This thesis is concerned with the pleasure travels of British middle class men and women during the 1860s to World War One. I have considered pleasure travel as any type of travel primarily motivated by the desire to entertain and amuse oneself in a place other than home. It had become a popular leisure activity during this time period for a wide range of people, partly due to improved methods of transportation, increased monetary capabilities and the availability of free time. / Paying special attention to the highly visited Italy and Switzerland, I have examined travel writings from this period to gain insight into both the individual perceptions of pleasure travel and the pleasure traveller and the general current of thoughts of the time. Travel writings include guidebooks and handbooks, personal memoirs and journals. Having become an integral part of middle class life during this period, pleasure travel also became the subject of many novels and articles which provide additional insight, mostly through criticism and mockery of the traveller.

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