Do you need to feed your spirit of adventure? If armchair mountaineering isn’t for you, there are also many other good adventure travel books we’ve read that give you great insight into travel and diverse countries:
- Life-Changing Adventure – Emma Huffam and Trevor Builder. Written by us! Be daring, be inspired. Adventure is waiting for you.
- The Art of Travel – Alain de Botton. Provides an insight into everything from holiday romance to hotel mini-bars, airports to sight-seeing. This book suggests how we might be happier on our journeys.
- Walking – One Step At A Time – Erling Kagge. A book about the love of exploration, the delight of discovery and the equilibrium that can be found in this most simple of activities.
- Where’s Wallis – Brian Thacker. Under-equipped and totally unprepared, Brian leaves the guide books behind. He gets off the beaten track, out of his comfort zone and into trouble in some of the oddest countries you’ve never heard of.
- Adventurous Spirit – Heather Hawkins. Sometimes life takes us to places we never planned to go.
- Facing Fear – Lisa Blair. The first woman to sail solo around Antarctica.
- Adventure Revolution – Belinda Kirk. The life-changing power of choosing challenge.
Asia
- India: Holy Cow – Sarah MacDonald. A rollercoaster ride through a land of chaos and contradiction with a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life – and her sanity.
- India: Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts. A compelling tale of a hunted man who had lost everything – his home, his family, and his soul – and came to find his humanity while living at the wildest edge of experience
- Pakistan: A Blonde in the Bazaar – Jill Worrell. Offering a unique insight into Pakistan’s cultures, superb scenery, fascinating history and hospitable and passionate people.
- Afghanistan: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush – Eric Newby. A classic journey from Mayfair, London to the wild mountains of the Hindu Kush, north-east of Kabul. This is one of the most spectacularly beautiful wildernesses on earth.
- Tibet (China): Last Seen in Lhasa – Claire Scobie. The story of an extraordinary friendship in modern Tibet, China.
- Siberia/Mongolia/Himalayas: The Long Walk – Slavomir Rawicz. The true story of a trek to freedom.
Europe
- France: Almost French – Sarah Turnbull. A Sydney journalist recounts her unexpected move to Paris. Here, she fell in love and came to cherish the city’s charm, fashion, food, paradoxes, and dinner parties.
- France: A Piano in the Pyrenees – Tony Hawks. Inspired by breathtaking views and romantic dreams of finding love in the mountains, Tony Hawks impulsively buys a house in the French Pyrenees. Here, he plans to finally fulfil his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, untroubled by the problems of the world.
- Italy: Girl by Sea РPenelope Green. Across kitchen tables, in bustling caf̩s, and over long lunches under vine-covered pergolas, Penny learns the art of Italian cooking, builds friendships, and discovers the rhythms and secrets of island life.
Central and South America
- Brazil: Chasing Bohemia – Carmen Michael. A story about living for the day – and the surprising little truths about yourself you can discover through being immersed in poverty, isolation, and a culture that is not your own.
- Cuba: Enduring Cuba – Zoe Bran. Intrigued by Cuba, Zoe Bran visits this country of contradictions. Interweaving history and current events, personal and wider viewpoints, she paints a vivid and compelling picture of contemporary Cuba.
