Books About Travel
Here’s my Rick Steves store! Just kidding, but, seriously, there is a lot of Rick Steves here. That’s because his European guidebooks are by far the best I’ve found.
Besides his helpful guidebooks, this page also features books that can help inspire you to travel and learn about the world around you.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I will earn a small commission. This occurs at no added cost to you.
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey is an evocative narrative detailing the author’s time as the superintendent of Arches National Monument. It has some problematic moments, but his overall style will make you want to visit the American Southwest to explore the desert.
The Atlas Obscura books detail things to see across the globe that typically aren’t included in bigger guidebooks. These are hidden gems and some downright weird things that can make you feel like you’re getting off the beaten path. When I need to flesh out an itinerary, Atlas Obscura is my go-to guide.
Anthony Bourdain’s World Travel: An Irreverent Guide was published posthumously after Bourdain’s untimely death in 2018. World Travel is more practical in nature than some of Bourdain’s other travel books, but it still contains his sardonic, witty personality. This book also has essays and anecdotes from some of Bourdain’s friends to further flesh out the stories contained within.
If you love the TV show by the same name, you’ll love the No Reservations book even more. It dives deeper into the places Anthony Bourdain visited on the show with behind-the-scenes commentary from Bourdain and photos from his travels. It’ll make you feel like you’re walking along Bourdain as he travels the globe.
The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is the companion book to the Emmy Award-winning TV series. It tells the history of America’s national parks through narrative and beautiful photos. If reading this book doesn’t pique your interest in our nation’s parks, then nothing will!
John Muirs’ Wilderness Essays were written by the legendary naturalist as he explored America’s western and Alaskan frontiers. A couple of the essays contained in the book are a little bland, but for the most part, they’re interesting reads that transport you into the natural landscapes being explored by John Muir. They’re sure to inspire you visit some of America’s majestic natural wonders.
For the Love of Europe is an excellent collection of stories from Rick Steves years of traveling Europe. It contains short stories that are more narrative driven compared to his guidebooks. If you’ve ever watched any of his shows on PBS, you’ll have a good idea of what this book is like. In fact, many of the stories are pulled from the show but with more intimate details than he gets to cover on the show.
The rest of the books on this page are all guidebooks we’ve used to plan our trips. Most of these are written by European travel expert Rick Steves. His books do an amazing job at providing interesting facts about places while also giving practical info to help with planning. I highly recommend any of his books, including ones I haven’t listed here (and that’s only because we haven’t had to use them yet).
In addition to Rick Steves’ books, will also find various other guidebooks we’ve used in planning our trips outside of Europe that I found helpful with small snippets about each one.
Rick Steves Vienna, Salzburg and Tirol
We used a couple different books to plan our trip to Mexico City, but this one from Moon was by far the more helpful of the two. It provides helpful information on the city’s top tourist attractions, hotels and restaurants. It also has good maps detailing some of Mexico City’s more popular neighborhoods.
Lonely Planet’s Japan guidebook has lots of good information on the different tourist attractions and restaurants throughout the country of Japan. The book is divided by each main neighborhood within the different cities and offers maps of each area. It lacks some of the practical info I’d like to see in a guidebook (such as hotel information, length of visits at each attraction, etc), but it does cover all the main sights, which can be especially helpful for people who aren’t too familiar with what to see in Japan.