The Best Travel Books of All Time, According to Authors

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Condé Nast, 75 Books

Condé Nast Traveler created a list of the best travel books based on multiple authors opinions. Here's the description from their website:

There are an astounding number of travel books out there. How to choose the best of the best? You can start by asking the experts. Back in 2007, Traveler enlisted a literary all-star jury that included Monica Ali, Vikram Chandra, Jennifer Egan, Francine Prose, Paul Theroux, and more to create a comprehensive list of the best travel books of all time. Then in 2020, we reached out to another batch of authors—Pico Iyer, Julia Phillips, and Imbolo Mbue, to name a few—to see what travel books have made a mark on them—an even more meaningful question during a year when travel was extraordinarily limited for most. We wanted to know which books, regardless of genre, changed the way they considered a certain culture or place or people; the books that inspired them both to write and to get out into the world themselves.

As you'll see below, the picks—old and new—carry their weight, proving many of the greats are just as relevant today as they were when first published. From David Sedaris's 2000 Me Talk Pretty One Day to Herodotus's 440 B.C. The Histories, read on for dozens of passionately endorsed and beloved travel books, presented in alphabetical order.

Who voted?
Monica Ali, Vikram Chandra, Jennifer Egan, Francine Prose, Paul Theroux, Pico Iyer, Julia Phillips, and Imbolo Mbue.

This list was originally published in 2022 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
10618 Along The Ganges Ilija Trojanow 2005 German German
8781 Among The Cities Jan Morris 1985 British English
5371 Arabian Sands Wilfred Thesiger 1959 British English
8032 An Area Of Darkness V. S. Naipaul 1964 British English
4983 Arctic Dreams Barry Lopez 1986 American English
8596 As They Were M. F. K. Fisher 1982 American English
8032 A Barbarian In Asia Henri Michaux 1933 French French
429 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
10517 The Bird Man And The Lap Dancer Eric Hansen 2004 American English
580 Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Rebecca West 1941 British English
5755 Blue Highways William Least Heat-Moon 1982 American English
8942 Chasing The Monsoon Alexander Frater 1987 British English
10388 Chasing The Sea Tom Bissell 2003 American English
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
10796 Cross Country Robert Sullivan 2006 American English
8716 Dark Star Safari Paul Theroux 2002 American English
229 Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville 1835 French French
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
10869 Down The Nile Rosemary Mahoney 2007 American English
5143 Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert 2006 American English
5372 Endurance Alfred Lansing 1959 American English
9313 Exterminate All The Brutes Sven Lindqvist 1992 Swedish Swedish
1786 Farthest North Fridtjof Nansen 1897 Norwegian Norwegian
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
8032 From A Chinese City Gontran de Poncins 1957 French English
3400 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
867 Heidi Johanna Spyri 1881 Swiss German
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
12035 Honouring High Places Junko Tabei 2017 Japanese English
8548 Down Under Bill Bryson 2000 American English
6690 In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin 1977 British English
9810 In The Country Of Country Nicholas Dawidoff 1997 American English
3274 Iron & Silk Mark Salzman 1986 American English
8547 Journey To Portugal José Saramago 1981 Portuguese Portuguese
8942 Letters From Egypt Florence Nightingale 1987 British English
8032 London Perceived V. S. Pritchett 1962 British English
8032 The Lycian Shore Freya Stark 1956 British English
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
11217 Memorial Bryan Washington 2020 American English
8032 The Muses Are Heard Truman Capote 1956 American English
5321 My First Summer in the Sierra John Muir 1911 American English
2714 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Matsuo Bashō 1684 Japanese Japanese
6453 News from Tartary Peter Fleming 1936 British English
9810 No Mercy Redmond O'Hanlon 1997 British English
8032 Notes From The Century Before Edward Hoagland 1969 American English
2632 Old Glory Jonathan Raban 1981 British English
10096 The People In The Trees Hanya Yanagihara 2013 American English
8032 The Pine Barrens John McPhee 1968 American English
7167 The Places In Between Rory Stewart 2004 British English
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
1163 The Road to Oxiana Robert Byron 1937 British English
6451 Rome And A Villa Eleanor Clark 1952 American English
9889 Round Ireland With A Fridge Tony Hawks 1998 British English
7791 Sandstorms Peter Theroux 1990 American English
8032 Sea And Sardinia D. H. Lawrence 1921 British English
6600 Shah Of Shahs Ryszard Kapuscinski 1982 Polish Polish
2667 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
8032 Siren Land Norman Douglas 1911 British English
9810 Skating To Antarctica Jenny Diski 1997 British English
8032 Slowly Down The Ganges Eric Newby 1966 British English
5962 This Is Happiness Niall Williams 2019 Irish English
10869 Tokyo Fiancée Amélie Nothomb 2007 Belgian French
8713 To A Distant Island James McConkey 1984 American English
4790 Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes Robert Louis Stevenson 1879 British English
5238 Travels With Myself And Another Martha Gellhorn 1978 American English
8032 Two Towns In Provence M. F. K. Fisher 1964 American English
8032 A View Of The World Norman Lewis 1959 British English
11864 Welcome To The Goddamn Ice Cube Blair Braverman 2016 American English
979 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
9973 Where’d You Go, Bernadette Maria Semple 2012 American English
7175 Wild Cheryl Strayed 2012 American English
10618 Wrong About Japan Peter Carey 2005 Australian English
1981 West With the Night Beryl Markham 1942 British English
5323 A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush Eric Newby 1958 British English