About Twice Told Stories: Small-Group Story Trips

What we do

We take small groups to the places where the stories happened.

We run small-group trips to the real places behind well-loved books, history and films. For several months before each trip, the group reads, watches and listens together online, with two video calls a month, just for the group. Then we travel together. We plan everything, host you the whole time, stay in one place where we can, and share meals together.

Why "Twice Told Stories"?

Every story on our trips gets told twice. The first time by the writer, on the page or the screen, in the months before you go. The second time by you, after you have stood where it happened and come home with your own version to tell.

The name also nods to Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1837 book Twice-Told Tales.

Who hosts

Stacy Earl, smiling, in teal glasses and a green sweater, holding an open book.

Stacy Earl plans and hosts our trips.

Stacy is a licensed and certified travel advisor and the owner of Early & Away, a travel company that plans trips for readers, writers and book clubs. She is one of the three co-founders of The Hosting Guild, a vetted, invite-only community for people who run group trips. She is fully insured, and she plans every Twice Told Stories trip herself, from the first book to the last dinner. Before travel, she spent twenty years in marketing, event planning and project management, including leading marketing for national consumer and healthcare brands, and she holds an executive MBA from Johns Hopkins.

Stacy has travelled to sixteen countries on four continents (North and South America, Europe and Asia) and nearly every US state, and she lived in England for three years.

She is a lifelong reader (a book a day every summer as a kid) and is writing a historical fiction series set in 1930s East Tennessee.

What this is not

A few things we're not.

A reading retreat usually means sitting somewhere quiet with a book. We do the opposite: the reading happens in the months before, so the place itself is the experience when you arrive.

Not a travel agency. (Our advisory sister, Early & Away, is.)
Not a book club.
Not a coach tour with a book theme.
Not a workshop, writing residency, or literary conference.
Not a wellness retreat with books on the side.

Who comes

Readers who want to see the real places behind the books.

Most of our travellers are keen readers who like to talk about what they read. Many don't have a friend nearby to travel with, and want a trip that's organised for them.

Most people come on their own. After months of calls together, you already know the group before you arrive. Some trips are for women only; each trip page says so.

Sister brands

Our sister brands.

Early & Away plans private trips one-on-one, including for book clubs. Racing Passport runs guided trips to major motor races, starting with the Indianapolis 500. All three are run by the same small team.

The Departure Shelf is our reading-list series: the lists behind each trip, and standalone lists for anyone who wants good book recommendations tied to real places.

About our sister brands →

Twice Told Stories