On her journey, Gilbert traveled to Bali, where she sought to hone her skill at balancing worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence

What to do when your world is crashing down around you? Find a new world. Travel. Traveling and retiring overseas has been International Living’s beat for 30 years. IL’s writers and editors have been exploring everywhere from Europe to Latin America to uncover the world’s most desirable retirement and travel havens.

As well as IL’s many readers who have traveled and moved overseas for a better life, discovering happiness and self-confidence through travel is a strategy that worked for Elizabeth Gilbert and she shares the details of that experience—in entertainingly candid detail—in her book, Eat, Pray, Love.

Love it or hate it—and you’ll find plenty of people in both camps—read the book for pure escapism. And “escaping” is what it’s all about. Truthfully, don’t we all want to escape something somewhere along the linear lines of life? And isn’t that what we love about travel?

The story begins when Gilbert, at age 31, finds herself weeping on the floor of her bathroom at 3 a.m. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a big house in the ‘burbs, a successful career. But instead of being happy and fulfilled, she was consumed by panic, grief, confusion and self-pity. In short order, she fell into the throes of divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the loss of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

So she did what most of us only dream of doing. She shed her belongings, quit her job, and embarked on a year-long journey around the world—by herself. Eat, Pray, Love is a memoir of that year. Her goal: to visit three places that each have a tradition of doing one thing very well.

(Is it coincidence, Gilbert wonders, that her journey of self discovery takes her to three countries that begin with ‘I’? Italy, India, and Indonesia…)

In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, primarily through food. She studied Italian and gained the 23 happiest pounds of her life. She had gelato in the morning, discovered the best pizza in Italy, and shared Sardinian wine and fellowship with friends. (One of which was named Luca Spaghetti!) Still, she battled crippling feelings of loneliness and over-the-top self pity.

Although I’d give anything to spend time in Italy, this was my least-favorite section of the book. But I’d wager it was written this way on purpose—to set the stage for the next parts of her journey. And indeed, as Gilbert left Italy, she proclaimed to be free from her gnawing depression and ready to embrace the future.

In India, then, she sought to perfect the art of devotion, and she spent hours in silent meditation at an Ashram. At the beginning, this experience was fraught with frustration, as she couldn’t keep her mind from whirling with endless, cluttering thoughts. Eventually, though, through hours of introspection, she discovered that God was within herself, and to find true happiness you have to make peace with yourself.

This is where the story starts to get good. Especially enjoyable in the telling is the friendship between Gilbert and Richard, a ‘good old boy’—a 50-something cowboy from Texas. And this drives home one of the biggest benefits of travel: you meet the most interesting people along the way and most of them are people you’d never even strike up a conversation with at home. But on the road, it seems, magical friendship develop between unlikely characters.

Next stop Bali, where Gilbert sought to hone her skill at balancing worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of Ketut Liyer, an elderly medicine man, and befriended the wackily delightful Wayan, a Balinese single mother—also a natural healer and in desperate need of help herself. (Another plus to travel: out of your comfort zone, you often find yourself doing things you never anticipated…and sometimes making a positive difference in someone’s life.)

Importantly, in Indonesia, Liz Gilbert fell in love again…with an older Brazilian man who showered her with “single-minded concentration.”

To say that this journey of travel and self-discovery turned out for the best is a vast understatement. Gilbert’s book, Eat, Pray, Love, is a runaway bestseller that’s now being turned into a movie starring no less than Oscar winners Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem. Not quite the casting you’d expect if you’ve read the book, but these heavy hitters are sure to do a fine job. And besides, that’s Hollywood for you.

In real life, Gilbert’s story took an even better-than-expected turn. She married her Brazilian lover and the two now live happily in Frenchtown, New Jersey—when they’re not traveling, that is.

The biggest take-away from this engaging memoir of self-discovery:  if the merry-go-round is going too fast or doesn’t make you happy any more, get off. If you need change, make it happen. In the course of finding happiness, it doesn’t hurt, of course, if—like Gilbert did—you can travel to some of the world’s most welcoming and exotic locations.

Learn more about Elizabeth Gilbert and Eat, Pray, Love, here.

And if you’d like to travel to the destinations in the book, start here: Italy; India; Indonesia. International Living is continually on the move in search of Paradise, and after three decades, we’ve built quite a support network–more than 200 contributors, correspondents, friends, and colleagues exploring the world on your behalf. You’ll find out about everything from adventures in Panama to the best buys on the Paris property market…from how to open a bank account in your new country of residence to how to get the best deal on your next airfare…from the world’s best beachfront property bargains to the most reliable local contractors to help you build your new beach home…from island-hopping adventures in the Mediterranean to the best summer fiestas in Mexico.

Editor’s Note: Suzan Haskins, the author of this review, knows something about self-discovery through travel—although she has yet to return to the States, after departing on her journey. And she took her husband, Dan Prescher, with her. Like Gilbert, she sold everything she owned and quit her job before leaving her home in Omaha, Nebraska in 2001 for Ecuador. Since then, she’s been working for International Living as the Latin America Editorial Director and has spent time in more than 15 countries writing on behalf of IL readers. She has lived in Ecuador, Panama, Nicaragua, and three locations in Mexico and shares her overseas knowledge and experience regularly in International Living postcards and in the monthly magazine, as well as IL’s numerous reports and books.