The best examples of travel essays: personal journey examples that actually feel real

Imagine this: You’re stuck overnight in Denver because your connecting flight to Tokyo was canceled. You’re exhausted, annoyed, and scrolling through your phone at the gate. The person next to you starts talking, and within an hour you’ve shared life stories, swapped snacks, and realized this delay might be the most interesting part of your trip.

That’s where many of the best examples of travel essays: personal journey examples begin—not in the postcard-perfect moment, but in the unexpected detour.

Instead of starting with theory, let’s walk through some real, grounded examples of travel essays and what makes them resonate.

Classic examples of travel essays: personal journey examples from books and magazines

Some of the strongest examples of travel essays: personal journey examples come from well-known writers whose work you’ve probably seen quoted without even realizing it.

Think about Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. On the surface, it’s a hiking story about the Pacific Crest Trail. But the real essay at its core is about grief, addiction, and rebuilding a life step by step. The trail is the setting; the personal journey is the story.

Or consider Pico Iyer’s essays, like “Why We Travel,” originally published in Salon and later collected in his books. On paper, he’s describing airports, hotels, and cities. In reality, he’s exploring identity, stillness, and what it means to feel at home in motion. These are some of the best examples because they remind us that travel essays are rarely just about geography—they’re about psychology.

Magazines and literary journals are full of similar real examples:

• A New Yorker piece where a writer returns to their parents’ village in India and slowly realizes how different their American identity has become.
• An essay in Travel + Leisure where a honeymoon to Italy quietly becomes a story about doubts, expectations, and what marriage actually feels like when the vacation ends.
• A personal narrative in The Atlantic about riding long-distance trains across the United States and confronting loneliness somewhere in the middle of Nebraska.

These examples of travel essays: personal journey examples all share a pattern: the trip is the frame, but the real subject is internal change.

Modern examples of travel essays: personal journey examples in the 2024–2025 world

Travel writing in 2024–2025 looks different than it did a decade ago. There’s more awareness of sustainability, mental health, and privilege. Some of the most interesting recent examples include:

• Post-pandemic first trips: Writers describing the first time they got back on a plane after 2020—how the airport felt both familiar and strange, how masks and testing shaped the journey, and how travel suddenly felt less like a habit and more like a gift. Many of these essays explore anxiety, public health, and gratitude in a way that would have felt unusual before. (For context on current travel health guidance, see the CDC’s travel health page).

• Climate-aware travel essays: Stories where the writer takes trains instead of flights across Europe or the U.S., wrestling with their carbon footprint. The personal journey isn’t just about seeing new places; it’s about reconciling a love of travel with the realities of climate change. These essays often reference climate data from organizations like NASA or NOAA, grounding personal reflection in global facts.

• Remote work and digital nomad journeys: Pieces where someone moves to Lisbon, Mexico City, or Bali to work remotely. The essay begins as a sunny escape from the office grind and gradually becomes a reflection on loneliness, cultural sensitivity, and what “home” really means.

• Mental health and travel: Essays where travel intersects with anxiety, burnout, or depression. A weekend hiking trip in Colorado becomes a story about coping strategies and the science of how nature affects mood, sometimes citing research from sources like the National Institutes of Health or Harvard Health.

These newer examples of travel essays: personal journey examples show that modern travel writing isn’t just about escape. It’s about context—health, climate, work, identity—and how moving through the world changes the way we see all of it.

Quiet, everyday examples of travel essays: personal journey examples close to home

You don’t need a passport stamp to write a powerful travel essay.

Some of the best examples include small, local journeys:

• A writer takes the subway to a neighborhood they’ve never visited in their own city and spends the afternoon walking, eating, and talking with strangers. The essay becomes a meditation on how little we know about the places we think we live in.

• A college student drives eight hours home from campus for Thanksgiving. The road trip is ordinary—gas stations, fast food, podcasts—but the essay is about the transition from teenager to adult, and how the landscape shifts as their understanding of family changes.

• A parent takes their child on a short camping trip two hours from home. The story is less about the campsite and more about teaching a kid to build a fire, face the dark, and listen for owls. The personal journey is shared, generational.

These quieter examples of travel essays: personal journey examples remind you that the distance traveled matters far less than the distance between who you were at the start and who you are when you come back.

Eight concrete examples of travel essays you could actually write

If you’re looking for an example of a travel essay you could draft this week, think in terms of specific, lived moments. Here are eight scenarios that naturally lend themselves to strong personal narratives:

1. The trip you didn’t want to take

Maybe you flew cross-country for a funeral, or visited a relative you barely knew. The setting could be Phoenix in July, humid Atlanta in August, or a small town in Iowa in the middle of winter. The essay tracks how your resistance slowly turned into gratitude—or at least understanding.

2. The study abroad semester that didn’t match the brochure

You imagined late nights in Paris cafés and got bureaucratic headaches, homesickness, and language mistakes instead. The best examples of this kind of essay show how embarrassment, confusion, and isolation eventually turned into confidence and cultural fluency.

3. The solo trip after a breakup

You booked a ticket to Lisbon, Montreal, or Seattle because you couldn’t stand staring at the same walls anymore. The essay follows you through awkward solo dinners, long walks, and the first time you laughed so hard you forgot your ex for a full minute.

4. The multigenerational family trip

Three generations in one rental house near the beach or in the mountains: grandparents, parents, kids, clashing routines, and clattering dishes. Your personal journey might be about stepping into a caregiver role, seeing your parents as aging humans, or watching your kids build their own memories.

5. The pilgrimage to a place from your childhood

Maybe it’s the campground you went to every summer, or the city where you lived until age ten. You return decades later and realize the place has changed—and so have you. These essays work well when they mix sensory detail (the smell of the boardwalk, the sound of the old train line) with memory and loss.

6. The work trip that surprised you

You thought it would be another anonymous conference in another anonymous hotel. Instead, you met a mentor, got lost in a new city, or spent an afternoon wandering a museum that shifted your career goals. The travel is corporate; the journey is personal.

7. The road trip with a deadline

You have to drive 1,500 miles in three days to start a new job, begin grad school, or make it to a wedding. The essay follows the ticking clock, the gas station coffee, the podcasts at 2 a.m., and the way the miles give you time to process the life you’re leaving behind.

8. The health-related journey

You travel to a hospital in another state for a specialist appointment, or to a wellness retreat recommended by your doctor. The essay might weave in information from sources like Mayo Clinic or MedlinePlus as you navigate fear, hope, and the unfamiliar city around the clinic.

All of these are practical examples of travel essays: personal journey examples because they center on real stakes: grief, love, identity, health, work, family. The geography is important, but the emotional arc is what makes them memorable.

How writers shape the best examples of travel essays: personal journey examples

If you read widely across the best examples, you start to notice patterns in how these travel essays are built.

They usually begin in the middle of something: a delayed flight, a crowded bus, a confusing border crossing, a tense family dinner in a rental kitchen. The writer drops you into a specific moment instead of opening with a summary of the whole trip.

From there, they:

• Use sensory details: not just “it was hot,” but “the air felt like opening a dishwasher mid-cycle, thick and damp and hard to breathe.”
• Include small, telling interactions: a conversation with a cab driver, a misunderstanding at a café, a shared joke with another traveler in line at customs.
• Reflect on internal change: how fear turned into curiosity, how anger softened into empathy, how an old belief started to crack.

The best examples of travel essays: personal journey examples also balance honesty with respect. Modern readers are alert to issues of cultural sensitivity and representation. Strong essays avoid treating other cultures as exotic backdrops; instead, they show the writer paying attention, listening, and acknowledging what they don’t know.

Turning your own trip into a strong example of a travel essay

If you’re hoping to create your own example of a travel essay that feels publishable, focus less on where you went and more on what changed.

Ask yourself:

• What did I believe at the start of this trip that I no longer believe now?
• Where did I feel most uncomfortable, and what did that discomfort teach me?
• Who surprised me, and why?
• What single scene from this journey would I show a reader if I could only pick one?

Then, structure your essay like this:

You open with that one vivid scene. You slowly zoom out to explain how you ended up there. You weave in flashbacks, context, and reflection. By the end, the reader understands not just what happened, but why it mattered.

When you read back over your draft, compare it to your favorite examples of travel essays: personal journey examples from books, magazines, or trusted online outlets. Are you specific enough? Are you honest about your own blind spots? Does the piece move from one emotional state to another?

If the answer is yes, you’re not just describing a trip. You’re offering a story that could sit comfortably alongside other real examples of powerful travel writing.

FAQ: examples of travel essays and how to write your own

Q: What are some of the best real examples of travel essays I can read for inspiration?
You can look at Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (especially the early chapters on the Pacific Crest Trail), Pico Iyer’s essays like “Why We Travel,” and classic pieces in outlets such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Outside. Many university writing centers, like the UNC Writing Center, also break down narrative nonfiction techniques that apply directly to travel essays.

Q: Can a short weekend trip be a strong example of a travel essay, or does it need to be a long journey?
A weekend can absolutely work. Some of the best examples of travel essays focus on a single night in a hostel, one hike, or even one train ride. The length of the trip matters less than the depth of reflection and the clarity of the story arc.

Q: What is an example of a powerful opening for a travel essay?
An example of a strong opening might be: “By the time the bus doors finally opened in Oaxaca, my shirt was stuck to my back, my Spanish had completely failed me, and I was seriously considering turning around and flying home.” You’re immediately in motion, in discomfort, and in a specific place.

Q: How personal should a travel essay be?
Most memorable examples of travel essays: personal journey examples are very personal—but not in a confessional-for-confession’s-sake way. The personal details serve the story. You share enough about your fears, desires, and mistakes to make the journey feel real, without oversharing in ways that distract from the narrative.

Q: Do I need to include facts, research, or external sources in a travel essay?
You don’t have to, but it can add depth. For instance, if you’re writing about altitude sickness in Peru or jet lag on a long-haul flight, referring to health information from sources like CDC.gov, Mayo Clinic, or MedlinePlus can ground your personal experience in reliable information. Many modern examples include small bits of research to enrich the narrative.

In the end, the strongest examples of travel essays: personal journey examples feel like a conversation with a thoughtful friend who just got back from a trip—and is willing to tell you what it really felt like, not just what it looked like on Instagram.