Oh, to be seated in a cramped airplane seat again.
Eating bad plane food, browsing the tax-free catalogue, and knowing that in a few hours, you’ll be embarking the plane in another country, all ready to soak up every holiday vibe there is.
I think we all miss holidays desperately by now, almost a year and a half into this pandemic, which last year put a sudden halt to our weekend city breaks and far-flung trips and travels.
I am still clinging to the hope that by the end of this summer, international travel will once more be a thing, and I have a feeling I am certainly not alone.
In the meantime, I will settle for dreaming about the days when travel is once more a thing, because honestly, having tried it, I don’t like a world where it isn’t.
And if you are suffering from travel nostalgia too, here are some books to read that will give you all the holiday vibes – while we are waiting on the real thing.
1. Beach Read
January Adams is a plucky chick lit writer who moves into a lake house to try to finish up a novel she owes to her publisher. But with her happily-ever-after worldview in question — not only was she just dumped by her boyfriend, she also recently discovered that her parents’ happy union was a lie – January is having a hard time writing about romance.
However, when she meets the handsome, but grumpy next-door neighbour and discovers her is a writer too, well, let’s just say, January might just be getting the inspiration she so desperately needs…
By Emily Henry
2. Paris for One and Other Stories
By JoJo Moyes
Nell is twenty-six and has never been to Paris. She’s never even been on a romantic weekend away–to anywhere–before. Traveling abroad isn’t really her thing. But when Nell’s boyfriend fails to show up for their mini-vacation, she has the opportunity to prove everyone–including herself–wrong. Alone in Paris, Nell finds a version of herself she never knew existed.
3. Things Can Only Get Feta
By Marjory McGinn
Two journalists and their dog embark on an adventure in the wild and beautiful southern Peloponnese, Greece. A perfect plan, except for one thing – Greece is deep in economic crisis. And if fiscal failure can’t overturn the couple’s escapade in rural Greece, perhaps macabre local customs, a scorpion invasion, zero dog-tolerance, and eccentric ex-pats will.
A humorous and insightful journey through one of the last unspoilt regions of Greece, this story is full of encounters with warm-hearted Greeks who show that this troubled country still has heroes, if not euros. In a hillside village in the Mani, the locals share their lives, their laughter and their stories and help chart the couple’s own passage back to happiness.
4. The Backpacking Housewife
By Janice Horton
Lorraine Anderson was meant to be making a Sunday roast, not swanning off to Thailand, backpack in hand! But when she finds her husband and her best friend in bed together there’s only one thing to do – grab her passport and never look back!
Now, with each mile travelled Lori sheds the woman she once was and finds the woman she was always meant to be. A woman of passion and spirit who deserves to explore the great unknown…and to indulge in the temptation she encounters along the way!
5. Seasons of Love
By Harper Bliss
Alice McAllister is a successful solicitor who likes a quiet, disciplined life… until her business partner Miranda forces her to take a vacation at her holiday home in Portugal.
However, what she hadn’t bargained for was the presence of Miranda’s daughter Joy – and how she would turns Alice’s world up-side-down.
Despite their age difference, Alice and Joy embark on a hot holiday romane – but what happens when they have to return to their lives in London?
