7 Books About Travel That Will Instantly Spark Your Wanderlust

Some people experience wanderlust after watching a documentary, or a movie.

Others, through seeing a gorgeous drone shot of the Maldives on their Instagram feeds. For more people still, conversations with friends about far-flung places will ignite that spark.

However, to millions of people worldwide it begins with a book. Travel memoirs and literary travel fiction are always among the bestselling categories in the world, according to a 2023 survey by the American Booksellers Association.

Words move people. Literally.

While I can’t fully credit reading with my love of travel, there have been countless books that have, over the years, inspired me to visit places I would otherwise never have dreamed of.

There’s something about getting lost between the pages of a good book that inspires action, and in this article, I’m going to share 7 of the best books about travel that will inspire wanderlust in even the most dedicated homebody.

Are you ready? Then let’s get into it.

Table of Contents

1. Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert

Gilbert was 34 and recently divorced when she resolved to spend a year travelling around Italy, India, and Bali.

What was to come was one of the most discussed travel memoirs of the twenty-first century. The book sold over twelve million copies all over the world and was translated in over thirty languages, as well as being made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.

I adore this book, and I credit Gilbert with inspiring me to fly solo to Bali a decade ago. Reading about Elizabeth’s time in Ubud was pivotal in my decision to make the trip, and just as I knew I would, I fell in love with Ubud as soon as I arrived.

In the book, Elizabeth falls in love with food in Italy, finds herself in India, and met someone very special in Bali. Not only did this trip heal her from heartbreak, but it also gave millions of readers the desire for adventure.

READ | Eat, Pray, Love and White Privilege – Unpacking the Criticisms

2. Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts

I picked this book up in Cambodia, after a guy I met in a hostel wouldn’t stop raving about it and insisting that I read passages.

To this day, this book remains one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read, and despite its somewhat intimidating size – over 900 pages – I absolutely raced through this.

This is a work of fiction, although it is styled as an autobiography in which Roberts, a convicted Australian bank robber, escaped prison in 1980 and fled to Bombay (now Mumbai), where he lived in a slum, operated a clinic on the streets, and plunged headlong into the criminal underworld of Bombay.

This book is the epitome of adventure. From fighting a war in Afghanistan to developing an opium addiction in India and winding up in prison more than once, there are enough twists and turns in this story to last a lifetime.

A city has never come to life as vibrant, as contradictory, and as magnetic as Shantaram makes Mumbai. I’ve never personally visited India, but reading this book made me feel like I had, and so many readers have been inspired to book a flight to India after reading Shantaram.

Sidenote: There are also reading apps like Fiction Me available to ensure you’ll never run out of travel ideas. From LGBTQ urban love stories to romantasy worlds based on real places, apps like FictionMe are full of brilliant works that are completely unknown to the general public – in other words, hidden gems.

3. Delicious – Nicky Pellegrino

Speaking of hidden gems, I feel like Nicky Pellegrino’s books are not talked about enough.

Through the rhythms of Italian village life, food, and community, Pellegrino creates a world that is easy to fall in love with. The vivid descriptions of Italy and food make this book such a sensory read that it is almost impossible not to pack a bag and run away to Italy as soon as you reach the end.

I’ve read several of Nicky Pellegrino’s books, and without fail, they ignite my desire to travel to Italy. You can almost smell the aroma of slow-cooked sauces, and feel the sun-warmed stone underneath your feet as you make your way through the chapters.

If you’ve never been to the Italian countryside, reading this book is the next best thing.

4. The Beach – Alex Garland

Before it was turned into a film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, The Beach was a novel, first published in 1996. I remember watching the film before my first backpacking trip to Thailand, and the opening scenes of DiCaprio making his way down Khao San Road convinced me that this was the life I craved.

The book is even more gripping. However, this is not a book that is comfortable, and while it has certainly inspired countless backpackers to discover Southeast Asia, it also shines a light on the dark side of backpacking.

Garland masterfully portrays the early backpacker age, and the mania for seeking something untouched, unspoiled, and secret. I won’t talk too much about the plot of this book because it would spoil it, but let’s just say that there are certainly some lessons to be learned within its pages.

5. Under the Tuscan Sun – Frances Mayes

In addition to being a novelist and memoirist, Frances Mayes is also a poet, and it shows.

Under the Tuscan Sun is a memoir about her efforts in restoring a spectacular but dilapidated villa in the Tuscan countryside, and the descriptions are stunning.

When Mayes arrived in Italy, she did not really have a plan. She had a vision of olive trees and terracotta and long summer dinners. What she got were plumbing disasters, bureaucratic nightmares (I’ve experienced my fair share of those in Italy!), and the most transformational years of her life.

I think one of the reasons why this book is so special is that most travel books have to do with moving. This one is one of arrival.

Mayes describes Tuscany with such exactness – what the afternoon light was like, the yellow of the sunflowers against the old stone – that even if you’ve never been to Italy, you feel like you’re right there with her.

6. The Alchemist – Paolo Coelho

The Alchemist is a modern classic, and when you read it, you’ll understand why.

It follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago, who yearns of travel. What is unique about The Alchemist is that it reworks the concept of travel as not an escape, but a quest.

On his quest to find treasure near the pyramids of Egypt (his ‘personal myth’ that he is sacrificing everything to achieve), Santiago meets kings, crystal-sellers, alchemists, and all manner of other weird and wonderful characters.

This book is full of life lessons, advice, and symbolism, and although it has its fair share of haters, the 150 million copies sold suggest that it has plenty of fans as well.

7. On the Road – Jack Kerouac

On the Road is one of the most quintessential travel books of all time, and it’s one that I’ve seen in a million hostels over the course of my travels.

Ironically enough, I haven’t actually read this book (yet), but it’s so iconic that I couldn’t not include it in a list of books about travel!

The book follows two friends who drive, drift, and hitchhike their way through America in search of adventure. Written by Kerouac in 1951 during an alleged three weeks of typing on a single scroll of paper, the novel invented a template of a particular type of travel narrative, and while it is certainly a product of its time, it has amassed a cult-like following, and has probably been responsible for more American road trips than perhaps any other single piece of writing in the twentieth century.

Books About Travel | Final Thoughts

It’s clear that wanderlust is never far away for many of us, and that sometimes, all it takes is a vivid account of the noise of Mumbai or the slow Italian village life to inspire us to book a plane ticket and venture to pastures new.

From the idyllic Tuscan countryside in Under the Tuscan Sun to the hedonistic road trips and jazz bars of On the Road, each of these books is sure to awaken a wanderlust that perhaps you didn’t even know existed within you.

Until next time,

XOXO

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