5 Famous Literary Destinations for Bookworms To Visit

For book lovers, a journey into the world of a favorite story can be a great excuse for a getaway. The growing trend of literary tourism lets travelers step into the settings that inspired iconic works and the places authors once called home. From charming villages to historic homes, these destinations bring literature to life. Check out five worthwhile literary destinations you can visit around the world.

Prince Edward Island, Canada

Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the 1908 classic Anne of Green Gables, was born in the town of Clifton (now New London) on Canada’s Prince Edward Island. After her mother’s death, she was raised by her grandparents on the island’s north shore, where the striking red cliffs, rolling green hills, and sparkling blue ocean sparked her imagination — and ultimately inspired her future novel. 

Montgomery’s childhood home became the backdrop for Anne of Green Gables, the author’s first book in a series that has since been translated into more than 30 languages and has sold millions of copies worldwide. Today, Prince Edward Island remains an integral part of the legacy of Montgomery’s life and literature. Though it’s Canada’s smallest province, it attracts Green Gables fans and travelers who come to see the idyllic world that inspired Montgomery’s iconic story. Visitors can tour Green Gables Heritage Place in Cavendish and experience the small villages and rural landscapes that inspired her work.

Bath, England

Jane Austen was born in the village of Steventon, England, but it’s the city of Bath in southwest England that is most closely tied to her legacy. Austen moved there with her family when she was 26 and lived in the city from 1801 to 1806. Bath later became the setting for two of her novels, Northanger Abbey (1817) and Persuasion (1817), with its social scene and high society inspiring much of her writing. 

Austen referenced notable locations such as the Assembly Rooms, once a place where women gathered to find suitable husbands, and the Pump Room, another fashionable gathering spot now transformed into an elegant restaurant. Today, Austen fans flock to Bath — named for its Roman baths built on natural hot springs — for a deeper connection to her world. Highlights include the Jane Austen Centre, which explores her life and ties to the city; the curved Royal Crescent, where a scene from the TV adaptation of Persuasion was filmed; Austen’s former family home; and, of course, the Roman Baths themselves.

Stratford-upon-Avon, England

Stratford-upon-Avon was the hometown of William Shakespeare — the place where he was born in 1564, raised a family, and was eventually buried. Though Shakespeare spent much of his adult life in London building his lustrous career as an actor and playwright, Stratford remained his true home, and he returned often until his death in 1616. 

Today, this charming riverside town welcomes around 6 million visitors each year, many of whom are eager to learn the intimate details of arguably the world’s most famous writer. Must-visits include Shakespeare’s Birthplace, a timber-framed house on Henley Street that has since been converted into a museum; New Place, the site of his grand family home and now a heritage garden; Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, the historic childhood home of his wife; Holy Trinity Church, where he was baptized and buried; and the Schoolroom and Guildhall, where a young Shakespeare encountered literature for the first time. 

Concord, Massachusetts

Louisa May Alcott, author of the 1868 classic Little Women, was raised in Concord, Massachusetts, a town celebrated for both its Revolutionary War history and its literary legacy. Concord played a central role in Alcott’s upbringing and later became the setting for her famous novel about four sisters growing up from girlhood to womanhood. The story drew inspiration from her own family: her parents, three sisters, and their home, Orchard House, where they lived from 1858 to 1877. 

Today, the house is preserved as a museum, with original furnishings, family artwork, and the desk where Alcott wrote Little Women. Concord is a true literary destination, also once home to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who lived at the Old Manse and wrote influential works on the transcendentalist movement. About a decade later, author Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family moved into the same house, where he went on to produce some of his most notable writings.

Key West, Florida

Born in Illinois in 1899, Ernest Hemingway spent his early years in the Midwest, but by the time he reached his 20s, the world was calling. At the age of 22, Hemingway moved to Paris, where he lived for seven years (1921 to 1928) before unexpectedly settling in Key West, Florida. What began as a brief trip to retrieve a car turned into nearly a decade on the island. Both of his sons were born there, and it inspired such works as The Old Man and the Sea (1952) and Islands in the Stream (1970) — parts of the latter, which was published posthumously, were written in Key West. 

Hemingway and his family lived in an 18th-century Spanish colonial-style home that still stands today, known as Hemingway House and preserved as a museum. Visitors can explore Hemingway’s original furnishings, personal artifacts, and writing studio, along with the lush gardens — still home to around 50 six-toed cats, descendants of his own famously polydactyl pet.