This is a painstakingly researched, richly detailed,, and extremely entertaining exploration of travel during the middle ages, taken from primary source accounts from pilgrims, merchants, diplomats, and explorers. It's full of immersive period detail as it outlines the realities and practical considerations of undertaking a medieval journey (packing, currency, transport, accommodations, food, language barriers, customs, etc) as well as the fantastical fabrications of mythical creatures, people, and places that imbued many contemporary travel guides with more fiction than fact - and of course, the baggage of the travelers' own beliefs, prejudices, and expectations that they carry with them on their journey. From England through Europe to Egypt and the Holy Land, through Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, to India and China, this book follows the paths of several real travelers from the 12th - 15th centuries as they embark upon their various journeys, set amidst a wealth of historical context, and brings to life their experiences and their thoughts and impressions. It explores the reasons why many medieval Europeans left the safety of home to explore the wider world, the means of transport that were available to them, contingencies which must be prepared for, and the nature of hospitality and accommodations along the way. This book is bursting with colorful details and travel advice of the period which make it a lively and often amusing read.

I especially enjoyed the rules of tavern etiquette:

"The basic rules of dining are as follows:
Don’t scratch your head or back as if you’ve got fleas.
Don’t be sullen, blink too much or have watery eyes.
Don’t sniff, or pick your nose, or let it run, or blow it too loudly.
Don’t twist your neck like a jackdaw.
Don’t put your hands down your stockings or fiddle with your codpiece, or scratch, or shrug, or rub your hands.
Don’t pick your ears, retch, laugh too loudly or spit too far.
Speak quietly, don’t tell lies or talk drivel, don’t spray spittle, gape or pout.
Don’t lick the dish.
Don’t cough, hiccup or belch, stamp your feet or straddle your legs.
Don’t pick or gnash your teeth, and don’t puff bad breath over your betters.
Always beware of ‘blasting your rear guns’ (that is, farting)."

This is an engaging and informative book that will appeal to history buffs and casual readers alike. I had a good time with this book and I recommend it even if you are not a big non-fiction reader.

I'm thankful to the author, the publisher, and to Netgalley for providing me with a free advance reader copy of the book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

An interesting read giving different perspectives on the Middle Ages. It is kind of incredible how far some people were able to travel back then.

Thank you Netgalley and W. W. Norton & Company for access to this arc.


This looked interesting and for the most part it was. After an opening chapter on what travel means (just keep going through this), Bale dives into various historical accounts of (mainly) Europeans venturing far from home for various reasons though the last chapter covers a few journeys made to Europe, Africa, and the Arabian peninsula by people traveling westward from China and Mongolia.

The most time is spent on religious pilgrimages to Rome, Jerusalem, Egypt, and other parts of the Middle East by European Christians. It’s interesting but does go on a bit. Honestly, the conditions sounded as horrendous as the pilgrims probably found them to be. Traveling simply for wanderlust or pleasure didn’t appear to be that popular. Trade was another major incentive to leave home and several merchants and traders left accounts of what they went through trying to buy and sell or set up trade hubs and links in foreign lands.

The book jumps back and forth from various sources to cover different aspects of a typical journey that might have been made rather than sticking with one person’s narrative for a whole trip. Some travelers were enthusiastic while others were grimly determined and also expecting things to be ghastly. For pilgrims, the suffering along the way seemed to enhance the payoff of the trip. Some traders loved the chance to see new places while others caught cities or rulers having a bad day. One Chinese traveler was awestruck by Hormuz while a Mongolian Christian enjoyed sitting in a beautiful garden in Naples overlooking a sea battle.

Bale doesn’t shy away from the fact that – just like today – people had their prejudices and preconceptions. Some of these are racist. Some people are great to travel with while others are grumps. What got written about depended on what a person thought was important rather than what we might love to read about today.

Several fun tidbits of information are included such as an exchange rate so you know how far your plapparts will take you (also change money in Bruges where there’s a bank), don’t forget a staff (support and beating off bandits) and a bag, where to find a licensed guide in Venice who won’t cheat you while booking your travel on to the Holy Land, some travel costs in Egypt and the Holy Land (just accept that you’re going to be stiffed for money all along the way), that the locals who aren’t making money off of you will probably be annoyed by you (jeering and stone throwing are probable), some handy phrases translated into Greek, Albanian, Turkish, and Arabic, medical advice for those traveling overseas (some of which is … not bad), India has both manticores and unicorns, and when traveling from Tana to Khanbaliq (Beijing) don’t be chintzy when hiring a dragoman – splash out and hire a good one,.

The little snapshots of things I hadn’t expected – life in a caravanserai (like a modern travel pit stop); that people from all over the world had traveled much farther into distant lands than I expected; that an Italian saw and saved two Tartars in bondage in Italy, one of whom he’d met before on his travels – were what made the book for me. It ends with sources, references, and further reading. When it’s all said and done, it appears that travelers and traveling experiences haven’t changed all that much over the centuries. B

Bit of a disappointment. I expected from the title that this would be more in the vein of Ian Mortimer’s “Time Travellers Guides”. It is, however, more of a history of travel and travellers in the Medieval era. Sometimes interesting, sometimes plodding. The audiobook is a MUCH better format for enjoying the book than the print.

A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages takes on a lot. It explores what travel was like for those living in the Middle Ages, details contemporary understandings of the world and the people and places in it, and recounts the travels of several specific figures of those times. It covers a lot of ground, and you will find a lot of interesting details throughout the journey.

I would say this book is best suited for readers who love to get into the weeds of what it was like in specific historical eras and relish the particular details. I loved learning which specific charms were used for safe travel, what made for the perfect walking stick, what to wear and pack, the currency exchange rates, how to avoid the bad tour guides in Venice, pilgrimage badges, and what constituted good manners in a tavern, for instance. That doesn’t even scratch the surface of what kinds of details you will find in this book, and I definitely learned a lot.

While I enjoyed nerding out about the details and hearing depictions of the destinations, I wasn’t as intrigued by the recounting of specific travelers. I understand these stories assist in demonstrating certain points (e.g. the motivations for travel), but I kind of wish the focus was narrowed to just what it was like to travel during that time and what the world/specific places looked like at the time. I probably would have preferred a book formatted around specific aspects or considerations when traveling during the Middle Ages, and less around specific destinations and the travelers that went there. I think it is important to note that this book is not formatted like a coffee table book nor a traditional travel guide.

Nonetheless, I still enjoyed this read. In addition to learning so many new details, it was also interesting to contemplate the ways in which medieval travel does and does not resemble travel as we know it.

*Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!*

Thank you to Netgalley for a digital ARC of this book that is being published on April 23rd

When I first saw this title, I thought it would be about modes of transportation and the ways of travel in the middle ages and while you get that, it's so much more.

The author does a fantastic job of transporting you to the middle ages and telling these stories from actual diaries of people, informing you of their reasons for travelling, who was able to travel, where they travelled and their purpose of travel.

Some of the chapters I found much more interesting than others, but each reader is going to have a different experience than the last. It was quite the journey and I'm really glad I read this book. I definitely learned a lot and it brought up some interesting conversation around the dinner table.

The description of this book as a "travel guide" made me hope that the format would be a bit different. Maybe set up like a travel guide, or perhaps if it was going to be a traditional book the "whimsical" title would mean it was more along the lines of narrative nonfiction and would be an easy flowing read. It was not. But the information was really interesting if a bit rambling at times.

I wasn't aware that travel was quite so common in the Middle Ages. It was interesting to see what a journey might have looked like at the time.

I was expecting this to be a colorful exploration of travel in the Middle Ages. I found it to be too bogged down in tedious details to hold my interest. DNF.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This book is a nonfiction book about the Middle Ages and the people that lived there and how they would’ve traveled.

This was an interesting and engaging nonfiction book. The writing was accessible and interesting. This is not my normal read but I enjoyed it! I think a lot of people will find this one interesting!

Thanks so much to netgalley and WW Norton company for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages was something I thought I'd at least enjoy. Advertised as an "odyssey across the medieval world, recounting the advice that circulated among those venturing to the road for pilgrimage," we instead got a dry recounting of individual travellers' lives. Let me explain:

The book is split into roughly thirteen chapters, each exploring a specific place a European traveller might choose to go. The first half focuses almost exclusively on pilgrimage-specific sites and experiences, with the second half opening up to the rest of Africa and Central and Eastern Asia. Each section is buoyed by a person in history's experience of their travels, usually those who left a written account of it.

The first half focuses exclusively on Pilgrimage sites. This is not my shindig, but it might be yours. It is potentially a worthwhile place to learn the context of travel for medieval people during this period, but a lot of the potential joy from it was sucked clean dry from the issues I will discuss later. I found the book more bearable in the second half: finally, we go to places fewer Europeans had seen and encounter interesting aspects of cultural mixing we often forget about in the period.

So, back to the issues. Beyond the writing being pretty mediocre, the book just felt like a report. This is not a "guide" for contemporary people "travelling" to the Middle Ages but a quick look at what Medieval travellers would have expected on their journeys and what some of them said about it. That could be fine, except that each chapter contains a lot of tangential information about the travellers that we "see through," with simply far, far too many places introduced that explaining and contextualizing them appropriately would be a waste of time. Because of this, a lot of the information is surface-level, and much is discussed without a steady sense of why. As mentioned earlier, the little that we are informed of for our "trip" is strictly information that would be known to individuals in the Medieval period. While perhaps a bit entertaining for some, adding a short list of old wives' tales at the end of each chapter felt insulting when each chapter barely gave me enough information to grasp what the hell was actually going on. Bale does not really have a thesis with this work—sure he waxes poetically about travel in the introduction and coda—but regurgitating past traveller's writings and passing it as "guide" is incredibly disingenuous.

I don't know why this didn't work for me. Maybe I didn't read the blurb well enough and prepare myself for what I was getting into. I'm eager to see other's reviews as the book gets published.

TLDR: This is a history of medieval European travellers disguised as a guidebook. Skip the first half. Watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aSdFrPnlRg">this video</a> instead.

An excellent exploration of the medieval world that puts one in the mindset of medieval travelers. It starts in England heads east all the way to China with a brief epilogue about homecoming. Along the way, readers learn about various parts of medieval cultures and politics, and hopefully will also put to rest the old idea that most people never went anywhere during the middle ages.

Like a Middle Ages TripAdvisor!

This captivating book details the when’s, why’s, and how’s of travel in the Middle Ages through journeys with individuals, routes, and so much more. The author uses compelling and understatedly hilarious language to recall these accounts and to give “advice” to the reader on how to proceed on their travel in the Middle Ages such as the exchange rate for currency, what to bring, medical advice, traveling companions, and so much more. The author takes care to link travel THEN to travel NOW in a way that drives the points home, we are all travelers and the experience brings the same out of us now as it did then. Well done to Anthony Bale on this gorgeous book. Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton for providing me with the ARC. I can’t wait to pick it up when it’s released.

When we think about travel in the Middle Ages, we often think of wealthy nobles or those who went to war fighting in foreign lands. However, that is merely a misconception. Travel was open to everyone, from the wealthy, the poor, the pious pilgrims, and the merchants. Each group had their reasons for traveling to different countries. Still, they all wrote down their experiences to tell future generations about their encounters and encourage others to explore the world, both the known and unknown parts. Anthony Bale has compiled many of these accounts into one comprehensive book called, “A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes.”

I want to thank W. W. Norton & Company and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this book. I am always looking for a new element to study about the past, especially the Middle Ages. When I saw this title and the concept that it was going to explore beyond Europe, it intrigued me as I tend to focus on medieval Europe and I wanted to expand my knowledge of the medieval world as a whole.

Bale begins by giving his readers a bit of a foundation for understanding the travel guide genre’s origins, the directions as they were understood by those living in the medieval world, and how medieval Europeans understood the layout of the world through the mappae mundi. He also explains the origins of one of the first globes, the Behaim Globe( also known as the Erdapfel, which was created by Martin Behaim who came from a family of merchants.

Every good travel saga needs a starting point and this one happens to begin in England where pilgrims set out for a journey to Rome and Jerusalem. Along the way, Bale introduces his readers to the main cities of Europe, sites of pilgrimage, dangerous passes, and tips like how to understand foreign languages and exchange rates between the different currencies. Once we reach Italy and later Jerusalem, our focus moves away from pilgrimage to exploration and trade. Bale tends to focus on testimonies from pilgrims, merchants, and diplomats to paint a picture of the Western world heading to the East, as far as Japan (Cipangu) and Ethiopia in Africa. He does show some Eastern travelers coming to the West towards the end, but I wish we could see more of those interactions and more female voices in this book.


Overall, I found this book informative and a fascinating read to see how people in the Middle Ages saw the world around them. There were some dry spots along the way, but I think for those who want an introductory book to how medieval Europeans viewed the world through their travels, it would be a great book. If this sounds like you, check out, “A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes” by Anthony Bale.

A fun and funny walkthrough about life in the Middle Ages. Forget what you think you know! Will be ordering for my library.

What made this capture my attention were the stories of every day people who lived during these times.The whys of why they wanted to travel,the hows and then the end results of their efforts.I was quite fascinated by the mundane details.Certain stories however just seemed added in at random though.It seemed well researched but I was a bit disappointed by the writing.It was dull and plodding at points and I do admit my attention wondered.Other than that it was an okay read.

Much thanks to Netgalley for sending me a copy

Travel along with the rich and religious on an uncomfortable pilgrimage in the late Middle Ages. Follow trade routes across Europe and beyond. Meet the adventurous people of this era.
This nonfiction book describes modes of travel, the many political and war issues, multiple languages and currency, churches and relics,and many different purposes of the journey. The author describes these journeys as costly and dangerous citing original source documents. A very nice book for a leisurely stroll through the later Middle Ages. Recommended for every history teacher and curious folk.

*Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the chance to review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This book was a wonderful way to learn about pilgrimages in the Middle Ages! After reading I feel like I have a better understanding of what it was like to travel during this period of time. I highly recommend this read to history buffs, or even travel buffs!

This is a very informative and highly entertaining book about travel in the Middle Ages. Topics covered include map and globe making, the plague, where dragons are born, how to find the fountain of youth, and Medieval medical advice for travelers (my favorite!)

I loved reading about the spirit of adventure that persists even in the face of danger and death and even though there were numerous obstacles to travel during this time. This book really captures that innate human desire for discovery.

I especially loved the descriptions of the different kinds of festivals and all the different kinds of food. The illustrations were wonderful too, I only wish there were more of them.

This would be a great book to accompany a unit on the Middle Ages or for a writer who is writing about that time period.

Full disclosure: This is not my normal type of read! But I was in the mood for something different, and so I requested an e-galley of this book from the publisher. It did not disappoint! I can't imagine what a treasure this must be for someone into history, as just as a typical nonfiction reader, I LOVED it. Anthony Bale did an incredible job making the reader feel like they'd traveled in time and were experiencing everything as it was back then. I was so surprised to learn about the pilgrimages people made--it was like shining a light on an era that feels rather dark in average history books. I highly recommend this book for anyone, but especially the history buff in your life!

A wonderful and insightful book. My favorite non fiction of the year. Anthony Bale has a way of truly taking you back in time to marvel and appreciate how we lived and what we have now.

History often leaves everyday people behind. Bale has found a window to the past through extensive research of travel as it was known in the Middle Ages. Bale has scoured through endless accounts around the world, church records, personal journals, and has painstakingly compiled a picture of life for the person lost to time. It simultaneously is a marvel of portrait of life as it was and still is. How desire for exploration still connects us and how we should appreciate modern advancements.

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an ARC of this book.