I enjoyed every minute of this book and loved being taken along on this trip with the author. So many places I've never been and will never get to, but yet I was intrigued and fascinated by the bravery of the author to do what she did. The time period is also interesting to me. Seeing the author pictured wearing a skirt and looking as if she was going on a flight rather than spending hours on a bus felt amazing in our age of casual dress. This is the kind of trip that could never be made today; I think anyone contemplating such a trip should read this book so that they can appreciate how WTs did things before the internet. Paper maps? So nostalgic!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's an eye opener and a delight.

3.5* Renewing old memories.

Reading Patti's book brought back memories of living in a VW van travelling through Europe, North Africa and North America. Being left with an increasing collection of small domination coins after each currency exchange. Writing letters on blue aerogrammes and the delight of collecting mail at Poste Restante. Carefully unfolding large paper maps, inevitably finding our destination concealed within the fold crease.

I'm glad I read Patti and Mick's vastly condensed, two year journey, it was fascinating reading, tho low on details of the local people and the country they were visiting. Attempting a similar journey now would be impossible and inadvisable, due to restricted military areas and actual war zones.

Nostalgic reading for some and a history book for others.

Thank you NetGalley and Noble Press for this e-book, this review is my personal, unbiased opinion.

4.25 stars.

I've gotten a real taste for travel memoirs in recent years, and not just because of the bookish travel... I love discovering new countries and cultures, and I'm always looking for new travel memoirs to add to my TBR. This means that I of course wasn't able to resist adding Overland Before The Hippie Trail as soon as I first heard about it. I actually recently read another travel memoir focusing on the so-called 'hippie trail', and I was curious to see what traveling this route was like before it was popular. I'm happy to announce that I ended up having an excellent time reading this book!

Overland Before The Hippie Trail reads like a travelogue, with the author looking back at her travels with her husband back in 1965-1967. Patricia Noble Sullivan switches her narration with excerpts from the travel journals of both herself and her husband, and there are quite a few photos incorporated into the text as well to help bring the different destinations to life. I really enjoyed her writing style, which made it really easy to keep turning those pages. True, there wasn't too much dept with a lot of the locations, but I personally didn't mind as we got at least an express visit for most countries.

If you enjoy bookish travel, you are in for an absolute treat with Overland Before The Hippie Trail, because their journey covers a LOT of different countries in both Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It's true that some countries are only briefly described, but there are other countries we do spend more time in and the descriptions and photos really made the destinations come alive. It was especially interesting to learn more about their travels during the 1960s, both to countries where it is now impossible to travel to and the way they had to travel without all the modern commodities. Their journey is without a doubt very inspiring, and it kind of makes you wish for simpler times, where information wasn't available with a simple click of a button.

I won't be going into all the different countries the author and her husband visited between 1965 and 1967, because there are simply too many... But I enjoyed reading about how they mixed travel with teaching in order to afford their next part of the journey. There were personal connections with certain locations as well, and this book definitely made me want to dust off my trusty backpack for another trip... The travel bug is contagious, that's for sure! If you enjoy reading travelogues that visit a lot of different countries, I can definitely recommend Overland Before The Hippie Trail. It does an excellent job showing us readers what it was like traveling in the 1960s!

I loved this travel memoir of a newly married American couple travelling in their VW Camper-van through Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and East Asia in the late 1960s. It includes photos, diary entries, and excerpts from letters home to their parents.
I enjoyed following Patti and her husband Mick on this huge adventure, long before satnavs and mobile phones, and sometimes even before maps in some places.
There were lots of memorable anecdotes and these are some of my favourites. Waiting at the Iranian/Afghan border for the guard to wake from his nap and eat his lunch. Experiencing a tribal wedding in Pakistan. Meeting up with the same fellow travellers at different points along the way, and comparing their trips. Hitchhiking across Malaysia and finding out about the political situation from the various drivers. Taking trips down memory lane in Manila, Hong Kong and South Korea, staying in the honeymoon suite on a Russian ship to Japan. Spending a night in a traditional Japanese house, including going to a public bath house. Visiting an old Mandarin teacher in Taiwan, and old family friend in South Korea.
The end of the book was really interesting as well, as the author and her husband didn’t stop travelling when they returned to the US, but continued when they worked overseas, particularly Patti.
Highly recommended if you enjoy travel writing, or just want to do some armchair travel.