The original post: /r/travel by /u/redmeanshelp on 2024-11-13 03:59:48.
Two years ago, we went on the 14-day Red Carpet Tour of Lord of the Rings sites in New Zealand. It was a great way to see a lot of spectacular natural locations, in company with other fans of the books and movies.
Five years ago, we did a Smithsonian Tour that had an emphasis on learning about castles in Scotland. That was good, but nowhere near the fabulousness of the NZ tour.
We want to find another tour like the NZ one, but searching for such a thing is not turning up any strong leads. I've searched for geek/nerd tours, tours for a few other movies/books we like, and so on, but no luck.
The things that made the NZ tour especially good were:
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everyone on the tour was very interested in the books and locations. The Scotland tour had a number of people who didn't seem all that invested in it.
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the tour guides were locals, really knew their material, and were longtime fans of the books/movies (Scotland tour had two local professors, and two Smithsonian guides not from the area.)
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as a result of the first two, we (two geeky and introverted people) felt we were not amongst strangers, even though the other attendees were from all over the world.
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the itinerary was a good mix of impressive sites/sights, side adventures (like a helicopter landing high up in a mountain range that was one movie site, and another that was a Maori cultural evening), time spent with NZ craftspeople that were involved in the films (landowners/extras, calligrapher, jeweler, WETA) and time in cities and towns. We felt we had a decent overview of NZ as a country, not just as a movie set.
So you see, these things are kind of unusual, and I don't know how to find something similar -- assuming something similar even exists. It wouldn't need to be a tour focused on a movie or book.. or author, if it had these characteristics. I don't know if there are industry terms for any of this that I could use for a keyword search. I'm hoping people will have some ideas.
And, because I'm sure it will come up: yes, we want a guided/organized tour. We also go abroad on our own, but one of us has a day job essentially herding cats, and to NOT be the one in charge is a true vacation.