All The Right Places by Brad Newsham

Brad Newsham's Inspiring 1989 Travel Memoir of Wandering, Healing, and Cross-Cultural Discovery

First published in 1989 by Villard Books, All the Right Places by San Francisco cab driver and author Brad Newsham is a warm, candid, and soul-searching travel memoir. Born out of a major personal turning point following the breakdown of his ten-year marriage, the book chronicles Newsham's decision to leave behind the safety of home and set out on an extended solo backpacking adventure across Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Traveling light with little more than a backpack and a daily personal affirmation—"I am in exactly the right place, thinking, doing and feeling exactly the right things"—Newsham immerses himself in unscripted, low-budget adventure. His journey takes him from cycling solo across the rugged Japanese Alps toward Mount Fuji to navigating the crowded trains and changing cultural landscape of late-1980s China, before eventually embarking on the iconic Trans-Siberian Railway across the Soviet Union. Along the way, Newsham offers honest reflections on global privilege, isolation, human connection, and the quiet power of low-tech, open-ended travel.

Why You'll Love This Book

Full of gentle humor, observational richness, and timeless wanderlust, All the Right Places captures the raw, transformative magic of solo backpacking before the digital age. Readers who cherish classic travel writing, armchair exploration, and memoirs by authors like Paul Theroux (The Great Railway Bazaar), Bill Bryson, Bruce Chatwin, Pico Iyer, and Rolf Potts (Vagabonding) will find Newsham's journey deeply moving.