The 12 Best Travel Books to Inspire Your Inner Wanderlust

After a year of travel I’ve read A LOT of books. Some have been travel-focused and others not, but I wanted to create a list of my favorite books that have inspired my travel in hopes they’ll inspire yours too! Some of these have kept me going along the way and others I read before my trip. Each one is special in its own way and I recommend for you read them all.

The Best Travel Books to Inspire Your Inner Wanderlust

Here are my top 12 best travel books to inspire you to travel!

1. What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman

I read this book before my year-long trip around the world and MAN OH MAN did it inspire me to go out into the world and enjoy myself. It made me feel good about the stage of life I was in at the time and that the things I was feeling about career and travel were normal. It also made me realize it didn’t matter my age, I could still get out and follow my dreams!

 2. You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero

Talk about making yourself feel good. I read this book halfway through my 1-year trip and it helped me recenter myself and truly made me fall in love with myself again. This book inspired me to follow my passion and motivated me to get out there and do something about it!

3. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

This book was so inspiring! It didn’t make me want to go off into the wilderness by myself, but it did make me want to go on an adventure to learn more about myself. The wild adventures she has are comparable to some of the wild things that happened me and was a fun, relatable and exciting book!

4. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

This is the OG (original gangster) book for female solo travel. It’s a modern day classic in my opinion. This was the first book to spark my wanderlust and make me want to travel the world. It’s also the first book to make me realize that I’m never too old to quit everythng and go on a life adventure.

5. Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It by Elizabeth Gilbert

For anyone who read and loved Eat Pray Love, I highly recommend Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It. It’s also by Elizabeth Gilbert and is a compilation of stories of people who read Eat Pray Love and how it changed their lives. Not many books can inspire me, but this one did the trick. After reading it I knew I made the right decision to quit my job and travel the world.

6. Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Timothy Ferriss

This book is for someone who is serious about going out into the world to travel or backpack for a long period of time. Not only does this book give you a ton of advice, but it’s a short read that’s packed full of valuable information. Plus, it will really motivate you to the take the leap and go traveling for a while!

7. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This book is one of the most popular of our time and is all about following what inspires you. The entire premise follows a boy who is learning to follow his instinct, go with the flow and live in the present. It’s full of great life lessons and is extremely inspirational. This one will motivate you to follow your dreams and make those dreams big!

8. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

I read this book at a time in my travels where I was really trying to figure out what to do after I got back home. Was I going to go back to corporate life or pursue something else? This book really sparked the creativity guru inside of me and it’s not only an inspiring book for travel, but also in everyday life. It will show you to follow your passions, ideas, and creative inclinations no matter what other people say!

9. Tiny Beautiful Things – Dear Sugar

This book is a compilation of a bunch of short stories. Cheryl Strayed answers questions (posing as Dear Sugar) of people who write into her advice column. She’s not just any old advice giver, this stuff is powerful. The book focuses on being brave, having courage, and listening to your heart. I loved every second of it.

10. In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson has a lot of great books out there, but this one stood out to me because it’s about Australia. I laughed out loud while reading it, mainly because I’ve met a lot of Aussies along my travels and Australia is a country I’ve been longing to visit. He talks about the quirks of the country, what people think of Australians and what it’s like to visit. He did a great job inspiring me to take a trip down unda!

11. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell

This book was hilarious! It also made me want to go to Denmark (the happiest country on Earth) ASAP. It also made me want to move to Europe and at the same time made me want to settle down somewhere cool where I’m totally out of my comfort zone. I feel like I learned a lot about Denmark and the art of “hygge” after reading this book and I can’t wait to go now!