Seven places around the world where Agatha Christie found inspiration for murder
International Agatha Christie FestivalFrom Devon and London to the Nile and Petra, Agatha Christie's travels shaped some of the world's most famous mysteries – and travellers can still follow her trail today.
Fifty years after her death in 1976, Agatha Christie remains the undisputed queen of the murder mystery. Her books have sold more than two billion copies worldwide and her influence stretches from Japanese mystery fiction to modern Hollywood whodunits.
But Christie was also an inveterate traveller. Her first trip outside Britain was to Egypt as an 18-year-old, and in 1922, she and her first husband, Archibald Christie, embarked on a Grand Tour: a 10-month voyage from Britain through South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Her travels shaped many of her most famous novels – from the Egyptian river cruises that inspired Death on the Nile to the train journeys that became Murder on the Orient Express. And for Christie, trains and ships were the ultimate settings for homicide.
"She identified that a transit mode throws together people who would not often be all in one place, and they actually have access to more and more varied information than they would in other settings, despite the isolation," says Dr Michelle Kazmer, professor and dean at Florida State University, and a leading Agathie Christie expert.
Here are seven places around the world where travellers can experience the life and works of the Queen of Crime.
Getty Images1. South Devon, UK
Christie was born in Torquay, and the English Riviera looms large in both her life and stories. Her former home, Greenway House on the River Dart, is now a museum filled with her furniture and curios, along with a library containing a number of first-edition Christie books. On nearby Dartmoor is the Moorland Hotel where Christie stayed while writing her first novel.
Visitors can walk the Agatha Christie Mile in Torquay, a trail that covers more than a dozen locations that found their way into her books. Stops include The Imperial Hotel – visited by both Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple – and the Torquay Museum, home to the UK's only dedicated Agatha Christie Gallery. English Riviera Custom Tours also offers Christie-themed tours around Devon.
One iconic location is Burgh Island, which inspired the deadly setting of And Then There Were None. "Burgh Island is a remarkable place," says Matt Newbury, creative director of the International Agatha Christie Festival. "It is cut off twice daily by the tide and sometimes described as a part-time island." The island's Art Deco hotel, where Christie once stayed, later became the eerie mansion featured in the novel.
The International Agatha Christie Festival (12-20 September 2026) celebrates Christie's connection to Devon with talks, tours and immersive events. "This year we'll be taking visitors to Dartmoor and to Burgh Island," says Newbury. "There's also an underground film festival at Kents Cavern and a visit from The Mousetrap as part of its 75th anniversary tour."
Alamy2. London, UK
By the 1930s, Christie owned eight houses, six of them in London. One of the best known was 58 Sheffield Terrace, where she lived for more than five years, followed by 22 Cresswell Place, which she bought after her divorce from her first husband.
Many of her characters, including Poirot, spent time in London. London Walks' Agatha Christie walking tour highlights various locations from her novels, while St Martin's Theatre in the West End hosts The Mousetrap, famous for being the world's longest running play and for its twist ending, which audiences are traditionally asked not to reveal.
During World War Two, Christie worked at London's University College Hospital, writing two novels a year alongside her hospital duties as a pharmacy dispenser – handy insight into the world of poisons. She lived at the Lawn Road Flats (also known as Isokon Flats) in Belsize Park, which counted figures like Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius and furniture designer Marcel Breuer among its residents. Today the Isokon Gallery explores the building's history.
Alamy3. Luxor and Aswan, Egypt
Christie first visited Egypt in 1908 as a debutante, staying with her mother at what is now the Cairo Marriott Hotel. Years later, she would become an Egypt regular, accompanying her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, on digs.
These travels produced Death on the Nile, set aboard a Nile cruise. The ship that inspired the novel, the Steam Ship Sudan, has been sailing between Aswan and Luxor since 1885 – fortunately without any reported any murders on board.
Her novel Death Comes as the End is entirely set in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Travellers can explore the Karnak Temple complex and the Dendera Temple Complex near Luxor – including the Temple of Hathor referenced in the book. Near Aswan are the Philae temples and the monumental Abu Simbel complex, which features as the site of a murder attempt in Death on the Nile.
Christie frequently stayed at the Winter Palace Luxor and the Old Cataract Aswan (both now under Sofitel) while writing her books. The latter even offers an Agatha Christie Suite, where guests can take in the same Nile views she might have seen while writing.
Alamy4. Istanbul, Turkey
The Orient Express held a special place in Christie's life. It was the first solo trip she ever took, after her divorce in 1928, and she later travelled on it frequently with Mallowan. The original train, which was immortalised in her novel Murder on the Orient Express, ceased running in 2009, but the luxury Venice-Simplon Orient Express now recreates the journey using restored 1920s carriages.
In Istanbul, visitors can explore Sirkeci Station, the original terminus of the Orient Express. Its railway museum preserves the era through vintage memorabilia including staff hats, train signs and even a reconstructed dining car.
Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express while staying in Istanbul's Pera Palace Hotel, built in 1892 to accommodate arriving passengers from the train. The hotel still celebrates its literary connection with an Agatha Christie Suite furnished with period pieces such as an Underwood typewriter.
Alamy5. Cape Town, South Africa
"Christie and her first husband surfed in South Africa during the 1922 Grand Tour and enjoyed it," says Kazmer. "Surfing thus found its way into the book The Man in the Brown Suit [an early thriller set partly in South Africa]."
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Christie surfed at Muizenberg Beach in Cape Town, which remains one of the city's premier spots with gentle breaks and colourful Victorian bathing boxes. She stayed at the Mount Nelson Hotel (now under Belmond Ltd) known for its pink facade and views of Table Mountain.
She also visited Parliament as an official guest – a site modern travellers can visit on guided tours – and explored the historic wine estates of Constantia, including what is now the Boschendal Estate.
Alamy6. Barbados
In contrast with the peripatetic Poirot, who Christie dispatched through the Middle East and Europe, Miss Marple only travelled outside Britain once. A Caribbean Mystery was set on the fictional island of St Honore, inspired by Christie's 1956 trip to Barbados.
The author stayed at the Coral Reef Club, which she later fictionalised as Miss Marple's Golden Palms Resort. Today, the family-run property still retains the atmosphere of a classic English country house transplanted to the tropics.
Visitors can surf in Freights Bay or the Soup Bowl, as the surf-loving Christie might have done, relax on the island's beach a la Miss Marple or enjoy rum punches at local spots like the Gazebo Experience or the Sipping Room.
Alamy7. Petra, Jordan
Long before Petra became famous as a filming location for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Christie used it as a setting for murder. Her novel Appointment with Death was a murder mystery in travelogue form, following a family travelling from Jerusalem to Petra. Jordan's Rose City is painted in ominous tones, with the Instagram-favourite narrow gorge of Siq becoming a "valley of death".
Visitors can walk from ancient Al-Khazneh (the Treasury) to the modern Petra Museum to get a sense of the site's geographical and historical breadth, and trek up to the monastery or the High Place of Sacrifice, as her characters did, for birds-eye views over the ancient city. Don't miss the lantern-lit event known as Petra by Night that evokes the atmospheric mood Christie captured in her novel.
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