A Guide to Some of the Best World Literary Tours

Are you a published or aspiring author, or even a devoted and voracious reader of the great works of literature? Imagine walking in the footsteps of literary greats, accompanying Raymond Chandler through the streets of Los Angeles; Dashiell Hammett through San Francisco; Charles Dickens through London, or even riding up the Mississippi River with Mark Twain. While this may seem to be a great stretch of the imagination, it is possible through some of the exciting literary travel tours available for literati or wannabe alike.

Literary Travel Tours

Literary tourism is a popular subset of the immense travel tour industry. And, for those of us who prefer self-guided tours, travel tour guidebooks with a literary focus are easily available on the shelves of your unfriendly neighborhood mega-bookstore.

There are even travel companies today that specialize in creating European tour packages with a variety of literary focuses, including Novel Explorations and Casterbridge Tours.

While literary tourism seems to only be a recent trend, some travel pundits point accusing fingers at 19th century romantic poets like Keats, Shelley, and Lord Byron, all expatriates living in Italy, for starting it all. Their popularity led English-speaking European tourists to Florence in droves.

Bestseller Travel Tours

Even a bestselling decidedly non-literary thriller like Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" has spawned several different European travel tours, mostly through Italy and/or France. As an example, a five-day French tour will set you back $4500 per person with an added $2500 per person for two nights at the Ritz Hotel Paris.

There's even a popular Harry Potter European tour for families, even though the locations in the novels are fictional (aren't they?).

The Dublin Literary Pub Crawl

For me, one of the most interesting of the European literary tours offered is the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl sponsored by Jameson, one of my favorite whiskeys. With this tour, you can sit on the same barstool as masters of the Irish imagination including Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, and other greats. It's a two-hour tour led by two Irish actors.

Literary Walking Tour Books

While there are many literary walking tour books available, my personal favorite is Andrew Duncan's "Walking London: Thirty Original Walks In and Around London."

Literary Traveler

LiteraryTraveler.com is an online hub of information specifically devoted to literary travel tours, self-guided and otherwise. Created by the English husband and wife team of Francis and Linda McGovern, the resources offered at the site include a travel book list, a travel planning section, and a calendar of upcoming tours with a literary focus.

Sources:

"Loved the book? Go there, literally, with a literary tour", Charis Atlas Heelan, Frommers