We just finished “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Can you believe the ending? Harry is actually a girl and joins the Spice Girls on their new world tour only to die tragically in a Clearasil overdose! Oh wait…you are only on page 753? Oops, sorry about that. Well, never mind, there are thousands of classic books out there for a great vacation read; you could even base a whole trip around one of them. Here are a few of our favorites:

Explore Dickens’ London flights | hotels | cars
Victorian London was both a spectacular and dangerous place, where the wealthy lived in luxury and the poor struggled to scratch a living. Today it is still possible to see the sharp contrasts of the city through Charles Dickens’ eyes and imagine yourself walking though his gas-lit world. So rip some holes in your knickers for a number of walking tours that will take you to locations featured in novels such as “Oliver Twist,” “David Copperfield,” and “The Pickwick Papers.” Stop by the Charles Dickens Museum which is housed in the only surviving London home of the author. If you can hear the whines of your kids already, perhaps ease them into literature with a trip to Dickens World, a themed attraction based on the author’s life, books and times, which recently opened in Chatham, Kent.

Live Out a Bavarian Fairy Tale flights | hotels | cars
If you think your family is bad, take a trip to the home of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm to see what Snow White and Cinderella had to deal with. The Fairy Tale road has 60 stops and stretches over 600km from Hanau to Bremen taking in the sites of well known stories such as “Hansel and Grethel” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” You will start to believe you are in one of their fairy tales as you witness magical castles, shimmering lakes, and even red and white polka dot toad stools. Get out and smell the roses (but avoid the poisonous apples) at open-air theatres, fairy-tale weeks and puppet theatres. At some villages, visitors are welcomed by genuine fairy-tale figures; others offer fairy tale packages for the young and old.

Find a Room with a View in Florence flights | hotels | cars
E.M. Forster’s portrayal of young love in Florence inspired many readers at the time to escape the social confines of Edwardian society. Today you can still soak up the spirit of freedom and passion that made “A Room With A View” a classic and see landmarks from the story. Stroll hand in hand over the Ponte Vecchio Bridge whilst browsing the many jewelry stands. Next, meet your lover at the Piazza Della Signoria, the most famous piazza in Florence, for a bit of romance mixed with history. When you’re done cuddling, take a tour of Palazzo Vecchio and Uffizi Gallery, one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world. Your perfect day can be wrapped up with a sunset picnic and a stolen kiss, but don’t you dare book a room without a view.

Spend a Year (or a Week) in Provence flights | hotels | cars
All the pleasures of Provencal life are conjured up in Peter Mayle’s witty account of a British expat living in the South of France. Unlike most of the books on our list, “A Year in Provence” is a work of non-fiction. Not much has changed since Mayle’s 1991 book, so you can still visit the rural villages and meet the characters, taste the food, hunt the truffles and walk (and eat) a day in the author’s life. You can get really rustic by staying in one of the centuries old farmhouses in the region, or simply check into one of the many affordable inns and B&Bs. Take a tour of a vineyard or nibble your way through a cooking class, or just drive around the rolling hills of Provence. Most of all take a page out of Mayle’s book and make friends with the locals.

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Did You Know?
If you’ve made it this far, you must be a fan of the printed word. But sometimes words fail and only an image will do. That’s why Kayak has introduced Photo View to our hotel results. Photo View lets you scan through pictures of the available hotels to get sense of the property before you book. For a test drive, take a look at these London search results. Once on the landing page, click over to the “Photos” tab at the top of the results. Because seeing is believing!

Turn the page,

Steve and Paul, Kayak co-founders

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 11:15 am and is filed under Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.