I like to flatter myself that I’m pretty well-traveled. After all, I’ve been to 24 states and eight countries, and I lived abroad for three semesters (a semester in Oxford as an undergrad and then a year there as a grad student). But I tend to revisit – and read about – the same types of places over and over again. Oxford has my heart, but I adore the UK in general. I never, ever get tired of Paris memoirs; I love stories about Americans forging new lives in Europe because that’s a dream of mine; I drool over Little Brown Pen’s Paris pictures on a regular basis; and yes, I loved Eat, Pray, Love (but the Italy section was my favorite).
Recently, however, I read and reviewed two collections of travel essays – The Best American Travel Writing 2011, and the much more interestingly titled Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar – both of which were extensive tours of places I would never, ever choose to travel. (This is partly because several essays in the first collection, and all the essays in the second one, were set in war zones, where, frankly, I’ve never had any desire to go.) I think the locales in the Best American anthology – Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Moscow, Mumbai, Serbia – provide a clear portrait of where America’s eyes are focused these days (namely: the Middle East, the sites of natural disasters, and rapidly developing countries of all stripes). There was only one gentle European essay, about a man in pursuit of Monet, and while it was lovely, it sort of paled in comparison to the other, more vivid – and usually more shocking – stories.
The map of stories in Mud Crabs reads similarly, though of course conflict is overtly present in every single story, not just hiding behind the scenes. (And the conditions for war-zone journalists are worse than for travel writers in peacetime, however uneasy the peace.) But despite the fact that I would never choose most of these locales to visit (or, usually, to read about), I was totally swept up in the stories of these people, and their keen-eyed observations of cultures so totally different, so completely Other, than my own. It’s a testament, in part, to great travel writing, which evokes a place in a few well-chosen details and conversations. But perhaps it also represents a broadening of my own horizons.
I’m still not sure I want to go to Asia or Africa or the Middle East on my next trip – besides the concerns for safety in some of these places, I suspect I’ll always be an Anglophile at heart. But I’m learning to appreciate stories from all locales, however war-torn or foreign to me, and I think that’s got to count for something.
What places do you like to read about that you’d never choose to go?
cakes, tea and dreams 
I’ve recently read two captivating books set in Sarajevo — People of the Book and The Tiger’s Wife (it’s set in a fictional city, but I can’t help but think that’s its antecedent) — and I recall my grandmother having talked about visiting there in the pre-war splendor.
I, too, will always be drawn back to Oxford and the UK and am not sure that I’d want to visit Sarajevo, but these books have certainly captured my imagination.
I’m mainly a fiction reader but I loved Isak Dinesen’s OUT OF AFRICA, and I’ve read a few fictional books set in Africa and really enjoyed them. Aside from Morocco, where I’m really interested in going, and Egypt (someday, if it ever calms down enough), Africa is not particularly high on my list of travel destinations, but I do love to read about it. I am interested in traveling to Asia sooner rather than later – I’d like to go to China, my hubby wants to visit Japan, and my best friend suggested a tea tour of India and Sri Lanka, which is very tempting. Like you, though, I’d still rather go to Europe!
Africa for me too. Can’t get enough of reading about it, but I would like to do what I can in life to avoid being taken hostage. Please.
You know my feelings about travel. There are very few places I wouldn’t go right now, especially because of the nature of my work. Reading a book about most places makes me want to go there… As I said when you originally mentioned these books, I am adding both of them to my to-read list and I cannot wait to devour them. Thank you for your always insightful suggestions!