Beyond the beach read: The new wave of bookish travel

Forget the solo beach paperback: travellers are now joining structured reading retreats that mix books, place and community.

At I'Brindellone, a trattoria in Florence, a dozen men and women sit around a long table, wine glasses in hand, deep in discussion about a novel: Still Life, a novel by Sarah Winman. On the walls hang photographs of the city's 1966 flood when the River Arno burst its banks, killing 35 people and destroying valuable works of art. The group point at the photos excitedly; Winman once dined here, saw the same images and planted the seed of her story.

Right now, food is an afterthought; this literary circle of former strangers is on a Books in Places reading retreat – part of an evolving wave of holidays that put reading, not sunbathing or sightseeing, centre stage. No longer content with paperbacks by the pool, travellers are signing up for structured literary holidays that combine the ritual of reading with the pleasure of place. The result is an unusual hybrid: part vacation, part book club, part cultural immersion.

"I was first drawn to Books in Places by a Facebook ad," recalls Lyn Margerison, one of the participants. "It showed the front cover of one of my very favourite books arranged on a table with a glass of wine, set against a piazza in Florence. The caption asked: 'Do you enjoy reading books in the places in which they are set?' My antennae were immediately tweaked."

Margerison has since travelled from Dorset to Florence, Budapest and beyond on reading retreats. "For me, these holidays are the perfect combination of books and travel," she explains. "I've always liked to read a book set in the place where I am holidaying, but a reading holiday offered a way to do that while meeting like-minded people. I always leave with a renewed enthusiasm for both reading and travelling – plus, usually, a much longer to-be-read list."

Chloë Aillud

A booming trend

Books in Places was started by Paul Wright in 2023, initially as a means of getting away with members of his UK-based book group. He now offers weekend trips in the UK and longer retreats to Portugal, Crete and Egypt, Italy and more, all centred on reading in situ.

"Location is at the heart of everything," says Wright. "Exploring the streets, landscapes and atmosphere of the setting deepens our understanding of the story. A scene that was once just words on a page suddenly comes alive when you've walked the same alleys, tasted the same food or felt the same light as the characters."

On Wright's trips, readers might step into Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in Monroeville, Alabama; visit the Jamaican haunts where Ian Fleming wrote Dr No; or wander through the haunting ruins of Spinalonga in Crete that inspired Victoria Hislop's The Island. "Passages you once skimmed suddenly leap into focus," says Margerison. "It's like living inside the story for a few days."

This isn't just niche travel. According to a 2025 survey by travel search engine KAYAK, nearly half of UK travellers now choose destinations based on how suitable they are for reading and learning. The figure rises to 60% among Millennials, part of a broader shift in which 89% of holidaymakers say travel is a time "to invest in themselves" rather than simply rest. Meanwhile, Future Market Insights, a market research company, reports that the literary tourism sector as a whole was worth an estimated $2.4bn last year, with projections suggesting it could rise to $3.3bn by 2034.

Max Pittman

Wright has seen the appetite first-hand. "I started in 2023 with two trips," he says. "Last year there were seven that were half full. This year I offered around 25 trips that often filled up within 24 hours of me announcing them."

Women-only spaces

Other companies are tailoring the concept. In the UK, Megan Christopher's company Ladies Who Lit runs retreats exclusively for women and non-binary travellers, offering a safe way to travel and connect over literature. "The book community is largely women, and we wanted to extend that offering into travel as well," she said.

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Unlike some retreats that revolve around a single novel or itinerary, Christopher's gatherings are designed as places where guests can relax, read without pressure and enjoy companionship with fellow book lovers. Days are loosely structured, with free time for reading by a Mediterranean pool or in an English country house, while evenings bring participants together for shared dinners or book-themed film nights.

"There is a 'book of the retreat' that we all discuss on the final night," Christopher adds, "but guests can start it before or during the trip – and if it's not their cup of tea, there's no pressure. Many use the time to catch up on their own to-be-read lists or share recommendations and conversations. And because we take care of everything – from private chefs to transfers – our guests can truly switch off. That, for a lot of women who spend their lives making decisions for everyone else, is a rare luxury."

Chloë Aillud

Reading aloud together

Across the pond in New York City, Page Break takes a different approach: guests commit to reading a single novel over a weekend. They take turns reading extracts aloud, pausing for discussion and deep dives into character and theme, before sitting down to lavish dinners inspired by the book itself.

When reading There Are Reasons for This by Nini Berndt, discussion was sparked when founder Mikey Friedman held a reading retreat at The Henson hotel in the Catskills and asked the chefs to bring to life the line: "He liked nice things. He liked the way the sushi chef torched the belly of the tuna right there in front of him." As guests looked on, the chefs accordingly torched a tuna belly.

However, Friedman says the key ingredient is what he calls "the magic of shared reading".

"For the first 20 years of our lives, reading aloud with others is common – parents with children, teachers in classrooms," he explains. "But as adults we tend to read alone: on the subway, on the beach, or falling asleep in bed. Research shows that reading aloud improves memory and comprehension and promotes social connection. I see it on every retreat: once everyone has read a few pages aloud, the room relaxes, barriers fall and a group of strangers becomes a community."

Max Pittman

A new kind of travel ritual

Reading retreats have emerged as a direct offshoot of other literary trends: the rise of the book group, the explosion of "BookTok" recommendations and the growing popularity of literary festivals. Today, readers aren't content with a paperback by the pool; they want the ritual of reading to become a portal where they can see the world with fresh eyes.

Travellers are now sailing the Nile with Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile, walking the streets of St Malo while discussing Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, and tracing Mary Anning's fossil-hunting steps in Lyme Regis through Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures.

As the author Jeanette Winterson once said, "Books are like doors; when one opens, a new world waits." Reading holidays are literal steps through those doors, into new worlds of friendship, curiosity and shared discovery.

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