I’ve got a thing about coffee table books. I just love how solid and glossy they are in their large, hardback volumes full of beautiful photographs. They’re just the best.
And I have a whole bunch.
Honestly, it’s a problem. From costume design to vintage tea parties, everything I have an interest in, I likely have a coffee table book for it. So naturally my passion for travel = lots and lots of travel coffee table books cluttering up my living room. So I thought I’d share a few from the pile with you guys. Enjoy!
Travel Coffee Table Books
The Travel Book by Lonely Planet
This is a classic and a must-have for most travel-addicts. The Travel Book details every single country in the world devoting a double page spread to each one with gorge photos and all of the vital information for each. This includes some really useful stuff like the best time of year to visit, essential experiences, trademarks of the country and surprises you might find.
The reason I love this book so much is that because each page is a completely different country, it’s really fun to play the ‘where shall we go next’ game. Just flick through the book and pick a page at random and that will be your next trip! Although I do allow a few tries. Seeing as it covers the whole world you get a few countries you wouldn’t be frilled about visiting so it’s allowed in the game. I said so.
World Party by Rough Guide
World Party isn’t so much as a coffee table book as just a really big travel guide ,but it’s on my coffee table nonetheless. This book focuses purely on the festivals of the world and can give you some serious wanderlust. I mean it doesn’t just cover the obvious, of course Glastonbury is in there as is Rio’s Carnival and St Patricks Day in Dublin. But there is also a whole host of fun and unusual festivals that I had never even heard of! How about Reggae Sumfest in Jamaica? Or Pushkar Camel Fair in India? Lots of the weird and wonderful in here, I promise.
Serengeti Spy by Anup Shah
This is a beautiful book if you love wildlife. Taken on the plains of East Africa, the photos are shot with hidden cameras so Serengeti Spy is full of close-up animal shots you don’t see that often. Like a herd of zebras galloping over the camera, jackals demolishing a carcass or lion cubs playing. It’s some serious David Attenborough shit. These gorgeous glossy photographs are what coffee table books are all about, it’s a must-have for animal-lovers.
You Only Live Once by Lonely Planet
Another LP beaut. They just know their shit, right? I’ve reviewed You Only Live Once in full over here, but I still really love it. It’s a great go-to book if you’re limited on time in a destination as the travel activities are split by how long they take to accomplish from one hour to one year. The hour ones are my faves from going to a Rodeo in the US to flying over Cappadocia in a hot air balloon. Another good coffee table book to inspire your next adventure.
The Life & Love Of The Sea by Lewis Blackwell
Like Serengeti Spy, The Life & Love Of The Sea is another beautiful book full of fantastic wildlife photos. Although this time, under the sea! Not only is it full of cool images it is also accompanied with nice little quotes. The first being ‘How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.’ I like that one, it’s pretty apt.
There’s a lot of info in here too but the photographs are the real winners. I think I like it because I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to the sea, being very much a land-lizard. I’m not a great swimmer, I don’t like deep water, so naturally I can’t hack snorkelling or diving of any kind. So with books like this I feel like I can real see the wonders of the Ocean, without leaving the safety of land.
They’re the 5 books on my coffee table right now but I rotate them a lot so look out for the next rotation!
What do you think of this selection? Any you could recommend me to fuel my addiction with coffee table books?! Let me know if the comments below or tweet me @HeelsInBackpack!
