Have you ever considered your bookshelf as your next travel destination?
Adventures in far off places. Meet cutes on beaches. Spending a day wandering the streets of Rome. Counting the miles on a long road trip with friends. Traveling gives you the chance to create some of your best stories and memories. But for those times when you’ve got to book a staycation over a vacation, you can always travel vicariously through a great travel-inspired read.
The best travel novels transport readers somewhere far away from their daily lives. They evoke the sights, sounds and smells of far off cities. They offer the excitement of exploring a new place. Sometimes, they even add a new must-visit destination to your bucket list. Books about travel can help you plan out a trip, but fiction books about travel can simply take you away.
Whether you want to dive into the beauty of Northern Italy, visit the beaches of the Caribbean or follow a mystery from Bombay to London, these travel-inspired novels are bound to trigger your wanderlust.
1. Road Trip
by Mary Kay Andrews
Perfect for the Beach Reader: This fun novel follows two sisters on a road trip through Ireland, where they discover a few family secrets and run into some charming Irish men.
New from the beloved New York Times bestselling author of Summers at the Saint and Hello, Summer!
Pack your bags for a summer journey shaped by family secrets, long-buried history and charming men with Irish accents. Maeve and Therese Dunigan haven't spoken in years. Raised under the same roof in Savannah, the two sisters could not be more opposite -- Maeve the rule follower, Therese the unapologetic rebel. But when their mother's death pulls them back together, they inherit more than just grief: a mysterious painting that may be worth millions ... if it's real.
Determined to uncover the truth, and desperately in need of the money, the sisters set out on a journey to Ireland, tracing their family's roots and the origins of the portrait. What begins as a search for answers soon becomes something deeper – a reckoning with the past as they uncover secrets that span generations and reshape everything they thought they knew about their family.
With tensions simmering, the two hit the road and find themselves on twisty lanes, in colorful villages, at local pubs, and with handsome men whose gift of the gab is surpassed only by their charm. Can Maeve and Therese actually survive the journey without killing each other? Join Mary Kay Andrews on a road trip that will entertain you for miles.
2. Meet Me in Italy
by Brenda Novak
Perfect for the World Traveler: Who wouldn’t want to up and decide to take a trip to the Amalfi Coast to meet your orphaned half-sister instead of dealing with the pressure of a looming work deadline?
An Instant USA TODAY bestseller: A sun-soaked trip to the Amalfi Coast promises a fresh start and reveals secrets never imagined in New York Times bestselling author Brenda Novak's tender new novel.
In the wake of her debut novel's breakout success and a very painful public divorce, Charlotte Williams-Jackson has something to prove. With her second novel overdue, she's scrambling to hold it together. But her focus is rocked when she discovers that her childhood wasn't as it seemed. She has a tween half-sister who's been orphaned in Italy.
Alongside her best friend Sloane and Sloane's charming brother Julian, Charlotte ventures to the Amalfi Coast to meet her sister. She would never turn her back on family, especially since this girl doesn't have anyone else, but between her looming deadline and her entire identity being flipped upside down, it's a lot.
Determined to rebuild her life, Charlotte must confront the relationships she's held dear ,and the loss of those she thought she had but didn't, forcing her to question everything she understood about herself and the bonds that shape a family.
3. A Short Walk Through a Wide World
by Douglas Westerbeke
Perfect for the Time Traveler: Step back into 1885, but don’t just stay in one place. Instead travel across the globe with a young woman who can’t stop walking.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - "Imagine The Life of Pi, The Alchemist and The Midnight Library rolled into one fantastical fable." – The New York Times Book Review
A dazzlingly epic debut that charts the incredible, adventurous life of one woman as she journeys the globe trying to outrun a mysterious curse that will destroy her if she stops moving. Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn 9-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death.
When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won't allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days nor return to a place where she's already been.
From the scorched dunes of the Calanshio Sand Sea to the snow-packed peaks of the Himalayas; from a bottomless well in a Parisian courtyard to the shelves of an infinite underground library, we follow Aubry as she learns what it takes to survive and ultimately, to truly live. But the longer Aubry wanders and the more desperate she is to share her life with others, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else's ... A Short Walk Through a Wide World reminds us that it's not the destination, but rather the journey -- no matter how long it lasts -- that makes us who we are.
4. The Resort
by Sara Ochs
Perfect for the Serial Reader: Nothing screams suspense novel like the story of a woman hiding away at a luxury island resort until her shady past comes to find her. Enjoy the beauty of Thailand. … just make sure you make it out alive.
"Scuba divers, influencers and hard-partying tourists converge on the glamorous Koh Sang Resort in this sleek holiday thriller. ... Ochs draws out the lush details of the idyllic environment, and even as the body count steadily rises, the island remains strangely appealing." -- The New York Times
For readers of Rachel Hawkins and We Were Never Here comes a searing vacation thriller set on a remote island in Thailand following two mysterious women, a charismatic group of expats and the one murder poised to bring their paradise crashing down. There are three rules to follow during a vacation at the famous Koh Sang Resort.
- Leave the past behind: When Cass sets foot on the coast of Thailand's world-famous party island, she's searching for an escape. With dark secrets following her every move, Koh Sang becomes the perfect place to hide.
- Always be careful of who you trust: Now, years later, Cass is a local dive instructor alongside the Permanents, a group of expats who have claimed the island as their own. The Permanents don't linger on who they were before the island. Simply because, like Cass, they all have something to outrun.
- If someone discovers who you really are, run: But suddenly, a dive student is found dead and paradise comes crashing down. Because this isn't the first mysterious death on the island, and it won't be the last. Someone knows who Cass is, and they're ready to make sure justice is finally served.
5. The Hitchhikers
by Chevy Stevens
Perfect for the Stunt Double: This novel is an adrenaline pumping thriller that twists and turns up until the last page. It’s also a great reminder that while road trips are scenic, iconic and fun, it’s best to avoid hitchhikers.
Chevy Stevens, the beloved New York Times bestselling author of Still Missing and Those Girls, returns with her most breathtaking thriller yet. With its relentless pace and unforgettable twists, The Hitchhikers delivers what bestselling author Karin Slaughter calls "a frightening and viscerally chilling road-trip-gone-wrong story."
Desperation is a dark road. … It's the summer of 1976. Alice and Tom set out on the remote Canadian highways in their new RV, hoping to heal after a devastating tragedy. They've planned the trip perfectly, every detail accounted for. Then they meet two young hitchhikers and offer them a ride. But Simon and Jenny aren't what they seem. They've left a trail of blood, destruction and madness behind them.
Now Alice and Tom are prisoners in a deadly game with nowhere to turn. As the tension builds, the lines blur and the question becomes: In whose heart does evil truly lie? What secrets are Jenny and Simon hiding? And who will live another day? A chilling, twist-laden ride to the final page, The Hitchhikers is that rare novel that will break your heart as it holds you in suspense.
6. My Best Friend's Honeymoon
by Meryl Wilsner
Perfect for the Modern Romantic: What is more romantic than spending your honeymoon on the warm beaches of the Caribbean? Perhaps spending it with your best friend and finally realizing what you want.
The high spice, low stakes USA Today bestselling sapphic romance where two best friends go on a nonrefundable honeymoon together and discover that finding happily ever after can be as simple as asking. "Meryl Wilsner is writing some of the best queer romance today, and My Best Friend's Honeymoon is no exception. ... I can confidently say that this friends-to-lovers destination romance is their best yet." - Autostraddle
Elsie Hoffman has been engaged to her college boyfriend for a year and a half. Ginny Holtz has been in love with Elsie for almost a decade and a half. When Elsie discovers her fiancé already planned their wedding and honeymoon as a surprise and she's expected to be in a white dress in seven days, she swiftly realizes she's let herself become too comfortable with a future she never wanted. She breaks things off, and a week later is on a plane to the Caribbean for her non-refundable honeymoon with her best friend Ginny instead.
Ginny thinks it's high time Elsie learned how to speak up for herself. So, they make a deal with her. For the next week, Elsie can have whatever she wants, wherever, however and whenever she wants it, as long as she asks. They never expected Elsie to want them.
What starts as choosing activities and taking selfies soon turns to toe-curling kisses and much, much more. But what happens when the honeymoon is over? Meryl Wilsner's My Best Friend's Honeymoon is about not only learning to ask for what you want but finding the happiness you deserve.
7. Six Days in Bombay
by Alka Joshi
Perfect for the Leading Lady: Only a strong and determined woman could make her way from Bombay to London, traveling across a war-torn Europe, to prove her innocence and uncover the truth around a mysterious death.
"A sparkling travelogue and a poignant journey of self-discovery all in one … Alka Joshi is simply the best!" -- Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network and The Rose Code
From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Henna Artist, this captivating novel follows a young Anglo-Indian nurse who embarks on a journey from her home in Bombay to uncover a mystery and prove her innocence after a famous painter dies in her care. In 1937, young nurse Sona is drawn to the renowned, feisty, scandalous painter Mira Novak when they meet while the latter is recovering at a Bombay hospital, and the two women bond over their half-Indian identities.
But when Mira dies suddenly and mysteriously, Sona falls under suspicion. The key to proving Sona's innocence may lie in a cryptic note and four paintings Mira left in her care, sending the young woman across a tumultuous Europe to meet Mira's former lovers and friends. As Sona travels from Bombay to Istanbul, Prague, Paris, Florence and London uncovering Mira's life story, she learns that behind the charming facade was a complicated, troubled woman with dangerous secrets. But will Sona discover them in time to clear her name?
8. The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi
by Shannon Chakraborty
Perfect for the Dragon Slayer: Travel the Indian Ocean from the shores of Africa to the ports of Yemen to the islands off the coast of India alongside a legendary pirate ripped from her retirement for one last adventure.
A New York Times Bestseller! "A thrilling, transportive adventure that is everything promised. Chakraborty's storytelling is fantasy at its best." -- R.F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and The Poppy War
Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman's determined quest to seize a final chance at glory and write her own legend.
Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean's most notorious pirates, she's survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.
But when she's tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she's offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade's kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend and win a fortune that will secure her family's future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God's will.
Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there's more to this job, and the girl's disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there's always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power ... and the price might be your very soul.
Next time you have a sense of wanderlust but can’t make time to get away, grab a great travel fiction novel. No matter if you love travel romance novels, travel thrillers, travel memoirs or even just a good ol’ travel guidebook, find your next escape at the top of your reading list.