More than other genres, travel writing has been thought of as a kind of literature providing an ‘unbiased view’ (Manfred Pfister) of the world it describes. Contrary to this ordinary belief in authentic representation, the present essay sets out to demonstrate that travel writing is in fact highly prefigured and premediated by culturally available narratives, media and (stereotyped) images of ‘self’ and ‘other’. Such images necessarily impact any travel experience – and its remediation in writing – from the outset. The essay attempts to corroborate this hypothesis by analysing instances of ‘patriotic xenophobia’ in eighteenth-century travel literature, focusing in particular on Tobias Smollett’s ‚Travels through France and Italy‘ (1766) and, to a lesser extent, Samuel Sharp’s ‚Letters from Italy‘ (1767). By means of close readings, it explores various ideological functions fulfilled by these texts, highlighting their role as central factors in the construction of national identities.