Travel essays aren’t something I read too often. Sometimes they can be very informative and interesting, but a guide always does the trick for me. Other times, I have found some can get a little too much into the self-discovery preachiness of the author, accompanied by some beautiful backgrounds. Yet when written in the right voices with a certain goal in mind, they are quick and fun reads perfect for a mental summer getaway.

Here are three easy-reading collection of travels essays by three very different men seeking three very different goals:

Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner

Wisner’s bestseller from 2005 wasn’t a planned destination for him and his younger brother, Kurt. Wisner had never really connected with his brother in his teens and early 20s. Yet, in their 30s, he found himself getting stood up at the altar days before a very expensive destination wedding set to go. Because many guests had paid and booked their lodging, he and his brother tuned the wedding into a party for the guests, and his two-week honeymoon became a bro’s adventure in Costa Rica.

As they reconnected, the two-week trip morphed into a two-year, 53-country world jaunt where they became best friends in the process. They hit Asia, North and South America, Africa and Europe all while learning how to navigate both the globe and life’s curve balls. Wisner proves that if life gives you lemons, you can sell them and buy some beers to enjoy with your brother.

Rich Hall’s Vanishing America

Comedian, author and SNL alumnus Rich Hall was a Gen X representative with his creation of Sniglits (if you know you know), and a love of alternative music before it became a mainstream genre. He also appreciated the small town America that was becoming more and more a victim of easy and fast travel. Hall decidedly didn’t take the sleek and easy way across the country in this 1986 collection travel observations. He stood on the corner in Winslow, Arizona meeting the inspiration for the Jackson Brown-penned Eagle’s song “Take It Easy”, and talked with a great collection of Americans (both native born an immigrants) who appreciate the opportunity this country afforded them. He saw famous roadside attractions and discovered small businesses from Enid, Oklahoma to Atlantic City and many other places. This is one of those one-stop reads, that could easy be tackled in an afternoon, but you will cover a lot of quirky and wonderful grounds.

Around the World in Eighty Days with Michael Palin

In the mid-90s, Michael Palin was already a household name for at least two generations fo Monty Python fans, but he gained new followers when he set off on his first world journey trying to recreate the famed journey of Jules Verne’s famous Around the World in Eighty Days character Phileas Fogg for a PBS series. He wanted to try to make the journey in the same time using pretty much the same means Fogg did. This proved to be a difficult task in the mid-90s. Borders, countries’ politics , and travel regulations were just a few things that change over time. Yet, he made barely made it, and the special became a huge hit for him.

Readers do not need to see the special to enjoy the book. It is written by Palin himself, with his brand of world wonder and humor that makes him so well loved. Palin has gone to make several other incredibly successful travel series, all with beautifully written companion books, that helped him to gain his official Knighthood in 2019. Yet, Around the World in Eighty Days is the journey, and book that started his post-comedy life as one of the most genuine, friendly, smart and funny world travelers of his time.

If you weren’t able to escape the routine over the summer, sit down with a book that takes you places you might not have been, may want to see or may someday want to return. That’s the beauty of armchair traveling, and the joy of reading.