I have a query for you: I was delighted in a seek-and-find book as a child in the mid-1990s which, if my memory serves me correctly, followed a globe-trotting aunt. The reader was always one stop behind her, and to try to catch her was required to find objects and people in each image spread.
The book was large, slim, hard-backed, and had relatively little text. As usual for this genre, the images were visually busy illustrations in a reasonably realistic style. I have no memory of the title nor the author, but I do remember that some of the locations included an Australian beach (with people wearing white sunblock on their noses), a wet market in Asia (lots of produce and people wearing straw hats) and an airport scene with a man tearing up his tickets. I am fairly certain there was also a scene of people at a ski lodge with lots of snow and chair lifts, but that image is less clear than the others. Each of these scenes took up a full two-page spread.
I read it between 1994 and 2000, although I do not know if it was published before that.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
I recall reading something that may have been similar- in what I recall the aunt was an explorer, and travelled to the Amazon in one book, and to the Sahara in another. Her niece and nephew were trying to catch up to her, and in each instance there was a small puzzle to solve/ discover. For example, on the airport to South America their luggage was too heavy, so they dumped all their items and you as the reader had to select 5 items that they could remove ( for example a useless German Dictionary). I hope this helps ring some bells
Maybe one of the Usborne Puzzle Adventures? They all had different authors, so I can’t narrow it down and more than that. But there was at least one that featured an uncle who traveled around…maybe there was another with an aunt.
Ed King illustrated a set of 3 picture puzzle books at around this time. One of them was called “Lucy is Lost”, but further details are elusive. The other two (“Gus is Gone” and “Roving Rosie Reports”) can be accessed via the Internet Archive, these don’t fit the description, however perhaps the illustration style may be familiar?
https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22King%2C+Ed%22&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22