Arm chair travel is a good option when budgets or schedules don't actually allow a good trip. You can read in preparation for a future trip or you can read of other people's travels. Both are interesting, giving insights into human nature and don't involve packing,chasing trains or planes, or great discomfort or expense.
Reading Charles Dickens as a travel writer, Frank Bures says,
Travel is not that interesting. People are. Stories come alive only when there are people in them. Travel and nature writing both purport to be about physical things. But they are really about us, and to the extent that they aren’t, they are simply bad, or boring, writing.
From World Hum: The Best Travel Stories on the Internet. Read more of Frank Bures at frankbures.com.
Reading about a place we are actually traveling through is often informative and enlightening. I remember reading Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela while driving through remote areas of South Africa years ago.
Other favourite travel writers are Dervla Murphy and Tony Cohan. Pilgrimage writing is fascinating as it takes us away from the hot spots and to the high spots.
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