hardcover
Hardcover

The Best Travel Books of All Time by Condé Nast

Authors including Pico Iyer, Julia Phillips, and Imbolo Mbue et al gathered their favorite travel reads that will inspire, inform, and explore. Books included on this list—some old, some new—may have changed the way cultures, places, or people were considered in the past and may be considered in the future.

A Barbarian in Asia

A Barbarian in Asia
ByHenri Michaux

1933 • 2 Readers • 185 pages

Along the Ganges

Along the Ganges
ByIlija Trojanow,Ranjit Hoskote(Translator)

2003 • 5 Readers • 266 pages

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

2015 • 123 Readers • 432 pages 4.3

Among the Cities

Among the Cities
ByJan Morris

1985 • 3 Readers • 410 pages

An Area of Darkness

An Area of Darkness
ByV.S. Naipaul

1964 • 8 Readers • 620 pages 5

Arabian Sands

Arabian Sands
ByWilfred Thesiger

1959 • 12 Readers • 368 pages 4

Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape

1986 • 29 Readers • 417 pages 4.2

As They Were

As They Were
ByM.F.K. Fisher

1982 • 4 Readers • 261 pages 4

A Time of Gifts

A Time of Gifts
ByPatrick Leigh Fermor

1977 • 40 Readers • 321 pages 4.5

A View of the World: Selected Writings

1986 • 2 Readers • 296 pages

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

1941 • 3 Readers • 1,192 pages

Blue highways

Blue highways
ByWilliam Least Heat-Moon

1982 • 34 Readers • 448 pages 4

Chasing the Monsoon

Chasing the Monsoon
ByAlexander Frater

1991 • 5 Readers • 273 pages

Chasing the Sea

Chasing the Sea
ByTom Bissell

2003 • 5 Readers • 388 pages

Corregidora

Corregidora
ByGayl Jones

1975 • 23 Readers • 185 pages 3.6

Cross Country

Cross Country
ByRobert Sullivan

2006 • 5 Readers • 389 pages

Dark Star Safari

Dark Star Safari
ByPaul Theroux

2002 • 27 Readers • 485 pages 4.3

Democracy in America

Democracy in America
ByAlexis de Tocqueville,Harvey Mansfield Jr.(Translator),+1 more

1835 • 11 Readers • 817 pages 3

Down and Out in Paris and London

1933 • 177 Readers • 256 pages 4

Down the Nile

Down the Nile
ByRosemary Mahoney

2007 • 5 Readers • 273 pages

Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

2004 • 369 Readers • 364 pages 3.3

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

1959 • 300 Readers • 270 pages 4.5

Eothen

Eothen
ByAlexander William Kinglake

1844 • 4 Readers • 245 pages 2

Exterminate All The Brutes

Exterminate All The Brutes
BySven Lindqvist,Joan Tate(Translator)

1992 • 2 Readers • 179 pages

Cover 7

Farthest North Volume I
ByFridtjof Nansen

1897 • 3 Readers

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

1971 • 448 Readers • 206 pages 4

Cover 1

From a Chinese City
ByGontran De Poncins

1957 • 3 Readers • 262 pages

GreatPlains

GreatPlains
ByIan Frazier

1989 • 15 Readers • 317 pages 3.5

Heidi

Heidi
ByJohanna Spyri,Eileen Hall(Translator)

1880 • 34 Readers • 344 pages 4.2

Herodotus

Herodotus
ByHerodotus

1981 • 123 Readers • 503 pages 4.2

Honouring High Places

Honouring High Places
ByJunko Tabei,Helen Y. Rolfe,+2 more

2017 • 4 Readers • 376 pages 5

In A Sunburned Country

2000 • 148 Readers • 592 pages 4

India: A Wounded Civilization

1976 • 9 Readers • 176 pages 3.3

In Patagonia

In Patagonia
ByBruce Chatwin

1977 • 47 Readers • 199 pages 3.5

In the Country of Country

In the Country of Country
ByNicholas Dawidoff

1997 • 4 Readers • 384 pages

Iron &  Silk

Iron & Silk
ByMark Salzman

1986 • 5 Readers • 224 pages

I See By My Outfit

I See By My Outfit
ByPeter S. Beagle

1965 • 6 Readers • 237 pages

Journey to Portugal

Journey to Portugal
ByJosé Saramago,Amanda Hopkinson(Translator),+1 more

1983 • 6 Readers • 468 pages

Letters from Egypt

Letters from Egypt
ByFlorence Nightingale

1987 • 3 Readers • 223 pages

London Perceived

London Perceived
ByV.S. Pritchett

1962 • 2 Readers • 208 pages

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet
ByEric Newby

1958 • 15 Readers • 255 pages 3.8

Maximum City

Maximum City
BySuketu Mehta

2004 • 21 Readers • 542 pages 4

Memorial

Memorial
ByBryan Washington

2020 • 127 Readers • 299 pages 3.4

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Me Talk Pretty One Day
ByDavid Sedaris

2000 • 418 Readers • 300 pages 4

My First Summer in the Sierra

1911 • 26 Readers • 424 pages 4.3

News from Tartary

News from Tartary
ByPeter Fleming

1936 • 7 Readers • 400 pages 5

No Mercy

No Mercy
ByRedmond O'Hanlon

1997 • 4 Readers • 461 pages 5

Notes from The Century Before: A Journal from British Columbia

1969 • 3 Readers • 272 pages

Old Glory

Old Glory
ByJonathan Raban

1981 • 5 Readers • 416 pages

Rome and a Villa

Rome and a Villa
ByEleanor Clark

2000 • 3 Readers

Round Ireland with a Fridge

1997 • 44 Readers • 284 pages 3.9

Sandstorms

Sandstorms
ByPeter Theroux

1990 • 4 Readers • 286 pages

Sea and Sardinia

Sea and Sardinia
ByD.H. Lawrence

1921 • 5 Readers • 281 pages

Shah of Shahs

Shah of Shahs
ByRyszard Kapuściński,William R. Brand(Translator),+2 more

1982 • 13 Readers • 160 pages 4

Siren land

Siren land
ByNorman Douglas

1982 • 3 Readers • 198 pages

Skating to Antarctica

1997 • 6 Readers • 256 pages

Slowly Down the Ganges

Slowly Down the Ganges
ByEric Newby,Wanda Newby

1966 • 4 Readers • 384 pages 2

The Edge of Paradise: America in Micronesia

1991 • 3 Readers • 244 pages

The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat

1978 • 3 Readers • 60 pages

The Fearful Void

The Fearful Void
ByGeoffrey Moorhouse

1974 • 4 Readers • 288 pages

The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia

1994 • 30 Readers • 434 pages 3.7

The impossible country

1994 • 5 Readers • 422 pages 3.5

The Innocents Abroad

1869 • 44 Readers • 551 pages 3.7

The Lycian Shore

The Lycian Shore
ByFreya Stark

1956 • 3 Readers • 224 pages

The Muses Are Heard

The Muses Are Heard
ByTruman Capote

1956 • 4 Readers • 182 pages

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches

1967 • 24 Readers • 176 pages 4.2

The Nomad

The Nomad
ByIsabelle Eberhardt

1987 • 3 Readers • 208 pages

The People in the Trees

The People in the Trees
ByHanya Yanagihara

2013 • 169 Readers • 303 pages 3.5

The Pine Barrens

The Pine Barrens
ByJohn McPhee

1967 • 9 Readers • 157 pages 4

The Places In Between

The Places In Between
ByRory Stewart

2004 • 27 Readers • 324 pages 4

The Rings of Saturn

The Rings of Saturn
ByW.G. Sebald,Michael Hulse(Translator)

1995 • 76 Readers • 296 pages 4.4

The Road to Oxiana

The Road to Oxiana
ByRobert Byron

1937 • 9 Readers • 262 pages

The Round House

The Round House
ByLouise Erdrich

2012 • 118 Readers • 368 pages 4.2

The songlines

The songlines
ByBruce Chatwin

1987 • 21 Readers • 308 pages 3.9

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
ByJohn Mandeville,C.W.R.D. Moseley(Translator)

1357 • 4 Readers • 224 pages 4

The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913

1922 • 27 Readers • 607 pages 3.2

This Is Happiness

This Is Happiness
ByNiall Williams

2019 • 30 Readers • 400 pages 4.2

To a Distant Island

To a Distant Island
ByJames McConkey

1984 • 3 Readers • 203 pages

Tokyo Fiancée

Tokyo Fiancée
ByAmélie Nothomb,Alison Anderson(Translator)

2007 • 3 Readers • 160 pages

Travels with a donkey

Travels with a donkey
ByRobert Louis Stevenson

1879 • 2 Readers • 176 pages

Travels with Myself and Another

1979 • 5 Readers • 283 pages

Two Towns in Provence

Two Towns in Provence
ByM.F.K. Fisher

1964 • 4 Readers • 504 pages

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube

2016 • 20 Readers • 274 pages 3.7

West with the Night

West with the Night
ByBeryl Markham

63 Readers 4.2

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

2012 • 413 Readers • 330 pages 3.8

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

2012 • 449 Readers • 338 pages 3.8

Wrong About Japan

Wrong About Japan
ByPeter Carey

2005 • 8 Readers • 184 pages 2