The Ultimate Travel Reading Challenge

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LOOKING FOR THE ULTIMATE TRAVEL THEMED READING CHALLENGE?

We’re back with another reading challenge today, and this time it’s the ultimate travel reading challenge! This isn’t a one book for every country type challenge, but just a general travel themed reading challenge.

With this reading challenge you’ll visit all seven continents, take a cruise, go on a road trip, do some long distance hiking, and so much more. 

This challenge is a fun way to see the world without leaving the comfort of your home. Or to keep you excited about future travels you might have!

There is no entry requirement or prize for participating so you can do this at your own pace. There are 25 prompts which works out to almost one book a week (with two weeks off) for a year but like I said, there is no time limit for this.

I would like to note, the majority (if not all of) the nonfiction I’ve suggested is all travel and adventure memoirs to really lean into the travel theme of the reading challenge. But of course you’re welcome to find something more suited to your tastes if this doesn’t do it for you.

I tried to include some variety in the genres for the fiction prompts. This is a nonfiction heavy challenge though, at least in my head.

Feel free to share your progress with the templates below, and tag me when you do! I love seeing the books everyone decides to go with. I’ve given suggestions for each prompt but you’re welcome to choose anything you like that fits.

• Thrift Books is one of the places I check when I’m looking for a book (old ones especially) and want it cheap. It’s great if you like buying used books. With this you can get a free book after spending $30!
• Pango is one of my go-to’s for finding secondhand books affordably, sold by other readers! If you’re a new user, you can use HEYIMREADING at checkout for $5 off your first $10 purchase! Check out Pango Books here!
• Libro.fm is the best for buying audiobooks AND supporting your local bookstore. Use code SWITCH to get two free credits (three total) when you sign up for a one-credit membership! Sign up for Libro.fm here!
• If you want to listen to some of these, consider trying Audible! You can get your first month free (one free book).  Get that Audible deal here.
• If you want to read more on your Kindle but don’t want to buy books, Kindle Unlimited is a good option, especially if you read a lot of indie authors. Get Kindle Unlimited here!
• Shop my book lists here! You can find every book list I have on Bookshop.org (except my monthly round-ups) and I add everything I can but they occasionally won’t have some. I do occasionally add extras though. If any lists are empty, they’ll be filled in..eventually! Shop my bookshop.org book lists here.

Travel Reading Challenge

This travel reading challenge starts off with the location specific books then moves into the “types of travel” prompts. You can read these in any order that suits you.

Fiction set in Europe

• The Room
• The Chestnut Man
• The Nesting
• Hausfrau

Nonfiction set in Europe

• This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland
• Anger is My Middle Name
• The Fellowship of Ghosts
• Yes, Chef

Fiction set in Africa

• Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller
• My Sister the Serial Killer
• The Ardent Swarm
• Last Seen in Lapaz

Nonfiction set in Africa

• Taking the Long Road to Cairo
• Abyssinian Nomad: An African woman’s journey of love, loss, and adventure from Cape to Cairo
• My African Conquest: Cape to Cairo at 80
• The Ukimwi Road: From Kenya to Zimbabwe

Fiction set in Asia

• Strange Weather In Tokyo
• Taroko Gorge
• Love in the Big City
• Descendant of the Crane

Nonfiction set in Asia

• Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World’s Most Feared Mountain
• Neon Pilgrim
• Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan
• The Amur River: Between Russia and China

Fiction set in South America

• The Old Man Who Read Love Stories
• Furia
• Into the Jungle
• The Woman from Uruguay

Nonfiction set in South America

• Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon
• An Indian among Los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir
• Amazon Woman: Facing Fears, Chasing Dreams, and a Quest to Kayak the World’s Largest River from Source to Sea
• Off the Map: A Journey Through the Amazonian Wild

Fiction set in Australia/Oceania

• Frangipani
• The Whale Rider
• Too Much Lip
• Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

Nonfiction set in Australia/Oceania

• Between Each Step: A Married Couple’s Thru-Hike on New Zealand’s Te Araroa
• The Edge of Paradise: America in Micronesia
• Among the Islands: Adventures in the Pacific
• Surviving Paradise: One Year on a Disappearing Island

Fiction set in North America

• Moon of the Crusted Snow
• Elatsoe
• The Persian Pickle Club
• Some Sing, Some Cry

You can find a ton of books set in the US here.

Nonfiction set in North America

• Hudson Bay Bound: Two Women, One Dog, Two Thousand Miles to the Arctic
• Beyond the Trees: A Journey Alone Across Canada’s Arctic
• This Road I Ride: Sometimes It Takes Losing Everything to Find Yourself

Fiction set in Antarctica

• The Atlantis Gene
• How the Penguins Saved Veronica
• The Dark
• Midnight

Nonfiction set in Antarctica

• No Horizon Is So Far: Two Women and Their Historic Journey across Antarctica
• Alone in Antarctica
• Among Penguins, a Bird Man in Antarctica
• Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent

Book about sailing around the world

• Maiden Voyage
• All the Colours of Polynesia
• Plunge: One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary
• One Girl One Dream

Book set on a cruise ship

• The Woman in Cabin 10
• Lying in the Deep
• One True Loves
• The Jetsetters

Long-distance hiking book

• Polar Dream: The First Solo Expedition by a Woman and Her Dog to the Magnetic North Pole
• Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback
• Girl in the Woods
• Old Lady on the Trail: Triple Crown at 76

Book about living abroad

• A Year in Provence
• The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca
• River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
• So Happiness to Meet You: Foolishly, Blissfully Stranded in Vietnam

“Classic” travel book

• Travels with Charley
• Into the Wild
• Under the Tuscan Sun
• In Patagonia

Road trip story

• Places We’ve Never Been
• In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
• Are You Listening?
• Girls on the Verge

National Park book

• Canyon Solitude: A Woman’s Solo River Journey Through the Grand Canyon
• Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders
• The Road to Paradise
• The Wild Inside

Mountaineering book

• Touching the Void
• No Way Down
• The Girl Who Climbed Everest
• No Summit Out of Sight: The True Story of the Youngest Person to Climb the Seven Summits

Set in the state (or country) you’re from

Obviously this one will depend on each person so I can’t give any suggestions for this one. If you want some suggestions though, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll give some there!

Set in a state (or country) you’ve never been to

Again, this depends on each person and you can comment with a destination or two if you want some specific suggestions! If you do comment wanting suggestions for this or the above, just include the place and preferred genres.

A travel book with less than 100 Goodreads ratings

• Bike Riding in Kabul
• Amazon Hitchhiker
• Japan Eats!: An Explorer’s Guide to Japanese Food
• The Backpack Years: Two Memoirs, One Story

Have you read any of these books already? Which ones? Are you going to join in this travel reading challenge!?