The Greatest Travel Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
41 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
108 Walden Henry David Thoreau 1854 American English
145 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
162 Silent Spring Rachel Carson 1962 American English
183 The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1906 American English
188 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens 1859 British English
202 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
207 Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis 1946 Greek Greek
208 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
300 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell 1791 British English
371 History of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
416 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen 1937 Danish Danish
448 Homage to Catalonia George Orwell 1938 British English
478 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
485 Tristes Tropiques Claude Lévi-Strauss 1955 French French
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
541 The Seven Pillars of Wisdom T. E. Lawrence 1926 British English
558 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Alexander Brown 1970 American English
559 Christ Stopped at Eboli Carlo Levi 1945 Italian Italian
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
580 Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Rebecca West 1941 British English
596 The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides -410 Greek Ancient greek
619 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles 1949 American English
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
694 La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine 1668 French French
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
783 Anabasis Xenophon -390 Greek Ancient greek
800 The Loved One Evelyn Waugh 1948 British English
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
815 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne 1872 French French
818 The African Child Camara Laye 1953 Guinean French
825 In Our Time Ernest Hemingway 1925 American English
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
851 Essays, First And Second Series Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
865 The Pillow Book Sei Shōnagon 1002 Japanese Japanese
871 Wieland Charles Brockden Brown 1798 American English
881 Utopia Thomas More 1516 British Latin
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
891 Golem Gustav Meyrink 1915 Austrian German
904 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
905 Coming of Age in Samoa Margaret Mead 1928 American English
908 The Life of a Good-For-Nothing Joseph von Eichendorff 1826 German German
909 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
923 The World Of Yesterday Stefan Zweig 1942 Austrian German
946 The Diary of a Nobody George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith 1892 British English
979 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
991 Macunaíma Mario de Andrade 1928 Brazilian Portuguese
992 Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding 1742 British English
1020 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
1021 If Not Now, When? Primo Levi 1982 Italian Italian
1028 Schindler's List Thomas Keneally 1982 Australian English
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1059 The True History of the Conquest of New Spain Bernal Díaz del Castillo 1632 Spanish Spanish
1075 The Kon-Tiki Expedition Thor Heyerdahl 1948 Norwegian Norwegian
1076 Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Henry Adams 1904 American English
1098 Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer 1952 Austrian German
1114 Andersonville MacKinlay Kantor 1955 American English
1143 Tevye The Dairyman And The Railroad Stories Sholem Aleichem 1894 Jewish Yiddish
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1163 The Road to Oxiana Robert Byron 1937 British English
1169 The History of Mr. Polly H. G. Wells 1910 British English
1172 My Family And Other Animals Gerald Durrell 1956 British English
1191 Blow Up And Other Stories Julio Cortazar 1968 Argentinian Spanish
1210 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
1224 The Snow Leopard Peter Matthiessen 1978 American English
1233 The History Of Gil Blas Of Santillana Alain-René Lesage 1715 French French
1244 The Travels of Marco Polo Marco Polo 1300 Italian Old french
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1253 Absolute Beginners Colin MacInnes 1959 British English
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1303 The Seventh Cross Anna Seghers 1942 German German
1310 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
1326 The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton 1653 British English
1334 Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton 1941 British English
1348 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
1378 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1415 Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain 1883 American English
1416 Rights of Man Thomas Paine 1791 British English
1431 Cakes And Ale Or, The Skeleton In The Cupboard W. Somerset Maugham 1930 British English
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1468 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner William Faulkner 1950 American English
1470 Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1939 French French
1474 Chaos James Gleick 1987 American English
1475 Lettres de madame de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné 1671 French French
1542 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1561 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey 1988 Australian English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1575 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
1583 The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy Jacob Burckhardt 1860 Swiss German
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1590 Germania Cornelius Tacitus 98 Roman Latin
1594 The Imaginary Invalid Molière 1673 French French
1624 The Mediterranean And The Mediterranean World In The Age Of Philip Ii Fernand Braudel 1949 French French
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1645 Shogun James Clavell 1975 British English
1646 The Pledge Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1958 Swiss German
1659 The Americans Robert Frank 1959 American English
1663 The Making of the English Working Class E. P. Thompson 1963 British English
1672 Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011 American English
1681 The Teachings Of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda 1968 American English
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1722 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1728 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
1730 The Mouse And His Child Russell Hoban 1967 American English
1732 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1786 Farthest North Fridtjof Nansen 1897 Norwegian Norwegian
1811 A Time Of Gifts Patrick Leigh Fermor 1977 British English
1818 Barbarian Days William Finnegan 2015 American English
1828 The Mysterious Stranger Mark Twain 1916 American English
1834 Histories Cornelius Tacitus 100 Roman Latin
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
1850 On Germany Germaine de Staël 1810 French French
1864 The Jewish War Flavius Josephus 75 Jewish Greek