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This Is Why We Travel

By Becca Martin

We travel for the experiences you can’t capture through pictures. Moments that are indescribable unless you were there in that very moment, basking in the pure bliss you’re feeling.

We travel for the moments you’ll never be able to capture in words, no matter how descriptive you can be there will be things, and experiences, and feelings you just can’t put into words. It’s things like stepping into the ocean, feeling the southern hemisphere sun warm your skin, seeing landmarks you’ve only dreamed about and remembering in those moments this is why you were born to travel.

We travel for the iconic landmarks and the hole in the wall restaurants.  We travel to appreciate the earth and be in awe by it’s magnificence and beauty. 

We travel to experience everything we can out of life because life isn’t meant to be lived in one place, it’s meant to be explored and appreciated.

It’s the way you feel when you walk out of the airport or off the bus, it’s the fresh air of an unfamiliar place hitting your skin and the wind blowing through your hair.  It’s trying to capture the perfect photo but realizing that no matter how hard you try you can never do it justice.

It’s watching the sunset on an open field lighting up the skyline like a burning orange wildfire.

It’s watching farm animals graze, it’s watching the waves crash against the shore eroding away at the land, it’s watching locals take pride in their homes and it’s the connections you make not only with yourself and others, but with the earth itself.

It’s every memory, face and picture you take away from a place. It’s seeing the millions of years of the earth shaping itself and forming to all it is in the very moment you lay eyes on it.

It’s all the places you’ve seen pictures of and then actually stepping in the frame.

It’s more than words can describe.

We don’t travel because we want to, we travel because we have too because without travel life wouldn’t feel complete to us.

It’s all the moments that make us feel alive that make the stress, the money, the missing home worth it. It’s the moments of almost missing our plane or bus because we had no idea which direction to go in, and putting our trust in strangers to get us there. It’s those moments that make it worth it.

It’s the moment you stand there and look at something monumental that captures your breath and you think to yourself, “this, this is it, this is why I travel.”  It’s the moments you can’t explain and the moments you’re absolutely in love with.

We travel because it’s a way of life. We travel because no matter how much we’ve seen and experienced we always crave more because there is nothing that can compare to earths natural beauty. We travel because we need to, because we love to.

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The 13 Best Travel Clothing Brands of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

From swimwear to walking shoes, we’ve got you covered.

In This Article

Jump to a Section

• Our top picks

Our Testing Process

• Tips for Buying
• Why Trust T+L

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more .

Travel + Leisure / Jackie Cucco

A travel wardrobe is different from a regular wardrobe. How so? It should include comfy, breathable pieces made of stretchy, flexible fabrics while also being versatile, layerable, and suitable for different activities, climates, and occasions.

Finding items that check all the boxes can be challenging. To make it easy, we’ve rounded up the best travel clothing brands that carry casual, professional, weather-friendly, and active pieces alike.

The Travel + Leisure team not only trusts these featured brands but has also personally tried many of their best-selling, highly rated clothes, outerwear, and shoes firsthand. We used our extensive apparel and footwear testing process to come up with the best places to shop online for all types of travelers.

Best Overall

Unbound Merino

Unbound Merino's clothes are woven from ultra-soft, stretchy, non-wrinkling wool that wicks away sweat and promises to keep odors at bay.

The selection is somewhat limited, but it's great for basics.

When it comes to travel apparel, Unbound Merino is tough to beat. Crafted from premium merino wool boasting super-fine, silky fibers, the fabrics are not only not itchy but are also softer, stretchier, and more wrinkle-resistant than many cotton weaves. Wool is naturally antimicrobial and sweat-wicking, too, meaning it won't harbor odor-causing bacteria. So you can wear the garments multiple times on a trip without needing to wash them — the brand says you can wear its clothes for weeks without laundering them.

Unbound Merino carries lots of comfy basics that are excellent for travel, like plain tees, long-sleeves, and pants that feel like sweats but look like professional trousers. We're particularly fond of the Women's Merino Wool Travel Dress . This versatile frock can be dressed up or down, worn as-is or under a light jacket, and styled with sandals, heels, flats, or sneakers. We also like the Men's Merino Crew Neck T-Shirt , a perfect short-sleeve tee or undershirt for guys.

The Details: 90-day return policy

Best for Everyday

The brand's active-meets-casual pieces are just the thing for travel days, athleisure outfits, and sporty weekend looks.

You'll mostly find athleisure and loungewear clothing, but there are some good trousers and knitwear items, too.

Alo is technically a yoga apparel brand, but it makes some excellent athleisure and loungewear pieces for comfy everyday ensembles. The brand has also expanded its offerings to include things like work-ready trousers, knit sweaters, bodysuits, and sporty dresses.

We love Alo's 7/8 High-waist Airlift Legging on account of its extra-wide waistband and soft fabric that lifts and sculpts your curves. When going for a more laid-back look, we'd rock the slouchy Alcolade Sweatpant with a pair of sneakers.

The Details: 30-day return policy

Best for Business Travel

Madewell carries lots of professional-looking pieces, like blouses, bodysuits, button-ups, trousers, and midi dresses.

The men's collection isn't as extensive as the women's.

Madewell is known for its denim, and while we certainly love the jeans, it's also a great place to shop for a work trip. From sophisticated dresses and tailored pants to chic blouses, button-ups, and bodysuits, you'll find a range of high-quality, professional-looking pieces.

The Harlow Pant is one of our favorites for business-casual and business-professional outfits. This best-seller features a high-rise, wide-leg cut and a drapey, breathable blend of cotton and Tencel. (It's also available in a curvy fit , with a contoured waistband and extra room through the hips and thighs.)

Best Sustainable

Besides its impressive collection of classy, travel-ready clothes, we appreciate Everlane's commitment to reducing waste and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

The brand leans seasonless but has some cold- and warm-weather pieces available.

Everlane carries a mostly seasonless collection of travel-ready apparel, including jogger-trouser hybrid pants, jeans in on-trend yet versatile cuts, elegant sweaters, classy Oxford shirts, everyday crewnecks, cotton dresses, and jumpsuits. The brand is also dedicated to sustainability, with a waste-minimizing supply chain and a goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by over 50 percent by 2030.

The Dream Pant is one of our go-tos for travel days. These pants look like tailored trousers but feel like stretchy joggers, plus the fabric is wrinkle-resistant and (according to Everlane) "comfortable enough to nap in."

Best Athleisure

Lululemon carries not only top-notch athleisure wear, but also pieces you can wear to work that feel like lounge clothes.

Though the sizes can run a little small, the Align collection stretches to fit even if you fluctuate sizes.

We pretty much always pack at least one Lululemon item when traveling. Originally a yoga apparel brand, it now offers an impressive range of loungewear and athleisure pieces, including leggings in virtually every cut, style, and color. You'll even find work-appropriate garments, like trousers, poplin shirts, and blazers that feel like athleisure wear. The prices can be steep, but you can often strike gold in the discounted " We Made Too Much " section.

Lululemon launched its uber-popular, borderline-famous Align Pant in 2015. While we certainly like the original, the pocketed version is ideal for travel — and it's made with the same buttery-soft fabric and super-wide, high-rise waistband. We also like the slightly looser-fitting Align High-rise Jogger , which has pockets big enough to hold a smartphone .

Travel + Leisure / Alexander Huang

Best for Capsule Wardrobes

This affordable luxury brand has pieces you can dress up or down and wear in multiple seasons.

While many cashmere and silk items are machine washable, the brand still recommends hand washing.

Quince is a relatively new clothing brand but has gained a loyal following since its 2020 launch. When you browse the site, you'll find affordable pieces made from premium materials, like cashmere, natural silk, and linen. There's even a chart on each product page that breaks down exactly how it gets the prices so low. Just the thing for building a capsule wardrobe, the high-quality, multi-season garments can be mixed and matched to create endless outfits. Quince also has an almost unheard-of 365-day return window.

We like the Mongolian Cashmere Crewneck Sweater, which comes in women's and men's sizes. We're also big fans of the Washable Stretch Silk Blouse because it's not only machine washable, but it’s also versatile enough to wear with a skirt, jeans, shorts, or pants.

The Details: 365-day return policy

Best Budget

Amazon essentials.

Amazon's own clothing brand has accessibly priced travel basics, loungewear, professional attire, and swimsuits for men, women, and kids.

The "try before you buy" option is only available for Prime members.

If you're on a budget, look no further than Amazon. The mega-retailer has many private label brands, including a very accessibly priced clothing line, Amazon Essentials. There's tons of great stuff for men, women, and kids, including wardrobe basics, loungewear, dresses, sweaters, underwear, swimsuits, and even workwear. Prime members can get their items within a couple of days (sometimes even with same-day delivery) and take advantage of the "try before you buy" perk. This allows you to order items to try on and ship them back without being charged for anything if you decide you don't want them.

The Women's Short-sleeve Maxi is breathable, stretchy, lightweight, and versatile — everything you want in a travel dress. Amazon Essentials also has many affordable short-sleeve men's shirts, including henleys, V-necks, and crewnecks, like this two-pack of Regular-fit Short-sleeve Pocket T-shirts .

Best Size-inclusive

Girlfriend Collective

Many styles run from XXS to 6XL, plus they're made of stretchy, flexible fabrics that won't wrinkle in your suitcase.

The brand suggests using a wash bag or microfiber filter when washing and hanging items to dry.

Girlfriend Collective has one of the most inclusive size ranges out there — many of its styles come in 11 sizes, running from XXS to 6XL. The brand carries fitness apparel, athleisure, loungewear, bodysuits, dresses, and outerwear – all stretchy, breathable, wrinkle-resistant, and packable. Most items are made of fabrics sourced from recycled plastic bottles, and you can even recycle the pieces you're done wearing through the ReGirlfriend program.

The brand's Compressive Pocket Legging is a stellar choice for travel. We like how the soft yet sturdy fabric holds you in without restricting movement, and the deep side pockets are big enough for a phone or passport.

Best for Shapewear

Spanx has shapewear for every outfit, along with thoughtfully designed clothing items you can wear while traveling, to work, and on weekends.

Many items come in limited colors, but the selection is getting broader.

Spanx is almost synonymous with shapewear. The brand carries a comprehensive selection of undergarments that hold you in, smooth certain areas, and enhance your curves — think bodysuits, high-rise underwear, compressive shorts, tanks, and camis. Besides that, you can now get chic, comfy apparel, including travel clothes, workwear, swimsuits, and even jeans with hidden shapewear features.

Made specifically for travel, the AirEssentials Collection has cozy yet classy jumpsuits, dresses, and wear-anywhere pants. We like the Suit Yourself Boat Neck Ribbed Bodysuit because it combines core-smoothing shapewear with a sleek long-sleeve shirt you can style many ways.

The Details: 60-day return policy

Best for Hiking

This outdoor apparel brand has all types of hiking clothes, from pocketed pants and shorts to layering pieces and weather-ready, stuffable outerwear.

Patagonia doesn't make hiking shoes or boots.

If you're planning a hiking trip, Patagonia likely has almost everything you need. We're talking layering pieces, pocketed trail pants and shorts, windbreakers, rain jackets, packable puffer coats, and thick, sweat-wicking socks. It doesn't carry hiking boots or shoes, but we can tell you which ones to buy from other retailers.

We tested the Women's Chambeau Rock Pants and loved the elastic waistband, adjustable cuffs, ample pockets, silky-soft fabric, and true-to-size fit. The material is also breathable and stretchy, preventing you from overheating while offering a full range of movement on the trail. These pants did a great job repelling water, too, so you can definitely wear them on a drizzly day.

The Details: Unlimited return policy

Travel + Leisure / Lisa Pezzuto

Best Outerwear

Columbia makes a myriad of weather-ready pieces, like vests, pullovers, stuffable puffers, rain jackets, and windbreakers.

The outerwear options are more for outdoor activities than professional or formal occasions.

Columbia has been making outdoor apparel for nearly a century. When you shop the collections, you'll find practical base layers, hiking clothes, snow gear, and lifestyle pieces you can wear for travel and other casual occasions. The brand really stands out for its outerwear offerings, which include fleece pullovers, insulated vests, down jackets, raincoats, and windbreakers. Some options feature Omni-Heat technology, a foil-like lining that essentially reflects your body heat back onto itself to keep you toasty-warm when the temperatures drop.

We tried the Women's Carson Pass Interchange Jacket firsthand and were thoroughly impressed. We found it very warm and liked how easy it was to layer over various shirts and even sweatshirts. What's more, this coat has fleece-lined pockets, sleeves with thumbholes, and a hood that actually stays in place when you put it on.

Travel + Leisure / Maria Rowella

Best Swimwear

Andie Swim 

This swimwear brand has well-made one-pieces and bikinis in multiple coverage options, cuts for long torsos, and an inclusive range of sizes.

Some styles may not be supportive enough for large chests, and the return window is pretty short.

Andie is a prime place to shop for swimsuits. The brand is known for its well-made one-pieces with flattering cuts and comfortable designs that don't require constant adjusting — including options for long torsos and plus-size bodies. You'll also find bikinis, cover-ups, and various accessories, like hats, sunglasses, and beach bags.

We tested The Amalfi One Piece and fell in love with the thick, durable ribbed fabric. It's exceptionally comfy, even when soaking-wet, and dries quickly, so you're never soaking-wet for long. Though the thin straps may not be supportive enough for those with large chests, we appreciate that you can choose from three coverage options on the bottom: medium, cheeky, or full.

The Details: 14-day return policy

Travel + Leisure / Frances Crouter

Best for Shoes

Nike's footwear selection goes far beyond trainers, with streetwear styles and walking shoes that'll keep your feet happy for hours.

The rocking outsoles might take some getting used to.

Nike has dominated the sportswear market for multiple decades. Over the years, its offerings have expanded to include athleisure clothes, streetwear, and travel-friendly lifestyle pieces. Beyond clothes, the brand has some of the best shoes not just for working out and playing sports but also for hanging out and taking a leisurely stroll.

We tried Nike's Motiva Walking Shoes , which have unique rocker-style bottoms. The shape of the outsoles took some getting used to, but it really seemed to optimize our stride in terms of stability, shock absorption, arch support, and overall comfort. We also adore the sporty-chic look.

Travel + Leisure / Kimberly Souza

Travel + Leisure / Donna Freydkin

Our in-depth testing process for clothing involves carefully inspecting the garments, assessing the materials, trying them on to evaluate the fit, and wearing them for various activities for multiple hours at a time. We rate apparel based on factors such as fit, comfort, breathability, moisture resistance, stretch, durability, care requirements, and overall value. The results for this article were compiled from multiple testers who used the products in real-life settings, often for ongoing, months-long periods.

Tips for Buying Travel Clothing

Choose versatile items.

When buying travel clothes, look for versatile pieces you can dress up or down, mix and match with different outfits, and wear on numerous occasions. Like a capsule wardrobe , this will allow you to pack fewer items and re-wear certain garments. The best apparel for travel is also suitable for multiple seasons, meaning you can layer pieces under or over it for cooler or warmer weather.

Look for travel-friendly features

We recommend prioritizing odor-resistant, breathable, and wrinkle-resistant materials, such as wool, cashmere, lyocell, performance fabrics, and cotton blends containing a stretchy fiber, like spandex or elastane. Some fabrics have built-in sun protection listed as UPF (ultraviolet protection factor).

You'll also be glad to have clothing with pockets. These will come in handy on travel days when you need to quickly stash your phone, boarding pass, ID, or cards. Strategically placed pockets can also allow you to forgo a purse or backpack (or at least bring a smaller one) on some outings.

On travel days (whether you're catching a flight, taking the train, or road-tripping), you want to avoid things that make it hard to sit comfortably for hours or quickly go to the bathroom. For some people, this includes bodysuits, jumpsuits, rompers, dresses, and overalls.

Lace-up shoes can also slow you down when going through airport security. Though some advise against wearing sandals (especially without socks), slip-on footwear such as slides or sneakers can be a good choice. Other things that can hold you back include belts, jewelry, hats, and other accessories.

The best material for travel clothing is stretchy, breathable, and moisture-wicking, meaning it'll draw sweat away from your body to prevent you from overheating. It should also be wrinkle-resistant, so you can pack it in your suitcase without worrying about creases. Fabrics that check all the boxes include wool, cashmere, lyocell, some cotton blends, and performance fabrics.

While you have lots of options for what to wear on a plane , it’s most important to be comfortable and able to move freely, with layers you can take off or throw on if you get hot or cold. You can't go wrong with stretchy jeans or trousers with a simple tee or long-sleeve and a crewneck sweater, half-zip sweatshirt, or button-down flannel. While you shouldn't wear pajamas, some people rock head-to-toe athleisure or loungewear sets, which we can totally get behind.

Why Trust Travel + Leisure

Theresa Holland is a freelance commerce writer, editor, and product reviewer specializing in travel, apparel, accessories, footwear, and consumer goods. She has worn multiple pieces from every brand on this list and is personally familiar with the fabrics, quality, comfort features, and wearability.

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37 Essential Travel Resources For Your Next Big Trip Thought Catalog

Welcome to our blog, a haven of knowledge and inspiration where 37 Essential Travel Resources For Your Next Big Trip Thought Catalog takes center stage. We believe that 37 Essential Travel Resources For Your Next Big Trip Thought Catalog is more than just a topic—it's a catalyst for growth, innovation, and transformation. Through our meticulously crafted articles, in-depth analysis, and thought-provoking discussions, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of 37 Essential Travel Resources For Your Next Big Trip Thought Catalog and its profound impact on the world around us. done anything read never 37 travel with kids not No One pathetic just while despair has child her useful another and influencer big no and cow married responsibility A a shared

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How this history fan gets to read JFK's telegrams, Titanic insurance claims, UFO docs

What do a letter Martin Van Buren wrote to Queen Victoria, a telegram from Harpo Marx to John F. Kennedy, and an inventory of Eva Braun's possessions seized by the Allies have in common? Alex Smith has transcribed all of them.

As a citizen archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration, Smith is one of thousands of volunteers helping transcribe millions of digitized files so that their text is searchable in the administration's online catalog.

About six months before Smith, 70, was set to retire eight years ago from his position at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, he came across a news article about the volunteer opportunity.

A graduate of Bowdoin College with an English degree and a penchant for history, he immediately settled on the program as a way to occupy his free time.

"I had been thinking about what it was after I had retired that I was going to do to give some structure and some passion to my life, and I thought this is perfect," he said.

The catalog holds descriptions of the archive's holdings researchers can use to locate files, but a computer can't always pick up the text within the files, Suzanne Isaacs, the archives' catalog community manager, told USA TODAY.

That's where citizen archivists come in: Their transcriptions of the documents make every word of the text searchable. "It unlocks history, and then it's available to the world," Isaacs said.

Archivists also use software that picks up images of text, called optical character recognition, but humans are still better at parsing old documents.

"We have so many different kinds of records over the course of a few centuries," Isaacs said. "They're odd sizes, they're folded, they're torn, ink bleeds through. Some are handwritten and gorgeous, and some are handwritten and it looks like chicken scratch. So we find that humans are just better, at this point, at being able to decipher what's said."

The program started in 2016, about five years after the archives started to add features to the catalog that allowed users to comment or transcribe the files.

Isaacs said the catalog holds 270 million digitized files, still a fraction of the 15 billion items held by the National Archives. "We're ramping up and getting more and more things in the catalog all the time," Isaacs said.

By 2026, the catalog is on track to hold half a billion files – which means more volunteers will be needed to help transcribe the documents.

Isaacs said the program is wide open to new volunteers, and those interested should visit the citizen archivist page on the National Archives website .

"We are constantly recruiting," she said. "Our work never stops."

More: Why presidential records are quickly becoming the 'dark archives' of America's past

A backstage pass to history

In more than eight years volunteering, Smith has transcribed more than 100,000 pages of files across hundreds of years of history.

In 2017, Smith traveled to the nation's capital, where he was awarded the Citizen Archivist award by then-Archivist of the United States David Ferriero. It was Smith's first visit to the National Archives building.

Smith savors the peek behind the curtain of history he gets from the files, which are as diverse as safety guidelines sent to soldiers during the 1918 influenza pandemic and bankruptcy records of the famous Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody. "I learned it cost a dollar a night to stable a camel at that point," he said of the latter.

Sometime, the documents reveal hidden connections between historical events, like one Smith came across while transcribing insurance claims for the Titanic. The claims included transcripts of interviews with other sea captains meant to prove how the doomed ocean liner had violated safety norms. The name of one interviewee – Capt. William Thomas Turner – jumped out to Smith immediately.

"'We understand you have to finish this today because you're sailing tomorrow,'" the interviewers asked, according to the document Smith transcribed. "They said, 'Oh, and what ship are you captaining?' And he said, 'The Lusitania'" – a name now synonymous with disaster after a German torpedo sank it soon after in May 1915.

"It was indeed the trip in which it was sunk, and the poor man had been saying things like, 'Well, I don't really know how long it would take under normal circumstances to lower a lifeboat.' And I thought, well, you've got to find out in a few days," Smith said.

Smith has been amazed by the hidden angles of major historical events the documents illuminate. "I hadn't known much about the immediate aftermath of World War II, and there are fascinating documents on the displaced persons who were trying to get out of Switzerland, or China, wherever it was," Smith said. "Their stories are made very vivid. It's wrenching."

Some documents have a humanizing effect on well-known historical figures. Smith recalled an account from former Secretary of State Dean Acheson of an incident when then-President Harry S. Truman demanded the recall of the Russian ambassador for being rude to his wife, Bess Truman. "The Secretary of State said it took the combined efforts of the secretary, one of Truman's closest aides, and Mrs. Truman herself to try to talk Truman out of it," Smith said. "And finally, Truman said: 'That's it. I can't compete with all of you.'"

Once, while going through telegrams sent to Kennedy to congratulate him on his Democratic nomination for president, Smith found a telegram from the silent comedian Harpo Marx that asked, "'Do you need a harp player in your cabinet?'"

Smith has come across other humorous tidbits, like one from the court testimony of Kathryn Kelly, the wife of George Kelly Barnes, better known as Machine Gun Kelly, the infamous Prohibition-era gangster.

"She was a very inept liar," Smith said. "At one point, the prosecutor had gotten her to say that she was afraid of her husband, and anything she did, she did because she was afraid of him." Asked why she bought her husband the machine gun that became his favorite weapon, Smith read that Kathryn Kelly said, "'Well, I thought he was dangerous, but I didn't think he was going to be dangerous with the machine gun.'"

More: These new museums (and more) are changing the way Black history is told across America

'You never know what you're going to find'

Citizen archivists can work from anywhere – all they need is a computer. "We only ask for a page at a time," Isaacs said.

The flexibility is a factor that attracted Smith to the program. "It's entirely in your hands. You can do it at any time of day or night," he said. "I've had insomnia periodically and thought fine, I'm going to go in and transcribe whatever I was working on earlier in the day."

Although citizen archivists can pick their own documents to transcribe, the amount of material can seem overwhelming. "We create missions, which are topical subject areas, or very specific records about maybe a holiday or a celebration or a historic event," Isaacs said. Some missions available on the program's website now include World War II oral histories, records related to the Chinese Exclusion Era, and UFO-related records.

The catalog also recently announced a new mission in collaboration with the National Park Service ahead of America's 250th birthday to transcribe the pension files of Revolutionary War soldiers. "Something you transcribe could be used in an interpretation tour by a park ranger at a battlefield," Isaacs said.

Smith has participated in the missions, but he also enjoys coming across topics that pique his interest, or even searching for random keywords to see what pops up. "I enjoy just tossing a word in the search engine at random, something that doesn't have an obvious tie, like 'bakery,' or 'emerald,' or whatever comes to mind," he said.

"You never know what you're going to find. It just really is very fulfilling, and I've learned a lot."

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her on email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.

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A New Chapter for Irish Historians’ ‘Saddest Book’

A globe-spanning research project has turned the catalog of a public archive destroyed in Ireland’s civil war into a model for reconstruction.

By Ed O’Loughlin

Reporting from Dublin

In the first pitched battle of the civil war that shaped a newly independent Ireland, seven centuries of history burned.

On June 30, 1922, forces for and against an accommodation with Britain, Ireland’s former colonial ruler, had been fighting for three days around Dublin’s main court complex. The national Public Record Office was part of the complex, and that day it was caught in a colossal explosion . The blast and the resulting fire destroyed state secrets, church records, property deeds, tax receipts, legal documents, financial data, census returns and much more, dating back to the Middle Ages.

“It was a catastrophe,” said Peter Crooks, a medieval historian at Trinity College Dublin. “This happened just after the First World War, when all over Europe new states like Ireland were emerging from old empires. They were all trying to recover and celebrate their own histories and cultures, and now Ireland had just lost the heart of its own.”

But perhaps it was not lost forever. Over the past seven years, a team of historians, librarians and computer experts based at Trinity has located duplicates for a quarter of a million pages of these lost records in forgotten volumes housed at far-flung libraries and archives, including several in the United States. The team then creates digital copies of any documents that it finds for inclusion in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland , an online reconstruction of the archive. Still a work in progress, the project says its website has had more than two million visits in less than two years.

Funded by the Irish government as part of its commemorations of a century of independence, the Virtual Treasury relies in part on modern technologies — virtual imaging, online networks, artificial intelligence language models and the growing digital indexes of archives around the world — but also on dusty printed catalogs and old-school human contacts. Key to the enterprise has been a book, “A Guide to the Records Deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland,” published three years before the fire by the office’s head archivist, Herbert Wood.

“For a long time, Wood’s catalog was known to Irish historians as the saddest book in the world, because it only showed what was lost in the fire,” Dr. Crooks said. “But now it has become the basis for our model to recreate the national archive. There were 4,500 series of records listed in Wood’s book, and we went out to look for as many of them as we could find.”

A major partner in this hunt was the National Archives in Britain, to which centuries of Irish government records — notably tax receipts — had been sent in duplicate. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, which remains part of the United Kingdom, has also been a major partner, contributing records from the centuries before Ireland was partitioned in 1921.

A considerable haul of documents has also been uncovered in the United States. The Library of Congress, for example, dug up dozens of volumes of lost debates from Ireland’s 18th-century Parliament. According to David Brown, who leads the Virtual Treasury’s trawl through domestic and overseas archives, before this trove of political history came into Congress’s possession, one previous owner had tried to sell it as fuel. Serendipity has often played a role in such U.S. discoveries, he said.

“You would have old family records stored away in some gentleman’s library, and he’d move to the colonies, and take the books with him,” Dr. Brown said. “Or else heirs would eventually sell the old library off to collectors, and eventually an American university or library might buy the collection, maybe because they wanted something important in it, and they took everything else that came with it. Archivists may not always know what they have, but they never throw anything out.”

The Huntington Library in California, and libraries of the universities of Kansas, Chicago, Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard are among around a dozen U.S. organizations to respond positively to the hopeful request from the Irish: “Do you have anything there that might be of interest to us?” And in the process of hunting down material that is already on its radar, the Virtual Treasury team is also uncovering, and incorporating, unexpected treasures.

One is a previously unnoticed 1595 letter shown to Dr. Brown late last year while he was visiting Yale’s Lewis Walpole Library to view some other material. In it, Sir Ralph Lane — a founder and survivor of the infamous lost colony of Roanoke, off North Carolina, which had vanished in the decade before this letter was written — petitions Queen Elizabeth I to order the conquest of Ulster, then a Gaelic stronghold in the north of English-ruled Ireland.

Dr. Brown, a specialist in early modern Atlantic history, said the letter — long overlooked because it was bound in a volume with much later documents — showed the close connection between England’s colonial conquests in North America and Ireland, both in the personalities involved and their motivation. The letter suggests conquering Ulster primarily so that the English could seize the inhabitants’ land, and it proposes paying for the war by looting the Ulster chiefs’ cattle. The area was ultimately conquered and colonized in 1609, six years after Lane’s death.

“For the Elizabethan adventurers, colonialism was a branch of piracy. All they wanted was land,” Dr. Brown said. “Roanoke hadn’t worked out for Lane, and Elizabeth had just granted Sir Walter Raleigh 10,000 acres of land in Munster,” in the south of Ireland. “So Lane thought, if Raleigh got 10,000 acres in Munster, why can’t I have 10,000 acres in Ulster?”

Another contribution to the project could be seen in contemporary Northern Ireland, at the Public Record Office in Belfast. The head of conservation, Sarah Graham, was restoring and preserving a collection of records and letters kept by Archbishop John Swayne, who led the church in Ireland in the 15th century. Watching her at work was Lynn Kilgallon, research fellow in medieval history for the Virtual Treasury. Once preserved, its pages will be digitized and added to Dublin’s online archive.

“If you don’t understand the words in a book, it becomes just an object,” Ms. Graham said. “You need someone to read it — medievalists like Lynn here, to bring it to life.”

You do not necessarily need to be a specialist to read the documents in the Virtual Treasury, however. New artificial intelligence models developed for the project allow archivists to turn ancient handwriting into searchable digital text, with modern translations.

The site went online in June 2022, the 100th anniversary of the records office fire, and is aiming for 100 million searchable words by 2025, a target it says it is three-quarters of the way to reaching. Eventually, it hopes to recover 50 to 90 percent of records from some priority areas, such as censuses from before and after Ireland’s Great Famine in the mid-19th century, which are of particular value to historians, and to people of Irish descent tracing their roots. More than half of the details of the first nationwide census of Ireland, a religious head count in 1766, have been retrieved and published.

“Cultural loss is sadly a very prominent theme in the world right now, and I don’t think there is an example like this, where there’s been so much international cooperation in the reconstruction of a lost archive,” Dr. Crooks said. “It shows that the collective culture of many countries can be brought together to achieve a goal. Borders are fluid.”

17 Creepy Stories That Show The Dangers Of Solo Travel

Tuktuk of doom

“Traveling in Asia at the time. I got a tuktuk to go to the center of a village with a young driver. We started driving and he turned around while telling me he wouldn’t take me to the center of the village because he knew a better spot in the jungle – a place he and his friends loved… I told him no, I want to go to the center of the village and that’s it. He got angry and sped up while I was considering my chances of just jumping out. But then he also grabbed my arm in a tight grip so I knew for sure no good would come from the situation. Luckily for me I had an umbrella with me and with my free hand I started slamming him with it as hard as I could till he stopped the vehicle and he offered me to “take me to the center of the village. lol. No. I ended up walking 3 hours to the village. I had planned one more day there and was constantly confronted by people that I was the girl who attacked the tuktuk driver offering me rides. Pretty sure they were his friends.. I strictly stayed in busy areas till I was able to take a train out. F that situation.” — CaveFlavored

Solo road trip

“For me it was when I was driving from Georgia to California to visit a friend. I didn’t want to fly because I wanted to site see on the way. When I got to San Diego, the hotel I booked on Expedia screamed run from the get go. But I was exhausted and wanted to rest. Got my room key and checked in. I locked the door and because I am always on guard, I locked the bar on the door for extra safety. About 4 am I was sleeping and heard someone trying to come in my room. They had opened the door but couldn’t get pass the little bar that was locked. I quickly got up, threw clothes on, and went to the door to see what was going on. Two guys outside the door with their hand in the slit of the door yelling at me. They kept saying “come here pretty girl. Oh a pretty face” or something like that.” — slayer-of-vampires

“Had some dude try to haul me off my first day in Berlin.

He stopped to ask me a question when I was in Tiergarten, and proceeded to grab me by the wrist and refuse to let me go. I had told him I was going to Alexanderplatz and he started dragging me out of the park, telling me he would ‘show me a shortcut’ that he insisted would only take five minutes to get there (for those of you that have never been, it’s at least a 30 minute walk.) I was so panicked I didn’t know what to do and couldn’t even scream, all I could think was that he was going to take to somewhere where no one would be able to help me. I had a friend who I was staying with in the city text me at the right time and managed to beg off and say she was waiting for me back at Brandenburger Tor station, which was the opposite direction. He only let me go if I open mouth kissed him goodbye and gave me his number, which he made me call so he was sure ‘I had the right one.’ He was pulling me towards the holocaust memorial, so after he let go I rushed to it and hid in it so he wouldn’t follow me.” — fluxy2535

A fake STD saved her life

“My mum, over 40 years ago went backpacking around Europe, at the end of her trip she ended up in Germany with no money left and only a plane ticket to get home, but the plane was from Paris to Canada so she had to find a way to get to Paris. She hitchhiked her way towards the german/belgian border with people who were high and once they dropped her off she immediately found someone else who was willing to take her beyond the border but within 10 minutes she noticed he was taking her away from the highway and taking small roads and she got scared. Since she didn’t want to inform him that she knew something was up she just kept talking about her trips and added some not so pleasant details, talking about how she had recently caught a STD that gave her really painful and disgusting boils all over her genitals. They were quickly back on the highway and he dropped her off 50 meters away from the border before vanishing. 2 days later she landed in Canada safely and STD free. She didn’t tell me any of this until I was well in my 20s.” —

Man in black

“I was hiking alone in the mountains. To get their you obviously had to come through the woods way down below. As I made my way back down to the tree line, I headed into a clearing and decided to take a moment to rest. Took off my hat, took in a breath, shook off dust and pebbles. Suddenly I just became very aware that I wasn’t alone. Normally when this sense kicks in there’s a deer or moose or bear nearby. Some animal. I turned towards the trees and saw a man all clad in black just staring at me. He was completely motionless. Didn’t look like an inch of hiking or climbing gear on or around him. I thought it was odd so I wanted to snag a photo. Reached out for my camera and when I stood back up the dude was just gone. I immediately got flashbacks of that scene from David Fincher’s Zodiac when the killer appears by a tree at Lake Berryessa then disappears. I was extremely spooked. Now of course, I’m in the wild. Surely I’m not the only one out there. But this was in a relatively remote spot and I hadn’t come across anyone until then. I had to make my way into the area where I saw this person. I was on high alert for some intuitive reason. But when I passed by where he or she stood there was no one to be found. I looked around, called out even. Nothing. And the whole 8 hours back down I still came upon no one. Not one single soul. I think of that day often.” — TheGhostofYourPast

Russian intelligence

“Had a layover in Moscow, flying from Seoul to Barcelona a few years ago. Aeroflot, of course.

Standard economy ticket, nothing special.

We land as usual, and are leaving. Cabin crew and pilot were thanking us as we left. When I got to the door, the captain looks at me and grins. “thanks for flying with us Captain (last name).” I was a military Intel guy at the time, and it seemed apparent they wanted me to know I was being watched and tracked.

My phone immediately started blowing up with Russian phone numbers calling it once I cleared security and hid out at a different terminal than my follow on flight. Never been to Russia before, no friends or family. Super weird.” — cavscout43

Lost crawling around in a dark tunnel

“I traveled to Vietnam with my sister and father. One of the places we visited was an area of concentrated tunnels upkept from the Vietnam war era. We had the option of touring some of the tunnels, and jumped at the chance. We started out in a small room with holes at eye level that just cleared the earth’s surface. Perfect for shooting at the feet of the enemy.

We were then led down a tunnel that required us to stoop, seeing as we were significantly taller than our vietnamese guide. We came to another small room. Our guide told us that one tunnel led up and out, the other led to what was once a weapon cache. My sister and I really wanted to see that room, but my dad had enough and asked to be led out. To this day I have no idea what my thought process was, but I decided to lead my sister to the next room. I might have been under the impression that there was a second guide there, waiting for us?

Unsurprisingly, it got dark. The guide had the flashlight, and the hanging lamp from the previous room got harder to see by. I kept thinking “it has to be just a few feet further.” Instead, the tunnel got shorter and shorter, until we were basically crawling forwards in the dark, single file. I remember looking back, and realizing the tunnel must have curved or something because the lamp light was gone. There wasn’t enough space to turn around, so I kept going. I felt horrible, like I had just condemned my sister and I to dying in the dark, crushed by the ever shrinking tunnel.

Eventually the floor in front of me ended. Thinking back, we had probably reached the weapon cache room and only needed to drop a couple of feet to stand, but in the dark I only felt empty air in front of me. I’m pretty sure that moment is the moment I developed a fear of really wide open spaces, because to this day I can imagine some giant maw inches from my flailing arm looking for purchase.

I told my sister we’d have to crawl backwards, and goddamn if that middle schooler wasn’t an absolute trooper about the whole thing. Unfortunately we must have taken a turn without realizing it, because we started down there blind, lost, crawling in the dirt for what I would later learn was about an hour.

The guide eventually found us, and I’ve never been happier to see a flashlight.” — Aiged

Being chased

“Some guy told me he would take me to Nevsky Prospect and he grabbed my arm. I was so paralyzed with fear and didn’t know what to do–even when he kissed me on the cheek! I felt like I couldn’t even scream or cry for help to any of the people passing by. He tried to give me his number too but I didn’t have a phone on me. I was really lucky that I was near my hostel, but he ended up chasing me all the way up to the front door.” — Cosmosisjoneses

“I pulled into a parking lot in Red River Gorge. Pretty deep back country. Bear warnings all over, I was an in idiot and ignored them because I’ve spent thousands, tens of thousands of hours there and never saw so much as what looks like it maybe, could possibly be with a stretch of the imagination, bear sign. Arrived at night so decided to sleep in my driver seat, woke up to a bear opening passenger door. Literally pissed on my self and managed to pull away.” — Tokin_To_Tolkien

He’s still driving cabs around Melbourne

“My friend was sexually assaulted by a cab driver. She had a bad feeling so started videoing. She actually got video footage of it while fighting him off. She thankfully managed to get out of the car and ran back to where she had left her vehicle. (She called the cab as she had been drinking). She drove to the nearest police station to report it. She was distressed to say the least. They arrested her for drink driving. Then later the police (Victoria, Australia) dropped her sexual assault case due to having ‘not having enough evidence’. Video of his hands, where they were, and his face, and her fighting him off. Not enough evidence?! That was the day I stopped feeling guilt for not reporting the monster who attacked me. She’s still suffering her punishment and he’s still driving cabs around Melbourne.” — ArtisFarkus

Airplane nightmare

“Fell asleep on a cross-Atlantic flight. Window seat, split from my parents cuz fuck United. Woke up to the guy next to me sticking his hands down my pants. I was in middle school at the time.” — Quixy101

It could have been me

“While I was in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, a man in his early fifties was stabbed and killed for his backpack containing photography equipment. I am a man in my early fifties and at the time I was traveling with a backpack containing photography equipment.” — ken_davies

I wasn’t even alone

“I was on a short trip with four other women in Morrocco, and we still got harassed when walking through the old market, and one guy even grabbed my friend’s butt. I want to be independent and free, and for instance travel on my own, but honestly it seems unsafe in so many scenarios. Pretty frustrating.” — girls_gone_wireless

“As I went down one particularly deserted street I passed two men sitting in a doorway. In French one muttered to the other, “a woman”, and they both got up to follow me. Luckily I could see the train a block ahead, so I checked my imaginary watch and started running. I made it before the train left. I don’t know how far the men followed me, but there was hardly anyone at the station so I’m glad the train was there.” — FoldedButterfly

“Was riding a bicycle from Bangkok to Hanoi, solo. Met hostile behavior in rural Cambodia (no judgement, they’ve been through it!), but Vietnam was so friendly I completely let my guard down. By the time I made it to Huế, mid-Vietnam, I’d been invited back to peoples homes several times and was in love with the country. I didn’t realize Huế is known for scams. (The DMZ has been through it, too, obviously)

A dude on a motorbike intercepted me on my way into town and showed me a hotel, took me out to eat. Spent 3 days as my friend and tour guide. This is somewhat normal – english teachers want to practice with a native speaker. It’s very tough for even fluent Vietnamese people to compete with native speakers for teaching jobs.

On the day he knew to be my last in town, he rolled up a joint and we smoked it. He dropped out after two hits, saying he was a lightweight. I remember thinking it was weak-ass weed, and then I remember tripping balls as he rode in circles with me on the back of his motorbike, waiting for whatever drug to kick in. I recall thinking I was having so much fun, I’d never forget that night. This was laced weed – My tolerance was fine, I’d been smoking weed since I crossed out of Thailand (don’t fuck with drugs in Thailand).

He brought me to a food truck next to an ATM and kept doing magic tricks with money, to my hallucinogenic amazement. Then he needed to borrow my bills for the next trick, and that continued until I realized I was out of money – he’d been returning smaller bills after each trick. I was so messed up I realized nothing, so I went to the ATM and pulled out more money until he’d stolen all of that, too.” — arcticTaco

Another creepy tuktuk story

“My friends buddy (female) , apparently got sick in Thailand and decided to take the tuktuk back to the hotel by herself. She told the group to continue without her since she didn’t want to spoil their fun. She went missing ever since that…” — Freakzone2212

“There’s a lot of bad men out there”

“Traveling in South America by myself as a 22 year old woman. Arrived to Santiago, Chile by bus really late at night, like around 10 pm. Shortly after I got off the bus a guy comes up to me from the general area of the taxi stand and asks if I need a cab and I say yes. We start walking to his cab and it’s really far away. Like at least 5 blocks. I start to feel kind of uneasy but I’m also in the middle of this big, unfamiliar city and just try to reassure myself it’s fine. I double check his cab has all the normal brand markings when we finally get to it, and sit up front with my bag (more out of habit, it’s common to do this in Ubers in South America).

I give him the address of the hostel I booked and we small talk in Spanish for the first few minutes of the ride, and then there’s a bit of a natural pause, which he breaks by looking over at me and saying very calmly, “Are you scared?”

Of course that really freaked me out but I tried to seem calm. I just laughed a bit and was “Haha, no I’m good! Just tired and it’s late.”

And he goes “Hm. Well you seemed pretty scared back there when we were walking. You know, there’s a lot of bad people around here. Sometimes they pretend to be taxis, you never know who to trust. I’ve heard of women being sold after taking a bad taxi. Are you traveling here alone?”

This is while we’re still driving through the middle of the city. It’s dark and it’s late, and I’m now painfully aware literally no one knows where I am. I was going to message my family with an update when I got to the hostel. They don’t know I’m in Santiago, they think I’m still on the coast.

Of course I don’t say that and tell him that I’m always very careful and actually my group of friends know I’m on my way and are waiting for me at the hostel!

I see a stoplight coming up and was literally thinking that as soon as the car slowed down I was going to make a break for it and just jump out of the car. Probably the most scared I’ve ever been in my life.

Then out of the corner of my eye I see this guy reaching down for something under his seat and my brain is just going GUN GUN GUN it’s going to be a gun!

Instead, he pulls out a pamphlet. And then goes, “But you know, there’s always one thing we can trust, right? The Lord. Do you believe in God?”

And then proceeded to try and convert me for the remainder of the ride. Turned out to be harmless but in the moment that random religious cab driver scared the absolute shit out of me.”

Emily Madriga

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