Agatha Christie | Black Tomato

Around the world with the queen of mystery

Precisely a century ago this year, Agatha Christie – the world’s bestselling novelist of all time, and most beloved author – began a ten-month odyssey around the globe.

To celebrate that journey, we’ve been chosen as the official luxury travel partner by the Agatha Christie family to help bring it marvellously to life.

Studying her letters and archives, we’ve translated Agatha’s ‘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. This is your chance to see the world through Agatha’s eyes and footsteps – and to better appreciate how travel inspired her lifetime of writing and mystery.

Agatha Christie travel quote

“I could not believe it was true”

From her home in tranquil Torquay, the sight of snow-bristled mountains, pineapple plantations and boisterous blue monkeys would have seemed magnificently unreal. But these are precisely the sights that Agatha Christie would behold in 1922 during her ‘grand tour’ around the world.

Setting sail from Madeira, Agatha Christie – then thirty-one years old, her career on the very tip of launching into the stratosphere – would come to visit some of the world’s wildest and most exotic places. South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Canada.

Intrepid, fearless, and bursting with enthusiasm, she would become the first woman to surf standing up. She’d ride by steamboat from the Zambezi to Livingstone. She’d gaze wondrously into the rainbowed mists of the Niagara Falls, writing breathlessly of how she couldn’t “bear to leave”.

This was her journey of a lifetime. And now it can be yours.

From London to the world

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 highlights

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 James Prichard, Agatha’s great-grandson

The London prelude serves as the perfect scene setter for whichever ‘chapter’ you choose to embark upon. Alternatively, we can organize a bespoke trip where this distinct Agatha Christie-inspired introduction will set the tone for a unique exploration of the United Kingdom itself.

Price on request

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.

The highlights

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

From $7,195 per person based on two traveling

Blue Train, South Africa

A grand adventure in Australia and New Zealand

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

The highlights

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

From $25,980 per person based on two traveling

Sydney, Australia

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.

The highlights

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

From $18,300 per person based on two traveling

Niagara Falls, America

How it works

Each of the trips above can be taken either on their own or as a continuous journey.

Step One

While the London prelude experience isn’t obligatory, we recommend it as the perfect way to set the scene for the fuller chapters.

Step Two

Browse the trips and decide which journey you’d like to embark on (or if you’d like to book all four).

Step Three

Drop us a line – by email, phone, or our online form.

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