Whether you’re an aspiring writer or just a fan of great writing, there’s something fascinating about traveling to places that shaped literature as we know it. Sometimes it’s fun to experience the world the way your favorite author intended so check out one of these five destinations overflowing with literary history.
London
Once you’ve seen the Globe and the Rose Theatres, the Dickens and Holmes Museums, and the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey, try one of London’s many walking tours like “Shakespeare’s London”, “In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes” and “The London of Oscar Wilde”, that will give you a chance to meet and chat with fellow lit geeks like yourself. After a visit to the British Museum, stroll the surrounding neighborhood and see the home of the Bloomsbury Group, an enormously influential bunch of writers that included Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes and E.M. Forster.
Dublin
Maybe it’s the sheer number of pubs in Dublin that have attracted so many writers over time; regardless, travelers can experience the city the same way their favorite authors did with the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl. But this award-winning tour isn’t just a pub crawl—professional actors perform from the works of famous Irish writers like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats and more. If you’re up for it the next day, visit the 18th century house where the Dublin Writers Museum is situated, which explores the lives and works of prominent Irish writers in history.
Paris
No city in the world has been home to so many of history’s favorite writers like Paris. Geographically speaking, much of the city has been the backdrop for one story or another by a wayfaring expat, but in order to truly channel the literary spirit follow the other tourists to Les Deux Magots, the legendary café where the likes of Earnest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and their well-known friends would frequent. If you’re feeling homesick, look no further than Shakespeare and Company, the best English bookstore in the city, which has all your favorite historic and contemporary authors as well as workshops and readings.
New York City
Stroll the winding maze of streets in Greenwich Village and you’ll have traversed the same territory as William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Jack Kerouac, and countless other artists and musicians. While today it may be home to families and super models who can afford the hefty real estate prices of the classy townhouses, it was once the stomping ground of the Beat Generation. Don’t worry, though—there are still tons of bars and cafes, small parks, underground jazz clubs, and other public venues that are perfect for sparking a struggling writer’s imagination. Hungry? Head to Dorian Gray in the East Village, the polar opposite of Greenwich. This literary-themed pub and grill was opened by the great-grandnephew of Oscar Wilde himself.
St. Petersburg
Follow in the footsteps of Raskolnikov—literally—with a Crime and Punishment tour, which takes guests to the ill-fated pawnbroker’s house as well as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s home where he wrote the novel. Alongside St. Petersburg’s world-renowned opera and ballet is its literary tradition, which includes the works of Nikolai Gogol, Aleksandr Pushkin, and Vladimir Nabokov. Fans of happy endings, beware!