More Funny Travel Writing

This website is called “Comedy Travel Writing”, so hopefully it at least elicits a mild chuckle once every eight posts. Thankfully for the world, there are far funnier comedy travel writers than me who have made literal bags of money writing about travel in a humorous way.

I’m open to recommendations for adding to this list! The only requirements are the books have to be about travel and at least attempt to be funny.

Without further ado, here are some funny travel writers that I love.

Bill Bryson

More than a man, Bill Bryson is a god among travel writers. And among wannabe funny travel writers like myself, he’s whoever God’s boss is. So he has to be first mentioned in this post.

His magnum opus, his most widely-known and read book, is A Walk in the Woods, his account of trying to hike the Appalachian trail with a friend of his. It sits mightily atop this CNN list of funniest travel books ever written, which I feel I should mention just so you’re not only taking my word for how great Bill Bryson is.

His other books include “In a Sunburned Country” (Australia), “Notes from a Small Island” (United Kingdom), and “The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America” (America, duh), so take your pick whatever region or country you want.

And to stray from travel a moment, his non-fiction works are also hilarious and informative. I loved “At Home: A Short History of Private Life“, and “A Short History of Nearly Everything” is also super popular and is on my to-read list.

Memorable quote: “I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.”

Iris Bahr

Author of grandma-displeasing titles like “Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin” and “Machu My Picchu: Searching For Sex, Sanity, And A Soul Mate In South America“.

Don’t let the middling Goodreads reviews fool you, these books are perfect funny travel writing. They’re unabashedly caustic and hilarious because of it.

Michael Palin

Next up on this list of funny travel writers is Michael Palin – sorry, sir Michael Palin. He’s best known for his work as part of Monty Python, but he’s also a prolific traveler, making several TV shows for the BBC and writing companion books for all of them, including “Around the World in 80 Days“, “Full Circle“, and “Sahara“.

You can read all of these books for free online here. You’re welcome.

His travel shows and books are probably less funny than you’d expect from a Python but that’s because they’re very much separate entities. They’re not Monty Python abroad by any means. They’re full of insight and wit and are perfect books to take on your next trip.

Memorable quote: “Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.”

J. Maarten Troost

J. Maarten Troost is the name you’ve least likely heard on this list. But that should change. He’s hilarious.

I found him by wholeheartedly judging a book by its cover. Or more specifically, its title. I knew “The Sex Lives of Cannibals” was going to be my kind of book.

It’s a book set mostly on Tarawa, island capital of the nation of Kiribati, a country almost impossible to locate on a map. I’m also almost sure it’s a country you’ve never read any literature about, so that’s reason enough to pick up this book. And the promise of details about the sex lives of cannibals is the icing on top of the proverbial cake.

“Getting Stoned with Savages” and “Lost on Planet China” are two of his other notable books if this one gets you hooked. I’ve read the latter but the still have the former on my list.

Memorable quote: “No one who claims this to be a small world has ever flown across the Pacific.”

Bonus Answer: Paul Theroux

I have a confession. Despite Paul Theroux being probably the most famous travel writer in the world, it took me a long time to appreciate him, and even now it’s hard to put him in a lists of funny travel writers. He’s very snarky and cynical and grumpy, so much so that when I was younger I was very annoyed by him. He went on all these great adventures and spent almost every page complaining that a bed was too hard or the food too bland.

But as I grew older, I appreciated that more – he was just telling it like it was and how he felt, rather than pretending that just because he was going on this great trip that everything was amazing. A hard bed is a hard bed; no need to pretend that sleeping on it is some great trial that will result in making you a more rounded person. It won’t, it’ll just give you a sore back in the morning.

So once you accept his writing for his candidness, you can find a lot of comedy beneath the surface. His snarky wit is often hilarious and a very different style of humor to the aforementioned writers.

His best books include “The Great Railway Bazaar“, “The Old Patagonian Express“, “Riding the Iron Rooster“, and a lot, lot more as evidenced by the fact his bibliography has its own Wikipedia page.

Funny Travel Writing

So there you have it, friends. Some funny travel writers to check out when you’ve read everything on this site. Masters of their craft who’ve traveled widely, experienced a lot of less-than-happy times on their trips but always find the funny side.

I’m always looking for more funny travel books, so if you have any to recommend, let me know in the comments below!