It would be great to travel the world full time bouncing from country to country, but sadly that isn’t the reality for most of us! One of our favorite ways to scratch our travel itch between trips is to read stories that take place in the countries we want to explore. Listed below are 23 books with fabulous story lines and rich settings that will satisfy your wanderlust until you can book your next trip.
Use the Menu below to toggle between Adult, Young Adult, and Children’s books that make you want to travel.
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Adult Books That Make You Want to Travel
Setting: South Australia
Synopsis: On Christmas Eve in 1959, a delivery man makes a terrible discovery on the grounds of a large estate. The small town of Tambilla is shocked by the gruesome discovery and the likely fact that someone they know has committed murder. Tensions run high as the investigation unfolds in this South Australian town, but the crime is never satisfactorily solved.
Sixty years later, Jess is called back home to Australia to attend the bedside of her sick grandmother who raised her. While there, she discovers a book that links her family to that fateful Christmas Eve all those years ago. Jess finds herself diving into the cold case to find answers and try to understand her family’s potential involvement.
Why We Love This Book: Kate Morton describes South Australia so vividly, it becomes a character itself. The storyline is original and intriguing, the characters are thoughtfully and well developed, and the plot twists are eased in effortlessly but had our minds reeling. This was Kayla’s favorite book of 2023.
Setting: Akure, Nigeria
Synopsis: In 1990s Nigeria, the lives of four brothers are forever changed when they are told a foreboding prophecy from a madman in their town. We are shown how superstitions can break even the strongest family ties through the innocent eyes of the youngest brother.
Why We Love This Book: Chigozie Obioma is a wordsmith who crafts beautiful sentences to describe his homeland of Nigeria and its complexities. This book is FANTASTIC on Audible. The Nigerian narrator enhances the story and its characters and adds to the book’s already strong sense of setting. You feel like you are an onlooker standing beside the characters, watching this heartbreakingly beautiful story unfold.
Setting: Alaska, USA
Synopsis: Leni’s life is turned upside down when her father, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam War and decides they will move to Alaska and live off the grid in America’s last true frontier. The remote area of Alaska that they move to at first seems like an exciting change, and the local community is full of kind people. But winter is quickly approaching, and Leni’s family needs to be fiercely independent to survive the harsh wintry conditions. As the sunlight wanes each day, so does her father’s fragile mental state. Leni and her mother quickly realize that it is up to them to survive the brutal winter ahead as well as their volatile household.
Why We Love It: Kristin Hannah always does a fantastic job describing the settings of her books, and this is no exception. Her portrayal of Alaskas rugged landscape will have you wanting to book a trip to see it for yourself. The story is a roller coaster of suspense, heartache, love, and survival. We could not put it down.
Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows
Setting: London, England
Synopsis: Nikki is the daughter of Indian immigrants who has spent her whole life trying to distance herself from the Indian traditions and customs her family has strived to instill in her. To make some extra money, she signs up to teach a short story writing course at the local Punjabi community center. After one of the widows finds a book of short erotic stories and shares it with the others, Nikki realizes that these women have a trove of fantasies and memories to share. She makes it a personal goal to help them express these untold stories – even the unexpected, and shall we say “exciting” ones.
The nature of the class must be kept secret from the conservative brotherhood that serves as the moral police of the community, but it becomes harder to do so as more women are drawn to it and the widows’ gossip reveals insight into the recent death of a young woman.
Why We Love This Book: East meets West in this thought provoking story of community, friendship, and women’s lives of all ages. The title may be shocking, but the tale behind it will make you laugh, cry, and warm your heart. It offers revelations of the immigrant experience not often considered by non-immigrants and is a reminder that our elders have stories, wants, and needs to tell if we only take the time to listen.
Setting: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Synopsis: Seven sisters gather at their adoptive father’s estate after learning of his passing, where they are each given clues to their true heritage. The clue Maia is given about her birth family takes her across the globe to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As she puts together the pieces of her story, we also learn through a dual timeline set in the 1920s of Izabella whose father wants her to marry an aristocrat. But when her friend’s father lets Izabella accompany them on a trip to Paris where he plans to find an architect to build an enormous statue, to be called Christ The Redeemer, Izabella meets a young sculptor and knows her life will be forever changed.
Why We Love This Book: This is book one of a series that is filled with places you can vicariously travel to while reading! There are not enough books that take place in Brazil, and we loved learning about the country’s history through this dual timeline story.
Setting: Japan
Synopsis: An advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend and casually appropriates the image for an advertisement. What he doesn’t realize is that included in the scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences.
Why We Love This Book: Haruki Murakami delivers a surreal and elaborate quest that takes readers from Tokyo to the remote mountains of northern Japan, where the unnamed protagonist has a surprising confrontation with his demons. Murakami’s writing style of incorporating magical realism into modern-day Japan has made him world renowned for his quirky and imaginative stories. It is one of the reasons this novel makes our list of books that make you want to travel.
Setting: Channel Islands, France
Synopsis: When Laura lands in the Channel Islands, she has love on the brain. She is in the same place her parents met and fell in love. But as she begins to unpack her suitcase, she isn’t happy at all to discover that the bag is actually not her suitcase. But the contents of the stranger’s bag has her thinking he may just be her dream man. With the few clues from the suitcase she has to go off of (including a copy of her favorite book – what are the odds!), Laura hires a cab driver to be her chauffeur and sets off to find the stranger. The stranger becomes increasingly difficult to find though, and as she begins learning the real story of her parents’ story, she begins to doubt her outlook of love and whether her dream man really exists.
Why We Love This Book: Sure, Rom Coms can be cheesy and aren’t for everyone. But this one has a surprising amount of depth and likable characters. It is a slow burn filled with moments that will have you laughing and tearing up. The descriptions of the craggy landscape in the Channel Islands had us googling pictures and adding the area to our bucket list.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Setting: Glasgow, Scotland
Synopsis: This is a story centered around a quirky character who is incredibly intelligent but also incredibly socially awkward. Eleanor does not tend to pick up on social cues and says exactly what she is thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But when Eleanor meets an unlikely pair on the sidewalk one day, the three become friends who unwittingly begin to rescue each other from the lives of isolation they have each been leading. And Eleanor especially needs someone to show her kindness and help her stay afloat, whether she admits it or not.
Why We Love This Book: There were parts of this book where we laughed out loud and others where our hearts ached with sadness. Yet, there is a prevalent feeling of hopefulness even when Eleanor is at her lowest. This book is eye opening to the sort of loneliness some people experience and a reminder that you never know the positive impact you can have on someone’s life by showing them kindness. The book takes place in Glasgow and is filled with numerous nods to the region and Scotland in general.
Setting: Ancient Egypt
Synopsis: Nefertiti and her younger sister, Mutnodjmet, are expected to be wives to Egyptian rulers. After all, their powerful family has supplied wives to the rulers of Egypt for centuries. Nefertiti is destined to marry Amunhotep. Her strong and charismatic personality is hoped to water down Amunhotep’s heretical desire to forsake Egypt’s ancient gods, overthrow the priests of Amun, and introduce a new sun god for all to worship. Nefertiti is loved by the people of Egypt, but it is not enough to keep the powerful priests and military from turning against them if she is unable to produce an heir?
Only Mutnodjmet is brave enough to tell her sister of the shift in political winds. When Nefertiti learns of the precariousness of her reign, she declares that her sister must remain at court and marry for political gain, not love. This goes against everything Mutnodjmet wants for herself. Does she have the strength and courage to defy her sister, the most powerful woman in Egypt?
Why We Love This Book: This is a dramatic story of 2 remarkable women in Egypt’s history. While the dialogue is imagined, the amount of research that went into writing this book is evident throughout. Reading this book (and the 2 that follow it in the series), is an excellent way to learn about Egyptian history in an entertaining way.
Setting: London, England
Synopsis: Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his bookworm granddaughter. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer who discovers a crumpled list of books that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, she decides to read every book on the list. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to form a connection with his granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the list. Over time, the unlikely pair bond over the books they read and it helps to heal the loneliness in their hearts.
Why We Love This Book: This book transports you to an immigrant community within London. It is is a heartwarming reminder of the importance of libraries, the rewards that come when we step outside of our comfort zones, and the meaningful connections that can form when we take the time to notice the people around us – especially those that appear to be “different”.
Young Adult Books That Make You Want To Travel
If you want to inspire wanderlust in your teen, get them a few books that will make them want to travel and teach them about other cultures! You’re also never too old to read Young Adult books!
Setting: World Based On Nigerian Folklore
Synoopsis: Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.
Setting: Cairo, Egypt
Synopsis: Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires. Like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgotten. When she receives word of her parents’ tragic deaths in Egypt, Inez inherits their massive fortune and a mysterious guardian.
Yearning for answers, Inez sails to Cairo and soon learns there is more to her parents’ disappearance than what her guardian led her to believe. She must rely on ancient magic to uncover the truth about her parent’s disappearance—or risk becoming a pawn in a larger game that will kill her.
Setting: Edinburgh, Scotland
Synopsis: Sarah Gilchrist has fled London and a troubled past to join the University of Edinburgh’s medical school in 1892, the first year it admits women. She is determined to become a doctor, but quickly finds plenty of barriers at school itself: professors who refuse to teach their new pupils, male students determined to force out their female counterparts, and―perhaps worst of all―her female peers who will do anything to avoid being associated with a fallen woman.
Desperate for a proper education, Sarah turns to one of the city’s ramshackle charitable hospitals for additional training. The St Giles’ Infirmary for Women ministers to the downtrodden and drunk, the thieves and whores with nowhere else to go. In this environment, alongside a group of smart and tough teachers, Sarah gets quite an education. But when one of Sarah’s patients turns up in the university dissecting room as a battered corpse, Sarah finds herself drawn into a murky underworld of bribery, brothels, and body snatchers.
Setting: Madrid, Spain
Synopsis: Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother’s birth through the lens of his camera. Photography–and fate–introduce him to Ana, whose family’s interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War–as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel’s photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of difficult decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.
Setting: Pakistan
Synopsis: Life is both sweet and cruel to strong-willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert of Pakistan. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she’s been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she’s dreamed of. Should she do what is necessary to uphold her family’s honor—or listen to the stirrings of her own heart?
Children’s Books That Make You Want to Travel
(They might not have the travel itch yet, but they can still learn about the world!)
Setting: All over the world!
Synopsis: Slothee travels from Costa Rica to Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Hawaii in search of the perfect cup of coffee. On the way, he meets new friends and learns about coffee and culture. Will Slothee find the best cup of coffee? Read this book to join him on an educational, yet fun adventure!
We All Went On Safari: A Counting Journey Through Tanzania
Setting: Tanzania
Synopsis: Join a group of friends as they set out on a counting journey through the grasslands of Tanzania. Along the way, the children encounter all sorts of animals including elephants, lions and monkeys, while counting from one to ten in both English and Swahili. The lively, rhyming text is accompanied by an illustrated guide to counting in Swahili, a map, notes about each of the animals, and interesting facts about Tanzania and the Maasai people
Kitty Kat, Kitty Kat, Where Have You Been?
Setting: London, New York, Washington DC, Rome, & Paris
Synopsis: Join Kitty Kat on his journey to see the top sights in some of the world’s capital cities. Through Kitty Kat’s journey and the eye catching illustrations that accompany it, your child will learn about iconic landmarks around the globe. Each book centers around a different city.
Setting: Scotland
Synopsis: Maggie doesn’t like her mittens. They’re hot. They’re fuzzy. And Mum wants her to wear two of them! Maybe she can find them a new owner on her trip around Scotland . . . somewhere Mum won’t notice! Join Maggie – and her mittens – on this charming and delightful tour of Scotland.
Setting: Paris, France
Synopsis: Nothing frightens Madeline—not tigers, not even mice. With its endearing, courageous heroine, cheerful humor, and wonderful, whimsical drawings of Paris, the Madeline stories are true classics that continue to charm readers, even after 75 years!
Setting: Venice, Italy
Synopsis: Olivia takes her discerning eye for style to beautiful Venice on a family vacation that involves dodging pigeons in the Piazza San Marco, gorging on gelato, and barely staying afloat in a gondola.
Setting: Russia
Synopsis: Drawing upon traditional Russian folklore, Ayres creates an accessible and exciting picture book in which a young girl outwits the evil Baba Yaga. After sharing her meal with an old woman she meets on the road, Kata is given a little wooden doll named Matreshka. Lost in a snowstorm, the child stumbles upon the witch’s fearsome house and is given a room for the evening. When Kata realizes she’s to be Baba Yaga’s next meal, the wooden doll saves her life.
Setting: All Over The World!
Synopsis: Sweet people can be found from Canada to Congo to Cuba, from Afghanistan to Australia, from Ireland to Iraq. There are sweet people in the thirty-seven places listed in these pages and almost everywhere else on the planet. Take a trip through the lines of this large-hearted poem by Alice Walker and meet some of them!
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Love that you include kids books in this list. I always try to find something for my grandkids when they’re planning a trip.