As an avid reader, I often find myself transported into the pages of an enthralling book. Whether I am side by side with Harry and Ron flying over the Scottish Highlands or tiptoeing through a dystopian city with Katniss, my mind conjures up vivd images of the destination. As a traveller, I wonder what it would be like to really be in those places. Some are more difficult than others; Narnia, while enchanting, may be tough to reach. My closet isn’t very big. And as much as I’d love to follow Alice down the rabbit hole, I don’t seem to have any in my yard. But there are some literary destinations you can travel to in real life! Rather than just listing London and Paris (home to plenty of literary heroes), I attempted to make this list a little more creative. Here are some literary destinations you can travel to in real life, as well as a few luxury properties you can stay in while there.
literary destinations you can travel to in real life
Us readers would like nothing more than to be flies on the wall of some of our favourite books. For us, books are way better than the movies. Movies have a way of twisting our images of characters, settings, and more. They are someone else’s interpretation of the book. Sometimes though, seeing the real place in real life adds dimension to our mental images. Travelling to these places can open our eyes to nuances in the text. I can’t pretend to list all possible literary destinations you can travel to here, but I’ve managed a fair few!
Ready to go?!
The English Moors & Lake District
books: Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Secret Garden (Frances Burnett), Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter), and Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
The English moors are haunting for good reason. They are desolate, dark, wet, and a person could easily go missing. A moor is the perfect setting for a murder mystery, and plenty have been set there. Sherlock Holmes, for instance, in Hound of the Baskervilles, goes off to Dartmoor to solve a case involving (you guessed it) a hound. In Laurie King’s Mary Russell series, Holmes and Russell return to Dartmoor for a similar case involving a few dead people, some dynamite, and another hound. Beatrix Potter, authoress of the popular Peter Rabbit stories, grew up in the Lake District. Her estate, which she bequeathed to the National Trust, is a significant part of the current Lake District National Park.
Moors are uncultivated biomes, on which heather, peat, and other shrubby things grow. Should you wish to cultivate a moor, or perhaps build a garden in one, they have good soil. Jane Eyre is an orphan, hated by her family, sent off to a remote manor house as a governess. She thrives there, and falls in love. Mary, protagonist in the Secret Garden, is another orphan. She too thrives on the English moors.
You can thrive on the English moors too. There are several excellent four and five star country home hotels in places like Yorkshire and Devon. These properties have spas, award-winning restaurants, and outdoor activities like hill-walking, shooting, and golfing. Should you wish to be more active, you can join Virtuoso supplier, Cox and Kings, on a multi-day tour that explores the English moors and Lake District.
Cornwall, Devon and the Southwest English Coast
books: Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier), The Forgotten Garden (Kate Morton), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy), and And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie)
Cornwall, England is another great place for literary heroes. The rugged coasts, the towering cliffs, the haunting fog make for great drama or escape scenes. It’s no wonder that authors love to set sinister stories here. Agatha Christie’s may be the most popular. Ten people are summoned to an island; once there, they are systematically murdered. Both Rebecca and The Forgotten Garden introduce the kind of ghosts – or not-quite-ghosts we never want to meet: those seeking revenge.
No guests are murdered at any of the luxury properties in Cornwall though. You can stay at the spectacular clifftop lodge Carylon Bay Hotel or hide away at The Nare in a secluded cove. Read GQ’s list of luxury properties in Cornwall here. The tiny, picturesque villages that dot the coast are the perfect place to while away a summer’s day. Be sure to seek out the region’s food and drink too, namely Cornish cream tea and Cornish pastries.
If you would prefer to stay in the exquisite Georgian bath town of Bath, there are two Virtuoso properties there, including the Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa.
Scottish Highlands & Isle of Skye
books: To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf), Harry Potter (series) (JK Rowling), Outlander (series) (Diana Gabaldon), Macbeth (Shakespeare), and At the Water’s Edge (Sara Gruen)
The Scottish Highlands are as close as you can get to some fictional locations, namely Hogwarts and Craig na Dun. Castles abound here, from the dark and foreboding Dunnottar on the Aberdeenshire coast to the picturesque Eilean Donan near the Isle of Skye. Stone circles, unfortunately, belong predominantly on the isles – Lewis and Orkney, for two. Still, Inverness makes appearances in a lot of the above books, and the wild moors and mountains of the Highlands make for impressive imagery. For some, Scotland alone is one of the best literary destinations you can travel to in real life because both Edinburgh and Glasgow are also settings for popular books.
Self-drive or private drivers are the best way to get around, although escorted tours stop at the major attractions. Another option, perfect for Harry Potter lovers, is to hop aboard (reservations required, of course) the Jacobite Steam Train that runs between Fort William and Mallaig, on the west coast. Fans of the movies will recognise it as the Hogwarts Express, and yes, it’s real.
Speaking of impressive, there are some beautiful places to stay in the Scottish Highlands! Gleneagles, above, is an imposing country estate in Perthshire perfect for families or couples. The 850 acre estate is a playground of leisurely pursuits like golf, shooting, horseback riding, and falconry. Gleneagles hosted the 2005 G8 summit and the 2014 Ryder Cup. Up near Fort William, which is the gateway to both Skye and the Hebrides, is Inverlochy Castle. Queen Victoria deemed it a lovely destination back in 1873, and it remains so today.
Southern France
books: The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers (Alexander Dumas), Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald), The Lost Estate (Henri Alain-Fournier), A Year in Provence (Peter Mayle), The Accursed Kings (Maurice Druon), Sepulchre (Kate Mosse), and Chocolat (Joanne Harris)
Southern France is rife with excellent literary destinations. From the shores of Marseilles to the gently rolling hills in Provence or the ravines and caves of the Carcassonne region, there are plenty of different things to see and do here. Southern France is a world away from Paris, too, with a more relaxed way of life and a plethora of tiny villages to stumble upon. From June to August, the lavender blooms. The fragrant fields that stand out against the rolling green hills and old stone farmhouses beckon visitors, who come in droves to view them.
In Provence alone there are 25 Virtuoso properties, and that’s not including the unique river barges that cruise the waterways of southern France. Belmond has four barges that sleep less than ten people available for charter while Avalon Waterways and Ama Waterways have specific France cruise itineraries that highlight the jewel that is Southern France.
Italy
books: Eat, Pray, Love (Rome) (Elizabeth Gilbert), Under the Tuscan Sun (Tuscany) (Frances Mayes), City of Falling Angels (Venice) (John Berendt), The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco), Brunelleschi’s Dome (Florence) (Ross King), The Leopard (Sicily) (Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa), and A Farewell to Arms (Milan) (Ernest Hemingway)
Oh, where do I begin with Italy? This quintessential European destination makes an appearance in almost every book ever written about travel and Europe. From the cobalt shores of Sicily to the jagged peaks of the Dolomites, Italy spans millennia, generations, and genres.
As travellers, we have known about Italy for a long time. Early trade routes didn’t just pass through Italy, they usually started here. And while all roads might lead to Rome, some of the best roads worth driving in Italy are in the alpine region or along the Amalfi Coast. Don’t do these by tour bus, either. Hire a private driver, or feel confident driving yourself.
There are, not surprisingly, plenty of gorgeous hotels in Italy, from the bottom of the heel to the northern lake district. And since you cannot simply go to Rome, putting together a comprehensive and cohesive itinerary is key. Whether you want to follow in the footsteps of Liz Gilbert who finds her way through Rome while tasting gelato from every shop, or Frances Mayes, who painstakingly rehabs a Tuscan farmhouse, or John Berendt, who chronicles the interesting people he meets in Venice, you can do it in Italy.
Scandinavia and Iceland
books: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson), The Snowman (Jo Nesbo), The Summer Book (Tove Jansson), The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (Jonas Jonasson), and Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland (Sarah Moss),
Unlike other cultures with a rich story-telling tradition, the oral history of northern Europe blends into that of Central Europe. The stories are darker than those of, say, Native Americans or the Pacific Islanders. One only has to think of the Grimms Brothers fairy tales, or even Hans Christian Andersen (whose tales were far darker than Disney made them), to see that shift. Trolls, ogres, and other shapeshifting creatures make appearances in the northern lands. In the Shetland Islands, I learned about the trow, who lures travellers into its earthen mound with music. Trolls do the same in Scandinavia, while others like the will o’ the wisp simply lead travellers astray – or worse.
In modern literature, the dark nights and midnight sun are the backdrops for sinister characters like the antagonist in Jo Nesbo’s The Snowman, who builds snowmen with parts of the women s/he murdered. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series also had its fair share of shady people, and the story shifts from the remote islands to Stockholm and its surrounds. It is amazing how simple descriptions of landscape, weather, and natural phenomena can impact our feelings toward a plot line or character.
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There are millions of books in existence, and thousands that inspire us to explore outside of our comfort zones. I couldn’t possibly begin to list them all. Please feel free to leave your suggestions of literary destinations you can travel to in real life in the comments!
After writing nearly 3000 words on this topic, I decided to break the post into a few different ones. The next few posts will share literary destinations in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australasia – as well as those books that take us around the world.
Do you want to travel to a real-life literary destination? Reach out for a complimentary consultation today! Not ready yet? Pin this >>> for future reference!
