The long nights and gloomy weather of January and February always make me dream of being someplace else. Winter is a perfect time to snuggle up in a comfortable chair and read about exotic locales. Whether you are planning your next trip or just wanting to live vicariously, these titles are just what you need to satisfy your wanderlust. The books shown below are all published in the last ten years, but you can’t go wrong with older books by authors like Paul Theroux or Bill Bryson.

Starting in Asia, here’s a quick trip around the world in recent travel books. There are many wonderful books out there, so if we don’t have what you want to read, be sure to let us know!

 

Learn about a historic route through the mountains of Japan in Walking the Kiso Road : a Modern-Day Exploration of Old Japan by William Scott Wilson.

 

Fans of Wild by Cheryl Strayed will enjoy Wild by Nature, a memoir about one woman’s hike across the Gobi Desert.

 

 

 

Trips do not always proceed according to plan, but Nina Sovich persists in To the Moon and  Timbuktu: a Trek through the Heart of Africa.

There’s just something magical about traveling by train. Experience the beauty of Italy in Italian Ways : On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo by Tim Parks. For a classic railway book, try Ghost Train to the Eastern Star : On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux.

 

 

 

 

You may know Bill Bryson best from A Walk in the Woods, a memoir about hiking the Appalachian Trial. In Road to Little Dribbling, Bryson rediscovers the joys of  Britain.

 

Hop back across the Atlantic for three books that explore Central and South America.

 

 

 

 

In her travels through Latin America, Amy Elizabeth Smith uses the universal appreciation of Jane Austen to explore the themes that unite us across cultures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s time to head north with The Longest Road by Philip Caputo. Ride along in his aging pickup as he drives all the way from Key West to the Arctic Circle.

One last epic adventure awaits in Kings of the Yukon : One Summer Paddling Across the Far North by Adam Weymouth.

Happy traveling!