Explore the World: Travel Guides and Memoirs

Great travel writing can help you plan a trip, teach you more about the world, or transport you for the afternoon. Browse HCPL’s travel guides to imagine destinations you might not otherwise consider or research an epic staycation, challenging yourself to see central Virginia with new eyes.

Travel Guides

Destinations of a Lifetime by National Geographic Society
The Unofficial Pokémon Go Tracker’s Guide: Finding the Rarest Pokémon and Strangest Pokéstops on the Planet by Adam Clare
60 Hikes Within 60 Miles, Richmond: Including Williamsburg, Fredericksburg, and Charlottesville by Nathan Lott

Hoopla also offers electronic Frommer’s and Lonely Planet travel guides. You can even temporarily store these eBooks on a mobile device for reference on the go.

Voyages of the Mind

If you’re looking for less how-to, more travelogue, check out our nonfiction and biography collections for meditative road trips, daring adventures, and thoughtful reflections on cross-cultural connection.

Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff by Abbi Jacobson
Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road by Finn Murphy
The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Che Guevara
Uproot: Travels in Twenty-First Century Music and Digital Culture by Jace Clayton
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube by Blair Braverman
Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole
Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa 
Back Roads: People, Places, and Pie Around Virginia by Bill Lohmann

Would you like more books about a particular place? Request a customized book list using My Next Read.