I would like to visit Gettysburg National Park. I would like to go back to several places that I have visited. Although I have been to Pennsylvania twice, I haven't been there.

All the time! Every book I read I find a place. Famous places, little towns, etc. I keep a notebook. Like a bucket list of sorts.

Absolutely! I'm especially drawn to little European villages.

Not based on a novel...unless fantasy planets are included. lol I've seen documentaries of a fresh water lake with sting-less jelly fish. Or....a Shaolin Temple in the snow, that can only be reached by train.....that look interesting.

When in Estes Park Colorado, we stay across the street from The Stanley Hotel for one third as much....no hauntings. I'd pay our hotel extra if they'd guarantee NO hauntings. :0)

Marilyn....I lived in Pa for a time and went to Gettysburg...a couple of times. A feel of history,

with gift shops in town, etc. But, a beautiful area to make what you will of it.

Went to the Battle Field...only once. Nothing much to see...a field is what they call it, that is

what it is. But...as DH and I and another couple were just kind of standing and gazing across the

field, I "heard" someone say, "tell them Henry is ok". I turned to my DH and asked him what

he had said. He looked at me kind of funny, and said, "uh...I didn't say anything". At first I

thought he was playing a joke...but he wasn't. He heard nothing, and he had said nothing.

Took me a long time to get it out of my head...still comes to me once in awhile. Don't know

how I heard it...who it came from, etc, etc....but I know I heard it.

Nicole....;) I don't think of it as a haunting...it just makes me sad...not afraid.

I have heard that they have done some work around the area since we were there, but don't know.

Not necessarily reading about - I subscribe to Atlas Obscura's podcast and it's a lovely collection of descriptions of fascinating, fabulous places. Definitely inspiring

Back in the late 1970's I read an article about the Cabot Trail in National Geographic. Gilbert Grosvenor, NG's editor, called it one of the most beautiful places on earth. I sent off for travel brochures and guides, but it would be 2014 before I made the trip.

Oh yes! Because of Jane Austen I made sure to include Bath in my itinerary when I visited GB.

My parents took us to stay at French Lick when I was in middle childhood - I can't remember exactly what age I was, perhaps 8 or 9. My brother and I were completely bored. That's all I know about the resort!

On a family summer vacation at a rustic Wisconsin resort back in the ’60s, it was kind of cool and rainy much of the week. I spent hours in the cozy library of the lodge reading Heidi from their bookshelves. Ever since, I wanted to visit Switzerland and the Alps. So I did! In college, I took a year to attend college in the Swiss Alps, and it was indeed breathtakingly beautiful.

Of course I loved James Herriott’s ”All Creatures” books, and Lassie Come-Home. Years later, I went on a walking tour of the Yorkshire Dales. When I came back from the trip, co-worker asked where I’d been. England, I said. He said, Oh, my mom’s from England, from Yorkshire. Turned out his mother is from the next town on the train line from where I was, and we had been to many of the same villages. Of course I married the fellow.

So many story books, and movies, involve Central Park. I finally visited NYC two times in the past several years. The Met, Radio City Music Hall, and Central Park in between, and lunch with some GWers! I was in heaven. And I didn’t see all the park.

All the time. Some we have visited as a result, some we have not gotten to yet. I have a folder and cut out articles before tossing the magazine or whatever. Later I go back through as we are trip planning to see what I have saved.

Gettysburg was interesting, but it is pretty big and you can spend a lot of time or a little. What I really enjoyed most was the cyclorama painting depicting the battle and surroundings. It is one of only two remaining in the US I believe and worth seeing. The artist painted himself in the painting as his signature; he is the only figure without a gun. There was one still in Atlanta.

https://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/cyclorama.htm

Well, kind of. Once I saw the movie “Somewhere in Time” with Christopher Reeve, that was filmed at the historic and beautiful Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan, I wanted to stay there. My husband and I planned a trip there when our children were younger, staying at the hotel for almost a week. It was all I’d hoped it would be and so much more! The ambiance, history, the rooms, grounds, restaurants, everything! No cars on the island, and so we enjoyed our carriage rides everywhere. I’m hoping that we can go back to stay again this Fall.

I do remember after watching Ken Burns' The Civil War we did go to Gettysburg with a whole new appreciation for the place.

I used to find those fluff books by Mary Higgins Clark that were located where I was traveling to to get me in the mood.

I live 20 minutes from Gettysburg and have been there a gazillion times. Every field trip in school went there and often we take the dogs and walk the Battlefield. In fact, we may do so today. It's a solemn serene place and it's hard to wrap your head around all the deaths that happened there. Ghosts are reported often.

I often read about Nantucket and the Cape so we vacationed there many times and it's exactly how I imagined. I would love to live in Nantucket.

I read a lot of books set in Ireland and Scotland so would like to visit there. Maybe Dublin, however I'm sure it's not the same as my reading shows me.

Tony Hillerman's novels were a big part of why I wanted to go on a road trip in the US Southwest, including several places in the Navajo Nation. I was reading one of the novels in the airport boarding area that led me to meet another fan who was going to similar places for the same reason. Although she was on a tour and I was making my own road trip, we happened to meet each other again in a restaurant in Farmington NM part way through our vacations.

I'm more likely to want to go to a place based on photos than I am based on a book being set there.

When I was a teenager in rural central Texas, I used to listen to KOMO in Oklahoma City at night sometimes, and it made me want to go there, as it seemed like an exciting city. I could drive myself to concerts in San Antonio by the time I was 14, but I thought it would be more exciting to go to Oklahoma City. When I finally did get there at age 22, I discovered that San Antonio was actually more interesting.

Also as a teenager, I had pen pals in Pittsburgh, Detroit, and NYC, and this made me want to visit Pittsburgh and Detroit - NYC not so much, probably because of how my pen pals wrote about their cities. I would still like to visit Pittsburgh, and I've been to the Detroit airport, although I guess that really does not count.

When I asked my pen pals what they thought about Texas, they told me that they thought it was a very backward and remote place, and they had no desire to visit. However, I was very happy when I moved to Houston at age 18.

As a young child, I wanted to live in Manhattan, partly because of the I Love Lucy show.

The Cotswolds were featured prominently in a few books that I had read - and I was luck enough to be able to visit there in 2018.

I did it a bit in reverse: we were going to the Swat Valley, so I took along Kipling's "Kim" and Peter Hopkirk's "In Search of Kim" to read while we were there (a lot of the action occurred up in that region, which probably hasn't changed a great deal since Kipling wrote the book).

I 've got a few . I have always had a strong pull towards the Mediterranean. I have visited several countries there and feel extremely at home there. When I read some books about Katherine of Aragon, one of them went into the Alhambra. On one of my trips to Spain, I visited it and while I thought it was of course, all that, there were other places that stood out even more to me there.

Another one, on a totally different note was not from a book but from TV. I grew up watching and loving The Andy Griffith Show; I always said I was going to retire to Mayberry. About a year ago I became aware of a FB group for fans of the show and learned that Mayberry was actually fashioned after Mt Airy , NC ( Andy's hometown). So yes my first roadtrip since the pandemic was to Mt Airy ( along with a few other lovely places- through Virginia and West Virginia mostly). I really enjoyed it.

I've always wanted to see Pompeii and the discoveries they have unearthed.

The old west towns and see how people lived.

The Lizzy Bordan house among other haunted places.

Toronto Veterinarian: I, too, love Tony Hillerman’s novels. I met him several times over the years and he truly was a wonderful man, as well as being an incredibly talented writer. He and his wife, and DH and myself used to enjoy attending the Fall Art Festival every year in Taos. We stayed at the same beautiful little hotel right there in town. We also actually looked at a home to buy a couple houses down from his back before we built this place. I used to see him sitting out on his shady second story balcony/porch writing. He was a lovely man and I miss him and his great books!

We had German and Austrian friends who said that Hillerman’s novels, and others set in the SW, are very popular so German-speakers really like to visit.

Lars, I like your recollection that OKC could seem so exotic.

Of course, I also read the Little House books, and rather than visit a place, I wanted to visit that time. Still do. To soar over the virgin prairie, or journey through it, to watch life in the Big Woods, to peer in the windows of The Long Winter.

Another is Pillars of the Earth. I want to time-travel as an observer of medieval Europe.

Uptown Gal, that is why I wanted to go there. I have heard it is one of the most haunted places.

I can read a book and want to visit there at the drop of a hat. Before Covid DH and I were this close to finalizing travel plans to New Zealand. I especially looked forward to seeing The Shire in person :-)

After watching the movie 'Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil' with Kevin Spacey, I always wanted to visit Savannah Georgia.

ooh yes I forgot about Savannah! I adored that book. I remember 60 minutes did a piece on how that book had so fostered tourism and they did have specific tours highlighting the places mentioned in the book. We visited Savannah with some cousins and had a great time. I did do an extra tour to see the Mercer house. It's a great place to visit.

Thinking more about places I've very much wished to visit after reading books, and Narnia comes to mind...

Yes! My holiday one year was to drive to Louisiana and spend time in Savannah after reading the book!!! The ex and I both loved This Old House and one of the homes was in Savannah as well.

Now, I'd love to go to Scotland, after reading the Outlander series.

Just thinking about this and the current book I'm reading, A Genleman in Moscow, did a Google search and there is a Metropol hotel there. I just thought it was made up but it's not. Too bad I will never go there. Looking at pictures on line and it's beautiful.

Hotel Metropol Moscow - Guest Reservations

I remember reading about the town of Forks Wa in the context of the Twilight books and movies. Having passed through the area any number of times over the years I could only say...what? as nothing in the area spoke to the reality of Forks Wa in the books. I did eventually learn that the woman who wrote the books picked the town off a map. And so it goes. Is this a norm?

I remember my parents taking me to Chincoteague, VA, for the pony swim after reading Misty of Chincoteague. For a horse-crazed kid, that was over the top!