{"id":339635,"date":"2026-06-17T09:36:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/339635\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T09:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:36:26","slug":"call-it-a-book-cation-or-a-readaway-literary-travel-is-having-a-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/339635\/","title":{"rendered":"Call It a \u2018Book-cation\u2019 or a \u2018Readaway,\u2019 Literary Travel Is Having a Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the book \u201cPeople We Meet on Vacation<\/a>,\u201d by Emily Henry, the protagonists take a series of trips, including a pivotal one to Croatia.<\/p>\n

This summer, the travel company EF Ultimate Break will offer a 12-day trip to Croatia<\/a> based on the book. Part of a new BookTok-inspired series<\/a> of trips, the itinerary shadows the plot with visits to Dubrovnik and Split<\/a> and adds a cruise among Croatian islands, amplifying the romance of a beachy destination that oozes with history.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine following along with the story,\u201d said Alyssa Sands, the director of market development for the company.<\/p>\n

Never mind \u201cThe White Lotus<\/a>.\u201d On the heels of \u201cset-jetting<\/a>\u201d comes \u201cbook-cations\u201d: trips that visit a locale of a favorite book, a place where an author lived or simply where the conditions are conducive to reading.<\/p>\n

In its 2026 travel trends report, the flight-tracking site Skyscanner<\/a> found that 55 percent of travelers had booked a trip or would consider one inspired by a book. The vacation rental platform Vrbo coined the term \u201creadaways<\/a>,\u201d or book-inspired group travel, in its trend report, noting that 91 percent of respondents registered interest in a trip devoted to reading and relaxing.<\/p>\n

Resort book clubs, hotel libraries and a growing number of literary festivals are also offering readers new ways to indulge readers\u2019 interests. This comes despite a recent finding that the share of people who read for pleasure has dropped 40 percent since 2003<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It helps that vacations often grant time to read.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about shutting off the computer and the phone and calming yourself down,\u201d said Jane Ubell-Meyer, the founder of Bedside Reading<\/a>, a service that teams up with hotels to offer complimentary access to a digital library of more than 200 titles. \u201cI think a book helps you with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bookish travel isn\u2019t new \u2014 think of the legions of visitors to Pamplona, Spain, inspired by Ernest Hemingway\u2019s \u201cThe Sun Also Rises,\u201d or the Janeites who visited England last year to celebrate Jane Austen\u2019s 250th birthday<\/a>, or those trekking there this year for the centenary of Winnie-the-Pooh\u2019s birth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA book can give you the significance of a place that a guidebook or travel article won\u2019t,\u201d said Amy Alipio, a founding member of the Travel Book Club<\/a>, a Substack-based reading circle.<\/p>\n

Book trips offer a new way to see something familiar.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterature gives us a purpose,\u201d said Renee Haight of Phoenix, who has traveled to New York and plans to travel to England with Novel Travels<\/a>, a company that organizes literary journeys. \u201cI\u2019m 84 years old and I\u2019ve seen enough old buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes a good book can make you nostalgic for a place you\u2019ve never seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBooks open doors to other worlds,\u201d said Sarah Moriarty, the director of the Charleston Literary Festival<\/a> in Charleston, S.C. \u201cIt\u2019s not a huge surprise that many would take the leap to travel with their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they do, the following travel companies help bring the pages to life, or at least create the ideal reading conditions.<\/p>\n

Hotels With Reading Habits<\/p>\n

Many hotels, such as the Plaza<\/a> in New York, home to \u201cEloise\u201d and a scene in \u201cThe Great Gatsby,\u201d are associated with books. Others, like the Betsy-South Beach<\/a> in Miami, which hosts writers-in-residence<\/a>, champion them.<\/p>\n

More hotels are jumping on the literary bandwagon. This month, Avani Hotels & Resorts<\/a> started a book club at its 44 properties, including on-site book corners where guests can borrow books that reflect the destination (such as \u201cThe Miniaturist\u201d at the Avani in Amsterdam<\/a>), a website<\/a> listing titles by location and author events.<\/p>\n

Several of these programs aim to unite guests through a love of reading. The book club<\/a> at Scribner\u2019s Catskill Lodge<\/a> in Hunter, N.Y., selects a book each quarter and invites readers to stay at the lodge to meet the author.<\/p>\n

In the Maldives, the InterContinental Maldives Maamunagau Resort<\/a> names a book of the month that guests can borrow, designed to stimulate conversation. <\/p>\n

New three-night reading retreats at Lake Austin Spa Resort<\/a> in Austin, Texas, alternate reading time with yoga and mindfulness sessions and author meet-and-greets.<\/p>\n

Many hotels offer surprise titles. Guests who sign up for the \u201cliterary sabbatical\u201d package at the Williams Inn<\/a> in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts will find books in their room, selected by a local bookstore and based on their preferences.<\/p>\n

Four properties of the Kennebunkport Resort Collection<\/a> in Maine provide books wrapped to disguise titles and identified by clues like \u201ccompelling and profound\u201d or \u201cfriendship and enlightening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t just traveling to stories; they\u2019re traveling into the conditions where they can actually read again,\u201d said Ms. Ubell-Meyer of Bedside Reading, which offers access to books in more than 60 hotels nationwide.<\/p>\n

Literary Trips<\/p>\n

The boom in bookish trips ranges from day-trips to weeklong vacations.<\/p>\n

Last fall, the Nickel Plate Express<\/a>, a heritage railway in Noblesville, Ind., started Read and Rides<\/a>: two-hour excursions that invite bookworms to read while enjoying the rural Indiana scenery. Expect the ride to be library-quiet in a pair of 68-seat cars.<\/p>\n

The England-based Ladies Who Lit<\/a> acts like a traveling book club. Instead of a gathering at a member\u2019s house, the club might assemble 12 to 14 readers over five nights in Barbados or the Swiss Alps with a book discussion on the final night.<\/p>\n

While Ladies Who Lit books are chosen for fostering conversation, other tours take a literal approach to a place. Timbuktu Travel<\/a> offers custom itineraries in South Africa, based on \u201cLong Walk to Freedom,\u201d by Nelson Mandela, and in India, related to \u201cEat Pray Love,\u201d by Elizabeth Gilbert. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe author is usually asking you to sit with a place rather than rush past it,\u201d said Johnny Prince, the co-founder and chief executive. \u201cThe clients we see choosing book-led trips are opting out of the highlights reel and into something a little more considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Novel Travels<\/a> began running tours in New York tied to the historical fiction of Fiona Davis<\/a>, whose novels, including \u201cThe Lions of Fifth Avenue,\u201d are often based on New York buildings. Most trips are capped at 14 readers and include book discussions, sightseeing and author chats.<\/p>\n

A 2027 departure to Egypt<\/a> features a pre-trip reading list that includes Agatha Christie\u2019s \u201cDeath on the Nile,\u201d Marie Benedict\u2019s \u201cDaughter of Egypt\u201d and Ms. Davis\u2019s \u201cThe Stolen Queen.\u201d The titles are united in discussion by the question: Whose history survives?<\/p>\n

\u201cTravel becomes more meaningful when you already feel something for that destination, which books give you,\u201d said Corinne Levine, the founder of Novel Travels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bookish Events<\/p>\n

Literary festivals add celebrity to gatherings of like minds.<\/p>\n

Last fall, the first Aspen Literary Festival<\/a> aimed to attract readers during the mountain town\u2019s quieter shoulder season with a program that embraced a range of genres. Most of the events were free, attracting about 2,000 attendees from around the country.<\/p>\n

Its second iteration, Sept. 25 to 27, will feature a lineup that includes the authors Tayari Jones<\/a>, Robert Kolker<\/a> and Jennette McCurdy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to create a festival for anyone who ever fell in love with a book,\u201d said Adrienne Brodeur, the executive director of Aspen Words<\/a>, the nonprofit that runs the festival.<\/p>\n

Since 2023, the Santa Fe International Literary Festival<\/a> has combined appearances by well-known writers (including, this year, Isabel Wilkerson<\/a> and Ocean Vuong<\/a>) with literary day trips (recently to Taos, N.M.<\/a>, to retrace visits by the \u201cLady Chatterley\u2019s Lover\u201d author, D.H. Lawrence<\/a>) and culinary events. The 2027 festival will take place May 14 to 16.<\/p>\n

Now in its 10th year, the Charleston Literary Festival (Nov. 6 to 15) features roughly 50 events and has hosted writers, including Joyce Carol Oates<\/a> and David Szalay<\/a>, who won the Booker Prize last year.<\/p>\n

The program offers V.I.P. experiences, including exclusive parties as well as a book club concierge dedicated to helping lit-loving groups coordinate their stays. Most events take place in the 500-seat Dock Street Theater<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the book \u201cPeople We Meet on Vacation,\u201d by Emily Henry, the protagonists take a series of trips,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,121061,39941,577,121059,121058,121060],"class_list":["post-339635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-book-clubs","tag-books-and-literature","tag-festivals","tag-hotels-and-travel-lodgings","tag-travel-and-vacations","tag-writing-and-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}