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The Art of Being a Tourist at Home: Expand Your World Without Leaving Your Home Town
A thoughtful book that celebrates "staycations" at a time when the world is grappling with the future of travel.
In The Art of Being a Tourist at Home , Jenny Herbert takes us on a journey through our neighborhood streets and our local parks, through museums and libraries, art galleries and bookshops. There's wonder to be found in the theatre and music-making all around us, vibrancy in fresh-food markets, new friends to meet through hobbies and clubs, and so many lifetime learning opportunities to be had-all without the stress involved in planning a holiday.
After all, why do we travel in the first place? It's an urgent question in these days of climate crisis and global instability. Staying closer to home makes good it's cheaper, easier, less stressful and better for our health as well as the health of the planet. But Jenny doesn't suggest that we should abandon all future travel plans. Instead, she shows travelers of all kinds how we can still harness the spirit of travel through the art of the "staycation".
With beautiful illustrations throughout, The Art of Being a Tourist demonstrates that travelling at home offers the greatest potential for us to discover what contributes to our wellbeing and our happiness.
In The Art of Being a Tourist at Home , Jenny Herbert takes us on a journey through our neighborhood streets and our local parks, through museums and libraries, art galleries and bookshops. There's wonder to be found in the theatre and music-making all around us, vibrancy in fresh-food markets, new friends to meet through hobbies and clubs, and so many lifetime learning opportunities to be had-all without the stress involved in planning a holiday.
After all, why do we travel in the first place? It's an urgent question in these days of climate crisis and global instability. Staying closer to home makes good it's cheaper, easier, less stressful and better for our health as well as the health of the planet. But Jenny doesn't suggest that we should abandon all future travel plans. Instead, she shows travelers of all kinds how we can still harness the spirit of travel through the art of the "staycation".
With beautiful illustrations throughout, The Art of Being a Tourist demonstrates that travelling at home offers the greatest potential for us to discover what contributes to our wellbeing and our happiness.
- GenresNonfictionTravel
144 pages, Hardcover
Published April 13, 2021
14 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 28, 2022
This book was such a disappointment I didn’t even finish it I couldn’t. The author has obviously traveled the world, yet tells the reader you can get same effect by staying local, and by watching David Attenborough, not you can not. The last straw was when the author wrote that it was more understandable to be horrified by the movie “Warhorse” and the horrors of war it displayed than to visit Hiroshima or the war cemeteries in France or Belgium. I closed the book and can you draw comparisons like that? I don’t like to no finish reading books once I start. But I could get past the hypocrisy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2022
Sadly nothing new or groundbreaking in this book.
The idea may have been conceived before the COVID-19 pandemic hit across the world but this book whilst continually referencing the pandemic is just another stop and smell the roses, look up not down, find joy in where you are type book. More preaching and high level than practical.
The other main theme is how it isn’t necessary to travel around the globe and act like inconsiderate tourist sheep and that everyone now needs to staycation in order to save the planet. After a while this is just wearing.
Although on the plus side, the pleasures of reading and the importance of libraries and bookshops are included and I can’t argue with that.
The idea may have been conceived before the COVID-19 pandemic hit across the world but this book whilst continually referencing the pandemic is just another stop and smell the roses, look up not down, find joy in where you are type book. More preaching and high level than practical.
The other main theme is how it isn’t necessary to travel around the globe and act like inconsiderate tourist sheep and that everyone now needs to staycation in order to save the planet. After a while this is just wearing.
Although on the plus side, the pleasures of reading and the importance of libraries and bookshops are included and I can’t argue with that.
April 24, 2022
The entire book is a guilt trip on people who travel and cause climate change by doing so. She gives personal examples from nearly every continent of how these awful tourists are destroying the planet.
There are very few practical staycation ideas buried here.
I will not be reading her other book, The Intelligent Traveller.
There are very few practical staycation ideas buried here.
I will not be reading her other book, The Intelligent Traveller.
October 22, 2024
Premise was clever and the first two partsGo your way were interesting as the author compared and came up with ways to have an equivalent travel experience at home rather than away.
Unfortunately after that the book dragged. Focus on guilt trips about travelling offering standard at home activities like listening to music or go to a play rather than offering tourist activity alternatives.
I had high hopes for this book given its premise but too much fluff and not enough substance make a book I do not recommend.
Unfortunately after that the book dragged. Focus on guilt trips about travelling offering standard at home activities like listening to music or go to a play rather than offering tourist activity alternatives.
I had high hopes for this book given its premise but too much fluff and not enough substance make a book I do not recommend.
November 26, 2025
2.5 stars
Lockdown writing project vibes come through VERY strong. Nothing groundbreaking here, just a simple book with reminders of all the things we can do locally to get a taste of travel. After recently moving back to Wellington I've been trying to view the city with a foreign gaze - it's nice to think about a place you're familiar with as a destination but with the perks of sticking around.
Lockdown writing project vibes come through VERY strong. Nothing groundbreaking here, just a simple book with reminders of all the things we can do locally to get a taste of travel. After recently moving back to Wellington I've been trying to view the city with a foreign gaze - it's nice to think about a place you're familiar with as a destination but with the perks of sticking around.
March 21, 2023
I am thoroughly confused as to why this book exists and what it was trying to say. It was so incredibly contradictory and preachy I don't wish to waste time writing a long review.
Suffice it to say that its occasionally entertaining absurdity was the only thing that powered me through it. That, and its short length - though not nearly short enough.
Suffice it to say that its occasionally entertaining absurdity was the only thing that powered me through it. That, and its short length - though not nearly short enough.
February 28, 2022
For a book listed as being about travel, this one does the most to discourage it. It mentions everything we can do within our own communities, and how that's just as good as travel. The only reason I even read it? Because it was a birthday present.
September 27, 2022
Nothing to disagree with: go to the theatre, read books, visit local museums and parks, enjoy your own community. Allusions but no strong and convincing arguments to why staying at home is better than international travel.
April 28, 2023
I thought this book had potential but I didn't like it much at all and didn't believe a lot of what the author wrote. I don't recommend this book.
June 17, 2024
Well presented, nothing groundbreaking but nice reminders of simple truths. Would enjoy a new edition with less wondering about post-pandemic life.
March 12, 2025
This book could have been an article on Medium. A couple gems but too much fluff to wade through. And she gives a lot of examples that just make one more interested in travel. Don't travel! Watch David Attenborough instead! I went to this amazing temple! It was perfect! But don't do that! Walk around a garden. It's almost good enough!
2025: F***! This is clearly a topic of interest to me as I got halfway through and had to skim the rest. Unbearable. And my previous review still stands. Don't tell me I should visit my (average and rarely changing) local museum right after talking about this amazing art YOU saw halfway across the globe. Don't tell me to discover different cultures when it's through travel that I've learned what I actually wanted to find out. Sheesh.
2025: F***! This is clearly a topic of interest to me as I got halfway through and had to skim the rest. Unbearable. And my previous review still stands. Don't tell me I should visit my (average and rarely changing) local museum right after talking about this amazing art YOU saw halfway across the globe. Don't tell me to discover different cultures when it's through travel that I've learned what I actually wanted to find out. Sheesh.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews