10) Through Painted Deserts, by Donald Miller. This is one I actually found in the "Christian Non-Fiction" section, which can be unfair. There's no question Miller is a Christian, but he's a writer first and foremost, he's not preachy, and his questioning of his own faith, of reasons for existence, of who and what he is or is becoming is reminiscent of the fantastic soul searching that came from the travel writing of the Beat generation. Miller's account of his trip is great, going through the moments of beauty, the necessity of good road trip music, and admitting his moments of embarrassment and fear as freely as any other part of his journey.

9) Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald. The early reading of this book can be hard, because after the first few chapters there's a lot of the Western perspective, the whining of living conditions and poverty, the type of scorn you don't care to read from travel writing. I'm glad I read the rest, because like "Through Painted Deserts," "Holy Cow" is about the author's journey. Sarah evolves and changes chapter to chapter in front of you as she sheds the scornful nature of an atheist "too smart" to fall for superstition, and she opens up, traveling through India and sampling all the different religious beliefs and practices as she becomes a humble Theist who learns happiness, learns to grow, and learns that alien cultures can have a lot to offer the open traveler.

8) Into the Wild by John Krakauer. I first caught sight of this book at a Barnes and Noble on one of the feature tables. I was on winter break from Alaska and visiting family in Iowa. I picked up the book, sat down, and read the entire work in one sitting. Travel book, journalistic book, nature book, adventure book-whatever you call it, this is one heck of a read, and the debate this book causes is deep and passionate. As a wanderlust traveler, I understand the drive the main character feels, as an Alaskan, I understand the native perspective of irritation, of the lack of understanding that nature is brutal and especially Alaska needs to be respected as such.

7) Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown, by Paul Theroux. Paul Theroux is at his best in "Dark Star Safar," where his skills of observation and his dry wit are on full display. Paul takes readers the length of Africa via overcrowded rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train in a journey that is hard to forget. There are moments of beauty, but there are also many moments of misery and danger. This is a narration of Africa that goes beyond the skin deep to dare to look at the deeper core of what is often referred to as "The Dark Continent."

6) Blue Highways: A Journey Into America, by William Least Heat-Moon. This is an auto-biographical travel journey taken by Heat-Mean in 1978. After separating from his wife and losing his job, Heat-Moon decided to take an extended road trip around the United States, sticking to "Blue Highways," a term to refer to small out of the way roads connecting rural America (which were drawn in blue in the old Rand McNally atlases). So Heat-Moon outfits his van, named "Ghost Dancing" and takes off on a 3-month soul-searching tour of the United States. The book chronicles the 13,000 mile journey and the people he meets along the way, as he steers clear of cities and interstates, avoiding fast food and exploring local American culture on a journey that is just as amazing today as when he first took the journey.

5) The Lost Continent, by Bill Bryson. There are tons of fantastic Bill Bryson books out there, and any one of them could hold this spot here. "The Lost Continent" is Bryson's trip across America, visiting some common places (the grand canyon), but also exploring the back roads and looking for that familiarity that helps him remember home.

4) Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventures and Romance by Pico Iyer. Probably one of the best travel writing collections released in recent memory, this collection is under the name Pico Iyer, who helped to edit this collection. These stories come from the "Wanderlust" section of Salon.com and create a varied tapestry of travel writing that will keep the reader flipping from one writer to another.

3) A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. This is one of the all time modern classics in travel literature, as Peter Jenkins recalls the story of his 1973-1975 walk from New York to New Orleans. For many readers, this remains a rare travel book that grips you and keeps you. Known as a travel writer who will walk anywhere, including Alaska and China, Peter Jenkins says, "I started out searching for myself and my country and found both." That sums up what travel writing should be all about.

2) Travels w/ Charlie by John Steinbeck. This was a novel that helped John Steinbeck win a Nobel Prize in Literature. "Travels with Charlie" is a fantastic travel narrative that gets to the heart of travel, the point of the trip, and the strange confrontation and realization that the places and people you remember are gone once you are. As he revisits the places of his youth that many of his books are based on, he realizes on seeing old friends that they're as uncomfortable with him being back as he is with being there. A great story about travel, about home, about mourning lost history, about aging, and about America-this should be required reading for every high school student.

1) The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac. The beat generation was full of great travel narratives, and Jack Kerouac was the master of powerful, moving, passionate language that unfolded stories like few people have ever managed. While "On the Road" is the most often pointed to travel narrative by Kerouac, "The Dharma Bums" is a better book. Full of passion, interesting characters and stories, and the kind of passionate language and powerful prose that made the beat generation writers popular, this Kerouac book is extraordinary and deserving of its number one spot.

These books normally concentrate on a particular place or destination. However, there are also categories that give a broad coverage of destinations. Such coverage include a number of places in one region. But whenever the travel books give coverage to one place, it is detailed information about the tourist spots. So, the tourists are absolutely kept alert about the tour package for touring a place. This is absolutely convenient for people as they can now avail the right services for they are in full knowledge about the do's and do not's after reading the travel related books.

The travel books are meant to provide an itinerary to travelers aspiring to travel to several destinations of the world. The travel literature is a genre in itself. These books document the travel literature and store them as a knowledge pool for people to get the right kind of information. The books are incorporated with fascinating pictures of tourist destinations and places. These pictures give viewers a through understanding and the readers get a glimpse of a place before visiting it. The unique and informative content make tourists fall in love with a place. It is only then that they decide to visit the place during their vacations or holidays.

Some of the best examples of travel books are lonely Planet, Rick Steves, Moon Handbooks, Michelin, Eyewitness Guides and more. These books give complete information about a destination. Tour packages are compiled to help tourists choose the most suitable travel package keeping in mind the time in their hand. People find it very convenient for it acts as a capsule that gives complete information about tourist destinations on earth. So, it is recommended that tourists read such books before taking up tour to a place.

1) Work really, really hard and save a lot of money. Once you have 'enough cash,' you travel for as long as you can before going broke and getting another job (or go back to your old one).

2) Travel as a part of your job. These would be low-paying jobs like working on a cruise ship, as a tour guide, bartender, adventure sport instructor, or simply getting a regular job in an exotic location. A better option, to be sure, but...

How can you travel wherever your heart desires, 'working' at something that fascinates you? The answer is closer that you may imagine, and a lot more attainable. No, you don't have to sell anything to your friends or join a cult. I present to you option 3.

3) Utilize simple technology to automatically provide people with value. For doing so, you make money.

Sound like fun? It definitely is.

The underground movement of travelers who hold no jobs and 'work' out of internet café's and on laptops a few hours a day (or a week) grows larger every day. Here are some quick ways you can join this group.

Film your travel adventures and drive Internet traffic using your videos. You're taking pictures and videos anyway, so why not make some money for doing so? Did you know you can use sites like YouTube and Flickr to send traffic to websites that will PAY you for the traffic?

Write about your travel adventures. Most 'travel writers' work like mad to make a few measly hundred bucks selling their stories to travel magazines. Instead, land a high-paying job on Elance or Guru... or better yet, post your stories to your own easy-to-create blog and make a Google Adsense income off of your readers.

Become a salesman for the biggest store in the world... Ebay! This is one of the most under-appreciated travel-income methods of all time. Most people think they have to ship a physical product on Ebay... which limits your inventory to what you could fit in your luggage or backpack. Unfortunately (fortunately for you!) this is completely wrong. You can sell digital products like e-books and courses on Ebay and never pay a red-cent for shipping. For physical products, you can also easily setup a fulfillment center that will ship your stuff without your ever having to lift a finger.

Drive internet traffic to sites using simple techniques. Can you get on an online forum and answer other people's questions about a subject? Then you've got enough skill to drive internet traffic! If you send traffic to websites looking for customers on your subject, you can get paid for it.

Making an income while traveling isn't as difficult as it may seem... you just need to take action on a few simple steps that not many people know about. Soon, you will be making more money while traveling than you would if you had a 9-5 job! The only thing stopping you is taking action.

For each overseas trip I also go through a medical checklist. I have listed several important items:

• Buy insurance before you travel. Some countries require that you be insured before you apply for a visa. In cases like this getting international medical insurance is not an option. You will not get a visa for your destination without proper health insurance.

• Update your routine immunizations. Diseases that are eradicated in your home country are not eradicated around the world. Go to your family doctor and update your routine immunizations: tetanus, pneumonia, polio, influenza and measles-mumps-rubella.

• Get special immunization. Determine what special immunizations may also be needed for your target destination. Often you can find this information on the web; for example, Center for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov or World Health Organization at www.who.int.

• Obtain helpful documentation. If you suffer from a chronic or pre-existing condition, it would be good for you to have a short medical history on hand, along with the name, address and fax or email address of your physician. Don't forget to include any allergies you have, especially if you are allergic to certain medications. If you can, keep prescriptions in original packaging. A letter from your doctor stating that you need certain medications would be a great help in getting through customs if you run into a problem.

• Include these items in your International Travel Supplies Kit. Sunscreen, Band Aids, Antiseptics, Hand Gel, Travel and Evacuation Insurance, Sunglasses, First Aid Kit, Mosquito Repellent, Passport and copy of passport stored in another location, Spare glasses, Thermometer, Diarrheal Rx, Prescription Meds in Original Bottles, Analgesics (Tylenol, Asprin, etc), and Malaria Prophylaxis.

• Check airline regulations for liquid medications allowed on board. The Transportation Security Administration prohibits any liquids over 3 ounces to be in your hand luggage. However, certain medications are allowed. Please check TSA online or talk with an airline representative.

You need the right card - Before you start swiping that card, make sure that you have a "travel based credit card". If you don't have a card that's travel based, you're probably not getting the rewards you deserve. Sure, there are cash back cards out there that will give you 1-2% back on everything but there are travel cards out there that will give you 5% back. If you want to maximize your rewards on travel, look into this niche based card. Other than that, sure you may save but how much will you save?

Use it properly - if you don't use your card the right way, you're not going to take advantage of the rewards and let me explain. Let's say your interest rate is 13% and you have a $500 balance. Let's say you only pay off $250 for that month. Now, you're going to have that APR tacked onto that leftover $250. In the long haul, you're going to pay more toward that interest rate than you would the rewards. It's important that you pay your card off in full each month and never miss a payment. This way, you won't have to worry about any fees at all.

Watch your rewards - This one goes alongside with picking out the right card. If you're getting a card where you only get 5 times the points on airline A and you fly airline B all the time, I think you picked out the wrong card. You're going to want to pick out the card where you can maximize on airline B. This is why it's important to be loyal to an airline. When you find yourself loyal to an airline, you're going to get more rewards and some high perks like boarding early, getting gifts or even getting upgrades on your next flight. Airlines love it when people continue to fly their airlines only.

It's not hard to pick out the right card. Usually when someone asks me about a travel card, I will tell them to look for an airline that offers a card that they fly through. While I think it's important to be loyal to an airline, I can understand why some people want to find a cheap flight and they don't care about loyalty. What they don't understand is that in the long run, the gifts and rewards might outbalance the savings that they have occurred just by going the cheap route. The next time you fly, try out a card. If you like it, keep using it, if not, just shred and cancel, it's that easy!