Fuel Your Wanderlust With These Top 6 Travel Books

Top Picks

Although the coronavirus pandemic has put a hold on most of our travel plans this year, we’re having to spend more time indoors more than ever before. Well, why don’t we take advantage of this time we have at home and fuel our minds with some inspiration and complete wanderlust?

Researchers have found that since the lockdown announcement in late March 2020, the amount of people in the UK have almost doubled their time reading books than normal, due to the spare time they now currently have. Reading not only keeps our brain healthy and shows us to be more empathetic, but it’s also proven to reduce stress, help us sleep better and makes us feel more positive!

So let us inspire you with a selection of some of our favourite travel books that may help fill your mind with some positivity and calm, unleashing that inner traveller inside you.


The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

A global phenomenon, Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist is possibly one of the best reads we recommend during this uncertain time. This best-selling book is all about encouraging us to follow our dreams, teaching us important lessons with its fantastic storytelling and indulging words. Coelho’s visionary blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore is truly inspiring for all readers, aiming to not only inspire nations, but to also change people’s lives!

The story follows a young shepherd boy, Santiago, who lives in the enchanting hills of Andalucia and feels that there is more to life than just his humble home and flock. Plucking up the courage to follow his dreams, Santiago travels from Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of treasure within the magnificent Pyramids. Expressive, opulent and deeply humane, this magical story of Santiago in The Alchemist truly is an incredible testimony of the importance of listening to our hearts, and how powerful it is to follow our dreams.


“If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man… Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now” - Paulo Coelho.




Spectrum IV - HIP Hotels

Over the years, here at HIP Hotels we have curated a selection of inspiring coffee table books showcasing our gorgeous collection of hotels and their architecture, indulging atmosphere, spectacular interiors and locations. We’ve combined some of the world’s most enticing interior designers and architects, creating a selection of books that invite you into an immersive oasis of inspiration on every page.

Spectrum was created to not only encourage and excite each reader to go on a unique and visual travel journey from the comfort of your own home, but also to help you discover destinations and boutiques located completely off the beaten track. This sophisticated and fun collection of books truly is a riot of colour. Each hotel and its destination have been categorised by 11 distinctive and alluring colours; from deep blues and luminous yellows, to opulent reds and cool greys—it not only guides you on a memorable journey, but it’s technicolour will release the feel-good hormone of dopamine inside your body and give you a sense of calm.

Reverse Spectrum around and discover ‘The Other Book’. This section of the books was conceived to show the true beauty of our hotels, even when the colour spectrum is missing – this truly says more than a hundred reviews ever could. Within these black & white pages, you’ll find timeless windows into other worlds and is the very essence of what we do at HIP Hotels, distilled for your perusing pleasure.

Whether you’re after some barefoot luxury inspiration, high-end retro glamour or some sleek modernism, fall in love and be inspired by our Spectrum collection.




Hidden Places - Sarah Baxter

Travel journalist Sarah Baxter has brought together a wonderful series called the Inspired Traveller’s Guide. One of our favourite books from the series that we highly recommend to read during this uncertain time, is the magical Hidden Places.

Brought to you by evocative text and beautifully hand-drawn illustrations, discover some of the world’s most secret and obscured destinations. Discover anything from an ancient gateway to the Mayan underworld, a mysterious monument sunken underwater just off the Ryukyu Islands in Japan, to the prehistoric village under a huge sand dune in the Orkney Islands, and the ancient village of Tyneham in England that holds a tragic historical story.

Sit back, relax, and savour a moment to indulge in the serenity and isolation of the hidden escapes collected in this charmingly illustrated guide. It’s full of surprises, astonishments and sights you’d only thought to imagine in fairytales and dreams.



World Travel: An Irreverent Guide - Anthony Bourdain

If you haven’t already heard of Anthony Bourdain, the famous New York chef and journalist who took the food world by storm and travelled to all parts of the world, documenting anything and everything about food and its culture, then you must read his fantastic book!

The inimitable Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. Taking him everywhere from the streets of Shanghai to the secluded desert of Oman’s Empty Quarter, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide is for anyone from veteran travellers to armchair enthusiasts, and will take you through food culture from all around the world through a series of stories, travel guides and pictures. This truly is the perfect book that offers readers an experience of the world just like Bourdain saw it.

Featuring anything from advice on how to get to a destination, what to eat and where to stay, as well as what to avoid where possible, this fantastic book will delight you and will help you appreciate some of these enchanting and memorable places around the world just as much as the curious traveller, Anthony Bourdain!

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you.” ― Anthony Bourdain




Cabins - Philip Jodidio

Cabin-lovers and architecture enthusiasts rejoice! If you thought that a cabin was just a hut made from timber shacks nestled within the woods, think again...

Ever since the American philosopher, poet and environmental scientist, Henry David Thoreau, built his own cabin from recycled and hand cut materials in Walden Pond, Massachusetts, back in the 18th century, and having spent over two years living inside it, the idea of refuge became a lot more appealing.

As our environmental footprint and material existence has not only grown rapidly in the last decade or so, but the fantasies of ‘truly getting away from all the hustle and bustle’ and escaping to complete solitude in some of the most beautiful locations and abodes has now become available to us in a magical and very appealing way. Whether you’re the kind of person who loves to get into the nitty gritty parts out in the wild, or someone with a bit more ‘glamping’ in mind, Philip Jodido and his new TASCHEN title, Cabins, will take you on a fantastic journey through cabin life. Showcasing anything from traditional shepherd’s huts on the forest floor in England to outstanding mountain-top penthouses in India, discover an array of magnificent cabins and their otherworldly architecture through fantastic illustrations, pictures, floor plans and texts within this beautifully illustrated book.

Not only is this cabin-bible designed to change your mind on cabin living, but it also inspires its readers to indulge in nature to a less destructive model within the world - you will truly fall in love with these superb structures!




Love With A Chance Of Drowning - Torre DeRoche

As you may already know, love can truly make a person do crazy things…

Love With A Chance Of Drowning takes you on a beautiful and romantic journey through self-discovery, and it’s entertaining and funny dialogue will truly captivate you — you won’t want to put the book down!

Author, Torre DeRoche, is a city girl who is absolutely terrified of the deep waters — definitely not someone you would expect to be sailing off on an old boat in the middle of the Pacific. This book is about DeRoche’s life in her mid-twenties, when she was sick and tired of her corporate life in Melbourne, so she quit her job and booked a one-way flight to San Francisco. Although she meets and falls in love with a handsome Argentinian man with a little sailboat, she decides to face her fears of the deep waters and head off on a year-long voyage across the Pacific Ocean with Ivan.

Less of a love story and more about facing your fears through an adventure, Love With A Chance Of Drowning not only took the author completely out of her comfort zone, facing a future ahead of uncertainty and insecurity, but it also takes its readers on an inspiring and exhilarating journey, proving to you that some risks are worth taking. Hilarious, breathtaking and often moving, this fascinating book is the perfect read to fuel your wanderlust this year!