The Grand Tour. The Golden Age of Travel

Relive a bygone age of discovery and romance with this XXL volume of vintage travel ephemera from 1869 to 1939. Packed full of posters, tickets, menus, precious turn-of-the-century photochromes, as well as quotes from literary travelers like Jules Verne or F. Scott Fitzgerald, this book evokes all the adventure of such classic trips as the Orient Express, the Grand Tour, and the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Global travel can be a wearying business: mass tourism, overcrowded planes, chaotic airports, heightened security, cookie-cutter hotel chains, well-worn tourist trails. Finding even a sliver of adventure can sometimes feel impossible. But take heart: for all of us with an unfulfilled spirit of wanderlust, The Golden Age of Travel evokes an era when traveling the world was a thrilling new possibility for those with the resources, time, imagination, and daring.

This richly illustrated volume charts the travel heyday of 1869 to 1939. Bedecked with ephemera and precious turn-of-the-century photochromes, it follows six classic tours favored by Western adventurers in the prewar era, including such famous traveler-writers as Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, and Goethe. From the Grand Tour of Europe, a traditional rite of passage for young English aristocrats, to the Far East, barely touched by Western influence, to the famous Trans-Siberian Railway, we follow each journey through its itinerant stops and various modes of transport: trains, boats, cars, planes, horses, donkeys, and camels.

With pages brimming with archival travel posters, guides, tickets, leaflets, brochures, menus, and luggage stickers, the book evokes all the romance, elegance, not to mention the sheer sense of novelty, that enthralled these golden-age passengers. Through decadent new cities, or wild, rugged terrains, this is your passport to a long-lost epoch of adventure and wide-eyed wonder at the world.

The editor

Graphic designer, photographer, and collector Marc Walter specializes in vintage travel photographs, particularly photochroms, of which he has one of the world’s largest collections. He has published numerous books featuring images from his collection as well as his own photographs.

The author

Sabine Arqué is a documentarian, photo researcher, and author. She has collaborated on numerous publications on the themes of travel, the history of tourism, and photography.