With airfares hitting recent highs and economic anxiety top of mind, many Americans are looking for adventures closer to home and rethinking how they approach international travel. Guidebook publishers are taking note, emphasizing domestic tourism and bang-for-your-buck trips abroad while also leaving room for the kinds of inspirational, aspirational titles that fuel armchair travelers’ dreams of better days ahead.

Road warriors

“We’re seeing a huge rise in domestic travel, road trips, RV purchases, and camping,” says Allyson Johnson, executive editor at National Geographic Books, a brand practically synonymous with globe-trotting. In October, Nat Geo will release the latest installment in Joe Yogerst’s 5,000 Ideas series: 50 States, 5,000 Family Adventures, which highlights kid-friendly activities across the U.S. and Canada, noting a suggested age range for each entry.

“Previous books in the series have been more adult forward, but this is full of places the whole family can enjoy together—zoos, amusement parks, theme parks, museums with interactive exhibits, and playgrounds,” Johnson says, adding that the book is in line with a recent companywide emphasis on family. “There’s a lot of ease in domestic travel. It might be the first stepping stone when a family starts to travel together.”

Fodor’s editorial director Douglas Stallings says that in light of the current economic climate, his company is focused on destinations that are easier for Americans to reach. September, for instance, sees the release of a new guide devoted entirely to Washington State.

“I wanted to capture the kind of travel that interests people these days—wineries, natural areas, and national parks,” Stallings says. “Washington has a wine region in the middle of the state, and people are going to eastern Washington, to North Cascades National Park, to places they didn’t go before. The whole state deserves to be a destination.”

The publisher has also revived its New Mexico guide for the first time in 15 years, with a new edition hitting shelves in October. “New Mexico is increasing in popularity: it currently ranks in the top third of U.S. states for tourism,” Stallings notes. “There’s a lot of really interesting Native American culture and great food there, and it’s not all in Santa Fe and Taos.”

Avalon Travel publisher Jaimee Callaway also senses a renewed interest
in U.S. travel. “When there’s a little bit more uncertainty in the world, domestic sales tend to go up and international sales tend to go down,” she says. “We’re seeing that for sure this year.”

Avalon’s Moon imprint is stepping up this fall with books including Adventures of a Lifetime, a splashy hardcover survey of all 63 U.S. national parks, and Moon Pacific Northwest, which covers Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia; authors Matt Wastradowski, Marissa Pedersen, and Carolyn B. Heller are, respectively, based in those states and that province.

“A lot of our regional and state guides sell quite well in their own areas,” Callaway says. “Moon Pacific Northwest is great for people who are somewhat local and want options for nearby getaways. It has itineraries that allow you to connect a bunch of different locations, whether you want to go up the coast, do something more inland, or hit a bunch of cities.”

Abroad Appeal

Americans haven’t entirely abandoned international travel, Callaway and others note, but they’re looking to maximize their time and dollars overseas. Moon’s City Connections line caters to such visitors; a 2024 guide, for instance, grouped Prague, Vienna, and Budapest, and November brings Moon London, Paris & Amsterdam by Chris Newens, a London native now based in Paris.

Rick Steves, also under the Avalon umbrella, has a new Best of Portugal guide (Nov.), which hits the highlights while staying mindful of budgets. “Portugal is a small country, and Americans, who often have limited vacation time, can see and do more,” Callaway says. “It’s known for its excellent food, wine, and culture, and it’s still among the most affordable countries in Western Europe. Portugal has been expanding in popularity over the last several years, and Best of Portugal is a response to that trend.”

A similar surge prompted DK’s forthcoming Colombia guide (releasing in October), says DK Travel editorial director Hollie Teague. “Visitor numbers in Colombia are breaking records year on year, and it’s emerging as such an appealing destination. It’s closer to home for U.S. travelers and it ticks a lot of boxes. Colombia has incredible culture, incredible landscapes. It’s so varied, and that’s what makes it so special.”

Guidebook publishers are also attuned to issues of overtourism, and are helping steer travelers toward alternative destinations that tend to be less crowded, and often less expensive.

“I can imagine that if you’re going to make the trip to Europe from the States, there are places you really want to see and things you really want to do,” says Sarah Clark, head of publishing at Rough Guides. “But even for U.S. travelers, having viable alternatives is useful.” This season, Rough Guides has Mini guides to less touristed spots such as Calabria, Ljubljana, and Lyon.

In the same vein, Rough Guides recently published The Most Underrated Places in Europe, a continent-spanning roundup. “It offers destination swaps or alternatives to the most popular, most expensive destinations,” Clark says. Instead of Copenhagen, the book suggests Aarhus; in place of Florence, why not try Tbilisi? The guide is one of three launch titles in the new Travel Edit series; the others are Solo Travel (Aug.) and the July release Travelling with ADHD (see “All-Access Pass”).

At Lonely Planet, publisher Piers Pickard notes a general impulse against following the crowd. “Some travelers are going to more unusual places or responding to overtourism by traveling at less busy times of year,” he says.

LP speaks to the latter trend with Offseason (Sept.), Sarah Baxter and Paul Bloomfield’s guide to visiting 100 top destinations during off-peak times. “We have social media to thank for the fact that many more people want to go off the beaten track than they did 10 or 15 years ago,” Pickard says. “That’s a good thing, because it means tourist dollars are being spread much more evenly.” The traveler benefits, too, with a less crowded, less stressful, and often less expensive experience.

Dream States

Even as guidebooks respond to on-the-ground tourism realities, travel publishers continue to invest in the kinds of colorful coffee-table lookbooks that have proven successful in recent years.

DK’s A World of Bookish Places (Sept.) delves into the literary landscapes of 35 featured destinations, including indie bookstores, libraries, and literary walking tours, alongside reading lists for each city. Teague says the guide includes storied literary locales as well as lesser-known hubs. “Leipzig, Germany, is a hugely bookish place, but you might not be aware of it. You might go on a literary pilgrimage to any of these places, or you might visit a few of the incredible bookshops and libraries as you travel more generally.”

Enchanted Earth (DK, Sept.) takes bookish inspiration in a different direction, organizing photos of actual places according to which kind of fantastical realm they evoke. A profusion of fireflies in a wooded area of Japan’s Kyushu Island conjures “celestial realms,” while the Sedlec Ossuary beneath a Catholic church in the Czech Republic belongs to the “shadow realms.” “We chose each location to capture an aesthetic,” Teague explains. “Some are attainable destinations, whereas others are not at all accessible.”

National Geographic sticks to the tourist beat with Best of the World, Vol. 1 (Nov.), which ties into Nat Geo magazine’s annual roundup and the TV series of the same name that Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski hosts. The book includes 25 spotlight destinations plus two top-12 lists (covering food and wellness), a reader’s choice destination, and four “Antoni’s Picks,” Johnson explains.

“The spotlight destinations come from nominations from National Geographic writers, travelers, photographers, and editors around the globe,” she says. “Then we curate from 5,000 to 25, which is no easy feat. It’s a lot of debate. We recommend not just the destinations, but we create itineraries of where to eat, where to stay, and what to do.” For instance, Oulu, Finland, shines in winter—the northern lights, the Christmas markets—and also in summer, when visitors can check out the floating, wood-burning Kesän Sauna.

Niche-interest travel has become a staple at Lonely Planet, where forthcoming globe-spanning titles include Diana Helmuth’s Where to Cheat On Your Cat (Nov.), a collection of destinations known for their feline populations, and 365 Days of Travel (Dec.), which offers a different experience for every day of the year. (Pickard told PW’s reporter that on their birthday, May 7, they should walk along England’s Cornwall coast.)

These idiosyncratic and sometimes fanciful titles from Lonely Planet and other publishers, as well as more straightforward offerings, share a common goal: to show readers the world.

“People take their identities with them when they travel,” Pickard says. “We’ve got a mission to make travel accessible—to empower people to take the trip sooner rather than later.”

Samantha Puc writes about LGBTQ+ and fat representation in pop culture, with a focus on comics, books, and games.

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