2024 Top Five Summer Travel Books

Here are my top five summer travel books for 2024, featuring walks through various cities and beautiful spots we have explored as a family or plan to visit soon.

Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles by Charles Fleming

This book features exciting urban walks through parks, canyons, and neighborhoods unknown and unseen. Each walk is rated for duration, distance, and difficulty and is accompanied by a map.

The walks are filled with fascinating factoids about historical landmarks, such as the original Bat Cave from Batman or the lake that Opie learned to fish on The Andy Griffith Show.

The book also highlights the people who made the landmarks famous: the infamous water engineer William Mulholland; the convicted murderer and philanthropist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith; Charles Lummis, who walked from Cincinnati to Los Angeles to take a job on the L.A. Times; and tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney, who dug canals to drain the marshes south of Santa Monica and create his American Venice.

Since we will visit this winter, I hope to check out one or two of these walks. Most likely, the walk in Venice in which he details the history of the canals.

The Best of Itasca: A Guide to Minnesota’s Oldest State Park by Deane Johnson

The book about Itasca State Park offers 50 miles of hiking trails, 16 miles of bike routes, 28 miles of skiing trails, 32 miles of snowmobiling trails, 100 lakes, and information on dozens of historic buildings to explore.

Along with the park, the book discusses the Mississippi Headwaters and the history of finding where the Mississippi begins. The park’s claim to fame is its location at the start of the Mississippi.

I like the history section because I can learn how the park came to be and the issues the supporters faced with lumbering companies in the past.

The guide includes a road tour through the park, which takes you to the major historic and interesting sites.

Johnson thoroughly investigates the park, and I will use it when we go to the state park this summer.

61 Gems on Highway 61: Your Guide to Minnesota’s North Shore, from Well-Known Attractions to Best-Kept Secrets by William Mayo and Kathryn Mayo

Highway 61, from Duluth, Minnesota, to the Canadian border, is filled with tourist hotspots.

These explorers and residents of the region outline the best sites that you may not know about along this scenic road.

The book highlights North Shore’s hidden treasures and tourist favorites, offering complete site details and need-to-know information, such as driving directions, accessibility, and fun facts.

Full-color photographs and maps further enhance this handy guidebook.

We will be doing some of this drive and I will have this along to pick places to stop at and what to see. I like the photos of each stop to know what to look for. Also, they do good talking about the history of the area which enhances the experience.

Fodor’s Puerto Vallarta: With Guadalajara & the Riviera Nayarit by Fodor’s Travel Writers

Many travelers sip margaritas or sunbathe, but this is just two of the many ways to spend a vacation in Puerto Vallarta.

Old Vallarta—El Centro and the Zona Romántica—is a goldmine of quirky boutiques and winding cobblestone streets.

In Marina Vallarta, shopping centers and deluxe hotels spread around the city’s yacht marina.

And from Costalegre to the Riviera Nayarit, miles of sandy beaches and scores of restaurants and lively nightclubs, surrounded by historic mountain towns, keep visitors returning again and again.

The book also does a good job of talking about a visit to historic Guadalajara
in Mexico as an excursion along with a nearby lake community that includes a former Braniff estate.

I like how the writers explain the dangers of certain beaches, roads, and neighborhoods that you come across in the area.

This is a book we will turn to when we go there in winter.

Indiana State Parks: A Guide to Hoosier Parks, Reservoirs and Recreation Areas by John Goll

The book is a guide to Indiana parks, reservoirs, and recreation areas for campers, hikers, anglers, boaters, hunters, nature lovers, skiers, and family vacationers. This is an older book, but still a good guide to use if you are heading to a state park in Indiana.

I like that it lists most activities at each park, along with hikes. Each state park chapter has a map to help you with the lay of the land.

We live in the nearby state of Illinois, so I will turn to this book if I go on a state park trip.