Readers are building slower, more meaningful trips around novels, authors, libraries, and the simple joy of having time to read.
Books are no longer just something people bring on vacation. For some, they are starting to shape the vacation itself. A favorite novel can inspire a city break, a bookshop can become the first stop on the itinerary, and a retreat built around reading can sound more appealing than another packed trip of rushing through touristy landmarks.
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Books are becoming travel guides
Travel can feel crowded, expensive, and overly planned, so readers are gravitating toward trips with more breathing room. Instead of racing through every must-see stop, literary travel gives people a reason to linger.
According to Skyscanner’s 2026 travel trends report, 55% of travelers have booked or would consider booking a trip inspired by literature. The same report also noted increased hotel searches using its “library” filter, which says a lot about what people want now.
BookTok helped push the trend into the mainstream, but readers have been planning trips around books long before the algorithm caught on. Jane Austen fans still visit Jane Austen’s House in Chawton to see where some of her best-loved novels took shape. Shakespeare readers make their way to Stratford-upon-Avon, Brontë fans go to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, and Hemingway readers still trace his old haunts in Paris, Pamplona, and Key West. Then there is Eat, Pray, Love, which continues to make Bali feel like the place people go when they want to heal, reset, or convince themselves that one beautiful trip can fix their life.
And just recently, EF Ultimate Break, for example, has a Croatia itinerary inspired by Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation, taking readers through places connected to the book, including Dubrovnik and Split.
If you’re not ready yet to go abroad, we have our own version of this too. Readers can trace Rizal through places tied to his life and novels, from Calamba and Biñan in Laguna to Binondo, Santa Cruz, Quiapo, and San Nicolas in Manila, areas often linked to the world of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. San Diego, the fictional town in Noli Me Tangere, is often associated with Rizal’s Laguna roots, while Binondo and nearby districts reveal the Manila that appears in his fiction.
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Not every literary trip needs a full literary-inspired itinerary
Ladies Who Lit, based in England, runs retreats like a traveling book club, gathering readers in places such as France, Ireland, or the Swiss Alps. There is also Williams Inn in Massachusetts that offers a literary sabbatical package with books chosen according to guest preferences.
Literary festivals also make the trend feel more global. In the Philippines, the Philippine Book Festival and Manila International Book Fair give readers a local reason to plan a bookish weekend around author talks, signings, indie titles, and tote bag problems. Abroad, events like Hay Festival in Wales, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Jaipur Literature Festival in India, and Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali turn entire cities into gathering places for readers.
For some travelers, that mix of books, conversation, coffee stops, and cultural wandering sounds far more exciting than another crowded tourist queue.
Everyone has their own dream literary pilgrimage
I personally have my own literary travel wish list. Apart from visiting the Harry Potter spots, from the studio tour to the cafés and corners where the books were written, I also dream of going to Japan for a Haruki Murakami-inspired trip, tracing the bars, jazz cafés, train stations, and city corners that feel like they could belong in one of his novels. In Korea, I would love to build a trip around the books of Han Kang, seeing the country through the memory and history that shape her work. Oxford is a dream too, partly because of A Discovery of Witches and R.F. Kuang’s Babel.
It can be an author’s house, a library, a cafe mentioned in a novel, or a city that reminds you of a sentence you underlined years ago.
At its heart, literary travel is about wanting time back. Time to read. To wander. To be (hopefully) offline. To meet people through shared interests and a time to let a destination unfold instead of treating it like a checklist.
You still get the thrill of travel, but with less pressure. You can explore, rest, read, and return home with more than photos. Maybe you bring back a paperback, a new favorite city, or proof that the best travel plans sometimes begin with a book that made you want to go somewhere.
If you could plan one trip around a book you love, where would you go first?
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