Search Results for: travel writing

Showing 25-48 of 118 results for travel writing

Slow Trains to Venice

Slow Trains to Venice

Contributors

Tom Chesshyre

Price and format

Price
£9.99
Format
Paperback
Other Formats
Other formats available
Do you love trains? Do you love adventure? If so, join Tom Chesshyre on his meandering rail journey across Europe from London to Venice.

Escaping the rat race for a few happy weeks, Chesshyre indulges in the freedom of the tracks. From France (dogged by rail worker strikes), through Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, he travels as far east as Odessa by the Black Sea in Ukraine. With no set plans, simply a desire to let the trains lead the way, he heads back via Hungary, the Balkans and Austria. Along the way he enjoys many an encounter, befriending fellow travellers as well as a conductor or two.

This is a love letter to Europe, written from the trackside.
The Kindness of Strangers

The Kindness of Strangers

Contributors

Jamie McDonald, Levison Wood, Ed Stafford, Benedict Allen, Al Humphreys, Lois Pryce, Anna McNuff, George Mahood, Sarah Outen, Fearghal O’Nuallain

Price and format

Price
£10.99
Format
Paperback
Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer

Travel opens our minds to the world; it helps us to embrace risk and uncertainty, overcome challenges and understand the people we meet and the places we visit. But what happens when we arrive home? How do our experiences shape us?

The Kindness of Strangers explores what it means to be vulnerable and to be helped by someone we’ve never met before. Someone who could have walked past, but chose not to.

This is a collection of stories by accomplished travellers and adventurous souls like Sarah Outen, Benedict Allen, Ed Stafford and Al Humphreys, who have completed daring journeys through challenging terrain, adventuring from the Calais Jungle to the Amazon, from Land’s End to the Gobi Desert, from New Guinea to Iran and many other places in between. Each has a story to tell of a time when they were vulnerable, when they were in need and a kind stranger came to their rescue.

These are stories that make our hearts grow, stories that will restore our faith in the world and remind us that, despite what the media says, the world isn’t a scary place – rather, it is filled with Kind Strangers just like us.

All royalties go directly to fund Oxfam’s work with refugees.
Serge Bastarde Ate My Baguette

Serge Bastarde Ate My Baguette

Contributors

John Dummer

Price and format

Price
£4.79
Format
ebook
It would have been churlish to have refused his invitation to accompany him on
a trip to ‘forage for hidden treasures’. If the truth be known, I secretly couldn’t resist the novelty of passing time with a bloke called Serge Bastarde.

When John decamps to France to start up as an antiques dealer, he doesn’t count on meeting Serge Bastarde. The lovable rogue and brocanteur offers to teach John the tricks of the trade in return for help in a series of unscrupulous schemes. As the pair trawl through markets and farmhouses, they con hearty lunches from old peasants and get into scrapes with priceless collectibles. Filled with eccentric characters and unlikely adventures, this is a hilarious romp through the real rural France.
Mission Mongolia

Mission Mongolia

Contributors

David Treanor

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
ebook
It was an empty landscape now with huge horizons in every direction, a compressed, steam-rollered desert where man had no place. We lacked the skills to carry out even basic fixes. If the van stopped working we were really stuck. No one knew where we were and our last mobile phone signal had been 150 miles ago.

Fifty-something and tired of arguing with John Humphrys over the day’s headlines, BBC journalists Geoff and David found themselves eagerly volunteering for redundancy. But rather than easing into retirement with the odd round of golf, they decided to buy a van and drive off to Mongolia. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time…

In an epic journey through Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Siberia and across the Gobi Desert, they discover more about each other in a few weeks than they did sharing an office for years.
Lying in wait are crooked cops, bent border guards and terrible roads, but also welcoming and curious locals, eager to help the pair on their mission.
Gap Year Adventures

Gap Year Adventures

Contributors

Tamsin King

Price and format

Price
£3.99
Format
ebook
Tips and Ideas for Making Your Gap Year Great
Gap years are bursting with possibility, begging to be filled with new experiences and unforgettable moments. But how do you make the most of your time out? This handy guide is packed with exciting and creative ideas that will take you all over the world. Whether you’re in search of a thrilling outdoor activity or a spiritual awakening, here’s how to make it truly memorable.
Twitchhiker

Twitchhiker

Contributors

Paul Smith

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
ebook
There were five rules of Twitchhiker:
I can only accept offers of travel and accommodation from people on Twitter. I can’t make any travel plans further than three days in advance. I can only spend money on food, drink and anything that might fit in my suitcase. If there is more than one offer, I choose which I take. If there is only one, I have to take it within 48 hours. If I am unable to find a way to move on from a location within 48 hours, the challenge is over and I go home. Bored in the bread aisle of the supermarket one day, Paul Smith wondered how far he could get around the world in 30 days through the goodwill of users of social networking site Twitter. At the mercy of these rules, he set his sights on New Zealand – the opposite point on the planet to his home in Newcastle. All he had to do next was explain the idea to his new wife.
In an adventure wrapped in nonsense and cocooned in daft, he travelled by road, boat, plane and train, slept in five-star luxury and on no-star floors, shmoozed with Hollywood A-listers and was humbled by the generosity of the thousands who followed his journey and determined its course.
@twitchhiker I can send you to Wichita by Greyhound if that’s any good… Sent 10:13 AM Mar 12th
I was more or less in the exact geographical centre of a different continent, and a nameless woman some 4,000 miles east in Dublin was buying me a bus ticket…
Park Life

Park Life

Contributors

Tom Chesshyre

Price and format

Price
£16.99
Format
Hardcover
Join travel writer Tom Chesshyre in this charming celebration of our favourite green spaces from around the world

People love parks – and more than that, people need parks. We crave greenery, fresh air and birdsong. Whether we’re in Colombia or Korea, America or Australia, urban parks are places where we can find calm amid the chaos. They can also (more often than we may realize) conceal intriguing hidden histories, and can tell us something about modern life in our frenzied world, too.

With fondness and humour, travel writer Tom Chesshyre recalls 50 of his favourite urban parks from across the world, in a love letter to the green escapes that bring us joy in our cities.
The Road Headed West

The Road Headed West

Contributors

Leon McCarron

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
ebook
‘It seemed a terrible shame to meet my end in Iowa; I couldn’t imagine anywhere more disappointing to die. If I were a betting man I’d have reckoned on the most dangerous thing in this state being sheer boredom. The scenery hadn’t changed for weeks and I was slowly dissolving into stimulation-deprived madness. My current predicament, then – attempting to escape through cornfields from a gun-toting alcohol-soaked rancher – was not something I expected.’
Just months after graduating from university, Leon received disastrous news: he had been offered a job. Terrified at the prospect of a life spent behind a desk, without challenge or adventure, he took off to cross America on an overloaded bicycle packed with everything but common sense. Over five months and 6,000 miles, Leon cycled from New York to Seattle and then on to the Mexican border, facing tornadoes, swollen river crossings and one hungry black bear along the way. But he also met kind strangers who offered their food, wisdom, hospitality and even the occasional local history lesson, and learned what happens when you take a chance and follow the scent of adventure.
Alone in Antarctica

Alone in Antarctica

Contributors

Felicity Aston, Joanna Lumley

Price and format

Price
£9.99
Format
Paperback
What would it feel like to be out there alone in that empty vastness? Just before midnight on 24 November 2011, Felicity is left completely alone on the coast of Antarctica. The isolation is instant and devastating. Only three people in the world have crossed Antarctica alone. The first two were men and both Norwegian. At the age of 34, British woman Felicity Aston became the third. Unlike her predecessors, she didn’t use kites or parasails to assist her. Within days, frozen into her facemask and reflecting on what had drawn her to such a place, she was battling desperate weather as she towed her heavy sledges. Every morning she wakes believing she cannot face another day as the expedition becomes a race against time to reach the coast before the last flight out. This gripping and inspirational account of personal endurance shows what you can achieve when you grit your teeth and decide just to get through today in one piece.
To Hull and Back

To Hull and Back

Contributors

Tom Chesshyre

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
ebook
… one of the best ways to get to know a country is to take yourself to the less touristy, less obvious destinations. And let’s face it: things don’t get much less touristy than Slough…

As staff travel writer on The Times since 1997, Tom Chesshyre had visited over 80 countries on assignment, and wondered: what is left to be discovered?

He realised that the answer might be very close to home. In a mad adventure that took him from Hull to Hell (actually a rather nice holiday location in the Isles of Scilly), Tom visited secret spots of Unsung Britain in search of the least likely holiday destinations. He got to know the real Coronation Street in Salford, explored Blade Runner Britain in Port Talbot, discovered that everything’s quite green in Milton Keynes, met real-life superheroes and many a suspicious landlady, and watched a football match with celebrity chef Delia Smith in Norwich.

With a light and edgy writing style Tom peels back the skin of the unfashionable underbelly of Britain, and embraces it all with the spirit of discovery.
Tales from the Fast Trains

Tales from the Fast Trains

Contributors

Tom Chesshyre

Price and format

Price
£10.99
Format
Paperback
Other Formats
Other formats available
Tired of airport security queues, delays and all those extra taxes and charges, Tom Chesshyre embarks on a series of high-speed adventures across the Continent on its fast trains instead. From shiny London St Pancras, Tom travels to places that wouldn’t feature on a standard holiday wish-list, and discovers the hidden delights of mysterious Luxembourg, super-trendy Rotterdam, much-maligned Frankfurt and lovely lakeside Lausanne, via a pop concert in Lille. It’s 186 mph all the way – well, apart from a power cut in the Channel Tunnel on the way to Antwerp. Is our idea of ‘Europe’ changing as its destinations become easier to reach? And what fun can you have at the ends of the lines? Jump on board and find out!
To Prussia With Love

To Prussia With Love

Contributors

Roger Boyes

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
ebook
‘We-have-a-house-in-the-country?’
Lena nodded solemnly. 
‘Where?’ I almost shouted, briefly rattling the table. ‘No, wait, don’t tell me – it’s Todi in Umbria, right? The old manor house, the one with the lemon groves!’
‘Alt-Globnitz.’
‘Alt-Globnitz?’ Suddenly I felt cold.
‘Alt-Globnitz. It’s a really nice place. You will love it.’
In a desperate attempt to save his relationship with girlfriend Lena and take a break from the world of journalism, Germany correspondent Roger Boyes agrees to make a great escape from the easy urban lifestyle of Berlin and decamp to the countryside. Roger has hopes for southern Italy, but Lena has inherited a run-down old schloss in deepest, darkest Brandenburg.
Needing a form of income, they decide to set up a B & B with a British theme. Enter unhelpful Harry and his Trinidadian chef cousin, a mad Scot to advise them on re-branding Brandenburg, some suicidal frogs and a posse of mad tourists. It all culminates, naturally, in a cricket match between the Brits and the Germans on an old Russian minefield. Farce meets romance in this follow-up to the successful A Year in the Scheisse.
Tough Women Adventure Stories

Tough Women Adventure Stories

Contributors

Jenny Tough

Price and format

Price
£10.99
Format
Paperback
It’s time we celebrated women in adventure

What does “toughness” mean to you? Perhaps it’s being physically fit and mentally resilient. Perhaps it’s doing something no one else has done before. Perhaps it’s breaking down boundaries and proving what you can do, in spite of the naysayers. Perhaps it’s travelling alone, immersing yourself in new cultures and meeting new people. Perhaps it’s running ultramarathons in the blistering heat and beating the competition. Perhaps it’s conquering your fears.

The badass adventurers in this collection are all fearless, intelligent, compassionate and curious about the world – and they all happen to be female. From endurance obstacle races to arctic expeditions, from mountain climbing to wingsuit flying, from horse trekking to swimming the English Channel, they have set the bar high for what women are capable of. Let yourself be inspired by their stories of grit, courage, determination, triumph and heartbreak – you never know, it might lead to something incredible!
Two Wheels Over Catalonia

Two Wheels Over Catalonia

Contributors

Richard Guise

Price and format

Price
£4.99
Format
ebook
Sixteen years after first moving to Catalonia, Richard Guise finally finds time to slow down and explore the back roads by bicycle. With over 400 kilometres of sparkling Mediterranean shoreline and an interior dominated by the Pyrenees, it’s a spectacular journey from wind-blown headlands to the glitzy costas, and from bustling Barcelona to remote hillsides where only wild goats grazing and chirruping cicadas disturb the tranquillity.

Dipping into the unique history of this fiercely independent nation-within-a-nation, he uncovers many of its cultural peculiarities, such as why the sardana dance is not as easy as it looks and what to do in a bugaderia. Chancing upon nudist beaches, ancient Iberian sites and revolutionary road-sweepers, this slow cyclist revels in authentic Catalonia.
Head Over Heels in France

Head Over Heels in France

Contributors

Samantha Brick

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
ebook
When Samantha Brick’s life started to unravel – her company in liquidation, homeless, penniless and friendless, and on max-strength anti-depressants – it seemed that everything was going wrong. But a chance week away in France led to the most unexpected of all turn-arounds: a whirlwind romance with gun-toting, stubborn and ever-so-macho Pascal. It wasn’t until she moved in to his cottage in the beautiful Lot region in south-west France that she realised how shamefully ill-equipped she was for the country life.

Like Cinderella in reverse, Samantha had to learn to cook, clean, chop wood and keep house, as well as discovering how to be a step-mum to Pascal’s know-it-all ten-year-old son, finding love and happiness along the way.
L'Amour Actually

L'Amour Actually

Contributors

Melanie Jones

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
ebook
The woman was one of those irritating expat types who felt she owed it to the world to impart on her all her superior knowledge of life in France. I realised that if I didn’t stop her now, she’d be bending my ear all the way to Bergerac.

‘Actually,’ I said, leaning in toward the woman, ‘I’m planning to integrate my way into the boxers of the first good-looking Frenchman I see. Can’t think of any better way to learn the language myself. You wouldn’t happen to know the French for “fancy a shag?” would you? Voulez-vous coucher avec moi just seems a bit nineteen-seventies these days.’

After one particularly bad day at work, advertising executive and confirmed city girl Melanie Jones decides to give up her old life in search of something new and simpler in South West France. With little knowledge of the country, even less of the language and just the memory of a disastrous school French exchange and a few day trips to Calais, she embarks on her adventure with a suitcase full of optimism and not a little bit of naivety. After all, how different can life in France be?

After a series of adventures with skirt-ripping tractors, handsome twin farmers, celebrity not-quite-beens, unusual toilets and a bonkers ex-pat community, all topped up, of course, with lashings of rosé, Melanie begins to discover that her new life in France isn’t quite what she’d thought it would be.
Scoop-Wallah

Scoop-Wallah

Contributors

Justine Hardy

Price and format

Price
£4.99
Format
ebook
A chance conversation with her greengrocer about the media’s portrayal of India inspired journalist Justine Hardy to leave London and, following in the footsteps of Rudyard Kipling, spend a year working at The Indian Express in New Delhi. Her new life – with a quirky landlord who turns out to be a former Rajput prince – takes her all over India from polo matches and Assam tea gardens to city slums.
The Backpacker

The Backpacker

Contributors

John Harris

Price and format

Price
£9.99
Format
Paperback
Leaving the blinding sand for the cool shade of the trees, I walked carefully through the undergrowth to where Dave, using two twigs as chopsticks, was picking up a freshly severed human finger…

John’s trip to India starts badly when he finds himself looking at the sharp end of a knife in a train station cubicle. His life is saved by the enigmatic Rick, who persuades John to abandon his mundane plans for the future for much, much more. Fast forward to the Thai island of Koh Pha-Ngan where they pose as millionaire aristocrats in a hedonistic Eden of beautiful girls, free drugs and wild beach parties. Soon pursued by Thai Mafia, they escape to Indonesia, Australia and Hong Kong, facing danger at every turn.

Filled with wild adventures in exotic locations, this is not travel writing for the faint-hearted: this is an amazing true story of the hunt for excess at any cost.
Slow Trains Around Spain

Slow Trains Around Spain

Contributors

Tom Chesshyre

Price and format

Price
£9.99
Format
Paperback
Other Formats
Other formats available
Between soaring mountains, across arid deserts, parched plains and valleys of fruit orchards and olive groves, down glittering coastlines and along viaducts towering above plunging ravines… there is no better way to see Spain than by train.

Rail enthusiast Tom Chesshyre, author of Slow Trains to Venice, Ticket to Ride and Tales from the Fast Trains, hits the tracks once again to take in the country through carriage windows on a series of clattering rides beyond the popular image of “holiday Spain” (although he stops by in Benidorm and Torremolinos too).

From hidden spots in Catalonia, through the plains of Aragon and across the north coast to Santiago de Compostela, Chesshyre continues his journey via Madrid, the wilds of Extremadura, dusty mining towns, the cathedrals and palaces of Valencia and Granada, and finally to Seville, Andalusia’s beguiling (and hot) capital.

Encounters? Plenty. Mishaps? A lot. Happy Spanish days? All the way.
Dream. Explore. Discover.

Dream. Explore. Discover.

Contributors

Summersdale Publishers

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
Hardcover
Stay wild and free

There’s a whole world out there just waiting to be explored. Spark your wanderlust with this little book, packed with beautiful quotes and affirmations from the world’s greatest travellers and adventurers, and be inspired to dream, explore and discover!
C'est Modnifique!

C'est Modnifique!

Contributors

Ian Moore

Price and format

Price
£4.99
Format
ebook
After six years in the idyllic Loire Valley, comedian Ian Moore, his family and his ever-expanding menagerie are beginning to feel like they’re on the cusp of the peace and tranquillity they hoped for when they moved from dreary Crawley to la belle France. Their grand project, a writing school called Les Champs Créatifs, is finally complete – only,
nobody’s signed up.

Natalie and the boys must contend with the ever-colourful locals, including a Sicilian faith healer, threatening hunters and the ‘Christmas Pudding Man’, and Ian must test his mod mettle against two new additions to the animal family – a pair of disappearing goats. With stresses, strains and animal poo mounting up la famille Moore have their work cut out – but they’re determined to give it their best shot!
Lost in the Jungle

Lost in the Jungle

Contributors

Yossi Ghinsberg

Price and format

Price
£6.99
Format
ebook
 heard the rustle again, too close and too real to ignore.  I clutched the flashlight, stuck my head out of the mosquito net… and found myself face-to-face with a jaguar.
Four travelers meet in Bolivia and set off into the heart of the Amazon rainforest to find a hidden tribe and explore places tourists only dream of seeing.  But what begins as the adventure of a lifetime quickly deteriorates into a dangerous nightmare. 
After weeks of wandering in the dense undergrowth the group splits up after disagreements, and Yossi and his friend try to find their own way back without a guide. When a terrible rafting accident separates him from his partner, Yossi is forced to survive for weeks alone against one of the wildest backdrops on the planet. Stranded without a knife, map, or survival training, he must improvise shelter and forage for wild fruit to survive. As his feet begin to rot during raging storms, as he loses all sense of direction, and as he begins to lose all hope, he wonders whether he will make it out of the jungle alive. 
The basis of an upcoming motion picture starring Daniel Radcliffe,”Lost in the Jungle”is the incredible story of friendship and the teachings of nature, survival and human fortitude and a terrifying true account that you won’t be able to put down.
The Great North Road

The Great North Road

Contributors

Steve Silk

Price and format

Price
£10.99
Format
Paperback
The Great North Road is Britain’s Route 66 – we’ve just forgotten how to sing its praises

In 1921, Britain’s most illustrious highway, the Great North Road, ceased to exist – on paper at least. Stretching from London to Edinburgh, the old road was largely replaced by the A1 as the era of the motor car took hold.

A hundred years later, journalist and cyclist Steve Silk embraces the anniversary as the perfect excuse to set off on an adventure across 11 days and 400 miles. Travelling by bike at a stately 14 miles per hour, he heads north, searching out milestones and memories, coaching inns and coffee shops.

Seen from a saddle rather than a car seat, the towns and the countryside of England and Scotland reveal traces of Britain’s remarkable past and glimpses of its future. Instead of the familiar service stations and tourist hotspots, Steve tracks down the forgotten treasures of this ancient highway between the two capitals.

The Great North Road is a journey as satisfying for the armchair traveller as the long-distance cyclist. Enriched with history, humour and insight, it’s a tribute to Britain and the endless appeal of the open road.
Freewheeling Through Ireland

Freewheeling Through Ireland

Contributors

Edward Enfield

Price and format

Price
£4.99
Format
ebook
‘At one moment you seem to be in the Lake District; then you could be on the moon; then you are in a wilderness; and then beside a Norwegian fjord.’ When Edward decided to cycle around Ireland, he was enchanted by prehistoric fortresses, rugged landscapes, and landladies who insisted on washing his shirts. He takes you with him on a gentle ride up the west coast, eating enormous breakfasts and fresh fish for supper along the way, and stopping to chat to peat-cutters, fishermen, eccentric tourists and a famous matchmaker. With his trademark dry wit, observant eye and a sense of the absurd, he is the perfect companion for a tour of Ireland’s most beautiful areas from the lakes of Killarney to the idyllic Joyce’s Country, and from the dolmens of Clare to the deserts and neolithic remains of Mayo.
Filter (0) +