Top 10 literary destinations in the world

Discover where to book a hotel near the homes and haunts of legendary authors with this guide to the top 10 literary destinations in the world.

Literary pub crawl in Dublin

Actors recite works by James Joyce and Yeats as you visit eight legendary Dublin pubs. The tour includes Trinity College, where Oscar Wilde studied, and concludes at Davy Byrnes, visited by Leopold Bloom in Joyce’s Ulysses.

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Pablo Neruda’s house in Santiago

La Chascona, the quirky home of Chile’s most famous poet, is in bohemian Bellavista, overlooking Santiago’s rooftops. Eccentric personal mementoes fill every room, with secret passages and surprises delighting visitors at every turn.

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Kafka Museum in Prague

Explore the existential, metaphorical and real-life worlds of Franz Kafka in the city that was his muse. An ingenious mix of audio-visual installations, manuscripts and photographs bring Kafka and early 20th-century Prague to life.

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Hemingway’s home in Key West

Papa Hemingway shared his handsome Spanish-colonial home with dozens of cats, whose descendants still prowl the tropical gardens. You can sense Hemingway’s presence in the study, where the famously gruff author wrote To Have and Have Not about Key West and its locals on the typewriter that still sits on his desk.

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Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top Farm in Ambleside

You’ll recognise Beatrix Potter’s 17th-century home and rambling cottage garden from Samuel Whiskers and Peter Rabbit. With Miss Potter’s favourite ornaments still in place, you wouldn’t be at all surprised to see her walk through the door during your visit to her cosy Lakeland home.

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Writers Walk in Sydney

Bronze plaques inscribed with inspirational quotes are embedded in the walkway surrounding Circular Quay. From Charles Darwin and D H Lawrence to local writers Henry Lawson and Christina Stead, the plaques provide interesting reading while you stroll along Sydney Harbour to the Opera House.

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Karen Blixen’s home in Nairobi

If you’re inspired by Out of Africa the autobiography or movie, a visit to the Danish author’s Kenyan home has to be on your top 10 literary destinations in the world. With its mosquito-netted beds and manicured grounds, the plantation-style farmhouse was Blixen’s home in the 1920s.

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Haikus at the Bashō Museum in Tokyo

The Edo era seems remote in modern-day Tokyo, but you’ll catch a glimpse in the celebrated haikus of Matsuo Bashō, who lived on the site of the Bashō Museum in the 1680s. Browse the mementoes and scrolls of poetry before taking a stroll in the tranquil garden with a door leading to the Sumida River. 

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Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

Proust, Oscar Wilde, Colette – seek out the graves of famous writers at Paris’s best-known cemetery. Bring violets to place on Proust’s black marble tomb and admire sculptures of angels decorating the cemetery’s flamboyant memorials. 

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Green Gables House in Charlottetown

If you loved Anne of Green Gables as a child, make a pilgrimage to Canada’s Prince Edward Island. Step inside the 19th-century farmhouse that inspired the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and follow the Haunted Wood and other trails walked by Anne. 

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