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A NOVEL EXPEDITION

Luxury travel specialists Black Tomato reimagines Agatha Christie’s Grand Tour ..


Precisely a century ago this year, Agatha Christie – the world’s bestselling novelist, and its most beloved author – began a ten-month odyssey around the globe. To celebrate that journey, luxury travel operator Black Tomato working with the Agatha Christie family have crafted a thoughtful series of customized journeys that follow the English author’s own real-life adventures.


Studying her letters and archives, Black Tomato have unveiled Agatha’s famous 1922 ‘grand tour’ into one monumental trip (plus, a scene-setting prelude in London) that has been designed to be taken either in three ‘chapters’ or as a 40-night whole.


Like all good adventure books, this journey begins with a prelude – of two nights spent in London, a city incredibly close to her heart. This is where your scene is set – the red thread that connects the globe-trotting journey she was about to take.


The journey begins with a stay at the iconic Brown’s Hotel in London.

Highlights include:

  • Two nights at magisterial Brown’s Hotel, where Agatha was a regular visitor (she would write often in the hotel drawing room)

  • The chance to learn about her works and world with either James Prichard, Agatha’s great-grandson, or legendary British historian Lucy WorsleyThe London prelude serves as the perfect scene setter for whichever ‘chapter’ you choose to embark upon. Alternatively, we can organise a bespoke trip where this distinct Agatha Christie-inspired introduction will set the tone for a unique exploration of the United Kingdom itself.


Chapter One: A Grand Adventure in Africa

Agatha’s time in Africa was both resplendent and restless. Water diving in Bloemfontein, surfing near Cape Town (it would become an obsession), crossing the ‘neck’ of Table Mountain. This was one of the first times she’d set foot in a continent other than Europe, and it would go on to inspire her novel The Man in the Brown Suit.


Cape Town’s Blue Train

  • Like Agatha, you’ll stay at the supremely glamorous Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel

  • Learn to surf near Cape Town, where Agatha first tried the sport

  • In Franschhoek, you’ll tour the wineries and vineyards of a region which Agatha herself explored

  • Follow Agatha around the bays, towns and communities of the Cape Peninsula, and over the ‘neck’ of Table Mountain

  • Take the legendary Blue Train, stopping off at the old diamond mines of Kimberley as Agatha did during her exhilarating 1922 trip


Chapter Two: A Grand Adventure in Australia and New Zealand

Here, Agatha continued to indulge her restless curiosity, with bush trams in Noojee, visiting the orange groves of Yanga, and taking in the sulphurous air of Rotorua.


Dandenong Ranges

  • Like Agatha, you’ll visit the Dandenong Ranges via a centuries-old, lovingly preserved steam train

  • Visit the cities where Agatha filled her senses – including Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart

  • Indulge your tastes on the Mornington Peninsula, inspired by the culinary highlights of Agatha’s journey

  • Follow Agatha’s footsteps to the ‘cobalt’ vistas of the magisterial Blue Mountains

  • See for yourself the wilderness landscapes of Rotorua, Nelson and Hokitika, which Agatha breathlessly explored


Chapter Three: A Grand Adventure in North America

Crossing the Pacific, Agatha would journey from the verdant island paradise of Hawaii to the thundering mantle of Niagara Falls (and after it, New York). It was a time of surfing, sunburn, and socialising – between metropolitan cities and exotic wilderness.


Fairmont Empress Fairmont Palliser

  • Stay where Agatha stayed, including the Fairmont Empress Fairmont Palliser

  • Surf the waves on the beaches where Agatha perfected the art

  • Like Agatha, you’ll explore the lakes, mountains and hot springs of British Columbia and Alberta

  • Take a private flight to the Niagara Falls, which Agatha herself visited

  • Wrap your trip in New York, the birthplace of her father

The Grand Tour is available to book as a complete 40-day trip or as individual legs From starting from £13,570 per person.

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