Best Travel Writing: The 10 Best Travel Novels
It’s hard to find good travel writing, but it does exist. Part of the reason for this is that much travel writing is also considered nature writing or nonfiction. Part of the reason is that the field is so competitive with many good authors competing for a relatively small market space. But there’s a wide variety of great travel novels out there, and this is my list of the top ten travel novels I’ve read in the last two years.
10) Through Painted Deserts, by Donald Miller. This is one I found in the “Christian Nonfiction” section, which may be unfair. There is no doubt that Miller is a Christian, but above all he is a writer, not a preacher, and his questioning of his own faith, of the reasons for existing, of who and what he is or what he is becoming recalls the fantastic examination of consciousness that came from the travel writing of the Beat generation. Miller’s account of his journey is great, going through the moments of beauty, the need for good road trip music, and admitting his moments of shame and fear as freely as any other part of his journey.
9) Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald. The initial reading of this book can be difficult, because after the first few chapters there is a lot of Western perspective, the whining of living conditions and poverty, the kind of disdain you don’t like to read from travel writing. I’m glad I read the rest, because like “Across Painted Deserts,” “Holy Cow” is about the author’s journey. Sarah evolves and changes from chapter to chapter in front of you as she sheds the dismissive nature of a “too smart” atheist to fall for superstition, and opens up, traveling across India and trying out all the different religious beliefs and practices. as she becomes a humble theist she learns about happiness, she learns to grow, and she learns that alien cultures can have much to offer the open-minded traveler.
8) Into the Wild by John Krakauer. I first saw this book at Barnes and Noble at one of the launch tables. I was on winter vacation in Alaska and visiting family in Iowa. I took the book, sat down, and read the entire work in one sitting. Travel book, journalism book, nature book, adventure book, whatever you call it, this is a great read, and the debate it provokes is deep and passionate. As a traveler with a passion for travel, I understand the drive the main character feels, as an Alaskan native, I understand the native perspective of irritation, of lack of understanding that nature is brutal and especially Alaska should be respected as such.
7) Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town, by Paul Theroux. Paul Theroux is at his best in “Dark Star Safar,” where his observational skills and dry wit are on full display. Paul takes readers across Africa via a crowded rickety bus, canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train on a journey that’s hard to forget. There are moments of beauty, but there are also many moments of misery and danger. This is a narrative of Africa that goes under the skin to dare to look into the deepest core of what is often referred to as “The Dark Continent.”
6) Blue Highways: A Journey to America, by William Least Heat-Moon. This is an autobiographical journey taken by Heat-Mean in 1978. After separating from his wife and losing his job, Heat-Moon decided to take a long road trip around the United States, sticking to “Blue Highways”, a term for refer to little byways connecting rural America (which were drawn in blue in Rand McNally’s old atlases). So Heat-Moon kits out his van, named “Ghost Dancing” and embarks on a 3-month self-examination tour of the United States. The book chronicles the 13,000-mile journey and the people he meets along the way, as he steers clear of cities and interstates, avoids fast food, and explores local American culture on a journey that’s just as amazing today as it was back then. for the first time.
5) The Lost Continent, by Bill Bryson. There are tons of great Bill Bryson books out there, and any one of them could take this place here. “The Lost Continent” is Bryson’s journey across America, visiting some common places (the Grand Canyon), but also exploring the back roads and seeking that familiarity that helps him remember home.
4) Wanderlust: Pico Iyer’s Tales of True-Life Romance and Adventure. Probably one of the best collections of travel writing published in recent memory, this collection is under the name of Pico Iyer, who helped edit this collection. These stories come from Salon.com’s “Wanderlust” section and create a varied tapestry of travel writing that will keep the reader going from writer to writer.
3) A walk through America by Peter Jenkins. This is one of the all-time modern classics in travel writing, as Peter Jenkins recalls the story of his 1973-1975 trek from New York to New Orleans. For many readers, this remains a rare travel book that grabs you and keeps you going. Known as a travel writer who will walk anywhere, including Alaska and China, Peter Jenkins says, “I started looking for myself and my country and found both.” That sums up what travel writing should be all about.
2) Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck. This was a novel that helped John Steinbeck win a Nobel Prize for Literature. “Travels with Charlie” is a fantastic travel narrative that gets to the heart of travel, the point of travel and the strange confrontation and realization that the places and people you remember are gone once you are. As he revisits the places of his youth that many of his books are based on, he finds himself seeing old friends who are just as uncomfortable with his return as he is with being there. A great story about travel, about home, about mourning lost history, about aging, and about America – this should be required reading for all high school students.
1) The Dharma Wanderers, by Jack Kerouac. The Beat generation was full of great travel narratives, and Jack Kerouac was the master of powerful, moving, and passionate language that unfolded stories as few people ever have. While “On the Road” is Kerouac’s most noted travel narrative, “The Dharma Bums” is a better book. Filled with passion, compelling characters and stories, and the kind of passionate language and powerful prose that made Beat Generation writers popular, this Kerouac book is extraordinary and ranks number one.