You, a book, and the idea of travel. We think travel changes how you read. You stop rushing pages and start noticing where stories happen. The buildings and the cafés: they stick differently. That’s what our list is about, travel destinations for book lovers. It’s for readers who plan trips around books.

If that sounds like you, then yes, you’re in the right place. There are plenty of travel destinations for book lovers who like to read about a place before they even land there. And if you’re heading out during the Winter Arc period, when the days are slower and perfect for reflection, it’s the best time to pair your travels with good reading. Since no one can pack twenty novels in one suitcase, you can also use the Headway app to read short versions of famous books in a single sitting.

Disclaimer! All of my blogs may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on the link and make a purchase I may receive a small amount of commission for the referral at no extra cost to you. This commission is what allows me to continue creating guides to help travellers plan their next trip!

What a Book Travel Bucket List Really Is

A travel bucket list is just a list of places you really want to see before you stop traveling. Some people fill theirs with beaches or mountains. Ours, and probably yours, is full of cities that hold stories from books. You probably know that feeling: you finish ‘A Moveable Feast’ and imagine sitting where Hemingway wrote, scribbling in a café off Boulevard Saint-Germain. That’s how most literary lists begin.

It doesn’t always have to come from novels either. People do the same with film and TV. Fans of Sex and the City visit Carrie Bradshaw’s brownstone on Perry Street. Tourists still pose at the “Friends” corner apartment in Greenwich Village. You might not even like those shows, but you get why it happens. Stories make places familiar before we ever go.

Think of it as a reading plan, stretched across book maps. You don’t need to finish it all. The point is to start with one fiction or nonfiction book and destination — and notice the difference it makes when the story and the real place begin to overlap. That’s enough to make it meaningful.

How to Use This List (A Simple Structure)

We made this list so you can use it, not just scroll through. Here’s the structure we follow when planning literary trips:

• Choose one book that stays with you there
• Find the city connected to that book or its author
• We pick cities that have a large number of bookstores and libraries
• Bookmark two bookstores, one library, and, of course, one café in that city
• On the Headway book summary app, you can look for a short summary of the book and if you like it, read the full book
• Read that before you travel, it sets the tone

7 Books to Complete Your Travel Bucket List

Each of these books connects to a real place you can visit. Read them before or during your trip to see the cities through the eyes of their writers. From Paris to Tokyo, the stories below turn well-known destinations into something personal and worth exploring.

1. Paris: Streets That Still Read Themselves

If you sit in Café de Flore with a notebook, you’ll notice something — people still read here more than they scroll. Paris reads like an open book. Walk along the Seine and you’ll see green stalls of the bouquinistes, around 240 in total, officially recognized as part of the city’s heritage. Visit Shakespeare and Company bookstore, where writers once slept on the upstairs beds in exchange for work.

Books to carry:

• ‘A Moveable Feast’ by Ernest Hemingway
• ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’ by Victor Hugo
• ‘The Paris Wife’ by Paula McLain

2. London: Shelves Before Skyscrapers

Walk the Southbank Centre Book Market under Waterloo Bridge. You can spend an afternoon there for the price of a sandwich, enjoying reading your favourite book. London breathes books. There are over 200 independent bookstores open across the city, where you can buy your new book.

Start at Daunt Books in Marylebone. It’s built like an old library, full of oak wood and country-labeled shelves. Then head down Charing Cross Road, where used-book shops still trade like it’s 1950.

Books to bring:

• ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf
• ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman
• ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens

3. Barcelona: Stories Between Stone Walls

Barcelona mixes books with architecture. On Sant Jordi’s Day, April 23rd, people exchange roses and books. You can walk into La Central del Raval, an old building turned bookstore. Or visit Carrer de la Llibreria, one of the few streets named after booksellers.

Barcelona reads:

• ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• ‘Cathedral of the Sea’ by Ildefonso Falcones
• ‘Homage to Catalonia’ by George Orwell

4. Dublin: Every Street Has a Sentence

Dublin treats writers like family. Actually, Dublin became a UNESCO City of Literature in 2010. End your walk at The Palace Bar. It’s been full of journalists and poets since the 1800s. Order one pint, stay as long as you need.

You’ll see plaques for Joyce, Yeats, and Wilde on pub walls and bridges. You can stop by Sweny’s Pharmacy, the one from Ulysses. Volunteers run it, and they still read aloud from Joyce every day.

Books for Dublin:

• ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce
• ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde
• ‘Selected Poems’ by W.B. Yeats

5. New York: The City That Never Stops Reading

Reading ‘Just Kids’ before your visit gives every street in Greenwich Village new weight. New York’s relationship with books is loud and proud. The Strand Bookstore alone has “18 miles of books,” and yes, they measured it.

Brooklyn’s Books Are Magic holds daily author talks. And the New York Public Library remains one of the few places where you can walk in without buying anything, just to sit and read. Here, you can find literary events and festivals that bring over 500,000 visitors a year.

Books for New York:

• ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger
• ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith
• ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn‘ by Betty Smith

6. Buenos Aires: A City That Lives in Its Libraries

You’ll notice how Borges wrote like someone who’d already seen every library. In this city, that feels possible. UNESCO once called Buenos Aires the “Book Capital of the World.” It wasn’t a compliment — it was a fact. The most famous is El Ateneo Grand Splendid, a theater-turned-bookstore. You can still see the balconies and stage, but now they hold novels instead of actors.

Books for Buenos Aires:

• ‘Ficciones’ by Jorge Luis Borges
• ‘Hopscotch’ by Julio Cortázar
• ‘Santa Evita’ by Tomás Eloy Martínez

7. Tokyo: Streets That Never Stop Printing

Don’t miss Daikanyama T-Site — half bookstore, half gallery. You’ll see readers everywhere, even standing by vending machines. Tokyo reads differently here. The Jimbocho district holds around 170 bookstores, mostly secondhand, some dating back a century.

The Waseda International House of Literature, also known as the Murakami Library, was designed by Kengo Kuma. Its curved shelves feel more like waves than walls.

Tokyo reads:

• ‘Norwegian Wood’ by Haruki Murakami
• ‘The Tale of Genji’ by Murasaki Shikibu
• ‘Convenience Store Woman’ by Sayaka Murata

Build Your Own Route: Start Your Own Reading Map

There’s no right order. Paris before Tokyo, or Dublin before Barcelona: it doesn’t matter. What matters is linking stories together. All you need is a list, maybe five cities, maybe ten. Write them down. Add one book under each.

We’ll probably meet you in one of them someday, sitting in a bookstore, flipping through something secondhand. Because that’s the quiet truth: the world keeps writing, and we keep following the words.