Travel Memoir

The “astonishing and deeply poignant” (The Washington Post) memoir of one man’s search for a beloved family friend explores the depth of Iranian culture and the sweep of its history, and transcends today’s news headlines to remind us of the humanity that connects us all. Growing up in...

A noted entrepreneur, food writer, and recipe developer serves up an evocative adventure story abouther quest to find healing, meaning, and a place at the table. Hunger comes to us in many forms, writes Lia Huber—we long to be satisfied not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually...

In the winter of 1986, driven by an, “everlasting itch for things remote” a knucklehead, disobeying official orders from the Chinese police, sneaks across the southern branch of the Silk Road en route to Lhasa, Tibet. Along the way a series of unique circumstances unfold which alter his perception of life and love forever.

It takes something really powerful to make you leave Hawai’i (or you know, running out of money). I found myself called back to England by my heart, but not for long. It wasn’t yet time to settle, it was time to explore another country I’d once fallen in love with, Croatia and to see if I could find a home, a place to rest and write. I didn’t have any idea quite how much more I had to learn, to understand and this journey was going to show me, above all things, the power of forgiveness.

In June 2016 I decided to sell my house of 22 years and leave my comfort zone. Slowly the Camino de Santiago showed itself and I decided, with no rucksack or hiking experience, to start... But that’s another story, the one that led to this one. My Camino in Spain taught me to let go of everything I didn’t need, to travel light and wash my clothes in the shower, but most importantly it taught me to trust my heart and my feet, to let my journey unfold naturally, instinctively, intuitively.

With yet-unhealed wounds from recent combat in southeast Asia, John Moore undertook an unexpected walking tour in the rugged Scottish Highlands. With a season of freezing rainstorms approaching, he took shelter in a remote monastery. This chance encounter would change his future, his beliefs about blind chance, and the unexpected courses by which the best in human nature can smuggle its way into the life of a stranger.

Um Abstand vom Arbeitsleben zu gewinnen, plane ich stattdessen eine Motorradtour über 10.000 km. Allein. Nicht etwa auf abenteuerlichen Off-Road-Wegen oder durch unsichere Länder, sondern auf Asphalt durch Westeuropa: Berlin – rund um die iberische Halbinsel – Berlin. Dieses Buch beschreibt meine Eindrücke, Erlebnisse und ­Gedanken auf dieser Jakobsweg-Alternative.

In 2006, Mike Nixon worked as a hotel receptionist. Having thousands of encounters with guests from all over the world, he dreamed of living a life as exciting as those hotel guests. But dreaming is a lot easier than making that fantasy a reality. He struggled to bring his plans to life...until he met a friend who set his life on a different course. This book is about Mike's journey to stay on that path.

In September 1870, Truman Everts was separated from one of the first exploratory parties in what is now Yellowstone National Park. With little food, equipment, or cold-weather clothing, Everts spent more than a month wandering the wilderness before two mountaineers found him alive: frostbitten, scalded, and delirious. Nobody else has been lost so long in Yellowstone and survived.

This is an extensive diary of my time in Costa Rica from January to May 2001, sandwiched between two more recent reflective entries. I recommend listening to this if you are interested in exploring Costa Rica, in what Monteverde, Costa Rica, was like in this particular time period before much of the modern development, or if you are interested in hearing a firsthand account of a young woman with bipolar disorder in between severe swings and culture shock.

For years, British journalist Cash Peters trekked around Europe and America visiting some of the tackiest attractions in the world for his hugely popular public-radio series, The Bad Taste Tours. But a guy can only take so much. Now, as Peters prepares to leave his travel-reporting days behind forever, he takes us along on some of the more ridiculous journeys and adventures of his career.

Nowhere in Africa is the extraordinary tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his wife Jettel, and their five-year-old daughter, Regina, each deal with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter is resigned to working the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country - learning the local language and customs.

Tom Patey, one of Scotland’s foremost climbers and mountaineers, was legendary for his pioneering ascents and boundless enthusiasm, and his carefree approach and ability to burn the candle at both ends. "A Short Walk With Whillans" was originally published in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal in 1963.

While visiting Siena, Italy, Mary Lea Carroll grew fascinated with the remarkable story of St. Catherine of Siena and made a resolution: Whenever she was lucky enough to travel, if a shrine dedicated to a female saint was nearby, she'd visit it and learn about her. What started as a hobby grew into a journey she never expected, one rich with challenges and cappuccinos, doubts and inspiration, glasses of wine with strangers and moments of transcendence.

For more than 200 years, the wreck of the Whydah (and the riches that went down with it) eluded treasure seekers, until the ship was finally found in 1984 by marine archaeologists. The artifacts brought up from the ocean floor are priceless, both in value and in the picture they reveal of life in that much-mythologized era, changing much of what we know about pirates.

In 1849 Heinrich Barth joined a small British expedition into unexplored regions of Islamic North and Central Africa. One by one his companions died, but he carried on alone, eventually reaching the fabled city of gold, Timbuktu. His five-and-a-half-year, 10,000-mile adventure ranks among the greatest journeys in the annals of exploration, and his discoveries are considered indispensable by modern scholars of Africa.

Wanjirũ works too hard on her real estate career. But except for many acquittances, and her recent phenomenon of stories bubbling in her head, she doesn’t feel a sense of connection or any personal belonging besides making a living. All this work and no play stress her to the limit.

The stories in The Carry-On Imperative recount Pascoe’s ambitious beginnings as a journalist and broadcaster through her years as a not-so-diplomatic foreign service spouse. Her trail-blazing books about globally mobile families made her an in-demand speaker worldwide and led to the creation of The Expat Expert, one of the first websites for expats. Fans of The Diplomat will relish this rollicking memoir from “the wife”, who trails her husband to far-flung locales but works hard to establish her own identity and career.

In 1773, literary giant Samuel Johnson set off with his friend James Boswell on a tour of Scotland’s remote Highlands and Western Isles. What followed was a vivid travelogue capturing the landscapes, people, and customs of a region on the brink of change. With wit, insight, and curiosity, Johnson reflects on everything from ancient clan traditions to the decline of the Gaelic language—offering a rare glimpse into 18th-century Scotland through the eyes of one of England’s greatest minds.

What does retirement mean to you? Do you feel you’ve seen enough of the world? As you approach this later stage in life, the thought of travel can feel beyond intimidating—especially for those of us handling chronic medical conditions. In What If . . . ?, author Roberta Sawatzky highlights the importance of seizing the day when it comes to seeing the world, even and especially as one approaches retirement age.