Page-Turning Destinations Inspired by Great Summer Classic Reads (2024)

Last Updated on June 3, 2024

Everyone has their own preference for what their ideal summer vacation entails. For me, it’s slowing down the pace and enjoying time at the pool, beach or mountain retreat. That relaxation time is often spent getting lost in the pages of a terrific book.

Even better, consider pairing your favorite read with the destination that served as the inspiration for that amazing story. Let’s explore some novels and the places they took place to provide a one-of-a-kind summer getaway.

Happy reading and traveling!

South Dakota: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Who didn’t fall in love with the series “Little House on the Prairie” based on the Laura Ingalls Wilder story collection? According to my daughter, an avid reader, when she read the book series as a child, she proclaimed they were even better than the TV series.

Travelers can retrace Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family in DeSmet, South Dakota, where several of the books take place. At Ingalls’ Homestead, visitors can drive covered wagons, learn how to grind wheat, visit a historic one-room schoolhouse and even make a corncob doll, among other educational activities reflective of pioneer heritage.

2024 also marks the 50th anniversary of the Laura Ingalls Wilder TV show, so the timing of your visit couldn’t be more ideal.

Northern California: All Things John Steinbeck

Not only is the National Steinbeck Center in Monterey County an ode to the birthplace of the literary giant, but there are several of his namesake books like Cannery Row that take place in and around the county from Salinas to Big Sur.

John Steinbeck is credited with transforming the Salinas Valley into the “valley of the world,” and he was famously quoted, “Not everyone has the good fortune to be born in Salinas.”

Steinbeck was born here in 1902 and his stories, which won him a Nobel Prize in 1962, are nearly all flavored with salt-of-the-earth characters who live and work in Monterey County. The abundant lands between the Gabilan Mountains and the Pacific Ocean burst with stories, and See Monterey has put together an itinerary as an ode to Steinbeck.

Montgomery, Alabama: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (Therese Fowler)

The glamorous, yet troubled life of Montgomery, Alabama native, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is the subject of Therese Fowler’s biographical novel Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. Part one of the novel and several scenes in the series Z: The Beginning of Everything, inspiring the novel, takes place in Alabama’s capital city where Zelda not only grew up and met novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, but where the couple lived from 1931 to 1932.

Today, their former residence stands as The Fitzgerald Museum, the only museum to their legacy. Those who wish to live the part while in town may choose to stay in either the Zelda or Scott Airbnb suites in the former Fitzgerald home, tucked among the charming bungalows and mansions of the historic Old Cloverdale neighborhood and within walking distance of a variety of restaurants, bars and shops.

Mississippi: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams)

Columbus, Mississippi native Tennessee Williams set his iconic play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof against the evocative backdrop of the Mississippi Delta’s lush landscapes. The play spotlights the strained relationships within the Pollitt family during a pivotal gathering to celebrate the patriarch’s birthday. As tensions simmer and secrets unravel, the characters grapple with issues of love, mendacity and the pursuit of truth.

Travelers might catch a glimpse of their own Big Daddy, Brick or even Maggie the Cat on a summer road trip through the picturesque Delta towns of Greenwood or Clarksdale, or during a relaxing long weekend at a historic bed and breakfast in Natchez or Vicksburg.

Jamaica: How Stella Got Her Groove Back (Terry McMillan)

Terry McMillan’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back follows 42-year-old Stella Payne on a spontaneous trip to Jamaica where she turns her life around and falls in love was released in 1996. Two years later, the book became a beloved movie filmed on the island at Round Hill Hotel and Villas.

The film celebrated 25 years in 2023 starring Academy Award-nominated Angela Basset and Taye Diggs featuring the gorgeous views, full dining room and outdoor tub found in Villa 11 on the Round Hill property.

Jamaica: James Bond (Ian Fleming)

Prominent British writer Ian Fleming first visited GoldenEye Luxury Resort in Oracabess, Jamaica during his time in the British Navy in the early 1940s. After falling in love with the location, Fleming returned to write all 13 novels of the acclaimed James Bond saga, three of which are set in Jamaica.

The spy was regularly sent to Jamaica on assignment and his adventures on the island are detailed in Dr. No, Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. These novels later became popular movies bringing the island from paper to life on the big screen as some movies were filmed in Jamaica.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana: A Flicker in the Dark (Stacy Willingham)

Stacey Willingham’s page-turner A Flicker in the Dark is as captivating as the Louisiana capital serving as its setting. In the story, Baton Rouge psychologist Chloe Davis is thrust back into an adolescence marred by the discovery of her father’s role in the disappearance of six teenage girls when, as she prepares for her wedding, yet another teenage girl goes missing. Davis tousles with paranoia and reality and wonders if, for the second time in her life, she may unmask a killer.

Murder-mystery fans will get the thrill of walking in Chloe’s shoes as they check in at the stately Watermark Baton Rouge Hotel, turn pages while taking sips at one of the city’s many coffee shops and scout the crowds for possible suspects at the Saturday Red Stick Farmers Market or one of the city’s live music events.

Oxford, Mississippi: Rush (Lisa Patton)

Born and raised in Memphis, Lisa Patton was inspired by Oxford’s historical and gorgeous backdrop for her novel Rush. Set on the Ole Miss campus, the book is a Southern beach read that tells the story of the centuries-old tradition of sorority recruitment while exploring the complex, intimate relationships between mothers, daughters and female friends.

Oxford, Mississippi: The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner)

Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner immortalized Oxford in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, a setting for most of his novels, one of the most popular the The Sound and the Fury. This groundbreaking novel tells the story of the decline of the once-aristocratic Compson family in the American South.

Through the perspectives of its four narrators – Benjy, an intellectually disabled man, Quentin, his tormented brother, Jason, their cynical sibling and a third-person account focusing on their sister Caddy – the novel explores themes of memory, time and loss.

Jackson, Mississippi: The Help (Kathryn Stockett)

Kathryn Stockett’s The Help is a number one New York Times bestselling novel and the basis for the Academy Award-winning film—a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

The novel follows the lives of three women: Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson. Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss, Aibileen is a Black maid raising her 17th white child, and Minny has never held her tongue, but now must somehow keep the secrets about her employer that leave her almost speechless.

The three women come together to write a tell-all book about work as a Black maid in the South. Many of the film’s scenes are set in downtown Jackson, in the historic Belhaven neighborhood and Fondren District. From Brent’s Drugs to The Fairview Inn, visitors can experience many of the iconic locations featured in the film and novel.

Visitors are also encouraged to visit The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum to learn the true stories of the state’s civil rights heroes and how the work continues today.

Cheyenne, Wyoming: 8 Seconds (Charlie McDade)

Rodeo Legend and champion bull rider, Lane Frost, the protagonist of “8 Seconds,” was infamously killed during the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo (still the world’s largest rodeo taking place every summer).

In 1989, Lane was the second-to-last bull rider during the last day of the rodeo. He successfully rode the bull named Takin’ Care of Business and dismounted, but the bull turned its back and hit him in the side with a horn, breaking his ribs and severing a main artery.

The final scene in the movie shows one of Lane’s colleagues and best friends later that same year at the National Finals Rodeo riding for the world championship. After the eight-second bell sounds, he continues to ride and stays on for an additional eight seconds as a tribute to his fallen best friend, who will never be forgotten.

Visitors can follow in Lane’s footsteps while exploring historic Cheyenne and attending its many annual rodeo events from Cheyenne Frontier Days to Hell on Wheels. The tourism office offers the Saddle Up Pass, an all-inclusive pass to several cowboy experiences throughout the Old West town from horseback riding to getting outfitted in cowboy boots and hats at The Wrangler.