a hopeless romantic shares ten travel romance books set in beautiful destinations
Travel romance books are made for vacations, for the days when you’re splayed out on a beach blanket, sun-splashed paperback in hand, or curled up by a window seat, pre-gaming your out-of-office escape. These books are for those who want to flirt with places and Eat Play Love their way through cities.
The best travel romances feature swoony destinations. Picture the rushing waterfalls of Việt Nam, an intimate hotel bar in the Swiss city of Basel, and the pulse of San Francisco at night. You’ll wander through the cobblestone streets of Italy, find new beginnings in new spaces, and enjoy all that’s sweet and spicy.
Here are ten travel romance books to spark your wanderlust, from love stories for the ages to rom-coms with witty banter and happily ever afters.
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10 Travel Romance Books To Read
Jenna Evans Welch
Love & Gelato
Love & Gelato is full of dreamy descriptions of Italy. Florence, in particular. When Lina Emerson moves to her father’s home in Tuscany, a summer in Italy isn’t high on her list of plans (and getting to know her dad, Howard, for the first time in a cemetery? No, thank you). But living with Howard was Lina’s mom’s dying wish, so she stays. She pores over a journal her mom wrote while living in Florence and unlocks a whole side of Italy (and her mother) she never knew: old statues, beautiful art, city views no photos can fully capture, secret bakeries, and gentle Italian comforts. As Lina quickly runs in her mother’s footsteps, she falls in love with (and in) Italy.
Alice Oseman
Heartstopper, Volume 3
If you’ve seen (and been charmed by) the Heartstopper series on Netflix and haven’t read the webcomics yet, please do. Nick and Charlie’s relationship is just as sweet, fluttery, and friendship-forward in the books as it is in the show. You’ll want to read Alice Oseman’s graphic novels in order. The first two volumes aren’t travel romances, but the third one is with sketches of the Musée de Montmartre, La Tour Eiffel, and Louvre (plus little glimpses of Shakespeare & Company and the Arc de Triomphe). Heartstopper, Volume 3, explores young love in the city of love, Paris.
Tembi Locke
From Scratch
From Scratch is one of my favorite travel memoirs of all time. American actress Tembi Locke recollects the first afternoon she rounded the corner of Via dell’Acqua and collided with a Sicilian man who would change the course of her life. The man’s name was Saro, and he would fall just as fiercely in love with Tembi as she would with him. From Scratch is about falling in love, fighting for love, and choosing love, even after your lover is gone. Locke frames love (and loss) with tenderness and self-compassion and lets Sicily be ever-present (even in the pages set in LA, Sicily spills over).
Emily Henry
People We Meet On Vacation
Unlike most travel romance books, People We Meet On Vacation jumps from location to location. Travel is a throughline, a little string of flashbacks, quips, and memories. Poppy is a travel writer, and Alex is a bookworm. The duo are opposites, best friends with a decade of summer getaways (and inside jokes) under their belts. Yet, two summers ago (in Croatia), their friendship fractured. Poppy still wants to be friends with Alex (let’s be honest, to be with Alex), so she heads out to meet him in Palm Springs for one final vacation, a summer trip that slowly rekindles the flames between them.
Rachel Lynn Solomon
What Happens In Amsterdam
When I first read What Happens In Amsterdam, I fell truly, madly, deeply in love…with a city. Rachel Lynn Solomon’s rom-com is a swoony love letter to Amsterdam, its charms and its quirks. Amsterdam is the main character, the love interest, and Dani Dorfman just happens to bicycle-crash into her high school ex-boyfriend, enter a marriage of convenience, and aim for a second-chance romance amidst serene canals, open-air markets, and stroopwafel stalls.
Georgia K. Boone
I’ll Be Gone For Christmas
I’ll Be Gone For Christmas is the type of book where a piping hot cup of cocoa is a required pairing (mini marshmallows are optional but highly recommended). Picture a Netflix holiday rom-com in bookish form. Bee and Clover houseswap via Vacate, a fictional app that’s the venn diagram best of HomeAway and Airbnb. Bee relaxes in the small town of Salem, Ohio, charmed by its cozy atmosphere, wintry forests, and pine-scented farmhand. Clover escapes west to the pink pony clubs of San Francisco, where she stumbles into a stunning woman. I’ll Be Gone For Christmas merges two solo vacations. The stories interconnect, and I won’t spoil how.
Roe Horvat
The Layover
Roe Horvat’s The Layover is smutty with a capital S, but it’s also deeply emotional and tender. Two men (Ondro, a former flight attendant, and Jamie, a biochemist) meet during an airport delay in Basel, Switzerland. At first, Ondro wants to hook up with Jamie, flirt a little, be cocky. But something about Jamie unknots him and nudges him to unpeg the emotions he hides away. The Layover is open conversation after open conversation. Ondro and Jamie chat about living abroad and leaving their homes. They comment on how anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and laws in Slovakia (where Ondro is from) harm queer communities. They talk (and talk some more) in this thoughtful little novella (that still lives in my mind rent-free).
Nora Nguyen
Adam & Evie’s Matchmaking Tour
When Evie Lang, a Vietnamese-American poet, visits Việt Nam for the first time, she falls in love. She falls in love with the country, her homeland, and a (frustratingly) uptight man on a matchmaking tour. Adam Quyền. Their story is fueled by physical attraction (and not much else), but I loved all the armchair descriptions of Việt Nam nonetheless. Adam & Evie’s Matchmaking Tour is a trip to the majestic Datanla Falls, the nightlife of Nha Trang, the imperial city of Huế, the village of Ban Doong, and the bustle of Hồ Chí Minh.
Alison Cochrun
Here We Go Again
If you’re looking for road trip romance books, Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun is just that. Childhood friends (now ex-friends) Logan and Rosemary embrace two completely separate, absolutely apart lives (well, as apart as you can be when you work in the same building). When their favorite English teacher reveals he’s dying, Logan and Rosemary commit to one summer road trip together (with their teacher and his dog, Odysseus). They drive away from Oregon in a van named The Queer Cuddler and travel to Maine (with many, many detours and pitstops). Here We Go Again is Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer meets Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. No, you didn’t see me cry while reading this rom-com (my eyes simply glistened).
India hOLTON
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide To Love
India Holton’s historical romances have a ridiculously silly energy. Every character is cartoonish (even the villains are mustachioed). So The Ornithologist’s Field Guide To Love is for those who can handle a fair amount of slapstick humor and those who enjoy both Bridgerton and Indiana Jones. Two professors, Beth Pickering and Devon Lockley, romp around England, determined to find a rare caladrius bird so that they can win Birder Of The Year. Pickering and Lockley are academic rivals who fall for each other (of course) in this farcical, fast-paced, fantasy rom-com that’s unabashedly over-the-top and delightfully adventurous.
Did you enjoy this list of travel romance books? What are your favorite travel romance books? Let me know in the comments below!
I’m so glad you liked Love With A Chance Of Drowning! It’s one of my favorite books of all time.
Thank you for recommending it! I absolutely loved the book! xx – Anshula
The side note as the end of the post killed me ? I never thought about that. Have you read Under The Tuscan Sun? That’s a good travel romance.
Oh, I read it a long time ago! I’ll have to reread it (I think my initial thoughts were that the movie was more romantic than the book ?) xx – Anshula
You should read The Flatshare! Not a travel romance but a light and fun read.
I’ll look into it! Always on the lookout for a good book. xx – Anshula
Read On The Island by Tracy Garvis Graves. You’ll love it.
Oh, that sounds interesting. Thank you so much for the recommendation. I’ll try it! xx – Anshula