Despite the dangers and discomfort, humans have been fascinated with travel for thousands of years. There are early Medieval examples from all over the world, while the earliest example is “Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,” which is a first-century text describing travel conditions, currents, and weather patterns throughout the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Less a piece of literature, it was more like a guide for merchants who were looking to travel in these areas, though it seems likely that any merchant with half a brain would still need to hire captains and sailors with experience. Currently, it’s not even known who authored the text or if it even had one author, as there is the possibility that it functioned more like a collection of different people’s experiences. 

Marco Polo is a more commonly known traveler, but he was not the only one of his contemporaries to write about his experiences. In China, one of Marco Polo’s many destinations, there were even writers who would make “day trip essays,” which would give readers some basic information about different locations that are, as the name suggests, a day’s travel away. However, these essays mainly focused on using the locations to provide some sort of moral lesson, which tells us that even a thousand years ago, people could not help from editorializing. 

Indeed, in the 16th century, traveling to what at the time was Persia (mostly modern Iran) and the Indian subcontinent was so popular, that these accounts were often put together into collections, so interested readers could just buy one book and compare. There were similar collections for Europe, though it was seen as less exotic than Asia, and often focused on a single region, such as the Italian peninsula. 

As maritime technology developed, the means of transportation itself became a topic of interest. Similar to the travel vlogs of today, there was a lucrative niche describing the realities of ocean voyages and the various sights and experiences one could have. Of course, the average person on, say, a transatlantic ship had a much worse experience than a literate, generally wealthy traveler. 

This all goes to show that these travelers, documenting and photographing the things they saw are part of an ancient tradition. While we might think of Marco Polo’s writings as more highbrow, he probably would have used a camera, if he had the option, as a picture can really show you what a thousand words can’t. Hopefully, this list has put some wanderlust into you and there will be more interesting experiences from around the world for all of us to enjoy online.