The Best Travel Books of 2021

How to describe 2021? You can go both ways, or start with melodrama: "It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times..."

Families were reunited, nations went back under lockdowns, families fought over plenty of debates, nations opened up for travelers. Whether 2021 was a good year for you or not, almost everyone had uncovered a greater appreciation - for our local and national parks, for the ones we love and for ourselves, for somehow getting through another really tough year.

As winter begins to chill most of us with its frosty breath, we know it's time to head indoors and begin our human hibernation. We wear comfy clothes, seek warmth and escape the blizzards to come by reading books about the places we've been, the places we want to go and the places we wish we would be.

The best travel books published this year do just that: they explore nature in ways we haven't yet; they follow in the footsteps of founding fathers, ground-breaking women explorers and revered saints; they ponder life and what it means to be a part of it and to belong in it. Overall, they utilize travel as a form of change, of the self and of the world around you. And as we enter the close of one year, we find we have the strength to welcome another, because change, like travel, is a gift.