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Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel
2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Gold Medal Winner
2021 National Indie Excellent Awards Finalist
2020 Bronze Award for Travel Book or Guide from the North American Travel Journalists Association
2020 Bronze Winner for Travel in the Foreword INDIES
Both a memoir in travel essays and an anti-guidebook, Bad Tourist takes us across four continents to fifteen countries, showing us what not to do when traveling. A woman learning to claim her own desires and adventures, Suzanne Roberts encounters lightning and landslides, sharks and piranha-infested waters, a nightclub drugging, burning bodies, and brief affairs as she searches for the love of her life and finally herself.
Throughout her travels Roberts tries hard not to be a bad tourist, but owing to her cultural blind spots, things don’t always go as planned. Fearlessly confessional, shamelessly funny, and wholly unapologetic, Roberts offers a refreshingly honest account of the joys and absurdities of confronting new landscapes and cultures, as well as new versions of herself. Raw, bawdy, and self-effacing, Bad Tourist is a journey packed with delights and surprises—both of the greater world and of the mysterious workings of the heart.
2021 National Indie Excellent Awards Finalist
2020 Bronze Award for Travel Book or Guide from the North American Travel Journalists Association
2020 Bronze Winner for Travel in the Foreword INDIES
Both a memoir in travel essays and an anti-guidebook, Bad Tourist takes us across four continents to fifteen countries, showing us what not to do when traveling. A woman learning to claim her own desires and adventures, Suzanne Roberts encounters lightning and landslides, sharks and piranha-infested waters, a nightclub drugging, burning bodies, and brief affairs as she searches for the love of her life and finally herself.
Throughout her travels Roberts tries hard not to be a bad tourist, but owing to her cultural blind spots, things don’t always go as planned. Fearlessly confessional, shamelessly funny, and wholly unapologetic, Roberts offers a refreshingly honest account of the joys and absurdities of confronting new landscapes and cultures, as well as new versions of herself. Raw, bawdy, and self-effacing, Bad Tourist is a journey packed with delights and surprises—both of the greater world and of the mysterious workings of the heart.
280 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2020
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About the author
Suzanne Roberts
7 books54 followersSuzanne Roberts is the author of Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties (March 2022), the award-winning travel essay collection Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel, and the memoir Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award), as well as four books of poems. Named "The Next Great Travel Writer" by National Geographic's Traveler, Suzanne's work has been listed as notable in Best American Essays and included in The Best Women's Travel Writing. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, The Normal School, River Teeth, and elsewhere. She holds a doctorate in literature and the environment from the University of Nevada-Reno, teaches in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada University, and lives in South Lake Tahoe, California
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
June 29, 2020
Due to Covid19 - one of my favorite hobbies are currently illegal. Travel. Travel is life and I can't exactly do that anymore. I had so many travel plans for 2020 but since that is out the door I've been reading travel books instead to pretend that I am!
Anyway, onto the review. I really enjoyed this. Bad Tourist is about Suzanne Roberts travels throughout the world and how she tries to find herself in men and her writing. She eventually comes to terms that she can be happy alone and travel by herself or friends without looking for love. I thought her travels were relatable and honest. I felt like I was right there traveling with her whether it was in Vegas, India, or Peru. I love how many different places she has been and this book made me super excited for when travel is going to be a thing again. The only thing that didn't work for me was that this wasn't in chronological order and I would forget which ex was who. It would've been more sufficient if it was in order - at least to me. Overall, I really did enjoy this and the cover is super adorable!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!
Anyway, onto the review. I really enjoyed this. Bad Tourist is about Suzanne Roberts travels throughout the world and how she tries to find herself in men and her writing. She eventually comes to terms that she can be happy alone and travel by herself or friends without looking for love. I thought her travels were relatable and honest. I felt like I was right there traveling with her whether it was in Vegas, India, or Peru. I love how many different places she has been and this book made me super excited for when travel is going to be a thing again. The only thing that didn't work for me was that this wasn't in chronological order and I would forget which ex was who. It would've been more sufficient if it was in order - at least to me. Overall, I really did enjoy this and the cover is super adorable!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!
August 27, 2020
If you enjoy traveling and like to laugh, Bad Tourist is for you! Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. Not being able to go anywhere during the pandemic, I've been picking up books about travel. We get to live vicariously through the author and journey to places like Peru, India, and Mongolia. But it's the story within the story that kept me reading. She takes the reader on a ride through her relationships that include crazy love interests. She is honest and vulnerable, and at the same time, the book is laugh-out-loud funny. Although it's a series of travel essays, there is a connection between the stories, so it also reads like a memoir. I highly recommend it.
August 27, 2020
God do I hate it when white women try to be deep about world travel.
Suzanne Roberts’ new novel, Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel sounds promising when you read its summary: the novel “takes [readers] across four continents to fifteen countries, showing [them] what not to do when traveling.” It sounds like any other armchair travel book - lush descriptions of exotic locales, fascinating stories about wildlife and culture and the experience of being a stranger in a strange land. It came off alluringly enough that I picked up a digital ARC without a second thought...and turned out to be massively disappointed.
From page one, it’s difficult to escape the clearly well-off position Roberts is writing this book from. Sure, she says she’s not wealthy - not enough to afford Louis Vuitton luggage, as she notes in her Vegas anecdote - but to travel as extensively as she does speaks of a kind of luxury only afforded to a small percentage of people. Most people, even single women, don’t get the opportunity to travel outside the country even once in their lives, and that fact presses hard on the entire thesis of this book. Life lessons learned in India or Greece or Mexico are difficult to sympathize with when most people’s idea of a vacation involves Disney World at best, and usually with their entire family rather than solo. Roberts traveling and the frivolous choices she makes on her way posit an upper middle class vision of the world without leaving a foot in the door for everyone else to get in, and thus leaves a bad taste in the readers’ mouth before they’ve even gotten to the main course.
And I say this as someone who’s done extensive traveling. Living in and exploring the places I’ve been in Europe has helped me find myself, but I’m not going to pretend that I don’t have money, or that my study abroad program wasn’t entirely tuition-funded. And going to Europe doesn’t make me qualified to talk about deep universal truths like Roberts feels going to Panama has -I just know that because I have ADHD, my brain does better in a stimulating city environment, and that’s a good enough truth for me. The six months I lived in London certainly aren’t enough to make a book out of.
And yet, I’m fairly certain that the time I saw a guy dressed as Freddie Mercury in drag on the Tube was a more enriching cultural experience than the entirety of this book.
Roberts sections Bad Tourist into short highlights from various locations, each with a different story. I appreciated the brevity that kept me moving through the book, but each snippet of a story
was too short to really glean any kind of moral lesson or understanding from, and the writing comes off as a shallow imitation of better travelogues by hitting the same basic “I am a privileged white lady who is learning about my privilege from the horrors of the non-Western world” beats as every travel novel I’ve ever read. The stories are out of order chronologically and follow no real organized form, and Roberts doesn’t even go so far as to explain how these events affected her life as a whole — they just play out like pieces of a film left on the cutting room floor, entirely alone and without the context needed to understand them properly.
Even the anecdotes themselves feel out of order and shoddily spliced together. Roberts will start to tell one tale, then jump back days or weeks earlier in the same trip to give important background that she really could’ve just started out with. It feels messy, not dissimilar to notes jotted down on a phone’s notes app and never sent through a proper editing process. I zoned out and skimmed paragraphs on more than one occasion and didn’t feel like I was missing a single thing.
And I’m sorry, ma’am, but admitting to cheating on your husband in the first quarter of the book isn’t going to help your already poor case, guilty feelings or not.
For a travel memoir, perhaps a good seventy percent of this book focuses on Roberts’ love life. And while it does come with the package as part of the subtitle, the amount of time she spends bemoaning her relationship status and her endless string of foreign one-night stands overwhelms most of the travel aspects of the overall story, enough to make me regret starting it in the first place.
I fully, truly do not care about your cavalcade of boyfriends, Suzanne Roberts. They all seem exactly the same — depthless, annoying caricatures meant to make you look good in hindsight — and after the fourth nearly-identical story with the names switched out, I almost didn’t finish Bad Tourist entirely. You say, “I defined myself through the male gaze”, as if it’s some earth-shattering revelation, and not something that every woman has to learn to unsee themselves through as part of growing up. There’s no need to detail the sordid, gross details of a bunch of one night stands in order to get that across, particularly not in a book supposedly about travel. You talk of not wanting to harp on self-flagellation, and yet that’s exactly what rolls off your writing in waves — by repeating the same anecdotes over and over again,you make your self-shaming public in order to feel some amount of gratitude for yourself, or perhaps a justification for not having any self-confidence.
(As someone with anxiety, I understand that struggle, but at least I try to tamp down my victim complex because of it.)
Additionally, I can’t help but cringe at Roberts’ descriptions of the environments she’s found herself in throughout her life, though she claims to understand that she comes from a place of privilege. Her visuals of the locals she encounters in each of the fifteen countries are no more than paper cutouts, flimsy stereotypes of poverty and exoticism that play up every racist idea ever held by western society - from pickpockets in Central America and beggars in India to alluring men in Greece who speak little to no English. The adults don’t speak English, all of the children are criminals or sex workers, and not one honest portrayal of a non-white individual is offered in the entire book.
This is a woman who argued the price of a French manicure in a foreign country, for goodness sake. Once you reach that point, I refuse to believe that you understand your own privilege.
(Notably, a majority of the places mentioned in this novel are neither European nor English speaking — perhaps in an attempt to make it feel ~exotic~ and special, when really it just comes off as aggressively racist any time she encounters anyone who isn’t a native English speaker. And if it’s not that, it’s coming off as an outdated brand of feminism where it’s still cool for women to judge each other like cheap plastic Regina Georges in place of a plot.)
I’m bummed that my first ever NetGalley arc turned out to be as disappointing as it was. I’m usually a fan of essay collections, but this feels unfinished and poorly constructed, and perhaps comes from a perspective that we’ve had more than enough writing from already.
Suzanne Roberts’ new novel, Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel sounds promising when you read its summary: the novel “takes [readers] across four continents to fifteen countries, showing [them] what not to do when traveling.” It sounds like any other armchair travel book - lush descriptions of exotic locales, fascinating stories about wildlife and culture and the experience of being a stranger in a strange land. It came off alluringly enough that I picked up a digital ARC without a second thought...and turned out to be massively disappointed.
From page one, it’s difficult to escape the clearly well-off position Roberts is writing this book from. Sure, she says she’s not wealthy - not enough to afford Louis Vuitton luggage, as she notes in her Vegas anecdote - but to travel as extensively as she does speaks of a kind of luxury only afforded to a small percentage of people. Most people, even single women, don’t get the opportunity to travel outside the country even once in their lives, and that fact presses hard on the entire thesis of this book. Life lessons learned in India or Greece or Mexico are difficult to sympathize with when most people’s idea of a vacation involves Disney World at best, and usually with their entire family rather than solo. Roberts traveling and the frivolous choices she makes on her way posit an upper middle class vision of the world without leaving a foot in the door for everyone else to get in, and thus leaves a bad taste in the readers’ mouth before they’ve even gotten to the main course.
And I say this as someone who’s done extensive traveling. Living in and exploring the places I’ve been in Europe has helped me find myself, but I’m not going to pretend that I don’t have money, or that my study abroad program wasn’t entirely tuition-funded. And going to Europe doesn’t make me qualified to talk about deep universal truths like Roberts feels going to Panama has -I just know that because I have ADHD, my brain does better in a stimulating city environment, and that’s a good enough truth for me. The six months I lived in London certainly aren’t enough to make a book out of.
And yet, I’m fairly certain that the time I saw a guy dressed as Freddie Mercury in drag on the Tube was a more enriching cultural experience than the entirety of this book.
Roberts sections Bad Tourist into short highlights from various locations, each with a different story. I appreciated the brevity that kept me moving through the book, but each snippet of a story
was too short to really glean any kind of moral lesson or understanding from, and the writing comes off as a shallow imitation of better travelogues by hitting the same basic “I am a privileged white lady who is learning about my privilege from the horrors of the non-Western world” beats as every travel novel I’ve ever read. The stories are out of order chronologically and follow no real organized form, and Roberts doesn’t even go so far as to explain how these events affected her life as a whole — they just play out like pieces of a film left on the cutting room floor, entirely alone and without the context needed to understand them properly.
Even the anecdotes themselves feel out of order and shoddily spliced together. Roberts will start to tell one tale, then jump back days or weeks earlier in the same trip to give important background that she really could’ve just started out with. It feels messy, not dissimilar to notes jotted down on a phone’s notes app and never sent through a proper editing process. I zoned out and skimmed paragraphs on more than one occasion and didn’t feel like I was missing a single thing.
And I’m sorry, ma’am, but admitting to cheating on your husband in the first quarter of the book isn’t going to help your already poor case, guilty feelings or not.
For a travel memoir, perhaps a good seventy percent of this book focuses on Roberts’ love life. And while it does come with the package as part of the subtitle, the amount of time she spends bemoaning her relationship status and her endless string of foreign one-night stands overwhelms most of the travel aspects of the overall story, enough to make me regret starting it in the first place.
I fully, truly do not care about your cavalcade of boyfriends, Suzanne Roberts. They all seem exactly the same — depthless, annoying caricatures meant to make you look good in hindsight — and after the fourth nearly-identical story with the names switched out, I almost didn’t finish Bad Tourist entirely. You say, “I defined myself through the male gaze”, as if it’s some earth-shattering revelation, and not something that every woman has to learn to unsee themselves through as part of growing up. There’s no need to detail the sordid, gross details of a bunch of one night stands in order to get that across, particularly not in a book supposedly about travel. You talk of not wanting to harp on self-flagellation, and yet that’s exactly what rolls off your writing in waves — by repeating the same anecdotes over and over again,you make your self-shaming public in order to feel some amount of gratitude for yourself, or perhaps a justification for not having any self-confidence.
(As someone with anxiety, I understand that struggle, but at least I try to tamp down my victim complex because of it.)
Additionally, I can’t help but cringe at Roberts’ descriptions of the environments she’s found herself in throughout her life, though she claims to understand that she comes from a place of privilege. Her visuals of the locals she encounters in each of the fifteen countries are no more than paper cutouts, flimsy stereotypes of poverty and exoticism that play up every racist idea ever held by western society - from pickpockets in Central America and beggars in India to alluring men in Greece who speak little to no English. The adults don’t speak English, all of the children are criminals or sex workers, and not one honest portrayal of a non-white individual is offered in the entire book.
This is a woman who argued the price of a French manicure in a foreign country, for goodness sake. Once you reach that point, I refuse to believe that you understand your own privilege.
(Notably, a majority of the places mentioned in this novel are neither European nor English speaking — perhaps in an attempt to make it feel ~exotic~ and special, when really it just comes off as aggressively racist any time she encounters anyone who isn’t a native English speaker. And if it’s not that, it’s coming off as an outdated brand of feminism where it’s still cool for women to judge each other like cheap plastic Regina Georges in place of a plot.)
I’m bummed that my first ever NetGalley arc turned out to be as disappointing as it was. I’m usually a fan of essay collections, but this feels unfinished and poorly constructed, and perhaps comes from a perspective that we’ve had more than enough writing from already.
July 2, 2020
If your favorite book is your passport, then Bad Tourist is the book for you! A combination of memoir and travel journal that is utterly delightful. Not only does the author describe some of her adventures from years of traveling around the world but she digs deep in to her own relationship issues, family complications, and personal growth. Parts of Bad Tourist are laugh out loud funny, other parts are nerve-racking, and yet others are incredibly deep. In addition to telling her travel stories, she touches on how tourism impacts the environment, what it means to be brave, how women frequently define their worth by the number of people who want them, savior complex, what tourism does to the cultures it touches, and what it is like to be a privileged American visiting a less affluent country. If you enjoy an adventure to far off lands then it is likely that you will enjoy this book as much as I did!
August 4, 2020
Great collection of travel essays. Keenly observant of the outside world as well as the interior world.
August 24, 2020
Suzanne Roberts’s 2020 collection of travel essays titled Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel is a masterful follow-up to her debut memoir, Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail. In Almost Somewhere, we see Roberts as a recent college graduate struggling to locate her niche in a career-driven, male-privileged society; luckily, she finds solace in the company of women and nature through the completion of an arduous thru-hike of the JMT with two eccentric girlfriends. Bad Tourist showcases a more mature Roberts—a woman who has professionally come into her own as a writer and English professor, but who also at times is still just as lost and (thankfully) still just as feminist in her trysts across the globe and with men. Not only is Bad Tourist refreshingly honest about the physical and emotional excitement and dangers of roaming solo in this world as a woman, it tactfully probes the depths of the author’s connections and tensions with male romantic partners (from brief love affairs to long-term and not-so-long-term marriages), female friends, her mother, herself, and the series of locals who emerge within her escapades. Roberts’s sensory (and oftentimes witty) descriptions of people and places will certainly leave you with renewed wanderlust—a bittersweet but blissful desire in this new age of sheltering in place.
September 28, 2020
Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel is the memoir in essays you're looking for--pandemic or not, it will make you long for the kind of wisdom and misadventures that can only come through travel. Suzanne Roberts has managed to recreate the perfect Netflix binge on the page. Heart heavy, humor forward, her collection is an example of the power of authentic honesty and what it looks like when you're not afraid to see yourself in a new light, even a bad light, if it means getting closer to the truth. I dare you not to find some of yourself in her travels, and like all good vacations, to discover yourself and the world with a fresh perspective.
July 1, 2020
Having thoroughly enjoyed "Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail" by Suzanne Roberts, I eagerly await this new book of travel essays. Roberts takes you on fearless and far-flung adventures while at the same time speaking to those private mental meanderings that only a bad traveler must feel...which, of course, we all feel. Delightfully cavalier yet painfully vulnerable, Suzanne Roberts makes us all feel like being a bad tourist is no reason to stay at home.
September 4, 2020
Honest and compelling, Bad Tourist is a book to savor for those of us who want to travel and can’t, or have forgotten how it really is. In her collection of travel essays, Suzanne Roberts navigates a world ripe with shocks, ethical dilemmas, and sudden joys. Whether in India, Scotland, or Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, the author does not leave herself out of these narratives, but approaches her journeys with a willingness to take risks. In doing so, Roberts possesses no immunity to misadventure, often confronting others’ fixed beliefs about who and how a woman ought to be. Suzanne Roberts’ Bad Tourist rings all the bells for great travel writing. With truthfulness, courage, and sensitivity to cultures not her own, and without lecturing the reader, she makes a strong case for engaged travel as a pathway to understanding, compassion, and growth. In the process, Roberts treats the reader to the insights to be gained through willingness to encounter others face-to-face.
February 27, 2021
I absolutely loved this book, probably because I identified with it so strongly. I went to many of the same places Suzanne visited (but a decade later) and find her stories refreshing, humorous, and well-written. I've also sorted through feelings of guilt regarding my privileged place in the world, mindful of how to reduce my carbon footprint, the people I've encountered when traveling alone, and the moral dilemmas one often experiences in "developing" countries.
Aside from that, I loved how she tied the elements of the plots of her stories together so well. This book sparked my own memories of travel and made me start to focus on my own stories again. I'm just sad that I found this book too late- after the presentation and workshop she gave at the college close to me. Hopefully she'll add more events soon since I think she's become my new favorite travel writer.
Aside from that, I loved how she tied the elements of the plots of her stories together so well. This book sparked my own memories of travel and made me start to focus on my own stories again. I'm just sad that I found this book too late- after the presentation and workshop she gave at the college close to me. Hopefully she'll add more events soon since I think she's become my new favorite travel writer.
November 15, 2020
I took a travel writing course with Suzanne and was excited to see some of the stories she shared in this book. I loved Suzanne’s sense of adventure and self-reflection.
I will be giving this book to my daughter on her 18th birthday as I want her to learn the lessons in self-esteem and love that so many of us learned much later in life.
I will be giving this book to my daughter on her 18th birthday as I want her to learn the lessons in self-esteem and love that so many of us learned much later in life.
August 20, 2020
“I swayed with the din of the rocking train, watching the black hollow of night slide past my reflection in the window.”
And so begins Bad Tourist (as part of the second essay), an honest look at Suzanne Roberts’ life as she grows from young adult to middle aged woman. Each journey, whether in Greece, India, Mongolia, or Scotland (and many other countries), or in California or Nevada, speaks to our own vulnerabilities as we too consider our reflected shadows.
Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel will make you laugh and laugh again and then at some point you will find yourself considering what this thoughtful author has gained from her wanderlust escapades. In the Sierra, could she die in a lightning storm? In Peru, could her demise happen in an unexpected mudslide? Is it possible a shark in the Everglades could be her end? Waking up from a possible date rape drug, did she escape something that could have been much worse?
During her travels, Roberts recalls her past, present, and future relationships, looks at them from her older, wiser self. And what her mother would think (these are some of the funniest sections). What would her mother think of the many men in her lives, the many travels, and the husband she ends up with?
But then of course there’s home, which Roberts addresses in her final essay. Roberts and her husband return to Lake Tahoe after a backpack trip, the trail ending near their house. As they head home, tired with heavy backpacks and miles behind them, they walk toward the yellow glow of their porch light.
Bad Tourist is a fun romp through fifteen countries, written with humor, wit, and eloquence, a beautiful book of adventures and misadventures, and in the end, love.
Eve Quesnel: Co-editor of The Biosphere and the Bioregion: Essential Writings of Peter Berg. Columnist for Moonshine Ink.
And so begins Bad Tourist (as part of the second essay), an honest look at Suzanne Roberts’ life as she grows from young adult to middle aged woman. Each journey, whether in Greece, India, Mongolia, or Scotland (and many other countries), or in California or Nevada, speaks to our own vulnerabilities as we too consider our reflected shadows.
Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel will make you laugh and laugh again and then at some point you will find yourself considering what this thoughtful author has gained from her wanderlust escapades. In the Sierra, could she die in a lightning storm? In Peru, could her demise happen in an unexpected mudslide? Is it possible a shark in the Everglades could be her end? Waking up from a possible date rape drug, did she escape something that could have been much worse?
During her travels, Roberts recalls her past, present, and future relationships, looks at them from her older, wiser self. And what her mother would think (these are some of the funniest sections). What would her mother think of the many men in her lives, the many travels, and the husband she ends up with?
But then of course there’s home, which Roberts addresses in her final essay. Roberts and her husband return to Lake Tahoe after a backpack trip, the trail ending near their house. As they head home, tired with heavy backpacks and miles behind them, they walk toward the yellow glow of their porch light.
Bad Tourist is a fun romp through fifteen countries, written with humor, wit, and eloquence, a beautiful book of adventures and misadventures, and in the end, love.
Eve Quesnel: Co-editor of The Biosphere and the Bioregion: Essential Writings of Peter Berg. Columnist for Moonshine Ink.
August 27, 2020
As a traveler myself, I know there are many directions a person can take a travel book, and I loved the way Suzanne Roberts tells her story.
The book is broken down into various travel-related themes (such as "eating and drinking") with short stories from around the world categorized within that frame. But the stories go beyond just, say, eating and drinking, and delve into Suzanne herself: her struggles with finding her worth apart from men, family and marital struggles, how to be a conscientious traveler vs a "white savior" -- all topics that I have identified with in one form or another over the years. Most exceptional is that even though the book goes back and forth chronologically (stories are time stamped by year), there is clear character growth and progression in the way it is organized.
The stories are relatively short, which was an asset for me; even if I was exhausted, I could still squeeze in one more story before falling asleep, which gave me a sense of accomplishment. The stories from India particularly touched a deep part of my heart, as well as "A Wee Scottish Tour," a story about a local who offers Suzanne and her partner a ride that goes a bit longer than expected... the ending surprised me and made me feel softer toward humanity.
I highly recommend this book, especially for travelers, arm chair travelers, and women of all ages.
The book is broken down into various travel-related themes (such as "eating and drinking") with short stories from around the world categorized within that frame. But the stories go beyond just, say, eating and drinking, and delve into Suzanne herself: her struggles with finding her worth apart from men, family and marital struggles, how to be a conscientious traveler vs a "white savior" -- all topics that I have identified with in one form or another over the years. Most exceptional is that even though the book goes back and forth chronologically (stories are time stamped by year), there is clear character growth and progression in the way it is organized.
The stories are relatively short, which was an asset for me; even if I was exhausted, I could still squeeze in one more story before falling asleep, which gave me a sense of accomplishment. The stories from India particularly touched a deep part of my heart, as well as "A Wee Scottish Tour," a story about a local who offers Suzanne and her partner a ride that goes a bit longer than expected... the ending surprised me and made me feel softer toward humanity.
I highly recommend this book, especially for travelers, arm chair travelers, and women of all ages.
September 28, 2020
2.5 stars
I enjoyed some of these anecdotes by Roberts about her travels and adventures over the years. I'm a huge fan of travel memoirs, so this one satisfied a little of the travel itch that has been nagging this year. If taken for those things, it's a decent book.
However, this book falls short in a couple of areas. First, there is way too much focus on her sex life, one night stands, marriages, boyfriends, divorce(s), etc. Just too much of that (even though it says Misadventures in Love and Travel)I wanted more travel, less "love". Some of the risks she takes and ways she comes off to others in foreign countries was totally cringe-worthy. Also, the book lacks focus and direction. I didn't really see the overall point and had a difficult time connecting with the author. The timeline is very jumpy and the chaos of that doesn't appeal to my organized way of reading. It's not even as if it just jumps forward and back like with flashbacks, it's seriously all over the place with no discernible order.
Overall, it's a very quick read and once I waded through the love and just read the interesting travel bits, I enjoyed those sections.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
I enjoyed some of these anecdotes by Roberts about her travels and adventures over the years. I'm a huge fan of travel memoirs, so this one satisfied a little of the travel itch that has been nagging this year. If taken for those things, it's a decent book.
However, this book falls short in a couple of areas. First, there is way too much focus on her sex life, one night stands, marriages, boyfriends, divorce(s), etc. Just too much of that (even though it says Misadventures in Love and Travel)I wanted more travel, less "love". Some of the risks she takes and ways she comes off to others in foreign countries was totally cringe-worthy. Also, the book lacks focus and direction. I didn't really see the overall point and had a difficult time connecting with the author. The timeline is very jumpy and the chaos of that doesn't appeal to my organized way of reading. It's not even as if it just jumps forward and back like with flashbacks, it's seriously all over the place with no discernible order.
Overall, it's a very quick read and once I waded through the love and just read the interesting travel bits, I enjoyed those sections.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
August 16, 2020
I really loved "Bad Tourist". To me, it felt like I was sitting down with a best friend going through their photo album of travels. Flipping through the pages, we jump around in time and place and stories, but the through line is the same. In these vignettes, I see a woman coming into her own, learning self-worth, and understanding what it means to let go and the importance of change.
In "Bad Tourist" Roberts' stories go from slice of life, to gripping, to subtly heartbreaking and completely poignant, and I am one hundred percent here for it ;) Especially now, in the middle of a global pandemic, when I have wanderlust and really wish I could travel, this book was a wonderful escape.
I'm a woman who has also chosen an unconventional life by many people's standards, so I loved the honesty that Roberts infuses into her storytelling, and I saw much of myself in her life's journey. I'm very excited to read the rest of her work!
In "Bad Tourist" Roberts' stories go from slice of life, to gripping, to subtly heartbreaking and completely poignant, and I am one hundred percent here for it ;) Especially now, in the middle of a global pandemic, when I have wanderlust and really wish I could travel, this book was a wonderful escape.
I'm a woman who has also chosen an unconventional life by many people's standards, so I loved the honesty that Roberts infuses into her storytelling, and I saw much of myself in her life's journey. I'm very excited to read the rest of her work!
July 3, 2020
No kidding, this was the best book I read this year, and that's saying a lot because COVID-19 has put me into a major 4-month reading jag. Roberts' travel memoir reads like a conversation with a funny, wise, insightful friend who is able to laugh at her own mistakes and make you feel better about yours. Her descriptions of places around the globe—some that I've visited, some that I haven't—makes me want to get out and travel. I'm buying copies of this book to give to all my wandering friends and all my friends who yearn to wander.
August 1, 2020
The minute I finished reading Bad Tourist, I instantly wanted more of Suzanne Roberts’ stories of misadventures in love and travel. The book is organized by thematic sections (like a travel guidebook), and we as readers skip around in time and location (15 countries!) with Roberts as she recounts her adventures and gives us insight into her moments of personal growth. From beginning to end, Roberts is honest with us as readers, and by the end, she feels like a best girlfriend with whom we are willing to share our secrets, because she’s already shared many of hers. Highly recommend this book!
August 20, 2020
What. A. Ride. This book was exactly what I needed to get me through a summer without travel. Suzanne takes us along with her through a series of travel stories that are brutally honest and full of gut-wrenching, life-altering encounters, all while maintaining a sense of humor and style that keeps us amused, interested and turning inward to think about what we might have done in a similar situation. Great read and hope to read more of her writing someday.
December 30, 2021
Had the absolute honor of receiving an advanced copy of Bad Tourist.
And...
it's such a good, easy, fun, emotional, deep-thinking, cry-a-little-bit, laugh a lot, change your whole life, crazy good ride.
I've rarely read a book that described so many parts of ME so well!
And...
it's such a good, easy, fun, emotional, deep-thinking, cry-a-little-bit, laugh a lot, change your whole life, crazy good ride.
I've rarely read a book that described so many parts of ME so well!
September 9, 2020
Reading this book is like having a great piece of chocolate cake that you want to savor, but then you can’t control yourself and you eat the whole thing way too fast! I find myself trying to slow down and savor it, wanting it to last longer!
July 23, 2020
READ IT !!
September 8, 2020
Full of bold, lusty tales from around the globe, this book gives us raw, unfiltered (mis)adventures in life and love, just as the title promises, along with lots of humor.
October 19, 2020
Didn't particularly enjoy this one. Too much focus on her personal life vs travel. I also found it a bit chaotic to read at times. It just wasn't a great book for me.
*ARC via NetGalley*
*ARC via NetGalley*
July 5, 2020
I read this book so quickly! It was such an easy and engaging read. I love travel and this book sounded just the ticket (pun intended).
Roberts has compiled a collection of essays journalling her travel (mis)adventures. The book doesn’t have a storyline as such, just recounts of her nomadic lifestyle. The theme of the book is the author finding herself and not needing a relationship or marriage to define her. It’s definitely got a lot of girl power.
4* for this read which was the perfect way to armchair travel during the current restrictions. The description of the places and factual/historical details were fantastic. I struggled at first with the fact the entries aren’t in chronological order and the narrator’s relationship/marital status seemed a bit jumbled. However, I feel this was done purposely to show the superiority of the travel, of which details were never blurred. This book was a perfect escape and a great read for those with wanderlust.
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Roberts has compiled a collection of essays journalling her travel (mis)adventures. The book doesn’t have a storyline as such, just recounts of her nomadic lifestyle. The theme of the book is the author finding herself and not needing a relationship or marriage to define her. It’s definitely got a lot of girl power.
4* for this read which was the perfect way to armchair travel during the current restrictions. The description of the places and factual/historical details were fantastic. I struggled at first with the fact the entries aren’t in chronological order and the narrator’s relationship/marital status seemed a bit jumbled. However, I feel this was done purposely to show the superiority of the travel, of which details were never blurred. This book was a perfect escape and a great read for those with wanderlust.
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
October 18, 2021
Personal essays with a travel focus are my go to, and this book didn't disappoint. I was engaged from start to finish with the writing style and content. Definitely a great read for any armchair traveller (or armchair psychologist ;))!
June 16, 2020
Outstanding travel writing with rich self-reflection. It was the perfect getaway while I am at home due to COVID-19. (Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the author.)
Read
August 26, 2020The very opposite of love at first sight.
December 11, 2021
Those looking for an insightful memoir can’t find anything wrong with Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel. This book will leave you longing for the wisdom and misadventures that can only be gained by traveling. She creates her collection by combining a heart-driven approach and humorous elements. You become more authentic when you aren't afraid to look at yourself in a new light, even in a negative light, if that means closer to the truth. With a touch of imagination, you will find parts of yourself in her travels. As with any memorable vacation, you will discover the world and yourself with a fresh perspective. Although I was initially confused about what the book would do--the essays are categorized into categories such as Sights, Sleeping, Eating, and Drinking--and they aren't in chronological order, I realized by the end that this isn't just a travelogue but the narrator's journey to discover herself. Despite all of the narrator's mistakes I was saying to myself come on let's figure it out already. What I loved most about the narrator was her sense of humor and self-deprecation, as well as her insight into travel in general. My feelings of anger were the result of her choices and the way she slept around with strangers. I came to realize I was mad at her because she showed me aspects of myself that I am not always happy with. will be looking for more books by this author as it's the best book I have read in a long time.
November 2, 2020
Bad Tourist is a great read. It’s such a good book that someone stole my copy off the coffee table in the living room. To be fair, for all I remember they may have asked to borrow it. Things were chaotic in a week filled with preparations for our daughter’s small, backyard wedding. I do remember going on about the book one night while sitting around the fire pit. It was late and talk had turned to travel, family and friends pining for a Covid vaccine so they could get back to their adventures around the world. I offered up that as a whole, I find the nature of travel to other countries intimidating and, if I’m honest, arrogant. As someone who grew up getting by, the idea seemed excessive that people pay money to be shuffled around the world so they can gawk at buildings or people for a short period of time; maybe buy a few trinkets. It’s a cynical view, I know. While sitting there that night around the fire, staring up at the night sky, I also shared that with Bad Tourist, Author Suzanne Roberts may have softened my view.
For starters, the book is funny. Really funny. Also, readers have access inside the author’s wild and intimate experiences: I am with her and her boyfriend in a tent in a thunderstorm on a Florida beach. I feel the urgency of facing a nasty personal problem and a mudslide barreling down a Peruvian mountain toward the tiny bathroom I sit inside. Vulnerability is what makes this book most enjoyable; it’s the thread that links Roberts’ work and invites the reader in. Also, she’s a woman writer—meaning she isn’t afraid to narrate emotions that make her travel stories feel lived in. A reader worries alongside Roberts: she will miss the train; should she have sex with the man on the cruise her mother likes? Each story invites the reader in with a tension of being coerced, stranded, uncertain, insecure, even frightened. And through all of her choices, Roberts forges on. No. That isn’t right. These aren’t forging on stories. These are the stories of a travel goddess with a habit—a woman who needs to feel disoriented in order to feel alive. Roberts offers herself up—naked and afraid—to the places she travels and the reader who joins her.
Bad Tourist is not an advice book for five-star hotels in any given city; this book does not pander to the tourist industry. It’s a book filled with adventure and laughter; a book about sex and travel; mothers, sisters, friends, boyfriends and the messy realities of life everywhere on the planet. It is a book about longing. And in my case, it may even convince me I should buy a plane ticket to Mongolia. But if I don’t, Roberts shares with me what it might feel like to go there in a remarkably authentic way.
Buy the book. This is Roberts at her finest. A must read. And to whoever has my copy, please send it back. I’m not finished.
For starters, the book is funny. Really funny. Also, readers have access inside the author’s wild and intimate experiences: I am with her and her boyfriend in a tent in a thunderstorm on a Florida beach. I feel the urgency of facing a nasty personal problem and a mudslide barreling down a Peruvian mountain toward the tiny bathroom I sit inside. Vulnerability is what makes this book most enjoyable; it’s the thread that links Roberts’ work and invites the reader in. Also, she’s a woman writer—meaning she isn’t afraid to narrate emotions that make her travel stories feel lived in. A reader worries alongside Roberts: she will miss the train; should she have sex with the man on the cruise her mother likes? Each story invites the reader in with a tension of being coerced, stranded, uncertain, insecure, even frightened. And through all of her choices, Roberts forges on. No. That isn’t right. These aren’t forging on stories. These are the stories of a travel goddess with a habit—a woman who needs to feel disoriented in order to feel alive. Roberts offers herself up—naked and afraid—to the places she travels and the reader who joins her.
Bad Tourist is not an advice book for five-star hotels in any given city; this book does not pander to the tourist industry. It’s a book filled with adventure and laughter; a book about sex and travel; mothers, sisters, friends, boyfriends and the messy realities of life everywhere on the planet. It is a book about longing. And in my case, it may even convince me I should buy a plane ticket to Mongolia. But if I don’t, Roberts shares with me what it might feel like to go there in a remarkably authentic way.
Buy the book. This is Roberts at her finest. A must read. And to whoever has my copy, please send it back. I’m not finished.
October 17, 2021
this book reminds me of my own travels - unplanned while totally broke with my very street smart and navigating expert of a best friend. I am aware that my white middle class privilege has granted me a lot of permission to travel as carelessly and carefree as I have… I think Roberts understands her privilege, too. I want to roll her debate ‘international travel vs birthing children: which has a more negative impact on climate’ around in my head a bit more and see what elements I could adopt into my own philosophy.
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