The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2024

Travel can bring us from the far-flung corners of the planet to a tiny little perch right in our own backyard. It might inspire and enlighten us, awaken emotions inside us that we never knew existed, and even introduce us to entirely new ways of seeing the planet and our place within it. What’s more: In many cases, it doesn’t even require leaving home.

Take our selection of 2024 travel books, which traverse the globe from the quiet bottom of the Grand Canyon to the chaotic streets of Hanoi, Vietnam. They carry us by train, on foot, up hillsides and into rainforests, asking questions as varied as “Why do we travel?” and “What’s the best place to meet a tent-making bat?” Packed with vivid characters, breathtaking journeys and moments of tranquility, these works of writing do so much more than show us the world. They deliver it right to our doorsteps.

From a trek across the Americas in search of wild chocolate to a look at the overtourism of Amsterdam’s red-light district, here are ten books that make ideal holiday gifts for those who love to travel—whether they’ll enjoy them from an airplane seat or a cozy armchair.

The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel by Paige McClanahan

According to the World Economic Forum, the travel industry “accounts for 10 percent of global GDP and employs 320 million people.” Paige McClanahan, an American journalist based in France and a regular New York Times contributor, takes this into account in her thoroughly researched and easy to read book on how tourism has shaped our planet, both for better as well as for worse.

From the rise of comprehensive travel guidebooks such as Lonely Planet’s in the 1970s to the impact of tourism on traditional cultures and local environments, The New Tourist addresses the many ways travel—as well as travelers—have changed over the last several decades. Kirkus Reviews writes, “In [McClanahan’s] estimation, contemporary international tourism is destructive and self-indulgent.” But there is hope.

According to an interview with Thrillist, McClanahan sees the “old tourist” as someone who pays no attention to effects they’re having on a place where they travel, whereas a “new tourist” is more mindful, moving through the world sustainably by weighing the positive and negative impacts their presence brings, and using this information to gauge their decisions.

McClanahan’s writing takes us from over-touristed cities like Barcelona, where in July of this year, anti-tourism protesters squirted tourists with water guns, to solution-oriented states like Kerala, India, which has implemented ways to make tourism work for the local residents, including getting travelers out of the resorts and into the villages to experience everyday life. Through it all, McClanahan weaves in her own impressions of places she’s visited, from Hawaii to downtown Liverpool, England, along with the stories of people she’s interviewed, and discusses how—when done right—“tourist traps” can provide much-needed escapes.

Ultimately, McClanahan’s goal is to help readers think deeper about the impact their travels bring to the places they’re visiting and ask the question, “When does tourism destroy the soul of a city, and when does it offer a place a new lease on life?”

The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel

Through deep and insightful dispatches from tourist spots around the globe—from Hawaii to Saudi Arabia, Amsterdam to Angkor Wat—The New Tourist shines a light on an industry that accounts for one in ten jobs worldwide and generates nearly ten percent of global GDP.

Buy

My Vietnam, Your Vietnam by Christina Vo and Nghia M. Vo

On April 30, 1975, the city of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army, officially ending what would become known in the United States as the Vietnam War. Just over two decades later, Vietnam opened to tourism. By the mid-2000s, visitors and expats were flocking to the country’s rainforests, cities and coastal beaches in droves, and Christina Vo was one of them. But she wasn’t on a path of escape. Instead, she was looking to find herself.

My Vietnam, Your Vietnam—a beautifully crafted memoir co-written by Christina Vo, an American-born woman of Vietnamese descent, and Nghia M. Vo, her Vietnamese father who was forced to flee his home country at the end of the war—tells the story of Vietnam from two vastly different perspectives. While Nghia never spoke to his daughter about his years growing up in southern Vietnam and the war experience, Christina is trying every which way to bridge the gap between them, including experiencing the country of his youth for herself. However, as Chistina comes to learn, much of the southern Vietnam that her father remembers lives on only in his mind.

Eventually it’s the writing that creates something of a bond between them, but like Vietnam and its varied history, things aren’t so black and white. Told as two individual tales interspersed chapter by chapter, this is a book that explores intergenerational trauma, identity, heritage and hope, as well as the many ways that “place” can have a major impact on our lives.

A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko

Kevin Fedarko is in his element in the great outdoors. A former senior editor at Outside magazine and a longtime advocate for conservation and exploration, Fedarko has also had something of a love affair with the Grand Canyon. So when his friend, award-winning photographer Pete McBride, suggested they embark together on an end-to-end traverse of America’s 15th national park, it’s no surprise this author was up for the challenge.

However, once the two set out on their epic 750-mile-long on-foot adventure, they realized they were woefully unprepared. With no established route, they journeyed across a landscape that the book describes as “an iconic landscape … whose topography encompasses some of the harshest, least explored, most awe-inspiring terrain in the world,” engaging in an expedition that proved way tougher than either of them ever imagined.

A Walk in the Park is an action-packed survival tale, a story about friendship, and a deep spiritual quest, all depicting a Grand Canyon unlike any we’ve ever seen. In a book packed with vivid descriptions, Fedarko introduces his readers to secret pockets of the park known to just a handful, interacts with members of the canyon’s 11 Native American tribes in an effort to understand the imminent dangers of commercial tourism, and faces everything from extreme dehydration to the threat of flash floods and venomous snakes along the way.

Finding Your Feet: The How-To Guide to Hiking and Adventuring by Rhiane Fatinikun

When Rhiane Fatinikun realized she wasn’t seeing many other Black hikers on trails in the British countryside, the TV presenter and outdoor advocate decided to do something about it. In 2019, Fatinikun founded Black Girls Hike U.K., an inclusive community of outdoor enthusiasts to promote safe spaces for Black women in nature.

Finding Your Feet is a direct result of Fatinikun’s trekking experiences across the United Kingdom in the years since. Part practical tool kit, part inspirational text, the book combines everything from instructions on how to read a paper map and detailed descriptions of various U.K. hiking routes, to interviews with inspiring women and snippets of Fatinikun’s own life adventures, with plenty of colorful photos throughout.

The book is broken up into three parts. “Why?” includes sections on community, strength and wellness. “How?” offers tips on topics like staying motivated and being safe and responsible in the outdoors. And “Where?” highlights everything from a popular loop trail in Cumbria, England, to a portion of the Wales Coast Path from Port Eynon to Rhossili. Finding Your Feet also showcases some of Britain’s most beloved long-distance walks, including the 630-mile South West Coast Path, the U.K.’s longest national trail.

Finding Your Feet: The how-to guide to hiking and adventuring

Finding Your Feet is Rhiane Fatinikun’s essential guide to exploring the British countryside for Black women and women who often feel unsafe in remote places, offering practical tips, favorite walks and routes from across the U.K., showcasing the best of nature’s beauty.

Buy

Slow Trains to Istanbul … And Back: A 4,570-Mile Adventure on 55 Rides by Tom Chesshyre

Tom Chesshyre is a veteran travel writer and a bona fide rail enthusiast, making him the ideal person to pen this highly entertaining travelogue across 4,570 miles and aboard 55 different rail lines, following the route of the fabled Orient Express. Together with his “best pal” Danny, Chesshyre came up with the idea for this meandering journey while sipping Red Stripe lagers on a park bench in London—the only necessity being that the trip take place to and from Istanbul. Basically, it’s a route to the edge of Asia.

Danny accompanies Chesshyre for part of Slow Trains to Istanbul, making for a delightful middle-aged romp through Europe impeded by everything from train engineers on strike in Germany to Paris’ bustling Latin Quarter on a Saturday night. Through it all, Chesshyre’s writing features a slew of sharp-witted observations, rich characters and ample history to boot.

Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness by Alastair Humphreys

Think you know your backyard? Author Alastair Humphreys just might change your mind. A National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012, Humphreys is a global daredevil. Over the years, he’s completed the Marathon des Sables (a 150-mile-long run across the Sahara), pack rafted across Iceland and even walked from one coast of India to the other. However, Humphreys has also played a major role in popularizing the term “microadventure,” referring to a short, accessible adventure much closer to home.

In fact, in his latest book, Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness, Humphreys tackles the ultimate microadventure—the exploration of a 12-mile-wide map of land outside his home in suburban England. His travels bring him upon graveyards and hidden cottages, though he encounters frames of burnt-out cars and plenty of litter as well. As he moves about this small parcel of the planet, Humphreys also waxes on topics ranging from land-use rights to rewilding.

One Amazon reviewer describes the book as “a fantastic mix of adventure, citizen naturalist and climate activist writing.” It’s one that inspires its readers to slow down and experience the nature that surrounds us, while also serving as a reminder that there’s plenty to delight, inspire and even challenge without ever having to hop on a plane or even get in a car.

Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions and the Last People Keeping Them Alive by Eliot Stein

When BBC editor and journalist Eliot Stein learned he was going to be a dad, he knew he wanted to leave his son with something that would inspire him with a sense of awe and curiosity. This thought (along with a column he created for the BBC called “Custom Made,” in which Stein got to profile cultural caretakers around the globe) was the impetus for Custodians of Wonder, a book highlighting ten people who are guardians of some of the world’s oldest and scarcest traditions.

A Taiwanese artist who’s one of the last people to hand-paint film posters in Asia; a Sardinian woman who wakes at 7 a.m. daily to make su filindeu, known as the “rarest pasta in the entire world”; and a German mailman who delivers thousands of love letters annually to the Bridegroom’s Oak, thought to be the only tree on the planet with its very own mailing address, are just a few of the people Stein profiles.

Each chapter is devoted to a different custodian whom the author visits personally, incorporating his own experiences in a clear and evocative style that puts us right in the story with him. Custodians of Wonder not only brings readers into the worlds of these “keepers,” but also provides us with plenty of historical context so that we walk away with a firm knowledge of the importance of preserving these quickly disappearing traditions.

Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders by Cara Giaimo and Joshua Foer

Since 2009, the travel and exploration company Atlas Obscura has been drawing attention to the world’s weird, wondrous and often-overlooked places, people and things. Its latest book, Atlas Obscura: Wild Life, pays homage to the most extraordinary flora and fauna (more than 500 in all!) around the globe.

Compiled by science journalist Cara Giaimo and Atlas Obscura co-founder Joshua Foer, this eye-catching tome is brimming with facts and figures, not to mention a plethora of illustrations and photos. There’s a section on fluorescent animals, a callout on the many ways that animals use sticks and a piece on how dung beetles use light from the sky to navigate a straight course. From a story about the giant Gippsland earthworms of Australia to another on Japan’s hot spring snow monkeys, you’ll be sure to find yourself referring to this book time and time again.

Why We Travel: A Journey Into Human Motivation by Ash Bhardwaj

Whether it’s to improve on a particular skill, by, say, taking an immersive language course in Bolivia, or to recover from a difficult breakup, we all have a reason for traveling. But journalist, broadcaster and storyteller Ash Bhardwaj goes even further, exploring how these motivations to travel intersect with our larger lives. Billed as a “smart-thinking” travel book, Why We Travel asks the question: What does travel bring us?

Employing the help of scientists, philosophers and historians, Bhardwaj establishes 12 motivations for travel: curiosity, inspiration, happiness, creativity, serendipity, hardship, service, healing, wonder, empathy, eroticism and hope. Then with each chapter, he shares a mix of travelogue, research and self-reflection in an effort to determine how these motivations can help us travel better.

In an essay for Adventure.com earlier this year, Bhardwaj writes, “My most rewarding travel happened when my motivations and travels were aligned.”

For example, if curiosity is your incentive, start asking questions like, “Why is there so much Victorian architecture in San Francisco?” Or, “Why do residents in Brazil speak Portuguese instead of Spanish?” If it’s healing, maybe a month spent in Ireland, where your neighbor was planning to travel before she passed, is what you need to grieve. Ultimately, says Bhardwaj, before you decide where to travel, consider the reasons why you travel. They may surprise you.

Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacao’s Soul by Rowan Jacobsen

“Chocolate is one of our most complex foods,” writes Rowan Jacobsen in the prologue to his book, Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacao’s Soul. “It’s bitter, sweet, fruity, nutty and savory all at once.” But then, the food itself isn’t all that special anymore, he goes on to say. That’s because chocolate itself is highly commoditized, and the more it’s mass produced, the more flavor it loses.

Jacobsen is well versed in how a food’s terroir, or origin of place, influences its flavor. However, one taste of genuine chocolate was enough to convince the James Beard Award-winning writer that the soul of cacao still exists, and to send him on a wild goose chase that would take him from the rainforests of Bolivia and Brazil to Belize and Guatemala to track it down in the wild.

Along the way, Jacobsen incorporates stories of farmers, activists, chocolate makers and Indigenous leaders fighting to resurrect ancient cacao, a delicacy that’s been largely abandoned in lieu of low-flavored Big Chocolate. It’s a page-turning tale filled with rich characters, surprising history and ample details on the hero of the story: the cacao tree itself.