Travel literature

Travel literature is literature which records the people, events, sights and feelings of an author who is touring a foreign place for the sake and pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary.

Notable travel literature

See outdoor literature for adventure/exploration/nature literature.

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• Richard Hakluyt, Voyages (1589), a foundation text of the travel literature genre.
• Samuel Johnson, " A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland". The lexicographer and his friend, James Boswell visit Scotland in 1773.
• D.H. Lawrence, "Sea and Sardinia".
• Fran Levstik, "Popotovanje od Litije do Čate?a (A journey from Litija to Čate?). Includes a very influential Slovenian literary programme.
• Rebecca West, "Black Lamb & Grey Falcon". An 1,150 page look at Yugoslavia in 1937 by the pro-Serb West. Facinating, if less than objective, account of this land before the tragedies of World War Two and the 1990's wars.
• Patrick Leigh Fermor, "A Time Of Gifts". A journey by an 18 year old in 1933/4 overland from the Hook of Holland to Hungary. Rewritten from long lost notes when he was old.
• Laurens van der Post, "The Lost World of the Kalahari". Auberon Waugh described van der Post as the person in whose company he'd most like to spend an evening. The book by this South African soldier/explorer/writer suggests why.
• John Steinbeck, "Travels With Charley". A classic American road book (Charley is a poodle).
• Gerald Durrell, "Fillets of Plaice". One of many combining natural observations, humour, storytelling and travel.
• Eric Newby, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. Popular English travel writer.
• William Least Heat-Moon, "Blue Highways". An American Classic by an author well known for travel writing.
• Robert Louis Stevenson, "Travels With A Donkey in the Cevennes". Another classic set in France.
• Hilaire Belloc, "The Path To Rome". A ramble by foot from central France to Rome in 1901.
• Jan Morris, "Trieste". Author of many works, especially about cities.
• Gordon Sinclair, "Khyber Caravan". A somewhat curmudgeonly account of 1934 travels in British India by a later famous Canadian journalist and television personality.
• Paul Theroux, "The Great Railway Bazar". Perhaps Theroux's most popular travel work.
• Charles Dickens, "American Notes", "Pictures of Italy".
• Jack Kerouac, "On The Road".
• Julian Barnes
• Ibn Batutta
• Bill Bryson
• Bruce Chatwin
• Juan Goytisolo
• Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
• Heinrich Heine
• Doug Lansky
• Frances Mayes
• Peter Mayle
• Quim Monzó
• Henry Vollam Morton
• Jonathan Raban
• Laurence Stern
• Colin Thubron
• Alexis de Tocqueville
• Mark Twain
• Carrió de la Vega
• Evelyn Waugh