Travelers' Tales

By Terence Baker

A travel writer's favorite travel books

I recently mulled over a couple of lists of the best travel books ever written. Well, here is my own list, in alphabetical order, with some comments on each.

I will not use melodramatic terms such as "best"—the books below are just some of my favorites. Many of them have not made the lists of other list-makers; others are rarely left out. I hope that you enjoy reading some of them this spring or summer.

"All Aboard with E. M. Frimbo" by Rogers E. M. Whitaker and Tony Hiss, 1997

Whitaker, a railway buff and a staff writer for more than 50 years at The New Yorker magazine, created the pseudonym of E. M. Frimbo—the world's greatest train traveler. This fabulous collection recalls the great days of rail travel. Between the 1940s and 1970s, Whitaker calculated, he traveled on 2.7 million miles of track.

"An African in Greenland" by Tete-Michel Kpomassie, 1981

In his native Togo, Kpomassie chanced upon an article about Greenland. He was determined to visit, a dream that started in 1958 and took 10 years to achieve. Finally accomplishing his goal, he spent two years in Greenland, living and working with the Inuit.

"Blue Highways: A Journey into America" by William Least Heat-Moon, 1982

Jobless and alone, Heat-Moon decided to take a journey around the United States. Driving through Kansas, Texas, California, Washington, Vermont, Maryland and other states, he slept in his van and only traveled the back roads. A wonderful book.

"Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing, 1959

Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton was a consummate leader of men. This account of his 1914-1916 expedition is riveting. After pack ice smashed his ship, Shackleton and his crew abandoned it, embarking on an epic journey across and through the most inhospitable terrain on the planet. He did not lose a single man. The story is simply mind-blowing.

"In Patagonia" by Bruce Chatwin, 1977

Often considered one of the best travel books ever written, Chatwin's account of his journeying ranges from a supposed piece of "brontosaurus fur" to the descendants of Welsh farmers singing Sunday hymns in their ancestral language, and a French lawyer who declared himself King of Patagonia in 1860.

"In Xanadu" by William Dalrymple, 1989

This tale of a journey from Jerusalem to Beijing is wondrous for the innocence in which the author conducts the trip. Following Marco Polo's route, Dalrymple faces the geopolitical tempest of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and China. This is travel writing at its best, with equal amounts of setbacks and moments of joy.

"Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson" by James Boswell, 1785

Samuel Johnson must have been a real pain to travel with, every moment making some barbed comment on the vulgarity of man and the rusticity of the local people. The reader will receive more enjoyment from Boswell's descriptions of places than Johnson apparently did from traveling to them.

"Kon-Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl, 1950

Most of Heyerdahl's theories on Polynesian settlement have since been disproved, but that doesn't prevent you from enjoying this 4,000-mile endeavor: six modern men pitting their wits against the Pacific on a primitive vessel made from nine balsa logs, from Peru to the Tuamotu Atolls east of Tahiti.

"My Dateless Diary" by R.K. Narayan, 1964

Narayan is loved for his South Indian stories, written in English, that chronicle the fictional town of Malgudi. This is an amusing set of diary notes on Narayan's travels to New York, Chicago, Tennessee, the Grand Canyon and California. The exercise of seeing your country through the eyes of a foreigner was, to me, a worthy endeavor.

"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, 1956

This autobiographical journey through the United States is required reading for anyone who yearns for the highway. Yes, there is some less-than-condonable behavior, but the freedom of the road and the counter-culture of 1950s America shines through brightly. "Where we going, man?" "I don't know, but we gotta go." Excellent advice.

"Sailing Alone Around the World" by Joshua Slocum, 1899

Slocum was the first person to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world. In his 37-foot homemade boat Spray, he started in 1895 and finished in 1898. Run-ins with spear-wielding Tierra de Fuegans and unwanted attention from sharks are among the adventures recounted, all written in such a matter-of-fact style that they seem little more frightening than a walk to the end of the garden. Heroic stuff.

"Seven Years in Tibet" by Heinrich Harrer, 1953

Forget the Brad Pitt film. The book describes how Harrer went on the run from a British POW camp during World War II, made an underdressed and relatively unprepared climb over the Himalayas and reached Lhasa, Tibet after five years of struggle. He stayed there for another seven years, during a time when Tibet was forbidden to foreigners.

"Sparring with Charlie: Motorbiking Down the Ho Chi Minh Trail" by Christopher Hunt, 1996

Hunt bought an old Russian motorcycle for $400 and set off on a 2,000-mile jaunt around Vietnam. He encountered numerous problems, not the least of which were buffalo bathing in puddles in the middle of the road, but found at every turn that the Vietnamese were kind to, and interested in, American travelers.

"The Meadowlands" by Robert Sullivan, 1999

An exotic destination is not always needed for great travel writing. This wonderful gem takes New Jersey's Meadowlands—the one alongside Chemical Alley, otherwise known as the New Jersey Turnpike—as its subject. Sullivan meets all types of characters and describes a landscape few of us would look at, beyond a quick glance in the rearview mirror. This is a book that reminds us travel does not always have to be on a grand scale.

"The Narrow Road to the Deep North" by Matsuo Basho, 1689

Embarking on any trip in late 17th-century Japan had to have been an adventure, and this work provides a wonderful picture of places that still might be worlds away from the large cities of Tokyo and Osaka. Basho, the greatest Japanese poet of his era, visits friends and temples and illustrates what he sees in prose as well as carefully constructed haiku poems. This is a travel book full of tender writing. Also translated as "The Narrow Road to the Interior."

"The Valleys of the Assassins" by Freya Stark, 1934

Stark started her wanderings in the 1920s, an age in which women were not supposed to do that kind of thing. Her first book was about a journey to the forbidden lands of the Syrian Druze, where she landed in jail. This, her second, is no less adventurous, describing the region of Luristan which straddles parts of present-day Iran and Iraq. Fluent in Arabic and several other local languages, she describes these sandy and rocky lands in loving detail.

"Thrilling Cities" by Ian Fleming, 1963

How could you not like a travel book written by Mr. James Bond himself? Fleming seeks out nightspots worthy of his hero in Hong Kong, Macao, Tokyo, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Geneva, Naples and Monte Carlo—not all of which seem particularly adventurous these days.

"Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa" by Mungo Park, 1816

For many, the Malian city of Timbuktu is a by-word for any remote place: hard to visit, mysterious and seemingly always out of reach. This part of Africa was long off-limits to foreigners. Park came close on his first of two expeditions in 1794 (he was killed on the second). This book, put together posthumously, describes his adventures in what was then known as the Dark Continent.

"Travels of Marco Polo" by Marco Polo, circa 1298

This is one of the most famous travel books of all time, currently in its ninth century of publication. Much of it reads more like a business manual, as Polo regularly records the costs of his trade goods. That said, there are some excellent descriptions of the Silk Road, Madagascar, Zanzibar and the fabulous palace of the Kubla Khan in China. It took Polo 22 years to get back to his native Venice, so it is worth spending just a few days or weeks to read one of the first travel books.

"Travels With Charley: In Search of America" by John Steinbeck, 1962

This work follows Steinbeck's trip around his native country in a converted van, accompanied only by his dog Charley. There is little of the United States he does not visit, having told friends that he wanted to find out "what Americans are like today."

"Tuva or Bust! The Last Journey of Richard Feynman" by Ralph Leighton, 1991

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman never did reach the remote Russian state of Tuva. That said, isn't a lot of the fun of travel in poring over maps and fine-tuning the details? Feynman and his student Leighton spent years trying to get to Tuva, just because Feynman remembered some triangular Tuvan stamps from his youth and loved the strange spelling of its capital, Kyzyl. Feynman died before final approval was given, so Leighton continued. Next time your plane is delayed, think of the trials experienced here.

"Two Stories and a Memory" by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 1961

Sicilian aristocrat Tomasi di Lampedusa was best known for his novel "The Leopard." Better, in my opinion, is this collection of accounts of his childhood journeying around Sicily in the 1910s. He spends most of the book mourning the demise of the old Italy after the unification of the country—but he gripes in beautiful language.

"Voices of the Old Sea" by Norman Lewis, 1984

Lewis' quiet style won him legions of fans all the way up to his passing at the age of 95 in 2003. This book is set in a Spanish Mediterranean fishing village that seems always, in the writer's view, to be days away from the ills of tourism development. (Today, it is a tourist development.) The notes for this book were written in the late 1940s, when the village of Farol was concerned only with sardine catches, local arguments and the weather.

"Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small-town America" by Bill Geist, 2007

A chummy romp through the eccentricities of small-town America. Strange festivals are a favorite. The book also is a call to save the small-town way of life. By the book's finish, you might feel oddly proud to live in the same country as all these goings-on.

Terence Baker is editor of Car & Travel magazine in New York.

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