Travel Writing Memoirs

This classic essay from Jon Krakauer is now available as an unabridged audiobook download. This essay is also included in the Classic Krakauer collection. From the best-selling author of Missoula and Into the Wild: a selection of the singular investigative journalism that made Krakauer famous, covering topics from avalanches on Mt. Everest to a volcano in Washington state; from a wilderness therapy program for teens to an extraordinary cave in New Mexico so unearthly that is used by NASA to better understand Mars.

The Tomb of the Mili Mongga tells the story of Samuel Turvey's expeditions to the island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia. While there, he discovers an entire recently extinct mammal fauna from the island’s fossil record, revealing how islands support some of the world’s most remarkable biodiversity, and why many of these unique endemic species are threatened with extinction or have already been lost. But as the story unfolds, an unexpected narrative emerges – Sumba’s Indigenous communities tell of a mysterious wildman called the 'mili mongga', a giant yeti-like beast.

Buckle up and get ready for a raw, unfiltered ride as Josh Goodman goes from being a guy who couldn't get a drink in a busy bar to building a multimillion-dollar technology company that lets guests pour their own beer, wine, and cocktails and pay by the ounce. Travel with Goodman to Ireland, where he spent a week driving around the entire country to secure his first business partners—who eventually tried to put him out of business. Then, visit northern Austria and discover how he landed the deal that brought his business back to life.

A deeply personal travel memoir that combines alpine adventure, family connections, and spiritual encounters in two very different worlds: a Himalayan village and Vancouver, Canada. In 2012, Michael Schauch and his wife, Chantal, undertook an expedition deep in the Himalaya of northern Nepal, into a remote valley that had been closed off to outsiders for decades. They led a team of artists (a photographer, a musician, and a painter), with the objective of capturing a moment in time through their unique lenses.

In 2017, Paolo Cognetti returned to Nepal, not to conquer the mountains but to journey through the high valleys of the Dolpo with a copy of Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard in hand. Drawing on memories of his childhood in the Alps, Cognetti explored the roots of life in the mountains, truly getting to know the communities and the nature that forged this resilient, almost mythical region. Accompanying him was Remigio, a childhood friend who had never left the mountains of Italy, and Nicola, a painter he had recently met.

Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize-winning author, was known as much for his prose as for his travels to exotic locales; his gusto and charm created excitement wherever he went. In Ernest's Way, we follow Cristen around the globe to the places he lived, wrote, fought, drank, fished, ran with the bulls, and held court with T.S. Elliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein and many other influential writers, artists, and intellectuals of the 20th century.

After a lifetime in broadcasting, Greg Dobbs, a two-time National Emmy Award-winning journalist and former foreign correspondent for ABC News, shares the funny, funky, scary, stupid, dangerous, distasteful, unwise, and unbelievable behind-the-scenes stories (including those of his Emmy Award-winning broadcasts) that a journalist can encounter in his lifetime - adventures that are possibly even more interesting than the news being covered. Dobbs tells his stories with the humor, empathy, and enthusiasm that only someone who has covered news in more than 80 countries could muster.

Nicolas Vanier lâche son attelage. Devant lui, un défi immense : la Yukon Quest, la course de traîneaux à chiens la plus difficile au monde. 1600 kilomètres entre le Canada et l'Alaska, le long de la route de la ruée vers l'or. Des températures glaciales qui dépassent les - 50 degrés. Des vents qui vous renversent au premier relâchement. Un parcours accidenté exténuant.

The Traveling Vegan turns digital nomad, traveling for a year and working remotely from a laptop and smart phone, living in 12 cities in 12 months on four continents: Europe, Asia, North and South America. Experience living in a city not as a tourist but as a resident, along with 48 others in the traveling family, who become "tramily". Phil's worldview about what these cities are "really like" will make you laugh a lot, cringe a little, and think more deeply about humanity, politics, history, economics, nutrition, and daily life around the world.

When the world went into lockdown in early 2020 novelist Anthony McDonald found himself separated from his Spanish partner by 2,000 miles of sea. This is the story, told in real time, of how he made his way to Tenerife on the day lockdown began there, and of the months that followed. A highly personal view of the Canary Islands, including accounts of time spent on other islands of this beautiful archipelago.

Jean McNeil spent a year as writer-in-residence with the British Antarctic Survey, and four months on the world’s most enigmatic continent. Ice Diaries is the story of McNeil’s years spent in ice, not only in the Antarctic but her subsequent travels to Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard, culminating in a strange event in Cape Town, South Africa, where she journeyed to make what was to be her final trip to the southernmost continent. In the spirit of the diaries of Antarctic explorers, McNeil mixes travelogue, popular science, and memoir to examine the history of our fascination with ice.

Recruited to work on a documentary, Julian goes to New York convinced he has hit big time at last. Finding the project cancelled, he wanders the city streets and, with nowhere else to go, decides to set out hitchhiking for San Francisco. Revisiting this timeless American journey finds an unseen nation in rough shape. Along the road are homeless people and anarchists who have dropped out of society altogether, and blue-collar Americans who seem to have lost all meaning in forgotten towns and food deserts.

In a captivating portrait of the epiphany that changed her life, Lani Gonzales takes us on a transformative journey with Metanoia. Hollow and heartbroken with an unfulfilling career, a bold step into the unknown soon finds Lani abandoning the “perfect” life plan she'd embraced as she embarks on a global journey of transformation and self-discovery. Her adventures beam across continents and cultures.

Award-winning memoirist Meg Stafford has an adventurous spirit, and this time she takes us along for the ride. When her daughters venture into terra incognita—one of them meditating in the Himalayas and the other negotiating with the Colombian military—Stafford decides to go too. In the process, she reflects on her own lifetime of wanderlust and what it means for a parent to love and to let go. Generous, insightful, and deeply funny, Stafford is the ideal tour guide for a journey as big as the world and as intimate as the human heart.

Manny Ansar and Iyad Ag Ghali had little in common - one was a politically connected intellectual, the other a rebel waging war on behalf of his nomadic people in the middle of the Sahara. They did share one thing, though: a passion for Mali's desert blues, a haunting mix of traditional music infused with the influence of Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, and Jimi Hendrix.

When newly-single party girl Vicki moves to Paris, she hopes to indulge in wine, stuff her face with croissants, and fall in love. It proves to be much more difficile than she imagined. In this laugh-out-loud memoir, this cheeky storyteller recounts the highs and lows of her life in the City of Light. Sassy and shamelessly honest, Vicki makes you feel as if you're right there in Paris stumbling along the cobblestones with her. Will she find love? Will she learn to consume reasonable amounts of alcohol? Will French bureaucracy ever cut her a break?

Discovering the Beauty and Fragility of the Natural World: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. Written by John Muir, one of America’s greatest naturalists, the book captures his deep appreciation for nature as he explores the American South.

Frank Conroy first visited Nantucket with a gang of college friends in 1955. They came on a whim, and for Conroy it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with this "small, relaxed oasis in the ocean." This book, part travel diary, part memoir, is a hauntingly evocative and personal journey through Nantucket: its sweeping dunes, rugged moors, remote beaches, secret fishing spots, and hidden forests and cranberry bogs. Admirers of Conroy’s classic and acclaimed memoir Stop-Time will again delight in what James Atlas called his "genius for close observation."

A couple of quiet weeks sailing the River Severn was the intention. Somehow things got out of hand—a year later, I had reached Romania and was still going. Equipped with his cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, this Australian Odysseus in a dinghy travels from the borders of North Wales to the Black Sea—4,900 kilometres over salt and fresh water, under sail, at the oars, or at the end of a tow-rope—through 12 countries, 282 locks and numerous trials and adventures, including an encounter with Balkan pirates.

What happens when you throw a small town British Columbian punk clear across the continent onto a cruise ship that was never meant to be a cruise ship? In this memoir, Heather tells how she didn't know what she was in for when she applied to work for Commodore Cruise Line, on a ship called The Enchanted Capri. Leaving from New Orleans, it all sounded fancy enough, but that couldn't have been further from the truth.