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How to Travel

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$9.59 $14.99 In stock

Category: Book

A philosophical guide to fulfilling journeys

Going travelling is one of the few things we undertake in a direct attempt to make ourselves happy - and frequently, in fascinating ways, we fail. We get bored, cross, anxious or lonely. It isn't surprising our societies act as if going travelling were simple, just a case of handing over the right sum of money. But a satisfying journey isn't something we can simply buy: it's the result of an art that has to be learnt.

This is the guide: not to any one destination but to travel in general. It talks to us, among other things, about how we should choose a place to go, what we might do when we get there, how we should make good moment stick in our minds and why hotel rooms can be such liberating places...

In a succession of genial essays, we become students of an unexpected but vital topic: how to understand and more fully enjoy (what should be) some of the finest experiences of our lives. Included amongst these are a number of quizzes and practical exercises to help us reflect on what we have learnt, as well as room for recording our own thoughts and observations of wherever we find ourselves.

Essays include:

  • How to Choose a Destination
  • What is "Exotic"?
  • The Importance of Sun
  • The Pleasure of the Airport
  • The Longing to Talk to Strangers
  • The Little Restaurant
  • Drawing Rather than Taking Photographs
  • The Advantages of Staying at Home

Paperback book | 132 pages | 192mm x 155mm

Also available in a digital format - click to explore

Audiobook Ebook

Customer Reviews (4.8 / 5 · 5 reviews)

Steven ★★★★★

I didn't expect a travel book to spend so much time on why trips disappoint us, but that chapter on failing to be happy abroad hit hard. It reads more like philosophy than a guide, which is exactly what I wanted.

Evelyn A. ★★★★★

There's something quietly profound about the way this book uses philosophy to explain why our trips often disappoint—it made me rethink even a simple weekend away. The chapters are short enough to read one per evening, and each one left me with a genuinely new perspective on what it means to travel

Hazel ★★★★★

Picked this up before a solo trip and found myself rereading chapters on the train instead of scrolling my phone. The way it breaks down why we get restless or bored mid-journey made me notice my own habits almost immediately. A genuinely useful little book for anyone who travels to feel something.