June 1, 2020
Due to travel restrictions, plans are only available with travel dates on or after
Due to travel restrictions, plans are only available with effective start dates on or after
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Like travel, reading can take you across continents, and as far as new words. The mental journey taken in an afternoon with a good book may be as enriching as a literal sojourn. Both travel and literature are passports to new adventures, ideas and people. Studies show that individually, avid readers and travelers are happier, more empathetic and open-minded.
Combining both the pleasures of travel and reading would be the ultimate experience! Visit Matamata, New Zealand to see the setting of the green and peaceful Shire of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, brought to life on screen. Or stroll the historic streets of Edinburgh, mother of literary giants Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Walter Scott and Robert Burns. If you’re inspired by the Spanish love poetry of Pablo Neruda, visit La Chascona Museum House, where Neruda resided in Santiago, Chile.
Check out our list of the top travel destinations to experience the settings of your favorite books, learn more about the lives of famous authors and relax with a good book.
Tour the American South to learn more about Alex Haley, one of the most influential writers on social justice and civil rights. Haley is a Black author most known for his works “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” which was adapted for TV in the drama “Roots” starring LeVar Burton and John Amos.
If you live in the South, it may make sense to start your journey at the Alex Haley House Museum and Interpretive Center in Henning, Tennessee, a small town north of Memphis. The site includes Haley’s childhood home and grave. The museum gallery features a life-sized model of a slave ship – which illustrates the human rights abuses of the Transatlantic slave trade, a recurring theme in Haley’s works.
Visitors can also receive onsite assistance tracing their genealogy. Haley influenced the growing interest in genealogy among Black Americans by tracing his lineage back to Jufureh, Gambia, where according to Haley’s research, his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, was held in bondage. The “Roots” novel and drama series was based on Kunta Kinte’s life as researched by Haley.
From Haley’s home, continue your journey north to Annapolis, Maryland the site of Kunta Kinte - Alex Haley Memorial, located on the waterfront. Haley’s ancestor was brought to Annapolis aboard the slave ship Lord Ligonier in September of 1767. The Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival in Annapolis honors the resilience of its namesake annually in September.
Head to Bitty & Beau’s Coffee for a great latte and views of the water. Bitty & Beau’s “proudly employs 450+ individuals with disabilities nationwide,” according to the business.
Margaret Atwood is one of the most talented feminist and dystopian writers of all time. Atwood’s literary classic “The Handmaid’s Tale,” tells the story of a near future in which declining birth rates lead a Christian theocracy to enslave women capable of reproducing.
Visit Boston and embark on a tour of the settings that chillingly bring Gilead to life in the award-winning TV series The Handmaid’s Tale. Notably, the book was inspired by the 17th-century Salem Witch Trials and the hanging of Mary Webster, a woman who was accused of witchcraft by her neighbors in Hadley, Massachusetts. Much of the show was also filmed in Atwood’s native Canada, in Cambridge, Ontario.
Literary Boston details a walking tour that will take you through multiple sites in Harvard Square. “Atwood didn’t create a fantasy world for her novel; she deliberately showed us a reality where the largest university in the world is shut down, places of art and culture are turned into places that have pictures for signs because women are no longer allowed to read, where institutions don't exist anymore, where those who are a bit different are killed, and where our places of history have been deemed “not part of the new order,” writes Literary Boston.
Pick up your next read at Harvard Book Store, independently run since 1932. The shop is known for its selection of new and used books and an award-winning author event series.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for penning the canon of Sherlock Holmes — our favorite, Edwardian-era detective, who is always accompanied by his loyal friend Dr. John H. Watson. Conan Doyle, himself an intriguing figure, was a physician who split his time between medicine and writing.
Conan Doyle was a globetrotter who served as a surgeon on a whaling boat and a medical officer on a steamer with a route between Liverpool and West Africa. He was knighted for his writings justifying Britain’s actions in the Boer War. Interestingly, “in 1893, Conan Doyle killed off Holmes, hoping to concentrate on more serious writing,” writes the BBC, “A public outcry later made him resurrect Holmes.”
Conan Doyle inspires a huge tourist following in his hometown of Edinburgh, London and Portsmouth. The author is in good company, as Edinburgh is “a city so packed with literary figures, influences and associations that it became the world's first UNESCO City of Literature,” writes Edinburgh Expert. And it was at the University of Edinburgh, as a student of medicine, that Conan Doyle met the man who inspired the character of Sherlock Holmes — Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell was a tutor at the university widely respected for his logical deductions when diagnosing patients.
Edinburgh is an old city, full of character and easy to walk. Start your self-guided Conan Doyle walking tour along Picardy Place, where he was born in 1859. A statue of Holmes commemorates Doyle’s work, though the building was demolished in the 1960s. The Conan Doyle Pub is nearby. In recognition of the writer’s spiritualist views, The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre hosts spiritualist rituals and other events. Tap into your mystical side and drop in for a tarot reading, group meditation and more.
Most of the stories within the Sherlock Holmes canon took place in London and parts of rural England. Continue your journey to the capital city to visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker Street, which replicates Sherlock’s study and Watson’s bedroom at the fictional address. At 2 Devonshire Place is an actual former residence and eye clinic of Conan Doyle’s, now a dental practice. Check out London on My Mind to create your own tour of spots in London frequented by Conan Doyle and locations you’ll recognize from the books, film and television.
London is home to some of the world’s most beautiful and historic libraries. A reader’s trip to London isn’t complete without a visit to The British Library. Take a look at this list of distinguished London libraries by Time Out.
John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 for his empathetic and humanizing portrayals of working-class people, such as migrant workers, who are central to American prosperity. Steinbeck captured the workers, agricultural industry and scenery of his hometown, Salinas Valley, in some of the greatest works in U.S. literature.
Visit the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California to explore the settings of Steinbeck’s most well-known novels in themed, interactive galleries based on “East of Eden,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Cannery Row,” “The Grapes of Wrath” and more. Get a feel for Steinbeck by exploring personal treasures such as the green camper he drove across more than 30 states before writing “Travels with Charley.”
After you’ve seen the museum, grab lunch and learn more about Steinbeck at The Steinbeck House; the Queen Anne Victorian in Monterey where the writer grew up with his younger sisters. The front of the house was opened as a restaurant on Feb. 27, 1974 — the 72nd anniversary of Steinbeck’s birth.
Take a walk on Main Street in Monterrey to check out the Art Deco buildings, numbers 201 and 247, featured in the novel “East of Eden.” Continue your Salinas area tour to the now closed company town of Spreckels, once the largest sugar plant in the world, where Steinbeck worked in the 1920s. You would have noticed elements of Spreckles in “East of Eden” and “Of Mice and Men.”
Take in some nature in Corral de Tierra, where you will recognize the sandstone cliffs described in “Pastures of Heaven.” Climb to the highest point of Jacks Peak Park for a view of the sites in Steinbeck’s novels including Monterey Bay, Carmel and Salinas Valley.
Tarpy’s Roadhouse is a central place to grab a delicious bite to eat and enjoy your latest read. “This restaurant, in a rustic stone-hewn building that Steinbeck would have passed on his treks from Salinas to Monterey, serves well-crafted fare alongside a wide selection of California wines,” writes See Monterey.
Travel insurance can help your next literary adventure go smoothly. You should know that most domestic health insurance policies may not fully protect you abroad. And 20% of flights annually are disrupted by delays or cancellations.
Many Allianz Travel Insurance plans offer emergency medical benefits that may help fill health insurance gaps while traveling abroad. We also offer trip cancellation protection that reimburses certain non-refundable expenses if your trip is canceled or interrupted due to a reason included in your policy. Our baggage benefits reimburse certain non-refundable expenses if your luggage is lost, stolen or damaged.
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