Some Great Funny Travel Books
The reality of travel often leads to problems: unexpected schedule changes, painful delays, getting hopelessly lost, eating strange foods and facing unfamiliar cultural situations. Keeping a sense of humor is essential, and it is especially helpful to be able to laugh at oneself. Some of our favorite travel writers have a true gift for finding humor in any situation, making funny travel books an important category of travel literature. Two of the world’s most popular travel writers, Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux, epitomize this type of writing with a dry, intelligent and self-deprecating style. We have read and can recommend almost every travel book ever published by both writers, starting with The Great Railway Bazaar by Theroux and A Walk in the Woods by Bryson. Other lesser known but similarly funny British authors include Redmond O’Hanlon, the late A.A. Gill and Richard Grant, all known for not taking themselves seriously even in the most extreme and serious situations. Grant’s book Dispatches from Pluto, describing his experience living in rural Mississippi is really worth reading. J. Maarten Troost has a couple of excellent books starting with The Sex Lives of Cannibals, the story of his move with his girlfriend to a remote tropical island. Here are our recommendations on some of the funniest travel books.
A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson Bryson
A Walk in the Woods is Bill Bryson’s hilariously self-deprecating account of his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail with his old friend Stephen Katz, an irritable and thoroughly unprepared companion who makes the challenge even more unpredictable. As the pair struggle with steep climbs, overloaded backpacks, miserable weather, and the constant possibility of encountering bears, Bryson turns their shortcomings into some of the funniest scenes in modern travel writing. Yet the book is far more than a comic account of two middle-aged men discovering how difficult long-distance hiking can be. Bryson also explores the history of the trail, the ecology of the Appalachian Mountains, and the environmental threats facing one of America’s great wilderness corridors. His curiosity and affection for the landscape remain present even when his determination begins to falter. Funny, informative, and unexpectedly thoughtful, A Walk in the Woods is an ideal read for anyone who loves the outdoors—or prefers experiencing its most grueling challenges from a comfortable chair. Click here to read our full review of A Walk in the Woods.
The Best Funny Travel Books
The Best Funny Travel Books
The Sex Lives of Cannibals, by J. Maarten Troost
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost is a very funny travel memoir that follows the author as he relocates with his wife to Tarawa, a remote island in the Pacific nation of Kiribati. Expecting turquoise water, quiet beaches, and an escape from ordinary life, Troost instead encounters oppressive heat, unreliable electricity, unfamiliar food, overcrowding, and a steady stream of cultural misunderstandings. With sharp observation and plenty of self-deprecating humor, he recounts his attempts to adjust to a place that challenges nearly every assumption he brought with him. The book is filled with absurd situations and laugh-out-loud moments, but it also offers thoughtful reflections on isolation, environmental fragility, and the complicated realities of life in the Pacific. Entertaining, candid, and surprisingly perceptive, it is an excellent choice for readers who enjoy travel writing that finds both comedy and meaning in the gap between expectation and experience. Read our full book review here.
Trawler, by Redmond O'Hanlon
Trawler by Scottish writer and naturalist Redmond O’Hanlon takes readers aboard a commercial fishing boat battling the cold, stormy waters of the North Atlantic. Joining the crew of a deep-sea trawler, O’Hanlon endures towering waves, sleepless nights, seasickness, cramped quarters, and the relentless physical demands of life at sea. His vivid descriptions capture both the danger of the voyage and the strange exhilaration of working in one of the world’s harshest environments. Yet the book is just as memorable for its humor and its remarkable cast of fishermen, whose stories, superstitions, and larger-than-life personalities fill the journey with unexpected warmth. With his characteristic curiosity and willingness to make himself the target of the joke, O’Hanlon turns an intimidating expedition into a wildly entertaining portrait of courage, camaraderie, and survival. Read our full book review here.
I’m a Stranger Here Myself, by Bill Bryson
I’m a Stranger Here Myself finds Bill Bryson returning to the United States after living in Britain for nearly two decades and discovering that his home country now feels oddly unfamiliar. Drawn from a series of newspaper columns, the book follows Bryson as he reacquaints himself with the habits, conveniences, frustrations, and eccentricities of everyday American life. He turns ordinary subjects—from hardware stores and customer service to food portions, taxes, technology, and suburban routines—into sharply observed and consistently funny essays. Beneath the humor is a genuine curiosity about how America has changed and what those changes reveal about the country. With his trademark wit, affection, and self-deprecating style, Bryson creates an entertaining portrait of a place that feels both comfortably familiar and surprisingly strange.
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls showcases David Sedaris at his funniest and most observant, turning uncomfortable encounters, family memories, and the absurdities of everyday life into sharply crafted essays. Although it is not a traditional travel narrative built around a single journey, much of the book grows out of Sedaris’s life on the move and his experiences in places including France, England, Australia, Japan, and the United States. Travel gives him the distance to notice the strange habits, social rules, and misunderstandings that people living within a culture often overlook. He writes about language barriers, unfamiliar customs, hotel rooms, airports, medical appointments, and awkward conversations with strangers, using each setting as a way to explore the comedy of being an outsider. Sedaris is willing to say what others only think, but his sharpest jokes are often directed at himself. The result is a wonderfully unconventional travel book: less a guide to destinations than a hilarious account of how unfamiliar places reveal the peculiarities of both the traveler and the world around him. Read our full book review here.
Riding the Iron Rooster, by Paul Theroux
Riding the Iron Rooster follows Paul Theroux on an extraordinary railway journey through China during the 1980s, a period when the country was beginning to open more fully to foreign visitors while still remaining mysterious to much of the outside world. Traveling by train from crowded cities to remote regions, Theroux observes the country from ground level, sharing compartments, meals, delays, and conversations with the people he meets along the way. His sharp eye captures both the comedy of everyday travel and the larger social changes unfolding around him. He writes candidly about bureaucracy, political history, regional differences, and the pressures of modernization, while never losing sight of the small details that make a place feel alive. With his trademark wit, curiosity, and occasionally irritable honesty, Theroux creates a vivid portrait of a vast nation seen through the windows and corridors of its trains. The result is both an entertaining travel adventure and a fascinating record of China at a pivotal moment in its history.
By the Seat of My Pants, edited by Don George
By the Seat of My Pants, edited by Don George for Lonely Planet, brings together a lively collection of humorous travel stories from writers who discover that even the best-planned journeys can quickly go wrong. The essays follow travelers through awkward encounters, missed connections, unfamiliar customs, physical discomfort, and the kind of cultural misunderstandings that often become funnier only after the danger has passed. From riding an elephant through India to facing illness in Zambia, the collection ranges widely across countries and experiences while remaining united by a spirit of curiosity and good humor. The stories are lighthearted, but they also capture something essential about travel: the moments remembered most clearly are often the ones that were never part of the plan. Entertaining, unpredictable, and easy to dip into, this is an enjoyable choice for readers who appreciate travel writing filled with mishaps, surprises, and the resilience required to keep moving.
Road Fever, by Tim Cahill
Road Fever by Tim Cahill gives an entirely new meaning to the idea of a road trip. Cahill joins professional long-distance driver Garry Sowerby in a race from the southernmost tip of South America to the northernmost point of North America in just 23 days, hoping to set a new land-speed record in a bright red GMC Sierra pickup truck nicknamed “Baby.” Covering roughly 15,000 miles, the pair battles flat tires, exhausting stretches of highway, difficult border crossings, unpredictable weather, and the constant pressure of the clock. Along the way, they encounter colorful locals, baffling bureaucracy, and plenty of situations that threaten to derail the entire journey. Cahill, one of adventure writing’s great humorists, transforms the grueling expedition into a fast-moving and frequently hilarious account of friendship, endurance, and the absurd determination required to keep driving when almost everything is going wrong. Read our full book review here.
Shopping for Buddhas, with Jeff Greenwald
Shopping for Buddhas follows Jeff Greenwald on an amusing and increasingly complicated quest to find the perfect Buddha statue while traveling through Nepal. As he searches Kathmandu’s crowded markets, dusty antique shops, and hidden back rooms, Greenwald encounters persistent merchants, a guru wearing Ray-Bans, a passionate palmist, and even a supposedly flying lama. What begins as a simple shopping expedition gradually becomes an exploration of Buddhist and Hindu mythology, Nepalese ideas about sacred art, and the uneasy line between collecting cultural treasures and contributing to their disappearance. Greenwald also looks beyond the country’s beauty to consider corruption, art smuggling, political unrest, and the social tensions that would help ignite Nepal’s 1990 People’s Movement. His descriptions of mountain journeys, colorful street life, waist-deep snow, and Kathmandu’s first escalator bring the country vividly to life. Funny, thoughtful, and filled with memorable characters, the book is both an entertaining travel adventure and an insightful portrait of Nepal at a pivotal moment in its history. Read our full book review here.
Round Ireland with a Fridge, by Tony Hawks
Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks begins with a drunken bet that he cannot hitchhike around the entire coast of Ireland while carrying a small refrigerator. Determined to prove his friends wrong, the British comedian sets off with little more than the fridge, a loose plan, and a willingness to accept whatever happens next. As news of the strange journey spreads through radio interviews and word of mouth, strangers begin offering rides, meals, places to stay, and increasingly imaginative ways to involve the refrigerator in local life. It is taken surfing, brought into pubs, carried onto stages, and even becomes the unlikely center of a village celebration. What begins as an absurd challenge gradually turns into a warm and funny portrait of Ireland and the generosity of the people Hawks meets along the way. Filled with comic mishaps, eccentric characters, and moments of genuine connection, the book captures how travel can transform a ridiculous idea into an unforgettable adventure.
Holidays in Hell, by P.J. O'Rourke
Holidays in Hell finds journalist and humorist P. J. O’Rourke traveling through some of the world’s most unstable and dangerous places during the 1980s. Rather than visiting beaches, museums, or famous landmarks, he reports from war zones, dictatorships, political uprisings, and countries on the edge of collapse. His journeys take him from El Salvador and Lebanon to the Philippines, Poland, and the fading Soviet bloc, where he observes both the absurdities of politics and the everyday lives of people caught in extraordinary circumstances. O’Rourke’s sharp satire and willingness to place himself in uncomfortable situations make the book consistently funny, but beneath the jokes is a perceptive account of ideology, conflict, and human resilience. Part travelogue, part political reporting, and part dark comedy, Holidays in Hell is the ultimate anti-vacation book, offering readers a vivid tour of places most travelers would wisely avoid.
Out of Sheer Rage, by Geoff Dyer
Out of Sheer Rage is a laugh-out-loud funny book about a writer named Geoff Dyer who tries (and hilariously fails) to write about the famous English poet D.H. Lawrence. Dyer's real goal? To use his "research" as an excuse to travel to all the cool places Lawrence once lived. As he bumbles his way around the world, Dyer turns his frustrations and setbacks into comedy gold. Even when things get a bit gloomy, he finds a way to make you chuckle. His self-mocking style and sharp wit make this book a delightful journey through the ups and downs of a writer's life.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, by David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was one of the most distinctive and influential American writers of his generation, celebrated for the ambition of Infinite Jest and for an essay style that could be intellectually demanding, deeply observant, and extremely funny. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again offers a more approachable introduction to his work, bringing together essays on tennis, television, the Illinois State Fair, filmmaker David Lynch, and the strange rituals of modern entertainment. The collection’s title essay follows Wallace aboard a luxury Caribbean cruise, an experience designed to provide effortless pleasure but one that instead leaves him fascinated, uncomfortable, and increasingly aware of the machinery required to keep passengers constantly entertained. He writes about elaborate buffets, cheerful employees, organized activities, relentless pampering, and the quiet desperation beneath the promise of a perfect vacation. His account is both a hilarious piece of travel writing and a sharp examination of consumer culture, loneliness, self-consciousness, and the difficulty of enjoying an experience when every detail has been carefully manufactured. Funny, restless, and startlingly perceptive, the collection provides an entertaining gateway into Wallace’s brilliant and unconventional mind.
AA Gill is away, by AA Gill
AA Gill was a brilliant Scottish writer who could paint pictures with words. Born with dyslexia, he overcame his reading struggles to become one of the most celebrated critics of his time. Gill made his name writing about food, travel, and popular culture, often with a sharp and controversial edge. His cutting restaurant reviews in The Sunday Times made chefs tremble, while his TV critiques could make or break a show. When it came to travel writing, Gill was in a league of his own. He didn't just describe places - he brought them to life with his sharp eye and even sharper wit. His book AA Gill is Away shows off his talent for travel writing at its best. It's a collection of his adventures across the globe, from the African safari trails to the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Whether he's sampling strange foods or meeting colorful characters, Gill's unique voice shines through on every page.
Around the World in Eighty Days, with Michael Palin
In 1987, the BBC embarked on an audacious adventure, bringing Jules Verne's timeless tale Around the World in 80 Days to life. At the helm was none other than beloved British comedian and actor Michael Palin, tasked with retracing the footsteps of Verne's fictional hero Phileas Fogg. Armed with wit, charm, and a ticking clock, Palin circumnavigated the globe, facing modern-day challenges that Verne could scarcely have imagined. This book, penned by Palin himself, offers readers a front-row seat to his exhilarating journey, filled with humor, mishaps, and unexpected discoveries that prove truth can indeed be stranger—and more entertaining—than fiction.
Other Book Recommendations
Also feel free to check out some of the truly funny travel books listed in our “Staff Picks” section!
The Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain
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