This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Books that feature travel”.
This will be an easy topic for those of you who read a lot of non-fiction travel books, but as I don’t I’ve had to stick to fictional travel instead. Here are ten novels that feature people going on a journey, pilgrimage or voyage of some kind. I’ve tried to include several different genres and different methods of travel!
1. Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome – J, Harris and George go on a bicycle tour through Germany’s Black Forest in this lesser known sequel to Three Men in a Boat.
2. The English Girl by Katherine Webb – A young Englishwoman travels to Oman in the 1950s, where she meets a female explorer who crosses the Empty Quarter desert.
3. Wonder Cruise by Ursula Bloom – A single woman in her thirties wins some money and decides to spend it on a Mediterranean cruise, the first time she’s ever been abroad.
4. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey – Colonel Allen Forrester leads a (fictional) expedition up Alaska’s Wolverine River to chart previously unmapped territory.
5. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks – A dystopian novel in which a group of passengers embark on a four thousand mile train journey aboard the Trans-Siberian Express.
6. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce – A man sets out on foot from his home in Devon to visit a dying friend in a hospice five hundred miles away.
7. Strangers in Company by Jane Aiken Hodge – Marian Frenche is on a tour of major Greek archaeological sites when a series of accidents begins to befall members of the party.
8. A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle – A murder mystery set on a cruise liner crossing the Atlantic in 1924.
9. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett – Francis Crawford of Lymond travels across Europe and North Africa in search of a child who may or may not be his son.
10. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne – The ultimate travel novel, in which Phileas Fogg attempts to circumnavigate the world in just eighty days.
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Have you read any of these? Which other books featuring travel have you enjoyed?
She Reads Novels 
I read ’80 Days…’ pre-Blog and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It can be LOTS of fun travelling virtually – especially in past ages! All of the pleasures and few of the downsides!!
Yes, I love travelling through reading – it’s a great way to ‘see’ places I’ll probably never get to visit in real life.
Though I haven’t read its predecessor I seem to have a copy of Three Men on the Bummel which looked intriguing. Like Cyberkitten I read the Verne pre-blogging – in fact many decades back in the last century! – and might enjoy a revisit some time.
I would like to revisit the Verne at some point as well – although as I still haven’t read any of his other books I should probably try some of those first. Three Men on the Bummel is fun, though not quite as good as Three Men in a Boat, which I can highly recommend!
I love books about walking long paths even though I would be way too lazy to do that myself! Some recent examples are The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, and A Pilgrimage to Eternity by Timothy Egan. Your picks all sound enticing too. I’ve only read 80 Days, and I think it was an abridged version when I was a kid.
Apart from the Harold Fry book in my list, I can’t think of many books I’ve read about people walking. I would like to read both A Time of Gifts and The Salt Path.
I do like the top tens, there’s always something of interest. I’ve just bought the Jane Aiken Hodge on the strength of this latest list!
I hope you like it! I’ve read a few of Aiken Hodge’s books and the others have all been historical/Gothic romances, so that one was a bit different.
I’ve only read Harold Fry from your list but had another Rachel Joyce on my list: Miss Benson’s Beetle.
I haven’t read Miss Benson’s Beetle yet, but hope to get to it eventually!
I’m actually reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry right now. I’m enjoying it so far! Three Men and A Boat is on my TBR. I didn’t know there was a sequel!
Here’s my list: https://franlaniado.wordpress.com/2025/05/20/planes-trains-and-automobiles-and-some-ships-too/
I’m glad you’re enjoying Harold Fry! The sequel about his wife, Maureen, is good too. I hope you like Three Men in a Boat – it’s one of my favourite classics.
Thanks I didn’t know there was a sequel to that one either!
Of these I’ve read Harold Frye and Around the World in 80 Days. 🙂
I really enjoyed both of those books.
I’ve read 3, 6, 7, and 9.
I enjoyed all of those.
I do love Jane Aiken Hodge, although that is not one of my favorites – and I just checked, it’s not one of the ones I own so no reread in the near future. I’ve also read Pawn in Frankincense, which I think is my favorite in the series because I was close in age to Philippa when I read them the first time.
Not sure I ever read Around the World but have watched at least one adaptation (the recent one with David Tennant was enjoyable). I also began A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle (I think I put it on reserve after you reviewed it) but it was due back to the library before I’d got very far. I need to get it out again because I see he’s written more since then!
I love all of the Lymond books, but I think my favourite is The Disorderly Knights. Philippa really comes into her own in Pawn, though.
I really enjoyed A Fatal Crossing but have only read one other by Hindle – The Murder Game, which I found less impressive. I should probably try another one.
Great TTT list! Bookish travel whether real or fictional is always fun. I’ve only read Around the World, but several others are on my TBR list, including The Murder Game which I really want to read. 😀
Yes, I love to travel through books! I hope you’re able to read The Murder Game soon.
Hi Helen, I absolutely adored Around the World in Eighty Days and it is still my favourite of the Jules Verne novels I have read. The only other novel to include travel I can think of I have read is The Beach by Alex Garland, which is about backpackers discovering a secret island paradise… or so it seems! Not my usual reading fare, with its darker, grittier tone, but I enjoyed the setting and interesting premise.
Blessings, Jessica 💌
Around the World in Eighty Days is the only Jules Verne novel I’ve read, but I would like to read more of them. I haven’t read The Beach by Alex Garland, but it does sound interesting and I love island settings.