Looking for your next summer vacation read? Even if there isn’t a trip booked this season, there are plenty of ways to make summer feel like a vacation – like escaping into a good book. Books have a way of taking our minds on a mental vacation, whether you get to live vicariously through the author as they retell their version of Eat, Pray, Love through various countries or read a book that feels like a vacation. Sometimes a great story, even if it isn´t a travel re-tell can take you on a mind-wandering journey.
Let these 10 reads take you on your next trip, while some are directly about traveling others are about an incredible journey (even if it is fiction). Take it from the reading community themselves at Goodreads to put together the 10 best books to revive that feeling of wanderlust whether it be to accompany your travels or staycation – the journey is in the story.
*Disclosure: We only recommend books that we love and would read ourselves. This post contains affiliate links, as we are part of the Amazon Services LCC Associate Program and others, which may earn us a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Where To Buy
The Hobbit may be one of the most famous fantasy books of all time, but it also makes the list of 10 best travel-themed books on Goodreads. While those outside of the fantasy genre may have only scratched the surface with the film adaptation, try to take the story from a new perspective – the story of an incredible journey.
Put The Hobbit at the top of your travel books list if you are craving a mental escape through fantasy and adventure. Sometimes the best journies are fictional, but there are still a lot of takeaways including self-discovery, unexpected encounters, good times, and hard ones.
9. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Where To Buy
For fans of Reese Witherspoon, her book club and production company Hello Sunshine, definitely take a wack at Wild. Aside from a screen adaptation to look forward to when you finish the book, allow this biopic to take you on a trip of personal growth. Author Cheryl Strayed decided to travel down the Pacific Crest Trail alone at 26 to escape the turmoil of her 20s.
In life, everyone has to deal with hardships and this young woman decided that her healing would take place on this 1,000-mile hike up the Pacific Coast. While the book definitely embodies wanderlust for the adventurous and spontaneous decision to wander, this is also a book for healing, learning and discovering oneself in challenging ways. For more than just a glimpse into a solo hike up one of the most beautiful coasts in the world, but also for a side of traveling that is less talked about – how it changes you.
8. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Where To Buy
There seems to be a theme in the Goodreads community with following folks on their long hikes through the American coasts. This book is more about hiking than self-discovery-for another kind of traveler! The Appalachian Trail spans from Georgia to Maine and has a striking change in ecology throughout the hundreds of miles of mountains and forests.
Your guide is Bill Bryson for all things nature, history and ecology along this infamous and historical route. While hiking has definitely surged in the last decade, the Appalachian Trail is without a doubt a forgotten gem on the east coast, according to Bryson. This is your travel book if you are considering doing a long-hiking trip, and enjoy travel books that take you on the trip through description and funny conversation.
7. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Where To Buy
Yes, the viral film and cultural phenomenon is actually based on a book. Elizabeth Gilbert takes her readers on her gap year from adulthood. Post-divorce, this writer decides the best way to get back into herself is a trip around the world, stopping in Italy, India and Bali.
For those who are unable to travel this year, this book is without a doubt exactly what you need to allow yourself to live vicariously through the author as she details the food, experiences and culture shock (in the best way). The balance between the fun and hard aspects of long-term travel is definitely well described as the author enjoys the food, heals through prayer and finds love again.
6. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Where To Buy
Here is another one for fans of film adaptions, the critically-acclaimed 2008 film is based on a book of the same name and follows the modern pilgrimage across the United States by an ivy league graduate who decides to renounce his possessions and go into the wild – destined for Alaska.
While Eat, Pray, Love might inspire you to quit your job and travel the world, Into the Wild is like a backpacker cousin that makes you think about the value or possessions as well as how much value there is in living a life that makes you happy opposed to what others expect from you or what is considered conventional.
5. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Where To Buy
Is there really a greater travel story than one about a person hitchhiking across the galaxy with nothing more than their towel to their name? While this story may not be rooted in the reality of hitchhiking, it does ask the world’s number one question: what is the meaning of life?
Plus, if you like sequels this book is just one of six (even though it is often referred to as a trilogy), so if you have seen the movie and liked what you see, there is a lot more travel and adventure in store and plenty of pages to keep your summer reading list full.
4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Where To Buy
Life of Pi takes you on a journey through faith and spirituality, and not necessarily in a religious way as much as a personal path that everyone walks alone at some point in their life. Author Yann Martel literally takes you on several boat trips, some more tumulus than others and some that leave the protagonist stranded in the middle of the ocean with a tiger.
If you enjoyed the film adaptation, the book contains a lot more personal and thought-provoking dialogue that will inspire you to ask yourself the hard questions about life and spirituality.
3. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Where To Buy
Author of Into The Wild and acclaimed journalist John Krakauer sure knows the definition of travel and adventure if he managed to get two books on this list voted on by the Goodreads community. His writing follows certain themes about traveling that is not often recorded: the insistence to ignore the concerns of loved one and throw oneself at an adventure.
In his second book, he elaborates on these themes by providing an eyewitness account of the deadliest season on Mount Everest when he himself had climbed to the summit but 5 climbers would not return due to an unpredicted storm. Krakauer details the known health issues faced by every Mount Everest climbers that include hallucinations from lack of oxygen, and delves into what is inside of each climber that motivates them to take on such a dangerous task.
2. Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
Where To Buy
John Steinbeck is one of the most famous American authors, especially for creating characters who trek across the United States and embark on an adventure. The author himself decided to take a road trip at the age of 58 to rediscover the depth of the lands that he had been writing about for so long.
Join Steinbeck on his own adventure as he takes you through the golden planes, mountains, and deep forests of the U.S. in the early 60s. This is a great book for fans of details and a walk through American history.
1. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Where To Buy
This 1957 American literature classic has made the list as one of the original books about travel, and hitting the open road. Karouac’s novel is inspired by the years that he spend road tripping through the U.S., and represents a time in American history when leaving your hometown to see what else the country had to offer was trending, but a much bigger deal then than it is now (life without social media and cell phones).
To be on the road traveling, really was to be alone and face problems that came with it. But Kerouac doesn’t seem to find that daunting, as much as alluring and it shows as he writes about traveling through the U.S. in the 50s with endearing excitement.
Summer is a great season for traveling and crossing off another destination on your bucket list. But for those unable or unwilling to explore some of these more savage places, books about travel are the perfect combination of information and escapism to satisfy your needs!
