Bad Tourist

“Once I stopped projecting what I wished I was onto myself and faced and accepted the current version of myself, I learned how to be happy in my own company.” from Mating Season

Suzanne Roberts’ collection of travel essays tells the tales of wanderlust that can, well, be less than appealing. From getting caught naked in a lightning storm to taking “real” yoga in India to realizing she needs a divorce while watching a fellow skier almost die in an avalanche, these stories are revealing and personal. Roberts doesn’t hold back when she discusses the men she’s had in her life and on her excursions, which is actually refreshing in the way a successful woman CEO of a global and honorable company is refreshing: it isn’t quite expected, but we know that’s the problem in and of itself. Her lovers are many, but her track record with healthy relationships isn’t. This collection is a journal of self-discovery and forgiveness. It’s also a reckoning of past indiscretions, a lesson in cultural mess-ups, a gain in confidence and ownership of her own body, and a coming-to-terms with the life she’s chosen to lead.

Roberts is quick and funny and her stories are captivating. The stories involving her mother were some of my favorites. Her writing is thoughtful and honest. I found myself irked and uncomfortable by some of her choices and remembered that it’s because this is not a life I would want. This is her life. There were also times when her experiences seemed like punishment rather than adventure, which helped vary the narratives. She sees her privilege in the faces of begging children and in the generosity of a people with much less, but that is part of what opens her eyes to the importance of travel. There were moments when I wanted to rearrange the stories because the flow didn’t quite work for me. She has organized them into categories, but the years from one essay to the next can jump two, five, or even ten years back or forward. I had to remind myself who her husband is because of the leaps in time. It isn’t a huge drawback, just a slight annoyance.

This would be a good pick for anyone that loves travel, misses traveling in these days of quarantine, or would like something different. This is a collection of love stories to old friends, lovers, her mother, new friends from her travels, discovered lands and cultures, and to herself.

Bad Tourist by Suzanne Roberts is a collection of travel essays that will virtually sweep you away to destinations both near and far, and believe me when I say that this is one trip that you won't soon forget

Suzanne Roberts is a travel writer on a mission, not only to add stamps to her passport, but to undertake the most significant and profound journey of all, that of self-reflection and discovery. As with most travels, almost nothing goes to plan, but isn't that the true nature of adventure after all? The author keeps us laughing with recognition, and provides a much needed escape as we join her vicariously on this journey towards enlightenment.

Many thanks to NetGalley and University of Nebraska Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Due to Covid19 - one of my favorite hobbies are currently illegal. Travel. Travel is life and I can't exactly do that anymore. I had so many travel plans for 2020 but since that is out the door I've been reading travel books instead to pretend that I am!

Anyway, onto the review. I really enjoyed this. Bad Tourist is about Suzanne Roberts travels throughout the world and how she tries to find herself in men and her writing. She eventually comes to terms that she can be happy alone and travel by herself or friends without looking for love. I thought her travels were relatable and honest. I felt like I was right there traveling with her whether it was in Vegas, India, or Peru. I love how many different places she has been and this book made me super excited for when travel is going to be a thing again. The only thing that didn't work for me was that this wasn't in chronological order and I would forget which ex was who. It would've been more sufficient if it was in order - at least to me. Overall, I really did enjoy this and the cover is super adorable!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

As a somewhat wayward traveler myself (well, when traveling was still a thing), I was looking forward to exploring *Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel." It sounded exactly like what I needed in 2020: a look into someone else's modern adventures across the world as a woman.

What I liked about it: It made me laugh out loud within the first few pages, and Roberts is great at writing a sentence: <i>Nothing will force you to face the reality of your life, and what to do with your aliveness, like the fact of a burning body.</i> It's also refreshing that her travels don't sum to a romantic whirl though the world's greatest cities; rather, nearly unbelievable sunsets and landscapes are seen in extremely poor countries, all while you're internally debating whether to end a relationship or trying to assess the likelihood that your driver is driving you out to your gruesome end in the Scottish highlands. In this way, Roberts captures what real travel is: a series of breathtaking and anxious moments, giddy and despondent, all mixed together.

What I didn't like: Given that the book is about love and traveling, I thought it didn't provide enough detail on either. Roberts' background is in poetry, and indeed, the prose felt truncated at times for a travel memoir. Rather than getting a vivid picture of a region, or a deeply intimate look at one of her relationships and its failings, you get a more surface-level view than I would have liked. It felt as though she went into each about halfway, instead of doing either full justice.

Read this if you're looking for a quick escape from 2020, into a world where the author has her own problems that persist with her through trips of a lifetime. Overall, I enjoyed the read!

I am a new Suzanne Roberts fan, and grateful to NetGalley for introducing me to her writing.
Suzanne has a great writing voice - honest, articulate, and snarkily humorous - and a great eye for details of varied travel environments, and of herself at various stages in relation to men and what being a woman means to her.

Suzanne Robert's incredible skill as a poet is present all throughout this absolute ride of a book. On every page I found myself highlighting a phrase or sentence simply for its beauty. On top of that, many of the anecdotes she shares, especially early on, got quite a few chuckles out of me, which is quite the achievement. Before I reached the half way point I began to be worried what the point of the book was meant to be for the reader. And upon finishing it, I am not sure I am able to answer that question. Was I supposed to gain anything from it, or was it just supposed to be a fun, quick read to be enjoyed and then put down? If the latter is true, then it certainly fulfilled its purpose. Otherwise, not so much for me.

I read this book so quickly! It was such an easy and engaging read. I love travel and this book sounded just the ticket (pun intended).

Roberts has compiled a collection of essays journalling her travel (mis)adventures. The book doesn’t have a storyline as such, just recounts of her nomadic lifestyle. The theme of the book is the author finding herself and not needing a relationship or marriage to define her. It’s definitely got a lot of girl power.

4* for this read which was the perfect way to armchair travel during the current restrictions. The description of the places and factual/historical details were fantastic. I struggled at first with the fact the entries aren’t in chronological order and the narrator’s relationship/marital status seemed a bit jumbled. However, I feel this was done purposely to show the superiority of the travel, of which details were never blurred. This book was a perfect escape and a great read for those with wanderlust.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel by Suzanne Roberts
#BadTourist #NetGalley

“The smoke hung in the air like a question.“

A series of essays telling of short, self-contained events - Bad Tourist may seem a lot like a compilation (we all love to hate those). The stories are sharp, funny, very self-aware and brimming with great details of each specific misadventure. Starting off each one, you’re given a year and a location. Roberts then proceeds to bounce all over physically and temporally. The challenge here is that Roberts’ self-awareness forces interjections about" "Why I’m a bad tourist" and at times, this seems tacked-on. Instead of letting her story breathe and organically offer the lesson, some of that feels off.

Does Tourist have a good narrative structure? About ten percent of the book in, I wasn’t really sure there would actually be a story to follow. And, true, there doesn’t seem to be one here, but I would say that these very tight, small essays are placed together well - as to fit and flow from theme to theme - like sex, for example. The vignette style does seem to get old fast however, and I just kept hoping for something to keep me hooked from story to story.

This passage early in the book had me thinking: “Nothing will force you to face the reality of your life, and what to do with your aliveness, like the fact of a burning body.“ There is much to behold in the travels of others.

Stories like “One Degree of Separation” are very short and, I felt, less satisfying. Other stories were longer and more interesting. But, as you can imagine the quality varies. “Scary Flyer” foils the perspective to decent effect. The Burning Man story is wild and at once scary.

In sum, I’m not quite sure I find Roberts a likable protagonist of this book. It IS called Bad Tourist, and, well I don’t find her tourist-ing all that bad and she just doesn’t seem terribly likable. Maybe it’s the nature of travel writing or her writing, but I needed to temper my expectations here.

If your favorite book is your passport, then Bad Tourist is the book for you! A combination of memoir and travel journal that is utterly delightful. Not only does the author describe some of her adventures from years of traveling around the world but she digs deep in to her own relationship issues, family complications, and personal growth. Parts of Bad Tourist are laugh out loud funny, other parts are nerve-racking, and yet others are incredibly deep. In addition to telling her travel stories, she touches on how tourism impacts the environment, what it means to be brave, how women frequently define their worth by the number of people who want them, savior complex, what tourism does to the cultures it touches, and what it is like to be a privileged American visiting a less affluent country. If you enjoy an adventure to far off lands then it is likely that you will enjoy this book as much as I did!

I had a challenging time with this essay collection. As positives, I do want to praise the writer's prose. The writer is clearly talented, and I can tell that these essays have a wonderful craft element; the writing is careful, considered, and fresh. As is the case with good essays, the writer does use retrospection and introspection to learn about herself, come to new conclusions, and dissect her past behaviors. However, I feel that as a narrator, she is not the best person to tell these bigger-picture stories on the travel industry, in part because her analysis doesn't go far enough; it's no longer enough to condemn being a "bad" tourist in that she becomes aware of her past microaggressions or privileged mindset. The interrogations don't feel deep enough, and I found myself wishing that some of the people written about (the low wage workers, the children begging for money, the sex workers, and so on) were the ones who had a book deal and a voice to tell their side of "bad" tourism. Of course, as a nonfiction writer, I know the writer can't change her experiences or privilege, but that brings about the point that I don't think this essay collection delves into territory that goes far enough to feel "needed." I think it may be eye-opening for some, but wasn't a fit for me.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was around 3.5 stars for me.

I like Robert's writing style and generally enjoyed her anecdotes about traveling. I appreciate that she reflects on her experiences and growth and being the "ugly American" abroad. There's a variety of anecdotes in this book from one-night stands while vacationing to trying yoga in India.

While the stories aren't in chronological order, we see Roberts' growth and her confidence in herself change. This book deals with boundaries and fear and figuring out what you want. The first two thirds of the book have a much lighter tone than the last third. But we learn life lessons along with Roberts' and experience travel both internationally and within the US!

Part memoir, part travel essays, this book really fascinated me. I was worried that it might be cheesy or a "preachy" in the way it addressed travelling to new places but Suzanne is so honest in her accounts of her travels, relationships and feelings about her own actions that it was hard not to be drawn in and empathise with many of the things that she goes through. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

Over the years, Suzanne takes us across continents, through multiple countries, introducing us to lovers, friends and family as she goes on a search. She seems to be searching for many things across her entries in this book - love, happiness, adventure, herself. On her journey, she is confronted with the realities of the world and is forced to challenge her own perspective of things, trying to overcome the label of "bad tourist".

"The misadventures of love and adventure" really take you on a rollercoaster of emotions. There are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity, nail-biting panic and heartbreaking realisations. It is a lovely balance of self-discovery and recalling new cultural experience - a wonderful distraction from the current restrictions on travelling and being close to others. I related to Suzanne in many ways and found myself cheering for her throughout my read.

I really enjoyed this. Suzanne Roberts has written with genuineness and brutal honesty about a life of travel compounded by her deeply intimate thoughts about her personal life. She addresses issues around residual colonialism and white saviourism without lecturing, and refuses to express any shame for the choices she makes, even where they are imperfect. I loved that, it felt very brave.

There were moments when I laughed out loud, and there were also moments where I thought 'wow, never thought about it like that before'. I really do recommend this to any woman who likes to travel, with all of its dangers and highlights— and anyone who's ever found themselves in the mess of a personal life in shambles.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Bad Tourist by Suzanne Roberts.

This is a travelogue memoir of all of the mishaps and adventures that Roberts has throughout her years abroad. In it she experiences natural disasters, awkward confrontations, romance and more.

I'm going to chalk my review up to a simple personality clash. I just could not do this one. The chapters all felt a bit disjointed. I never felt myself connecting to the author, or investing in her experiences. I didn't like the way she treated a lot of the people she encountered on her trips, or the way she almost seemed to brag about it. Perhaps this was just too crass for me? And that's saying a lot.

Well, this isn't exactly a travel book, even if we do start with a landslide threat at the foot of Machu Picchu, the criminal beggars of India, and suchlike. It's not exactly a straight memoir either, but it is certainly an amalgam, something in between both extremes. It might also have been called "Eat, Vacay, F*ck", for we get copious drinks and meals out, lots of exotic locales, and a heck of a lot of horizontal tangoing. Basically the author was jumping around Latin America, allegedly trying to learn Spanish, but also trying to find her post-divorce self. This might have been fine if we had got a greater grip of the places concerned, but I felt that a little lacking, and as for the autobiography, hindsight and regret are slathered on so much it really does become a parade of 'methinks she doth protest too much' moments, when she comes to realise that condition-free shagging is a bad thing, before giving us ten more chapters of the same.

In the finish we do find some common ground with the ethos of the biographical writing. She clearly wishes she'd had more agency to pick and choose more select men, and she's fine on how a divorce proceedings and young middle age can put the idea in a woman's mind that she really ought to settle for the first dick to come around in case there are no others. But at the same time, the better travel writing is to be had in the isolated episodes later on, from Mongolia et al. The wacky timeline of this book of extended postcards also seems to imply that being a bit more discerning not only makes your self-worth greater, but heightens your ability at reporting. I don't think that's a standard perception of being chaste, but it's one you get from this oddball release.

“Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.” -Paul Theroux

A quote that I've never heard before but is perfect for this book and the nostalgic feeling for travel that it stirred in me. This collection of travel essays will make you cringe, laugh and shock you with its realness (that's a thing, right?) This is not a sort of travel guide that will advise you on the "must-see" sights of each place, but instead tells the story of Robert's journey into self acceptance and happiness.

The book is not structured in chronological order which, lent itself beautifully to Robert's chaotic emotions. Anyone who has an interest in travelling or has travelled themselves in any capacity will be able to relate to this on some level. It's terrifying, brilliant and brutally honest.

I had a little trouble getting into the book. But once I got last the first 20 pages or so, I felt that the books started to come into its own. I think the author found a rhythm and I really enjoined the book. I enjoyed hearing about her travels and the challenges that she experiences. I saw her personal growth throughput the story and I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys humor with their adventures

I read a chapter of this before bed every night. I usually hate bed time because it means the day is over, but reading this book made me excited to go to bed because I could get another peek into an adventure of Suzanne Roberts. I just wish the first few chapters weren't about her love and romances. It pegged her as needy and not confident, which maybe she was at one time, but not a great first impression when this book was so much more than that.

Honest. Hilarious and heartbreaking. It was almost hard to read at some points following the love and life and travels of this author. But this book was captivating from beginning to end. Recommend. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I loved this book from the very first story which was laugh out loud funny!
I felt the book was very relatable and the places so well described that you could picture them.
During these times when we can't travel this book is a great escape, it is also a lovely story of self discovery and growing up through travel to wonderful places.
I would have preferred it to be in chronological order as I had to keep going back to the date to find out where she had been previously - it would have shown the reader how much she had grown in the time-line.
Saying that I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend.

This Book tells the story of the amazing places the author has been to via travelling, I enjoyed this book and it reminded me a bit of Eat, love, Pray

It also made me want to travel but due to covid restrictions I am unable to

I would recommend this book , with thanks to netgalley & university of Nebraska Publishing for the arc of this book in exchange for this review

As a fellow traveler, I really related to Suzanne Roberts' compelling stories! This is recommended for any other female travelers.

who knew I loved anthologies? I love books formatted like this where each story is set in a completely different setting or with a completely different plot but they all fit together into a larger story. This book follows Suzanne Roberts through her travel adventurous and trials.

I was expecting this book to be super lighthearted and funny, and while there were definitely funny moments, it was more of a book exploring her own identity and also grappling with some of the darker sides of travelling (especially travelling alone as a woman). She gave incredibly honest accounts of her interactions with locals, with other tourists, and with cultures very different from her own. She was open about her feelings about foreign traditions, while also trying to be as open-minded and respectful as possible.

I loved how you could totally see her growth in every chapter, especially in how she deals with men. It's very rare that character development is so obvious in nonfiction so it was lovely to see.

Bad Tourist is a good although sometimes cringe-worthy read! Definitely a departure from the typical romantic travel memoirs!

I liked the idea of this memoir, I feel as though the timeline and little stories jumped around too much and I found myself questioning what sequential order everything was happening in

this is probably one of my favourite kind of books, particularly now when one cannot travel as we once did. Such escapism.

There’s nothing better than to read a travel book when you’re stuck at home and can’t travel. I thought Bad Tourist was an enjoyable and quick read taking the reader through many travel mishaps and adventures that most travelers can relate to. I felt that the book could have been written chronologically as I found it difficult to navigate and remember things that previously happened. Overall, a funny, easy book to keep the wanderlust going.

Thank you to Suzanne Roberts, University of Kansas Press, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel is a collection of travel essays from Suzanne Roberts’s travels around the world loosely collected around the idea of “peccadillos--the seeming harmless things we do in another culture that we would never do in our own--that make us bad tourists.” (Her words!)

And although many of the stories are funny and there are a few that might make you cringe, it’s more than just a collection of stories from one woman’s self-centered crazy adventures as other books in this genre sometimes become--there’s heart and meaning behind many of the stories with thoughts and lessons of how travel can affect our lives...and the lives of the people we meet along the way.

I wrote down more than just a few quotes from the book as I wanted to revisit them; I was often grateful that she was able to put into words experiences or thoughts that I, too, have experienced while traveling (or just plain living life; she does include some experiences with relationships, too).

My one complaint is the organization of the book--the stories were sorted by activity (“Eating and Drinking,” “Activities,” etc.) which meant stories from the same trip were sometimes separated and the stories sometimes jumped in time. There wasn’t one summarizing introduction or epilogue to tie the stories together; but, I read an Advanced Readers Copy and I hope that’s something they’ve added to the published editions.

Overall, though, it’s a great choice for anyone who loves to travel and realizes that travel can teach us a few things about ourselves and our world.

This is not your grandmothers travel memoir. Full of sex, booze, and far flung adventures; it's like getting snippets of soap operas. Bad Tourist was a highly enjoyable read. I laughed. I cringed. I wanted to hear more. I really hope this gets made into an audiobook read by the author.

as a diplomat and avid traveler, I had a great time reading this book. I could very easily identify with the struggles and faux pas Roberts encountered while traveling.

Overall I did enjoy this book. I liked the individual stories, but I think two things could have improved the book. I understand it was thematic rather than chronological, but I had difficulty keeping track of when the author was married (and to whom) or who she was dating which was often referenced in the stories. Additionally, I would have loved some background info on the author and how/when she started traveling. I was looking for there to be more of an introduction to who she is (and how all the traveling related to her teaching).

this was a great memoir, the stories were great and I enjoyed going on this journey. I look forward to more from the author.

This is both a travel and personal journey memoir, giving little snippets of the authors life and the cultures experienced. It also highlights the vulnerability of a lone female traveler and the common sense needed (almost all the time). The book was both laugh out loud at times as well as very serious, which was entertaining and enjoyable.
Received from NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.

Suzanne Roberts's descriptions of places in each story truly were beautiful and poetic, transporting me to them right there, not to mention I myself visited some of them and can testify to the veracity of her words! The book itself was also an intimate portrait of her exploration of her self-worth and self-esteem. Pity then that the stories were scattered all over and organized for the topics in a Lonely Planet guide-book way, instead of going for a linear progression. I have to note though that I was reading the ARC of the book (huge thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher!), so I am not sure if that remained so in the final edition of the book. It was a pity, because it would be otherwise a perfect read for everyone, especially for women who are in need to acknowledge their worth and their faults, not necessarily while on tour around the world (but it is not bad idea too). I was so absorbed in her search for true happiness that the waste of time trying to connect the dots how is someone connected to her in which stories annoyed me a lot. I do wonder if I would have been as transfixed if the stories were indeed in the straight order, but it's pointless. As it was, it did diminish the experience.

I would give this book 4.5 stars if it was possible, and recommend it to all my girls who love stories about travel and who are not afraid of reading a bit of truth about themselves in them. Some choices Suzanne made were in my opinion odd (and she admitted them so freely), but they do not make her worth any lesser. On the contrary, the fact she got over and shared her sorrows and regrets in these stories make her a beautiful huggable human being whom is impossible to dislike and not want to be a friend with.

In a time when borders are blocked and cultures are judged, Bad Tourist reminds us that we are indeed connected, threaded through human condition. Suzanne Roberts shares her beautiful and vulnerable travels through humor and gut-bursting honesty. She reminds us that travel can be a journey, not only to another land, but to our internal exploration of self. This book is timely, a worthy and important read.

The author reveals her interior landscape while describing far-reaching travels to Mongolia, Panama, Peru, Ireland, India, Burning Man, Czech Republic, Mexico, and places in between. As a woman who traveled mostly solo, Roberts navigates her own vulnerability as well as courage to face complicated truths about the world, and her place in it. These vignettes do not form a chronological narrative, nor do they follow a straight geographic path. As such, I was sometimes confused. The strongest passages juxtapose details of place with the narrator's conflicted inner story as a person of privilege, carrying considerable emotional baggage. There is much to love in this collection, especially a complex reckoning with ancestral history while visiting her mother's homeland.
Will appeal to fans of EAT PRAY LOVE and WILD.

Bad Tourist by Suzanne Roberts is about the traveling adventures and life relationships of Suzanne Roberts. This book took a long time for me to read. Each story is based on the experiences of the author in a different city of the world. I loved reading about the authors traveling experiences. There was depth in language and each line was filled with many details. A few stories that stood out for me were the experiences in India and in the United States. I even laughed a few instances for a few stories. I was not interested in reading about the author's love life and these sections were boring. However, in the end, I liked how the author made peace with her opinions about finding a life partner, the flirting game, and found a life partner.

I enjoyed parts of this book and found Suzanne's life fascinating, but at some points I felt as if there was a little too much focus on her various boyfriends. I think that a reshuffling of the chapters might have fixed this and made the book feel less focused on this one area of her life.

I've downloaded this book some time ago but never got to read it.
I though the 3rd lockdown will be a perfect opportunity. It was a great idea as I've really enjoyed the book.
It was very well written, witty and fun. I love travels and this book was a brilliant source of inspiration.
Full of interesting stories unlike a usual, boring guide book.
Highly recommended if you love to travel but currently unable to so do.

What makes this book different from all others?
A collection of short stories about various aged travelers. Different relationships, different cultures, different issues abound in each chapter. It's wonderful to read such a breadth of material in one book.

I will recommend this to my students.

As a life-long traveler, I found this book delightful. As a woman in the 21st century, I found it to be both relatable and just a touch exotic, which is an extremely compelling combination. Her adventures were nearly cinematic in their telling, and her moments of reflection seemed like little pools of stillness amongst the swirling eddies of the rest of her life.

The only critique I would pass along, were I recommending this book to a friend, would be that it doesn't read through as a cohesive narrative. The way that Roberts' story jumps around in time and topic made it seem more like a coffee table book—good for picking up here and there for a little vignette—rather than something to absorb with focus.

Enjoyable read, more of the 'pass the time' kind. Would've enjoyed if the chronological order had been adhered to throughout - the time hopping got messy and disjointed in many occasions. Also think one should look at this as a sort of 'nostalgia' memoir - not just because of Covid changing travel as we know it today, but also because many/most of the stories are circa 2002-2007, which technically is about 20 years ago (when you imagine it will be 2022 in 6 months), and this makes me wonder how relevant this travelogue is, so best to just see it as a nostalgic memoir from the author and read it that way

I think this book might have caught me at the wrong time. I love travel but I wasn’t in the headspace to hear about it. Probably because it had been put on hold for so long.

The book was fine but felt a little disjointed at times. Maybe I need to revisit again at some point.

Bad Tourist by Suzanne Roberts
Rating 3.5/5 Stars
Published by U.Nebraska Press
Published On 1 October 2020

Thank you to Netgalley, University of Nebraska Press, and of course, Suzanne Roberts, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.


Covid 19 has put my love of travel on hold and this book is one of the reasons I love travel writing as a genre - it is so immersive and necessary for the world we have lived in the past 18 months. I love to travel, and not being able to - I’ve turned to books to feed that hunger. I enjoyed this book beyond that for the laughing factor. There were a few moments where I just broke down laughing! I did find there to be a few poorly constructed parts in the essays, but for the most part this book is a positive for me. I recommend it if you miss traveling as much as I do.

I love to travel, but then who doesn’t? Especially now when we’re not really allowed, I miss it so much. This book was a nice substitute for that. It had really great places, many different ones. I liked the writing style, the descriptions, it was funny in places and also sometimes informative. It’s a solid 4 star read for me

I so loved this book. In a time when I couldn’t travel, this really kept me going as I followed along on all of the adventures. It was a splendid read. The prose makes you feel like you are really there.

Absolutely fantastic! Could not put the book down. Going to recommend to everyone to check out this book!