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Past Lane Travel

Named a top history & travel blog in the usa, past lane travel, where history and travel meet.

Hey there, I’m Jessica, an award-winning historical fiction and suspense/thriller author who loves sharing my passions for history and travel.

I’ve discovered so many off-the-beaten-path historical sites while doing research for my novels that I decided to share these destinations with others.

(You’ll also see a lot of Gettysburg content — that’s because it’s my hometown!)

I hope you’ll tag along with me as I explore “life in the past lane” on this unique USA history and travel blog.

Learn more about me…

My Top Travel Destinations

U.S. HISTORICAL SITES

HISTORIC HOTELS And B&B’s

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Mimosa Trail: Top 3 Historic Brunch Spots In Richmond VA

5 Best Historic Restaurants in Gettysburg PA (From A Local)

Celebrating America’s Birthday: History Of Independence Day

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Old World Voyages

A travel blog for history lovers

A Travel Blog for History Lovers

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” St. Augustine

Travel is one of the best ways to understand and connect with the past. From exploring a medieval castle to standing on a World War II battlefield to walking through ancient ruins that date back centuries, experiencing these places first hand brings history to life in a way that just reading about it never could. These places tell the stories of our shared past and stand as a reminder of the people who came before us and the events that transpired which have had a hand in shaping the world as we know it today.

This site is dedicated to exploring the past through travel. Whether you’re a history buff, a traveller, or just someone who is curious about the world, you’re in the right place. Here you’ll find travel tips, stories, insights and photos to ignite your wanderlust and transport you back in time.

“History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.” Lord Acton

I’m Jennifer, the writer and photographer behind Old World Voyages. I love to travel and I’m passionate about history. Throughout all my travel planning over the years, I’ve noticed a curious lack of history focused travel resources so I started this blog partly to help fill that void and also, as a way to share my passions for history and travel. I hope it inspires you to embark on your own voyages to the old world.

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30 Best History Travel Blogs and Websites in 2024

• World By Isa
• Past Lane Travels
• Celtic Wanderlust
• CastlesandTurrets
• Archaeology Travel
• History in High Heels Blog
• Travel n Thrill » History & Culture
• Jaunting Jen
• The Historian Traveller
• Destination WWII Blog
• History Fangirl Blog
• American History Road Trip
• Vida Colorado
• Historianka » History of Travel
• At World's Origins
• Turkish Travel Blog » History
• Megan & Aram » Soviet History & Architecture
• Volunteer Latin America » History
• Wanderer Writes » Historical Sites
• The Blog of Dimi » History Travel Stories
• TripAnthropologist » History Travel
• Travel & History Blog
• Japanese History and Culture » Travel
• TravelBox » History
• Black History Travel Channel Blog
• Old World Voyages Blog

History Travel Bloggers

• History Travel Newsletter

History Travel Blogs

Here are 30 Best History Travel Blogs you should follow in 2024

1. World By Isa

2. Past Lane Travels

3. Celtic Wanderlust

4. CastlesandTurrets

5. Archaeology Travel

6. History in High Heels Blog

7. Travel n Thrill » History & Culture

8. Jaunting Jen

9. The Historian Traveller

10. Destination WWII Blog

11. History Fangirl Blog

12. American History Road Trip

13. Vida Colorado

14. Historianka » History of Travel

15. At World's Origins

16. Turkish Travel Blog » History

17. Megan & Aram » Soviet History & Architecture

18. Volunteer Latin America » History

19. Wanderer Writes » Historical Sites

20. The Blog of Dimi » History Travel Stories

21. TripAnthropologist » History Travel

22. Travel & History Blog

23. Japanese History and Culture » Travel

24. TravelBox » History

25. Black History Travel Channel Blog

26. Old World Voyages Blog

• Architecture Travel Blogs

Media Contact Database

Why list and promote your blog on feedspot.

10 Historical Things to Do in Salem, Massachusetts

The brazen head: dublin’s oldest pub, st bartholomew’s gatehouse, london, uk, 10 historical things to do in new york city, 10 historical things to do in rome, italy.

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History Fangirl

The Ultimate History Travel Blog Since 2015

101 Epic History Travel Ideas to Help Plan Your Next Adventure

Last Updated on: 26th September 2021, 11:33 pm

It’s super common for travelers to have a list of places they want to see or a bucket list for a specific continent or country.

If you’re like me, you want to see as many historic places as you can squeeze in! Looking for ideas for an epic history travel inspired adventure?

Wondering what kinds of historical sites people are visiting after hitting the famous spots like the Roman Forum and the Acropolis ?

Whether you want an around-the-world adventure or are looking for something in your own backyard, here’s a giant list of 101 ideas for your next history-inspired trip.

(Looking for more history travel inspiration? Check out the episodes of The History Fangirl Podcast for in-depth overviews of the history of some of the world’s most amazing and interesting places).

My Favorite Travel Booking Sites for 2024

These are my favorite companies that I use on my own travels.

Protect Your Trip via Safety Wing

Find the best city tours, day tours, bus tours, & skip-the-line tickets on GetYourGuide and Viato r .

Find the best deals on hotels & vacation rentals on Booking.com .

For English-speaking private airport transfers, book through Welcome Pickups.

For road trips and independent travel, rent a car through Discover Cars .

Find information and cruise reviews on Cruise Critic.

For packing and travel essentials order via Amazon .

Book an affordable family or romantic photography session on your trip through Flytographer (Use the code HISTORYFANGIRL for 10% off your first photoshoot).

For travel guidebooks to have with you during your trip, I always pick one or two from Rick Steves and Lonely Planet.

North America

• Tour the White House.
• Host historians John Meecham and Doris Kearns Goodwin for afternoon tea.
• Take a driving tour of Gettysburg.
• Walk across the Selma Bridge to commemorate the fight for Voting Rights, then pop over to Birmingham to learn about its role in the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama.
• Go on a volunteer archeological dig at Cahokia.
• Take a bike tour of Mexican haciendas.
• Cruise the Northwest Passage in Canada.
• Visit the monuments to freedom erected by former slaves in Haiti after the revolution.
• Take a sunset walk around La Fortaleza and Old San Juan in Puerto Rico.
• Tour the earliest settlements by Europeans in the New World at St. George in Bermuda.
• Play old-school Oregon Trail while driving the Oregon Trail.
• Recover the lost history of America’s Black Pioneers and learn about the early stages of the Underground Railroad in Ohio and Indiana.
• Drink coffee at the first coffee plantations in southeastern Cuba.
• Visit the Mayan Ruins of Tikal in Guatemala at sunrise.
• Sail to Tayasal, the last Mayan city which wasn’t conquered until 1967 in Guatemala.
• Take in the Templo Mayor, the Aztec site dedicated to the God of Rain, mid rainstorm, in Mexico City.
• Hike San Antonio’s Mission Trail, seeing all five of the UNESCO-protected San Antonio Missions , including the famed Alamo.

South America

• Trek one of these six alternative routes at Machu Pichu in Peru.
• See the tug of war between the Spanish and the Portuguese Colonial styles in Colonia del Sacramento  in Uruguay.
• Have a low-key evening with Evita on Netflix and a bottle of Malbec in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Ride the century-old cable cars up to the top of the Sugar Loaf as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil. (Don’t worry, the actual machinery was updated in the 1970’s).
• Sail (or fly) to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands and see the lands and animals that inspired Darwin to pen his theory of evolution.
• Taste history at the  Mercado del Puerto , where parrillas  have been serving Uruguayan barbeque cooked on open wood stoves for over a hundred and thirty years in Montevideo, Uruguay.
• Fly to Chile’s Easter Island to explore Orongo, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, to see the ruins of the Birdman cult.
• Visit the politely named Court of the Holy Office, the torture house with a dark past that served as the Palace of the Inquisition in Cartagena, Colombia.
• See the shipwrecked Lady Elizabeth  which left Vancouver for Mozambique in 1912 but became stranded en route near the Falkland Islands and has been stuck in Whalebone Cove since 1936.
• Visit Ile du Diable , also called Devil’s Island, the French penal colony famed for abhorrent conditions, located on a jungle island circled by sharks, off the coast of French Guiana.
• See the Dutch influences on the continent with a visit the to seventeenth-century Dutch historic district in Paramaribo, Suriname.
• Envision life during the age of the dinosaurs with a visit to Dinosaur Dance Floor, which boasts six different kinds of dinosaur footprints including a section made by a baby Tyrannosaurus Rex nicknamed “Johnny Walker” near Sucre, Bolivia.
• Explore the central historic district in Quito, Ecuador , which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best-preserved Spanish colonial neighborhood in Latin America.
• Visit Coro, the early sixteenth-century colonial city that is the only remaining example of the fusion of Carribean, Spanish, and Dutch colonial architectural in Falcon, Venezuela.
• See over ten thousand years of human history at Quebrada de Humahuaca, which was a site for some of the earliest human settlements in South America. The site also served as an important caravan route for the Inca Empire, a communication link between the Viceroyalties of Peru and the Rio de la Plata, and was the site for important battles in the Spanish War of Independence in northern Argentina.
• See the monuments and pyramids of the Norte Chico culture at Caral-Supe, one of the earliest settlements in the Americas, near Lima, Peru.
• See the stunning fusion of European and Indigenous architecture in the sixteen wooden Churches of Chiloe on the Chiloe Archipelago in Chile.

• Hike the length of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.
• See a Shakespearean play at the Globe Theater in London, England.
• Sift through the Archives of the Crown of Aragon, one of the oldest in Europe, in Barcelona, Spain.
• Tour the beaches of Normandy and see where the Allies started the Liberation of Europe in northern France .
• Find the lock of Lucrezia Borgia’s hair preserved at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy.
• Sail a fjord in a replica Viking Ship in at the Viking Museum in Roskilde, Denmark .
• Tour the secret Soviet bunker hidden beneath a spa in Ligatne, Latvia.
• Make a special appointment to see the skull of Kara Mustafa Pasha, the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire who lost the Siege of Vienna. On display for centuries, it has since been pulled from the exhibitions and sits in storage in Vienna, Austria.
• Eat a delicious lunch in the restaurant where Julius Caesar was assassinated (although it wasn’t a restaurant 2,000 years ago…) in Rome, Italy.
• Track every point on the Struve Geodetic Arc  that Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve used to calculate the exact size and shape of the earth in Eastern Europe.
• Walk the Comino de Santiago to the grave of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
• See one of the only monuments to Trans history in Barcelona’s Parc de la Ciutadella  in Barcelona , Spain.
• Explore the history and art of Orthodox Monasteries  in Rila, Bulgaria , Meteora, Greece , and Bucovina, Romania .
• Learn about Soviet life and photograph   Chernobyl disaster  with a day trip from historic Kiev to  tour the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the Atomic Town of Pripyat in Ukraine .
• Go for a swim at Petrou tou Romiou, one of Cyprus’s prettiest beaches and the spot where Cypriots believe that Aphrodite emerged from the sea.
• Go on a pub crawl through the literary pubs of Dublin in Ireland.
• Climb to the top of the Acropolis to appreciate the achievements of the Golden Age of Athens , and then head to the Acropolis Museum to learn about millennia worth of destruction at the hands of Greece’s invaders in Athens , Greece.
• Explore the historic center of Istanbul, including the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque , the Grand Bazaar , and the Theodosian Walls , to appreciate how the city has been at the center of history and politics for over seventeen hundred years. In Istanbul, Turkey.

• See the ruins of Carthage outside of Tunis, Tunisia.
• Take a Tunisian Louage south to the Great Mosque in Kairouan , the fourth holiest city in Islam, in Kairouan, Tunisia.
• Tour the Egyptian Pyramids and take a cruise on the Nile while pretending you’re Egyptian royalty.
• Think about the enormous span of human history in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, which covers human evolution all the way back to 2.1 million years ago.
• Visit one of the most interesting and unique mosques in the world at the Larabanga Mosque in Ghana.
• Visit Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other South African anti-apartheid protestors were imprisoned in South Africa.
• See the remains of Arab and Portuguese influence on the UNESCO World Heritage protected Island of Mozambique.
• Visit Mali’s famed Timbuktu and then challenge your friends to name the country you’re in. Count how many think the place isn’t real.
• Pick out which palace you prefer at the Royal Palaces of Abomey in Benin, where each of the twelve reigning kings built their own.
• Peer outside the Door of No Return on Goree Island in Senegal. Contemplate the horrors faced by millions of Africans being forced into generations of slavery and the lingering effects of slavery today.
• Explore Great Zimbabwe, the capital of the Queen of Sheba and important medieval ruins, near Masvingo, Zimbabwe.
• See the political and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Kongo and see how African kingdoms had to change and adapt after incursions by European explorers began in the fifteenth century, in Mbanza-Kongo, Angola.
• See the Tin Mal Mosque , now abandoned, along one of the most spectacular drives in northern Africa, the Tizi n’Test, near Tinmel, Morocco.
• Visit the virgins who guard the Ark of the Covenant at the Chapel of the Tablet in Askum, Ethiopia.
• Head out to Man and Woman Lakes, two crater lakes on Mount Manengouba, believed to contain the spirits who control the weather and create local storms. Bathing in Man Lake is reserved for local Bakossi ceremonies, but foreigners are permitted to swim in Woman Lake. Near Bangem, Cameroon.
• Visit the shrines and sanctuaries dedicated to the Yoruba fertility goddess Osun at the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove in Osogbo, Nigeria.
• Scuba dive the Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, in Alexandria, Egypt.

• Enjoy sunrise at Angkor Wat in Cambodia before heading off to explore the rest of Angkor’s historic temples.
• Take a floating tour of Trang An, called the Halong Bay on Land, to see the gorgeous Confucian temples in Vietnam.
• Visit the eleventh century Temple of Literature, the oldest university in Vietnam located in Hanoi.
• Spend a day checking out the famous Buddhist temples in Bangkok , Thailand including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Temple of Dawn.
• Take a walking pilgrimage on the Kumano Kodo Trail in Japan .
• Climb the 1200 steps to the top of Sigiriya to see the ancient palace ruins in Dambulla, Sri Lanka.
• Explore the city-state of Singapore to learn about its unique history after independence from Malaysia.
• Hike the Baekdu Daegan Trail, the spiritual center of Korean mountain spirit worship and an important area for all local prominent religions. The trail runs the length of the Korean peninsula, but one of the highlights, the temples on Mount Jirisan, is located on the South Korean portion and is reachable to outsiders.
• Visit all four pilgrimage sites of the Char Dham, a pilgrimage route that all Hindus are required to undertake, located in the far north, south, east, and west of India.
• Explore the history of the Silk Road by traveling through Azerbaijan  and seeing fire temples, crude oil spas, and Shia pilgrimage sites, all of which had elevated prominence due to the numerous travelers spreading the word after traversing the ancient route.
• Take a trek through the steppe, staying in yurts and riding horseback, to see what life was like as a  nomad in rural Mongolia.
• Attend the biennial World Nomad Games , to see how modern nomads carry on the sporting traditions of their Central Asian ancestors, including horseback riding, falconry, and Kok-Boru, a sport where riders battle for a goat carcass. Held in various locations, the games in 2018 were held in Kyrgyzstan . They are expected to move to Turkey in 2020.
• Visit the secret underground printing press that Joseph Stalin used to create his propaganda in Tbilisi, Georgia.
• Explore the Russian Far East by train via the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian railway systems in Siberia, Russia.
• Tour the Forbidden City, where the Chinese emperors lived for over 500 years, in Beijing, China.

The Middle East

• Celebrate Christmas at the Church of the Nativity , where Christians believe Jesus was born. Pick between the three different Christmas celebrations held there annually due to the different calendars used by different Christan sects. In Bethlehem, West Bank , Palestine.
• See the ruins of the lost city of Petra in southern Jordan and see its sister site Mada’in Saleh in Saudi Arabia.
• See how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are literally layered on top of each other while exploring the Old Town in Jerusalem.
• Visit the architecturally unique ninth-century Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq.
• Remember the victims of the Ottoman Turks by visiting Martyr’s Square, named for the Lebanese nationalists executed in 1916. The square also served as the dividing line for the two sides during the Lebanese Civil War. In Beirut, Lebanon.
• Feel like you are in a life-sized sand castle with a trip to the sixth-century historic city of Arg-e Bam in Kerman Province, Iran.

• Visit the eleven penal colony sites spread across Australia which collectively comprise the UNESCO World Heritage site Austrailian Convict Sites.
• Take the long drive from Alice Springs to Uluru, the famous rock site which is sacred to the local Aboriginal Pitjantjatjara Anangu. The site includes important rock art and ancient paintings. In the Northern Territory, Australia.
• Visit Tamaki Maori, a village where Polynesians have lived since the thirteenth century, in Rotorua, New Zealand.
• Visit the three sites associated with Chief Roi Mata’s Domain, one of the most remote UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world, in Shefa, Vanuatu.
• See the civilization that was created by the surviving mutineers of the HMS Bounty on Pitcairn Island.

• Visit the South Pole Flag Mast like the true badass you are, remembering all the people who fought to see the South Pole and the team that planted it in 1965.
• Find the bust of Vladimir Lenin, placed by a team from the USSR, in 1958.
• Journey to the Inexpressable Island Ice Cave to see the seal bones and other remains from the 1912 team that was forced to erect the ice cave and winter on the island.
• See where Shackleton’s crew waited four brutal months to be rescued at Point Wild on Elephant Island.
• Observe for signs of paranormal activity at Whalers Bay on Deception Island, where abandoned buildings and a buried cemetery give the uninhabited island an extra spooky flair.
• Sail from South America to Antarctica by passing through Drake’s Passage, named after English explorer Sir Francis Drake.

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Have You Undertaken any Epic History Travel or History-Inspired Trips? Leave the Destination and a bit about it in the Comments so other History Travelers can get inspired!

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1 thought on “101 Epic History Travel Ideas to Help Plan Your Next Adventure”

Waouh !!! All many interesting informations ! First of all, I want to thank you for your experiences told to everybody in all your articles ! I am a french woman and actually, as I start a travel blog focused on France, I’m trying to get into the world of blogging. But it’s not easy… Your blog is wonderfull and I am not sure mine will be as beautifull as yours !

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30 Best History, Books, Art Travel Blogs & Websites To Follow In 2022

Best History, Books & Art Travel Blogs

• Sacred Destinations – An ecumenical guide to sacred sites, religious buildings, and pilgrimages around the world.
• Traveling Thru History – Erin has been a history junkie since she was a kid. This blog is a combination of her love for travel and learning about the history of the places she visits.
• Cosmos Mariners – Follow Natalie and learn about history, literature, and culture around the globe.
• Hillman Wonders – Howard Hillman’s the Top 100 wonders of the world with great info.
• Travel World Heritage – A travel blog focusing on evaluating the 1007 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
• Eat This Poem – A literary city guides for bookworms.
• Travelling Book Junkie – A travel blogging duo who have a passion for all things cultural, historical and literary-based.
• Sateless Suitcase – Cultural travel through the eyes of a geeky art historian and professional medievalist.
• Adventures of a Carry-On – Penny is a slow traveler and an Italophile, with a focus on culture, architecture and traveling for the joy and adventure of it.
• Legendary Trips – Itineraries inspired by movies and books.
• Go Historic – The encyclopedic travel guide to history, architecture & historic preservation.
• A Traveler’s Library – Find books and movies that enrich your travels.
• Archaeology Travel – A guide to the best archaeology sites and museums, archaeological tours, and archaeology travel guidebooks from around the world.
• Unurth – A collection of street art around the world.
• Take Me to the World – Alouise, a travel enthusiast, music nerd, and a lover of performing arts, showcases a variety of performance arts from all over the world.
• A Year Of Reading The World – A writer Ann Morgan set herself a challenge – to read a book from every country in the world in one year.
• Travel Thru History TV – TV show & blog focused on fun, educational ideas for family travel.
• Cheryl Keit – Cheryl writes about travel and music.
• Groove Traveler – Explore the world through music.
• Culture Tripper – A Toronto-based blogger specializing in travel, art, culture, history and legendary landscapes.
• Journey To Design – A blog about travel and design.
• Outbound Adventurer – Follow Tara and Jessi as they geek out about everything from languages to paleontology, and learn how to incorporate affordable travel and experiential education into your journeys.
• Travel Between The Pages – The Intersection of travel, books & art.
• Travel Thru History – Stories featuring the historical, archaeological, and cultural aspects of a destination.
• Museum Chick – A blog with focus on visiting intriguing museums from around the world.
• No Onions Extra Pickles – A travel guide to contemporary art and culture.
• Nights In The Past – The guide to historic hotels in the UK, Europe and USA.
• 7 Wonders of The World – Learn a bit about the history of each world wonder.
• Amazing Temples – Informational articles about temples, churches and other places that are or have been of religious interest.
• Travel Sketch – Travels and sketches of Katherine Tyrrell.
• The Faithful Traveler – A travel blog exploring Catholic shrines and places of pilgrimage throughout the world.
• World’s Heritage Travel – A list of all UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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Follow your passion and select from a wide range of trips — whether abroad or closer to home — each one bringing a specific time period and subject to vivid life.

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What Did the Aztecs Eat and Drink? Mexican Food of the Middle Ages

The evolution of travel and tourism.

Thomas Cook and the Invention of Mass Tourism in Victorian Britain

How Ocean Liners Transformed International Travel

What Was the Grand Tour of Europe?

The Rise and Demise of Britain’s Victorian Pleasure Piers

The Orient Express: The Most Famous Train in the World

What Was a Victorian Bathing Machine?

Ermine Street: Retracing the Roman Origins of the A10

Deck Chairs and Donkey Rides: Visiting the Seaside in Victorian Britain

Historic places to eat and drink.

Where to Wine and Dine like Royalty in the UK

8 of the Most Haunted Pubs in Britain

The 5 Most Historic Cafés in Paris

The Oldest Pubs in Britain

5 Historic Cafés to Visit in Cairo

5 of the Oldest Restaurants in London

Best London Pubs: 5 Historic Boozers

Historical experiences in the usa.

Unmissable Car Museums to Visit in the USA

Weird and Wonderful Museums to Visit in the United States

Important Pearl Harbor Sites to Visit in Hawaii

6 Blackbeard the Pirate Sites to Visit in the US

The White House: The History Behind the Presidential Home

5 Key Cold War Sites and Monuments in the United States

30 of the Best Historic Sites in the United States

10 Revolutionary War Sites and Battlefields in the United States

Travel in photos.

In Pictures: Historic Photographer of the Year 2022

10 Photos That Changed the World

Eerie Photos of Bodie, California’s Wild West Ghost Town

10 Majestic Ancient Structures Carved into Mountains

Photos of History’s Great Ocean Liners

In Photos: The Remarkable Story of Qin Shi Huang’s Terracotta Army

10 Magnificent Historic Gardens Around the World

Stark Images of Abandoned Soviet Military Bases

13 Haunting Photos From the Postal Museum’s Abandoned Mail Rail

Discover history around the world.

The 8 Best UNESCO World Heritage Cities

20 of the World’s Most Beautiful Castles

10 of the Most Famous Shipwrecks Around the World

10 of the World’s Most Beautiful Cemeteries to Visit

8 Fascinating Sex Museums to Visit Around the World

15 Must-Visit Pyramids Around the World

The Top 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Popular sites and landmarks.

L’Anse aux Meadows

Agincourt Battlefield

Warwick Castle

Alcazaba of Málaga

Cirencester

Homonhon Island

The Catacombs of Paris

Leyte Landing Memorial

The Kasserine Pass

Cannae Battlefield

Visit locations linked to historical figures.

5 of the Best Christian IV Historical Sites in Scandinavia

10 Historic Sites Associated with Elizabeth I

10 Historic British Sites Associated With Queen Victoria

The Duke of Wellington: Where History Happened

Ian Fleming’s London: 5 Key Historical Locations to Visit

10 Historic Sites Associated with Emperor Augustus

Historic Sites Associated with Mary Queen of Scots

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DESTINATION: WWII

A World War II Travel Blog

Welcome to Destination: WWII  – Your online resource for visiting World War II battlefields, museums, monuments, and memorials around the world.

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Meet Your Guide

Hi, I’m Ashley! I’m a full-time travel writer, tour guide, and World War II historian based in Boston, MA who’s traveled to 39 countries on 5 continents. I formed Destination: WWII from a desire to encourage and help travelers visit WWII sites around the world.

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This blog is for people who enjoy experiencing and learning about the culture and history of the places you visit. It’s full of history, mythology and legends, as well as travel tips for those interested in deep diving into your destination. Or simply researching a place from home!

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Meteora Hiking Trails | Exploring The Monasteries from Kastraki

Myths & legends.

Local folktales and legends around the world

Mongolian mythology | Gods & legends of the nomadic tribes

Heracles | The deified Greek Hero & his Twelve Labours

Classical Greece & Achaemenid Persia | Background to the Greco-Persian Wars

The Great Siege of Malta | The Context & the Combat

What was the Holy Roman Empire?

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Hello i’m nomadic matt.

Welcome! Every day I wake up with one goal in mind: “How can I help other people travel better for less?” My mission is to help travelers like you realize their travel dreams!

Since 2008, I’ve helped millions of people save money, travel more, and have a more authentic experience in the destinations they visit.

This website has been featured in major media time and time again because it’s got the best budget advice out there. My goal is to make you a smarter traveler so you can go where you want as often as you want.

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Over the last 17 years, I’ve used hundreds of companies during my travels. Some have been great, some have been awful. To help you plan your  trip, here’s my list of the best travel companies. They are where all my travel planning and booking starts. Use them to book your trips too!

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Ten years a nomad: a traveler’s journey home.

The book is a memoir of my ten years backpacking the world and the lessons I learned along the way. It follows the arc of a trip around globe: getting the bug, the planning, setting off, the highs, the lows, the friendships made, the relationships forged (and lost), and the emotions you feel when it’s all over.

Unlike my previous books, this is not a “how to” guide but a collection of insights, advice, and stories from the road meant to convey the experience of what it’s like to quit your job, follow the road not taken, and travel the world trying to discover who you are and what the world has to offer. It is my opus on travel meant to inspire you to pursue your own travel dreams.

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Food, wine & culture for the ethical traveler

Amazing History Blogs To Add To Your Reading List Today

Whether you’re a traveler, a student or just a curious world citizen, learning about history is enriching on both an intellectual and a personal level. One of the easiest and most interesting ways to brush up on your history knowledge is through blogs. There are a lot of untrustworthy sites out there, but if you know where to look, you can discover a treasure trove of sources to help you increase your knowledge and understanding of the world around (and behind) you.

Table of Contents

Here are ten of the best history blogs on the internet:

1. The Fairytale Traveler

Infused with an atmosphere of mystical whimsy, The Fairytale Traveler specializes in histories of the unusual, the unknown and the supernatural. Read about New Orleans’ Voodoo history, Medieval kings and castles or the history of moonshine in the Smoky Mountains.

2. Crash Course

Having watched every history video Crash Course has to offer, I can testify that their run-through of major events in US and World History is thorough and flat-out fascinating. Each episode is presented on YouTube in the form of fifteen-minute vlogs, narrated by author John Green and illustrated with informative graphics. Particular highlights are World War II viewed from a food resources perspective, the American Sixties and the French Revolution.

3. Marie Antoinette’s Gossip Guide to the Eighteenth Century

The title may seem tongue-in-cheek, and Marie Antoinette’s Gossip Guide to the Eighteenth Century is certainly a lavishly playful perspective on the luxe of the upper-class world of the 18 th century. If you’re interested in historical fashion, this is the blog for you. But it’s also an excellent site for learning about Marie Antoinette’s remarkable life and what it was like to be a lady in the age of Louis XVI.

4. If It Happened Yesterday, It’s History

If It Happened Yesterday, It’s History offers up a range of fascinating articles on historical events ranging from the infamous Christmas truce of 1914 to the practices of Aztec human sacrifice. The focus is largely on warfare and military history, but there’s plenty of other cultural history in there too.

5. Women of History

Women have long been neglected in the writing of history. The blog Women of History seeks to rectify that, focusing on the contributions of a wide range of women to historical events. Read about powerful individuals, historical attitudes towards women and feminine customs through the ages.

6. Ancient Foods

Of particular interest to us Epicurious travelers, Ancient Foods is a history blog focused on the background of food and drink. Learn about the discovery of bones revealing how ancient peoples ate, or about all manner of food preparation, hunting and dining customs revealed through archaeology.

7. Mental Floss

Fascinated by the weird and the wonderful, Mental Floss is one of the most useful – and dangerous – history-related procrastination tools out there. Go down the rabbit hole and spend hours learning about scientific, political and cultural history through articles, listicles and videos. Their pieces on etymology are always brilliant, too.

8. Two Nerdy History Girls

Who better to run a history blog than a historical romance author and a historical novelist? Loretta and Susan of Two Nerdy History Girls combine their love of the literary and the historical in this fascinating blog. They write about snippets of history, precious and found items and visits to historical sites.

9. Stuff You Missed in History Class

If you’re looking for a different format to shake up your history blog consumption, or something to listen to while driving, a podcast may be the perfect solution. And when it comes to history podcasts, there’s nothing like Stuff You Missed in History Class . Episodes include histories of China’s Cultural Revolution, Stonehenge and Spam. Yes, spam. There’s a standard written blog to accompany it, too.

10. Victorian Paris

Lovers of the City of Light, especially in the Victorian era, must head to Victorian Paris , where novelist Iva Polansky shares her in-depth research on 19 th -century Paris. Read about the literature, fashion, architecture and social norms of this fascinating historical period.

What are your favorite history blogs? Please share in the comments below.

Jessica festa.

Jessica Festa is the editor of Epicure & Culture as well as Jessie on a Journey . She enjoys getting lost in new cities and having experiences you don’t read about in guidebooks. Some of her favorite travel experiences have been teaching English in Thailand, trekking her way through South America, backpacking Europe solo, road tripping through Australia, agritouring through Tuscany, and volunteering in Ghana.

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13 Comments

Well hey there! Thanks for sharing The Fairytale Traveler! You gave me a case of the smiles 😉

Christa: You’re welcome! 🙂

Thanks for sharing this wonderful list! Who says history has to be boring 🙂

I have recently started a blog myself – http://www.thecuriousdesi.com (fyi – Desi is a common term for person from the Indian subcontinent). Cheers

@Curious Desi: Exactly 🙂

I’ve been reading MentalFloss (and watching their youtube videos) for over a year now and i agree that it’s a great site to learn from. Stuff you missed in history class looks interesting and i’m definitely going to keep up with their podcast

@Zeph: We’re huge fans of Mental Floss!

Hi Gemma, Thanks for this wonderful list of reads – really a treasure trove of good reads!

I regularly use Crash Course as enrichment in my 8th grade history class. Students learn so much from the different episodes and it adds another perspective to our class. I enjoyed browsing the “Stuff You Missed In History Class” blog and look forward to implementing it in my class.

I’d like to toss in my blog Through The House Glass. I’m a historian of education who writes about people I’ve met along the way in years of research and writing, along with some personal experiences.

Sorry, that’s http://www.throughthehourglass.com/ .

It’s all about evoking American history and culture.

Thank you for the list. Crash Course if awesome for learning history. They inspired me to create my own History blog series. People need an interesting and entertaining way to learn history, and it seems that all of these sites provide just that. Not everyone want to loom over boring textbooks, I know i would have paid much more attention in school if these kind of blogs were around then!

Check out my version : https://davidandanton.com/2016/09/12/4-ancient-egypt/

Thank you for sharing this list of history blogs. History is my passion, and I always enjoy learning new things. I’m looking forward to checking out these blogs!!

Gemma – an excellent list that I have only just found (April 2017) Here’s a curious new blog for Anglophiles, Victorianists and their “ilk” — http://victorianclericalerrors.blogspot.com

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Jeff Greenwald

The Tale of the World's First Travel Blog, Born 20 Years Ago Today

Today marks the 20th anniversary of a milestone few people recall.

Like other anniversaries falling on this day -- the Invasion of Cayenne during the Napoleonic Wars, for example, or the birthday of physician Percivall Pott in 1714 -- it has been bulldozed beneath the heavy blade of history. A specific study of January 6th, 1994 reveals only one noteworthy event: Nancy Kerrigan being clubbed on the knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

But it was on that same day in 1994 that I walked into the Tourism Bureau in Oaxaca, Mexico, and attempted a maddening but ultimately successful feat: uploading the first travel blog post ever made on the Internet.

A bit of backstory here.

By early 1993, I’d been a travel journalist for about 10 years. My assignments had taken me far and wide -- but despite the thousands of miles I’d covered, I didn’t feel like a real traveler. Flying in and out of international airports was bland and effortless. I didn’t deserve to be in the places I was arriving. It felt like I was somehow cheating.

So I dreamed up a way to raise the stakes. I would hoist on a backpack, lock the door of my Oakland flat, and circle the globe by land and sea -- never setting foot on an airplane. Such a journey, I imagined, would rekindle the spark that inspired me to become a travel writer in the first place: a lifelong curiosity about the diversity, mystery and sheer immensity of my home planet.

My agent was able to sell the proposal, and I signed a contract to write a book about my trip. It would be called The Size of the World .

A few weeks before my departure in late December, 1993, I got an unexpected call from an editor at O’Reilly Media in Sebastopol, California. O’Reilly was (and is) a publisher of computer books. It also dipped into the world of travel writing; my work already had appeared in some of its Travelers’ Tales anthologies.

I expected a vague request that I “keep my eyes open” and write a few good stories. What the editor had in mind was far more ambitious. O’Reilly, he told me, had launched a pioneering site on Internet: a mushrooming electromagnetic labyrinth of online singles clubs, Grateful Dead forums and other hyper-specific peer-interest groups that were beginning to define, for better or worse, the polis of the future. The name of O’Reilly’s website was the Global Network Navigator (GNN). Its online “Travelers’ Center,” the editor assured me, would be the hottest thing since Lomotil.

A recently-released program called Mosaic was revolutionizing what might be possible on the World Wide Web. “What we hope you’ll do,” the editor said, “is write columns for us -- from the road . We’ll publish them live, on the GNN, where people can read them as you travel.” The Travelers’ Center, he told me, would include a feature that sounded miraculous: A map would be displayed on their website, with dots showing the locations from where I’d sent back posts. People would simply click on those dots -- and see the story I’d written from that location!

By Adrienne So

By Jeffrey Van Camp

By Julian Chokkattu

By Simon Hill

It would be lots of work, but they sold me on the idea. Still, there was something paradoxical about the gig. Here I was, setting off to discover in the most visceral way possible the enormity of the planet. But while my body was circling the Earth in real time, my brain would be telecommuting at light speed.

But how would I do it? Today, of course, there are hundreds of ultra-light devices to choose from. In 1993, finding a laptop that didn’t weigh as much as a watermelon was tricky. I used a Hewlett Packard OmniBook 300 . Along with miraculous features like a pop-out mouse and a weight of 2.9 pounds, it had one virtue that, even now, seems cool. If the rechargeable cell died in the middle of the Sahara (which it would), the OmniBook could be powered by four AA batteries.

In mid-December, the GNN editor came by to see me off. As he was leaving my flat, he paused. “I almost forgot,” he said. “Have you got a name for this Internet series of yours?”

I did. “Let’s call it Big World .”

And so it was. We didn’t call it a “blog” at the time, because no one did. The word wouldn’t be invented for another five years.

Ten days after leaving Oakland, I arrived in Oaxaca. It’s a beautiful city. I took some time to relax, order a hot chocolate, and pull out the OmniBook. My 1,600-word dispatch was called " One Hundred Nanoseconds of Solitude ." Written in Oaxaca’s rustic zocalo, and uploaded for three hours on a glacially slow fax-modem, it was the beginning of an art form, or obligation, or plague.

During the next nine months, I slogged and blogged my way around the world. My overland voyage took me nearly 30,000 miles through 27 countries before I returned to Oakland, crossing the Pacific aboard the Hapag-Lloyd container ship Bremen Express .

Sending dispatches was never easy. I often spent days trying to figure out where and how to upload files. Local tech experts -- or curious eggheads in funky telecom offices -- would help me figure out how to finesse finicky modem lines and obsolete phone systems. Everyone was excited by the project... though many thought it made more sense to send postcards.

The main bottleneck, of course, was transmission speed. In June, 1994, I’d reached South Asia. Working with the brilliant Sanjib Bhandari (then known as “The Bill Gates of Nepal”), we scanned and uploaded the first image ever sent by Internet from Kathmandu: a postcard of elephant-headed Ganesha, the Hindu god of good beginnings. Sending the picture to WIRED took the technicians at Bhandari’s computer center nearly 14 hours.

During my overland trip I wrote 19 posts in all -- reporting from Mali and Morocco, Turkey, and Tibet, even from a container ship on the North Atlantic. Thousands of readers (that was a lot in 1994!) logged on to the Travelers’ Center to follow my adventures. Three stories also appeared in WIRED. But few people imagined that my online travel diary anticipated what would become, a years later, a global obsession. Although there are many lists of the “100 Best Travel Bloggers,” there’s no credible estimate of how many travel bloggers exist worldwide -- though I imagine, at this point, it’s a huge percentage of all recreational travelers.

I still blog from the road sometimes, as well— most recently while traveling in Cuba. But my fantasy at this point is to recreate the journey I took 20 years ago -- without leaving home at all. I hope to follow my 1993/1994 route virtually, using the Internet and social networking tools to find some of the people I'd met 20 years ago and discover how their lives have changed. Like Senegalese journalist Babacar Fall, whom I profiled in WIRED 2.06 ; the three vivacious teenage women who gave me shelter in Ankara, Turkey; and precocious Luisa Limon, in Oaxaca, who was 8 years old in 1994.

The Size of the World was released in 1995. A review in Publishers Weekly called it “a travel book like no other,” and a lot of other nice things. But ironically, the process of my trip -- going around the world without airplanes -- overshadowed what turned out to be a far more significant achievement. Someday, maybe, that first travel blog will get the celebration it deserves. Until then I’ll just kick back each January 6th and raise a glass to New Mexico statehood (1/6/1912) with Nancy Kerrigan.