8 Fictional Literary Destinations You Can Visit in Real Life

We get lost among the pages of our favourite novels, happily so, and those fictional worlds become our own. However, many of us still dream of visiting the imaginary places in our favourite novels, and while we can’t walk the halls of Hogwarts, or visit Middle Earth, we can look at places that inspired our favourite books, or the filming locations of adaptations for some inspiration for a literary holiday!

Today we have ten fictional destinations that you can – kind of – visit in real life, bringing your fictional worlds to life.

Hobbiton – The Hobbit

We can’t promise actual Hobbits but film director Peter Jackson built Hobbiton right into the New Zealand countryside, and the set is available to visit today in Waikato, New Zealand if you’re a fan of The Hobbit.

Mordor – Lord of the Rings

And you could follow this up with a trip to Mordor, also in New Zealand, filmed at Mount Tongariro, though beware as if you want to climb Mount Doom it’s a six hour long hike.

Hogwarts – Harry Potter

Hogwarts Castle was filmed in a variety of locations, all of which you can visit to get a feel for filming. Many of the outdoor shots were filmed at Alnwick Castle, and the Great Hall belongs to Gloucester Cathedral, but if you really want to get a taste for Hogwarts you should really visit the Warner Bros studio tour (pictured)!

King’s Landing – Game of Thrones

If you’re a Game of Thrones fan then you can visit the city that became King’s Landing, capital of the Seven Kingdoms as the series was shot in Mdina, Malta, a walled medieval city that you should be able to escape from with your life.

West Egg – The Great Gatsby

Forget the scenes from the movie, we’re going straight to Fitzgerald’s inspiration for West Egg as we know it’s based on Long Island where Fitzgerald lived alongside various other ‘new money’ figures.

President Snow’s House – The Hunger Games

If you fancy visiting President’s Snow’s house from the Hunger Games you can. It’s historic Swan House in Atlanta, Georgia and it’s open to visitors.

Overlook Hotel – The Shining

While The Shining movie doesn’t really hit the spot for fans of the book, the setting pretty much nailed it. The Overlook Hotel from the movie was filmed at Timberline Lodge in Oregon in the USA and if you dare you can still stay there today!

Narnia – The Chronicles of Narnia

Oamaru in New Zealand was chosen as the destination for filming Narnia thanks its spectacular landscape, and you can visit it today, though you may not be able to enter via the wardrobe.