Best travel books 2022: Top titles to fuel your wanderlust

Best: Overall

Rating: 9/10

Best: Eco-travel read

Rating: 8.5/10

Penned by The Independent’s very own travel editor, Helen Coffey, this is a personal account of how one frequent flyer became convinced to go cold-turkey on the holiday industry’s biggest convenience: air travel. After years of zooming around on a near-weekly basis, Coffey had a revelation in 2019 when researching a story on flygskam (the Scandi concept of “flight shame”). In short, she realised quite how nasty flying is for the environment.

This read traces her (not always easy-breezy) journey to becoming a frequent traveller at “zero altitude”, detailing what she’s learned so far and how she’s managed trips as diverse as the Scilly Isles and Croatia. Coffey manages to weave in the hard-hitting detail in a light, chatty manner, which means even when the book is delivering its most serious of arguments – such as the fact that polluting air travel is predicted to double to 8.2 billion by 2037 – it never feels preachy. Rather, you’ll feel inspired to make a green change of your own.

Best: For family inspiration

Rating: 8/10

If you think zigzagging in a Cambodian rickshaw or sourcing dinner in Borneo sounds tricky, just imagine doing it with three young boys in tow. Kate Wicker’s funny and moving account of living her mantra, “have baby, will travel”, shows that being a parent doesn’t have to hold you back from exploring the world – in fact, it can even make your experiences richer. Kicking off with a March 2000 visit to Israel and Jordan while pregnant, then rambling through the years and destinations like Mallorca and Thailand with her growing brood of sons – Josh, Ben and Freddie – Wicker details the lessons that they all learn from each place, and each other. It makes travelling the world as a family not something to fear, but to get excited about.

Best: For off the beaten track discovery

Rating: 8/10

Most travel books are about places people want to go. This one is different: it’s all about those other, forgotten kinds of places. Places people have fled from, whether due to environmental catastrophe (for example, Chernobyl), unrest (the Buffer Zone in Cyprus) or shifting politics (communist Harju fields in Estonia). Places that have fallen from glory, such as industrial Detroit; and ones that nature has reclaimed, such as Amani botanical gardens in Tanzania.

Author Cal Flyn has meticulously researched the destinations and brings their stories to life through evocative writing. It can make for dark reading at times, but this book makes you realise that travel and discovery is as much about the places that we choose to avoid as much as it is about those we embrace.

Best: For walkers

Rating: 8/10

If you think great travel writing is all about moving through places in another person’s shoes, then you need this collection of essays from 20 writers about the pleasure of putting one foot in front of another. From bustling walks through Karachi with Kamila Shamsie, to rain-soaked treks in Germany with Jessica J. Lee, every entry comes with its own unique flavour and makes you realise that this most rudimentary form of transport can also be one of our most evocative ways of discovering our surroundings. Editor Duncan Minshull, who pulled the collection together, has written three books about walking previously, so he knows a thing or two about it.

Best: For rail junkies

Rating: 8.5/10

Does anything really sum up the thrill of travel like a rail journey? Whether you’ve fantasised about chugging your way across Europe, or boarding a carriage further afield – say, the Trans-Siberian Express towards Beijing – this account by award-winning travel writer Monisha Rajesh will bring the dream to life. Rajesh’s easy, breezy and witty writing style is a big part of the joy, as are her descriptions of the (sometimes rather quirky) characters she meets along the way. If you like this read, then you may want to give Rajesh’s preceding book, Around India in 80 Trains, a look too,

Best: Classic

Rating: 8/10

Before Julia Roberts graced our screens in one of the noughties’ most iconic films, Eat Pray Love was a book with resounding success. The 2006 memoir by American journalist Elizabeth Gilbert – who really did travel across Italy, India and Indonesia after divorcing her first husband – entered the classic cannon of travel literature after selling millions of copies worldwide and spending 187 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. Whether or not you fully buy into the self-discovery narrative (it does have a few cringe-worthy moments), there’s no denying that it has you ready to pack your bags for Napoli. Enjoying life, while simultaneously finding deeper meaning and great pizza is a triple-win in our book.

Best: For Nordic adventure

Rating: 8/10

Want a read that will really whisk you away on a single, epic adventure? This lyrical read by Paul Heiney, detailing his journey in a small boat from the UK to Iceland, more than does the trick. In search of cute puffins, Heiney kicks off from the east coast of England, where he lives, and travels up to remote and wild former Viking lands, weaving in history, nature and the experience of cruising the chilly, steely seas along the way. Even if you’ve never considered travelling to – or even heard of – any of the places he writes about, by the end of the read you’ll emerge feeling inspired to book a Nordic-inspired trip.

Best: Non-guidebook guidebook

Rating: 7.5/10

While we generally chose to omit guidebooks from this list, we’ve made an exception here – because it’s more of a photography book than anything else. The latest by best-selling travel writer Peter Irvine brings the islands of Scotland, both big and small, to life through a collection of unexpected images. Some are snapshots of the big sights, such as the Callanish Stones: a rock formation on the Hebrides that is older than Stonehenge. Others are far less expected, such as a group of peat cutters or The Butty Bus – a fish ‘n’ chips takeaway van on Harris.

Chapters are divided by geography, and at the end of each one, Irvine lists a handful of his top recommendations of where to eat, stay and walk. But ultimately this is a book that inspires you to discover Scotland’s beautiful corners, both big and small, through your own lens.