The Best Women's Travel Writing, Volume 12: True Stories from Around the World

The Best Women's Travel Writing #12

by Lavinia Spalding (Editor)

As Andrew McCarthy wrote in The New York Times Book Review, “For more than 20 years, Travelers’ Tales has been publishing books that might best be described as the literary equivalent of a group of travelers sitting around a dim cafe, sipping pints or prosecco and trading their best stories.”

Now, new from Travelers’ Tales comes The Best Women’s Travel Writing, Volume 12: True Stories from Around the World—the latest collection in the best-selling, award-winning series that invites you to ride shotgun alongside intrepid female nomads as they wander the globe discovering new places, faces, and facets of themselves.

“In story after story,” McCarthy wrote about the previous volume of The Best Women’s Travel Writing, “the refreshing absence of bluster and bravado, coupled with the optimism necessary for bold travel, create a unifying narrative that testifies to the personal value and cultural import of leaving the perceived safety of home and setting out into the wider world.”

The essays in this volume are as diverse as the destinations, exploring themes of kindness, transformation, nature, friendship, family, strength, and resilience.

In The Best Women’s Travel Writing, Volume 12, you will… Settle a thirteen-year debt in Cuba Learn to survive in the polar regions of Canada Witness an amateur autopsy in Ireland Get chloroformed, robbed, read to, and propositioned in Italy Summit Kilimanjaro in Tanzania Get lost and found on a dark and rainy morning in northern France Find joy in Azerbaijan while walking across two continents Explain American reality TV to a bewildered bunch in Bolivia Fear for your life on a stormy Adriatic Sea Bear witness at the site of a volcano disaster in Indonesia Contemplate the perils of too much safety in Nepal Get conned and taken for a ride in Colombia Track one of the world’s most elusive animals in India Travel the world on stolen plane tickets Outgrow nihilism and embrace friendship at a convent in Spain …and much more!

Genres: Travel, Essays, Nonfiction, Adventure, Anthologies, Short Stories

391 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Lavinia Spalding is the seven-time editor of The Best Women’s Travel Writing and the author of Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler, named one of the best travel books of 2009 by The LA Times. She has also co-authored four books, including This Immeasurable Place, Food and Farming from the Edge of Wilderness, named one of NPR’s best books of 2017. Her award-winning writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Walrus, Longreads, Afar, Tin House, River Teeth, Post Road, Off Assignment, and others. Her essays have been widely anthologized, and she introduced the Restless Books edition of Edith Wharton’s classic travelogue, A Motor-Flight Through France. She lives with her family in New Orleans.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Engstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirational, as always

I love this series of travel essays by intrepid women. Every volume inspires me to keep traveling and keep writing.

[Lauriekoski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my all time favorite travel anthology and every year it gets better and better! And since we were all grounded in 2020, I was especially thirsty for travel stories from badass women. These 35 fun, incredibly personal and poignant essays, punctuated by Colette Hannahan's amazing illustrations, satiated my wanderlust....for the time being. Whether learning breadmaking in Peru, dancing with strangers in France or climbing Kilimanjaro you will lose yourself in the journey of others...and maybe start planning a few of your own.

[Nia Alam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes when I read the stories, I was thinking "this is sounds like a fairy tale... is this really happened?". Simply because I found that they wrote it very good. I mean they really good at describing concerns which accompanied them in their journey and what they can learn from it. Makes me want to go backpacking again :)

[Valkyrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of this genre or this book series won't be disappointed. True to legacy. Stories range from excellent to okay. Many are recounting stories 20+ years old - more recent/relevant stories would be nice.

[Carol Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are interesting and inspiring! Using beautiful prose the authors highlight what is really special about travel - not only the scenery and history, also the human connections made across cultures that deepen the experience. I want more of this kind of travel myself!

[chelsea! · Rating 3 out of 5]

none of these particularly spoke to me. i guess i understand how travel writing can be introspective but i just wanted a little more travel and a little less personal revelations had in a place these women don’t live.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will you love every essay, probably not, but I felt many if these. And others immediately made me think of friends who should read them.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful series of shower stories that I read over the past year. Each takes the reader to a different part of the world with a different adventure by some very brave determined woman.

[Trish Remley · Rating 5 out of 5]

34 Chapters of 34 women telling a story about their travel around the world. But really much more. Not just the travel, but life experiences, emotions, and lots of food for thought.

[Whitney Sloan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy reads that keep my travel bug alive… so many stories & unique perspectives on unique experiences that only women could understand. Can’t get the other volumes in my hands fast enough

[Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I had taken French, painting, Native American anthropology, and literature courses in college, but I still felt exiled in a hostile world of big box stores, other people’s happiness, and keg parties to which I was not invited. Moving abroad was an antidote to anesthetization."

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some amazing stories from around the world.