Every trip we have taken started somewhere other than a booking site – a novel, a documentary, a map on the kitchen table, a friend’s photo. This is where we keep those things, sorted by where they might take you.
When we are planning a trip we gather inspiration from everywhere: the internet, Instagram, other people’s blogs, books, and increasingly the film or series that made one of us say “we should go there”. Some of it helps with the planning, some of it just makes you want to go, and the best of it does both. This page is the shelf we keep it all on. The books section is the fullest because it came first; the films, series and apps sections will grow as we write them up, and if you have a recommendation for any of them we would like to hear it.
In short:
We use four kinds of travel inspiration. Books, for the planning and the wanting. Films and series set where we are going, for the arriving. Apps for the road. And paper maps, still, for seeing the whole country at once. Each has a section below, and the destination reading list is the free download to start with.
Books are the part of trip planning that has lasted longest for us. A guidebook is still the quickest way to understand how a country fits together, a good piece of travel writing is the thing that turns a vague idea into a booked flight, and a novel set in the place you are going is the best way we know of arriving somewhere already half in love with it.
Our rule is simple – something set in the destination, or written by someone from it. It started as a way of getting in the zone before a trip and has become the part of packing I look forward to most.
The book gets read on the flight out and finished on a balcony or a beach, and for years afterwards the place and the book are the same memory. Cannery Row is Monterey for us now; Cloudstreet is Perth. It does not have to be a novel: a memoir of a year in Rome did the same job for Italy, and a piece of desert travel writing from the 1940s did it for Oman.
Guidebooks have not gone away, whatever the internet says, and for a big trip we still buy one. The reason is the shape: a guidebook tells you how a country is organised, which regions sit next to which, how long the drives are and what the seasons do, in a way that forty browser tabs never manage. The detail dates; the shape does not.
Buy one rather than three, read the front matter first because the regional overview and the “when to go” pages are the most useful part, use it for structure and go online for prices and opening hours, and take it with you for the day the Wi-Fi is off.
The books that do it best follow one person’s journey through somewhere, told well enough that you want to go too.
From the shelf examples…
Books across fourteen countries, organised by where you are going: Steinbeck and Tartt for America, Tim Winton for Perth, Victoria Hislop for Greece, Ferrante for an Italian beach, Anna Burns for Belfast, Thesiger for the Empty Quarter. One line on each so you can pick in a minute, and a printable list to take with you.
The same rule works on a screen, and for some people it works better. A film set in the place you are visiting does in two hours what a novel does in a week – the light, the streets, the sound of the language, so that when you arrive it is already familiar. We are writing these up the same way as the books, by destination, starting with the countries we know best. Here are some examples for filming locations we have already been to:
If you have a film or series that sent you somewhere, tell us in the comments on any of these pages and we will watch it.
We are not app people for the sake of it, and half the apps recommended for travel are deleted by the second day. These are the ones that have stayed on our phones across a lot of trips:
Typing “nut-free restaurant” in English gets you very little in Italy; typing the Italian phrase surfaces places that never advertise to tourists. Works for any search, not only allergies.
Point the camera at a menu, a sign or a label and read it in English. The single most used thing on our phones abroad.
Restaurant reviews written by people with allergies, for people with allergies. TrustDiner is strongest in the UK and Ireland and growing in Australia and the US; the other two are best in North America. Our allergy friendly restaurants guide explains how we use them.
An eSIM such as Holafly is the easy way to get data on landing, but it does not give you a local phone number, and in Australia we found a local number was needed for medical appointments, pharmacies and restaurant bookings. The Australia allergy guide has the story.
Set it up before you go so that pressing the side button several times calls local emergency services. Costs nothing and we hope you never use it.
We find Journi a great way to get the family involved in writing up a story & taking photos of the trip. For us, it’s also a great resource to use to remember what we did on what day for our blogs.
We road trip a lot, and every road trip starts with a paper map on the kitchen table. The phone can navigate perfectly well; the difference is that a phone shows you the next junction and a map shows you the whole country. You cannot plan a two-week route on a six-inch screen, and you cannot see that the coast road adds a day but passes three things you want to see.
So, a folding country or regional road map for the planning, the same map in the glovebox for the day the signal drops in a national park, and the park’s own map from the visitor centre, because the trail times on it are usually better than on any app. Our road trips section is where the map turns into a route.
Two more kinds of inspiration are planned for this page, and both will appear as cards when they are written. Travel podcasts, for the commute and the long drive. And travel journals, because the planning does not end when you get home; the hour spent writing up a trip is where the next one usually starts, and we have opinions about which notebooks survive a fortnight in a rucksack.
Books first, by a long way: a novel or a memoir set somewhere is what has sent us to most of the places on this site. Then films and series set in a destination, other people’s blogs and photos, and a paper map spread on the table, which has a way of suggesting the road you did not know was there.
One guidebook for the shape of the country, one piece of travel writing to get excited, and one novel set in the destination to read on the way. Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley for any American road trip, Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods before a walking holiday, and a novel from our destination list for wherever you are going.
Yes, for the structure. A guidebook explains how a country fits together, how long the distances are and what the seasons do, better than any website. Use it for the plan and go online for the current prices and opening hours. Buy one, read the front section first, and take it with you.
Google Maps searches in the local language, Google Lens for menus and signs, TrustDiner and its North American cousins for allergy-aware restaurants, an eSIM for data with a local SIM when we need a phone number, and Emergency SOS set up before we leave.
We think so. A phone navigates; a map lets you plan. Spread a folding road map out before the trip to decide the route, then keep it in the car for the stretches with no signal, and buy the park’s own map at national park visitor centres.
Go to the previous guides: