27 Books About Long Distance Biking Around The World

Between studying at Oxford and MIT, Kate Harris and her friend Mel set off to experience the Silk Road by bicycle. This is a reflective, wry, and rapturous travel account that explores the nature of limits, weaving adventure, philosophy, science, and exploration.

Jill is a small-town Alaskan newspaper editor with a lofty goal: to compete in the 2,740-mile mountain bike race from Canada to Mexico along the rugged spine of the Rocky Mountains.

As she prepares for her journey, her fear becomes her fuel. A winter race in Alaska leaves her seriously frosbitten while her career is also on thin ice and her long-term relationship starts to crumble. She questions if the race still matters but senses the challenge carries deeper meaning.

This is the story of one girl, one bike, and 1,000 beers in Africa as she dares to follow her dream by cycling from England to Cape Town. Along the way she crossed the Sahara, the tropics of West Africa, paddled down the Niger River, hitchhiked to Timbuktu, and traversed the Congo.

I watched Long Way Down years ago and this sounds like an even better read in this women’s adventure book.

This time, Anna sets off with her friend Faye and limited Spanish on a six-month bicycle journey along the spine of the Andes Mountains starting in La Paz, Bolivia. They sleep in tents most nights and experience 50 mph crosswinds and catastrophic crashes on their 5,500-mile journey.

On a wet and windy day at the British Museum, Bettina decided to travel the length of the Nile from the Mediterranean to its source. Armed with insect repellant, a sun hat, and a water filter, she designed a bright red ‘all-terrain’ bike for the 4,500-mile adventure.

At ten, Dervla secretly started planning a bike trip to India and at 31 years old in 1963, she set off on that journey. This is based on her diary from her trip through Persia, Afghanistan, the Himalayas, Pakistan, and India. A woman alone on a bike was almost unheard of and she was of major interest almost everywhere she went.

Juliana was in a dark hole of depression after a man she loved died. A friend suggested she bike across Canada in his memory and instead, she biked around the world. Alone.

With just eight months of preparation, no serious biking experience, and no sponsorship, she left Naples, Italy in July 2012 with the aim to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

She crossed four continents and 18,060 miles, suffered breakdowns, food poisoning, hostile pursuers, and a longing for Italian espresso. On day 152, she crossed the finish line becoming the fastest woman to cycle the world, even beating prior men’s records.

I would love to read this one, because like Erika, Mongolia is my dream! With just a bicycle named Gene, she sets off on an eight-month, 8,000 km trek across the Mongolian Steppe, through China, and down Vietnam.

Along the way, she finds out travel is about flowing with unexpected adventures and invitations, not just seeing the sights.

This is the account of Anna’s adventure cycling through all 50 states, dodging floods, blizzards, and electrical storms, riding alongside wild mustangs, through Redwood forests, and over the Rocky Mountains.

I would love to read this one, too. Books about biking across the US always intrigue me.

Starting at Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Laura and Patrick set off on a 21,000-kilometer bike ride across South America.

They experienced a side of the continent most people don’t see as they cross the Andes, the Amazon, and the Atacama. They traveled through Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana making their way back to the beach where it all began.

This is another one I got and can’t wait to read! It sounds like a fun book about cycling long distances.

Tim discovered the golden years aren’t as golden as he thought. After both of his parents passed, he realized his own clock was ticking, too. He knew he had to do something different so he moved a life-long goal of biking from one side of the US to the other right to the top of his bucket list.

This is his story of loss, overcoming obstacles, and reaching goals all with his sidekick, The Fun Mover.

Barbara and Larry took two years to bike 23,000 miles through 25 countries where they were run off the road and faced wild animals, rock throwers, meteorological disasters, bodily indignities, and great personal joy. Their relationship is tested but strengthened along the way.

At twenty-two, Charlie fled the boredom of England on the seat of a secondhand bicycle to pedal to the furthest points of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Along the way, he learns to appreciate the little things in life as he traverses the Tibetan Plateau and the Southeast Asian Jungles.

I think I would also really like to read this one. I was going to say it sounds like a very impressive book about a long biking trip but lets be real, these all are.

Charlie’s 2.5-year journey had him pedaling 18,000 miles from Britain to Beijing and 26,000 more through Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

He made it through mountains and deserts, through remote jungles, and down rapids in a dugout canoe. We get insight into the past, present, and future of often-overlooked places during periods of great change.

I would also like to read this one very much.

Cory began his bike ride to Truckee, California from Chaska, Minnesota with no route, no timeline, and no proper equipment. Every fiber of his being is tested along the way and he gains more than technical skills.

To mend their crumbling marriage, Katrina and Mike set off on a year-long, 13,000 km cycling journey. They ride the backcountry roads of New Zealand, share a picnic with a man and his wives in Malaysia, camp at an orphanage in Cambodia, and so much more.

Together, they repair 54 flat tires, navigate heat exhaustion and altitude sickness, and face two robberies and the hard climb to the world’s tallest mountain.

Josie always wanted to travel but after she fell out of a fast-moving car, she developed a life-long aversion to them. Enter bicycles. The result of her travels is four continents, thirty-six countries, and eighty thousand miles of adventures that we get to read about here.

Meaghan and her sister are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime: biking from Vancouver, Canada almost to the tip of the Baja Peninsula. The battle dense forests, strange men, frigid deserts, monster trucks, and more. They also meet good people along the way who show the true kindness of strangers.

Helen and her teenage son are cycling across Europe on The Tank. They see the Danube and the Rhine in spring, enjoying birdsong feeling like her father is at her side. Europe’s natural beauty soon begins to bring healing along with the kindness of people along the way.

Felicity is a self-proclaimed croissant connoisseur and an actual food writer. She sets off on her own Tour de France, but it’s more of a Tour de French Food.

She’s on a mission to try the best foods from each region and as many croissants as possible. This is a humorous account of her 3,500 km biking journey and all it’s challenges. Oh, and don’t forget the lycra!

Here we have a book about a bike adventure in Australia, a place that doesn’t see much action like this (or at least not that I’ve found.)

These are experiences from nine months and 10,000-miles of Roff’s solo bike trip across Australia, offering a glimpse into the land down under. In the thousands of miles he traveled, he lost himself among cattle farms, Aboriginal communities, rainforests, and deserts before finding his new home.

Andrew always dreamed of being a writer. He was born in Vietnam but raised in California where he always carried a resignation letter to work. This is the memoir of his search for his cultural identity as he cycles around the world from Mexico to Japan and Vietnam to the United States.

Almost thirty years after her expedition from Ireland to India, Dervla sets off on a 3,000-mile ride from Kenya to Zimbabwe. As she travels through Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia, she becomes preoccupied with the devastating effects of AIDS, drought, and economic collapse. It is not an area for travelers looking for tranquility but her thirst for adventure keeps her going.

I really need to read her books because they all sound so incredible.

Most of Don’s friends and family thought he was crazy for wanting to bike from New Hampshire to San Francisco. He was in his seventies, hadn’t been on a bike for years, and never for more than a few miles at a time but in May 2002, he headed west with the lure of crossing the Golden Gate Bridge keeping him pedaling.

Emily is a London cycle courier with a taste for adventure. She enters the Transcontinental bike race where riders must make their way across Europe, unassisted, in the shortest time possible. She won the women’s event on her second attempt having cycled almost 4,000 miles in just 13 days and ten hours.

Her win both troubled and pleased her and she began working with Mike Hall, the founder of the race, until his tragic death on the road. This is the story of Emily finding the will to do something extraordinary combined with the shock of grief.

Just two miles into his trip along the 2,700-mile Continental Divide trail from Alberta to the US-Mexico border, the world’s longest bike route, Nathan was asking himself “what the hell am I doing?”

In The Divide, we get to experience frustration and elation, desert downpours and wildlife encounters alongside Nathan on the trail.