Best Travel Writing Books: Essential Adventures and Journeys
The best travel writing books — from Into the Wild and In Patagonia to A Walk in the Woods and The Snow Leopard. Essential travel memoirs and adventure writing.
By Natalie Osei
Travel writing at its best is not about the destination but about the attention — what a particular mind notices and makes of it while moving through unfamiliar country. The books below span the spectrum from adventure narrative (Krakauer) to literary meditation (Matthiessen) to comic memoir (Bryson), and together they define what the genre can do.
The Essential Starting Point
Into the Wild — Jon Krakauer (1996)
The most widely read travel narrative of the past thirty years — Krakauer’s account of Christopher McCandless, a twenty-four-year-old who gave away his savings, abandoned his car, and hitchhiked to Alaska to live alone in the wilderness. He was found dead four months later. Krakauer (himself a mountaineer who has nearly died in the wilderness) is fascinated by McCandless and by the question of why young men seek radical solitude and risk. The book is as much a meditation on the desire to leave one’s life behind as it is an adventure story, and it has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers to go outdoors and, occasionally, to die there.
The Literary Classics
In Patagonia — Bruce Chatwin (1977)
The book that invented the modern literary travel narrative — a series of linked chapters covering Chatwin’s journey through the tip of South America, in search of a piece of brontosaurus skin his grandmother kept in a cabinet (it turned out to be a giant sloth). The writing is extraordinary: precise portraits of the Welsh settlers in Argentine Patagonia, the descendants of Butch Cassidy’s associates, the vanished Tehuelche people. Chatwin’s method — moving between present observation, historical research, and pure prose style — transformed what travel writing could be.
The Snow Leopard — Peter Matthiessen (1978)
The greatest American nature writing of the twentieth century — a journey to the Himalayan plateau of northwest Nepal, shortly after the death of Matthiessen’s wife, interweaving the physical journey with Buddhist teaching and grief. The snow leopard itself — almost certainly in the surrounding mountains, almost certainly never to be seen — is the book’s central figure: the thing you travel toward that may never reveal itself. Won the National Book Award. The most spiritually serious book in this list.
A Moveable Feast — Ernest Hemingway (1964)
Hemingway’s memoir of Paris in the 1920s — the years of poverty and writing and friendship with Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and Fitzgerald. The most elegant and melancholy of travel memoirs, and the book that fixed the image of 1920s Paris as the site of literary modernism for all subsequent readers. Hemingway revised it until his death; the posthumously published version may not represent his final intentions, but it is the book as the world has read it.
Comic and Accessible Travel Writing
A Walk in the Woods — Bill Bryson (1998)
Bryson and an old friend attempting the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail — the comedy of middle-aged incompetence is the vehicle for genuine reflection on the American wilderness, its history, and the threats to it. The most immediately entertaining book in this list, and the best introduction to Bryson’s method of combining comic memoir with detailed research.
Notes from a Small Island — Bill Bryson (1995)
Bryson’s farewell journey around Britain before returning to America — taking local transport through places most travel writers ignore (Wigan, Hull, Morecambe), discovering what makes Britain distinctive through the eyes of an American who has lived there long enough to be surprised by it. The most affectionate account of British culture and landscape in travel writing.
In a Sunburned Country — Bill Bryson (2000)
Bryson’s account of Australia — the most dangerous, most isolated, and most improbable continent, where almost everything can kill you and where the most significant events in the history of the landscape went entirely unrecorded until recently. The funniest of his travel books, and the most informative account of Australia available to non-specialist readers.
Reading Order
Start accessible: Into the Wild → A Walk in the Woods → In Patagonia.
Literary travel writing: In Patagonia → The Snow Leopard → A Moveable Feast.
Bryson in order: Notes from a Small Island → In a Sunburned Country → A Walk in the Woods.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best travel book to start with?
Into the Wild (1996) by Jon Krakauer is the most widely read travel book — the story of Christopher McCandless, who gave away his savings, abandoned his car, and walked into the Alaskan wilderness, where he died. It is as much a meditation on why people leave their lives behind as a travel narrative. In Patagonia (1977) by Bruce Chatwin is the most purely literary travel book — a series of linked essays and encounters from the tip of South America, structured around Chatwin's search for a piece of giant sloth skin his grandmother kept in a cabinet. Notes from a Small Island (1995) by Bill Bryson is the most immediately entertaining — a farewell journey around Britain before Bryson returned to America.
What is The Snow Leopard about?
The Snow Leopard (1978) by Peter Matthiessen is widely considered the greatest American nature writing of the twentieth century — a journey to the Himalayan plateau of northwest Nepal, ostensibly to study the Himalayan blue sheep but really a spiritual pilgrimage following the death of Matthiessen's wife. Matthiessen, a practicing Zen Buddhist, interweaves the physical journey (the altitude, the cold, the passes, the villages) with Buddhist teaching and with his grief. The snow leopard — almost certainly in the region, almost certainly never to be seen — is the book's central metaphor. Won the National Book Award.
What is In Patagonia about?
In Patagonia (1977) by Bruce Chatwin is the book that invented the modern literary travel narrative — a series of linked chapters covering Chatwin's journey through Argentine and Chilean Patagonia, nominally in search of a piece of brontosaurus skin (actually a giant sloth) his grandmother kept. The book moves between present travel, historical research (Butch Cassidy hid in Patagonia; the Welsh settlers established a colony; the Tehuelche people were exterminated), and Chatwin's characteristically precise prose portraits of the people he encounters. The most literary travel book in English.
What is A Walk in the Woods about?
A Walk in the Woods (1998) by Bill Bryson follows Bryson and his old friend Stephen Katz as they attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail — 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine. Bryson interweaves his account of the walk with the natural and social history of the trail and the Appalachian mountains, and the comedy of two middle-aged men discovering how difficult it is to walk very long distances is the vehicle for genuine reflection on the American wilderness, the threats to it, and what it is for. The most entertaining nature writing in this list.
