7 great escapist travel books by 7 wonderful women writers
“There must be another way to do life.”
So wrote Rita Golden Gelman, despite having what most people would consider to be an enviable lifestyle in California.
The seven women featured in this post were all similarly privileged, in their different ways. intelligent and smart, they were all on their paths to successful careers. Yet, driven by a longing for change, adventure or simply a break from their routines, they all decided to take off. Not all of them had support or understanding from their friends and families. Then again, escapist travel can be the perfect getaway from friends and family!
These travellers were at different ages and stages of life when they decided to escape, which shows that you’re never too old for adventure. Apart from Frances Mayes, they all went solo. Their experiences were so life-changing and enlightening that they ended up writing books about them – even though that was not necessarily part of their original plan. Here are their stories, in order of publication. Prepare to be inspired!
Frances Mayes
Under the Tuscan sun. 1996. (A special 20th anniversary edition was published in 2016).
When she went: 1986
Where she went: Italy
Age when she travelled: 46
American writer Frances, rebuilding her life after a painful separation, heads off on vacation to Tuscany with her new partner Ed. Over the next three summers, while Frances’ divorce is finalised, the couple return to Italy, renting different properties but dreaming of a place of their own. Eventually, they purchase Bramasole, a ramshackle farmhouse near Cortona, which will become their holiday home.
The book documents Frances and Ed’s subsequent 5 years of dedicated restoration of the house. Being teachers, their time in Cortona is limited to their university holidays. Inevitably, they encounter many practical, linguistic and cultural challenges along the way. But they also celebrate joyful discoveries, new friendships and impressive accomplishments.
Frances was a poet before she turned to prose. This is very evident in her beautifully-written narrative, which transports the reader instantly to the Tuscan hills. Breathe in the scent of jasmine, lavender and roses. Take in the dreamy, panoramic views from the terrace. Taste the sweetness of ripe, freshly-picked fruit and the piquancy of the local cheeses. Make a note of the mouth-watering seasonal recipes, to which Frances dedicates two chapters. This is a wonderfully indulgent book, perfect to take on your own escapist travels.
Sensory pleasures aside, what I enjoy most about Under the Tuscan sun are Frances’ reflections on travel, change and how to enjoy life.
Under the Tuscan sun topped the New York Times bestseller list for over two and a half years. In 2003 it was adapted for a feature film, starring Diane Lane as Frances. Quite honestly, the book is far better than the film, which took a lot of artistic licence and added rather too much soapy fiction to jazz up the story. But if you love the house that doubled as Bramasole in the film, the good news is that you can stay there! It’s called Villa Laura and it looks gorgeous.
Alice Steinbach
Without reservations: the travels of an independent woman. 2000.
When she went: 1993
Where she went: France, the UK and Italy
Age when she travelled: 59
Divorcee Alice has begun to feel that she is defined by the various roles she’s played in life – daughter, mother, friend, journalist. One cold winter’s day in Baltimore, she decides it’s time to rediscover the person she used to be. Having secured an 8-month sabbatical from her understanding boss, Alice heads off to Paris, to follow in the footsteps of some of her artistic and literary heroes.
After a brief moment of ‘what on earth am I doing?’ anxiety, Alice relaxes into her new life and enjoys exploring the atmospheric quartiers and cafés of Paris. She meets a Japanese man who turns out to be her soulmate. Will this deep friendship develop into something more? I’m not telling!
Three months later, she moves on to Chelsea, London, where she once lived for a time with her husband and family, when her children were young. Visits to old haunts bring back occasional poignant memories. But Alice, determined to move forward, makes new friends and takes full advantage of London’s cultural offerings.
Next, she heads to Brasenose College, Oxford, to study the history of the English village before moving on to her final destination: Italy. First, Milan; then the Amalfi Coast, Tuscany, Umbria and the Veneto – with a final stop in Asolo, where Alice’s newly-discovered heroine, writer and traveller Freya Stark, spent the last years of her life.
This is Alice’s first experience of solo travel. It gives her time and space to look back on her life and come to terms with some difficult memories. Thoughtfully written, this deeply personal memoir is about forgiveness, letting go, stepping out of the familiar, learning to enjoy the moment and conquering fears about the future. If you’d like to know more, read my full review of Alice’s book.
Rita Golden Gelman
Tales of a female nomad. 2001.
When she went: 1986
Where she went: Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Israel, Galapagos, Indonesia, New Zealand and Thailand
Age when she went: 48
Children’s book author Rita is married to a high-flying editorial consultant. She enjoys a glamorous lifestyle in Los Angeles, yet she cannot escape the feeling that she is ‘living someone else’s life.’
One day, on a plane, she chats to a sandal-clad passenger wearing a floor-length muumuu, whose job is to arrange sailing tours for captains around the world. This exotic, bohemian woman opens Rita’s eyes to other worlds. Her adult children are off living their own lives, so she decides this is the time to explore new horizons.
For the next four years, Rita studies anthropology at UCLA. Increasingly following divergent paths, she and her husband drift apart and decide to take a break. She seizes the moment and heads to Mexico, boarding with a Zapotec couple in a remote village. This eye-opening experience gives Rita the travel bug. Sadly, she and her husband fail to reconcile and divorce follows. In 1987, Rita sells all her possessions and becomes a lifelong escapist traveller.
Of all the travellers covered in this post, Rita strikes me as the most intrepid and adventurous. She doesn’t allow age or lack of fitness to get in the way of a perilous hike in the jungle or a visit to a Nicaraguan village regularly attacked by Contra rebels. She’s happy to sleep in modest huts and muck-in with the locals, and take part in black magic rituals. She says ‘yes’ to things that most of us would say ‘no way’ to.
Not everything goes smoothly for Rita, and not everyone is welcoming. Indeed, as I read through the book, I get the feeling that she is not everyone’s cup of tea. She is clearly brave, kind, remarkably resilient and incredibly capable, but I sense a strong personality and an occasional tendency to self-congratulation. This is reflected in reader reviews of the book, which are somewhat mixed.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but admire Rita. This woman has guts! I’m impressed with how she is able to connect with fellow travellers of all ages, and people from all walks of life. “People are my passion”, she says, and that certainly comes across. The book covers 15 years of Rita’s travels around the world, interspersed with visits home to sign book deals and catch up with her family.
Penelope Green
When in Rome. 2005
When she went: 2002
Where she went: Italy
Age when she went: 28
Following a relationship break-up and a visit to a fortune-teller, Australian journalist Penelope Green decides to leave behind her career, family and comfortable Sydney life, to rediscover a country she loves – Italy. Determined to live like a local, her first priority is to learn the Italian language, so she enrols on a course in Perugia.
Penny soon discovers that academic language-learning is not for her, so she relocates to Rome and determines to learn ‘on the go’ instead. Her Italian flatmates, new friends, boyfriends and employers become her teachers. There are many hilarious anecdotes and tales of cringe-making humiliations. (Anyone who has ever learned a foreign language among native speakers will identify with the ego-crushing experience of making a total ass of oneself.) But there are also sweet moments of triumph to be savoured.
In the background of Penny’s initiation to la dolce vita is the beautiful, eternal city of Rome. With the perceptiveness of a journalist, and typically Australian humour, she describes its eccentricities, characters, street life and aromas. From the breath-taking beauty of the city’s historical monuments, to the grinding poverty of homeless immigrants on the street, Penny paints a colourful picture of Rome in all its guises.
What I really admire about Penny is her work ethic and her resilience. Unlike our three previous authors, who are older and have accumulated a certain level of wealth, Penny needs to earn a living – and with few language skills, her job choices are very limited. At first, she settles for waitressing, enduring long shifts and unwelcome attention from lotharios, until she is linguistically confident enough to find work in her own profession.
Having overcome many challenges and settled into Roman life, the time comes for Penny to face that big question that eventually confronts all expatriates: am I ready to go home yet? She’s a character who starts to feel uncomfortable when she becomes too comfortable. A move seems to be inevitable – but to where? Back to Australia, or maybe somewhere else? A new love interest will either help, or confuse, the situation. Intrigued? Read my review of Penny’s book and its sequels!
Elizabeth Gilbert
Eat, pray, love. 2006
When she went: 2003
Where she went: Italy, India and Bali
Age when she travelled: 34
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since the publication of one of the best-known and most celebrated tales of travel and self-discovery. Eat, pray, love has blitzed every other book on this page, with over 12 million copies sold. It also became a successful feature film, with actress Julia Roberts in the lead role.
Former journalist Liz Gilbert is far and away the most skilful, engaging, powerful, acerbically funny and brilliant of all the writers I have chosen for this post. If the others can touch a reader’s heart, Liz can not only touch their soul but wring every last drop of emotion out of it. Her description of the searing pain of divorce and depression is guaranteed to have you reaching for your tissues – of sad empathy one minute and laughter the next. Oh, to be able to write like Liz.
There are other reasons why I (and, I suspect, millions of other women) adore Liz. “Dear me, how I love a library,” she exclaims, while admiring one of Rome’s finest. (OK, that’s just me – I used to be a librarian). But also, she refuses to conform to society’s expectations of what a woman’s life should be. She follows her own path, yet she’s not hard-nosed – she’s vulnerable, wistful, forever searching.
Liz’s escapist travel plans will rescue her from the ongoing tribulations of her divorce and a volatile on-off love affair. Her goal is to find balance between pleasure and spirituality, over the course of her 12-month sabbatical. Italy, clearly a place for pleasure, is the setting for Part One of the book, Eat, which is also my favourite. It’s full of fun, food and friendship. In Part Two, Pray, Liz delves into questions of spirituality in the rather more austere setting of an Indian Ashram. Part three finds her in Bali, still seeking divine wisdom – and it’s here that she finds Love.
Some of Liz’s deep dives into spirituality do go on a little bit, and I find myself switching off now and again. But it’s hard not to empathise with her raw emotions and self-deprecation as she struggles to find answers to her many personal dilemmas.
Rita Golden Gelman hints, in a blog post, that she is just a little miffed that her book Tales of a female nomad has been so eclipsed by Eat, pray, love. But although I enjoyed Rita’s book, it’s very easy to see why Eat, pray, love has resonated with people so much more. As a writer, Liz Gilbert is simply in another league. Eat, pray love tells a compelling story, whereas Tales of a female nomad reads more like a personal journal.
Sarah Turnbull
Almost French: a new life in Paris. 2010
When she went: 2004
Where she went: Romania, Turkey, Greece – but mostly France
Age when she went: 27
Sydney journalist Sarah has taken a year’s unpaid leave from her job at SBS Australia. While undertaking freelance work in Romania, she meets a handsome French lawyer, via mutual friends. He invites her to visit him in Paris. Against her better judgment, she decides to go, for one week only. A month later, she resumes her disrupted travels. But invariably, she is drawn back to Paris – and Frédéric – before too long. And this time, she stays.
Almost French is a hilarious and irreverent tale of culture shock. “The social code I discovered in France wasn’t just different from my Australian one, it was diametrically opposed to it”, says Sarah in her prologue. We suffer along with her as she struggles with frosty dinner guests, impenetrable bureaucracy, humiliating faux pas and haughty disapproval, in the country that invented etiquette. Faced with such unfathomably unfriendly attitudes, it’s no wonder Sarah sometimes locks herself in the bathroom and cries with sheer hurt and frustration.
Even the charming Frédéric is not immune to some of these Gallic pretensions. One example is when Sarah, used to living in shorts and bare feet in Australia, innocently pulls on her old jogging pants to pop down to the boulangerie for morning croissants. Frédéric is horrified. Mais non! This is simply not done. In Paris, appearance is everything. Looking scruffy is selfish! Why? Because it’s not nice for the baker! You can imagine how a no-nonsense Australian responds to that.
Naturally, it takes time for Frédéric to understand Sarah’s point of view, and for her to adjust to French mores. Almost French is written 8 years after her first arrival in Paris, by which time she has adapted and feels completely at home. But then, as a Greek-Australian man warns her, “It’s a bitter-sweet thing, knowing two cultures… once you leave your birthplace, nothing is ever the same. It’s a curse to love two countries.” I would definitely agree with this sentiment, except to say that it is a blessing as well as a curse.
Sarah, like our some of our other authors, comes to understand this dilemma very well. When she finds herself pulled in two directions, which way will she go? Well, maybe there’s a third way…
Rachel Friedman
The good girl’s guide to getting lost. 2011.
When she went: 2002
Where she went: Ireland, Australia, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile
Age when she went: 20
New Yorker Rachel is the youngest of our writers, setting off with a tiny student budget and an over-large suitcase. The further heavy burden of parental expectation, coupled with an unexpected twist in her future career plans, are good enough reasons for Rachel to plan her escapist travel. She has three months of freedom before returning to her university as a College Senior.
Ireland is a safe, sensible choice for Rachel’s first solo trip abroad. She finds herself gradually gaining in confidence, with the help of new friend Carly, a down-to-earth Australian with a refreshingly different outlook on life. Inevitably, she gets the travel bug – and although she returns to the US to finish her studies, she’s off again soon afterwards, to visit Carly in Sydney. The relaxed attitude to life in Australia is an enlightening and delightful discovery. Rachel stays on for four months.
Despite the ever-present anxieties over her career and future, and decisions yet to be made – or perhaps because of them – Rachel soon heads off again, to South America with Carly. Given the many cultural and social differences encountered on this trip, she finds it rather more challenging than her previous Anglophone travels. But the journey ends on a positive note with a potential love interest.
This is a very well-written, amusing and enjoyable book. In some ways, it’s a coming-of-age work, but it also deals with some genuine dilemmas that women still have to face at this particular time of life. If the career ladder, marriage and babies are not for you, what other choices are there? How long can you put off these decisions, ever-conscious that your friends are accumulating families and assets? What if you don’t yet know what you want?
If you’d like to find out more, read my full review of Rachel’s book.
Final thoughts
All of these women have inspired me with their bravery, independence and wisdom. They left comfort and security behind, taking all the risks that breaking free from the chain brings with it. They reaped the rewards: enlightenment, confidence and independence. Five of them found love along the way, but I’m so happy that none of them made this the dominant theme of their book.
Their stories are written at different times of life, which just goes to show what wonderful therapy travel can be – at any age. It’s never too late to break free!
So which one did I like best? Well, as I’ve already mentioned, my favourite writer, whose talent I most admire and aspire to, is Liz. But the book I most enjoyed was Sarah’s. Even though we’re very different in so many ways – I’ve never yearned for a baby nor a dog, as she does – I think Sarah is the kind of person I could connect with and would love to have as a friend. I like the fact that she has good values but still knows how to enjoy herself. I love her down-to-earth Aussie humour, too. I reckon we could have some great laughs and share our stories of expat life over a wine or two.
What they did next
Frances went on to write further books about Italy. She and Ed still own Bramasole, splitting their time between Tuscany and North Carolina.
Alice became a full-time writer and lecturer, thanks to the success of her book and its sequel. She died in 2012.
Rita carried on travelling and writing. She is now 87 years old and has over 70 children’s books to her name.
Penny wrote 2 more books about her Italian travels. She eventually returned to Australia with her Italian partner and resumed her career in journalism. She’s now the mum of 2 boys.
Liz became a celebrated full-time author and went on to write fiction as well as further autobiographical works. She’s active on the speaking circuit and her shows around the world usually sell out way in advance.
Sarah went on to write another memoir. She eventually returned to Sydney with Frédéric and their son Oliver. She recently graduated as a Doctor of Creative Arts from Woollongong University and is still writing.
Rachel based herself in New York, where she established herself as a writer, journalist and essayist. She has also taught creative writing and journalism in various American universities. She has a 7 year-old son.
For more travel book reviews, see our Travel books and authors section.
© Coconut Lands. Our content is written by humans, not AI, and is therefore copyright-protected. Not to be reproduced without permission.
