Free Vacations!

Okay, now that we've got your attention, we have to admit we're not giving anything away. But the essence of travel writing at its best is the fact that, for the cost of a magazine, paperback, or a trip to the local library, you can escape into another world for a little while. Friend of IT Kristen Guth writes about her favorite low-cost way to get away (after Traveler, of course!)

I want one of those fashionably-old antique suitcases with art deco destination stickers plastered all over, announcing where I’ve been so onlookers can get jealous.  I can even get a head start on the stickers by buying one vintage or as a colorful, updated version.  But even if I had one, as a 21-year-old strapped for cash, there wouldn’t be as many authentic, exotic stickers as I’d like. So I satiate my appetite for travel instead by snatching up The Best American Travel Writing as soon as it hits the stands. 

These stories bring you to the inner circle of travel connoisseurs by reinterpreting the meaning of travel several times over, interspersed with tidbits of local knowledge and the wisdom that comes from dog-eared passports.  In the 2007 collection of "The Best American Travel Writing," Susan Orlean poignantly writes in her intro, “In a way, these [stories] are the exact opposite of the travel you might do on Google Maps – these stories are the world not as it can be plotted by satellite but as it is observed and meditated in a very subjective and personal way.”

As I read, I felt I was slinging along with Kevin Fedarko in the backseat of a taxi driver’s fast-moving car in Djibouti, racing over 80 miles per hour to beat other drug dealers to make the daily khat delivery.  I chuckled and identified with familiar scenes of sickness experienced by every traveler as Ian Frazier skirted ailments that make us cringe with a delicate humor.  I couldn’t help grinning as I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s witty dialogue, and her trip catapulted my already willing and enthusiastic imagination to start designing plans to stroll through rural Provence with a cork and cheese knife in hand.

Although written with an adventurous flair, not all of the short stories are distinctly positive.  A nostalgic look at a group of Vietnam war correspondents, a flashback to a horrific airplane crash in the Andes, and a fleeting visit to an isolated outpost in the coldest place on Earth spun my mind to contemplate the essence of humanity. 

These stories also propelled me to consider how losing yourself in thought and getting lost in a foreign place fall under the same umbrella term of travel.  Ann Patchett describes anonymity as a vacation, in the confines of her Los Angeles hotel.  There’s even a parody of a guidebook profile on an especially exotic location: a bachelor apartment.  It gives a sharp twist to the phrase “it’s a jungle in there.”

The Best American Travel Writing is published annually by Houghton Mifflin, binds together contemporary master travel writers under the covers of one anthology. It hits bookstores each fall.

Image: Houghton Mifflin

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Comments

[Wendy-Escape NY]

I picked this up recently to read on a long haul flight and it helped pass the time quite well. Nothing like being transported by the well written word while on your own journey to the other side of the earth. I also really enjoyed Kevin Fedarko's wild ride.

[Kango Suz]

I only recently discovered these collections, and I've found them to be delicious! As travel writer myself, I always enjoy reading the work of others and it's so much easier to pick up one of these books than to spend hours and large amounts of $$ on every travel magazine out there.