The Best Travel Books for Long Trips & Backpacking (2026)

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Running With The Moon, Jonny Bealby

At a Glance

• Best for: Adventurous travellers who enjoy classic overland journeys and reflective travel stories.
• Type: Travel memoir, adventure
• Reading vibe: Immersive, reflective, thoughtful, adventurous
• Best read: Before a big trip (for inspiration), or on long train and bus rides
• Length: Medium (around 300 pages)

Running with the Moon is a book for those searching for tales of true, raw, gritty, old-school travel where plans fall apart, tragedies force reflection, and life is lived one day to the next without the help or distraction of the internet.

I first read this book at the beginning of my quest to see the world… and again, after spending 5 years on the road. The story hit me just as hard the second time – only now the lessons felt real.

This book encapsulates the spirit and rawness of real off-the-beaten-track adventure travel. It inspired me to ride a motorbike through Vietnam and to drive a beat-up car across Australia and New Zealand. 

– Nic, Senior Editor & Roaming Renegade

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, John Koenig

At a Glance

• Best for: Long-term travelers who feel a lot but can’t always explain why
• Type: Creative dictionary
• Reading vibe: Reflective
• Best read: Before going to bed
• Length: Short, and can easily be read 10-15 minutes at a time

Travel, or life more broadly, produces emotions that often don’t have names. Or didn’t, until John Koenig decided to invent them.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is built around a simple but very good idea: there are plenty of feelings we all recognize, but almost none of us know what to call. It might sound like a gimmick until you read it, and then it feels like someone has been quietly cataloguing your inner life without telling you. Rückkehrunruhe, the feeling of returning from an immersive trip only to watch it fade rapidly from your awareness, is one of dozens that stopped me mid-page.

It’s not a book you read front to back so much as one you dip into, which makes it well suited to the road. Pick it up at the end of a long day for a few minutes, and you’ll likely put it down having found a word for something you’ve been carrying around for years without knowing what to call.

It even inspired me to start inventing my own words, which is a good sign the book got its hooks into me.

– Jeff, Managing Editor

Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

At a Glance

• Best for: Travellers in search for meaning or questioning their path
• Type: Philosophical novel
• Reading vibe: Reflective, meditative, thought-provoking
• Best read: During slow travel days or quiet solo moments
• Length: Short (around 150 pages)

Siddhartha is a beautiful account of a young man’s spiritual journey of self-discovery. An odyssey of sorts that mirrors the process many adventurers go through in search of deeper meaning.

I first read it upon a friend’s recommendation – one I take into great consideration – and have since then revisited it many times.

I am driven by the poetic nature of life, and this is a book that does a great job encompassing that very same nature into simple, easily digestible words.

Siddhartha is a treat for the spiritual soul-seekers and a book that is sure to inspire you when you’re out on the road. It’s simple, it’s short, but powerful enough to linger in your mind and quietly shift the way you see things.

– Tomás, Brand Specialist & Whizz-Kid

Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts

At a Glance

• Best for: Extreme adventure travelers
• Type: A novel that’s somewhat of an autobiography
• Reading vibe: Immersive, intense, gripping
• Best read: Anytime you’re really looking to dive deep into a book or need some serious adventure travel inspo
• Length: Very, very long (but worth it!)

It’s been six years since I first read Shantaram, and despite my efforts, I haven’t found anything to even come close to surpassing it since then.

This absolutely insane, partly-true tale of a convict who escapes prison in Australia and finds himself tied up in the underworld of India’s Bombay in the 80s was written by Gregory Roberts, and many of the places featured still exist today.

When I grabbed myself a copy off a used book website, it was 2020, I had recently returned from traveling in India, and was in desperate need of some travel escapism.

I found myself ravenously tearing through the 900+ page novel, often coming back to reality several hours later wondering where the time had gone. It’s the type of adventure tale so immersive that made me feel like I WAS back in India. 

The way Roberts describes each and every scene makes this more than just a book, but something akin to a movie that comes alive as you read along. 

– Samantha, Travel Writer & Adventure Expert

The Comfort Crisis, Michael Easter

At a Glance

• Best for: Travelers craving a reset from comfort and routine
• Type: Self-development with elements of memoir and science-based exploration
• Reading vibe: Thought-provoking and reflective, with moments that make you question modern comfort
• Best read: When you’re feeling the pull to do something a little harder, a little wilder
• Length: Medium

Popular among “van lifers” and travelers, reading The Comfort Crisis is a powerful reminder that growth happens in “uncomfortable” moments. This book speaks to the magic of stepping outside your comfort zone, whether that means sleeping under the stars, pushing your limits, or simply choosing the harder path. As a van lifer, it really resonated with the lifestyle I have chosen.

It’s the kind of book that quietly nudges you and makes you realize how the comforts of modern life have changed you over time, often in ways you hardly notice.

– Ann, Social Media Manager

Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey

At a Glance

• Best for: Travellers at a crossroads or a bit of perspective
• Type: Memoir / self-development
• Reading vibe: Funny, reflective, motivating
• Best read: Before a trip or during a long one
• Length: Medium

Greenlights is not exactly a travel book, but it is one of the most powerful and inspiring books I have ever read, or listened to in this case, since it is on Audible and you get the added bonus of hearing it in McConaughey’s own voice, which is very much a win.

At its core, this book is about recognising opportunities, taking them when they are there, being present, and knowing when it is time to slow the fuck down. It is funny, thoughtful, honest, and full of the sort of advice that somehow feels both simple and genuinely useful.

This is a great one for travellers who are in a period of change, figuring things out, or just trying to stay open to whatever comes next.

It stays with you because beneath all the stories and charm, it is packed with real perspective.

– Will, Founder & Chief Adventurer

On The Road, Jack Kerouac

At a Glance

• Best for: Getting excited about travel
• Type: Irreverent travelogue crafted into a novella
• Reading vibe: Exuberant, experimental, edgy
• Best read: When you have time and focus to join Jack’s journey
• Length: Well, it was written in a few days… so you can read it as fast.

Upon its publication back in 1957, On The Road established itself as THE cornerstone of the ‘Beat’ literary revolution that was taking place across the Western world. Breathless, experimental and bursting with exuberance, the travelogue-cum-novel mixed the author’s real-life experiences of dirt-bagging across post-war America, with some very careful myth-making.

In the 60+ years since its release, the novel has inspired countless young and not-so-young people to get up and hit the road. The “story” is almost non-existent. We simply follow the author’s alter-ego and his new best friend as they hustle, hitchhike and(when means afford) drive (very fast) from the East Coast to the West Coast fuelled by youth, jazz, apple pie and amphetamines. But the book’s brilliance is the way it captures the small, everyday details of travel and the way it weaves the road into the writer’s inner journey.

After finishing ‘Road’, I read most of Kerouac’s works. To be honest, while I kinda had to nominate On The Road for this list, my personal favourite is actually Desolation Angels. Written a decade later, we find the author older, richer but fatter, sadder, sick of travel and nurturing a dangerous alcoholism that would soon kill him.

– Aiden, Senior Editor & Gear Manager

The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday

At a Glance

• Best for: Grounding your mindset with simple, daily doses of wisdom
• Type: Practical philosophy
• Reading vibe: Calm, clear and bite-sized
• Best read: As a daily ritual or when you’re in need of a mental reset
• Length: Short daily entries, 2-3 pages each

The Daily Stoic never leaves my side, well, my Kindle at least. Travelling is full of ups and downs and a constant life outside your comfort zone. Since travelling, the Daily Stoic has become my bible; it’s been a grounding practice to read a short, powerful insight that delivers wisdom and a fresh perspective on the unpredictability of life on the road.

Each page brings a new, daily piece of wisdom from the private diaries of Marcus Aurelius, one of Rome’s great emperors and world-famous philosophers like Epictetus and Seneca. All are broken down into short, digestible chunks that you can apply to everyday life.

It helps you to slow down, zoom out and focus on what you can control. With one-page reads that can spark thought-provoking conversations, profound journal prompts, and have a lasting impact, I highly recommend it as one of the best travel books ever.

– Dani, Senior Editor & Oceanic Explorer

Heat and Dust, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

At a Glance

• Best for: Solo female travellers
• Type: Historical fiction
• Reading vibe: Reflective
• Best read: On the road or for travel inspiration
• Length: Short

Set over two time periods, the book follows a granddaughter’s quest to investigate the life of her grandmother in India during British rule.

The lingering and captivating description of landscape, along with the immersion in time and place, have stayed with me since first reading this book many moons ago. The writer creates the environment as a defining character in itself. Her imagery of India, the heat, colour and vibrancy, is mesmerising and provides a backdrop pivotal to the story as the two lives unfold.

Heat and Dust also raises questions around personal freedom, wider social expectations, the seductive draw of the “other”, and spontaneity, all explored from a uniquely female perspective.

I concede this book would mainly appeal to solo female travellers, though I would also recommend it to anyone with an interest in distant lands, stark landscapes and cultural curiosity.

– Clair, Superstar PA

Maybe in Another Life, Taylor Jenkins Reid

• Best for: Travellers questioning whether they chose the right path
• Type: Contemporary novel
• Reading vibe: Reflective and easy
• Best read: During a long trip or in a period of uncertainty
• Length: Medium

It’s tough to know if life on the road was the right choice when other possible lives are constantly being dangled in front of you. Stay home and grind out a career. Move to Australia. Go off-grid to some bum-fuck-nowhere. The usual twenty-something urge to live a hundred different lives resonated with me a fair bit, and Maybe in Another Life was the first book that shifted my perspective on it.

The novel explores two alternate timelines of Hannah’s life based on a single choice. The fate versus free will debate is not new, but what I found most poignant was the idea that no matter the direction our lives take, we can still find joy in our circumstances.

My choice to travel is entirely my own, and learning to embrace whatever comes my way feels like one of those lessons worth learning early. Easily digestible, and a solid travel read.

– Taya, Editor & Resident Foodie

Travel the World on $10 a Day, Will Hatton

This list wouldn’t be complete without the original Broke Backpacker bible, our pride and joy!

Written by the Broke Backpacker founder, Will Hatton, it contains all the tools and little secrets you need to wander around the world on a tight budget. Travelling isn’t just for the rich, just as long as you’re willing to sacrifice some comfort for a whole new kind of meaning in your adventures.

It’s practical, it’s useful, it’s playful and it’s goofy. Plus you can get it for free by signing up for our newsletter!

One of the best things a book can do when you are traveling is give you a richer understanding of where you are. Not a guidebook, but a book that pushes you beyond the surface.

That can mean non-fiction, but it does not have to. A novel set in the right place can give you just as much texture, sometimes more, because it gets at the feeling of somewhere rather than just the facts.

I’m obviously not going to attempt to give a recommendation for every destination on earth, but here are a few examples of books that genuinely deepened my appreciation for places I’ve been. I hope they encourage you to find a book that does the same for wherever you are going next.

• Chicago: The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
  I picked this up in a book swap because there was literally nothing else to read in a little town in Peru, which is a delightful way to find a good book. The mix of architectural history, World’s Fair recap, and serial-killer insanity is bizarre but oddly effective, and later, when experiencing Chicago for the first time after I moved there, I was glad it had stuck with me.
  
• Peru: The Conquest of the Incas, John Hemming
  The definitive account of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. I visited Ollantaytambo shortly after reading about the battle fought there, and landed very differently because of it. Unfortunately, only the Kindle version is reasonably-priced these days.
  
• Cambodia: First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung
  Cambodia is beautiful, fascinating, and inescapably heavy. I felt like I would have been doing myself a disservice by not understanding more before visiting the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng, and this memoir gave that history the proper human weight.
  
• Vietnam: The Quiet American, Graham Greene
  I read this on a boat on the Mekong heading from Cambodia into Vietnam, which was about as on-the-nose as it gets. Even though it’s fiction, it gave me a useful frame for seeing places like the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City and Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi.
  
• Australia: In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson
  Not every book in this category needs to wreck you emotionally. This one is funny, sharp, and was a very good read before I spent a couple of weeks wandering the Queensland coast in a van.
  
• South Africa: Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela
  It is a beast of a book, but I could not put it down. I ended up hiding in my rondavel on the Wild Coast, where Mandela was born, while party music blared outside, just to finish it. Worth every page.
  
• Normandy, France: The Longest Day, Cornelius Ryan
  A minute-by-minute account of the D-Day landings told from all sides: Allied, German, and French civilian. I read it right before visiting Normandy and touring the D-Day beaches, and it made for a far more meaningful visit than I would have managed otherwise.

As much as it pains a purist like me to admit, a Kindle or other e-reader is simply more practical on the road. It weighs less, lets you carry enough books to get stranded somewhere for six months without running out of reading material, and as long as you have an internet connection, getting your next read takes about thirty seconds.

Still, paperbacks can be worth it. Some books are just better in physical form (don’t press me for details – it’s just vibes), or are the kind you want to linger over rather than tap through.

And a real book has one thing going for it that digital does not: it can be swapped and passed around. Hostels, cafés, and guesthouses all over the world have shelves full of abandoned books, and every now and then one of them is exactly what you want. Better yet, once you’ve bought one book, you can often keep reading new books for free just by trading as you go. Try doing that with a Kindle.

Audiobooks have their place too: overnight trips when it’s too dark to read, bumpy chicken bus rides, or any time when you want to zone out rather than engage. Anything narrative-driven with a strong authorial voice tends to translate well. Anything you actually want to think about probably doesn’t. You can try Audible here with a free month trial if you want to give audiobooks a shot.

Not all of the books on this list are travel books in the traditional sense. Some don’t involve a journey at all. A few would raise eyebrows if you tried to pitch them as travel reads. But they earn their spot because they have the potential to change the way you’re seeing things.

A good travel book can do that in a lot of different ways. It might make you want to move, or it might do the opposite and help you be where you already are, which can be the harder trick. Some help you sit with uncertainty, which is useful because travel dishes out plenty of it whether you asked for it or not, usually at an inconvenient time.

And then there are the ones that don’t take you anywhere at all, but deepen where you already are; the kind of book that gives you the history, the context, the human story behind the place you’re standing in. Staring at a monument hits different when you know what happened there, rather than just nodding at it like an underprepared substitute teacher.

Sometimes, deep into a long trip when you’re tired, hungry, and quietly questioning every decision that led you here, the right book reminds you why you’re out there in the first place.

That’s what we had in mind when putting this list together. Not just books about travel, but books that deepen the experience of being on the road.

The books I’d still pack again are not always the most obvious ones. They’re the ones that proved useful in some way I did not fully expect. The ones that got me excited before a trip, kept me company when the road felt long, or gave me a way back into the experience when I got home and it all started feeling oddly unreal.

Different trips need different books. Sometimes I want something immersive and transportive. Other times I want something steadier or more reflective. And sometimes I just want a book that is good enough to hold my attention on a bus, stuck in a hostel on a rainy day, or when I need to do nothing because I just spent a week’s budget on an adventure tour that I didn’t need but absolutely did.

The ones I remember best are usually the ones that ended up feeling oddly well-matched to the trip itself, even if I did not know that when I packed them.

All that being said, the book I’d pack every time is The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

Which book has become permanently tied to one of your trips?