Travel & Exploration

Penned from a prison cell in Genoa, Marco Polo’s fantastical first-hand account of his 25-year travels through the Mongol Empire remains the greatest travel book ever written and is now presented in a luxurious new Folio edition.

The Folio Society’s three-volume set of the journals of Captain Cook from 1768–1779, published to mark the first voyage’s 250th anniversary, is accompanied by a chart of the voyages bound in cloth.

London and New York, 40 rare photogravures by a master of the art, in facsimile for the first time.

Funny, learned and frank, this book explores what life was really like in the Middle Ages. With specially commissioned illustrations by Robert Venables.

Ian Mortimer, best-selling author of the Time Traveller’s series, launches readers into the omnipresent odours and architectural wonders of Elizabethan England in our stunning new Folio Society edition.

Shortlisted in Folio’s Reader’s Choice, this award-winning Himalayan travelogue is published for the first time with original expedition photographs and an exclusive introduction by Matthiessen’s son.

A landmark edition of Bird’s monumental journey down the Yangtze river in 19th-century China, featuring over 100 photographs, each carefully restored by Folio.

Published in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society, the British Library and the Scott Polar Research Institute, this Folio edition is the complete facsimile of all 12 original issues of the South Polar Times – Captain Scott’s expedition magazine.

An inspired biography of the great naturalist and explorer, by the author of the much-loved Aubrey-Maturin novels.

Filled with extraordinary observations, and occasionally hair-raising anecdotes, this is the most endearing of all Darwin’s books.

A lavishly illustrated 20th anniversary edition of Guns, Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning exploration of how and why Eurasians developed the weapons, diseases and technologies that enabled them to dominate the rest of the world.

Eric Newby’s story of escape and evasion, dedicated to the ordinary Italian people who saved his life, remains funny, vivid and deeply moving.

A fascinating story of perilous seas and brilliant innovation, accompanied by wonderful colour photographs.

A revelatory examination of a unique oral culture, published for the first time in the UK.

Jan Morris’s exuberant and witty love letter to the Manhattan of 1945 effortlessly evokes a time when it was ‘the most hopeful city on earth’.

Unique to Folio, this collection explores the genesis of Heart of Darkness, and features an introduction by Conrad expert J. H. Stape and contemporary photographs.

The book of Parkman's youth and one of the first great chronicles of the American West, The Oregon Trail remains the most popular of all his works.

A charming account of Stevenson’s adventure in the wilds of southern France, accompanied only by his stubborn but loveable donkey.

Blending investigative journalism with the personal approach of a writer both fascinated and appalled by her subject, this is an award-winning portrait of life under ‘one of the most savage surveillance regimes ever known’. With previously unpublished photographs by the author.

A vivid portrait of a post-Mao China, from one of the great travel writers.

Described by the Guardian as ‘the book that redefined travel writing’, Chatwin's idiosyncratic account of Patagonia thrums with surprising details and literary finesse. Featuring 22 photographs by the author, 9 of which are previously unpublished.

Patrick Leigh Fermor’s celebrated travel memoirs of Greece, presented in a two-volume set, illustrated by Katyuli Lloyd and with photographs from the first editions by Joan Eyres Monsell.

In The Writer’s Map, historian Huw Lewis-Jones presents the maps that writers create and those that inspire their writing. 

The World’s Heritage is a comprehensive and stunning companion guide to all 1,073 UNESCO sites.