# The 22 Best Travel Nonfiction Books Ever Written

> From death-defying treks across deserts to wry misadventures on foreign trains, these accounts span centuries of wanderlust and reckoning. Where does your favorite journey rank?

*By YPB Team · Published September 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-22-best-travel-nonfiction-books-ever-written*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Into the Wild** — score 1000/1000
   Jon Krakauer's 1996 account of Christopher McCandless's fatal journey into the Alaskan wilderness.
2. **The Songlines** — score 858/1000
   Bruce Chatwin's 1987 exploration of Aboriginal Australia's ancient walking paths and oral traditions.
3. **Notes from a Small Island** — score 678/1000
   Bill Bryson's affectionate 1995 farewell tour of Britain before returning to the United States.
4. **Tracks** — score 678/1000
   Robyn Davidson's 1980 memoir of a solo trek across the Australian desert with four camels.
5. **Video Night in Kathmandu** — score 678/1000
   Pico Iyer's 1988 travelogue on Western culture's collision with Asia.
6. **Neither Here Nor There** — score 678/1000
   Bill Bryson's 1991 comic retracing of a youthful backpacking trip across Europe.
7. **Wild** — score 555/1000
   Cheryl Strayed's 2012 memoir of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone after personal loss.
8. **The Travels of Marco Polo** — score 555/1000
   The 13th-century account of Marco Polo's journeys across Asia and the court of Kublai Khan.
9. **A Walk in the Woods** — score 555/1000
   Bill Bryson's 1998 memoir of hiking the Appalachian Trail with his out-of-shape friend Katz.
10. **The Motorcycle Diaries** — score 555/1000
   Che Guevara's journal of a 1952 motorcycle trip across South America that shaped his political awakening.
11. **The Road to Oxiana** — score 555/1000
   Robert Byron's 1937 travelogue of a journey through Persia and Afghanistan, a classic of the genre's prose style.
12. **The Great Railway Bazaar** — score 396/1000
   Paul Theroux's 1975 account of a four-month train journey across Asia.
13. **Travels with Charley** — score 396/1000
   John Steinbeck's 1962 account of a road trip across America with his poodle Charley.
14. **Blue Highways** — score 396/1000
   William Least Heat-Moon's 1982 chronicle of driving America's back roads after losing his job and marriage.
15. **In a Sunburned Country** — score 396/1000
   Bill Bryson's 2000 humorous travelogue exploring the history and oddities of Australia.
16. **Full Tilt** — score 396/1000
   Dervla Murphy's 1965 memoir of cycling solo from Ireland to India.
17. **Into Thin Air** — score 396/1000
   Jon Krakauer's 1997 firsthand account of the deadly 1996 Everest climbing disaster.
18. **Eat, Pray, Love** — score 396/1000
   Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 memoir of self-discovery through travels in Italy, India, and Indonesia.
19. **In Patagonia** — score 396/1000
   Bruce Chatwin's genre-defining 1977 travelogue through the remote landscapes and legends of Patagonia.
20. **West with the Night** — score 396/1000
   Beryl Markham's 1942 memoir of growing up in colonial Kenya and becoming a pioneering aviator.
21. **Arabian Sands** — score 396/1000
   Wilfred Thesiger's 1959 account of crossing the Empty Quarter desert with Bedouin companions.
22. **The Old Patagonian Express** — score 396/1000
   Paul Theroux's 1979 account of traveling by train from Boston to the tip of South America.

Tags: books, travel, adventure, nonfiction