Do you plan your trips based on the footsteps of a favorite historical figure or celebrity?

Hey everyone, here’s something I am curious about: when you travel, do you feel like checking out spots connected to someone you admire, like a historical figure or a celebrity?

For instance, do you pick destinations based on where intellectuals lived, where your favorite musician first played gigs, where celebrities hung out, or where politicians visited etc.?

Would that kind of story-driven travel interest you, or is it more of a niche idea? I’m just wondering if building a trip around the life and places of a historical figure, celebrity, or intellectual is something more people do than I realize.

I tried something like this myself, doing a mini WWII-related tour in Germany and Poland, and also when I went to London, I sometimes chose the streets to see based on blue plaques that I already knew. Is this a thing others do too? And if so, how (from which channel) do you identify these spots?

And is there a community that you know around this idea?

If I ever found myself exiled from the politbureau I would do a historical trip and move to Mexico City.

River said:
If I ever found myself exiled from the politbureau I would do a historical trip and move to Mexico City.

Just watch out for some ice picks.

Yeah, I’ve done stuff like this before: I refer to it as a pilgrimage, even though it’s non-religious. For example, when I was in Argentina, I went to Rosario to see the childhood home, school, and club of Leo Messi…

I posted a thread about this same topic not too long ago - got some interesting answers.

@Ash
Nice, spot on!

Anthony Kiedis is why I first traveled to Europe and dated a 16 year old.

And I would like to ask all how you identify these places? What resources do you use? I’m asking because I’m thinking about building a community around this. I sometimes prepare maps for myself based on the people I care about (the houses they lived in, schools where they were educated, the restaurants they dined in, etc.).

If Anthony Bourdain has been somewhere, we look up all the spots he ate at and try to hit them. So far we’ve hit maybe 8 Bourdain locations.

Yep, I can’t say I’ve done a whole trip based on that, but I’ve absolutely done something similar. I was passing through Vienna and Salzburg a number of years ago, so I made sure to stop at the Mozart Birth Haus and Wohnhaus in Salzburg, and the death apartment in Vienna. Also made sure to hit the Bach Birth Haus in Eisenach that same trip. I’m going to Boston next fall, better believe I’m going to hit some John Adams sites.

Not really, no. Although I’ll visit a site that is important to an individual I admired, such as the spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated. But I don’t plan a trip around it.

Most of my travel locations over the last 20 years have either been film, TV, or video game locations. It’s taken me around the world!

From my experience, I cannot recommend trying to see all the Roman ruins in England.

Seeing all the Jane Austen-related sites (particularly Bath) is both more possible and rewarding.

Not going just for those types of locations, but we like to incorporate them whenever possible. Cafes where famous poets and thinkers hung out. Private residences/ateliers of artists. Castles and palaces.

We love to discover the places where interesting people were inspired. Not obsessed, mostly just curious.

I might do a day tour in a city I’m visiting, but I hate, hate, hate overly structured vacations. I’m not going to base my entire holiday on such a thing.

I had a cringey serial killer obsession in my early twenties. I did a Jeffrey Dahmer tour of Milwaukee. Visited his old apartment, the night club he used to pick his victims up at, the courthouse where he was tried and sentenced.

Generally no, but when we were in Dublin, we dedicated a day to visiting a few spots related to James Joyce/Ulysses, as it’s my husband’s favorite book. That was a fun day!

Not as intellectual but we’ve sought out places where one of the Pink Panther movies was filmed in Italy. We were not disappointed even though things had changed. Absolutely gorgeous.