Nothing can inspire the will to travel like the experiences of other travelers – or the written work inspired by other travellers. Not all travel books are non-fiction. Some of the greatest are novels set in the environments their author has visited, featuring characters based on real people met there. But most travel writers focus on describing real experiences and places, knowing that reality is enough for those of us who love to travel. For hundreds of years, travel writers have influenced the goals and world views of people wishing to travel themselves.
Christopher Colombus was known to have been inspired by the travel writers Marco Polo and John Mandeville. But not all authors are equal, and not all journeys are worth writing about. So to save you a lot of trouble, I have compiled a list of ten of the greatest travel writers to ever grace human history with accounts of their travels.
10 Eric Newby
Eric Newby was born to be a traveler. As a teenager, he found employment on a Finnish ship, giving him the opportunity to see much of the world – from Australia to South Africa. When the second world war broke out, Newby joined the British military, giving him an opportunity to see even more of the world. He was stationed in India and soon in Italy. After peace was made between Britain and Germany, Eric Newby found employment in various industries back in England.
But his love of travel was too strong for these jobs to last. In the 1950s he left for Afghanistan, where he explored a large mountain range called the Hindu Kush. On returning, this adventure became his first book “A short walk in the Hindu Kush” – now considered a classic in travel writing. With the success of this book under his belt and a name now associated with adventure, he found employment as travel editor of a British newspaper.
9: Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson has written books on many different subjects but his most well known work is undoubtedly travel focused. At age 21 he dropped out of university in his native USA to spend time backpacking around Europe. Finding himself low on money while on the trip, he found a job at a British psychiatric hospital. Falling in love, he would stay in England for a woman, and still lives there today.
In time he became a journalist, writing about business and current affairs. It was years later he turned his talent to travel writing. Bill Bryson has published books detailing his trips to Australia, Africa, Europe, and many other regions of the world. Today Bryson is known as one of the best travel writers of his generation – especially thanks to his book “Notes from a small island”. This was his first best selling book, even being made into a tv show.
8: Maria Graham
Born in 18th century England, Maria Graham lived in a world far different to us. The daughter of a naval officer, she enjoyed an upbringing of privilege by comparison to most others in England. This gave her the ability to travel. Over the years she saw much of the world. While in India she fell in love with a Scottish lord, becoming a Lady by marriage. Spending most of her time in London, and with too much time to spare, like many wives of naval officers did, she began writing. In 1821, she was allowed to accompany her husband on a mission to Chile.
But he died of fever on the way and she arrived in Chile a widow. For a year she lived a simple life in Chile, among locals, rather than English settlers. She then moved to Brazil, where she became tutor to a young princess. Brazil had just recently declared independence, and gained a new royal family. To be so close to them at this time put Maria Graham in an unusual position. She would later write about these and many other experiences. Although not exactly as well known as contemporary travel writers, I regard her as an especially talented author.
7: Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway is one of the more well known entries on this list. This nobel prize winning author is studied on every literature course worth taking… probably. As a young man he volunteered as an ambulance driver in Italy during world war one. This experience changed him in more ways than one. It left him injured, but also inspired his novel: A farewell to arms. From now, Hemingway would travel to various countries and write novels based on places he has visited. He did this for Spain and Cuba, and other places.
While in Africa he almost died in two plane crashes, one after another. He was present to witness much of the Spanish civil war, the Normandy landing, and the liberation of Paris. Needless to say Ernest Hemingway saw more than his fair share of adventure. As well as works of fiction, he also worked as a journalist, and wrote non-fiction travel books. He wrote an account of his time in Tanzania, Canada, France, Spain, and Kenya.
6: Kira Salak
Kira Salak is an active American journalist with three travel books published. One is a novel, telling the story of a journalist who travels deep into the jungles of Papua New Guinea to find a fellow reporter commonly assumed to be dead. A work of fiction. But her other two books are accounts of her own travels: one in Papua New Guinea, and another in Mali.
Mali is a large north African country, in part controlled by the legitimate government and in part controlled by rebels. Salak risked her life travelling 600 miles into Mali, sailing up the Niger river. It was just one of her adventures in dangerous places. In 2003 she accompanied a group of Ukrainian gun runners into the Congo so that she could report on the ongoing civil war. I only wander where she will go next.
5: John Mandeville
John Mandeville was one of the original travel writers of Europe. Very little is known about him. In the late 14th century, a written account of his travels began circulating in French. It described his journey from Europe to Turkey, much of the middle east, North Africa and as far east as India.
It was a time when few people even left the area they were born in – let alone the continent. No one can know for certain if John Mandeville really existed and travelled this adventure or not. Many today doubt it, wondering if the entire account is a work of fiction. Either way, his writings were believed for numerous centuries and helped shape the way other travellers would come to detail their own experiences.
4: Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was an icon of the beat generation – a grouping of authors and artists in the post-war era. His book “On the road” is among the most well known works of beat literature. It tells the story of when Jack Kerouac and his friends travelled across America. It was largely a road trip, where they meet all kinds of people.
It’s a story of carefree adventure – a group of young people in the late 1940s finding out what America is really like. It’s actually a novel but known to be almost entirely based on the real life experiences of Kerouac and his friends on their trip.
3: Xu Xiake
Xu Xiake was one of the most prominent Chinese travel writers of the Ming dynasty, perhaps the greatest of all Chinese regimes. For 34 years he travelled all over China, documenting much about the places he visited. Xu Xiake documented local cultures, geographical features, plants and animal life in his study of different areas of China. Reading his travel diary – known as “Xu Xiake’s Travels” – gives an idea of just how vast China is.
It is a massive country not only in terms of land area, but the number of people, variety of cultures and even climates. Xu Xiake gave the world an insight into parts of China otherwise neglected in a period of history that didn’t have time for that kind of thing. Despite it being so in depth, his story has a clear progressing narrative, guaranteeing it became a classic work. He is also remembered as a very brave adventurer, often not shying away from danger during his travels.
2: Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux must have something in his blood. Both his brothers are also writers. His son is a film maker and his nephew is an actor. He himself is a travel writer, first getting a taste for adventure on volunteering abroad after finishing university. Somehow he ended up in Uganda, where he helped a political dissident escape the country. While in Uganda he published his first novel. It did well but it really wasn’t what his passion was. So he turned to documenting his travels.
Paul Theroux is most well known today for his 1973 book “The Great Railway Bazaar”. This book is an account of his big journey from England to Asia overland. Taking the train, he travelled through Europe, the middle east, India, and to south east Asia. He finally visited Japan before returning to Europe via the Trans-Siberian railway. It was one hell of a journey, and is no wonder why the book has become so famous. And that’s just one of his works.
1: Marco Polo
Marco Polo is a name people use when discussing travel writers without really knowing much about his life. Perhaps they have watched the Netflix series based on him. It’s true that this Italian ventured to China and became a minor official in the emperor’s court. But he saw so much more of the world than just China. But he was perhaps the first European to describe the immense size and wealth of China. Marco Polo also visited several other parts of Asia, including regions south of China. He traveled through the middle east and explored the Hindu kingdoms in what is now India. A section of his writing is dedicated to the latter, called “travels in the land of serpents and pearls”.