Best Travel Books – 100 Memoirs, Guides, Photography, Tips & Television Series Titles For Wanderlust

Today, I’ve put together a list of 100 of some of the Best Travel Books that I’ve come across that have inspired me to have itchy feet and take off travelling somewhere.

These are the ones that I’ve come across personally (or have been recommended to me), and they’re not necessarily My Top 5 Funny Travel Books or more Travel Books With a Laugh, but worthwile checking out depending on the particular aspect of travel you are interested in. Everyone has different tastes, so hopefully there’s something here for all of you!

The Best Travel Books – so far!

These ‘Best Travel Books’ range from Travel Literature, Travel Photography, Coffee Table Books, to Lifestyle Design and Travel Memoirs.

Here you go – some of the Best Travel Books out there! In no particular order!

Travel Humour

• No Shitting in the Toilet: The Travel Guide for When You’Ve Really Lost It – Peter Moore
• Round Ireland with a Fridge – Tony Hawks
• Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure – Sarah MacDonald
• The Wrong Way Home – Peter Moore
• Playing the Moldovans at Tennis – Tony Hawks
• Vroom By the Sea – Peter Moore
• 5 Ways to Carry a Goat: A Blogger’s World Tour – Ben Groundwater
• Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure – Tim Cahill
• Lonely Planet Signspotting: Absurd & Amusing Signs from Around the World – Doug Lansky
• The Full Montezuma – Peter Moore
• Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus: Confessions of a Tour Leader – Brian Thacker
• A Piano in the Pyrenees: The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains – Tony Hawks
• Holidays in Hell – P.J O-Rourke
• Americans’ Survival Guide to Australia and Australian-American Dictionary – Rusty Geller
• Travels with My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago – Tim Moore
• I’m Not Eating Any of That Foreign Muck: Travels with Me Dad – Brian Thacker
• French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France – Tim Moore
• Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin – Iris Bahr
• Where’s Wallis? – Brian Thacker
• Molvania: A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry (Jetlag Travel Guide)
• Swahili for the Broken-hearted – Peter Moore
• Sleeping Around: A Couch Surfing Tour of the Globe – Brian Thacker
• Funny Countries: Quotes from around the globe – Richard Breen
• The Naked Man Festival: And Other Excuses to Fly Around the World – Brian Thacker
• Vroom with a View: In Search of Italy’s Dolce Vita on a ’61 Vespa – Peter Moore
• Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid – J Maarten Troost
• Planes, Trains & Elephants – Brian Thacker
• Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism – Thomas Kohnstamm

Lifestyle Design

• The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated – Tim Ferriss
• Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel – Rolf Potts
• The Art of Travel – Alain de Botton

Motorbike and Bicycle Trips

• The Motorcycle Diaries – Ernesto Che Guevara
• Jupiters Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph – Ted Simon
• Around Africa on my Bicycle – Riaan Manser

Women’s Travel

• Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo – Beth Whitman
• 100 Places Every Woman Should Go (Travelers’ Tales) – Stephanie Elizondo
• Gutsy Women: More Travel Tips and Wisdom for the Road (Travelers’ Tales) – Marybeth Bond
• Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman – Alice Steinbech
• Safety and Security for Women Who Travel (Travelers’ Tales)
• Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel
• Go Your Own Way: Women Travel the World Solo – Faith Conlon
• The Thong Also Rises: Further Misadventures from Funny Women on the Road (Travelers’ Tales Guides)

Travel Writing Guides

• Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing

Air Travel

• Betty In the Sky With a Suitcase: Hilarious Stories of Air Travel by the World’s Favorite Flight Attendant

Where to Go Travel Guides

• Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips
• Lonely Planet Dive & Snorkeling Guides
• Off the Beaten Path: A Travel Guide to More Than 1000 Scenic and Interesting Places Still Uncrowded and Inviting
• The Road Less Travelled: 1,000 Amazing Places Off the Tourist Trail. Foreword by Bill Bryson
• Lonely Planet The Travel Book
• 100 Things to Do Before You Die: Travel Events You Just Can’t Miss – Neil Teplica
• Lonely Planet A Year of Adventures
• Make The Most Of Your Time On Earth: 1000 Ultimate Travel Experiences (Rough Guides)
• Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Experiences
• Where To Go When (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Food

• Food Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 Extraordinary Places to Eat Around the Globe

Offbeat Travel

• America Bizarro: A Guide to Freaky Festivals, Groovy Gatherings, Kooky Contests, and Other Strange Happenings Across the USA – Nelson Taylor
• Offbeat South Africa: The Travel Guide to the Wacky and Wonderful – Richard George
• Timpson’s Other England: A Look at the Unusual and the Definitely Odd – John Timpson
• The Guide to Odd New York: Unusual Places, Weird Attractions and the City’s Most Curious Sights
• Batfishing in the Rainforest: Strange Tales of Travel and Fishing – Randy Wayne White
• It’s a Dog’s World: True Stories of Travel with Man’s Best Friend (Travelers’ Tales) – Christine Hunsicke
• Strange Country: Travels in a Very Different Australia – Mark Dapin

Travel Photography

• National Geographic Image Collection
• Early Travel Photography: The Greatest Traveler of His Time – Burton Holmes – Genoa Caldwell
• National Geographic: The Photographs (National Geographic Collectors Series)
• Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs (National Geographic Collectors Series).

Travel Memoirs

• Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown – Paul Theroux
• The Great Railway Bazaar – Paul Theroux
• In a Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson
• The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas – Paul Theroux
• Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer
• Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe – Bill Bryson
• Travellers’ Tales : Stories from the ABC’s Foreign Correspondents – Trevor Borman
• Absurdistan – Eric Campbell
• Marco Polo Didn’t Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer (Travelers’ Tales Guides) – Rolf Potts
• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
• Bill Bryson’s African Diary – Bill Bryson

Road Trips

• Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
• On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) – Jack Kerouac

Old School Travel

• Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes – Robert Louis Stevensen
• Travels in the Land of Kubilai Khan – Marco Polo
• Gulliver’s Travels: The Classic Collection

Americana Travel

• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America – Bill Bryson
• Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States – Gary Younge
• I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away – Bill Bryson
• Ready to Roll: A Celebration of the Classic American Travel Trailer – Douglas Keister

Travel Tips

• Smart Packing for Today’s Traveler – Susan Foster
• Work Your Way Around the World: A Fresh and Fully Up-to-Date Guide for the Modern Working Traveller
• No Touch Monkey!: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late (Adventura Books Series) – Ayun Halliday
• The Rough Guide First-Time Around The World, 3rd Edition
• China Survival Guide: How to Avoid Travel Troubles and Mortifying Mishaps – Larry Herzberg
• The World’s Cheapest Destinations: 21 Countries Where Your Money is Worth a Fortune, 3rd Edition
• The Smart Traveler’s Passport: 399 Tips from Seasoned Travelers
• The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel – Joshua Piven

Travel Television Series

• Around the World in Eighty Days – Michael Palin
• New Europe – Michael Palin
• Sahara – Michael Palin
• Tropic of Capricorn: A Remarkable Journey to the Forgotten Corners of the World – Simon Reeve

The Best Travel Books of All Time – What Are Yours?

How about you – are there any Best Travel Books that aren’t on this list that you’d like to suggest?

If so, feel free to leave a comment and leave your Best Travel Book Suggestion!

If you’re planning a trip soon, check out my best travel insurance tips, and get a quote on some Backpacker Travel Insurance.