to see and do in the united states.

1. Explore New York City

The city that never sleeps is one of the greatest cities in the world. There’s nothing you can’t do or see and you’ll find every language and food from around the world here. From world-class museums and art galleries to innovative theater performances to unique restaurants to the expansive Central Park, you can fill a lifetime of activities here. You can take the ferry to Ellis Island, see the Statue of Liberty, hang with the hipsters in Brooklyn, see a Yankees game, and so, so much more. Check out my detailed guide for everything you need to do .

2. Visit the Grand Canyon

Words can’t describe how epicly beautiful the Grand Canyon is. It’s simply breathtaking. Most people just look out at the canyon from the overlook at the top, but its vast size and beauty are best appreciated with a hike down to the Colorado River so try to do that if you have time (make the time). The canyon itself is 6,000 feet deep, and you can find plenty of hikes to take you further into the canyon that will give you a chance to experience it in more detail. For a shorter hike, Grandview Trail to the first overlook at Coconino Saddle and back is only a couple of miles. If you have a whole day to spend and want to challenge yourself, try the 12.5 miles from Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point. Just be sure to bring plenty of water!

3. Discover Austin

The warm weather, lively honky-tonks, funky house bars on Rainey Street, amazing walking and biking trails, tons of outdoor activities — Austin is great (I lived there for many years). You can always find great live music on 6th Street. On a hot day, Barton Springs pool is the perfect place to cool off, there’s always something to do, the food scene gets better and better, and everyone is very welcoming. It’s one of the best cities in the U.S., boasting a combination of nature, city, and delicious food. Be sure to binge on BBQ while you’re here!

4. Visit Glacier National Park

This is my favorite national park in the country. It’s home to gorgeous snow-topped mountains, a beautiful lake from which to admire said mountains, large glaciers, and hiking trails galore. It is one of the most mind-blowing places I’ve seen on my adventures. There are more than 700 miles of hiking trails in the park that provide everyone an opportunity to explore the landscape. Park rangers offer various programs and guided tours are also available. There are spots for fishing and additional trails for biking and horseback riding. (If you plan to visit multiple national parks while traveling throughout the United States, it’s worth it to get the America the Beautiful Park Pass, which costs just $80 USD and provides entry to all the national parks for a year.)

5. Drive the Pacific Coast Highway

The Pacific Coast is considered one of the most scenic landscapes in the world, offering sheer cliffs, forests descending to the shoreline, miles of beaches, and giant redwoods. The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) runs 1,650 miles from San Diego, California to Seattle, Washington taking you from the warm, sunny beaches to the lush temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Highway 1 thorough California is one of the longest historic state highways in the country. The California portion alone route takes 10 hours without stopping but I recommend dedicating at least several days to enjoy all the great stops along the way.

Other Things to See and Do in the United States

NOTE: There’s a lot to do in the United States and you can spend months traveling around the country . I could write an entire book on the places to visit! This is just a list to give you some ideas. Be sure to check out some of my other articles and city specific guides (scroll to the bottom of this guide for links) for more suggestions.

1. Have fun in Memphis

Gritty and industrial, Memphis appears like its best days are behind it. But don’t let the rough exterior fool you — the city is home to some killer food and a vibrant blues music scene. It is a cool city with boisterous and friendly locals. I love the vibe here. There’s Graceland (Elvis’s home) for fans of the King, a big waterfront for walking, and the phenomenal Museum of Civil Rights (it’s huge, so don’t rush it!). The city is going through a big revival right now. To use a cliché, it’s a hidden gem as most people, to their detriment, skip over it.

2. Discover Asheville

Asheville is full of tasty craft beer, great restaurants, and plenty of outdoor loving residents. The beautiful Smoky Mountains are a short drive away, Asheville Botanical Gardens are right near the university, and the gigantic Biltmore estate (the largest privately-owned home in the U.S. and once home to George Vanderbilt) is on the outskirts of the city. (If you’ve ever seen Downton Abbey, that’s what the house is like!) The town has a lot of parks and there are a lot of beautiful biking and hiking trails that you can get to from the center of town.

3. Explore Redwood National Park

Along the Pacific Coast is Redwood National Park, a huge expanse of towering redwood trees filled with picnic areas, places to camp, and miles upon miles of hiking trails. Trails range from easy to strenuous, and there are many loops that head out to nearby beaches. The trees range from 200-240 feet tall. It’s utterly beautiful, awe-inspiring, and humbling in every way. Admission is free, though the three adjoining state parks (Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park) each charge $10 USD.

4. Explore Denver

Known as the Mile High City (the city is one mile above sea level), Denver offers a mix of outdoor ruggedness and big-city living. It has a huge craft beer scene, excellent restaurants (including, Sushi Sasa, one of my favorite sushi restaurants), a large international airport with lots of connections, and is close to the mountains. There are a lot of interesting museums, including the Denver Art Museum, Meow Wolf Denver, and the Clifford Still Museum. There’s plenty of art outside of the museums as well and there are walking tours available to show you around, if you prefer that to exploring on your own. It’s clean, lively, and the locals are incredibly friendly.

5. Get off-the-beaten-path in Natchez

I was surprised by Natchez . I didn’t know anything about it when it was recommended as a place to see historic 19th-century homes. These mansions were built by white plantation owners wanting to escape the summer heat and socialize with each other. As cotton became king, the houses became ever larger and more elaborate. Today, the homes are historic monuments you can tour while enjoying a view of the Mississippi River. It’s far off the beaten path and you’ll need a car to visit but it’s worth the trek.

6. Visit Savannah

Sitting on Georgia’s coast, Savannah escaped the wrath of the Civil War, allegedly because General Sherman thought it was too pretty to be destroyed. With streets lined with Spanish moss-covered oaks, large and inviting parks, and a bustling waterfront, Savannah is a wonderful place to experience the slow pace of the South. There are a number of interesting historical sites like the Bonaventure Cemetery and Factors Row. The city is full of small squares and sprawling parks where you can enjoy a stroll or a picnic. And nearby Tybee Island is a draw for many visitors due to its sandy beaches and slow pace of life.

7. Dive into Nashville’s music scene

Nashville is one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. It’s got a wonderful music scene (duh), a growing cocktail bar culture, and some world-class down-home Southern restaurants. There’s not a lot of “touristy stuff” to do here, but what makes this city one of my favorites are the music, the food, the wildly friendly people, and the positive energy the city seems to exude. When you’re here, plan to spend a few hours at the Tennessee State Museum. It goes into detail about the state’s history (and it’s more exciting than you might think!).

8. Catch some rays in sunny San Diego

I love San Diego. San Diego’s weather is almost always perfect, leading to a permanently happy population that’s friendly and outgoing and that loves the outdoors. From hiking, days at the beach, or running, people here love to get out and enjoy the sun. The downtown Gaslamp area — as well as the famous Pacific Beach — is full of trendy restaurants, bustling bars, and some seriously life-changing taco stalls.

9. Get tipsy in California’s Wine Country

California is home to some of the best wine in the world, and a visit to the Sonoma or Napa Valley shouldn’t be missed. While Sonoma is cheaper than Napa, both these destinations are meant for splashing out. Take a tour, book a cozy vineyard Airbnb, and enjoy a relaxing few days learning about the region’s wines. Tastings usually cost between $15-20 USD. If you go to Sonoma, check out Three Fat Guys winery. They have phenomenal reds.

10. Hike around Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is impressive and beautiful. Ringed by tiny mountain communities, this is a terrific place for hiking and boating in the summer and skiing in the winter. For fun in the sun, be sure to spend some time lounging at Kings Beach. For hikes, check out the Rubicon Trail (16 miles/25.7 kilometers) or the Cascade Falls Trail (1.4 miles/2.2 kilometers). You can’t really go wrong here.

11. Anywhere in Montana

A lot has been written about how stunning Montana is, but words cannot do this state justice. To me, it’s the most beautiful state in the Union, filled with wondrous mountains and hills as far as the eye can see. It’s a nature-lover’s paradise and there is a huge craft beer scene here too, with tons of local breweries all around the state. If you want nature, good food, friendly locals, and just quiet, Montana is it!

12. Relax in Cape Cod

I spent a lot of summers on the Cape since I grew up in Boston. You’ll find plenty of small beach towns along the coast (Provincetown and Hyannis being the most famous but I also love Chatham, Falmouth, Wellfleet, and Brewster). There’s not a lot to “do” but if you’re looking for seafood, beaches, boardwalks, and that perfect family vacation, visit the Cape! Just avoid the weekends when it gets a little too crowded.

13. Explore Deadwood

Tucked away in western South Dakota, this town was famous during the Old West days (noteworthy enough to be the focus of the eponymous HBO series). Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and many other infamous gunslingers all spent time here. Sort of kitschy and re-created, it’s nonetheless a very cool place where you can experience a taste of the old frontier days. It’s also conveniently located near the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore so you can use it as a base for exploring the region.

14. Be surprised by Kansas City

I really loved this city, which features some of the world’s best BBQ and a lively downtown core. There’s a detailed and enlightening jazz museum here, as well as the eye-opening Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (that’s the actual name). This is yet another super underrated and under-visited destination.

15. Stay weird in Portland

Portland , Oregon is incredible. Here you’ll find an impressive food truck scene, cool bespoke bars and cocktail lounges, a craft beer scene that’s religion to residents, relaxing parks (including a peaceful Japanese garden), a vibrant art scene, and hiking in the nearby mountains. Portland is just an awesome city, especially in the summer when the weather is perfect and there are festivals and events galore.

16. Hike our national parks

America has 63 national parks as well as countless state and local parks. These parks highlight the best of the American wilderness. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Zion, Byrce, the Smokey Mountains, Rocky Mountain Park, the Badlands — the list goes on. Make sure you visit as many national parks as you can to get a sense of the grand and diverse landscape that is the United States. You can use this government map to find a park near you! If you plan to visit multiple parks, get the America the Beautiful Park Pass, which costs just $80 USD and gets you free entry to all the national parks for a year.

17. Admire the architecture in Chicago

One of my favorite cities in the world, Chicago is full of amazing architecture, great parks, delicious and hearty food, and a fun nightlife. One of the best ways to see the city’s unique architecture is on a river cruise. There are multiple operators and prices start around $45. Don’t miss trying deep-dish pizza (it was invented here, along with stuffed-crust pizza) and seeing the iconic “Bean” sculpture in Millennium Park. Additionally, check out the city’s famous pier, aquarium, and waterfront park. The city also hosts one of the biggest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the country.

18. Enjoy Lively New Orleans

This French-influenced city has incredible seafood and Cajun cuisine and even better live music. A visit to New Orleans is a must for any jazz or blues fan. Live music is available seven nights a week. Frenchman Street is one of the best places to go (my favorite venue is the Spotted Cat). There are also tons of amazing walking tours that highlight the city’s unique culture and history (including ghost and voodoo tours). Nature lovers will enjoy wandering through the massive oak trees in City Park where you can also visit the city’s Botanical Gardens, which are open year-round. Admission is $12. Plus, there’s incredible independent bookstores, creole food, art museums, and the simply incredible and informative World War 2 museum. Don’t skip roaming the redone and revitalized Bywater district too. It’s a bit hipster. If you plan on celebrating Mardi Gras in NOLA , book early. Accommodations fill up fast.

19. Get some sun in Hawaii

Closer to Asia than the United States, Hawaii is America’s slice of South Pacific paradise. White sands beaches, clear blue water, tropical jungle, and great surf — Hawaii has it all! Don’t miss the otherworldly landscapes of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, the somber memorial at Pearl Harbor, and the hikes at Diamond Head and the Lanikai Pillbox Trail near Honolulu. There are a ton of opportunities for snorkeling and scuba diving where you get a chance to see manta rays, sea turtles, and plenty of colorful fish. Waimea Canyon and the Napali coast on the island of Kauai are places you can get up close and personal with the natural landscape. There are helicopter and boat tours or, if you’re up for a challenge, you can hike the iconic Kalalau Trail. Every island has its own vibe so, if you can, visit more than one.

20. Check out Boston

The birthplace of the revolution (and my hometown), no one leaves Boston disappointed. It’s a big city, but its lack of high-rises, as well as its cobblestone streets and brick buildings, give the city a small-town feel. The Freedom Trail, which covers all the main historic stops, is a must because it gives you a look at the city’s historic past. Be sure to lounge in the Boston Common and catch a Red Sox game at Fenway Park too (the city is big on sports).

21. Visit the nation’s capital

The country’s capital is home to many of the best museums in the country. And, given the large number of international embassy workers here, it’s unsurprising one of the most international cities in the country. You can find food from anywhere in the world thanks to all the embassies in the city. Plus, there’s a vibrant music and cocktail scene. Don’t miss the National Mall and all its monuments, the Holocaust Museum, and the various Smithsonian Museums (some of the best are the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of the American Indian, the African American Museum, the National Zoo, the Smithsonian Castle, and the American Art Museum). If you visit in the spring, you’ll get to see the cherry blossoms bloom along the Mall.

22. Learn about Mt. Rushmore

Completed in 1941, this historic monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota is a lot smaller than you expect, but it makes a good stop while driving. Originally, the indigenous Lakota Sioux inhabited this area, however, when gold was found in the hills, white settlers forcibly removed them from their homeland. At the Wounded Knee massacre, U.S. forces killed over 250 indigenous women and children. Decades later, Rushmore was built, much to the dismay of the local indigenous population, who consider the land to be sacred. Take a guided tour to learn more about this iconic monument’s complex and tragic history.

23. Be a kid at Disney World

Sure, it’s cheesy . Yes, it’s built for kids. True, it’s not authentic. But despite all that, Disney World is still a fun time and they have a lot of rides for adults too. I recently went back as an adult and there’s a lot to do there: they have some good restaurants, and Disney Springs has a fun nightlife. If you are in Florida, take a stop for a few days. Indulge your inner child. Tickets cost around $110 USD per day and go up from there.

24. Hike the Appalachian Mountains

Stretching the east coast of America, these mountains are almost 500 million years old and offer great hiking, camping, and trekking. For a multi-month adventure, hike the 2,190-mile (3,524-kilometer) Appalachian Trail which covers the entire mountain range and takes 5-7 months to complete. You can also do day hikes or weekend hikes of its various sections if you want a more manageable outdoor getaway.

25. Unwind in Put-In-Bay

One of the coolest, not-so-hidden places in the U.S. is this group of islands in Lake Erie. Widely known to Midwesterners (but unknown to most everyone else), South Bass Island is home to Put-in-Bay, where Midwest hospitality meets Caribbean vibes (you ride around in golf carts and bars have sand as floors). My favorite spot is Mojito Bay, an outdoor tiki bar with sand floors and swings for bar seats that offers up more than 25 different mojitos. These places get very wild on the weekends too.

26. Explore Maine

Tucked away up in the northeast, Maine evokes images of endless shorelines, wild forests, iconic lighthouses, and lots and lots of lobster dinners. It’s often overlooked yet it’s incredibly beautiful and perfect for a short road trip. Don’t miss trying lobster rolls (a regional favorite) and hiking in Acadia National Park. Portland has some great eateries (such as Duckfat and Eventide Oyster Co.) and picturesque historic lighthouses, including Maine’s oldest operating lighthouse, the Portland Head Light, which opened in 1791 when George Washington was president. Additionally, tiny Bangor is home to tons of breweries and Moosehead State Park is an incredible place to go hiking for a few days. And you can’t go wrong stopping in any of the quintessential New England fishing villages up and down the coast. Maine is one of the best states in the union!

27. Take a road trip

The only good way to see this vast and diverse landscape and the small towns that populate it is with a road trip . I highly suggest renting a car and driving across the U.S. It’s an amazing experience. I’ve done several coast-to-coast trips as well as regional trips around New England , California , and the South . It’s the best way to see the country and you can do it for under $50 USD a day.

For the best rental car deals, use Discover Cars .

28. Take a tour

You can find all sorts of amazing walking tours, bike tours, and food tours all around the country. They’re a great way to get an in-depth look at the city you’re in with the help of an expert local guide. Take Walks is my go-to walking tour company when I’m looking for something thorough and insightful (and fun). They can get you behind the scenes and are much more comprehensive than your average free walking tour.

For information on specific cities in the United States, check out these city guides:

• Austin Travel Guide
• Boston Travel Guide
• Chicago Travel Guide
• Hawaii Travel Guide
• Las Vegas Travel Guide
• Los Angeles Travel Guide
• Miami Travel Guide
• New York Travel Guide
• Philadelphia Travel Guide
• San Francisco Travel Guide
• Seattle Travel Guide
• Washington D.C. Travel Guide

United States Travel Costs

Accommodation – Hostels can be found in most major cities, though options are generally slim in the country. A bed in a dorm room with 4-6 beds usually costs between $35-55 USD per night. Rooms with more beds are marginally cheaper (they start around $25-30 USD per night). Private rooms are usually $75-125 USD. Expect prices on the higher end in bigger cities and during peak season. Free Wi-Fi is standard and most hostels also have self-catering facilities. Hostels with free breakfast are rare.

If you plan on camping, expect to pay at least $20-30 USD per night for a basic tent plot for two without electricity.

Cheap motels usually start around $60-75 USD per night and can be found along any highway. Expect basic amenities like TV, Wi-Fi, and AC. Some have pools.

Budget two-star hotels start at $90 USD per night. But, in major cities like NYC, LA, or Chicago, they start closer to $125 USD. The U.S. is very vast and prices fluctuate a lot depending on what region you’re in so check out the specific city guides listed above for more detailed information on accommodation. The United States is too diverse to pin down a specific number!

Airbnb is available around the country, with private rooms starting at $40 USD per night, though for good rooms, you’ll likely pay closer to $60 USD. For an entire home/apartment, expect to pay at least $100 USD per night. Prices in large cities are usually double. Again, there’s a lot of variation depending on where you’re going so check out the city guides for more specific prices!

Food – From seafood in New England to BBQ in the South to Tex-Mex and organic whole foods in the West to German influenced food in the Midwest, there is no singular food culture in the US. Every region has its own staples, which means you’ll never get bored of eating your way around the country.

Since the country is so big, prices for food vary a lot. What is $5 USD in Kansas is probably $15 USD in New York City. Below are some country averages but, if visiting a big metropolis/coastal city, add about 25% to the price.

Grab-and-go sandwiches usually cost around $10 USD while fast food costs $10-12 USD for a combo meal. Meals from food trucks will cost between $10-15 USD. Mid-range casual restaurants cost between $25-30 USD for a meal and drink. At some place a little nicer (think white table cloth), expect to spend at least $60 USD per person on dinner. Prices go up from there and the sky is the limit. Again, consult the city and destination guides for specific prices.

You can generally find takeout pizzas for around $10-15 USD while Chinese and Thai cuisine start around $10-12 USD for a main dish.

Beer is around $6-8 USD, a glass of wine is $8-10 USD, and cocktails start at $14 USD in most cities (about $20 USD in NYC though!). A latte/cappuccino is $4-5 USD and bottled water is $2 USD.

If you cook your own food, expect to pay about $60-80 USD per week for basic staples like rice, pasta, vegetables, and some meat.

Backpacking the United States Suggested Budgets

How much does it cost to visit the United States? Well, how much you spend largely depends on where in the United States you’re going to visit. For example, New York City is much more expensive than Memphis and San Francisco is going to hit your budget harder than Boise. The South is cheaper than the North and the interior states are cheaper than the coasts. The comparisons are endless! However, this overview can give you a basic look at what to expect based on your travel style and assuming you’re going to mix cheap and expensive destinations.

On a backpacking budget of $75 USD per day, you can stay in a hostel dorm, cook your meals, use public transportation to get around, limit your drinking, and do free activities like walking tours, hiking, and hanging out at beaches. If you plan on drinking, add another $10-20 USD per day. If you can camp or Couchsurf, you can likely get this down to $50-60 USD per day.

On a mid-range budget of $210 USD per day, you can stay in a private Airbnb or motel, eat out for most meals, enjoy some drinks, take the occasional taxi to get around, and do more paid activities like museum visits and food tours.

On an upscale budget of $350 USD or more per day, you can stay in a midrange hotel, eat out for all your meals, drink more, rent a car to get around, and do as many guided tours and activities as you want. This is just the ground floor for luxury though. The sky is the limit!

You can use the chart below to get some idea of how much you need to budget daily, depending on your travel style. Keep in mind these are daily averages – some days you’ll spend more, some days you’ll spend less (you might spend less every day). We just want to give you a general idea of how to make your budget. Prices are in USD.

United States Travel Guide: Money-Saving Tips

There are plenty of ways to save money when you travel the U.S. but it varies a lot by region (as I’ve been repeating). The general tips below can help you get started but, for more specific tips, visit my city guides.

• Take a free tour – Taking a free walking tour is the best way to get introduced to a new place, and most major cities in the U.S. have free walking tours. You get to see the main sights and ask all your questions to a local guide. Just be sure to tip your guide at the end!
• Take the bus – The cheapest way to get around the U.S. is by bus. Bus fares cost as little as $1 USD, though 2-3-hour journeys start around $30 USD. Between cities, the best companies are Megabus, Greyhound, and FlixBus.
• Redeem hotel points – Be sure to sign up for hotel credit cards before you go and use those points when you travel. This is especially helpful in big cities. Be aware that most hotels charge parking fees if you have a car.
• Get a U.S. Park Pass – This national park pass lets you into all the national parks for free so you don’t have to keep paying admission. The annual fee is $80 USD and it pays for itself after four parks.
• Cook – The United States has some of the cheapest groceries in the developed world, while eating out here can add up quickly once you factor in a tip and tax (which varies by state). Grocery shopping can about $60 USD per week and is way cheaper and healthier than eating out every day. Cook and save!
• Stay with a local – Couchsurfing lets you stay with a local for free, cutting your accommodation costs drastically. You’ll get to spend time with a local who can share their tips and advice while sharing your own travel stories and culture. You can also use the app to meet people for activities (coffee, museum visits, etc.) if you don’t feel comfortable staying with a stranger.
• Camp – Most campsites start around $20-30 USD per night for a tent — much cheaper than a hostel. You can use nps.gov to find campsites run by the National Park Service. You can also camp for free in National Forests or Bureau Land Management (BLM) lands (search for “dispersed camping” options). Just be sure to respect the environment and follow Leave No Trace principles when camping.
• Use city tourism cards – City tourism cards allow you to see a large number of attractions (and often include free public transportation) for one low price, usually $75–100 USD. If you plan on seeing a lot, these can save you a ton.
• Share your ride – If you have a car, taking on riders can be a way to lower your costs. On my first trip across the U.S., I offered rides to people I met in hostels. On another trip, I had friends and readers join me along the way. You can post ads on Craigslist and at hostels to find riders. This not only makes the trip more enjoyable but lowers your gas costs too. If you don’t have a car, you can use look for rides in the same places.
• Stay at roadside hotels – There are a plethora of cheap roadside hotels such as Motel 6 and Super 8 to the rescue. Rooms start around $60-75 USD a night (plus tax). They’re great when you’re traveling with someone and can split the cost.
• Find free museums and events – Inquire at tourism offices, use Google, or ask hotel or hostel staff for information about free events and museums. Many museums offer free or discounted admission times throughout the week.
• Get free water or free refills – If you order a drink, most restaurants allow free refills while you eat your meal or refills at a low cost. If you ask, tap water is usually provided for free.
• Save on gas – If you’re on a road trip, use the app GasBuddy to find cheap gas near you. Also, sign up for gas station loyalty programs as they can save you money on fill ups.

Where to Stay in the United States

Hostels are not all that plentiful across the United States yet. Generally, those that do exist are clean, social, and fun. You’ll find a lot of budget hotels wherever you go. here are some of my recommended places to stay around the USA (the cities guides will have even more suggestions):

• HI Hostel (Boston)
• The Revolution Hotel (Boston)
• HI Hostel (Chicago)
• The Arlo (Chicago)
• Banana Bungalow (Los Angeles)
• Hollywood Historic Hotel Los Angeles
• Hostel Memphis (Memphis)
• Hu Hotel (Memphis)
• Freehand (Miami)
• Hotel Ocean (Miami)
• HI New Orleans (New Orleans)
• Villa Convento (New Orleans)
• The Local (New York City)
• Heritage Hotel (New York City)
• ITH Adventure Hostel (San Diego)
• Old Town Inn (San Diego)
• The Green Tortoise (San Francisco)
• SW Hotel (San Francisco)
• The Green Tortoise (Seattle)
• MarQueen Hotel (Seattle)

How to Get Around the United States

City transportation – Most U.S. cities have public transportation, including metro systems and buses. Fares cost around $2-3 USD for a single journey, but there are usually packaged options for visitors. For example, you can get a 7-day unlimited MetroCard in New York City for $34 USD, which covers both buses and the subway system, while San Francisco offers a 7-day transit pass for $41 USD.

Outside of major cities, subways are rare. Some of the smaller cities have trams. Everywhere has a bus though and that’s usually the best way to get around.

Taxis – Taxis are metered with charges starting around $3 USD plus $2-3 USD per mile. This is one of the most expensive ways to get around, however, so I’d skip it unless you have no other choice.

Ridesharing – Uber and Lyft are generally cheaper than taxis and are the best way to get around a city if you don’t want to take a bus or pay for a taxi.

Intercity Bus – Taking the bus is one of the cheapest options for getting around the country, with fares as low as $1 USD if you book far enough in advance. Popular bus companies include:

A 4-5-hour bus ride from New York to Washington D.C. starts at $30 USD, while the 7-hour journey from Chicago to Detroit starts at $27 USD. Austin to New Orleans is around $54 USD. Booking early can save you upwards of 50% so try to plan ahead if you’re going to be taking the bus.

To find bus routes and prices, use BusBud .

Flying – Flying is your quickest option for long distance. You can occasionally find sales for as little as $100 USD so it’s worth it to check several websites ahead of time to see what deals are on. Post-COVID, fares are a lot higher than they were in the past. But if you find a deal, book in advance, or go off season, you can usually get a cheap fare. Sample one-way fares include San Francisco to Maui for $100-150 USD, Seattle to Austin for $85-115 USD, or New York to L.A. for $250 USD (round trip). However, prices can easily double if booked last minute.

For more information on how to find a cheap flight, check out this article .

Train – Amtrak is the rail provider for the United States, but it’s not the quickest or most affordable way to travel. They have routes all around the country ( here’s their route map ) and offer a cross-country pass for $499 USD. The USA Rail Pass gives you 30 days of travel over 10 segments, which averages out to around $50 USD per leg.

If you have a valid student ID you can save 15% on your tickets.

As for prices, A 20-hour train ride from Chicago to New Orleans costs around $110 USD, while a multi-day trip from New York to Los Angeles is around $280 USD. Book in advance to find the best deals. Shorter trips lasting 2-4 hours are usually under $40 USD.

Car rental – Roadtripping is a great way to explore the country, and car rentals can be found for as little as $35 USD for a multi-day rental. Renters need to be at least 21 years old. For the best rental car deals, use Discover Cars .

Hitchhiking – Hitchhiking in the United States is common and safe. Dress respectably, smile while making eye contact with drivers, and use a cardboard sign to tell people where you’re headed. Be prepared for long bouts of no pick-ups, especially if you’re traveling through more rural areas. Pack plenty of water and a light meal or two, like sandwiches and fruit. Hitchwiki is a great resource for additional hitchhiking tips.

When to Go to the United States

Since the United States is such a large country, the climate and temperature change drastically from coast to coast and from north to south.

The northern states have clearly defined seasons. In cities like Chicago, Boston, and New York, winter can bring heavy snowfall and more severe temperatures. Coastal areas like Seattle and Portland, Oregon, tend to be milder. Spring can start as late as May in the northernmost parts of the country, but this is a good time to visit because the weather begins to warm up and the busy tourist season hasn’t started yet. Summers are gorgeous and temperatures climb into the 80s°F (30s°C). It’s also the busiest time of year for tourism. Autumn is a wonderful time to visit the northern states because many parts of this region have a lot of trees. Temperatures have cooled, crowds have dwindled, and the changing leaves offer an something extra to enjoy.

The southern states have less defined seasons. In the southwest, winters tend to be dry and mild. In the southeast, temperatures are mild but places like and Memphis can be rainy. Spring is a wonderful time to visit this part of the country because temperatures are warm but not stifling. Summers get incredibly hot and humid in the southeast. In the desert areas of the southwest, like Las Vegas, temperatures can soar well above 104°F (40°C) on some days. Autumn cools things off across the southern states, but can also bring severe weather in the southeast. .

Ultimately, the best time to travel to the United States depends on where you’re headed and what kind of activities you’d like to do. Visit our city guides for more specific information on when to go.

How to Stay Safe in the United States

The United States is a massive country and “safety” changes a lot depending on where you go and what you do. Generally, the US safe place to travel around — even if you’re traveling solo.

Violent attacks tend to be confined to certain areas (especially where drug and gang violence are a problem). You may encounter petty crime, like theft, especially around popular tourist landmarks and in larger cities, especially on the west coast where theft is a much more common problem. Keep an eye on your belongings at all times, especially while taking crowded public transportation.

Gun violence and mass shootings tend to dominate headlines when they happen. However, the chances of it happening to you are slim. Do not let this discourage you from exploring the United States. The U.S. is very big and very, very diverse. And, due to this size, there is a lot of cultural (and political) variation. Despite what you hear, crime in America is low. (There was far more crime in the US in the 1990s!). For more information, read this post, “ Is it Safe to Visit the United States?”

If you rent a vehicle, don’t leave any valuables in it overnight. Take common sense safety measures and you’ll be fine.

Moreover, be sure to read about common travel scams to avoid here .

When hiking, always bring water and sunscreen. Be sure to check the weather before you depart and dress accordingly.

Solo female travelers should generally feel safe but all the standard safety cautions apply. For specific tips, I would read one of the many incredible solo female travel blogs on the web. They’ll give you tips and advice that I can’t.

If you do experience an emergency, dial 911 for assistance.

Always trust your gut instinct. Make copies of your personal documents, including your passport and ID.

The most important piece of advice I can offer is to purchase good travel insurance. Travel insurance protects you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. You can use the widget below to find the policy right for you:

United States Travel Guide: The Best Booking Resources

These are my favorite companies to use when I travel. They consistently have the best deals, offer world-class customer service and great value, and overall, are better than their competitors. They are the companies I use the most and are always the starting point in my search for travel deals.

• Skyscanner – Skyscanner is my favorite flight search engine. They search small websites and budget airlines that larger search sites tend to miss. They are hands down the number one place to start.
• Hostelworld – This is the best hostel accommodation site out there with the largest inventory, best search interface, and widest availability.
• Booking.com – The best all around booking site that constantly provides the cheapest and lowest rates. They have the widest selection of budget accommodation. In all my tests, they’ve always had the cheapest rates out of all the booking websites.
• Get Your Guide – Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace for tours and excursions. They have tons of tour options available in cities all around the world, including everything from cooking classes, walking tours, street art lessons, and more!
• SafetyWing – Safety Wing offers convenient and affordable plans tailored to digital nomads and long-term travelers. They have cheap monthly plans, great customer service, and an easy-to-use claims process that makes it perfect for those on the road.
• LifeStraw – My go-to company for reusable water bottles with built-in filters so you can ensure your drinking water is always clean and safe.
• Unbound Merino – They make lightweight, durable, easy-to-clean travel clothing.
• Top Travel Credit Cards – Points are the best way to cut down travel expenses. Here’s my favorite point earning credit cards so you can get free travel!

United States Travel Guide: Related Articles

Want more info? Check out all the articles I’ve written on United States travel and continue planning your trip:

Where to Stay in San Francisco: The Best Neighborhoods for Your Visit

The 12 Best Things to Do in Chicago

The 5 Best Hotels in San Francisco

How to Experience Milwaukee Like a Local

The 7 Best Hotels in New York City

The 7 Best Hotels in Miami

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Chase Travel Has What the Other Cards and Online Travel Agencies Don’t — Southwest Flights

Dennis Schaal , Skift

May 16th, 2024 at 10:04 AM EDT

Online travel agencies and credit card companies — other than Chase — have Southwest-envy. Not having Southwest flights is a major hole in their travel offerings.

Dennis Schaal

Chase cardholders can book Southwest Airlines flights through the Chase Travel portal, and that’s a rarity for leisure travelers.

You can’t do it through American Express, Citi or Capital One’s travel platforms, nor can vacationers book Southwest flights through Expedia, Kayak, Booking.com, Google Travel or any other online travel platform for leisure travelers.

It isn’t a total shutout for Citi cardholders with access to Citi Travel — they can call Citi customer service to book Southwest flights, but there is no online booking.

That’s the way it worked for Chase cardholders prior to last November. If they wanted to book Southwest flights, they would have to phone Chase Travel customer service to book Southwest. But that changed in November — although it didn’t receive a lot of press — when Chase cardholders got the ability to book Southwest flights on Chase Travel using points or cash, a Chase spokesperson said Wednesday.

An image of Southwest fares available on Chase Travel. Source: Skift

Direct Booking Strategy

Southwest, one of the largest airlines in the U.S., was renowned for its direct booking strategy. The cheapest way for an airline to sell its flights is on its own website; it saves the distribution costs that would come with spreading its fares to third-parties.

For years, Southwest.com was the only place to book Southwest flights. Online travel agencies that tried to offer Southwest flights received cease and desist letters .

In recent years, Southwest has made its flights available to corporate booking tools for business travelers in managed travel programs. It also began distributing its fares and schedules through global distribution systems — but you or your travel agent had to phone Southwest to get a ticket.

It’s unclear what the latest twist in Southwest’s strategy means regarding Chase Travel. Southwest didn’t respond to requests for comment. Will other credit card companies eventually get Southwest’s flights too?

But when Southwest makes it flights available to Chase Travel cardholders, these flights still can only be booked within the non-public Chase Travel environment, and they aren’t available more widely to the general public.

That means that most travelers still have to book Southwest the old-fashioned way — on Southwest.com.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: american express , booking.com , business travel , chase , chase travel , citi , expedia , kayak , southwest

Photo credit: Southwest flights are available through Chase Travel. Tomás Del Coro / Wikimedia Commons

More From Forbes

‘out in the world’: a travel guide for the lgbtqia+ community.

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Venice — one of destinations featured in 'Out In The World'

‘ Out in the World: An LGBTQIA+ (and Friends!) Travel Guide to More Than 100 Destinations Around the World ’ is National Geographic’s first travel book aimed at the LGBTQIA+ community. Authors Amy B. Scher and Mark Jason Williams dive into 120 destinations — from Austin to Antarctica — and what makes them both great vacations as well as inclusive for every traveler. I spoke with Scher and Williams about the need for this book and what they love most about travel.

What motivated you to write a travel book for the LGBTQIA+ community?

Mark Jason Williams : We wrote this book because it didn't exist. The LGBTQIA+ section in travel guides is usually in the back and focused on hotspots and bars and clubs. Those things are great but they're not for everyone. Sometimes I want to go to a small town and go antiquing and stay in a welcoming inn. We wanted to create a book that was inclusive and provided lots of different ideas and inspirations for various types of travelers.

Amy B. Scher : Our litmus test for this book was is this somewhere we could take our mom ? We want the same diversity that other communities have access to. We all know the places to go for Pride, what can we do beyond that? There's drag brunches in the book but also places you could go on a family reunion. The idea was to create a curated list of safe and welcoming destinations.

How has being part of a same-sex couple affected your travel experiences?

ABS : Until I met my future wife I had never dated women before. As a single woman I had to think about places I could and couldn’t go — like many straight people. But I never thought about places I couldn’t go as a same-sex couple. When we got married I wanted to go to Marrakesh. I was lovingly told by some family members that — at that time — they worried it might not be welcoming. It made me understand what the community deals with, not being able to freely be themselves as they travel. But I’m happy to say that things have really changed there and it looks like we’re finally going after 15 years together.

Out in the World

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MJW : My husband and I checked into this boutique hotel once and there was a welcome card that started with “Welcome Mr. & Mrs.” I was upset because I had exchanged emails with the concierge and they knew that we were a gay couple. I brought it to the attention of the innkeeper. She said, “I have a lot of gay friends. We're not homophobic.” And that made me realize: we're beyond the obvious homophobia but there are still ways we’re not being welcoming to the community.

What was one of your favorite places you travelled for the book?

MJW : Antarctica is one of the most epic mind-blowing soul-healing journeys that I've ever been on. You're at the end of the world. I was so close to a whale that I could hear it breathe. The penguins. The glaciers. The astounding scenery and wildlife.

ABS : One of my biggest surprises was the Hill Country that surrounds Austin, Texas. Most people know that Austin is very LGBTQIA+ friendly, but as my wife and I got further out in some of these tiny towns we felt very welcome. And I don't think that's a place that I would've gone many years ago.

Author Amy B. Scher

Is the book purely positive or also cautionary about places not to travel?

ABS : It’s overwhelmingly positive. It’s mini-guides to 120 curated destinations. What to do, see and where to eat and stay. A sample itinerary and a taste of all the possibilities. If a business is in the book that means we like them.

But there are also caveats that maybe in this place, you want to exercise this type of caution or be more conscious in terms of public displays of affection.

Is that one of the more frustrating aspects of traveling with a same-sex partner?

MJW : People universally want to have the same freedom as the straight community to hold each other's hands or sneak a kiss. But if you are going to a place where PDA is frowned upon and you can't go without holding somebody's hand — maybe that just isn't the place for you.

In some countries the resorts are in a bubble and are going to be welcoming to the LGBTQIA+ community. Holding your partner's hand on the beach is going to be fine. But if outside the resort is a less progressive place where I would say don’t do that — then you need to ask yourself if the concession is worth it.

Author Mark Jason Williams

Are there locations where you give separate advice for different members of the LGBTQIA+ community?

ABS : Each chapter has an LGBTQIA+ lowdown which does point out when certain parts of the community should be more aware. But we also point out a lot of positives. Like in this particular area trans rights and inclusiveness has come really far or this place is very popular with lesbian couples .

What surprised you most while researching the book?

MJW : Even in less progressive U.S. states there are welcoming pockets and very inclusive communities. There’s Galena, Illinois or Eureka Springs in Arkansas. Kentucky has Louisville. There were more pride flags and LGBTQIA+ owned and welcoming businesses there than I ever would've realized. Same thing with Salt Lake City, which per capita has more LGBTQIA+ identifying people than Los Angeles. Don't rule out a place because of political beliefs.

Are there ways straight travelers can help make destinations more inclusive?

ABS: One way is to support businesses that outwardly state they're welcoming to the community. Put money into those places so they can continue to operate. It’s a vacation and you certainly don’t have to look up every business. But spending a few extra minutes sometimes can make a big difference to the community.

MJW: If you are a straight person traveling with an LGBTQIA+ person, sometimes they may need a little space and that's okay. There may be a bar they want to go to on their own and if they don’t want company don’t take it personally. And if they don’t feel comfortable in a particular space and want to leave don’t undermine their feelings. It's small things but they do go a long way.

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