10 books that will take you to the most visited countries in the world

10 books that will take you to the most visited countries in the world

Try the world's most popular travel destinations without leaving your home

On a normal spring day, you can expect the Champ de Mars in Paris to be swarming with tourists. This vibrant green spot offers iconic views of the Eiffel Tower and hosts hordes of visitors each year - possibly as many as 80 million. France is, after all, the most visited country in the world.

However, as a pandemic grips the globe, the Champ de Mars and France's other iconic landmarks - the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral and Sacre-Coeur - lie largely empty. The same applies to Spain, the USA, China, Italy and the other most visited countries in the world.

There are of course ways to experience these countries without physical travel. Below we list 10 books that will take you to the most popular countries in the world.

France

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

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A Year in Provence is one of the most successful travel books of all time, selling one million copies in the UK and six million copies worldwide.

The memoir chronicles British author Peter Mayle's first year in Provence after he and his wife purchased a two-century-old farmhouse in the Lubéron Valley.

The couple embraces rural life and encounters unexpected and often hilarious consequences. Mayle paints a thoroughly entertaining portrait of Provençal life, from managing ponderous builders and labyrinthine French bureaucracy to mastering the local vernacular and savoring the region's epicurean cuisine.

See all our articles about France

Spain

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee

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In 1934, Laurie Lee leaves his sleepy Cotswolds village and sets off for London to make his fortune, armed with little more than a spirit of adventure and his trusty violin.

He makes a living playing said violin and working on a construction site. Then, since I only know one Spanish phrase – “Will you please give me a glass of water?” – he decides to travel to Spain.

There he wandered through the country for a year, from Vigo in the north to the south coast, only the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War put an end to his extraordinary journey.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning is Lee's lyrical account of the beauty and violence of the land.

See all our articles about Spain

United States of America

Notes from a Great Land: Journey into the American Dream by Bill Bryson

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After almost two decades in England, the inimitable Bill Bryson returns to the country he left in his youth: the United States of America.

Bryson, a fish from once-familiar waters, rediscovers the strange allure of breakfast pizza, gritty American television, and shadowy motel rooms where you may or may not be awakened at night by a piercing scream and the sound of a pleading female voice. “Put the gun down, Vinnie.”

With characteristic wit, sarcasm, but also empathy, Bryson skillfully depicts the strangest of all beasts: the American way of life.

Check out all our articles about the USA

China

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

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Peter Hessler traveled to China in the late 1990s, expecting to spend a few peaceful years teaching English in the Yangtze city of Fuling.

Instead, he experiences the complex process of enlightenment that occurs when one enters a radically different society. Hessler witnesses how major events such as the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to the mainland or the controversial construction of the Three Gorges Dam affect even a remote city like Fuling.

River Town is a poignant and thoughtful portrait of a country trying to understand what it once was and what it will one day become.

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Italy

Under Tuscan Sunby Frances Mayes

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Another classic of the genre, Under the Tuscan Sun spent over two years on the New York Times bestseller list and inspired a generation of readers to embark on their own journey.

With deliciously evocative descriptions of food, wine, local markets and landscapes, Mayes – a poet, gourmet chef and travel writer – traces her efforts to restore an abandoned 200-year-old villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside.

The result is a lyrical, almost sensual account of building a life in a foreign land. In addition to captivating images, readers can expect dozens of seasonal recipes that showcase the delicacies of Tuscan cuisine.

See all our articles about Italy

Mexico

On the Plain of Serpents by Paul Theroux

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Paul Theroux travels the US-Mexico border before venturing into the hinterland along the backroads of Chiapas and Oaxaca to experience firsthand the vibrant but complex country that is Mexico today.

Some of what he sees is the Mexico of clichés: drug cartels, police corruption, gritty cities and unchecked urban sprawl. Further south, however, he finds cities that preserve their indigenous culture with vibrant Day of the Dead festivals, exuberant transgenderism, and tight-knit communities.

Fierce, poignant, complex and contradictory, On the Plain of Snakes is a vital look at Mexico beyond the lurid headlines.

Check out all our articles about Mexico

United Kingdom

The Salt Way by Raynor Winn

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Just days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the impulsive decision to hike the 630 miles of England's South West Coast Path.

Carrying only the bare essentials on their backs, they set off into the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Along the way, they process their grief and discover the extraordinary power of nature to heal invisible wounds.

Lyrical, captivating and inspiring, The Salt Path is a story of homelessness, human strength, enduring love and the irrepressible power of hope to conquer despair.

Check out all our articles about Great Britain

Turkey

Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes

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More of a historical biography than a personal travelogue, Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities is all the better.

This 800-page tome takes readers on a dazzling journey through the many incarnations of this glorious city: Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul.

A place where stories and histories collide, Istanbul served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empires. As the longest-lived political entity in Europe, the city has welcomed a variety of cultures over the past 6,000 years. At last count, archaeologists measured 42 layers of human settlement.

The book is divided into short, lively, episodic chapters that provide an impeccably researched and highly entertaining insight into one of the world's greatest cities.

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Germany

The Lake House by Thomas Harding

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In 2013, Thomas Harding returned to his grandmother's house on the outskirts of Berlin, which she had to leave after the Nazis came to power. The house was derelict, with a concrete walkway running through the garden, marking where the Berlin Wall had stood for almost thirty years.

To save the house from demolition, Harding began digging up the history of the five families who had lived there: an aristocratic farmer, a wealthy Jewish family, a well-known Nazi composer, a widow and her children, and a Stasi informant.

With stories of domestic joy and contentment, grief and tragedy, and a hatred passed down through generations, The House by the Lake is a poignant yet uplifting look at 20th-century Germany.

See all our articles about Germany

Thailand

I have to tell you something by Natalie Appleton

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On the eve of Christmas and a marriage proposal she doesn't want, Natalie Appleton decides to start over. She leaves Alberta for the bright lights of Bangkok.

There she unpacks her past and all the things that led her to run away: deceitful hearts, small-town suffocation, a broken family and a genetic predisposition to madness.

Along the way, she kills an albino gecko, crawls into bed with a lamp salesman, and almost abandons the entire procession when she is almost attacked by a leather salesman. But then, in a dingy guesthouse, a year after arriving in Thailand, everything changes.

I Have Something to Tell You is a story for anyone who remembers feeling lost in their twenties; who were afraid of leaving a job, partner or home; Who has ever asked themselves the question, what if?

Check out all our articles about Thailand

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If you prefer to escape into fiction, try Kia's new novel Take It Back, a suspenseful courtroom drama selected as Best New Crime/Thriller by The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times.

Main image: KieferPix/Shutterstock

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