In 2026, one of the most compelling travel trends shaping luxury and experiential travel is the rise of readaways — immersive trips built around literature, reading, and storytelling. At TOMA & COE, we’re taking that trend a step further with the concept of writeaways, a tailor-made retreat for writers (or aspiring writers) who want to travel and commit to their craft.
Why Readaways and Writeaways are having a moment
According to our trend research, book-club retreats and literary escapes are among the top emerging travel ideas for 2026.
One of the year’s most intriguing trends is the rise of the readaway: a retreat designed for readers who want nothing more than to disappear into a story and emerge feeling restored. But at TOMA & COE, we believe there is something even more powerful than travelling with a book. Travel can also give you the courage to write one.
That is where the writeaway begins.
Writeaways
The impulse to write is often hidden under the noise of ordinary life. Work, family, routine — they all take up space that creativity needs. A writeaway dares to press pause.
It places you somewhere beautiful, gives you the time you never allow yourself, and surrounds you with people who understand the fragile magic of putting words onto paper. It is part holiday, part workshop, part transformation. Readers may travel to escape; writers travel to discover what they’ve been carrying all along.
Writeaways fit perfectly into the wider travel movement of 2026. People are travelling not simply to rest but to reset; not to escape themselves but to meet themselves more honestly. A writing retreat answers that desire with rare precision. It offers quiet luxury and thoughtful structure, but also something more elusive: the chance to step outside your daily life and listen to the stories waiting within you.
TOMA Writeaways
For 2026, we are offering two distinctive writeaways. Each unfolds in an extraordinary setting, guided by authors who know how to nurture talent and spark imagination. Both retreats have already gathered a quiet mythology from those who’ve joined us before, because something special happens when people travel with the intention to write.
Dorset Writers’ Retreat 2026
The first retreat takes place in Dorset in March, when the countryside is waking from winter and the air carries that early promise of the year. Mangerton House, with its riverside gardens and warm interiors, was chosen not for grandeur but for atmosphere. It is the kind of place that invites you to slow down: wide windows, woodland paths, a feeling of quiet creativity that seems to rise from the land itself.
Here, bestselling novelist Joanna Quinn and memoirist Manni Coe shape the rhythm of each day. Mornings are alive with ideas, conversation, and guided exercises; afternoons unfold at your own pace, allowing you to explore, read, or sink into the kind of deep writing session that real life rarely affords.
Evenings bring a sense of gathering — shared meals, good wine, and the joy of talking about stories with people who care about them as much as you do. It is intimate, structured without being strict, and designed for writers at every stage. Some arrive with a full draft, some with a half-formed idea, and some with a long-held dream. All leave with a sense of momentum.
Discover our Dorset Writers Retreat
Andalucian Writers’ Retreat 2026
By September, the scene shifts south to Andalucía and a different kind of creative energy. Finca Buenvino, surrounded by the wide hills and chestnut forests of the Sierra de Aracena, feels like a world apart.
Writers often describe an instant sense of calm when they arrive: something about the light, the stillness, the birdsong drifting through open windows. Here, the days feel long in the best possible way. Workshops with Joanna Quinn challenge and inspire; Manni’s sessions on memoir and the emotional terrain of writing open new pathways; and the estate itself offers endless corners to think and write — terraces, gardens, shaded chairs beside the pool.
Meals are prepared with care by Jeannie and Charlie, whose cooking has become part of the retreat’s legend. By the time the final night arrives, with its celebratory dinner and soft Andalucian twilight, the group feels like a small community bound by creativity.
Previous retreat participants talk about forming lasting bonds. One review described the Andalucian retreat as
“magical … a fantastic week of learning, eating, writing, walking and forming new friendships.” (Mary B)
Another said,
“I came away with greater determination to write well and have made a group of new, inspiring friends.”
Write with us
The rise of readaways in 2026 is a clear signal: people want travel that enriches their inner lives. TOMA & COE’s writeaways are the natural evolution. These are journeys that don’t just show you new places, they invite you to write in them.
Whether you choose the quiet English countryside of Dorset or the hills of Andalucía, you’re doing more than getting away. You’re giving yourself space to create. Spaces are limited, so don’t delay, book right away!
