Travelling Alone

My parents thought I was mad travelling half way across the world on my own, but it was something that I had to do and I came back a different person – more confident, on a complete buzz, and these experiences gave me the passion I have for travel today.

There’s a misconception that travellers who travel alone are lonely people, with no friends, and they don’t want to socialise. Actually, single travellers are adventurous, enjoy their own company, and are confident travellers.

Whilst traveling with friends or organized groups is fairly common, by choice or by necessity many people travel alone. Traveling alone is a unique experience and can be a very rewarding way of traveling, despite a few drawbacks.

Traveling alone is not uncommon and most solo travelers are able to meet other travelers at hostels, bars, organised tours or any place where travelers tend to hang out or congregate

Advantages to traveling alone

• Your time and budget are your own! It's all up to you how much time to spend someplace, what your daily modes of travel will be, etc.

• It's easier to make friends with the locals. Many great opportunities to interact with the locals on a personal level can be found and enjoyed without a friend or other companion.

• More space to make your trip entirely your own. Solo travel can be a great opportunity for reflection and moving at an individual pace. Traveling by yourself, you only have to please yourself.

• You will be far more flexible than non-solo travelers, and may find it easier to cope with unexpected setbacks and complications. There's nobody to blame you for your own gaffes, after all!

Disadvantages to traveling alone

• There's nobody to watch your back. And there's no one to watch the luggage while you go buy train tickets. You have to carry all your gear yourself, which can be both inconvenient and stressful.

• It's more expensive, as there is no one to share costs with. Rooms are usually about the same price for one or for two. You'll need to budget a little bit more.

• You don't have any social obligations.

• You may experience moments of loneliness.

Notable travel writers and travel literature

Note: listed by year of birth

8th century BC

• Homer (fl. 8th century BC)

  Odyssey — epic poem accounting the travels of the Greek hero, Odysseus, on his voyage home from Troy.

5th century BC

• Xenophon (431–355 BC)

  Anabasis - about the expedition of Cyrus the Younger, a Persian prince, against his brother, King Artaxerxes II

2nd century AD

• Lucian of Samosata (c. 125 – after c. 180)

  True History — documents a fantastic voyage that parodies many mythical travels recounted by other authors, such as Homer; considered to be among the first works of science fiction.

• Pausanias (fl. 2nd century)

  Description of Greece

4th century

• Decimus Magnus Ausonius (c. 310 – 395)

  Mosella (The Moselle, c. 370) — describes the poet's trip to the banks of the river Moselle, then in Gaul.

• Faxian (c. 337 – c. 422), Chinese traveler to India and Ceylon

  A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fâ-Hien of His Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline

  5th century

• Rutilius Claudius Namatianus (fl. 5th century)

  De reditu suo (Concerning His Return, c. 416) — the poet describes his voyage along the Mediterranean seacoast from Rome to Gaul.

  7th century

• Xuanzang (602 – 664)

  Great Tang Records on the Western Regions (646) — narrative of the Buddhist monk's journey from China to India.

8th century

• Ennin (c. 793 or 794 – 864), Japanese Buddhist monk who chronicled his travels in Tang China

  The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law (838-847)

10th century

• Ahmad ibn Fadlan (fl. 10th century)

  Kitāb ilā Mulk al-Saqāliba (كتاب إلى ملك الصقالبة) (A letter to the king al-Saqāliba, Ibn Faḍlān's account of the caliphal embassy from Baghdad to the King of the Volga Bulghārs, c. 921)

11th century

• Nasir Khusraw (1004 – 1088), Persian traveler in the Middle East

  Safarnama (c. 1046)

12th century

• Abu ad-Din al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Jubayr (1145 – 1217)

  The Travels of Ibn Jubayr (c. 1185)

• Gerald of Wales (1146 – 1223)

  Itinerarium Cambriae (Journey Through Wales, 1191)

13th century

• Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179–1229)

  Mu'jam Al-Buldan (Dictionary of Countries)

• Marco Polo (1254 – 1324 or 1325), Venetian traveller to China and the Mongol Empire

  Il Milione (1298)

  14th century

• Ibn Battuta (1304 – 1368 or 1369), Moroccan world traveler

  Rihla (1355) — literally entitled: "A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling".

15th century

• Afanasy Nikitin (? – 1474), Russian merchant, traveler and writer

  A Journey Beyond the Three Seas

16th century

• Ẓahīr ud-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur (1483-1531), founder of the Mughal Empire

  Baburnama, memoirs, including his descriptions of the places he lived and/or conquered.

• Duarte Barbosa (?–1521), Portuguese writer and explorer who died in Magellan's circumnavigation

  The book of Duarte Barbosa: an account of the countries bordering the Indian Ocean and their inhabitants (1516, originally known through the testimony of Italian Giovanni Battista Ramusio)

• Fernão Mendes Pinto (1509–1583), Portuguese explorer and writer

  Peregrinação (meaning "Pilgrimage", published posthumously in 1614) — memoir of his travels in the Middle and Far East, Ethiopia, Arabian Sea, India and Japan, as one of the first Europeans to reach it in 1542.

• Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552–1616)

  The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589) — a foundational text of the travel literature genre.

17th century

• Evliya Çelebi, (1610–1683)

  Seyahatname

• Johann Sigmund Wurffbain (1613–1661)

  Reise Nach Den Molukken Und Vorder-Indien, 1632-1646 (Travel to the Moluccas and the Middle East Indies, 1632-1646) (1646)

• François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz (1623–1668)

  Les voyages et observations du sieur de La Boullaye Le gouz (1653 & 1657) — one of the very first true travel books.

• Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694)

  Kashima Kikō (A Visit to Kashima Shrine) (1687)

  Oi no Kobumi, or Utatsu Kikō (Record of a Travel-Worn Satchel) (1688)

  Sarashina Kikō (A Visit to Sarashina Village) (1688)

  The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (trans. 1967)

• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) — known for the letters she wrote during several trips abroad, which were important for later female travel writers. These letters include:

  Turkish Embassy Letters — letters describing her life as an ambassador's wife in Turkey, important as one of the earliest discussions of the Muslim world by a woman

  18th century

• Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)

  Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735, a satiric parody of the genre)

• Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

  A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) — the lexicographer and his friend James Boswell (1740–1795) visit Scotland in 1773.

• Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

  A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768)

• Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

  Thomas Jefferson Travels: Selected Writings, 1784-1789 — record of Jefferson's travels in France, Holland, Germany and Italy, included in his Complete Works with selected portions in various collections of his writings.

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1743 – 1832)

  Italienische Reise (1816–1817)

• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)

  A Short Residence in Sweden (1796)

  Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796)

• Johann Gottfried Seume (1763–1810)

  Spaziergang nach Syrakus (1803)

• Jippensha Ikku (1765–1831)

  Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige (The Shank's Mare) — one of the most famous of the Edo period michiyuki (journey) novels.

• John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)

  Letters on Silesia: Written During a Tour Through That Country in the Years 1800, 1801 (1804)

• Sir Henry Holland, 1st Baronet (1788–1873)

  Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia, &c., during the years 1812 and 1813 (1815)

• James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851)

  Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland (1836)

  Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine (1836)

  Gleanings in Europe: England (1837)

• Marquis de Custine (1790–1857)

  Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia (1838)

• Heinrich Heine (1797–1856)

  Reisebilder (1826–33), Harzreise (1853)

19th century

• Karl Baedeker (1801–1859), German publisher whose company set the standard for authoritative guidebooks for tourists
• Rifa'a el-Tahtawi (1801–1873), Egyptian traveler to France

  Takhlis al-Ibriz fi Talkhis Bariz ("An Imam in Paris: Account of a Stay in France by an Egyptian Cleric (1826-1831)", 1834)

• George Borrow (1803–1881)

  The Bible in Spain (1843)

  Wild Wales (1862)

• John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852)

  Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petræa and the Holy Land (1837)

  Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia and Poland (1838)

  Incidents of Travel in Central American, Chiapas and Yucatan (1841)

  Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (1843)

• Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)

  Journey to America (1831–1832)

• Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875)

  The Improvisatore (1835)

• Charles Darwin (1809–1882)

  The Voyage of the Beagle (1839)

• Alexander Kinglake (1809–1891)

  Eothen (1844)

• Charles Dickens (1812–1870)

  American Notes (1842)

  Pictures from Italy (1844–1845)

• Herman Melville (1819–1891)

  Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846)

  Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847) — chronicles of Melville's experiences as a sailor in Polynesia.

• Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) — left travel notes and letters, including:

  Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour (publ.1972) — letters

• Fran Levstik (1831–1887)

  Popotovanje od Litije do Čateža (1858) — a journey from Litija to Čatež that includes a very influential Slovenian literary programme.

• William Morris (1834–1896)

  Icelandic Journals (1911)

• Mark Twain (1835–1910)

  The Innocents Abroad (1869)

  Roughing It (1872)

  A Tramp Abroad (1880)

  Following the Equator (1897)

• John Burroughs (1837–1921)

  Fresh Fields (1884)

• William Dean Howells (1837–1920)

  Certain Delightful English Towns (1906)

• Henry James (1843–1916)

  A Little Tour in France (1884)

  English Hours (1905)

  The American Scene (1907)

  Italian Hours (1909)

• Joshua Slocum (1844–1909)

  Sailing Alone Around the World (1899)

• Octave Mirbeau (1848–1917)

  La 628-E8 (1908)

• Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

  An Inland Voyage (1878)

  Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879)

  The Silverado Squatters (1883)

• Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)

  Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail (1888)

  Through the Brazilian Wilderness (1914)

• Jelena Dimitrijević (1862–1945)

  Letters from Niš Regarding Harems (1897)

  Letters from Salonica on Young Turk Revolution (1918)

  Letters from India (1928)

  Letters from Egypt (1929)

  The New World, alias: In America for a Year (1934)

• Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch (1862–1908)

  Enchanted India (1898)

• Mary Kingsley (1862–1900)

  Travels in West Africa (1897)

• J. Smeaton Chase (1864–1923)

  Yosemite Trails (1911)

  California Coast Trails (1913)

  California Desert Trails (1919)

• Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867–1951)

  Across Asia from West to East in 1906-1908 (English trans. 1940) — explorations by Czarist spy who would later become President of Finland.

• Norman Douglas (1868–1962)

  Old Calabria (1915)

• André Gide (1869–1951)

  Voyage au Congo (1927)

  Le retour de Tchad (1928)

  Retour de l'U. R. S. S. (1936)

  Retouches â mon retour de l'U. R. S. S (1937)

• Ernest Peixotto (1869–1940)

  Our Hispanic Southwest (1916) — contains the first usage of the ethnic slur "spic"

• Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953)

  The Path To Rome (1902) — a ramble by foot from central France to Rome in 1901.

• W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)

  On a Chinese Screen (1922) — vignettes of China in the '30s from the master of the short story.

• Yone Noguchi (1875–1947)

  The American Diary of a Japanese Girl (1903)

• Isidora Sekulić (1877–1958)

  Pisma iz Norveške / Letters from Norway (1914)

• D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930)

  Sea and Sardinia (1921)

• Henry Vollam Morton (1892–1979)

  The Heart of London (1925)

  In Search of England (1927)

• Rebecca West (1892–1983)

  Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941) — an 1,181-page look at Yugoslavia before the tragedies of World War II and the 1990s wars.

• Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan (1893–1963)

  Volga Se Ganga ("A Journey From Volga to Ganga", 1944)

• Thomas Raucat (1894–1976)

  L'honorable partie de campagne ("The honorable picnic", 1924)

  De Shang-Haï à Canton ("From Shanghai to Canton", 1927)

• J. Slauerhoff (1898–1936)

  Alleen de havens zijn ons trouw ("Only the Ports Are Loyal to Us", 1992 [1927–1932])

• Peter Aufschnaiter (1899–1973)

  Eight Years in Tibet (1983)

• Emily Kimbrough (1899–1989) — writer of travel humor

  And a Right Good Crew (1958)

• Gordon Sinclair (1900–1984)

  Khyber Caravan: Through Kashmir, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Northern India (1936) — a somewhat curmudgeonly account of 1934 travels in British India by a later famous Canadian journalist and television personality.

• Richard Halliburton (1900–1939), one of the most famous explorers and adventure writers of his generation

  The Royal Road to Romance (1925)

  The Glorious Adventure (1927)

  New Worlds to Conquer (1929)

  The Flying Carpet (1932)

  Seven League Boots (1935)

20th century

• John Steinbeck (1902–1968)

  A Russian Journal (1948) — A trip through Russia, Ukraine and Georgia in the Soviet Union shortly after World War II with the friend and renowned war photographer Robert Capa.

  Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962) — an American road book describing Steinbeck's journeys with his poodle, Charley.

• Chiang Yee (1903–1977)

  The Silent Traveller series — 11 books about his travels in Britain, the USA and Japan

• Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)

  Waugh Abroad: Collected Travel Writing — an account of the English novelist's restless wanderings around the world in the 1930s and later.

  Ninety-Two Days: Travels in Guiana and Brazil (1932)

• J.M. Synge (1871–1909)

  The Aran Islands with illustrations by Jack B. Yeats. (1907)

  Travels in Wicklow, West Kerry and Connemara with illustrations by Jack B. Yeats. (1911)

• Graham Greene (1904–1991)

  Journey Without Maps (1936)

• Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007)

  "America" (1986)

• Gerald Brenan (1894–1987)

  The Spanish Labyrinth (1943)

  The Face of Spain (1950)

• Robert Byron (1905–1941)

  The Road to Oxiana (1937) — travels in Persia and Afghanistan

• Laurens van der Post (1906–1996)

  The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958) — Auberon Waugh (1939–2001) described van der Post as the person in whose company he'd most like to spend an evening. This book by the South African soldier/explorer/writer suggests why.

• Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988)

  Tramp Royale (1992)

• Ian Fleming (1908–1964)

  Thrilling Cities (1963)

• Paul Bowles (1910–1999)

  Yallah (1957)

  Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue (1963)

• Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003)

  Arabian Sands (1959)

• Gavin Young (1928–2001)

  Return to the Marshes (1977)

  Iraq: Land of Two Rivers (1980)

  Slow Boats to China (1981)

  Halfway Around the World: An Improbable Journey (1983)

  Slow Boats Home (1985)

• Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990)

  Prospero's Cell: A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corcyra (1945) — this text describes Durrell's time in Corfu. It should be read in tandem with his brother Gerald's My Family and Other Animals.

  Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953) — experiences in Rhodes.

  Bitter Lemons (1957) — travels in Cyprus.

• Heinrich Harrer (1912–2006)

  Seven Years in Tibet (1952)

• Gavin Maxwell (1914–1969)

  People of the Reeds (1957)

• Patrick Leigh Fermor (b. 1915)

  A Time Of Gifts (1977) — a journey by an 18 year old in 1933/4 overland from the Hook of Holland to Hungary, rewritten in old age from long lost notes.

• Roger Pilkington (1915–2003) — author of the "Small Boat" series

  Small Boat on the Thames (1966)

  Small Boat on the Moselle (1968)

• Camilo José Cela (1916–2002)

  Viaje a la Alcarria (1948)

• Eric Newby (1919–2006), popular English travel writer

  A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958)

• Lucjan Wolanowski (1920–2006)

  Post to Never-Never Land (Poland, 1968) — reports from Australia.

  Heat and fever (Poland, 1970) — reports from the work in World Health Organization Information department in Geneva, travels in New Delhi, Bangkok and Manila, 1967-1968.

• Jože Javoršek (1920-1990)

  Indija Koromandija (1962), a travelogue through India by one of the most important Slovenian essayists of the 20th century

• Zulfikar "Zuko" Džumhur (1921, Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina – 1989) was a Bosnian writer, painter and caricaturist. He wrote screenplays and hosted TV show Hodoljublje, a travel documentary. He successfully produced this show for over ten years for television TV Sarajevo.

  Hodoljublja (1982, "TV Sarajevo" Bosnia and Herzegovina) (Travelogue - a travel documentary with focus on culture, traditions, art and nature of Bosnia and Herzegovina, (ex) Yugoslavia and countries he sojourned, primarily Islamic and countries of Mediterranean Basin.)

  Nekrolog jednoj čaršiji (1958) (Obituary of a čaršija (the downtown/main street Ottoman-Turkish style bazaar)) (with an introduction by Ivo Andrić)

  Pisma iz Azije (1973) (Letters from Asia)

  Pisma iz Afrike i Evrope (Letters from Africa & Europe)

  Stogodišnje priče (Centennial tales)

  Putovanje bijelom Ladom (1982) (Voyage with white "Lada" ("Lada" is a brand of Russian automobile))

  Adakale

  Zelena čoja Montenegra (Green carpet of Montenegro - co-authored with Serbian novelist Momo Kapor)

• Gerald Durrell (1925–1995)

  My Family and Other Animals (1956) — a description of an idyllic childhood on Corfu in the 1930s by the brother of Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990). This text combines natural observations, humour, storytelling, and travel.

  Fillets of Plaice (1971)

• Jan Morris (b. 1926)

  Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere (2001) — author of many works, especially about cities; prior to the 1970s, her work was published under her previous name, "James Morris."

• Che Guevara (1928–1967)

  The Motorcycle Diaries (1952) — Traces the 8000 km trip through South America of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, then a 23-year-old medical student, and his friend Alberto Granado a 29-year-old biochemist (who also published his own diaries of the event in Travelling with Che Guevara).

• Primož Kozak (1929-1981)

  Peter Klepec in America (1971), a travelogue through the United States by one of the most important Slovenian essayists of the 20th century

• Juan Goytisolo (b. 1931)

  Campos de Nijar (1959)

• Ted Simon (b. 1931)

  Jupiter's Travels (1979)

• Ryszard Kapuściński (1932–2007)

  Another Day of Life (1976)

  The Soccer War (1978)

  The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (1978)

  Shah of Shahs (1982)

  Imperium (1993)

  The Shadow of the Sun (2001)

• Cees Nooteboom (b. 1933), Dutch travel writer

  Berlijnse Notities (1990)

  Roads to Santiago (1992)

  Nootebooms Hotel (2002)

• Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002)

  Italian Days (1989)

• David Lodge (b. 1935)

  Paradise News, 1991

• Rubén Caba (b. 1935)

  Por la ruta serrana del Arcipreste (1976, 1977, 1995)

• Venedict Yerofeyev (1938–1990)

  Moskva–Pеtushki (1973) — a Russian tale of alcohol, love, and a train ride; translated into English as Moscow to the End of the Line.

• William Least Heat-Moon (b. 1939)

  Blue Highways: A Journey into America (1982)

• Peter Mayle (b. 1939)

  A Year in Provence (1989)

• Colin Thubron (b. 1939)

  Mirror to Damascus (1967)

• Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989), an English stylist of the 20th century

  In Patagonia (1977)

  The Songlines (1987)

• Frances Mayes (b. 1940)

  Under the Tuscan Sun (1996) — a memoir of buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in rural Tuscany in Italy.

• Paul Theroux (b. 1941)

  The Great Railway Bazaar (1975) — perhaps Theroux's most popular travel work.

• Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)

  Old Glory: An American Voyage (1981)

• Michael Crichton (1942–2008)

  Travels (1988)

21st century

• Michael Palin (b. 1943)

  Sahara (2002)

• Julian Barnes (b. 1946)

  A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (1989)

  England, England (1998)

• Tom Miller (b. 1947)

  Best Travel Writing 2005, introduction, pp. xvii-xxi, (2005)

  A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration, (2004) pp. 325–343.

  Writing on the Edge: A Borderlands Reader, (ed.) (2003)

  Travelers' Tales—Cuba, (ed.) (2001)

  Jack Ruby's Kitchen Sink: Offbeat Travels Through America's Southwest (2000)

  Trading With the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro's Cuba (1992)

  The Panama Hat Trail: A Journey From South America (1986)

  Arizona: The Land and the People, (ed.) (1986)

  On the Border: Portraits of America's Southwestern Frontier (1981)

• Mikirō Sasaki (b. 1947), Japanese poet and travel essayist

  Ajia kaidō kikō: umi wa toshi de aru (A Travel Journal of the Asian Seaboard, 2002)

• Lawrence Millman (b. 1948)

  An Evening Among Headhunters: And Other Reports from Roads Less Taken (1999)

  Last Places: A Journey in the North (2000)

  Northern Latitudes (2000)

  Lost in the Arctic: Explorations on the Edge (2002)

• Chris Stewart (b. 1950)

  Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia (1999)

  A Parrot in the Pepper Tree (2002)

  The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (2007)

• Bill Bryson (b. 1951)

  The Palace Under the Alps (1985) — an early work that is more of a travel guide than a narrative.

  Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe (1992)

  Notes from a Small Island (1995) — travels in the United Kingdom.

  A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1999)

  In a Sunburned Country (2001)

• Douglas Adams (1952–2001)

  Last Chance to See (1990)

• Vikram Seth (b. 1952)

  From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983)

• Predrag Miletić (b. 1952)

  By bicycle to Hilandar (2004)

• Quim Monzó (b. 1952)

  Guadalajara (1997)

  Barcelona und andere Erzählungen (2007)

• Neil Peart (b. 1952), drummer for the Canadian rock band Rush

  The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa (1996)

  Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road (2002) – a chronicle of motorcycle trips through North and Central America

  Traveling Music: The Soundtrack of My Life and Times (2004) – a contemplative road trip

• Kenn Kaufman (b. 1954)

  Kingbird Highway: The Story of a Natural Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand (1997)

• Rory MacLean (b. 1954)

  Stalin’s Nose (1992)

  The Oatmeal Ark (1997)

  Under the Dragon (1998)

  Next Exit Magic Kingdom (2000)

  Falling for Icarus (2004)

  Magic Bus (2006)

• Dennison Berwick (b. 1956)

  Savages, The Life and Killing of the Yanomami (1992)

  Amazon (1990)

  A Walk along The Ganges (1986)

• Pico Iyer (b. 1957)

  Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-so-Far East (1988)

  Falling off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World (1993)

  Tropical Classical: Essays from Several Directions (1997)

  Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home (2000) — three excellent collections of essays on the postmodern experience of travel.

• Tony Horwitz (b. 1958)

  One for the Road: An Outback Adventure (1987)

  Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia (1991)

  Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (1998)

  Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before (2002)

  A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World (2008)

• Jeffrey Tayler (b. 1962)

  Siberian Dawn: A Journey Across the New Russia (1999)

  Facing the Congo: A Modern-Day Journey into the Heart of Darkness (2000)

  Glory in a Camel's Eye: Trekking Through the Moroccan Sahara (2003)

  Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat, and Camel (2005)

  River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny (2006)

• Karl Taro Greenfeld (b. 1964)

  Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation (1995)

  Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia — an exploration of the traveler/backpacker subcultures in the Far East during the 1990s by a writer who was there.

• William Dalrymple (b.1965)

  In Xanadu: A Quest (1989)

  City of Djinns (1992)

  From the Holy Mountain (1994)

  The Age of Kali (1995)

  Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (2009)

• Tahir Shah (b. 1966)

  Beyond the Devil's Teeth (1995)

  Sorcerer's Apprentice (1998)

  Trail of Feathers (2001)

  In Search of King Solomon's Mines (2002)

  House of the Tiger King (2004)

  The Caliph's House (2006)

  In Arabian Nights (2008)

  Travels With Myself: Collected Work (2011)

  Timbuctoo (2012)

• J. Maarten Troost (b. 1969)

  The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific (2004)

  Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu (2006)

• Cleo Paskal

  Navigating Customs: New Travel Stories by 12 Writers [Less Than] 25 (2007)

• Kira Salak (b. 1971)

  Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea (2001)

  The Cruelest Journey: 600 Miles to Timbuktu (2004)

• Tom Bissell (b. 1974)

  Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia (2003)

• Bishwanath Ghosh (b. 1970)

  Chai, Chai: Travels in Places Where You Stop But Never Get Off (2009)

Travel literature in criticism

The systematic study of travel literature emerged as a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry in the mid-1990s, with its own conferences, organizations, journals, monographs, anthologies, and encyclopedias. Among the most important, pre-1995 monographs are: Abroad (1980) by Paul Fussell, an exploration of British interwar travel writing as escapism; Gone Primitive: Modern Intellects, Savage Minds (1990) by Marianna Torgovnick, an inquiry into the primitivist presentation of foreign cultures; Haunted Journeys: Desire and Transgression in European Travel Writing (1991) by Dennis Porter, a close look at the psychological correlatives of travel; Discourses of Difference: An Analysis of Women’s Travel Writing by Sara Mills, an inquiry into the intersection of gender and colonialism during the nineteenth century; Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (1992), Mary Louise Pratt's influential study of Victorian travel writing’s dissemination of a colonial mind-set; and Belated Travelers (1994), an analysis of colonial anxiety by Ali Behdad.
The study of travel writing developed most extensively in the late 1990s, encouraged by the currency of Foucauldian criticism and Edward Said's postcolonial landmark study Orientalism. This growing interdisciplinary preoccupation with cultural diversity, globalization, and migration is expressed in other fields of literary study, most notably Comparative Literature. The first international travel writing conference, “Snapshots from Abroad”, organized by Donald Ross at the University of Minnesota in 1997, attracted over one hundred scholars and led to the foundation of the International Society for Travel Writing (ISTW).The first issue of Studies in Travel Writing was published the same year, edited by Tim Youngs. Annual scholarly conferences about travel writing, held in the USA, Europe and Asia, saw an unprecedented upswing in the number of published travel literature monographs and essay collections, as well as a proliferation of travel writing anthologies.
Major directions in recent travel writing scholarship include: studies about the role of gender in travel and travel writing (e.g. Women Travelers in Colonial India: The Power of the Female Gaze [1998] by Indira Ghose); explorations of the political functions of travel (e.g. Radicals on the Road: The Politics of English Travel Writing in the 1930s [2001] by Bernard Schweizer); postcolonial perspectives on travel (e.g. English Travel Writing: From Pilgrimages to Postcolonial Explorations (2000) by Barbara Korte); and studies about the function of language in travel and travel writing (e.g. Across the Lines: Travel, Language, and Translation [2000] by Michael Cronin). Tim Youngs is a driving force behind the growth of the field, notably through the journal Studies in Travel Writing, through his two co-edited volumes of essays on travel writing, Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (2002), co-edited with T. Hulme, and Perspectives in Travel Writing (2004), co-edited with G. Hooper. Youngs also co-organized the 2005 travel writing conference, “Mobilis in Mobile”, in Hong Kong. Kristi Siegel is another prolific editor of travel writing scholarship, having edited Issues in Travel Writing: Empire, Spectacle and Displacement (2002), as well as Gender, Genre, and Identity in Women’s Travel Writing (2004)^.

Fiction

Fictional travelogues make up a large proportion of travel literature. Although it may be desirable in some contexts to distinguish fictional from non-fictional works, such distinctions have proved notoriously difficult to make in practice, as in the famous instance of the travel writings of Marco Polo or John Mandeville. Many "fictional" works of travel literature are based on factual journeys – Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and presumably, Homer's Odyssey (c. 8th cent. BCE) – while other works, though based on imaginary and even highly fantastic journeys – Dante's Divine Comedy, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide or Samuel Johnson's The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia – nevertheless contain factual elements.
Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958) are fictionalized accounts of his travels across the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
One contemporary example of a real life journey transformed into a work of fiction is travel writer Kira Salak's novel, The White Mary, which takes place in Papua New Guinea and the Congo and is largely based on her own experiences in those countries.

Travelogues

Burton Holmes was an American traveler, photographer and filmmaker, who coined the term "travelogue". Travel stories, slide shows, and motion pictures were all in existence before Holmes began his career, as was the profession of travel lecturer; but Holmes was the first person to put all of these elements together into documentary travel lectures. The Americans, Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson and William Least Heat-Moon, Welsh author Jan Morris and Englishman Eric Newby are or were widely acclaimed as travel writers although Morris is also a historian and Theroux a novelist.
Travel literature often intersects with essay writing, as in V. S. Naipaul's India: A Wounded Civilization, where a trip becomes the occasion for extended observations on a nation and people. This is similarly the case in Rebecca West's work on Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.
Sometimes a writer will settle into a locality for an extended period, absorbing a sense of place while continuing to observe with a travel writer's sensibility. Examples of such writings include Lawrence Durrell's Bitter Lemons, Deborah Tall's The Island of the White Cow and Peter Mayle's best-selling A Year in Provence and its sequels.
Travel and nature writing merge in many of the works by Sally Carrighar, Ivan T. Sanderson and Gerald Durrell. These authors are naturalists, who write in support of their fields of study. Charles Darwin wrote his famous account of the journey of HMS Beagle at the intersection of science, natural history and travel.
Literary travel writing also occurs when an author, famous in another field, travels and writes about his or her experiences. Examples of such writers are Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, Mary Wollstonecraft, Robert Louis Stevenson, Hilaire Belloc, D. H. Lawrence, Rebecca West and John Steinbeck.

The Experience of Travelling and Learning

When travelling in other countries, we expect to meet different people, see different sights and do different things. However, the most valuable learning that comes from travel is not that we are different, but that we share so many common needs and feelings. Many of my experiences abroad have been gained by staying with families who live in the country that I am visiting.

 When a student first meets their host family, they will feel nervous. They ask questions, such as 'Are they going to like me? Are we going to be able to communicate? Have they got a sense of humour? Will I feel comfortable in their company?' Having hosted students myself, I know that host families are also feeling nervous, and ask themselves the same questions. 'Homestay' experiences can introduce a whole new element into your learning programme - even if it is for a short period before moving on to college or a volunteer programme. The learning that comes from interacting with families of the culture that one is visiting can be so much greater than the learning that is derived from staying in just hotels and hostels. Mixing the type of accommodation can bring a variety of benefits. I have often travelled with groups of young people, and it has been remarkable to see their self-confidence blossom. 

Travelling to new cultures and interacting with strangers teaches one as much about oneself as it does about other people. The challenge of new experiences will push one's personal barriers back. Coping with situations that have not been previously encountered can show you that you are capable of achieving, or succeeding at, so much more than you had thought. Learning about different cultures can teach you things about your own culture - things you had erstwhile neither appreciated nor understood. Spending time with friends from another culture will challenge stereotypes that may be held by both parties. Some of the greatest joys of travel are gleaned from knowing that your preconceptions were wrong.

Many of the opportunities offered through voluntary work/projects can bring you into contact with volunteers from a wide range of countries and cultures. In this circumstance, being in a different country might well allow you to meet, learn and challenge your preconceptions with people from a variety of backgrounds. When travelling, do not only look for the differences - seek the common areas that bring you closer together. Do not expect to learn just about others - revel in the learning that you obtain about yourself!

Author:

Zohaib Nawaz 

 

History Of Travel Literature

Early examples of travel literature include Pausanias' Description of Greece in the 2nd century CE, and the travelogues of Ibn Jubayr (1145–1214) and Ibn Batutta (1304–1377), both of whom recorded their travels across the known world in detail. The travel genre was a fairly common genre in medieval Arabic literature.
One of the earliest known records of taking pleasure in travel, of travelling for the sake of travel and writing about it, is Petrarch's (1304–1374) ascent of Mount Ventoux in 1336. He states that he went to the mountaintop for the pleasure of seeing the top of the famous height. His companions who stayed at the bottom he called frigida incuriositas ("a cold lack of curiosity"). He then wrote about his climb, making allegorical comparisons between climbing the mountain and his own moral progress in life.
Michault Taillevent, a poet for the Duke of Burgundy, travelled through the Jura Mountains in 1430 and left us with his personal reflections, his horrified reaction to the sheer rock faces, and the terrifying thunderous cascades of mountain streams. Antoine de la Sale (c. 1388–c. 1462), author of Petit Jehan de Saintre, climbed to the crater of a volcano in the Lipari Islands in 1407, leaving us with his impressions. "Councils of mad youth" were his stated reasons for going. In the mid 15th century, Gilles le Bouvier, in his Livre de la description des pays, gave us his reason to travel and write:

Because many people of diverse nations and countries delight and take pleasure, as I have done in times past, in seeing the world and things therein, and also because many wish to know without going there, and others wish to see, go, and travel, I have begun this little book.

In 1589, Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552–1616) published Voyages, a foundational text of the travel literature genre.
Other later examples of travel literature include accounts of the Grand Tour. Aristocrats, clergy, and others with money and leisure time travelled Europe to learn about the art and architecture of its past. One tourism literature pioneer was Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894).
Travel literature also became popular during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) of medieval China. The genre was called 'travel record literature' (youji wenxue), and was often written in narrative, prose, essay and diary style. Travel literature authors such as Fan Chengda (1126–1193) and Xu Xiake (1587–1641) incorporated a wealth of geographical and topographical information into their writing, while the 'daytrip essay' Record of Stone Bell Mountain by the noted poet and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101) presented a philosophical and moral argument as its central purpose.
In the 18th century, travel literature was commonly known as the book of travels, which mainly consisted of maritime diaries.In 18th century Britain, almost every famous writer worked in the travel literature form.Captain James Cook's diaries (1784) were the equivalent of today's best sellers.
Safarnāma or Safarnāmé (Persian: سفرنامه‎), also spelled as safarnameh, is a travel literature written during the 11th century by Nasir Khusraw (1003-1077). It is also known as the Book of Travels and was a work that shaped the future of classical Persian travel writing.

It is an account of Khusraw's seven year journey through the Islamic world. He initially set out on a Hajj, the obligatory Pilgrimage to Mecca. Departing on March 5, 1046, Khusraw took a less than direct route, heading north toward the Caspian Sea. Throughout his travels he kept a minutely detailed journal which clearly describes many facets of life in the Islamic world of the 11th Century.

Nasir Khusraw compiled the Safarnama in a later period of his life, using notes that he had taken along his seven year journey. His prose is straightforward, resembling a travelogue as opposed to his more poetic and philosophical Diwan. Khusraw begins his Safarnama with a description of himself, his life, and his monumental decision to travel to Mecca. He recounts an extraordinary dream in which he converses with a man who encourages him to seek out that which is beneficial to the intellect. Before the dream ends, the man allegedly points towards the qibla and says nothing more. This was the impetus that drove Khusraw to perform the hajj.

In the remaining sections of the Safarnama, Khusraw describes cities and towns along the path of his journey, with particular focus on Mecca, Jerusalem, and Cairo (the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate at the time). Khusraw's work is appreciated for its detailed descriptions of these cities, with precise accounts of civic buildings and markets.

What is Travel literature

Travel literature is travel writing aspiring to literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or may involve travel to different regions within the same country. Accounts of spaceflight may also be considered travel literature.
Literary travelogues generally exhibit a coherent narrative or aesthetic beyond the logging of dates and events as found in travel journals or a ship's log. Travel literature is closely associated with outdoor literature and the genres often overlap with no definite boundaries. Another sub-genre, invented in the 19th century, is the guide book.