Where Jane Reigns: England Celebrates Jane Austen in 2025
By Rick Steves
Jane Austen turns 250 this year, and to celebrate England is rolling out the Regency red carpet for throngs of ardent Austen fans. If your 2025 travel plans include Britain — Bath, in particular — you might encounter larger-than-usual crowds at Austen hotspots, with some visitors sure to be sporting high-waisted gowns, petticoats, and long white gloves.
The author of widely adored novels — including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma — Austen is one of England's most famous writers. She played an outsize role in the evolution of England's social norms by featuring strong, independent heroines whose views often mirrored her own. Though set in Regency-era England, her books' brilliant blend of realism, romance, and memorable characters still resonate with readers today. Pride and Prejudice alone has inspired countless film and TV adaptations, from multiple BBC shows to Bridget Jones's Diary.
Austen's birthday is December 16, but England is celebrating with special events and programs throughout 2025. The biggest happenings are centered in Bath and across Hampshire — if you're heading to any of the following Austen-related places, it's good to be aware and plan accordingly.
Bath is the mecca for Austen devotees, with various "Austen Points" scattered across town and multiple initiatives dedicated to the city's most famous resident. (Austen lived in Bath for five tumultuous-yet-foundational years around 1800 and set two of her novels there.) A big hit with Austen fans in Bath is the Jane Austen Center, which contains no historical artifacts but offers visitors the chance to try on period costumes, play parlor games the author enjoyed, and even go all-out by taking "Mr. Darcy's Afternoon Tea."
The center also organizes Bath's annual Jane Austen Festival, which unfolds genteelly every fall with costumed promenades and parties. Beyond its primary dates (September 12–21 this year), the festival is celebrating Austen 250 with a pair of book-themed balls — complete with traditional dance training — on May 31 and June 28, and an opulent "Yuletide Birthday Ball" in December. Whether you fancy a dance or are merely going to be in Bath around those times, anticipate heavy crowds (and long queues at your favorite local Regency-era tailor).
Beyond Bath, a trio of sites in southern England's Hampshire — the Jane Austen House in Chawton, the village of Steventon, and Winchester Cathedral — are the other main ports of call for Austen die-hards. Located about 1.5 hours southwest of London (on the way to Southampton), and each a 30-minute drive from one another, this triangle of pilgrimage sites can easily be visited in a day.
The best is probably the Jane Austen House, the building where she lived her final years (and where she wrote most of her novels). The house sports a good collection of artifacts —personal letters, first editions of her books, and her (very small) writing table — and in 2025 is marking her birthday with a year-long "Austenmania" exhibit.
Steventon, Austen's birthplace, doesn't usually offer visitors much beyond her childhood church, but this year it's hosting multiple special events, including a fair, art exhibition, and a handful of concerts.
Nearby is Winchester, where Austen lived her very last weeks (and died). Her house there, at No. 8 College Street, is opening to the public for the first time this year (tickets have sold out for now, but more may become available later). Winchester Cathedral, meanwhile, is worth a visit regardless of its Austen ties: It's the longest medieval cathedral in the world, boasts perfectly preserved Gothic architecture, and is never crowded. The cathedral is home to her grave, and also honors the author with numerous plaques and an impressive memorial stained-glass window — and will be erecting a life-size statue of her this October.
Far from Austen's native Hampshire is Chatsworth House, a regal estate in the Midlands, near Nottingham, that was supposedly Austen's inspiration for Mr. Darcy's Pemberley mansion in Pride and Prejudice (and was the location used for the 2005 film adaptation starring Keira Knightley). It doesn't hold as much Austen heritage as the other sites, but it's still fun to visit — and will likely be popular with Jane-iacs this year.
And throughout the country, throughout the year, multiple balls are planned, from those book-themed-bashes in Bath to a festive winter ball at Chatsworth House, and many in between. If you travel with a flowery headpiece or black top hat, feel free to join in — otherwise, you may at least get a chance to enjoy all the people in Regency attire who are sure to be flooding England's cobbled streets and rickety pubs all year long.