Travel Year

Three years into a financial crisis that shows no sign of loosening its grip, a young couple make the unpopular decision to teach English in Saudi Arabia. The choice of Saudi Arabia is based primarily on the best salary offer and an all-expenses-paid round trip flight. Secondarily, it is to satiate a desire to explore a country steeped in mystery and taboo. Little do they know that the experience will come with a price and change their lives in a profound way.

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840. While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles that affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway), and being something of a nonconformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor.

American Oz is a rollicking, gritty, adventurous story of life in the secretive subculture of traveling carnivals. You'll never see your state fair or street festival the same way again. Comerford writes a bold, inspiring true story of a year working behind the scenes with the colorful characters and legends of carnivals. He shares stories of freaks, a carnival pimp, a tramp gold miner, and the last king of the sideshows.

What would happen if you quit your life for a year? In a pre-COVID-19 world, the Wheelan family decided to find out; leaving behind work, school, and even the family dogs to travel the world on a modest budget. Equal parts "how-to" and "how-not-to" - and with an eye toward a world emerging from a pandemic - We Came, We Saw, We Left is the insightful and often hilarious account of one family's gap-year experiment.

In Bucharest, Romania's capital, Kaplan discovered that few Westerners were reporting on the country - one of the darkest corners of Europe during the Cold War. In an intense and cinematic travelogue, Kaplan explores the history and culture of the only country in the West where the leading intellectuals have been right-wing rather than left-wing; a country that gave rise to the dictator Ion Antonescu, Hitler's chief foreign accomplice during WWII; a country where the Latin West mixes with the Greek East, producing a fascinating fusion of cultures.

From the incomparable John Baxter, the best-selling author of The Most Beautiful Walk in the World, a sumptuous and definitive portrait of Paris through the seasons, highlighting the unique tastes, sights, and changing personality of the city in spring, summer, fall, and winter.

With an itinerary covering 41 countries, spanning all seven continents, and armed with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, he sets out on the greatest adventure in the birding world. Along the way he meets a colorful cast of fellow birders—and discovers a world of blood-sucking leeches, chronic sleep deprivation, floods, war zones, ecologic devastation, and conservation triumphs.

In Cruise Confidential, Brian David Bruns spills the dirt - or, in this case, the dirty water - on those romantic, fun-filled vacations at sea. His hilarious chronicle of the year he spent working for Carnival Cruise Lines takes listeners down into the areas where the crew works and lives, leaving listeners gasping with laughter as they're assaulted nonstop with events that range from the absurd to the utterly bizarre. Stewards fighting over food. Cutlery allowances and other nonsensical rules.

In 1743, a ship carrying 14 Russian sailors was headed for whaling grounds near Norway when a violent storm blew it far off course, where the ship froze into the ice. Some of the sailors remembered that other sailors had erected a hut on a nearby island and spent the winter there. Four sailors volunteered to go ashore to look for the hut in hopes of finding supplies or using it as a refuge should the 14 sailors be forced to spend the winter before the summer thaw could free their ship.

Fünf Frauen... Fünf Länder... Ein Abenteuer... und die ganz große Liebe! Caylee Braddock hat einen Traum: Ein Auslandsjahr in Italien. Als dieser Wunsch in Erfüllung geht, kann sie es kaum fassen. Doch scheinbar verlässt das Glück die Vierundzwanzigjährige genau in der Sekunde, als ihre Füße den Boden Venedigs berühren. Inmitten des Chaos taucht auch noch der Mann auf, den sie seit zehn Jahren nicht mehr gesehen hat und der ihr mit dreizehn das Herz brach. Matteo DeSantis. Als die Situation für Caylee aussichtslos scheint, macht Matteo ihr ein Angebot, dass sie unmöglich ausschlagen kann.

Fünf Frauen... fünf Länder... ein Abenteuer... und die ganz große Liebe! Paige Holm ist eine Träumerin durch und durch. Vor allem wenn es um echte englische Gentlemen geht. Deswegen ist sie auch Feuer und Flamme, als es für ein Auslandsjahr nach London geht. In ihren Büchern gibt es nämlich immer diesen einen romantischen Helden in Strumpfhosen, warum sollte es ihn also nicht auch in Wirklichkeit geben? Vor allem im Land der Mr. Darcys? Wobei ihr klar ist, dass ein Typ wie Harvey Dawson definitiv nicht in die Kategorie Held fällt.

Fünf Frauen... Fünf Länder... Ein Abenteuer... und die ganz große Liebe! Ein Jahr im Ausland, ganz allein auf sich gestellt? Für Julie Baker eine Horrorvorstellung! Dennoch zieht sie mit, als ihre Freundinnen diesen Plan aushecken, und verlässt zum ersten Mal in ihrem Leben ihre Komfortzone, um in das Land der Polarlichter zu reisen. Ein Jahr lang soll sie sich um die kleine Tochter der Hansens kümmern. Was ihr gar nicht bewusst war: Neben Ida gibt es auch noch einen großen, grummeligen und eindeutig heißen Sohn.

Fünf Frauen... fünf Länder... ein Abenteuer... und die ganz große Liebe! Cindia braucht einen Neuanfang, um mit ihrem alten Leben und ihren Verlusten abzuschließen. Da kommt ihr der Plan, den sie mit ihren vier Freundinnen geschmiedet hat, gerade recht. Ein Jahr Auszeit nach dem Studium, um sich auf die Zukunft vorzubereiten. Ein Jahr, in dem sie ihre Marketingfähigkeiten unter Beweis stellen kann. Ein Jahr, das sie in Evanton in den Highlands verbringen will. Ein Jahr weit weg von der Hektik der Großstadt. Ein Jahr fern aller Versuchungen.

Larry had dreamed of sailing around the world ever since he first stepped foot into a sailboat at the age of 13. He held onto that dream for 30 years, until one day he realized that "it's now or never". He left his corporate job, trading his comfortable executive life for adventure. A true story memoir packed with lessons from the ocean that served as a teacher of seamanship, personal strength, growth, leadership, and perseverance, while Larry and his crew discovered themselves, and the world.

A wondrous, uproarious, and surprisingly informative account of a year spend surfing, Caught Inside marks the arrival of an exuberant new voice of the outdoors. This remarkable narrative of Daniel Duane’s life on the water is enhanced by good-humored explanations of the physics of wave dynamics, the intricate art of surfboard design, and lyrical, sharp-eyed descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Pacific wilderness.

Leslie White knew she wanted more out of life - She found it in an unlikely place. Devastated from the loss of both parents to cancer nine months apart, Leslie vowed to change her life. She bought the neighbor’s old motorhome, found a job as a traveling histologist, and hit the road. But she found she could not trust the one person she was still holding onto.

At the age of 17, in a last-minute twist of fate, Laura Bradbury is sent to Burgundy, France, for a year’s exchange. She arrives knowing only a smattering of French and with no idea what to expect in her first foray out of North America. With a head full of dreams and a powerful desire to please, Laura quickly adapts to Burgundian life, learning crucial skills such as the fine art of wine tasting and how to savor snails.

In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson's Last Year, the technology exists to open doorways into the past - but not our past, not exactly. Each "past" is effectively an alternate world, identical to ours but only up to the date on which we access it. And a given "past" can be reached only once. After a passageway is open, it's the only road to that particular past; once closed, it can't be reopened.

Fourteen-year-old Nephele used to have friends. Well, she had a friend. That friend made the adjustment to high school easily, leaving Nephele behind in the process. And as Nephele looks ahead, all she can see is three very lonely years. Nephele is also a whip-smart lover of math and science, so she makes a plan. Step one: invent time travel. Step two: go back in time, have a do-over of ninth grade, crack the code on making friends, and become beloved and popular. Does it work? Sort of. Nephele does travel through time, but not the way she planned - she’s created a time loop.

Step into the rugged Rockies with Osborne Russell! Journey nine years through his trapper's journal, facing blizzards, bears, and bison while navigating life off the grid. Witness the clash of trappers and tribes, and glimpse the untamed beauty of a changing wilderness. This historical adventure unfolds in Russell's own words, offering a unique perspective on the early American West.