I was really excited to dive into 365 Dates of Travel: The First 6 Months. The concept sounded amazing—daily travel stories capturing adventures from all over the world—but sadly, the book didn’t live up to my expectations.

While there was clear potential for fun, engaging tales from each day, the structure felt dull and un-captivating. Instead of being drawn into the stories, I found it difficult to follow, and it lacked the flow needed to keep me hooked. What should have been an exciting, wanderlust-inspiring read turned into a bit of a slog. There are glimpses of interesting experiences, but overall, it just didn’t work for me.

2.5 ⭐

A unique but disorienting format.

The 182 days of travel begin on 7 Nov 92 - 10 Nov 92 in the USA.
Then we jump to 2019 for 11 Nov in Lebanon because nothing of note happens in the USA trip on that day (staying at a friend's house)
Then we jump back to 13 Nov 1992 to continue the USA trip.
Then 14 Nov is set in 2010 (Syria)

As said, this is definitely disorienting and not my favourite unfortunately.

My actual favourite thing about this book was the reference to scrapbook tickets and diary entries.

She is a really great storyteller and it held my interest through the book I am looking forward to the second book.

I loved the idea of this book, bit it fell short for me as it wasn’t as good as I was expecting.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

365 Dates of Travel is a great premise but falls flat. Instead of getting interesting stories from Fran Heap, you get random notes from diary pages. No doubt she’s extremely well travelled but her notes on Syria talk about the smuggled egg sandwich she had instead of anything of substance about the country.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I just reviewed 365 Dates of Travel by Fran Heap. #365DatesofTravel #NetGalley I wanted to love this book but I feel it fell short. This isn't an exact memoir of exact day to day travel. Different trips were explained on each day. There really was no rhyme or reason.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn't really a travel memoir in the traditional sense. Heap shares stories over time about travel on different days for every day of the year. So January 11 may be a story from the 70s about Australia but January 12 may be a story from 2010 about Thailand and there's not really anything tying them together. A lot of the anecdotes are also very short - some as few as a few lines. There's not a lot of depth or actual experience presented in a cohesive collection. It's a nice idea that I could see sharing short stories about old experiences with family and friends, but it wasn't for me.

Loved the premise, not so much the execution but still enjoyable travel read!

There was much jumping around in timeline and locations which was a little hard to follow. It starts when at age 18 she travels to the US from Australia. She doesn't plan or budget very well which was frustrating to read. I am a planner and this drives me a bit crazy.

I liked hearing about train travel in the early 90's, the Greyhound buses, and friends met along the way. The timeline jumps to later (2019) and different countries and ways of travel.

Overall, liked it but disjointed and frustrating at times.

I received a free copy of, 365 Dates of Travel, by Fran Heap, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Fran has traveled all over the world, this book is her journal of traveling, short and sweet. This was an interesting book, about one women's travel around the world.

As an avid traveler myself, I appreciate the remarkable memory (and record keeping) to tell stories going back decades! The one striking thing is how much travel has changed over these years. She is a great storyteller. Looking forward to the second six months!

I struggled my way through this book - there was no coherent thread and it completely missed the mark for me. I was so disappointed.

This was not what I wanted it to be. It could have been a fun travel memoir filled with wonderful stories and colorful characters. Instead, it’s an excerpt from her diary and then the explanation. It feels almost like sitting with someone with an old photo album and they tell you about the pictures but instead of telling you about the fun they had, they explain the receipt that they got at the gift shop rather than the souvenir. It was difficult to follow and even more difficult to decipher. This was not for me.

I found this book an odd, segmented and somewhat boring read. It was just writing with no real substance and nothing to make me want to holiday. It didn't flow and is like reading someone's diary, where they had jotted down menial facts but their real memories would still be locked in their own minds.

I didn't find it very enjoyable I'm afraid but I do thank NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for giving me the opportunity to read and review.

As a memoir, the author may have been able to focus on sections of her extensive travels and their significance. But in the form chosen, this volume of descriptions of long past journal entries provides little substance. I am fond of travel writing-and even travel guidebooks. However these collected tidbits did not hold my interest.

365 Dates of Travel is a bit of a mix up of a travel journal. Unfortunately because of the way it keeps switching around from place to place it is hard to get a feel for anywhere. I also found the level of detail a bit strange with details you don't need to know and are just not interesting (eg. the exact seat number on the plane, the prices at McDonalds). It is a bit of a memory test for the author, but doesn't make a great read. Looking at the amazing places she has been I would love to read about her adventures in a different format.

In November 1992, the author, who was 18 at the time, left Australia for the first of many journeys. In this book, she offers a story from her decades of travel--one for each day of the year. This book covers the first six months of the year with the rest to follow in a second volume. There are funny stories, alarming stories, and stories that highlight the many strange and wonderful experiences that people encounter when they travel.

The book does not contain stories from only the trip that the author begins with, and for that reason, I think it would be best read in chunks, a little at a time. The book is structured like a diary, but not a continuous diary of one year. It's like a diary based on old diaries from many different trips and years. So one date might be from the 1992 trip and the next one from 2019 on a different trip in a very different place. It jumps around throughout. There is no narrative arc, so it lends itself well to reading a date or two at a time.

The writing is conversational in style and the author does tell the reader when she can't remember things and is making an assumption based on what she is reading or what is not mentioned on a certain date in her original diaries. I think the book would have benefited from an editor to notice some technical issues.

There are some fun stories in the book and some that brought back memories of what it used to be like to travel before mobile phones, wifi, and an abundance of ATM machines. Photos of the author's travels can be found on her website: https://franheapwriter.com/

Synopsis: (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review)
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A mad romp around the world with a quirky data-collecting redhead!

Fran has a travel story for all 365 dates of the year, from Thanksgiving in New York, Christmas in Bethlehem, to New Year's Day in Cairo. Travel mishaps and adventures include broken bank cards in Jerusalem, arguments in Libya, and Wacky Races in Mauritania. Read travel mishaps and adventures from Albuquerque to Aleppo, Cairo to Copenhagen, Lebanon to Libya, Morocco to Mauritania, Poland to Portugal and more!

Fran left Australia in 1992 as a naive 18-year-old with no money, no credit card, and before e-mail and the internet were invented. She's a woman solo traveller, who travels by train, car, overland vehicle, bus, Uber, plane, lifts with strangers and the occasional group tour, through Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the USA and Australia. There's travel humour aplenty, including tales of her "trusty pink umbrella". She's a self-proclaimed bad redhead and meets "red-hair-freaks" along the way.

Data is collected on money spent; steps are taken; wrinkled-ness of clothes; and hilarious diet details due to a fear of eating alone in restaurants and speaking foreign languages. Will the car make it? Where's Fran's passport? Will she buy the dust-able souvenir?

This is a really ODD book - I think that I enjoyed the synopsis more than the book which to me was very disjointed, a verbal scrapbook of six months of travel and what things she kept…tickets, receipts, etc. over and over, but maybe that was just me….not sure if I want to know what happened the other six months of this year. And it’s not the same year…it skips all over the place from 1992 to 2019 in the blink of an eye. And from country to country. Confusing.

If you love to travel (and I do ... well, I enjoy it once I get there....) you will enjoy this book. Not sure if I will get it for our library, but it is one to read if you love to travel the world without a care in that world besides saving receipts and souvenirs.

Sorry, this book should have stayed as a blog. There is no reason to keep reading and there is no index to look up places you might want to read about.