You don’t always need a holiday to escape. Sometimes, it’s as simple as opening a book and disappearing into another world. No longer noticing your hand turning the pages, so absorbed you are in a life far from your own. The turrets and staircases of Hogwarts. The endless enchantment of Narnia. The moody moors of Wuthering Heights. And while you may not need a holiday to escape, we thought we’d combine the magic of both.
Lo and behold: the best villa holidays inspired by your favourite books…
The Magic Faraway Tree
You’re looking for something fun. Something great for kids. And really, a little whimsy never did anyone any harm. You like Enid Blyton – scratch that, you love Enid Blyton. Your childhood was all The Famous Five and woodland walks. But above all, you want magic. Real magic. The kind that stops you in your tracks and makes you look around, half-expecting something around the corner.
For you, our Blyton aficionado, we suggest this: our treetop villas at Keemala, where life unfolds among the branches, the world below, and magic all the way up. Just like Beth, Jo and Fran in The Magic Faraway Tree, all you need is a climb into the treetops. Who knows what you might find…
Harry Potter
You’ve made it. Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Wand and magical pet at the ready, potions book in your bag.
“Anything from the trolley, dear?”
“Yes, please. Two Chocolate Frogs and a packet of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.”
The journey’s a bit long, but as soon as you arrive, you know it’s worth it. Water stretches out. Turrets rise through the mist. Outside is all stone and secrets. Inside, staircases shift beneath your feet and doors creak as you rise higher under its spell.
It’s daunting at first, but that’s to be expected – vast and ancient as it is. But it’s not long before it starts to feel like home.
And as you look out over the mountains, you feel it in your bones: this is somewhere extraordinary.
Now, you might think you’re at Hogwarts. But this is The Fortalice in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. A castle stay every bit as magical as the one in the books.
Wuthering Heights
“Whatever our souls are made of, Emily Brontë’s and mine are the same,” is exactly what we’d expect to hear if Foxglove Farmhouse could talk.
Sitting on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, this beautiful farmhouse is every inch Wuthering Heights. You can almost hear that infamous conversation in the kitchen, or Catherine outside, clutching the lattice as if it were her heart.
And while we’re expecting there’ll be a little less drama here, you can still walk the Dales as romantic and untamed as Heathcliff himself.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Doesn’t that wardrobe look inviting?
That’s not just any wardrobe, mind you. It creaks as you open it, thick with dust. Coats brush your cheeks, offering you their fur. The air turns colder. You take one step… then another.
And there it is. Snow beneath your boots. Lantern-light tickling the trees. A forest so quiet it’s as though it’s under a spell. Reindeer. Frosted branches bowing under the weight of it all. And if you listen carefully, you might just hear it: the whisper of faun hooves, the brave might of centaurs, the deep crackle of magic in the air.
Finnish Lapland is every bit as spellbinding as Narnia. And nowhere captures that wonder quite like Chalet Esteri, a place entirely welcoming to sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. Here, reindeer leave giant prints in the snow, carrying Santa Claus. Because in this deep winter, Christmas is very much alive – nestled under the glow of the aurora, the roaring wilderness close by.
Beauty and the Beast
Alone in a grand chateau with only roses for company, the Beast wakes from his slumber.
The halls are hushed, a curse clinging to every gilded corner. Cogsworth fusses. Lumière flickers with hope. Mrs Potts pours her tea as if it just might fix everything.
But then comes Belle, fearless, stepping into the castle not with terror, but curiosity. Candlelit dinners. Secret corridors. A library waiting like a gift. Slowly, the château begins to soften, and so does its Beast.
Your fairytale starts at Chateau Chamborigaud. Because on a holiday like this, who says magic isn’t real?
The Odyssey
Sing, O Muse, the trouble of Odysseus.
The war was hard. The journey home even harder.
It’s been years since you’ve seen your wife. Your son’s now a man, not the boy you left behind. You’ve been plagued the whole way by a vengeful God – Poseidon, earth-shaker, ruler of the seas.
You’ve seen many an island. The white shores of maybe-Mykonos, the fair Nausicaa scared as you appeared wild as a lion near the riverbank, the home of the lotus-eaters, slow and lazy as they were, lulled under an ancient spell.
But now, all you long for is rugged Ithaca. Land of the goats. Penelope at her loom. Telemachus even more like you.
For you, our dear Odysseus, we offer you this: Villa Thiaki Sea. The place where your journey finally ends: the Ithaca you long for, wrapped in sun. The sea on the shore, quiet at last.
The Island
You arrive in Plaka as the light turns honey-blonde. The sea stretches before you, secrets hiding beneath the waves, ready to wash up on shore.
Across the water sits Spinalonga. Silent islet, shrouded in mystery. Rocky land – how you wish to know it.
Like Alexis Fielding in The Island, you’ll find yourself drawn to the lives lived there, the secrets that refuse to stay buried.
And as you sit on the terrace of Villa Hislop, looking out at its craggy tips beneath that perfect Greek sun, Crete reveals itself to you. Blue skies. A scent of salt and thyme. Eyes across the water, the present touching the past.
This villa is aptly named after Victoria Hislop, the author of The Island. Because while some villas are inspired by stories, this one sits inside one.
Pride and Prejudice
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a holidaymaker in possession of good sense must be in want of a house as beautiful as Ravenclaw Hall.
A place of drawing rooms and gardens, of quiet splendour and just enough grandeur to impress even the most discerning guest.
Ravenclaw Hall is our Pemberley. And you, dear reader, our Elizabeth Bennet – perfectly content to wander your own path, ever so much unimpressed by appearances… until you see it – those magnificent rooms, those great big windows, even a pool – and inevitably, you are.
Now you know the villa holidays inspired by our favourite books, why not set out on your own? Magic is met around every corner of our historic chateaux and castles, wonder whispers through the halls of our heritage collection, and even if there’s no dark magic lurking in our villas, we know it’ll be every bit as exciting as the tales you love. Ready to write your own chapter? Book your 2026 villa holiday today.
