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For All of You Travel Addicts! What is Your Best Travel Novel and Why?

L

lisegriffiths86

New Member
I love a good novel which makes me feel like I'm in the place with the characters, even better if it makes me want to visit a certain country or place.

I recently wrote an article on my blog about novels centred around travel or a foregin country and I'm interested to know what your favourite travel-related novel is and why...

The link to my article is:
Travel-Inspiring and Gripping Novels Featuring Strange and Beautiful Places | Home in Time for Tea

So... What's the most travel-inspiring novel you've read?
 
Travel novel

Edward Rutherfords London comes to mind for my visit to that wonderful city.i tend to read historical books when I travel to a new place.Will Durants rennasaince was valuable when I traveled Italy The pillars of the earth by Ken Follet was also helpful whe visiting various cathedrals.
 
William Dalrymple is the only travel writer, I have read so far. He is an expert at converging travelogues with fantasy, creating a beautiful blend of history and fiction. Simply loved 'The City of Djinns'
 
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson is my absolute favorite. Bryson has a great sense of humor, and Australia (the subject of his book) is an amazing place. His descriptions were vivid without being overly verbose. Highly recommend it!
 
I tend to gravitate to non-fiction more but On The Road never fails to inspire.
 
I neglected to mention Bill Bryson.He blends Mark Twain humor to places he writes about.I have read all his books and I am a big fan.
 
Like Sparkchaser I'm very fond of Jack Kerouac's On The Road but another travel novel I really like is Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning which is about the authors travels on foot in the 1930's mostly in Spain just before the Spanish Civil War, very evocative.
 
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I would love to drive across the US stopping in all sorts of out of the way places. Venturing on my own into the wilderness of Alaska by myself, not so much.

Same with the movies, Last of the Mohicans and Dances With Wolves.
 
Sounds good except for the whole dying at the end because you're a dumbass bit.
 
That's why I won't be traveling into the wilds of Alaska alone. I'm a smart enough dumbass to know better. :D
 
Eat Pray Love was amazing, I really liked the aspect of it, giving up what's expected of you for doing what you actually want to do. The movie was great as well. I recommend it to all people of all ages.
 
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It's long enough to get you through any trip, and is absolutely epic in scope. Pretty well written for a guy who spent a lot of time in prison but, on reflection, I guess there was plenty of free time to hone his craft.
 
JGL said:
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It's long enough to get you through any trip, and is absolutely epic in scope. Pretty well written for a guy who spent a lot of time in prison but, on reflection, I guess there was plenty of free time to hone his craft.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Roberts really caught the feeling of India. The good and the bad.
 
I'm a big fan of Alan Brennert's Hawaii novels. Both Honolulu and Moloka'i inspired me to actually take a trip to Hawaii last summer, he writes really amazing historical fiction that do an excellent job of capturing place.
A Walk for Sunshine by Jeff Alt is, to date, my favorite account of through-hiking the Appalachian Trail.
I'm just over halfway through Monster of God by David Quammen, in which he travels to India, Australia, Romania and Russia in pursuit of the last of the large predators (lions, crocodiles, brown bears and tigers, respectively). I love this book so far, and in each country he interacts with the indigenous people, exploring their culture and landscape. Though not classified as either travel or a novel, this is one of the best "travel" books I have ever read (and I haven't even finished it yet)!

Mari
City TabulaRasa
 
Life in the far west, by George Ruxton.
This is the graddaddy of all mountainman novels. Ruxton wrote all the standards before they were the standard. The main character runs off from home as a kid....falls in with an expericenced fur trapper..horses get stolen....saves the Indian girl....etc....
What makes this a travel novel is that it is based on Ruxton's travels through the Amercan Southwest in 1846-1847. You can follow his route...hang out with guys like Kit Carson....the Bent brothers....
When you read this book.....you can almost hear the Cheyenne sing....the mountainmen talk...and smell the smoke of the campfire.
Andy
 
I believe that the best -- and funniest -- travel novel is Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. That the book is still in print after 120 years says a lot. Though old, it reads as if it was written today, with observations about human nature that ring as true today as they did back then.
 
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