The Travel & Tourism category has 695 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 853 ratings. The most-rated is Vagabonding.
In Search of Greener Grass
Summary
“Well, now I’m committed,” he thought to himself after telling a national TV game show audience that he wanted to ride a motorcycle to Mongolia with his winnings. He felt the fear that commitment always induced in him; he was hoping they might have edited that bit out. Commitments are something he tried to get as far away from as possible, the only other constants in his life being twenty-five years of financial prudence, travel and motorcycle obsession.So there he was, committed to going very, very far on a motorcycle with his meager prize money. Consequently, he spent a winter on eBay and a spring in the garage preparing his $1000 KLR 650 for an uncertain life on the road. Armed with a cynical humor, a strong sense of direction, a vague sense of balance, and no sense of proportion, he embarked on a 15,000-mile solo motorcycle ride to see what would break first; bike, body, or budget. Leaving an indifferent existence in England behind he headed east, looking for purpose, a new life, and a new location to live it. He was in search of greener grass.
©2011 Graham Field (P)2018 Graham Field
Holy Cow!
Summary
After backpacking her way around India, Sarah Macdonald decides she hates the country with a passion. When a beggar at the airport reads her palm and insists she will one day return, and for love, she screams "Never!" and gives the country, and him, the finger.
But 11 years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah's life is posted to India, she quits her dream job as a national radio presenter to follow him to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. It seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love and it almost kills her, literally.
Often hilarious, sometimes hair-raising, and always entertaining, Holy Cow is a rollercoaster ride through a land of chaos and contradiction, from spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life, and her sanity, can survive.
©2002 Sarah Macdonald (P)2003 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
On the Plain of Snakes
Summary
The master of contemporary travel writing, Paul Theroux, immerses himself in the beautiful and troubled heart of modern Mexico. Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A 40-foot steel fence runs through its centre, separating the prosperous US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension, now more than ever, as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and brought back. And it is here that Paul Theroux will begin his journey into the culturally rich but troubled heart of modern Mexico. Moving through the deserts just south of the Arizona border, Theroux finds a place brimming with charm, yet visibly marked by both the US border patrol looming to the north and mounting discord from within. Attending local language and culinary schools, driving through the country and meeting its people, Paul Theroux gets under the skin of Mexico. From the writer praised for his 'curiosity and affection for humanity in all its forms' (New York Times Book Review), On the Plain of Snakes is an urgent and mesmerising exploration of a region in conflict.
©2019 Paul Theroux (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd
The Happiness of Pursuit
Summary
A remarkable book that will both guide and inspire, The Happiness of Pursuit reveals how anyone can bring meaning into their life by undertaking a quest. When he set out to visit all of the planet’s countries by age thirty-five, compulsive goal seeker Chris Guillebeau never imagined that his journey’s biggest revelation would be how many people like himself exist – each pursuing a challenging quest. And, interestingly, these quests aren’t just travel-oriented. On the contrary, they’re as diverse as humanity itself. Some involve exploration; others the pursuit of athletic or artistic excellence; still others a battle against injustice or poverty or threats to the environment. Everywhere that Chris visited he found ordinary people working toward extraordinary goals, making daily down payments on their dream. These “questers” included a suburban mom pursuing a wildly ambitious culinary project, a DJ producing the world’s largest symphony, a young widower completing the tasks his wife would never accomplish, and a teenager crossing an entire ocean alone - as well as a do-it-yourselfer tackling M.I.T.’s computer-science course, a nerd turning himself into real-life James Bond, and scores of others writing themselves into the record books. The more Chris spoke with these strivers, the more he began to appreciate the direct link between questing and long-term happiness -- how going after something in a methodical way enriches our lives -- and he was compelled to complete a comprehensive study of the phenomenon and extract the best advice. In The Happiness of Pursuit he draws on interviews with hundreds of questers, revealing their secret motivations, their selection criteria, the role played by friends and family, their tricks for solving logistics, and the importance of documentation.
©2014 Chris Guillebeau (P)2014 Random House Audio
Eureka: Finding the Line Between Desire and Contentment, Then Riding It
Summary
Who tries to ride deep into Iraq just to see if the news reports are accurate, ends up joining a street demonstration against someone else's government, or sticks their arm between the jaws of a wild mountain wolf-dog? After the success of his first book, In Search of Greener Grass, Graham Field hits the road again with his bargain-basement KLR650, recording his experiences in his inimitable and revealingly honest diary style. The Caucasus region is often overlooked by travelers, but Graham may inadvertently be about to change all that. A single pivotal event can transform any journey, and accepting rather than fighting that moment can have glorious consequences for the traveler. In this instant the result ensures a fantastic exploration of eastern Europe and beyond, the discovery of a hidden gem in Georgia, and meanderings that leave us all much richer. Ultimately, Eureka is an almost accidental realization that we cannot control our mood on the road, but merely embracing it can be the most enlightening travel experience of all.
©2018 Graham Field (P)2019 Graham Field
River Town
Summary
In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society. Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.
©2006 Peter Hessler (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Alastair Humphreys: Around the World by Bike
Summary
At the age of 24, Alastair Humphreys set off to try to cycle round the world. By the time he arrived back home, four years later, he had ridden 46,000 miles across five continents on a budget of just £7,000. From frozen Siberia tundra to the jungles of central Africa, Alastair recounts his extraordinary adventures in two parts - Moods of Future Joys and Thunder & Sunshine - brought together in audiobook for the first time. Moods of Future Joys is the story of the first stage of this epic journey. Struggling with the enormity of the challenge he had set himself, Alastair recounts the hardships of the expedition with great honesty. His ride through Europe, a turbulent Middle East and down Africa is buoyed by the kindness of strangers and the thrill of the freedom of the open road. In Thunder & Sunshine, Alastair continues his journey from South Africa back to Yorkshire, via the whole of the Americas, South to North, Siberia, Japan, and back through China, Central Asia and Europe. A tale of physical and mental endurance, of taking on wilderness, loneliness and danger in a time before mobile phones and GPS - this is a refreshingly original account from one of today's great adventurers.
©2019 Alastair Humphreys (P)2019 Bonnier
Horizon
Summary
Shortlisted for 2019 Banff Mountain Book Festival From the National Book Award-winning writer, humanitarian, environmentalist and author of the now-classic Arctic Dreams: a vivid, poetic, capacious work that recollects the travels around the world and the encounters - human, animal, and natural - that have shaped his extraordinary life. Poignantly, powerfully, it also asks "How do we move forward?" Taking us nearly from pole to pole - from modern megacities to some of the most remote regions on the earth - Barry Lopez, hailed by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as "one of our finest writers", gives us his most far-ranging yet personal work to date, in a book that moves through decades of his life as it describes his travels to six regions of the world: from the Oregon coast where he lives to the northernmost reaches of Canada; to the Galapagos; to the Kenyan desert; to Botany Bay in Australia; and in the resounding last section of this magisterial book, unforgettably to the ice shelves of Antarctica. As he revisits his growing up and these myriad travels, Lopez also probes the long history of humanity's quests and explorations, including the prehistoric peoples who trekked across Skraeling Island in northern Canada; the colonialists who plundered Central Africa; an Enlightenment-era Englishman who sailed the Pacific and a Native American emissary who arrived in Japan before it opened to the West. He confronts today's ecotourism in the tropics and visits the haunting remnants of a French colonial prison on Île du Diable in French Guiana. Through these journeys, and friendships forged along the way with scientists, archeologists, artists and local residents, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world. With tenderness and intimacy, Horizon evokes the stillness and the silence of the hottest, the coldest and the most desolate places on the globe. It speaks with beauty and urgency to the invisible ties that unite us; voices concern and frustration alongside humanity and hope; and looks forward to our shared future as much as it looks back at a single life. Revelatory, powerful, profound, this is an epic work of nonfiction that makes you see the world differently: a crowning achievement by one of our most humane voices - one needed now more than ever.
©2019 Barry Lopez (P)2019 Random House Canada
Getting Stoned with the Savages
Summary
Getting Stoned with Savages again reveals Troost's wry wit and infectious joy of discovery in a hilarious account of life in the farthest reaches of the world. After two grueling years on the island of Tarawa, Troost was in no hurry to return to the South Pacific until he began to feel remarkably out of place in modern America. He knew it was time to set off again for parts unknown. Here he tells the story of his time on Vanuatu, a cluster of islands where he struggles against typhoons, earthquakes, and giant centipedes but finds himself swept up in the laid-back, clothing-optional lifestyle of the islanders. When his wife Sylvia gets pregnant, they decamp for slightly more civilized Fiji, a fallen paradise rife with prostitutes and government coups, where their son takes quite naturally to island living.
©2006 J. Maarten Troost (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
The Great Railway Bazaar
Summary
The Great Railway Bazaar is Paul Theroux's account of his epic journey by rail through Asia. Filled with evocative names of legendary train routes - the Direct-Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Delhi Mail from Jaipur, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Hikari Super Express to Kyoto, and the Trans-Siberian Express - it describes the many places, cultures, sights, and sounds he experienced and the fascinating people he met. Here he overhears snippets of chat and occasional monologues, and is drawn into conversation with fellow passengers, from Molesworth, a British theatrical agent, and Sadik, a shabby Turkish tycoon, while avoiding the forceful approaches of pimps and drug dealers. This wonderfully entertaining travelogue pays loving tribute to the romantic joys of railways and train travel.
©1975 Paul Theroux (P)1983 Recorded Books LLC
Michael Palin: New Europe
Summary
Michael Palin reads his own account of a journey into a new Europe. Michael Palin's New Europe starts with a simple idea: that only a couple of hours from home are a half of Europe that is for him as unknown and unexplored as the plateau of Tibet or the vastness of the Sahara. Cut off for most of his life by Cold Wars and Iron Curtains, Europe's eastern lands are now open for business - and Michael sets off to discover them. Visiting 20 countries, more than in his Himalaya and Sahara journeys combined, he encounters painful memories and exuberant celebrations. Throwing himself into local life with his usual reckless curiosity, he samples pig fat with a brandy chaser, meets Romanian lumberjacks, drives the 8.58 stopping train from Poznan to Wolsztyn, learns about mine-clearing in Bosnia, treads the catwalk at a Budapest fashion show and watches Turkish gents wrestling in olive oil. It's New Europe, but vintage Palin.
©2012 Michael Palin (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Into Africa
Summary
A liberating motorcycle journey through Africa with descriptions of the amazing people and places, the joy of big skies and the open road, and the sometimes harrowing events that would shape destiny. Into Africa tells the story of a novice motorcyclist who takes on the challenge of riding the length of the continent just because, 'it seemed like a great idea’. Sam Manicom had only planned to take a temporary break from his successful retail career, but the one-year ride was so life-changing that he continued adventuring around the world for another seven years, covering 55 countries and 200,000 miles. Sam had no idea how liberating motorcycle travel would be. Revelling in a new-found freedom without timetables or routines, he became fascinated by his ability to explore side roads at a whim and reach remote parts of the continent that many travellers never find. Though Africa is just 5,000 miles from top to toe, Sam explored over 22,000 miles on every kind of road imaginable. Narrated by Sam, ride with him as he describes Africa's amazing people and places, the joy of big skies and the open road, and the sometimes harrowing events that would shape his destiny. This is a genuine tale of the unexpected.
©2008 Sam Manicom (P)2012 Sam Manicom
Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days
Summary
In the autumn of 1988, Michael Palin set out from the Reform Club with an ambitious plan: to circumnavigate the world, following the route taken by Jules Verne's fictional hero Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier. The rules were simple. He had to make the journey in 80 days using only forms of transport that would have been available to Fogg. And so, complete with visas, running shoes, an inflatable globe and sound advice from Alan Whicker, Michael Palin began his incredible journey. Crossing 17 borders and meeting innumerable challenges, he saw Venice from the back of a rubbish barge, rode around the Pyramids on a camel called Michael, and was attacked by a cockatoo in Hong Kong - amongst many other adventures. Phileas Fogg may have brought a Princess back from his travels, but Michael Palin brought back a fascinating and frequently humorous account of the journey of a lifetime.
©1989 Michael Palin (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Dirty Chick
Summary
"One month into our stay, we'd managed to dispatch most of our charges. We executed the chickens. One of the cats disappeared, clearly disgusted with our urban ways. And Lucky [the cow] was escaping almost daily. It seemed we didn't have much of a talent for farming. And we still had eleven months to go." Antonia Murphy, you might say, is an unlikely farmer. Born and bred in San Francisco, she spent much of her life as a liberal urban cliché, and her interactions with the animal kingdom rarely extended past dinner. But then she became a mother. And when her eldest son was born with a rare, mysterious genetic condition, she and her husband, Peter, decided it was time to slow down and find a supportive community. So the Murphys moved to Purua, New Zealand - a rural area where most residents maintained private farms, complete with chickens, goats, and (this being New Zealand) sheep. The result was a comic disaster, and when one day their son had a medical crisis, it was also a little bit terrifying. Dirty Chick chronicles Antonia's first year of life as an artisan farmer. Having bought into the myth that farming is a peaceful, fulfilling endeavor that allows one to commune with nature and live the way humans were meant to live, Antonia soon realized that the reality is far dirtier and way more disgusting than she ever imagined. Among the things she learned the hard way: Cows are prone to a number of serious bowel ailments, goat mating involves an astounding amount of urine, and roosters are complete and unredeemable assholes. But for all its traumas, Antonia quickly embraced farm life, getting drunk on homemade wine (it doesn't cause hangovers!), making cheese (except for the cat hair, it's a tremendously satisfying hobby), and raising a baby lamb (which was addictively cute until it grew into a sheep).
©2015 Antonia Murphy (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Walking the Nile
Summary
Starting in November 2013 in a forest in Rwanda, where a modest spring spouts a trickle of clear, cold water, Levison Wood set forth on foot, aiming to become the first person to walk the entire length of the Nile. He followed the river for nine months, over 4,000 miles, through six nations - Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, the Republic of Sudan, and Egypt - to the Mediterranean coast. Like his predecessors, Wood camped in the wild, foraged for food, and trudged through rainforest, swamp, savannah, and desert, enduring life-threatening conditions at every turn. He traversed sandstorms, flash floods, minefields, and more, becoming a local celebrity in Uganda, where a popular rap song was written about him, and a potential enemy of the state in South Sudan, where he found himself caught in a civil war and detained by the secret police. An inimitable tale of survival, resilience, and sheer willpower, Walking the Nile is an inspiring chronicle of an epic journey down the lifeline of civilization in northern Africa.
©2015 Levison Wood (P)2016 Tantor
Three Weeks with My Brother
Summary
In January 2003, Nick Sparks and his brother Micah set off on a three-week trip around the world. It was to mark a milestone in their lives, for at 35 and 36, respectively, they were now the only surviving members of their family. As Nick and Micah travel the globe, the intimate story of their tragic family legacy unfolds in the details of the untimely deaths of their parents and only sister. Against the backdrop of the wonders of the world, the Sparks brothers bond together to heal, to remember, and to learn to live life to the fullest.
©2004 Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks (P)2004 Time Warner Audiobooks
Lost in the Jungle
Summary
Four travelers meet in Bolivia and set off into the heart of the Amazon rainforest, but what begins as a dream adventure quickly deteriorates into a dangerous nightmare, and after weeks of wandering in the dense undergrowth, the four backpackers split up into two groups. But 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.Lost in the Jungle is the story of friendship and the teachings of nature, and a terrifying true account that you won’t be able to put down.
©2009 Yossi Ghinsberg (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Under Asian Skies
Summary
Sam Manicom set off from the UK aiming to spend a year riding the length of Africa on a motorcycle; as told in his first book, Into Africa. This challenging first year was such fun that, in spite of a 17-bone fracture accident, being arrested, and being shot at, he decided not to head for home as planned. He finds passage on a container ship from South Africa to Australia, and a new adventure begins. In Sam’s second book, Under Asian Skies, you'll find yourself immersed in an enchanting mix of drama, majesty, laughter, mystery, love, and his usual disasters. Sometimes a traveller's plans simply don't work out as intended, but for Sam every mishap is the beginning of a unique adventure; silver linings do exist. You'll travel on a journey across the vastness of Australia, through the twists and turns of New Zealand, and on up into the exotic lands of Southeast Asia. You'll ride dusty back roads, ease along rugged dramatic coastlines, and through history and cultures. Work with fruit pickers, sit under the desert stars with a blond-haired aborigine, and cross paths with a runaway from the police. How is Sam's life saved by a Thai prostitute? And smugglers? Did he really find relatives in the steamy Sumatran jungle? Soak up the magical scents and sounds as the journey continues on through India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Iran. This heartwarming tale will take you on Himalayan mountain roads and paddling through the orange glow of the dawn on the River Ganges. Meet the people who live in villages little changed since the Middle Ages, and share chai with strangers. You'll explore the dramatic organised chaos of the grand cites of India, and ride the historic Grand Trunk Road. This is a two-year journey where every day really is an adventure.
©2007 Sam Manicom (P)2014 Sam Manicom
How to Travel the World on $50 a Day: Revised
Summary
No money? No problem. You can start packing your bags for that trip you've been dreaming a lifetime about. For more than half a decade, Matt Kepnes (aka Nomadic Matt) has been showing fans of his enormously popular travel blog that traveling isn't expensive and that it's affordable to all. He proves that as long as you think out of the box and travel like locals, your trip doesn't have to break your bank, nor do you need to give up luxury. Offering a blend of advice ranging from travel hacking to smart banking, you'll learn how to avoid paying bank fees anywhere in the world, earn thousands of free frequent flyer points, find discount travel cards that can save on hostels, tours, and transportation, and get cheap (or free) plane tickets. Whether it's a two-week, two-month, or two-year trip, Nomadic Matt shows you how to stretch your money further so you can travel cheaper, smarter, and longer.
©2015 Matthew Kepnes (P)2017 Tantor
The Atlas of Happiness
Summary
The Atlas of Happiness is a charming and entertaining guide that offers listeners the chance to learn and be inspired by the "untranslatable" beliefs and unique perspectives on how to live a happier life from countries around the world. Listeners can seek and find happiness in their everyday lives guided by the diverse assortment of advice, history, and philosophies on how to develop and experience special cultural traits like: Sobrenesa from Spain Turangawaewae from New Zealand Azart from Russia Samar from Syria joie de vivre from Canada And many more.
©2018 Helen Russell (P)2019 Hachette Audio