For ages, I've wanted to share the finest travel books, but the sheer number of options made it feel daunting. To simplify things, I'll organize them by category, especially by destination, since I love diving into both fiction and nonfiction about a place before visiting.
I've already covered top reads for Japan and South Africa, and today I'm focusing on my favorite travel memoirs.
These memoirs mostly revolve around long-term journeys, making them ideal if you're contemplating a major adventure or life shift. Armchair travelers will also find them delightful. All are penned by women, demonstrating that travel is possible at any age, whether solo, coupled, or with kids.
10 Travel Memoirs That Will Fuel Your Wanderlust
1) Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
Australian Torre meets a charming Argentine in San Francisco and falls head over heels. The catch? He's about to sail the South Pacific on a tiny boat. Despite her fear of deep water and seasickness, she conquers her anxieties to join him on a thrilling, terrifying voyage.
Love with a Chance of Drowning is a lively, inspiring tale that might make you want to buy a boat and explore remote Pacific islands, despite the obstacles. It's more than a love story or travelogue—it's about living fully despite fear.
Check out our interview with Torre on her travels and the book writing process.
2) The Worrier's Guide to the End of the World: Love, Loss, and Other Catastrophes—through Italy, India, and Beyond by Torre DeRoche
Torre's follow-up is equally wonderful, funny, and heartfelt. In this book, she grapples with grief until she meets an inspiring new friend in Italy. Despite being totally unprepared, she joins her on a walking pilgrimage through Tuscany (blissful) and India (jarring and tough). It's another uplifting tale of confronting fear and anxiety that I couldn't put down.
3) How Not to Travel the World: Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker by Lauren Juliff
She hopes travel will transform her life—and it does, but along the way, she endures a string of cringe-worthy disasters and hilarious blunders. Despite these setbacks and her ongoing fears, she keeps traveling and pushing her boundaries. It's an entertaining read and a great lesson in what not to do while globetrotting.
4) The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and A Life-Changing Journey Around the World by Kim Dinan
Kim and her husband leave their Portland jobs to travel the world indefinitely. Before departing, friends give them a unique present—a yellow envelope of money to give away to anyone who moves them during their journey. The only rules: don't overthink it; share your experiences; don't feel obligated to give it all away.
As they traverse Ecuador, Peru, Nepal, India, and beyond, the task proves harder than expected, and their relationship faces serious tests. The Yellow Envelope is an inspiring, honest book about Kim's personal growth, the places they see, and the people they help.
5) Married with Luggage: What We Learned About Love by Traveling the World by Betsy and Warren Talbot
This honest, engaging, and entertaining book I devoured in two days. I loved reading about their funny, embarrassing, and frightening adventures—from Antarctic storms to Ecuadorian volcanoes and living with Mongolians in a Gobi Desert ger. But it's more than a travel story. Along the way, Warren and Betsy examined their relationship issues and shared lessons that brought them closer.
6) Mother Tongue: My Family's Globe-Trotting Quest to Dream in Mandarin, Laugh in Arabic, and Sing in Spanish by Christine Gilbert
Things don't go as planned—pollution in Beijing and political troubles in Beirut force early departures, and she doesn't achieve the fluency she aimed for. Still, it's a fascinating read full of language-learning research and shows that travel with kids is doable—she even has another baby while living in Mexico.
7) Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Wild likely needs no introduction—the book and film are world-famous—but I highly recommend it if you haven't read it.
In her mid-20s, Cheryl Strayed had lost everything: her mother died, her marriage collapsed, and she fell into a self-destructive spiral of drugs and sex. With nothing to lose, she impulsively decides to hike 1,100 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail along America's west coast.
It's a beautiful, brutally honest, raw account of the mental and physical challenges she faces and how the trail ultimately heals her.
I also love the wisdom in her book Tiny Beautiful Things and podcast Dear Sugars.
8) Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman
At 48, on the brink of divorce, Rita sold her belongings and became a nomad. She lived in a Zapotec village in Mexico, slept with sea lions in the Galapagos, observed orangutans in Borneo's rainforest, visited trance healers and black magic dens, and cooked with women over fires worldwide.
This isn't a typical backpacker story—Rita has a gift for truly connecting with people and cultures, proving it's never too late to travel.
9) What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding: A Memoir by Kristin Newman
Along the way, she has steamy love affairs in Argentina, Israel, Brazil, Russia, and beyond. It's a hilarious, entertaining read, especially for women who resist societal expectations.
10) Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
She leaves it all behind for a year of self-discovery in three distinct places—Italy, India, and Bali. These are three of my favorite spots, so it's no surprise I love reading about her cultural immersion, the locals she meets, and the joy she finds.
Where are the writers of colour?
As I finished this list, I realized how white it is. While I've read and loved many travel books by Black and Asian authors, they're often focused on specific places, which I'll share in destination lists (like South Africa and Japan). Finding long-term travel memoirs by writers of colour is tougher, so I'd love your suggestions. Meanwhile, I've added these travel memoirs by Black women writers to my reading list. There's also Go Girl!, a 20-year-old collection of travel stories by Black women, but unfortunately it's not available for Kindle.
I hope these travel books spark your next adventure! What are your favorite travel memoirs? Leave a comment below.
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