If you’re a traveler, fall, not Christmas, is the “most wonderful time of the year.” Same sites but fewer crowds, cooler temps, and often, lower prices. It’s the perfect time to go so many places, you may find it hard to choose a destination. The answer lies on your bookshelf. Whether they’re classics or “beach reads,” your favorite books can offer guidance and inspiration for a “lit trip” to see the sites of the stories, absorb the environment that inspired the authors, and even walk the paths of fictional characters.  Literary travel allows you to extend the experience of a great book and expand your understanding of your destination. Reading and travel enhance each other, and one taste will leave you yearning to go back for more. Best of all, you don’t need to head for Hemingway’s favorite Paris haunts or Jane Austen’s English countryside to take a lit trip. Opportunities for book-based travel abound in the U.S., too, and many are at their best in fall.

California Wine Country – Vintage Reading

Harvest time in California’s wine regions, typically from mid-August through October, overflows with vibrant golden yellow and crimson colors and the trucks rumbling by overflow with grapes ready for the crush.  M.F.K. Fisher captured the delights of Napa and Sonoma where she lived and wrote her classic essays on food, wine, and life. Jack London also loved the Sonoma area where he lived and wrote in his later years. And, for fans of another type of grape, The Grapes of Wrath (which has absolutely nothing to do with wine), the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, is a short jaunt from wine country, making literature and wine the perfect blend for fall travel.

Read: M.F.K. Fisher, Musings on Wine and Other Libations, (Anne Zimmerman, ed.)

Jack London, Valley of the Moon (another name for Sonoma),

For more contemporary reading, try James Conaway, Nose, and Rex Picket, Sideways.

Explore: the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma counties, and take a side trip to the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas (www.steinbeck.org)

Stay: L’Auberge Du Soleil, Rutherford (www.aubergedusoleil.com)

Eat: pack a picnic and enjoy it on the grounds of your favorite winery or in Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen www.jacklondonpark.com

Events: Fall in wine country means special celebrations of wine and food such as Flavor! Napa Valley in November (flavornapavalley.com), vintner dinners such as those at Grgich winery (grgich.com). Schramsberg winery in Calistoga offers special camps in fall and spring for wine and food lovers (www.schramsberg.com/news/campschramsberg)

Santa Fe – Willa Cather’s Archbishop Comes to Life

Santa Fe is a sensory fiesta year-round but in fall the aroma of roasting chili peppers adds to the mix. New Mexico’s beauty, dramatic history, and architecture have lured for artists and writers for decades.  Among them, D.H. Lawrence (to Taos) and Willa Cather, who captured the drama of the New Mexico environment as she wrote a fictional version of the real-life story of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy, in Death Comes for the Archbishop.  Shoppers and art lovers will find equally dramatic adventures in Santa Fe.

Read: Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

Explore: Bishop’s Lodge which offers a spa, horseback riding, and a chance to see Bishop Lamy’s chapel and home. (www.bishopslodge.com)

Stay: Inn on the Alameda (www.innonthealameda.com)

Eat: The Shed (www.sfshed.com)

Events: Santa Fe Wine and Chili Fiesta (www.santafewineandchile.org)

Newport, RI – America’s “Downton Abbey”

Since the 1800s, America’s wealthiest families have flocked to Newport, Rhode Island, and built summer “cottages” that most of us would call “palaces.” Among them was Edith Wharton, who wrote of her experiences in Gilded Age Newport in books such as The Buccaneers, which is about wealthy heiresses who married into the British aristocracy, much like “Downton Abbey’s” Cora Crawley. You can explore Newport’s Gilded Age mansions as well as its gorgeous seaside sites. The more “off season” you go, the more you can afford live like a Vanderbilt.

Read: Gail McColl and Carol Wallace, To Marry and English Lord 

Edith Wharton, The Buccaneers

Explore: Newport Mansions (newportmansions.org)

Stay: Vanderbilt Grace (www.gracehotels.com/vanderbilt)  Ask about packages that include admission to the Newport Mansions.

Eat: The Mooring (www.mooringrestaurant.com)

Events:

Polo matches, sailing regattas, or just a hike along Cliff Walk.  In Newport you can sample “upper crust activities” or just enjoy the view. (www.gonewport.com)

Nantucket – A Whale of a Trip

You can’t find a more concentrated dose of New England charm than in Nantucket. And, if you’re a fan of Herman Melville’s whale tale, Moby Dick, you know that Nantucket is the place where Captain Ahab’s ship, the Peaquod, set sail.

Read: Herman Melville, Moby Dick,

Nathaniel Philbrick, Why Read Moby-Dick? and In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

Sena Jeter Nasland, Ahabs Wife

Or for more contemporary tales, read Summerland and other books by Nantucket resident Elin Hilderbrand.

Stay: White Elephant (www.whiteelephanthotel.com)

Eat: Millie’s. Enjoy the sunset and sample a Whale Tale Pale Ale. (www.milliesnantucket.com)

Explore: Nantucket Whaling Museum (www.nha.org)

Events: The Nantucket Maritime Festival. You’ll hear sea shanties sung, see harpoons thrown, and boats raced. (www.nantucketmaritimefestival.org)

Driftless in Wisconsin

Because of its geology, the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin is a place tailor-made for meandering. And the fall colors are reaching their peak in Wisconsin right now. As David Rhodes explains it in his beautiful book Driftless, “The last of the Pleistocene glaciers did not trample through this area, and the glacial deposits of rock, clay, sand, and silt–called drift–are missing.  Hence its name, the Driftless Region.  Singularly unrefined, it endured in its hilly, primitive form untouched by the shaping hands of those cold giants.” In this area, you’ll meet friendly folks who may remind you of the characters in Rhodes’s book—organic farmers, artists, shopkeepers, and the nice Norwegian lady at the dairy coop.  Amish folks sell produce and hand-made wares at roadside stands, making the entire area a giant farmers market through fall. By the end of your trip, you’ll be reluctant to leave.  But you can return by reading Rhodes’s newest book, Jewel Weed.

Read: David Rhodes, Driftless and its sequel, Jewel Weed

Stay: Charming B&Bs abound in the Driftless Area. Check out The Roth House(therothhouse.com) and the sister property The Old Oak Inn (theoldoakinn.net) in Soldier’s Grove or Westby House Inn in Westby (www.westbyhouse.com)

Eat: Driftless Cafe, Viroqua (www.driftlesscafe.com)

Explore: Amish farms and shops (www.downacountryroad.com) and Wildcat Mountain State Park (www.dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/wildcat/)  For more Driftless information see driftlesswisconsin.com

Events: Gays Mills Apple Festival (www.gaysmills.org/Apple_Festival)