Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Absolutely fantastic! Could not put the book down. Going to recommend to everyone to check out this book!

I so loved this book. In a time when I couldn’t travel, this really kept me going as I followed along on all of the adventures. It was a splendid read. The prose makes you feel like you are really there.

I tried to start reading this one, but couldn't get into it. The characters were a bit annoying, and I just couldn't trust them. I'm sure others will like this, but it just wasn't my thing.

I love to travel, but then who doesn’t? Especially now when we’re not really allowed, I miss it so much. This book was a nice substitute for that. It had really great places, many different ones. I liked the writing style, the descriptions, it was funny in places and also sometimes informative. It’s a solid 4 star read for me

I think this book might have caught me at the wrong time. I love travel but I wasn’t in the headspace to hear about it. Probably because it had been put on hold for so long.

The book was fine but felt a little disjointed at times. Maybe I need to revisit again at some point.

Bad Tourist by Suzanne Roberts
Rating 3.5/5 Stars
Published by U.Nebraska Press
Published On 1 October 2020

Thank you to Netgalley, University of Nebraska Press, and of course, Suzanne Roberts, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.


Covid 19 has put my love of travel on hold and this book is one of the reasons I love travel writing as a genre - it is so immersive and necessary for the world we have lived in the past 18 months. I love to travel, and not being able to - I’ve turned to books to feed that hunger. I enjoyed this book beyond that for the laughing factor. There were a few moments where I just broke down laughing! I did find there to be a few poorly constructed parts in the essays, but for the most part this book is a positive for me. I recommend it if you miss traveling as much as I do.

Enjoyable read, more of the 'pass the time' kind. Would've enjoyed if the chronological order had been adhered to throughout - the time hopping got messy and disjointed in many occasions. Also think one should look at this as a sort of 'nostalgia' memoir - not just because of Covid changing travel as we know it today, but also because many/most of the stories are circa 2002-2007, which technically is about 20 years ago (when you imagine it will be 2022 in 6 months), and this makes me wonder how relevant this travelogue is, so best to just see it as a nostalgic memoir from the author and read it that way

Sadly, I didn't enjoy this book.
To be honest, it's one of the few I didn't even finish, which is rare for me. But it wasn't captivating and actually, it was rather annoying to me.
Maybe what bothered me (the bad tourist aspect) was the point, the lesson or the joke, but I just couldn't get myself to read more individual stories I didn't enjoy.

As a life-long traveler, I found this book delightful. As a woman in the 21st century, I found it to be both relatable and just a touch exotic, which is an extremely compelling combination. Her adventures were nearly cinematic in their telling, and her moments of reflection seemed like little pools of stillness amongst the swirling eddies of the rest of her life.

The only critique I would pass along, were I recommending this book to a friend, would be that it doesn't read through as a cohesive narrative. The way that Roberts' story jumps around in time and topic made it seem more like a coffee table book—good for picking up here and there for a little vignette—rather than something to absorb with focus.

What makes this book different from all others?
A collection of short stories about various aged travelers. Different relationships, different cultures, different issues abound in each chapter. It's wonderful to read such a breadth of material in one book.

I will recommend this to my students.

This book wasn't really my cup of tea. In my opinion, it focused too much on the personal life instead of on traveling. At points, I didn't even remember what the story was about, as some parts were very long stretched and slow-paced. This just wasn't a book for me, sadly.

I've downloaded this book some time ago but never got to read it.
I though the 3rd lockdown will be a perfect opportunity. It was a great idea as I've really enjoyed the book.
It was very well written, witty and fun. I love travels and this book was a brilliant source of inspiration.
Full of interesting stories unlike a usual, boring guide book.
Highly recommended if you love to travel but currently unable to so do.

I enjoyed parts of this book and found Suzanne's life fascinating, but at some points I felt as if there was a little too much focus on her various boyfriends. I think that a reshuffling of the chapters might have fixed this and made the book feel less focused on this one area of her life.

I have been a single female traveller and I am thankful that I did not encounter the situations as Suzanne Roberts did. I am sure I wasn’t the “best” tourist, and I'm certain I was blind to a number of cultural issues (I do remember this one incident in Egypt), but I came out relatively unscathed.

I thought this one was going to be more travel and experience focused, rather than the relationship/no relationship side of things, and I know, it says it in the title……

I also thought there were bits where it was just a little bit “too all over the place” for me. I would have preferred the timeline to flow one way, I’m all for flashbacks for context etc, but this seemed too out of order for my brain, but I know it was organised in a chapter for each subject, but I would personally have preferred for it to be organised chronologically/by country.

I enjoyed the travel aspects of the book because I love living vicariously through anybody’s travel and adventure stories, although there were some parts that had me cringing. If you are looking for a memoir/essay style of guide, then you may enjoy this one.

This book was not structured well, I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.
The blurb sold me, and perhaps with some restructuring the book could be a fun read

The author reveals her interior landscape while describing far-reaching travels to Mongolia, Panama, Peru, Ireland, India, Burning Man, Czech Republic, Mexico, and places in between. As a woman who traveled mostly solo, Roberts navigates her own vulnerability as well as courage to face complicated truths about the world, and her place in it. These vignettes do not form a chronological narrative, nor do they follow a straight geographic path. As such, I was sometimes confused. The strongest passages juxtapose details of place with the narrator's conflicted inner story as a person of privilege, carrying considerable emotional baggage. There is much to love in this collection, especially a complex reckoning with ancestral history while visiting her mother's homeland.
Will appeal to fans of EAT PRAY LOVE and WILD.

Bad Tourist by Suzanne Roberts is about the traveling adventures and life relationships of Suzanne Roberts. This book took a long time for me to read. Each story is based on the experiences of the author in a different city of the world. I loved reading about the authors traveling experiences. There was depth in language and each line was filled with many details. A few stories that stood out for me were the experiences in India and in the United States. I even laughed a few instances for a few stories. I was not interested in reading about the author's love life and these sections were boring. However, in the end, I liked how the author made peace with her opinions about finding a life partner, the flirting game, and found a life partner.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this courtesy of NetGalley.  While I selected this book because of my interest in the topic and appreciated the author sharing her travel related POVs, I did not care for its lack of structure.  This book read like a bunch of diary/blog post entries or free writing cobbled together into a book.  If you do not mind this style of writing then you will probably enjoy this.  I expect more, however, from reading a book.

In a time when borders are blocked and cultures are judged, Bad Tourist reminds us that we are indeed connected, threaded through human condition. Suzanne Roberts shares her beautiful and vulnerable travels through humor and gut-bursting honesty. She reminds us that travel can be a journey, not only to another land, but to our internal exploration of self. This book is timely, a worthy and important read.