The Best Travel Books of All Time, According to Authors

This is one of the 743 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 about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
10590 Along The Ganges Ilija Trojanow 2005 German German
8764 Among The Cities Jan Morris 1985 British English
5362 Arabian Sands Wilfred Thesiger 1959 British English
8017 An Area Of Darkness V. S. Naipaul 1964 British English
4973 Arctic Dreams Barry Lopez 1986 American English
8579 As They Were M. F. K. Fisher 1982 American English
8017 A Barbarian In Asia Henri Michaux 1933 French French
427 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
10490 The Bird Man And The Lap Dancer Eric Hansen 2004 American English
580 Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Rebecca West 1941 British English
5744 Blue Highways William Least Heat-Moon 1982 American English
8926 Chasing The Monsoon Alexander Frater 1987 British English
10363 Chasing The Sea Tom Bissell 2003 American English
1620 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
10767 Cross Country Robert Sullivan 2006 American English
8698 Dark Star Safari Paul Theroux 2002 American English
226 Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville 1835 French French
1243 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
10839 Down The Nile Rosemary Mahoney 2007 American English
5134 Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert 2006 American English
5363 Endurance Alfred Lansing 1959 American English
9294 Exterminate All The Brutes Sven Lindqvist 1992 Swedish Swedish
1783 Farthest North Fridtjof Nansen 1897 Norwegian Norwegian
681 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
8017 From A Chinese City Gontran de Poncins 1957 French English
3394 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
1399 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
867 Heidi Johanna Spyri 1881 Swiss German
623 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
12009 Honouring High Places Junko Tabei 2017 Japanese English
8531 Down Under Bill Bryson 2000 American English
6676 In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin 1977 British English
9793 In The Country Of Country Nicholas Dawidoff 1997 American English
3269 Iron & Silk Mark Salzman 1986 American English
8530 Journey To Portugal José Saramago 1981 Portuguese Portuguese
8926 Letters From Egypt Florence Nightingale 1987 British English
8017 London Perceived V. S. Pritchett 1962 British English
8017 The Lycian Shore Freya Stark 1956 British English
1893 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
11186 Memorial Bryan Washington 2020 American English
8017 The Muses Are Heard Truman Capote 1956 American English
5312 My First Summer in the Sierra John Muir 1911 American English
2711 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Matsuo Bashō 1684 Japanese Japanese
6441 News from Tartary Peter Fleming 1936 British English
9793 No Mercy Redmond O'Hanlon 1997 British English
8017 Notes From The Century Before Edward Hoagland 1969 American English
2628 Old Glory Jonathan Raban 1981 British English
10079 The People In The Trees Hanya Yanagihara 2013 American English
8017 The Pine Barrens John McPhee 1968 American English
7151 The Places In Between Rory Stewart 2004 British English
696 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
1162 The Road to Oxiana Robert Byron 1937 British English
6439 Rome And A Villa Eleanor Clark 1952 American English
9870 Round Ireland With A Fridge Tony Hawks 1998 British English
7774 Sandstorms Peter Theroux 1990 American English
8017 Sea And Sardinia D. H. Lawrence 1921 British English
6586 Shah Of Shahs Ryszard Kapuscinski 1982 Polish Polish
2662 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
8017 Siren Land Norman Douglas 1911 British English
9793 Skating To Antarctica Jenny Diski 1997 British English
8017 Slowly Down The Ganges Eric Newby 1966 British English
5951 This Is Happiness Niall Williams 2019 Irish English
10839 Tokyo Fiancée Amélie Nothomb 2007 Belgian French
8695 To A Distant Island James McConkey 1984 American English
4781 Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes Robert Louis Stevenson 1879 British English
6723 Travels With Myself And Another Martha Gellhorn 1978 American English
8017 Two Towns In Provence M. F. K. Fisher 1964 American English
8017 A View Of The World Norman Lewis 1959 British English
11838 Welcome To The Goddamn Ice Cube Blair Braverman 2016 American English
978 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
9955 Where’d You Go, Bernadette Maria Semple 2012 American English
7159 Wild Cheryl Strayed 2012 American English
10590 Wrong About Japan Peter Carey 2005 Australian English
1976 West With the Night Beryl Markham 1942 British English
5314 A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush Eric Newby 1958 British English