Four travel bookstores in Madrid to dream of the next destination

“Travelling changes you. As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly, you leave marks, even if they are small. And in return, life and travel leave their mark on you,” said the traveler, chef and television presenter Anthony Bourdain, who died in 2018. But, sometimes, it is difficult to choose the destination. Do you need ideas to organize your next trip and don't know where to turn? In Madrid there are still some (few) bookstores specialized in the subject, since many of them have been disappearing in recent years.

For many travel enthusiasts, it is still a real pleasure to enter a bookstore to browse the shelves, chat with the bookseller or exchange opinions with other travelers. In short, we don't want you to miss the itch that any globetrotter feels when deciding their next adventure. This article, with four attractive stops, wants to be a small tribute to all the booksellers, the adventurers and travelers who allow this profession to survive the new times.

Fire land

The Tierra de Fuego bookstore It opened in 1980 and, after passing through several locations, it settled permanently at number 3 on Conde Duque street. It focuses on mountain routes, guides, travel-related literature and cartography are sold. “People who visit us come to book trips designed by Tierra del Fuego. There is also the solo traveler, who does not want an organized trip and looks for national destinations, and lately also Latin American countries, like Argentina, or Asian countries, like Vietnam, Cambodia… They are the most in-demand places,” says Miguel Ángel Miguel, owner of the bookstore. .

The travel agency started as a mountain club that over the years added activities. For example, outings to nature and conscious hiking with the support of an expert in mindfulness. Excursions once a month to a monastery inn, with excursions on silent hiking routes, since, as its owner emphasizes, “nature must be listened to.” There is also another type of music in nature, accompanied by a composer. They were pioneers in outings through Madrid, with themed tours around the city, as well as in taking weekend trips for more cultural tourism.

“As travel literature, a very good book is Water Paths, written by a Canarian boy who makes a journey through Latin America by canoe and walking,” recommends the expert. “As route guides, made by our guides and edited by us, we have a hiking guide through the Arribes del Duero that is selling very well,” he adds. Tierra de Fuego began as a bookstore and they continue to run it “romantically,” as the owner explains, but confirms that, currently, they make a living from the agency. Furthermore, Miguel Ángel has just received an award for a life dedicated to the development and promotion of hiking, mountaineering and active tourism granted by the Madrid Mountaineering Federation.

Uneven Bookstore

This bookstore dedicated to travel and mountains, it is located in the central Barrio de Las Letras (Plaza de Matute, 6). The store, which had been a bookstore and stationery store since 1888, did not become what is today the Desnivel bookstore until 1998. Its audience is people who know the brand, mountaineers and travel enthusiasts, although due to its location, in a transit enclave, also causes many passers-by to enter attracted by its striking window display. “We are dedicated to travel and the mountains, but we also have maps and material, climbing shoes, t-shirts, hats…” says Maixa Rote, bookseller and journalist.

Desnivel also has a small publishing house of literature of both contents and two periodical magazines, Unevenness and Great Spaces. Maixa recommends the Nordic writer Erica Fatland and her book Himalayas. “Another book that I also recommend is Where the sun rises, traveling novel in which its author, aged 17, leaves France with his bicycle and a blank passport. It tells what he discovers in this vital journey that lasts just over a year and was the winner of the Desnivel Literature Prize in 2021,” adds the bookseller. This is a meeting point for all those mountain fans, a place to build community and share experiences.

Robinson Nautical Bookstore

Located in the central neighborhood of Chueca, at number 6 of the small street of Santo Tomé, it is located this bookstore with more than 40 years of history. It specializes in sea voyages, history, stories of great sailors and fiction novels. Juan Melgar, director of the establishment, assures that the public that visits his store is very varied: “We have a lot of recurring clientele. If they are preparing a trip, they usually take a nautical guide and something to read along the way. There are many people who are just starting out, discovering the sea and they tend to have a thirst for knowledge, so they come to document and learn.”

In the case of reading something that motivates and inspires, he is clear. “I would recommend a book by a solo sailor. How a single person goes on a sailing boat is something very demanding. They tell about his adventures, the countries they visit… They are entertaining and very interesting, evocative and stimulating books. “You get the desire to travel and explore the world,” he considers. As for novelists who have dealt with the subject of navigation, in the Robinson bookstore there is no doubt who the authors par excellence are: “Joseph Conrad was a merchant seaman and almost all of his novels are sea voyages. Another great author is Melville, with his Moby Dick, and of course, Robert Louis
Stevenson, with his very famous The island of the treasure”.

The star destination in Spain to practice this type of tourism is the Balearic Islands. The options are to rent a boat there or travel with your own boat from the Peninsula. Other places are Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, the South Pole or, now in winter, the Caribbean. For all these destinations, this Madrid bookstore offers maps and navigation charts. So, if you are looking to take a sea trip, Robinson is, without a doubt, the place to go. If that is not the case and what we want is to get a good book, Juan Melgar will rightly recommend an interesting historical, transformative trip, a shipwreck or one of those great adventures that have changed humanity.

Taschen Store Madrid

A few meters from Robinson, at number 30 Barquillo Street, is this beautiful bookstore located in the old premises of the Santa Rita haberdashery. The Madrid neighborhood of Justicia has been in charge of hosting the thirteenth store of the famous German publisher. Taschen is not exclusively dedicated to travel guides and books, but its catalog focuses on art, photography, design and cinema. However, Alejandra Torres, coordinator of the Madrid store, explains that, “as a practical book, similar to a guide, there is a collaboration with The New York Times 36-hour call, which takes us to the United States, Canada or Europe.” Another very interesting option to seek inspiration is 100 Trips Around the World. “They are small and practical books for organizing a trip. In this same line, it is being liked a lot Remote Experiencescollaborations between a photographer and a journalist that propose trips to remote places such as Antarctica, North Korea, Botswana or Papua New Guinea, although this would be to organize something more of an adventure,” he says.

Other volumes that could also fit are photographic and historical trips. Here it is worth highlighting, without a doubt, the series Portraits of a city, in which capitals such as Rome, Berlin, Vienna, New York or San Francisco are discussed. It is a tour of the modern history of these cities through photographs. Another option is trips through history, culture or tradition with the 1900 series, in which several countries are visited. “We have a very varied audience, very interested in aesthetics, architecture and history,” says Alejandra Torres. And as for trips, she believes that “those lasting 36 hours sell very well, since they make it easier for you to organize a weekend getaway through Europe.”

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