types of travel literature

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Posted on Jun 21, 2017

12 Types of Travel Writing Every Writer Should Know

So, you want to be a travel writer?

There are plenty of reality doses out there already, so we’re going to focus on the positives, and what you can do to maximize your chances of travel writing professionally. One of the first steps: you should absolutely know your markets, and what types of travel writing are popular in them. In today’s competitive market, this knowledge can both help you structure your article  and target the right audience.

In this post, we break down modern travel writing into three distinct categories: freelance journalism , blogging, and book-writing. Then we identify the prevalent types of travel writing each category is known for, to give you an initial sort of compass in the industry.

Freelance Travel Journalism

The truth is this: the travel sections in major publications (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal) are slimmer now, so competition will be tall. But there are other outlets. Local newspapers are sometimes open to travel pitches from freelancers. Certain websites pay for travel articles, while magazines can be great for targeting niche audiences.

So what are the common types of freelance travel journalism?

Destination articles

Here, the game’s in the name: destination articles tell readers about a place to which they might want to travel one day. One of the most standard type of travel stories, these pieces act as the armchair reader’s bird-eye view of a place. Useful or interesting facts pepper the writing. History, points of interest, natural scenery, trendy spots: a destination article can touch upon them all within the framework of a broad narrative.

Where the average article gives readers a sense of the destination, the best of the best convinces readers that this is a destination they want, nay, need to visit. As such, though some destination articles are written in first person, the focus is rarely on the writer. Instead, the destination is the star of the show.

For examples of destination articles, check out:

• Besalú, the most interesting Spanish village you probably don’t know (LA Times)
• In Indonesia (Washington Post)
• 36 Hours In The Finger Lakes Region of New York (New York Times)

Special-interest articles

Special-interest articles are offshoots of destination articles. Instead of taking the reader on a tour of an entire country or city, these pieces cover one particular aspect of the destination. This kind of writing can cover anything from art in Colombia, ghost towns in the U.S., trekking in Patagonia, alpaca farms in Australia, motorbiking in Brazil, railroads in France, volunteering in Tanzania — you get the gist.

Since special-interest articles are narrower in topic, many writers tailor them for niche magazines or websites. Before you start pitching, we recommend flipping through the Writer’s Handbook , one of the most useful guides to the freelance publishing market, to see which publications fit your target audience.

For a taste of some special-interest articles, see:

• Exploring Portugal — From Pork To Port (epicurious.com)
• This Unsung Corner of Spain is Home to Fabulous Food (Washington Post)
• Karsts of China's Getu River region attract rock climbers, other travelers (CNN Travel)

Holiday and special events

Holiday and special events travel articles ask writers to write about a destination before the event takes place. The biggest global events are magnets for this type of travel writing, such as the World Cup, the Olympics, the World Expo, fashion weeks, and film festivals. Depending on the publication, regional events work just as well.

Want to see what special events pieces look like? Have a read through these:

• This summer’s solar eclipse is southern Illinois’ chance to shine (Chicago Tribune)
• How To Plan A Trip To The 2016 Rio Olympics (Travel & Leisure)

You’ll recognize a round-up article when you see one, as it’ll go, “40 best beaches in West Europe,” or, perhaps, “20 of the greatest walks in the world!” It’s a classic tool in any magazine or newspaper writer’s toolbox, taking a bunch of destinations and grouping them all under one common thread.

Ultimately, a clear motif makes this type of article a breeze to read, as they’re a play on the ubiquitous List Format. But, OK, before you jump at this excuse to sacrifice your belly at 99 food trucks in New York City, remember that your premise should be original, not to mention practical. What’s tough is coming up with X ways to do Y in the first place, as that demands you put in the travel and research to produce a thorough write-up.

Want even more examples of round-up articles? Here you go:

• 12 new art exhibits to see this summer (Smithsonian)
• 21 ways to see America for cheap (Huffington Post)
• 41 places to go in 2011 (New York Times)

Personal essays

Publishers are experiencing something of a personal essay fatigue , so the market for more might be scarce these days. However, quality trumps all, and a good personal travel essay is just plain good writing in disguise: something that possesses a strong voice while showing insight, growth, and backstory.

Just don’t make it a diary entry. In an interview with The Atlantic , travel writer Paul Theroux said: “The main shortcut is to leave out boring things. People write about getting sick, they write about tummy trouble. They write about waiting. They write three pages about how long it took them to get a visa. I’m not interested in the boring parts. Everyone has tummy trouble. Everyone waits in line. I don’t want to hear about it.”

Here’s a jumping-off point for personal travel essays:

• Taking the Great American Roadtrip (Smithsonian)

Have a burning opinion to share? Sometimes publications end up giving op-eds to staff, but there are always open calls for opinion pieces.

Travel op-eds are much rarer than political opinion pieces, but there’s a pattern to the ones that make the cut: good persuasive writing. If you can come at a topic from a unique angle (and argue your case clearly) then you may be able to publish your opinion.

If you’re in the mood for travel op-ed articles, see:

• The West Coast Is The Best Coast For Food In America (Food & Wine)
• Why Climate Change Is Actually Relevant To Travel (Conde Nast)

Travel Blogging

When typing “travel blog” into Google returns 295 million results, we can guess it’s a fairly competitive market.

Here’s the plus side: bloggers get to write what they want and go where they please. When it comes to blog posts, there are no editors, no gatekeepers. Only you and the “PUBLISH” button.

We won’t go revisit the types of travel writing we covered earlier (such as the roundup format). Instead, we’ll explore some of the other formats bloggers use to tell their travel stories. Since the rules of travel blogging are next to non-existent, our tally below is by no means definitive. And, again, our best advice is to note what your favorite bloggers do on their blogs.

Already running a successful travel blog? You might consider turning that blog into a book !

How-To articles are already fairly popular in magazines, but they’re positively omnipresent in the travel blogging world. Blogs provide a direct communication platform, allowing trust to build up quicker with the readers. As a result, for the search query, “How to travel Europe on a budget,” six out of the top ten results are posts from trusted independent blogs.

A How-To article is the most standard form of advice column a travel blogger can produce. It’s intrinsically useful, promising that it’ll teach something by article’s end. A blogger’s challenge is delivering fully on that promise.

How to read more How-To articles? We got you covered:

• How To Start A Travel Blog (Nomadic Matt)
• How To Travel Solo To A Party Destination (Adventurous Kate)
• How to Visit Penang’s Kek Lok Si Temple (Migrationology)

Itineraries

Itineraries reveal the schedule that the writer took at a given destination, city-by-city or sight-by-sight. They’re meant for the traveler who’s embarking on a similar trip and needs a template. Typically, you’ll find that an itinerary post is an easy place for you to slip in recommendations, anything from the accommodation you used or the restaurants you tried.

You can use itinerary posts to reinforce your blog’s brand. For instance, an itinerary posted on a blog focused around budget travel will probably maximize cost-saving chances.

For more itineraries, see:

• My Trip To Japan (A Complete Japan Itinerary)
• Backpacking Vietnam on a budget: 2-3 Weeks Itinerary + Tips

Longform posts

Longform travel blogging tells a travel story through extended narrative content, as it takes a week’s worth of adventure and shapes it into a story. Longform blog posts about travel often end up being creative nonfiction : a way to present nonfiction — factually accurate prose about real people and events — in a compelling, vivid, dramatic manner.

Photography can add another dimension to the form, as Emmanuel Nataf (our co-founder!) shows on his travel blog . And Reedsy's very own Arielle provides a glimpse into why she prefers longform travel writing on her blog, Steps, a Travel Journal :

My favourite kinds of stories are the ones that give you a real sense of place. That’s why I enjoy longform travel blogging: I get to describe the character of a place through the experiences I encountered there.

If you want to dip your toe into the sea of longform posts, you can also read:

• The Cow Head Taco Philosopher King of Oaxaca (Legal Nomads)
• The Best Worst Museum In The World

When it comes to writing a book, you can take all the challenges about travel writing from above and magnify it times 2,000. If you’re asking readers to commit to you for more than 100 pages, you’d best make sure that your book is worth their while.

As far as examples go, travel writing’s boomed in the mainstream book market recently. But there’s much more to it than Eat, Pray, Love and its descendants.

Travelogues

In travelogues, authors record their adventures in a way that illustrates or sheds insight upon the place itself. Travelogues possess a storied past, from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters in 1763 to Mark Twain’s 1867 The Innocents Abroad , which paved the way for the sort of comic travelogues that Bill Bryson’s perfected today.

Up for some travelogues? Check out:

• Notes From A Small Island , by Bill Bryson
• In Patagonia , by Bruce Chatwin
• Travels with Charley In Search of America , by John Steinbeck

Travel memoirs

Nowadays, travel memoirs are practically synonymous with Elizabeth Gilbert’s wildly popular Eat, Pray, Love and Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling Wild , which were both recently adapted into Hollywood blockbusters.

That said, be aware that you’ll need a pretty exceptional personal story for your memoir to compete in today’s market . If you’re still set on writing or self-publishing a travel memoir, it’s tricky to balance personal backstory and travel for 400 pages, so think about taking on a professional for a second pair of eyes.

Did you know? You can find Nicki Richesin , a top Bloomsbury editor who’s edited for Cheryl Strayed, on our marketplace.

In addition to Eat, Pray, Love and Wild , you can read:

• Under the Tuscan Sun , by Frances Mayes
• Coasting , by Jonathan Raban
• Wind, Sand, and Stars , by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

As Oscar Wilde said, “I never travel without my diary. One should always keep something sensational to read in the train.” But these days, people are replacing diaries with travel guides — the ubiquitous Lonely Planet becoming one of the more common sights on transit.

Travel writing in guidebooks is straightforward, informative, and fact-filled. In addition, there’s a certain amount of responsibility that comes with the job. Lonely Planet alone is read by millions of travelers worldwide.

General Tips and Guidelines

As we mentioned before, the trick to producing great travel writing is ultimately simply writing well . To that extent, you should make sure to follow all the guidelines of good writing — not least, spell-checking your article before submitting or publishing it anywhere. You don’t want an editor or reader to see it while it stilll reads lik edis.

Also, keep in mind the tone, style, and vibe of the publication and platform (and by extension, your audience). A story about a moon-rock could go into a kid's magazine or it could go into Scientific America .

Finally, some category-specific tips:

• If you’re freelance writing, always check submission guidelines. Publications may accept only pitches or they may welcome articles “on spec” (pre-written articles). Some sources only take travel articles that were written within 6 months of the trip.
• If you’re blogging, brand your website (same advice if you’re an author who’s building an author website ).
• If you’re writing a book, get a professional editor! An unedited book is an unwieldy thing, and professional eyes provide direction, continuity, and assonance. ( Layout designers can be important if you’re publishing a travel photography book, in the meanwhile.)

Travel writing isn't a cinch. In fact, it's a long and often hard grind. But by figuring out what type of travel writing you want to try your hand at, you're taking the crucial first step.

Have you tried travel writing before? Want to show us the cool travel blog that you're keeping? We're always in the mood for great travel writing + pretty pictures. Leave us a note in the comments and we'll be sure to check it out! 

7 responses

Amanda Turner says:

20/03/2018 – 16:20

Thank you, this was very helpful. Here's one of mine: http://vagabondingwithkids.com/every-mothers-guide-to-piranha-fishing-in-the-amazon/

Travalerie says:

24/05/2018 – 18:42

I landed on this page Googling for one thing and coming up with another. Haha! But what I found instead was helpful as I'm devouring as much as I can on travel writing. A few months ago, I started a new travel business, revamped my website including a new blog, and am in the process of writing, writing, writing. I took 2 trips this year so far and wrote what seemed like a mini-novella. Burning out in the process. I know I can do better. But I had no idea what I was writing could be re-worked to fit a certain category of travel writing -- which is what I found helpful in this post above. Thanks https://www.travalerie.com/blog

Surya Thakur says:

04/03/2019 – 12:39

Very good information. Lucky me I discovered your blog by chance (stumbleupon). I’ve saved as a favorite for later! KuLLuHuLLs

David Bishop says:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

Thanks for this good article. I'm in my third year on the road and recently started my senior solo adventure travel website. I think my site has some pretty good stuff, of course. Take a look and tell me what you think. www.davidhunterbishop.com

Iris C. Permuy says:

23/05/2019 – 18:03

Thank you very much for all of these useful pieces of advice. I will make sure to implement them all on my travel blog, which is a combination of travel and gastronomy and uses the memoir and itinerary types, apart from recipes. Come check it out if you feel like it! I am more than open, eager for some professional feedback :)

Serissa says:

26/10/2019 – 14:53

This post is the perfect diving board for aspiring travel writers. I plan to link to this page from my travel blog if that is alright! ?? The link on my website will appear as "[title of this post] by Reedsy Blog". I assume this is alright, but if not, please email me directly to let me know! Thanks so much!

↪️ Martin Cavannagh replied:

29/10/2019 – 10:11

We'd be absolutely delighted if you shared this article on your blog :)

Comments are currently closed.

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The Best Travel Literature of All Time

Like many travellers, you may have found yourself immersed in the voyages of those who have gone before you from time to time. While living vicariously is no replacement for being on the road, there are some utterly wonderful nonfiction travel books out there, which are the next best thing.

A Time of Gifts by Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

It’s quite genuinely impossible to create a comprehensive list of the best travel literature. While there’s a lot of replication of these types of lists out there, some books endure precisely because of their importance at the time or to other writers. Although some authors listed below deserve to have more than one of their books featured on this compendium of the greatest travel literature, only their finest work has been included. Consider it your gateway to that writer’s greater oeuvre, if you’ve not read any of their work previously; a reminder if you have. Similarly, non-male writers have often been unfortunately overlooked in the past and some real gems that deserve to be on the best travel literature of all-time lists have been overlooked.

The following aims to redress the balance a little. Consideration is also given to some of the works that defined people who are now better-known for their other exploits, because there’s no greater adventure than that of somebody whose travels inspired them to do something more important or lasting in the world beyond merely moving through space and time for travel’s sake. Here are twenty of the best pieces of travel literature ever written (theoretically), to guide you to your next read, to find inspiration for your next trip, or to simply use as a general reading checklist until your next journey.

A Time of Gifts (1977) – Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor

Writing about Paddy Leigh Fermor in 2020, it would be easy to dismiss the great writer as a privileged individual who was fortunate to stay with royalty and the well-to-do all across Europe as he sauntered from one place to the next. But that would be an awful disservice. A Time of Gifts is the first of a trilogy of books documenting his journey, on foot, from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople (Istanbul). His scholarship and complete immersion in every culture he encountered helped his writing transcend mere travel literature to reach a higher level of writing. You never feel as though he’s an outside observer trying to make sense of the foreign by superimposing his own beliefs. His prose has been described as baroque, and is densely layered with a deep intelligence, understanding and, above all, passion for everything he encounters. The trip itself was undertaken in 1933/4 and the Europe that Fermor uncovers on his peregrinations is one which is beginning to spiral blindly into major conflict. Somehow this aspect makes the random acts of kindness he experiences across Germany and the rest of the continent even more bittersweet.

Publisher: John Murray, Buy at Amazon.com

Arabian Sands (1959) – Sir Wilfred Thesiger

Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger (Photo: courtesy of P.S. Burton via Wikimedia Commons)

Another travel literature classic is Thesiger’s intrepid anthropological look at Bedouin culture and lifestyle in one of the remotest, most inhospitable places on earth: the Arabian Peninsula’s Rub’ al Khali. The setting for the journey is amid the embers of World War II, the repercussions of which were being felt worldwide, including among the Bedouin tribes who’d lived much in the same way they always had until the outside world intruded. In effect, this book offers a snapshot of a remarkable culture that was fast altering, which is what makes this, and many of the books written during the reign of the British Empire, fascinating historical documents. For all of the rightful condemnation of European colonialism, one thing is clear in this book: the fascination and inquisitive nature of the many British scholarly individuals sent to far-reaching corners of the globe created an immensely valuable cache of first-person accounts of cultures and peoples that may not have been recorded otherwise amid the inevitable and inescapable rise of globalisation of the time.

Publisher: Penguin Classics, Buy at Amazon.com

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1942) – Rebecca West

West’s voluminous, in-depth examination of Yugoslavia during her time travelling there in 1937 was designed to explore how the country was a reflection of its past. West spent six weeks journeying across the whole region with her husband and meeting eminent citizens along the way. Sadly, by the time the book was published, the Nazis had invaded and the country would never be the same again, which makes this yet another invaluable early-20 th -century document. What sets Black Lamb and Grey Falcon apart though is the level of exquisite detail and research dedicated to the subject. If there was any proof required that travel literature serves an invaluable purpose as a piece of primary historical evidence, then this may well be it.

Publisher: Canongate Books, Buy at Amazon.com

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Border (2017) – Kapka Kassabova

Beautifully written and layered with a real sense of atmosphere, Kassabova’s haunting Border is one of the standout pieces of travel writing to be published in the last decade. Eastern Europe is one of the least explored regions of the world in travel literature. Owing perhaps in part to the secrecy and legacy of distrust brought about by the Cold War, even those who have travelled through as part of longer journeys (Paul Theroux in Pillars of Hercules or Bill Bryson in Neither Here Nor There ) scarcely shed any real light on the region. Here, Kassabova heads back to the nation of her birth (Bulgaria) to explore the fragments of political ideology, faith and race, and the blurred lines between them, that have developed around the border region separating Bulgaria from Greece and Turkey.

Publisher: Granta Books, Buy at Amazon.com

Border by Kapka Kasabova (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) – George Orwell

While much of travel literature is concerned with the voyage and seeking out the miraculous, the unique and the lesser known, Orwell took another route entirely. Down and Out in Paris and London does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a memoir of impoverished living in two of the world’s great cities, at a time when they were global beacons in terms of both power and culture. Not only does this book, in a very prescient move, eschew the superior tone of academia when examining the other, it also avoids all glamour in those cities, focussing entirely on the poor, the meek and the desperate. In Paris he lives on the edge of eviction, working the kitchens of a fancy establishment, while in London he lives the life of a tramp, moving from one bunkhouse and soup kitchen to the next, living day to day. It is to travel writing what the ‘method’ is to acting.

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972) – Hunter S. Thompson

The outlier on this list (all good lists need one) is Hunter S. Thompson’s delightfully absurd, occasionally apocryphal and downright debauched novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . In it, he created a new way of writing known as gonzo journalism, a style of storytelling which is found most commonly today in some documentaries, where the lines of fact and fiction become blurred and with the journalist placed as a central character in the story. This brilliant commentary on the flexible and inconsistent nature of truth was perfectly epitomised by the increasingly hallucinogenic recollections of protagonist Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo. The road trip to Las Vegas ultimately casts important light on an American society gripped by racism and violence (partly why the story is still so powerful today is that America hasn’t yet learned to grow up). As such it remains one of the most intriguing snapshots of America out there, surpassing the work of many strait-laced travel narratives in the process.

Publisher: Random House Inc., Buy at Amazon.com

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (Photo: Mathieu Croisetière via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia (1975) – Paul Theroux

A perfect example of how gonzo journalism began to seep into travel literature comes from what is arguably the most important modern travelogue: The Great Railway Bazaar . In it, Theroux travels from London all the way to Southeast Asia and Japan, via India, then back to Europe via Russia’s Trans-Siberian railway. While Theroux upholds elements of the old school travel narrative – like the scholarly, studious approach and the inquisitive air – his journey by train is as much about the growing backpacker, hippie, trail and the western counterculture that encouraged it. Occasionally the line between fact and fiction is blurred in his writing, but only to better convey his interactions with the people he met. As such, you get a fascinating look at what could be called modern colonialism, whereby the train networks that were often built by colonial rulers in non-European nations across the world, like India and Burma, were now being used by a new generation in the post-colonial era to explore these newly-sovereign nations.

In Patagonia (1977) – Bruce Chatwin

Coming hot on the tail of Theroux’s above book is perhaps the most popular and enduring travel book of all time: In Patagonia . Bruce Chatwin starts it off with a direct nod to writing and journalism’s slide into apocrypha by framing his trip loosely around the search for remains of a “brontosaurus” found in a Patagonian cave, which he first found languishing in his grandparent’s house. The doubtful story behind this find sets him on a road where he aim to unravel various other mysteries whose only connection is geographical, including the final resting place of Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid, in the wild, empty spaces of South America. It’s a brilliant book formed of loose sections that don’t directly link to one another but has greatly influenced modern travel literature today.

Publisher: Vintage Classics, Buy at Amazon.com

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

In Xanadu (1989) – William Dalrymple

One of the travel writers greatly influenced by Chatwin was William Dalrymple, whose own quest for his first book, In Xanadu , was framed as a search for the fabled palace of Kublai Khan, Xanadu. This type of narrative has always proven to be a ready source of inspiration for some of the better modern travel books; searching for answers to popular mysteries. It has a journalistic bent to it, and manages to sidestep the awkwardness of westerners merely travelling abroad and casting aspersions about the people and cultures they encounter through an imperial gaze, as is the criticism often lodged again some of the earlier works of travel writing. Here, Dalrymple follows in the footsteps of Marco Polo (following footsteps of somebody famous is also a common trope of travel literature) to find the palace. While Dalrymple restores elements of the scholarly, learned approach common to writers like Robert Byron and Paddy Leigh Fermor, you can feel the impact of those 70s writers as well.

Publisher: Flamingo, Buy at Amazon.com

In Xanadu by William Dalrymple (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Into the Wild (1996) – Jon Krakauer

Few gripping travel narratives manage to capture the why? of our impulse to roam quite like Jon Krakauer does in Into the Wild . The book is both harrowing and revelatory, while performing a third-person character study on a young man he never actually met. In 1992 Chris McCandless walked into the Alaskan wilderness and never came back out. The book tries to examine what had led him there in the first place, whether he’d intended to return at all, and why he wasn’t the first to try and cut all ties with modern society. Krakauer looks to others, such as Henry David Thoreau ( Walden is the original escape from society book and a must-read for anybody fascinated by this subject), who successfully parted from the rat race, as well as the reasons McCandless initially fled from well-to-do family life years before and never contacted them again in his search for something more profound and meaningful. While most readers may disagree with McCandless’s methods, his motives seem far more familiar and relatable.

Publisher: Pan Macmillan, Buy at Amazon.com

The Living Mountain (1977) – Nan Shepherd

Perhaps one of the finest pieces of nature writing ever committed to paper is The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd. Sadly, it’s also one of the most underrated books. The research for her book was undertaken in and around 1942, during the Second World War, which didn’t trouble the wilds of Scotland too badly. Here, the stark beauty of the Cairngorms seems to mirror the harsh reality of war. But Shepherd’s deep examination of the various microcosms of life that thrive on the region’s mountains is really a poem that exalts life. It’s a celebration of survival and endurance. Her wonderful book almost never made it to print, lying in a drawer for decades until a friend read it and encouraged her to seek out a publisher. We’re lucky it did.

The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

The Motorcycle Diaries (1992) – Che Guevara

Even if Che Guevara never became the revolutionary and icon of a generation that he did, The Motorcycle Diaries is a fascinating first-person account of travel’s capacity to broaden the mind. The young medic Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara sets out from his home in Buenos Aires with his friend Alberto Granado sharing a motorcycle ‘La Poderosa’ and in his pointed recollections, you can almost feel Che’s ideological shift. He sees poverty and pain and beauty in the poor communities they visit, and through this, we learn a lot about how Guevara became a key player in the Cuban Revolution. But it’s also a beautiful rumination about the paths we take in life and the importance of curiosity.

Publisher: Perennial, Buy at Amazon.com

Notes from a Small Island (1995) – Bill Bryson

You can’t really write a top travel literature list and omit Bill Bryson. He’s one of the finest travel writers still producing books. Notes from a Small Island is particularly intriguing because, while most of the books that make any top travel literature list tend to be written by Brits, this is a book about Britain, written by an American. And it’s a delightfully observed book at that, pinpointing the eccentricities and unusual aspects of the island nation that most Brits would never think twice about, but when seen through foreign eyes suddenly become absurd. Bryson is especially gifted at making even the most mundane things seem funny. His books neatly balance thorough research and scholarship with humour and keen observation, effectively amalgamating all of the key aspects of travel literature into one inimitable style.

Publisher: Black Swan, Buy at Amazon.com

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (Photo: Wolf Gang via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)

On the Road (1957) – Jack Kerouac

Before modern travel literature’s more self-aware phase that started in the 1970s, we had what essentially kick-started the great 20 th -century American cultural upheaval: The Beat Movement. Kerouac was writing about sexual promiscuity, wanton drug use and giving the establishment the middle finger way before it was cool to do so. Well-educated and moving in New York’s literary circles, Kerouac’s thinly-veiled characters in On the Road (substituting Old Bull Lee for William S. Burroughs, Dean Moriarty for Neal Cassady, Carlo Marx for Allen Ginsberg, and Sal Paradise for himself) are painted into a quasi-fictional account of his cross-country jaunts in the late 1940s. The post-war world was much-changed; the white picket fence America with its Jim Crow segregation and uptight Bible-belt hypocrisy were no longer acceptable. Around the same time, J.D. Salinger was branding it phoney, while Kerouac was realising this in his own way, by embracing escapism and drugs. On the Road still resonates today; both the book and the Beats gave licence to a generation of youths to question the oppressive system that became all too obvious in the 60s.

On The Road by Jack Kerouac (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

The Road to Oxiana (1937) – Robert Byron

Much of the Afghanistan and Iran of Byron’s writing has disappeared, making the precision of his prose all the more valuable. The Road to Oxiana has all the classic elements of earlier travel narratives in it, scholarship, keen observation but also the kind of humour and casual presentation that would become far more popular in the writing styles common to the latter half of the 20 th century. Byron’s constant use of Marjoribanks to replace the name of the Persian ruler of the time was designed to evade censure or punishment in case his notebooks were confiscated and read. The humour of this rebelliousness is not lost when read today, even if some of his style may feel a little bit dated now. His architectural descriptions may be among some of the finest in all of travel literature.

The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Rome and a Villa (1952) – Eleanor Clark

Because the majority of travel writing is crafted around a voyage or quest of some sort, we expect the movement to transcend places, countries even. What Clark does exceptionally well in Rome and a Villa is offer an in-depth depiction of just one city: Rome. This book, although not particularly tied to or crafted around any one specific idea, offers a deeper understanding of The Eternal City based on Clark’s explorations, often on foot. Indeed, her scholarly treatment of the Italian capital brings the city’s rich, storied past to life in imaginative and illuminating ways that offer fresh insight on a place that we may easily think has already been well covered already. Which goes to show that places change with the times offering an opportunity for fresh perspectives. There’s nowhere that is dull or too well-known in travel writing if handled by the right scribe.

Publisher: Harper Perennial, Buy at Amazon.com

Shadow of the Silk Road (2007) – Colin Thubron

Colin Thubron’s fascination with worlds that are ostensibly closed off to westerners has often led him into places that many others wouldn’t think to go. He visited China before it had opened up to the world, and the same goes for Soviet Russia. In Shadow of the Silk Road Thubron exhibits why his books are perhaps the most masterfully crafted of all contemporary travel literature. His pacing and descriptive writing are exquisite, particularly in this book, in which he journeys from Xi’an to Antakya in Turkey following the old ways, through Central Asia, once known as the Silk Road. The worlds he uncovers and the people he meets are painstakingly woven into a rich text, much like a hand-woven Persian rug, that is one of the most evocative pieces of travel writing out there.

Publisher: Vintage, Buy at Amazon.com

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Travels with Myself and Another (1979) – Martha Gellhorn

Even if Martha Gellhorn was writing today, she would rightly be upheld as one of the great journalists, but given that she was doing it decades ago, often better than her counterparts in a male-dominated field, is even more remarkable. The ‘Another’ that accompanies Gellhorn through much of the book was her former husband Ernest Hemingway, but the book also includes memoir from Africa in which she voyages solo. The book is presented as a collection of essays, a format that has become increasingly common in travel writing and which effectively allows the book to focus on more than one topic. Gellhorn’s writing includes keen observation, lively wit and a really sharp political outlook.

Publisher: Eland Publishing Ltd., Buy at Amazon.com

The Valleys of the Assassins (1934) – Freya Stark

Stark was an incredible human being. Fluent in numerous languages, including Farsi, she travelled the world often alone at a time when even men undertaking such journeys were considered intrepid. Stark was particularly drawn to the Middle East and was able to recount the stories of the women there, living in devout Muslim communities, in a way no man would ever have been able to do. She also discovered regions that had not been explored by Westerners before, including the Valley of the Assassins, which forms the basis of this eponymous book, receiving the Royal Geographical Society’s prestigious Back Award in the process. She continued to write books well into her 90s (releasing work over six decades) and died in Italy at the age of 100.

Publisher: Modern Library Inc., Buy at Amazon.com

Wild by Cheryl Strayed (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (2012) – Cheryl Strayed

Some may question this popular book’s inclusion on a list of the all-time greats, but it really has all the ingredients of a classic exploration of the human psyche. The physical duress that Strayed experienced on her hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (which runs from California’s border with Mexico to Washington’s border with Canada), and the gradual loss of her toenails as a result, is depicted with visceral precision. Her self-inflicted pain mirrors the mental health and dependency issues that plagued her before embarking on the feat, and in the process, we discover the restorative power of travel, of meeting new people and of forcing ourselves to step beyond our comfortably-positioned boundaries. Like any good travel literature, this book sheds light on why travel is so addictive, powerful and pertinent. Just like all the other books on this list, you’ll finish it wanting to plan your next trip.

Publisher: Atlantic Books, Buy at Amazon.com

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What You Should Know About Travel Writing

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Travel writing is a form of creative nonfiction in which the narrator's encounters with foreign places serve as the dominant subject. Also called  travel literature .

"All travel writing—because it is writing—is made in the sense of being constructed, says Peter Hulme, "but travel writing cannot be made up without losing its designation" (quoted by Tim Youngs in  The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing , 2013).

Notable contemporary travel writers in English include Paul Theroux, Susan Orlean, Bill Bryson , Pico Iyer, Rory MacLean, Mary Morris, Dennison Berwick, Jan Morris, Tony Horwitz, Jeffrey Tayler, and Tom Miller, among countless others.

Examples of Travel Writing

• "By the Railway Side" by Alice Meynell
• Lists and Anaphora in Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There"
• Lists in William Least Heat-Moon's Place Description
• "London From a Distance" by Ford Madox Ford
• "Niagara Falls" by Rupert Brooke
• "Nights in London" by Thomas Burke
• "Of Trave," by Francis Bacon
• "Of Travel" by Owen Felltham
• "Rochester" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Observations About Travel Writing

Authors, journalists, and others have attempted to describe travel writing, which is more difficult to do than you might think. However, these excerpts explain that travel writing—at a minimum—requires a sense of curiosity, awareness, and fun.

Thomas Swick

• "The best writers in the field [of travel writing] bring to it an indefatigable curiosity, a fierce intelligence that enables them to interpret, and a generous heart that allows them to connect. Without resorting to invention , they make ample use of their imaginations. . . . "The travel book itself has a similar grab bag quality. It incorporates the characters and plot line of a novel, the descriptive power of poetry, the substance of a history lesson, the discursiveness of an essay , and the—often inadvertent—self-revelation of a memoir . It revels in the particular while occasionally illuminating the universal. It colors and shapes and fills in gaps. Because it results from displacement, it is frequently funny. It takes readers for a spin (and shows them, usually, how lucky they are). It humanizes the alien. More often than not it celebrates the unsung. It uncovers truths that are stranger than fiction. It gives eyewitness proof of life’s infinite possibilities." ("Not a Tourist." The Wilson Quarterly , Winter 2010)

Casey Blanton

• "There exists at the center of travel books like [Graham] Greene's Journey Without Maps or [V.S.] Naipaul's An Area of Darkness a mediating consciousness that monitors the journey, judges, thinks, confesses, changes, and even grows. This narrator , so central to what we have come to expect in modern travel writing , is a relatively new ingredient in travel literature, but it is one that irrevocably changed the genre . . . . "Freed from strictly chronological , fact-driven narratives , nearly all contemporary travel writers include their own dreams and memories of childhood as well as chunks of historical data and synopses of other travel books. Self reflexivity and instability, both as theme and style , offer the writer a way to show the effects of his or her own presence in a foreign country and to expose the arbitrariness of truth and the absence of norms." ( Travel Writing: The Self and the World . Routledge, 2002)

Frances Mayes

• "Some travel writers can become serious to the point of lapsing into good ol' American puritanism. . . . What nonsense! I have traveled much in Concord. Good travel writing can be as much about having a good time as about eating grubs and chasing drug lords. . . . [T]ravel is for learning, for fun, for escape, for personal quests, for challenge, for exploration, for opening the imagination to other lives and languages." (Introduction to The Best American Travel Writing 2002 . Houghton, 2002)

Travel Writers on Travel Writing

In the past, travel writing was considered to be nothing more than the detailing of specific routes to various destinations. Today, however, travel writing has become much more. Read on to find out what famous travel writers such as V.S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux say about the profession.

V.S. Naipaul

• "My books have to be called ' travel writing ,' but that can be misleading because in the old days travel writing was essentially done by men describing the routes they were taking. . . . What I do is quite different. I travel on a theme . I travel to make an inquiry. I am not a journalist. I am taking with me the gifts of sympathy, observation, and curiosity that I developed as an imaginative writer. The books I write now, these inquiries, are really constructed narratives." (Interview with Ahmed Rashid, "Death of the Novel." The Observer , Feb. 25, 1996)

Paul Theroux

• - "Most travel narratives—perhaps all of them, the classics anyway—describe the miseries and splendors of going from one remote place to another. The quest, the getting there, the difficulty of the road is the story; the journey, not the arrival, matters, and most of the time the traveler—the traveler’s mood, especially—is the subject of the whole business. I have made a career out of this sort of slogging and self-portraiture, travel writing as diffused autobiography ; and so have many others in the old, laborious look-at-me way that informs travel writing ." (Paul Theroux, "The Soul of the South." Smithsonian Magazine , July-August 2014) - "Most visitors to coastal Maine know it in the summer. In the nature of visitation, people show up in the season. The snow and ice are a bleak memory now on the long warm days of early summer, but it seems to me that to understand a place best, the visitor needs to see figures in a landscape in all seasons. Maine is a joy in the summer. But the soul of Maine is more apparent in the winter. You see that the population is actually quite small, the roads are empty, some of the restaurants are closed, the houses of the summer people are dark, their driveways unplowed. But Maine out of season is unmistakably a great destination: hospitable, good-humored, plenty of elbow room, short days, dark nights of crackling ice crystals. "Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. Boats are repaired, traps fixed, nets mended. “I need the winter to rest my body,” my friend the lobsterman told me, speaking of how he suspended his lobstering in December and did not resume until April. . . ." ("The Wicked Coast." The Atlantic , June 2011)

Susan Orlean

• - "To be honest, I view all stories as journeys. Journeys are the essential text of the human experience—the journey from birth to death, from innocence to wisdom, from ignorance to knowledge, from where we start to where we end. There is almost no piece of important writing—the Bible, the Odyssey , Chaucer, Ulysses —that isn't explicitly or implicitly the story of a journey. Even when I don't actually go anywhere for a particular story, the way I report is to immerse myself in something I usually know very little about, and what I experience is the journey toward a grasp of what I've seen." (Susan Orlean, Introduction to My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere . Random House, 2004) - "When I went to Scotland for a friend's wedding last summer, I didn't plan on firing a gun. Getting into a fistfight, maybe; hurling insults about badly dressed bridesmaids, of course; but I didn't expect to shoot or get shot at. The wedding was taking place in a medieval castle in a speck of a village called Biggar. There was not a lot to do in Biggar, but the caretaker of the castle had skeet-shooting gear, and the male guests announced that before the rehearsal dinner they were going to give it a go. The women were advised to knit or shop or something. I don't know if any of us women actually wanted to join them, but we didn't want to be left out, so we insisted on coming along. . . ." (Opening paragraph of "Shooting Party." The New Yorker , September 29, 1999)

Jonathan Raban

• - "As a literary form, travel writing is a notoriously raffish open house where different genres are likely to end up in the bed. It accommodates the private diary , the essay , the short story, the prose poem, the rough note and polished table talk with indiscriminate hospitality. It freely mixes narrative and discursive writing." ( For Love & Money: Writing - Reading - Travelling 1968-1987 . Picador, 1988)
• - "Travel in its purest form requires no certain destination, no fixed itinerary, no advance reservation and no return ticket, for you are trying to launch yourself onto the haphazard drift of things, and put yourself in the way of whatever changes the journey may throw up. It's when you miss the one flight of the week, when the expected friend fails to show, when the pre-booked hotel reveals itself as a collection of steel joists stuck into a ravaged hillside, when a stranger asks you to share the cost of a hired car to a town whose name you've never heard, that you begin to travel in earnest." ("Why Travel?" Driving Home: An American Journey . Pantheon, 2011)
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A (Short) History Of Travel Writing

Posted on Last updated: February 5, 2023

In this short history of travel writing, we will look at the different types of reporting about travel throughout the ages.

If you’re looking for a book about travel in a bookshop or library, you better take the rest of the day, well perhaps even better the week… month, or even rest of the year off! There are just so many!

The amount of writers reporting about the different landscapes and food they tasted in foreign destinations, books with history lessons about certain places and personal narratives about a person’s excitement and struggles of navigating through unknown territories and meeting foreign people are endless.

TYPES OF TRAVEL WRITING

Early travel literature in asia, travel writing during classic and medieval times, who was the first travel writer, discovering new worlds, why we like to write and read about travelling, famous travel writing, studying travel literature, modern day travel writing, add to your vision board, travel without leaving home, which book to read, want to be a travel blogger, our favourite travel journals, our favourite travel notebook covers, travel journals for kids, discover unique travel gear & gifts, travel writing history.

When we’re talking about travel writing, there are a couple of distinctions to be made. There are:

• travelogues (journal/itinerary style, actual reports about someone’s trip)
• travel stories  (a realistic narration about a journey, meant for a wider audience and usually with a certain literary value to it)
• and travel guides (publication with practical information and tips/advice about a certain destination, meant for people that want to visit that place).

With old stories, it’s hard to distinguish between a travel story or a travelogue. This is because we don’t know the accuracy of the information and motif of the story. Most of the time, it is also not known who commissioned the story in the first place.

That said, in all travel writing, the focus lies on accounts of real or imaginary places. It may range from documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic and from humorous to serious.

You can find travel writing in books, magazines and of nowadays also online. What different types of travel writing are your favourite to read?

You don’t always need to be physically on the road to enjoy the beauty of destinations from all around the world!

From vintage travel posters to beautifully displayed souvenirs and home decor items inspired by your favourite places and from travel journals and crafts to exploring world recipes, music and dance.

With our creative articles you’ll get some fresh ideas on how to bring the world closer to the comforts of your own home.

In China , travel literature became popular during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Under the name of ‘ Youji Wenxue ‘ (‘ Travel Record Literature ‘), authors such as Fan Chengda and Xu Xiake incorporated geographical and topographical information into their writing.

Poet and statesman Su Shi wrote ‘ Record Of Stone Bell Mountain ‘ and made a philosophical and moral argument as its central purpose.

In Japan , there are also many personal reports from travellers sharing their experiences and interesting encounters.

Examples include the ‘ Sjōrai Moluroku ‘ (804) by author Kūkai and the ‘ Tosa Nikki ‘ (‘ Tosa Diary’ ) by Ki no Tsurayuki (early 10th century), which was found revolutionary because it featured a female narrator.

Haiku poet Matsuo Bashō wrote the story ‘ Oku no Hosomitsji ‘ (‘ The narrow road to the Deep North’ ) in the second half of the 17th century. The work included the journey, places visited and the author’s personal experience.

Throughout the history of travel writing, you might not categorize some of the historical tales as travel stories. But how about the famous travelogue ‘ Odysseia ‘ (‘ Odysey ‘) from 8B.C. by Homer? This poem recounted Greek hero Odysseus’ long journey home after the fall of Troy.

The Latin work ‘ Commentarii dé bello Gallico ‘ by Julius Caesar reported his journey during the Gallic War.

Greek writer Xenophone wrote ‘Anabasis’ around 431-355 BC. It was about the expedition of a Persian prince against his brother, King Artaxerxes II and the Greek troops travels through Asia back home to Greece. In Medieval works, it showed that people had very little knowledge about the world around them.

Stories were usually a colourful mix of facts and impossible events. They were mostly quests (for the Holy Grail or for personal development) or texts with a mainly Christian/spiritual focus. You can’t really call them travel stories, as they didn’t tell much about the actual environment.

It’s hard to say with 100% accuracy, but often the Greek author Herodotus is consider the first real ‘travel writer’. He travelled all over the eastern Mediterranean to research his monumental  Histories , written between 450 and 420 BC.

The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that were known in Greece, Western Asia and Northern Africa at that time.

After the crusades, new stories and information reached the people. They started to realize that there was a whole other world outside their own. The history of travel literature evolved even more at this point.

There came a shift in stories type, as there was much curiosity about explorations and voyages to unknown destinations.

Travel was a necessity at those times. That is why most travel stories were purely intended to inform about the different nature and culture of inhabitants they met. And the best ways in which to approach them. There were also a lot of military explorations that informed more about strategic issues.

A well-known travel writer in those times was Marco Polo from Italy , who wrote (or let someone else write) about a Venetian traveller on his way to China and the Mongol Empire in the work ‘ Il milione ‘ (‘ The million ‘, 1298). This work is seen as a truthful report of things, complemented with (not always correct) information he collected through hearsay.

In 1336, someone did a bit more than just jotting down facts about his destination. Italian poet and humanist Petrarch described his experiences about climbing mount Ventoux and –more importantly- his satisfaction about reaching the top. He also wrote about his travel companions and even related his experience to his own moral development in life, as were it a pilgrimage.

More and more people after Petrarch found a new interest in writing about their travels in a more personal way.

World traveller Ibn Battuta from Morocco wrote in 1355 the work ‘ Rihla ‘ (‘ The Journey ‘), with an original title that translates as: ‘ A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling ‘.

Halfway through the 15 th century, Historicus Gilles le Bouvier from France wrote in a book his opinion about why people should travel and write about it: ‘ Because many people of diverse nations and countries delight and take please, 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 .’

The Travel Tester loves to review books that teach you something about yourself or the world around us.

From travel guides and stories to books about business and self-development and from cultural stories to cook books from kitchens around the world… if it looks interesting to us, we’ll test it!

No matter where you’re going, with our reviews you’ll know exactly what to read next!

Continuing this history of travel writing through ages, in the 18 th century travel writing was known under the name ‘ Book of Travels ‘. Usually these were maritime journals – and the people devoured them. British James Cook’s diaries (1784) reached the status of a modern day international best-seller. Along with true stories, imaginary travel stories started to appear.

Many of them were actually based on factual journeys. You might have heard of Joseph Conrad’s ‘ Heart of Darkeness ‘, Daniel Defoe’s ‘ Robins on   Crusoe’ , Jonathan Swift’s  ‘Gulliver’s   Travels’ or Jules Vernes, ‘The journey around the world in 80 days’ .

Charles Darwin wrote his famous account of the journey of the HMS Beagle in the 19 th century. It was a work at the intersection of science, natural history and travel. Other famous authors from his time, that also wrote travel stories where: Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.

There have been many studies about travel writing and travel literature.

They include themes such as: interwar travel writing as escapism, the primitivist presentation of foreign cultures, the psychological correlatives of travel, the role of gender in travel and travel writing, explorations of the political functions of travel, studies about the function of language in travel and travel writing, cultural diversity, globalization and migration.

The first international travel writing conference was titled ‘ Snapshots from Abroad ‘ and was organized by Donald Ross at the University of Minnesota in the USA 1997. It attracted many scholars and led to the foundation of the ‘ International Society for Travel Writing ‘.

Travel writing in current times is quite a broad theme. From journal-type stories to literary works in which style and structure are more important.

Some of the most popular travel writers from the 20 th and 21 st century are (amongst others): Bill Bryson , Paul Theroux, Pico Iyer, Tim Cahill, Stanley Stewart, Kira Salak, Douglas Adams, Anthony Sattin, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Bruce Chatwin and Rory MacLean.

These days, we all know the travel blog as another form of travel writing.

The first online travel blog was posted by Jeff Greenwald on the ‘ Global Network Navigator ‘ in 1993. He described his journey around the world and later turned the pieces into a book.

TIP! Read this funny travel blog of how things went south for me once at Schiphol Airport (but all was ok in the end)…

There is a lot that goes into running a profitable blog and there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes than you might not realize at first.

I’ve been blogging since 2006 and have a ton of tips to share! From brainstorming ideas to creating content all year round and from posting on social media to maintaining your website, tracking what’s working, networking at events and eventually working with brands…

As you can see, travel and reporting about our travels has been a source of inspiration for a long time now. Whether it was military officers, missionaries, the early explorers, scientists, pilgrims, migrants or people simply going on a holiday, we love telling others about our adventures!

I hope you enjoyed this short history of travel writing. Do you have an (online) travel journal? Feel free to share it in the comment section. And don’t forget to share this article if you liked it!

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MORE ABOUT TRAVEL JOURNALLING

• How to Make a Travel Journal ? Tips and Supplies
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Monday 5th of March 2018

A great synopsis of the fundamentals of travel writing. From the very start one can easily discover a cultural binding through the need of storytelling and sharing. Thank you guys!

Nienke Krook

Friday 6th of April 2018

Glad you liked it Antonios!

HISTORY CHALLENGE: HISTORIC TRAVELLERS | Time Travelling With Kids

Monday 28th of November 2016

[…] For an overview of the history of travel writing, visit: https://thetraveltester.com/a-short-history-of-travel-writing/ […]

Friday 20th of February 2015

Your article is absolutely fascinating Nineke. I came across it whilst researchign a talk I'm giving on the 'Pleasure of Travel Writing' and will certainly recommend it to the audience :-)

Wednesday 25th of February 2015

Thanks so much Zoë! Would have loved to see your talk, will it be online somewhere? Thanks for mentioning me!

LifeInCamelot

Wednesday 6th of February 2013

I enjoyed reading this and am glad I have found you. Welcome to Australia and I look forward to reading more of your stories. I have started my own travel blog - it includes some travelogues (from the past) and some travel stories. I enjoy using humour so love reading other people's sites that are humourous. I also love the feeling of nostalgia your blog has, along with the history of your grandfather.

My blog address is - www.lifeincamelot.wordpress.com

thetraveltester

Hi (sorry couldn't find your name anywhere?), Thanks for your nice comment. I've just left Australia after 2 years and loved living there. Now it's adjusting to (coldcold) Europe :) I am looking forward to reading your blog, thanks for the tip!

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Travel Writing by Alasdair Pettinger LAST REVIEWED: 31 July 2019 LAST MODIFIED: 31 July 2019 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846719-0119

A minimal definition of travel writing might be any account of a journey or description of a place that is based on firsthand experience. As such, it may be found in many different kinds of text: diaries, letters, postcards, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, essays, official reports, promotional brochures, and ethnographies, as well as travel books. Travel writing is often distinguished from guidebooks on the one hand and imaginative fiction, drama, and poetry on the other, but the term may sometimes include them, especially when discussing writings from before the 19th century, when such distinctions would have carried less weight with authors and readers. While it has long served as a vital source material by historians and biographers, travel writing rarely, even in those cultural histories documenting the “images” of or “attitudes” toward “other” races or nationalities that proliferated in the 1960s and 1970s, attracted the kind of close critical attention commonly given to literary fiction until the 1980s, coinciding with several related developments. First, there was an increasingly politicized self-questioning within literary studies and anthropology, combined with an interdisciplinary theoretical sophistication. Second, beyond the academy, there was a surge in popularity of literary travel writing, associated with authors such as Bruce Chatwin, Jonathan Raban, Paul Theroux, Colin Thubron, and others, promoted especially in the English-speaking world by Granta magazine. Within two decades, travel-writing studies could claim to be an academic discipline in its own right, with dedicated journals, textbooks, research centers, and conferences. If most of the influential early studies were dominated by anglophone critics studying anglophone texts, the field has since broadened significantly. Nevertheless, many studies of travel writing, without announcing it in their titles, continue to be largely concerned with English-speaking authors, often British. The reasons for restricting their scope in this way are rarely explicitly addressed; it is as if this is a default position for the scholars concerned rather than because “British and Irish travel writing” is a coherent object of study as such. As in many other fields, “British” is often used when “English” would be more accurate, and “English” sometimes silently includes texts that might be better described as Scottish, Welsh, or Irish.

The growth of travel-writing studies as an academic discipline has generated a number of general introductions to the subject aimed at students, typically offering a combination of historical overviews and discussions of key topics such as genre, techniques of representation, narrative organization, the relationship with the reader, and the treatment of race, nation, and gender. Blanton 1997 , Gannier 2001 , and Thompson 2011 provide the most-approachable introductions, while Hulme and Youngs 2002 , Youngs 2013 , Thompson 2015 , and Das and Youngs 2019 survey the field in more depth and reflect its shifting preoccupations. Most of these works acknowledge the difficulty in defining “travel writing.” Borm 2004 makes a case for a broad definition that includes fictional as well as nonfictional writing, but the decision made in Youngs 2013 to restrict it to “predominantly factual, first-person prose accounts that have been undertaken by the author-narrator” (p. 3) is more typical.

Blanton, Casey. Travel Writing: The Self and the World . Studies in Literary Themes and Genres 15. New York: Twayne, 1997.

Short historical overview, focusing on “the modern travel book,” with close readings of texts by James Boswell, Mary Kingsley, Graham Greene, Peter Matthiessen, V. S. Naipaul, Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, and Roland Barthes. Includes useful list of recommended titles and a survey of critical scholarship.

Borm, Jan. “Defining Travel: On the Travel Book, Travel Writing and Terminology.” In Perspectives on Travel Writing . Edited by Glenn Hooper and Tim Youngs, 13–26. Studies in European Cultural Transition 19. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004.

Argues for a broad definition of “travel writing” (or “travel literature”) to include “texts both predominantly fictional and non-fictional whose main theme is travel” (p. 13), while restricting the terms “travel book” or “travelogue” to predominantly nonfictional narratives.

Das, Nandini, and Tim Youngs, eds. The Cambridge History of Travel Writing . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

The thirty-six essays here collectively showcase the latest scholarship on the genre, exhibiting historical depth and a truly global reach, extending well beyond North American and Western European authors. Includes sections that examine writings about different kinds of places, analyze a wide range of literary forms, and profile a selection of critical approaches.

Gannier, Odile. La littérature de voyage . Thèmes & Études. Paris: Ellipses, 2001.

Short introduction, drawing on mainly francophone examples but tackling general issues such as the definition of travel writing, the relationship between author and reader, representation, language, and tourism.

Hulme, Peter, and Tim Youngs, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing . Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Fifteen essays by leading scholars in the field, arranged in three sections dealing with particular historical periods, key geographical regions, and general topics (gender, ethnography, and theory). Includes useful chronology and extensive guide to further reading.

Thompson, Carl. Travel Writing . New Critical Idiom. New York: Routledge, 2011.

DOI: 10.4324/9780203816240

A concise introduction that offers a broad historical overview and discussions of major topics such as the definition of the genre, authority and veracity, representation of the self and the other, and gender. Close readings of a small group of texts by representative authors from William Dampier to Bill Bryson.

Thompson, Carl, ed. The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing . Routledge Literature Companions. London: Routledge, 2015.

Forty-two essays that approach the subject from a wide range of historical, geographical, theoretical, thematic, and stylistic perspectives. Especially important for its coverage of themes (ethics, corporeality) and subgenres (guidebooks, blogs, dark tourism) that are relatively new areas of interest to travel-writing scholars.

Youngs, Tim. The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing . Cambridge Introductions to Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

An impressive condensation of a wide range of scholarship, illustrated by insightful readings of representative primary texts from the Middle Ages to the early 21st century. Reflects more-recent trends with its attention to travel writers of non-European descent and closes by identifying some emerging developments that are likely to be important in the coming decades.

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Quintus Curtius

Fortress of the mind, the three types of travel writing, and their uses.

Travel writing is a popular genre.  We live in an age of travel, where it is easy to plan a sojourn to the most remote of locations.  Most people today hardly give a thought to the fact that their routine international destinations of travel were, until very recently, accessible only by ship or overland travel.  Even as late as the 1860s, the source of the Nile River in Africa was unknown.

The ease of travel has greatly expanded the walls of our species’ Petrie dish, but has only infrequently raised levels of wisdom commensurate with these boundaries.  The obese dullard that is your neighbor, for example, has probably been to Singapore, blissfully unaware that the bones of Second World War POWs at Changi Prison lie compressed under the tarmac at the city’s international airport.  Likewise, the modern globe-trotter pokes his nose curiously amid the chambers and tunnels of the Great Pyramid, clad in biker shorts, wondering how all those great stones fell into place so precisely.

Most modern travelers carry their ignorance about themselves as a protective cloak, ever ready to ward off the threat of uncomfortable knowledge.

But enough of these matters.  We will discuss the three general varieties of travel writing.

1.  The first type of travel writing is the direct, straight-forward “travel guide” intended as a practical aid to travelers.  The journey is described in a linear fashion, with specific dates, places, environments, and experiences faithfully related.  These types of books are useful as long as the reader expects no great revelations from them.  Utilitarianism is the rule here, rather than insight.

2.  The second type of travel book is what I would call the “historico-geographical” tour type of book.  This kind of book is rare in modern literature.  We find it more in classical or Renaissance writings.

The historico-geographical guide describes different cities and geographic regions, and relates historical anecdotes, regional stories, and other such interesting trivia for the reader. Flavio’s Italia Illuminata is packed with classical quotations, stories, and amusing asides about each and every region he describes, as he ranges across the entire Italic peninsula.

3.  The third type of travel book is the “personal discovery” type of account.  The author visits a certain place, or makes some sort of journey, and in the process makes profound observations about himself or his locale.  The goal here is not so much to impart information about the placed traveled in; the goal is to explore deeper psychological or moral themes.  This type of travel account is relatively new in world literature.

How fascinating it is…to see these limbs in their close knee-breeches, so definite, so manly, with the old fierceness in them still.  One realizes, with horror, that the race of men in almost extinct in Europe.  Only Christ-like heroes and woman-worshipping Don Juans, and rabid equality-mongrels.  The old, hardy, indomitable male is gone.  His fierce singleness is quenched.  The last sparks are dying out in Sardinia and Spain.  Nothing left but the herd-proletariat and the herd-equality mongrelism, and the wistful poisonous self-sacrificial cultured soul.  How detestable.

These words were written in 1921.

So these, then, are the three general types of travel writing.  Each has its use.  A good product will result if the writer follows these rules:  (1) Do not take yourself with yourself, when traveling.  That is, leave your prejudices and preconceptions at home.  (2) Be sincere and honest in your observations.  (3) Make accurate observatory details by keeping a journal or calendar while traveling.  (4) Have something interesting to say, especially about  your misfortunes, problems, and emergencies.

To find out more about the need for travel and adventure, read Thirty-Seven and Pantheon:

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IB Language and Literature 2.0

Group 1 english higher and standard level, faraway places: travel writing.

“Is it lack of imagination that makes us come to imagined places, not just stay at home?” Elizabeth Bishop, poet (1911–1979)

In this section you’ll come to understand the conventions of travel writing , learn a bit about the history of the genre, question why people are compelled to travel – and to write about it – and investigate the overlap between language and literature that exists in the wide and varied genre of travel writing. You’ll read non-fiction texts that feel like stories and see imaginary scenes presented as fact. You’ll learn to decode elements of travel writing and question texts more closely, finding analysis points and learning to evaluate various pieces of writing. These kinds of skills underpin your success in Paper 1 at the end of your course. Begin your study by reading The Travel Narrative from the list of articles below, and then choose one or two more pieces of wider reading to enrich your study:

• The Travel Narrative (IB Textbook)
• A Short History of Travel Writing (Traveltester article)

Reading Challenge

This is a longer and more challenging piece of reading, but spending time on this piece, and discussing it with your teacher, will help you master this topic:

• The Elasticity of Place (an interview with a travel writer)

Class Activit y 1: why do we travel?

As you will have learned by now, people travel – and write about the places they visit – for a variety of reasons. the most common are:

• to find the self
• curiosity about the ‘other’
• religious or spiritual reasons;
• to search for one’s roots;
• to be informed
• to experience ‘awe’

In this activity, you’ll practice identifying these purposes in travel writing. Visit Travel Tales, a collection of stories and articles curated and edited by Lavinia Spalding. Slowly scroll down the home page of her site, reading the titles and blurbs of the various stories you find there. Can you infer the purpose of travel from these snippets of information? Refer to The Travel Narrative (above) for more information of the purposes of travel writing.

Class Activity 2: seven travel stories

The travel genre is wide and varied – and this small collection of travel stories will give you a little taste of some famous (and not-so-famous) writers’ work. You may recognise one or two of these names, such as Bram Stoker and Bill Bryson.

Inside the booklet you’ll find seven short travel tales: either read them yourself, or divide them amongst the people in your class. Use this powerpoint to record your observations about the genre of travel writing. However many extracts you attempt, feed back what you’ve done to the rest of the class.

Areas of Exploration Guiding Conceptual Question

‘Cultural practices’ refers to traditional or customary practices of a particular ethnic, national or cultural group. They can be considered in the same way as symbolism in literary texts; physical manifestations of abstract beliefs and values . One reason we travel is to discover the beliefs and values of different people, as practiced in rites and traditions which have often been passed down from generation to generation. Before you work through the resource below, can you think of any practices that are special in your culture? These may include religious, medical, artistic, culinary, political, family or any other behaviour that reveals underlying beliefs and values:

• H ow do texts reflect, represent or form a part of cultural practices?

Discussion Points

After you’ve got your head around the material in this section, pair up, pick a question, spend five minutes thinking and noting down your thoughts – then discuss your ideas with a friend and report back to the class:

• Why is travel writing important? How is it different from other kinds of journalism?
• In the twenty-first century, is travel writing still necessary? Given that technology can connect us with people and places all around the world, and we can watch videos, read blogs, and browse the social media of people who live in other places, what is the point of reading first person accounts of travel by outsiders to those places?
• Is there a difference between a traveller and a tourist? What makes a person one rather than the other? Is it preferable to be one over the other?

Learner Portfolio

Watch Livinia Spalding’s Tedtalk (above) and, if you have not done so already, visit Travel Tales to browse some of the stories from her collection. Near the end of this talk Lavinia issues a challenge: to write your own literary travel story, inspired by a place you’ve been or a person you’ve met on a journey you have taken. Take her up on this challenge by writing a piece of literary non-fiction about a place you have been ora journey you have taken in your life. Make the purpose of your writing clear: is it to find the self; discover the ‘other’; become informed; search for your roots; take a religious or spiritual journey, experience ‘awe’ – or some combination of purposes?

Paper 1 Text Type Focus: travel writing

At the end of your course you will be asked to analyze unseen texts (1 at Standard Level and 2 at Higher Level) in an examination. You will be given a guiding question that will focus your attention on formal or stylistic elements of the text(s), and help you decode the text(s)’ purpose(s). Travel writing is an extremely fluid genre and you could be presented with a text that contains a variety of tropes (such as maps, photographs, itineraries, reported or direct speech, humour, metaphors… the list goes on) and may even share similarities with literary texts. Use these practice texts to familiarise yourself with the different features of Travel Writing and add them to your Learner Portfolio; you will want to revise text types thoroughly before your Paper 1 exam. You can find more information – including text type features and sample Paper 1 analysis – by visiting 20/20 . Read through one or two of the exemplars, then choose a new paper and have a go at writing your own Paper 1 analysis response:

• A Fish with Hair
• The Mangyan of Mindanao
• Enter Tasmania’s Labyrinth ( Past Paper)
• Cycling Tips (Past Paper)
• Taj Mahal (Past Paper)
• Long Enough in Jo’burg (Past Paper)
• Travel Tales (Past Paper)
• Hunting Moose (Past Paper)

Key features of travel writing

• Viewpoint: travel writing often documents the personal experiences of someone exploring a new place or country so is often first person.
• Perspective: an outsider’s perspective is common when reading travel writing, particularly if the destination is new, exotic or remote. Alternatively, the piece might be written from an insider’s perspective and is inviting you to visit or share an experience in a different part of the world.
• Structure: look out for chronological timelines, past – present structures or a linear journey of discovery. Guidebooks will have clear headings and subheadings and will probably include box-outs and the like.
• Information: travel writing often seeks to be informative and can present you with facts and figures, names and dates, historical or architectural or geographical information and more.
• Description: if the writer is trying to make the destination tantalising, or to help transport the reader, you might find examples of visual imagery, vivid description , even figurative comparisons , helping you visualise a far-off place.
• Visuals: photographs, maps , or floor plans of famous locations are all visual features that you might encounter in travel writing, particularly guidebooks.

Body of Work: Alison Wright Photography

Alison Wright is an author, photographer and speaker who has published several collections of photo-essays including  Faces of Hope: Children of a Changing World  and  The Spirit of Tibet: Portrait of a Culture. Her most recent collection from 2018 is titled Human Tribe . Her mission is to document endangered cultures and traditions from around the world, including raising awareness of human rights and other issues. Alison has won numerous awards and accolades including the Dorothea Lange Award in Documentary Photography for her photographs of child labor in Asia and a two-time winner of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. She was named a National Geographic Traveler of the Year in 2013. Here is a small selection of her photography to use in class, or you can explore Alison’s complete body of work here .

The presentation of beliefs and values through images is a powerful tool that can help preserve minority cultures in the face of globalisation and help to balance historical injustice by educating those who have lost touch with the past or with alternative ways of living. Texts of all kinds – written, spoken, visual – can help protect cultural heritage that might otherwise be lost. Alison Wright’s work can be seen in the wider context of cultural preservation , an important global issue in our increasingly homogenised and globalised world.

Towards Assessment: Individual Oral

“Supported by an extract from one non-literary text and one from a literary work, students will offer a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions by the teacher, to the following prompt:  Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of two of the texts that you have studied. (40 marks) “

Alison Wright’s photography would make a good text to consider using in your Individual Oral. Here are two suggestions as to how you might use this Body of Work to create a Global Issue. You can use one of these ideas, or develop your own. You should always be mindful of your own ideas and class discussions and follow the direction of your own thoughts, discussions and programme of study when devising your assessment tasks:

• Field of Inquiry: Culture, Identity and Community
• Global Issue: Cultural Preservation

Though the colonial era has passed, its legacy lives on in the education systems, laws, political systems and other cultural practices that have displaced indigenous traditions and beliefs. In this context, the reassertion of minority cultures through texts is a powerful tool that can help balance out historical injustices and educate those who have lost touch with alternative ways of life. You could easily pair her work with any literary text that reveals aspects of culture, describes cultural practices, or reflects cultural beliefs and concerns.

• Field of Inquiry: Beliefs, Values and Education
• Global Issue: Encountering the ‘Other’

An important purpose of travel writing is for us to encounter ‘other’ people and make connections with people who may be very different to ourselves. In a world of suspicion and insularity, it is through building bridges between cultures and learning to understand different ways of life that we can settle our differences peaceably. In this context, Alison Wright’s photography invites us to ‘meet’ individuals from cultures that are very different to the urbanised or westernised cultures a lot of us may be more familiar with.

Sample Individual Oral Here is a recording of the first ten minutes of an individual oral for you to listen to. You can discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this talk as a way of improving your own oral presentations. Be mindful of academic honesty when constructing your own oral talk. To avoid plagiarism you can: talk about a different global issue; pair Alison Wright’s photography with a different literary work; select different passages to bring into your talk; develop an original thesis.

Possible Literary pAirings

• Broken April by Ismail Kadare – you might like to consider the idea that some cultural traditions are worth preserving, while others should rightly be consigned to the dustbin of history and Kadare subtly implies the Kanun is a dying tradition.
• John Keats’ poetry – In Ode on a Grecian Urn , the speaker tries to imagine what life might have been like for the people engraved on the surface of an urn.
• Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw – the play is awash with peculiar Victorian mores revealing all kinds of beliefs and attitudes about class, poverty, prudery, morality and more. Doolittle’s speeches, Mrs Higgins’ at-home or conversations between Higgins, Pickering and Mrs Pearce could all be passages that you might like to select for this activity.
• Border Town by Shen Congwen – written just as China was beginning to modernise, and recently rediscovered by a new generation of Chinese readers, Congwen’s novella paints a picture of the lives and traditions of local Miao people in West Hunan, and can be valued as a record of a way of life that has largely disappeared in one of the world’s fastest-changing countries.
• The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami – these stories are set in a world traumatised by history, and most of the characters are victims of a peculiar kind of ‘collective amnesia’. They seem stuck in the present and can’t move on in their lives. Some critics have interpreted Murakami’s writing as a response to the tumultuous events of Japan’s history – a past that many would like to simply forget. Approaching this activity from this unusual angle would be a challenging, but possibly very interesting, way to pair a literary and non-literary body of work.
• Charlotte Mew’s poetry – writing at the start of the twentieth century, what does Charlotte Mew reveal about the lives, attitudes and values of the people in her poems? What kind of society did she live in? What was life like for ordinary people – and for women, disabled people and those who were mentally impaired?
• Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee – the ‘civilised’ world’s encounter with the fearsome ‘other’ is a major theme of Coetzee’s novel and could make an ideal piece with which to compare Alison Wright’s photography.

Towards Assessment: HL Essay

Students submit an essay on one non-literary text or a collection of non-literary texts by one same author, or a literary text or work studied during the course. The essay must be 1,200-1,500 words in length. (20 marks) .††

If you are an HL student who enjoyed this section of work, and find the topic of travel writing interesting, you might consider this Body of Work to write your Higher Level Essay. You could extend your research beyond Human Tribe to include some of her other published collections. Angles of investigation might include: to what extent you think she is successful in her aim of bridging the gap between different cultures; whether her photography constitutes a modern form of travel writing; to what extent her photography reveals and represents cultural practices; whether you feel the photographs form or impose an identity onto people from an outsider’s perspective. Here are some suggestions for you – but always follow your own lines of inquiry should your thoughts lead you in a different direction:

• How is colour and composition used to present ideas about identity in Alison Wright’s photography?
• How does Alison Wright imply a close connection between people and the natural world in her photography collections?
• How does Alison Wright use metonymy in her photographic work?
• Explore the symbolism of eyes in Alison Wright’s photographic collections.
• In what ways does Alison Wright’s photography meaningfully negotiate our encounter with unfamiliar people and places?

Wider Reading and Research

• Outpost Magazine – a Canadian adventure-travel publication published six times a year, Outpost is known for its long-form adventure narratives from across the world.
• My Favourite Travel Book – six famous travel writers nominate their favourite travel books.
• The Most Inspiring Talks on Travel – a selection of the best Tedtalks about travel, including Lavinia Spalding’s talk.
• The Truth About Tribal Tourism – visit this Rough Guide blog to discover how your sustainable tour may not be as friendly to people or places as you might have thought…

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Travel literature

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• Maximiliano E. Korstanje 3  

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Travel literature surfaced between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the intent of documenting the hopes, experiences, and feeling of travelers while away from home. Today it ranges from guidebooks encouraging readers to visit tourist places, to bestseller novels. Mary Louis Pratt contends that travel writing resulted from the first studies of Carl Linneo to classify all herbaceous species of the world in an encyclopedia. The needs of classifying imposed by the European science wake up the desire to enlarge the geographies in other continents. Travel literature accompanied the presence of colonial powers portraying the others and recreating imagined landscapes (Pratt 2007 ). Originally employed by colonial governors to understand the customs, expectances, and tactics of resistance to expand their control on aboriginal tribes, travel literature recovered the importance to “being there” to perform fieldworks of social scientists (Korstanje 2012 ). Travels generate...

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Gerlomini, N. 2004 “Introducción: Roma hasta la época de César”. In Comentarios sobre la guerra en las Galias, Caesar, Julio Cayo [The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar]. Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada.

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Korstanje, M.E. (2016). Travel literature. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01384-8_595

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Travel Literature | Travelogue | Definition, Examples, Books

What is Travel Literature?

Table of Contents

Travel Literature Definition

Travel literature is a kind of travel writing having some significance and literary values. An individual’s travel experience is called a travelogue. The literary travelogues exhibit coherent narratives. It has also aesthetic values.

History of Travel Literature

The study of travel writing become more mature in the late 1990s, encouraged by the currency of Foucauldian criticism and Edward Said’s landmark study Orientalism .

The first international travel writing conference on the topic “ Snapshots from Abroad ” was organized by Donald Ross at the University of Minnesota in 1997. The gathering of one hundred scholars from different countries 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 eminent scholar Tim Young. Annual scholarly conferences about travel writing, held in different countries and continents like USA, Europe and Asia. This led to unprecedented upswing in the number of published travel literature monographs and essay collections, as well as a proliferation of travel writing anthologies.

Travel writing is a literary genre that has, as its focus, accounts of real or imaginary places. This genre encompasses a number of styles that may range from the documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic, and from humorous to the serious. Travel writing is a long-established literary format. An early example is the writing of Pausanias, a celebrated author of 2nd century A.D., who produced his Description of Greece based on his own observations.

The more recent example can be cited is Che Guevara ‘s The Motorcycle Diaries . The genesis of travel literature is very common in Arabic literature . The travelogues of Ibn Jubayr (1145-1214) and Ibn Batutta ( The Rihila )(1304-1377), both these travellers, recorded their travels across the known world in detail.

The Travels of Marco Polo (II Milione) , describing Marco Polo’s travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295 is a classic of travel literature

Michault Taillevent , (1388-1462) a noted poet of the Duke of Burgundy, travelled through the Jura Mountains in 1430. The author of Petit Jehan de Saintre, climbed to the crater of a volcano in the Lipari Island in 1407 and gave his authentic writings.

Best Travel Literature Books

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 observation on a nation and people. This can be also traced in the writings of Rebecca West’s work on Yugoshlavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon . Sometimes a writer stays for an extended period, studies minutely everything with his own sensibility and writes about his journey 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 Literary travel writing, also occurs when any author, famous in the field of literature, travels and writes about his or her own expedition.  Bruce Chatwin’s widely acclaimed  In Patagonia is also a good example of Travel Literature ,

Travel Literature Writers

Examples of such writers are Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, Mary Wallstonecraft, Robert Louis Stevenson, Hillarire Belloc, D.H. Lawrence, Rebecca-West and John Steinbeck, Gilles le Bourier, in his Livre de la description des pays gave the reason to write travel literature and says:

“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.”

India : A Wounded Civilization as a Travel Literature

V.S. Naipaul, the noted novelist has written the memorable travelogue India : A Wounded Civilization from August 1975 to October 1976. Indian was reeling under the Emergency rule since June 25, 1975. Naipaul has strange fascination for this nation. He had visited earlier to India to search the truth of the mystic land which was narrated to him by his ancestors. His ancestors belonged to Gangestic plain in Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi. Naipaul belong to brahamin caste. They were taken to Caribbean Island by the English. After his visit of India, he witnessed the deep wound in the social and religious life. The soul of Indian Civilization was deeply wounded. The civilization which boasted of her glory, in fact, has nothing but emptiness and shallowness. Naipaul was deeply distressed to see this grim truth of India. This is one of the most accurate and authentic description on Indian life written by an expatriate Indian author. He has described every aspects of India and Indian life with sincerity and honesty. Louis Heren in The Time says about the travelogue:

“A devastating work, but proof that a novelist of Mr. Naipaul’s stature can often define problems quicker and more effectively than a team of economists and other experts from the World Bank.”

In this travelogue, Naipaul has described about different people and their social life. Their economic condition and the cultural life have been depicted. Naipaul visited the ruins of Vijayanagar, Bihar, Rajasthan, Bombay and Pune. He saw the political unrest of the country. The fast deteriorating civilization of India did not escape his sharp eyes. Naipaul was highly astonished to see the sharp decline in the intellectual make up of the people of India. India as a nation need to rectify her if she desires to come out of her serious wound. New Statesman the newspaper says:

“What he saw and heard – evoked so superbly and vividly in his book-only reinforced his conviction that India, wounded by a thousand years of foreign rule, has still not found an ideology of regeneration.”

Naipaul has depicted India with full honesty and sincerity. The overdose of hypocrisy shown by Indian people concerning their culture has been highlighted by Naipaul.

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Travel literature

• 1 Understand
• 2 Historical
• 3 19th century and later

Travel literature is a broad and popular genre of writing covering adventure and exploration, travel writing collections, travel-related memoirs, and travel-centric fiction. Travel writing often blends with essay writing, coming in the form of travel writing collections or as features in magazines. Styles range from journalistic, to the introspective, to funny, and to serious. Early examples appear in medieval China, ancient Greece, and in early Arabic literature.

Understand [ edit ]

Historical [ edit ].

• Narrow Road to the Deep North ( Oku-no-hosomichi )- Verses and poems by 17th century haiku poet Basho Matsuo on his travel to the northeastern Japan.

19th century and later [ edit ]

Long distance travel became more accessible to people with the advent of rail, ocean-going steamships and later the automobile and aeroplanes.

See also [ edit ]

• Fiction tourism
• Travel writing

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Travel literature: what it is, how it arose, its characteristics and most important works

What is travel literature.

Travel books or travel literature comprises a type of texts that bring together aspects such as experiences, feelings, voices, scenarios, reflections, etc., about a journey that is made by the narrator. This type of literature can include works about conquests, explorations, adventures and other journeys that are part of this same category, and that can be real or fictitious facts that make allusions to known geographical spaces, for example.

In this sense, they are texts that originally respond to the need to give an account of unknown regions, explorations, etc., which is why those who initiated their development, according to the tracing of these texts, were often explorers and travelers who, with the passage of time, will shape one of the most important types of literature in this artistic field.

How does travel literature arise?

As for the birth of this literature, it is believed that the writing of these books is located in the fourteenth century with the emergence of the work Embassy of Tamorlán, which expresses the chronicle of a journey undertaken by envoys directly from King Henry III to meet Tamorlán, emperor of Asian origin, and ends around the fifteenth century.

In its beginnings, travel literature or travel books were used to communicate and express the discoveries, advances and descriptions of people who undertook journeys to unknown areas and detailed, under this type of text, what they found along the way. Thus, in principle, those who start with this category will be travelers and explorers, especially. The reasons that propitiated these journeys could easily vary, among them were the exploration of new lands, espionage work, etc.

It is considered that the first manifestations of this type of literature were in the hands of authors such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Far Bartolomé de las Casas, authors who wrote detailed texts under the format of the chronicle and who have special importance in terms of the content related to the conquest and arrival to the American continent.

However, the notion of travel literature will change significantly towards the 20th century. At this time this type of literature changes its tone, since most of its authors, writers and travelers, will travel not by order of superiors, but simply for the taste and particular interest of doing so. Thus, the horizons for this category are broadened, including the adventures of those who set out on new roads and describe everything they have seen in the texts.

Development of travel literature

The texts of this type of literature are mainly housed under the narrative format, often in the novel. This is because their content can be better structured in this type of structures, as it must follow aspects such as coherence in the story. One of the main characteristics of travel literature in terms of the development and creation of the works has to do with the fact that they may or may not be based on real events. Thus, the author may resort to fictitious or even speculative facts.

Unlike a detailed description of aspects and data about a trip, travel literature includes texts that are not a collection of events, but can be constituted as exploration logs and even a travel diary, which is why we will find experiences of the narrator, explorations, adventures that may or may not be starred by the narrator.

The dimensions that this type of texts have reached are especially due to the different contributions made by authors who have been interested in this type of texts, leaving in their wake tools that have been fundamental for creative continuity. This, even when conditions have undergone important transformations, since events such as technological advances, the invention of means of transportation and cultures have changed the form and given variety to styles. Despite this, they have remained under the magnifying glass of the author of travel literature.

Travel literature will take its final form, as we know it, after the Romanticism, when important changes are generated in relation to the objective of the tours and travels of the authors. At this moment, it is no longer only a process that throws in its writing detailed information from an investigation or with a commercial purpose, but it becomes an inspiring journey in which it begins to take other aspects and resources of literature to constitute, finally, travel literature in the notion of the present time.

Characteristics of travel literature

Now, in order to understand in depth what this type of literature consists of and under what ideas it lays its foundations of creation, it is necessary to review the most important distinguishing features in its development process. Among them, we find the following:

Writing motive

As we have seen, the central motive of this type of literature is the journey itself. When we speak of travel literature, we are talking about texts that make extensive journeys through the experiences of the narrator. In this sense, the journey constitutes the central axis of the plot.

Travel literature in novels

The main format chosen by this type of texts, in its most recent moments, is the novel. The structure of this narrative genre facilitates for the reader the incorporation not only of the central argument, as we saw in the previous point, but also the sum of descriptions that make the construction of images for the reader. These include aspects of his journey, such as the cultures he encounters, the societies, the people, the landscapes, etc.

Functions of travel literature

Another aspect that we should highlight about this category or literary modality is that it has the capacity to fulfill several functions, among them two mainly. On the one hand, we find that a travel book has a documentary function in terms of the undertaking of the journey and its portrayal in the work, and a literary function with the consolidation of a work itself.

Portrait of societies

As a way of obtaining information, following the documentary function, these books are excellent tools. This is due to the fact that in their descriptions, travel literature provides key data about the areas visited or traveled to, providing information such as location, landscapes, food, aspects of nature, religious beliefs, traditions and customs, among others.

Chronological narrative

Many of the texts in travel literature follow a chronological narrative, so that the story progresses and develops according to a specific time that is linear and thus makes it easier for the reader to follow the same journey. In this sense, the situations faced by the traveler or explorer must be narrated obeying the course of events.

About the protagonist

It is important to bear in mind that in this type of texts, generally the central role, the protagonist, is built under the figure of a hero who, in his journeys, faces different dangers and challenges that are put in his way, besides constituting the most important actions of the story.

Development scenarios

Being a type of literature that involves a physical displacement in its story, travel literature includes scenarios different from those that are part of the daily life not only of the character, in many cases, but also of the reader. Hence, it increases the level of expectation before the unknown, presenting the public with different scenarios and environments such as enchanted islands, deep forests, impenetrable jungles, among others.

Variety of formats

The travel story, as it is also known, has the ability to be constructed under different formats, despite the fact that its most recurrent genre has been the narrative and with it, the novel. That is why, especially in its initial stage and some authors later on, travel literature will be seen in formats such as letters and chronicles. The latter format represented his first mode of writing, where any trait of fantasy or fiction was absent.

Most important works and authors

Among the main works of this type of literature, we find titles such as: Embassy of Tamorlán, Book of Marco Polo, Por carreteras secundarias, Paraísos Oceánicos, by Aurora Bertrana, Viaje a la Alcarria, by Camilo José Cela, Lugares que no quiero compartir con nadie, by Elvira Lindo, Heridas del viento, by Virginia Mendoza, El camino más corto, by Manuel Leguineche, Vagabundo en África, by Javier Reverte, Donde la Vieja Castilla se acaba: Soria, by Avelino Hernández, Naufragios, by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Los senderos del mar, by María Belmonte, Venecia, by Jan Morris, El pez escorpión by Nicolás Bouvier, Viajes con Charley by John Steinbeck, Viaje al Japón by Rudyard Kipling, Letters from Istanbul by Mary Wortley Montagu, among others.

And among the main authors who gave way to this type of text are figures such as: Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, Rebecca West, Ryszard Kapuściński, Alexandra David-Néel, Peter Matthiessen, Alí Bey, Adolfo Rivadeneyra, Ana Briongos, Jordi Esteva, Juan Goytisolo, Paco Nadal, Javier Reverte, Gabi Martínez, Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Jan Morris, Javier Reverte, Manu Leguineche, Robert Byron, Colin Thubron, Norman Lewis, Mark Twain, among others.

To learn more about other types of texts, authors, literary movements and more, don’t forget that you can find this and more information in our Literature section.

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the eight types of time travel

Time travel is a stable in science fiction. Countless books, comics, movies, and TV shows have used it as their main plot device. Even more have incorporated it into a key moment of the story. Over the years, eight major types of time travel logic emerged. Recently, YouTubers Eric Voss and Héctor Navarro examined all eight types, and looked at which one gets it most correct in term of the real world science behind science fiction.

Type 1 Anything goes

Definition: Characters travel back and forth within their historical timeline.

This approach frees you to have fun and not get lost in the minutiae of how time travel works. Usually, there’s a magical Maguffin that to quote the great Dr. Ememett Brown, “makes time travel possible”. Writers have used a car, a phone booth, and a hot tub, among other options. This approach leads to inconsistent limits on the logic of the time travel, but this doesn’t mean the story is poorly plotted, won’t be enjoyable or won’t be an enormous hit. This approach is more science fantasy than science fiction with no basis in real-world science.

Examples: Back to the Future , Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure , Hot Tube Time Machine , Frequency , Austin Powers , Men In Black 3 , Deadpool 2 , The Simpsons , Galaxy Quest , Star Trek TOS , Doctor Who , 11/22/63 by Stephen King.

Type 2 Branch Reality

Definition: Changes to the past don’t rewrite history. They split the timeline into an alternate branch timeline. This action does not change or erase the original timeline.

As authors got more familiar with the science behind time travel in theoretical physics, this type, based upon the many worlds theory in quantum mechanics, emerged. When the character travels back into the past and changes events, they create a new reality. Their original reality is unchanged. Branches themselves can branch leading to a multiverse of possibilities.

Examples: The Disney Plus series, Loki , used this extensively. See also: Back to the Future Part II , Avenger’s Endgame , the DC Comics multiverse, the Marvel Comics multiverse, Rick and Morty , Star Trek (2009), A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

Type 3 Time Dilation

Definition: Characters traveling off-world experience time moving more slowly than elsewhere in the universe, allowing them to move forward in time (but not backward).

This type is the based upon our scientific understanding of how time slows down as you approach the speed of the light. This is a forward-only type of time travel. There’s no going backwards.

Examples: Planet of the Apes , Ender’s Game , Flight of the Navigator , Interstellar , Buck Rodgers .

Type 4 This Always Happened

Definition: All of time is fixed on a predestined loop in which the very act of time travel itself sets the events of the story into motion.

This one can confuse and delves closer to the realm of theology than science. It feels gimmicky, and has become something of a trope making it hard to pull this off in a satisfying way for your audience. This type also invites the audience to question if your protagonist ever had free will or agency in the story.

Examples: Terminator , Terminator 2 , Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , Game of Thrones -Season 6, Twelve Monkeys , Interstellar , Kate and Leopold , The Butterfly Effect , Predestination , Ricky and Morty -Season 5, Looper .

Type 5 Seeing the Future

Definition: After seeing a vision of their fate, characters choose to change their destiny or embrace their lot.

We’re stretching to call this time travel, but it provides your story with built-in conflict and stakes. Will the hero choose to walk the path knowing how it will end, or will they choose a different path?

Examples: Oedipus Rex , A Christmas Carol , Minority Report , Arrival , Next (Nicolas Cage), Rick and Morty -Season Four. Star Trek:Discovery -Season 2, Avenger’s EndGame with Dr. Strange and the Mind Stone.

Type 6 Time Loop / Groundhog Day

Definition: Characters relive the same day over and over, resetting back to a respawn point once they die or become incapacitated.

This type gained popularity after the movie, Groundhog Day , became a tremendous hit. Most of the other examples take the Groundhog Day idea and put a slight twist on it. Like Type 4 “This Always Happened”, the popularity of this type can make it harder to pull off in a fresh and innovative way.

Examples: Obviously, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Edge of Tomorrow , Doctor Strange in the ending battle with Dormammu, Russian Dolls (Netflix), Palm Springs , Star Trek TNG .

Type 7 Unstuck Mind

Definition: Characters consciousness transport through time within his body to his life at different ages.

Nostalgia for the past and dreaming of the future are core parts of the human experience. This type runs more metaphorically than scientific.

Examples: Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, X-Men: Days of Future Past , Desmond in the series Lost .

Type 8 Unstuck Body

Definition: A character’s body or object becomes physically detached from the flow of time within the surrounding universe, becoming inverted or younger. Only certain objects or bodies are unstuck from time. Also called Inverted Entropy.

This one will blow your mind if you think about it for too long. Like Type 2 “Branch Reality”, this one comes from the realm of quantum mechanics and theoretical physics. Scientists and mathematicians have all the formulas worked out to make this de-aging a reality, but currently lack the technology to control all the variables in the ways needed. It would like scientists working out than an object could break the speed of the sound in 1890. It would look inconceivable, given the technology of the day, but I wouldn’t put limits on human ingenuity.

Examples: Dr. Strange (the Hong Kong battle). Tenet , briefly in Endgame with Scott Lang and Bruce, Primer .

If you’re writing a time travel story, you’ll need to decide which one of these types you want to deploy. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. In many ways, its similar to designing your magic system, especially if you go with a Type 1 time travel story. The most important thing remains to have relatable characters and to tell a great story while being internally consistent with the rules and logic of your story world.

Ted Atchley  is a freelance writer and professional computer programmer. Whether it’s words or code, he’s always writing. Ted’s love for speculative fiction started early on with Lewis’  Chronicles of Narnia,  and the Star Wars movies. This led to reading Marvel comics and eventually losing himself in Asimov’s Apprentice Adept and the world of Krynn ( Dragonlance Chronicles ). 

After blogging on his own for several years, Blizzard Watch ( blizzardwatch.com ) hired Ted to be a regular columnist in 2016. When the site dropped many of its columns two years later, they retained Ted as a staff writer. 

He lives in beautiful Charleston, SC with his wife and children. When not writing, you’ll find him spending time with his family, and cheering on his beloved Carolina Panthers. He’s currently revising his work-in-progress portal fantasy novel before preparing to query. 

Ted has a quarterly newsletter which  you can join here . You’ll get the latest on his writing and publishing as well as links about writing, Star Wars, and/or Marvel.

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Travel writing.

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Finding Bibliographies

A bibliography is list of bibliographic citations, (also called Works Cited, Literature Cited, Reference List) at the end of a journal article or book that lists the sources used by an author.

Bibliographies can also be research tools that bring together in one location (either print or electronic) citations from articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, conference proceedings, primary materials, and other academic sources about a specific topic. That topic might be broad, such as "Medieval history" or very narrow, such as "Red-haired women mentioned in courtly literature."

Bibliographies can be useful for discovering additional sources for your research. Since they include many different types of sources, it is important to be able to identify the type of source from the citation, in order to locate it.

In UC Library's advanced search, change the Any Field search filter to Subject and change contains to is (exact)  and search for  bibliography, combining it on the next line with your topic.    The term bibliography appears in multiple places in catalog records, looking for it in the subject field will limit your results to resources that have been identified as bibliographies.

Bibliographies of travel in North America

• American travelers to Mexico, 1821-1972: a descriptive bibliography Call Number: NRLF (UCSC) Z1425.C64 or Bancroft Z1425 .C56
• Early Midwestern travel narratives: an annotated bibliography, 1634-1850 Call Number: Main (Gardner) Stacks F351.A12 H8 Records and describes first-person records of journeys in the frontier and early settlement periods which survive in both manuscript and print. Geographically, it deals with the states once part of the Old Northwest Territory--Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota--and with Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.
• French travellers in the United States, 1765-1932 Call Number: Main (Gardner) Stacks E161.A12 M67 1961 Also available at the Internet Archive .
• Travel literature of colonists in America, 1754-1783: An annotated bibliography with an introduction and an author index A Ph.D. dissertation available from ProQuest's Dissertations and Theses database.
• Travels in the New South: a bibliography Call Number: Main (Gardner) Stacks F215.A12 C5 Lists over 1100 works of travels in the South from 1865-1955.
• Travels in the Old South: a bibliography Call Number: Main (Gardner) Stacks F206.1 .C55 (V1 can be requested from NRLF) Bibliographies for scholars in search of eyewitness evidence of life in southern commonwealths.

Bibliographies of travel in Central & South America

• Accounts of nineteenth-century South America : an annotated checklist of works by British and United States observers Call Number: Doe Reference F2223.A1 N3 A bibliography of English language travellers' accounts of Latin America in the nineteenth century. It focuses on the countries of South America from Colombia and Venezuela to Argentin and Chile (excluding British, French, and Dutch Guiana). Also available at the Internet Archive .
• The exploration of South America: an annotated bibliography Over 900 annotated entries that focus on the period of discovery and exploration.

• Travel accounts and descriptions of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1800-1920: A selected bibliography Call Number: NRLF (UCSC) Z1609.D47W44 1982 Also available at the Internet Archive

Bibliographies of Travel in Asia & South Asia

Bibliographies of travel in Europe

• Bio-bibliografía de viajeros por España y Portugal. Siglos XV-XVI-XVI Call Number: Main (Gardner) Stacks G419 .G37 2001
• Viaggiatori italiani in Italia, 1700-1998: per una bibliografia Call Number: Main (Gardner) Stacks Z2356 .C585 1999 More than 1800 titles, organized chronologically, with an index of authors and places.

Bibliographies of travel not specific to a region

• Bio-bibliografía de viajeros españoles by Carlos García-Romeral Pérez Siglos XVI-XVII at Main (Gardner) Stacks G287.A12 G37 1998 Siglo XVIII at Main (Gardner) Stacks G287.A12 G37 1997 1900-1936 at Main (Gardner) Stacks G465.A12 G37 1997
• European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 This link opens in a new window A searchable bibliographic index to books, manuscripts, and other materials printed in Europe relating to the Americas, 1493-1750. more... less... Contains more than 32,000 entries and is a comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. It covers the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of Native American peoples. A wide range of subject areas are covered; from natural disasters to disease outbreaks and slavery.
• Global odyssey: a bibliography of travel literature before 1940 Call Number: G463.A12 G55 2006 Doe Reference
• Global odyssey: a bibliography of travel literature, 1940 to the present Call Number: G463.A12 G56 2006 Doe Reference
• Reports of Explorations Printed in the Documents of the United States Government Primarily nineteenth-century reports of explorations funded by the US government.
• Victorian & Edwardian women travellers: a bibliography of books published in English Call Number: G151 .T54 2006 NRLF (UCB)

Bibliographies of travel in the Middle East

Bibliographies of travel in Africa

• A Guide to Original Sources for Precolonial Western Africa Published in European Languages Call Number: Main (Gardner) Stacks DT476.A12 F34 1994 Also available online from the University of Wisconsin.
• A Supplement to a Guide to Original Sources for Precolonial Western Africa: Corrigenda Et Addenda Journal article that is available online.
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