12 Travelogues and Memoirs to Inspire Your Next Vacation Destination

Article by Allison Ebner

 

Travel can be transformative. Think of your last road trip or getaway and what you learned about yourself and the world around you.

Travelogues and travel memoirs, like Eat, Pray, Love, encapsulate the sights, sounds, tastes and people that the authors encountered on their journeys with transportive language or awe-inspiring photographs that make you feel as if you’re right there with them. Through their journeys, the authors also reflect on how the experience left them changed and inspired.

In celebration of summer and 100 years of the University of Delaware’s Study Abroad program, we’ve rounded up a selection of travelogues and travel memoirs that just might inspire your next travel destination or journey of self-discovery.

Traveling
Around the Country | Around the World

 

Around the Country

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

Shortly after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with leukemia, upending life as she knew it. After a harrowing four years, she walked out of the hospital cancer-free and faced with the question of how to re-enter the world and live again. Alongside a dog named Oscar, Jaouad set out on a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country, exploring new places, meeting strangers who wrote to her during her hospital stay, and discovering how to begin again.

 

 

Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon

After losing his job and his marriage, William Least Heat-Moon literally set off on the road less traveled. Traveling along the backroads of rural Americana – roads shown as blue lines on certain maps – Least Heat-Moon documents the stories of the characters he met along the way and the histories of their almost-forgotten towns.

 

 

 

Driving Miss Norma: One Family’s Journey Saying “Yes” to Living by Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie Liddle

When recently widowed, 90-year-old Miss Norma is diagnosed with cancer, she decides to set off on a journey around the country in a motorhome with her son, daughter-in-law and their dog. State by state, Miss Norma begins a new adventure by saying “yes” to life – trying regional foods for the first time, building new bonds with her family and fostering friendships with strangers.

 

 

Miles to Go: An African Family in Search of America Along Route 66 by Brennen Matthews

Traveling the scenic Route 66 from Illinois to California, Brennen Matthews goes in search of authentic America with his wife and son. Along the way, they explore historical landmarks, stop at quirky roadside attractions and meet plenty of colorful characters. Matthews captures the sights and sounds of their journey in a way that will transport you to the historic highway and provide ample opportunity to reflect on American culture.

 

 

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

Best known for classic works of literature like The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck penned this memoir following a 1960 cross-country road trip. From the northernmost tip of Maine to California’s Monterey Peninsula, Steinbeck and his French poodle Charley traveled interstates and country roads to rediscover the America he had been writing about for so many years.

 

 

 

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Often recommended in the same breath as Eat, Pray, Love, this memoir follows Cheryl Strayed on what she deems the most impulsive decision of her life. Feeling like she has nothing left to lose in the wake of her mother’s death and her dissolving marriage, Strayed resolves to hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail with no experience or training. Her solo journey of self-discovery and healing takes her through California, Oregon and Washington.

 

 

Around the World

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

Jessica Nabongo is one of the first Black women to visit all 195 countries, and her travelogue is sure to provide you with no shortage of locales to add to your wish list. In this memoir, she shares her top 100 destinations, complete with beautiful photographs and lists of must-do activities for those who want to visit. From Norway to Afghanistan to Tonga, Nabongo pulls the curtain back on her life of travel as a first generation Ugandan American.

 

 

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

There’s a reason Bill Bryson has so many travel books to his name: He has a knack for describing an atmosphere so that the reader feels as if they are also there, laughing alongside him. In this book, Bryson goes beyond koalas and kangaroos to tell of Australia’s history and his journeys there. Despite its dry climate and a plethora of species that can kill you, Australia is a place of love for Bryson, where he is always ready to participate in the culture around him, making for some truly memorable first-hand accounts.

 

 

The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America by Che Guevara

It’s never too late to catch up on a classic. In this travel diary from the Marxist revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara documents his motorcycle tour through Latin America as a 23-year-old medical student. In many ways a coming-of-age story, Che recounts his journey and the many social injustices he saw over more than 5,000 miles that transformed him along the way. Written with humor and hope, it is a lively look into a trip that helped shape the revolutionary into an agent of change.

 

 

No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach by Anthony Bourdain

To many, food is considered a language of love. For the late chef Anthony Bourdain, it is also a powerful way to discover and experience the world. From New Zealand to New Jersey, Bourdain documents his far-flung travels through the dishes he has tasted and the people who have welcomed and fed him along the way. While published as a companion to the TV series of the same name, this book stands on its own as a testament to the connection and communication achieved through food.

 

 

Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams

Mark Adams has spent his career editing adventure and travel magazines, but he had never done anything adventurous himself – well, until he tried to recreate the 1911 expedition of the so-called discovery of Machu Picchu. In this memoir, Adams recounts his own expedition through the gorgeous and remote landscapes of Peru while discovering new sides of himself as he steps away from the city and into nature.

 

 

 

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

Unlike other selections on the list, this memoir chronicles Peter Mayle’s experience traveling to and settling in a new land – Provence, France. The Englishman had long dreamed of moving into a farmhouse in the Luberon mountain range in Southern France with his wife and dogs. This is the story of that dream realized, telling of Mayle’s experience owning a new home in another country, adjusting to the slower pace of Provencal life, and discovering the culture and climate around them.