Travel > Travel Stories

Ann Rickard is back with another luscious romp to Greece, Italy and France in search of the best moussaka, creamiest risotto, richest cassoulet. Join Ann, Geoffrey and Amanda as they unashamedly rejoice in life's excesses whilst attempting to sustain friendship when things get a little too familiar.

Thrust into the unlikely role of professional "literary walking tour" guide, an expat writer provides the most irresistibly witty and revealing tour of Paris in years.
In this enchanting memoir, acclaimed author and long- time Paris resident John Baxter remembers his yearlong experience of giving "literary walking tours" through the city. Baxter sets off with unsuspecting tourists in tow on the trail of Paris's legendary artists and writers of the past. Along the way, he tells the history of Paris through a brilliant cast of ... read more

A Surfer's Road Trip beyond the End of the RoadIn 1996, Allan Weisbecker sold his home and his possessions, loaded his dog and surfboards into his truck, and set off in search of his long-time surfing companion, Patrick, who had vanished into the depths of Central America. In this rollicking memoir of his quest from Mexico to Costa Rica to unravel the circumstances of Patrick's disappearance, Weisbecker intimately describes the people he befriended, the bandits he evaded, the waves he caught and lost en route to finding his friend.

Backblocks America: Jo and Gareth Morgan take on the States, Mexico and Canada is the story of Jo and Gareth's latest trip. Backblocks America is a roadtrip of discovery. They start at St Augustine, Florida where the first European settlement was made in 1565 by the Spanish, and eventually wander to the Alaskan coast on the Arctic Ocean, where much earlier the Indians arrived. Along the route they take in the history and music of the South, from the War of Independence, to the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, country music... read more

A classic combination of travel, humour, music and modern American history.
The best-loved comedian in Britain heads off on the most famous highway in the world on an unforgettable journey. Having always dreamed about taking a trip on the legendary Route 66, Billy Connolly is finally heading off on the ride of a lifetime. Travelling all 2,488 miles of this epic road, known as 'The Main Street of America', the Big Yin will share the experiences of the countless travellers who have taken the journey before him. The tales he'll ... read more

Twenty-five years ago, a young curator of mammals from the Australian Museum in Sydney set out to research the fauna of the Pacific Islands. Starting with a survey of one of the most inaccessible islands in Melanesia - Woodlark, in the Trobriands Group - that young scientist found himself ghost-whispering, snake wrestling, Quadoi hunting and plunged waist-deep into a sludge of maggot-infested faeces in search of a small bat that turned out not to be earth-shatteringly interesting. With accounts of discovering, naming and sometimes ... read more

An intrepid African safari guide sets out to discover all he can about the wildlife of the South American continent in a hilarious book about walking pumas (can be dangerous), chasing jaguars (can be elusive) and finding love (can be tricky). Plans are usually only good for one thing - laughing at in hindsight. So, armed with rudimentary Spanish, dangerous levels of curiosity and a record of poor judgement, I set off to tackle whatever South America could throw at me. Not content with regular encounters with dangerous animals on o... read more

A Walking tour through the haunted landscapes of the past, in the company of the exiled and the departed. The Rings of Saturn begins as the record of a journey on foot through coastal East Anglia. From Lowestoft to Southwold to Bungay, Sebald's own story becomes the conductor of evocations of people and cultures past and present: of Chateaubriand, Thomas Browne, Swinburne and Conrad, of fishing fleets, skulls and silkworms. The result is a book unlike any other in contemporary literature, an intricately patterned and endlessly thou... read more

Dampier's (1651-1715) adventures and writing inspired both Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels, but in his own right he was a remarkable, observant and enjoyable writer - whether on a woefully mishandled pirate raid in Spanish America or on a desperate journey to Sumatra in an open boat. He also left the first description in English of the Aborigines of Australia - thus initiating a painful, now three centuries' long encounter between peoples on opposite sides of the world. Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around ... read more

After tales from the USA and Britain, Bill Bryson turns his roving eye to Australia, the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. It is the driest, flattest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents. It has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way that anywhere else. Yet when Bill Bryson travelled to Australia he promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, the cities safe and clean, the food ... read more

'I found Serge's advice mostly useful and it would have been churlish to have refused his invitation to accompany him on a trip out in the country to 'forage for hidden treasures'. If the truth be known, I secretly couldn't resist the novelty of passing time with a bloke called Serge Bastarde'. When ex-blues drummer John Dummer decamps to France to start up as an antiques dealer and live the simple life, he doesn't count on meeting Serge Bastarde. The lovable (if improbably named) rogue and brocanteur offers to teach John the trick... read more

"Top Treks of the World" is a beautifully illustrated, inspirational guide to the best long walks in the world. It uses wonderful mountain and wilderness photography to cover 29 of the best treks in the world, each piece written by an expert on the route. A trek is a walk that takes people away from civilization into a place they could not reach if not on foot, and which requires them to rely on other skills than the mere perambulatory. With this book, a reader can walk the routes in spirit, and there's enough practical information... read more

A hypnotic picture of the Tibet which has vanished New Statesman It tells of terrible journeys, of men masked against the sun (riding through ethereal regions with their feet frozen), of welcoming fog-girt monasteries lit by butter lamps at the journey's end' New Statesman The Way of the White Clouds is the remarkable narrative of a pilgrimage which could not be made today. Lama Anagarika Govinda was among the last to journey through Tibet before its invasion by the Chinese. His unique account is not only a spectacular and g... read more

"OxTravels" is a collection of travel writing, which will act as a focus for the Oxfam Bookfest in 2011 donated by world class travel writers. Proceeds will be given to Oxfam. You have to go back to the 1980s and Granta's bestselling travel issue to find a book that compares to "OxTravels". Introduced by Michael Palin, "OxTravels" features original stories from twenty-five top travel writers, including Michael Palin, Paul Theroux, Sara Wheeler, William Dalrymple, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Lloyd Jones, Rory Stewart, Jan Morris, Dervla M... read more

Boom town, modern marvel, commercial hub, where middle-east meets wealthy west, playground for tourists, crawling with ex-pats, built by Indians, owned by Arabs, Dubai has risen from next to nothing to an awful lot in little more than thirty years. How? And can it go on? Has it sold itself to the corporate dollar? Is it anything more than a mall in the desert? Will the sands return? Joe Bennett goes to find out.
First published June 2010.

Colossal rogue waves are nature's most deadly new phenomena - meet the obsessed super surfers and scientists who dare to cross their path.
This is a story about hunting for a monster. Unlike many monsters, however, this one is known to exist: the 100-foot wave. In recent years waves have been recorded which are dramatically larger in size, power and frequency than anything seen before. They have the power to flatten oil rigs and sink supertankers; more disturbingly still, they seem to disobey the laws of physics, swellin... read more

A second collection of enthralling accounts of the most spectacular train trips from around the world. The Desert Express from Windhoek in Namibia. The stupendous Chinese feat of civil engineering that pushed a railway across the permafrost to Lhasa in Tibet. The scenic Coast Starlight train from Seattle to LA, and a stupendous 2,000-mile trip across India, from Gujarat's parched salt flats to the lush semi-tropics of Assam. Following the success of Aurum's Last Call for the Dining Car. the Telegraph's deputy travel editor Michael ... read more

Travels Without A Donkey carries on from Richard Donald's successful French Leave, continuing his light-hearted accounts of experiences in France and many other countries. Coping with a pregnant donkey in Greece, skinny-dipping in Switzerland, bashing pans on the balconies of Barcelona, narrowly escaping brigands in Mexico and learning of an unreported murder in the Czech Republic are deftly captured in words and drawings. Richard Donald, who in a previous life was a medical professor, has been seduced from science to art. He and h... read more

Sicily, It's Not Quite Tuscany is a captivating tale of an Italian sea change. Over the course of 12 romantic months, two Australian newlyweds restore a rundown villa in a rustic corner of Italy, seeking the very essence of la dolce vita, stamping their entwined feet in vats of Chianti grapes, hosting boisterous Sunday lunches, and...Actually, stop right there, because although the author and his wife did go to Italy for a sea change they had quite the opposite experience, neither restoring a villa, nor stamping on any grapes. Inst... read more

'Beijing Tai Tai' is a collection of witty observations on Beijing expat life, from a mother, wife and woman intent on capturing her love-hate affair with China. Intensely personal, at times a little controversial, it's a rollercoaster ride of honesty and openness as a mother and wife (tai tai) juggles suburban family life in urban Beijing. It's a book about bad hair and silk markets as much as it is about China's quest to stay true to its ancient origins, while the world sucks this complicated country headlong into the future. 'Be... read more