Voyage was undertaken with Stevenson's Scottish friend Sir Walter Grindlay Simpson, mostly along the Oise River from Belgium through France, in the fall of 1876 when Stevenson was 26 years old. The first part, in Belgium, passed through heavily industrial areas and many canal locks, proving to be not much of a vacation. They then went by rail to France, starting downriver at Maubeuge and ending at Pontoise, close to the Seine. The author's optimistic life attitude has added to the fun of reading.

An Inland Voyage (1878) is a travelogue by Robert Louis Stevenson about a canoeing trip through France and Belgium in 1876. It is Stevenson's earliest book and a pioneering work of outdoor literature. While describing the scenery, the author has concentrated on the description of people and things he sees along the way.

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850—3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world. His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, etc.

Just as far-fetched a challenge was the waterborne trip he undertook in 1876, at age 26, and recounted with modesty, verve and many juicy details in An Inland Voyage.—France Today (The magazine of French travel and culture)

We have [in An Inland Voyage] ... a traveler whose impressions, and the fancies and reflections with which they are mixed up, are so vivid and so much his own, and whose manner in telling them is in general so happy and taking, that we read and remember his inconsiderable adventures with more pleasure than many others of much greater importance...—Sidney Colvin. (Slade professor of fine arts at Cambridge).