By Chanel Kadir
‘The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page’ – St. Augustine
The idea of travelling, learning and experiencing new cultures and discovering the hidden treasures of the world is high among young adults. The rise in youth travel has now made it a specialized tourism niche, according to research done by WYSE Travel Confederation and UNWTO. With this rise, there have also been some fantastic books that give you superb insight into what it is like to travel and how to make the most out of it. Making the books the perfect travel companions.
The Art of Travel by Alain De Botton is a book that teaches you the ways to get the most of your travelling experience. De Botton has written about travelling as a form of art and how you should look at the landscape you are travelling in. However, he doesn’t do this alone, he has help from many historically famous artist and writers such as Van Gogh, Flaubert and Edward Hopper to help paint a picture for you. De Botton guides you every step of the way, giving invaluable insights into everything and dividing the book into departure, motives, landscape, art and return. This book is bound to give you a different perspective on the idea of travelling and will certainly open your eyes to all the things you are missing out on during your journey.
'Oh! To be riding now on the back of a camel! Ahead of you, a red sky and brown sands, on the burning horizon, the undulating landscape stretches out into infinity...' - Flaubert
The second and last travel companion is Wild by Cheryl Strayed. This book is a reading experience that could change your life before you’ve even set off on your journey. Cheryl Strayed shows you how travelling can help you search for something you’ve been looking for or missing all along. It’s about finding yourself and also letting the travel become your identity, the feeling of being where you’ve travelled. Strayed explains the journey leading up to the decision of going to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, alone, for one hundred days. She gives you explicit detail of what the experience was like. The daunting feeling of being alone in the wilderness with just your own thoughts as your only company for the majority of the time. The book teaches you how travelling may well be another memory but also so much more than that. Travelling allows you to grow as a person, to learn, to meet other people and to get in touch with other cultures.
These two books are just a beginning step for you to find the way you want to travel and what you want to experience on your adventures. A stepping-stone to one of the most amazing experiences you could ever come across.
Let your heart and mind wander just like you feet do.
