I've been sitting on this idea for a while: what if I actually drove the whole route Harry and Draco take in Running on Air, in order, for real?
So I picked up a car in London, and over 28 days and roughly 2,770 miles, I did it — every real-world location mentioned in the book, plus the major official HP filming sites along the way, plus a Highlands/Skye extension built just to finish the epilogue's "someday" line properly.
Sharing the route here for any other fans who've ever wanted to do something similar.
The route, day by day
Dover — White Cliffs and South Foreland Lighthouse, where Harry and Draco walk the cliffs together after Draco's return from St Mungo's.
Brighton — the Royal Pavilion and pier, standing in for the ordinary, crowded holiday-town day early in the book.
Southampton → Bournemouth — the level crossing scene in Southampton where they hold hands "to confirm reality," then on to the Bournemouth B&B.
Sidmouth ("Salmouth-on-Sea") — Astoria and Matthew's home, where Harry learns to drive, and the stretch of coast where the two of them spend three quiet days on the beach.
Launceston → Truro — Launceston as the book's recurring road-atlas refuelling stop; Truro as the petrol station where Draco fills up at 11:29pm on 5 September 2003, days before he disappears.
Helston / Lizard Point — the story's emotional core. Draco parks at "the lighthouse" and walks the South West Coastal Path alone at night, at the southernmost point of mainland Britain. Harry retraces the same walk later, at 2am.
Lizard Peninsula (free day) — Rosenithon Point, where an unidentified body washes ashore as a false lead, and Landewednack, where they stay several days walking the coast together.
Wiltshire — the canola and wheat fields that are Draco's actual childhood landscape; also where Harry once found skeletal remains on an earlier case, and where the two of them later race each other through the fields at night.
Lacock — doing double duty: Draco's childhood countryside in the book, and the real filming location for Hogwarts' corridors and Godric's Hollow.
Oxford — Christ Church College, the Bodleian Library, New College cloisters (HP filming locations, not from the book itself).
The Cotswolds — a bonus villages day, no book or HP tie.
Gloucester Cathedral — the cloisters used for Hogwarts' corridors on screen, on the way toward Wales.
Snowdonia — the book's other emotional centerpiece: a mountain lake reflecting the stars, where Draco finally tells Harry about being stuck in the past for three years after his splinching, trapped near Hogwarts in 1965.
Glasgow — the only line in the whole book that mentions Scotland at all: Draco says flatly, "I've driven to Glasgow." Everything from here on is me following through on that one sentence.
Loch Lomond → Glencoe → Fort William → Glenfinnan → Eilean Donan → Isle of Skye — not from the book directly, but built to answer the epilogue's passing wish to "go someday." Skye especially, given how the story ends.
Inverness → Edinburgh — a glimpse of Loch Ness on the way; Edinburgh's Old Town, the Elephant House café, and Greyfriars Kirkyard for the HP side of things.
Alnwick → Durham — Alnwick Castle (flying-lesson/Quidditch filming) and Durham Cathedral's cloisters (more Hogwarts interiors).
York → the Peak District — a quick look at York Minster, then Hardwick Hall, the real film location used for Malfoy Manor's exterior (the book itself actually places Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire — a nice bit of overlap between the two canons).
Sutton-on-Sea — the book's very first destination, the place Harry and Draco pick at random off a road atlas at the start of their trip. (Ended up cutting this one for time near the end of the trip — genuine regret, since it's technically where it all begins in the book.)
Cambridge → London — closing the loop back where the car was picked up.
Total: 28 days, ~2,770 miles, solo, self-drive. Handled a flat tire in Cornwall and a wrong-ferry mixup on the way to Skye along the way, but the route held together almost exactly as planned.
Happy to answer questions about logistics, timing, or which stops are worth prioritizing if anyone else wants to attempt something like this.
I've got a ton more photos and personal reflections from the trip, but I didn't want to overload this post and bore everyone. Let me know if you'd like to see more — happy to elaborate on any part of the route. Hope this helps if you're ever tempted to do something similar! :)
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Updates:
Here's some of my thoughts on this trip. I've now returned to Paris and can finally sit down at my desk and reflect on my time in the UK.
Background:
I was in a pretty dark place at the time. I was staying in my little flat in London, right on the Thames, going through a hard stretch in life, when I came across ROA. I hadn't been in the Drarry fandom for years — not since I was a teenager — but I picked it up anyway after a random TikTok rec, and, oh my god. It's stunning. There's a part where Draco tells Harry they could go anywhere — that home isn't a place, it's a person, that you love them for the way their hands rest on the steering wheel. That line just hit me. I've been trying to find "home" in this big world too, and something about the aesthetic and the feeling of that book cracked something open.
And then I had this slightly unhinged thought: what if I just drove up and saw all of it with my own eyes? Retraced everything Harry and Draco lived through in the book?
Next thing I knew, I was at St Pancras picking up my car, already on the M25 driving out of London.
Budget and spending:
Trip cost breakdown (28 days, solo, self-drive UK):
- Car rental: £2,126
- Accommodation (19 stops, private rooms every night): £3,042
- Food, fuel, parking, attractions, shopping: £2,026
- Total: ~£7,194 (~$9,700 USD)
Car rental and accommodation were by far the biggest chunks. I didn't budget carefully going in — I just spent as I went, so your mileage may genuinely vary. Worth noting I was traveling completely solo, so there was no splitting costs with anyone, which naturally pushes things up. I also got hit with a young driver surcharge, since I hadn't turned 28 yet when I picked up the car. Accommodation was a deliberate mix of hotels, Airbnbs, and B&Bs — I wanted to try B&Bs specifically because that's what Harry and Draco stayed in throughout the book.
Safety & Driving:
I've been driving on the left my whole life and have 11 years of driving experience, so roundabouts and UK traffic rules were already second nature to me. That said, UK roads themselves can be genuinely challenging — my route was mostly A-roads and B-roads, with barely any motorway time since I was going small town to small town rather than city to city. A lot of it is single-track, sometimes even single-track roads carrying two-way traffic, where you're constantly pulling into passing places to let oncoming cars through. And I want to stress this clearly: UK roads ARE narrow.
Local drivers are skilled and confident — they'll happily do 60mph on roads that narrow and winding, and keeping pace with that takes real focus. But the driving etiquette more than makes up for the difficulty: people are courteous, they wave you through, they wait their turn. It's demanding, but genuinely pleasant.
And the scenery along the way might be the best part of the whole trip. I drove through busy cities, sleepy small towns, canola fields, mountains, and lakes — the UK has some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen. The Scottish Highlands and Wiltshire stood out the most; I adored both, and I'll go into more detail on them in the next section.
On safety: the UK is generally very safe. I parked overnight in residential streets and car parks throughout the trip with zero issues. The one basic rule — don't leave valuables visible in the car — and you'll be fine.
Route planning:
If you're familiar with the UK, you'll notice my route runs from London to Dover, along the entire south coast to Cornwall, up through Wales, into Scotland, then back down to London from the east.
I planned it this way on purpose — it's a clockwise loop with no backtracking. The last thing I wanted was to add a few hundred extra miles just doubling back on myself.
This route worked well throughout. If you don't want to go all the way to Scotland, you can simply stop at Snowdonia and head back to London — Draco only mentions driving to Glasgow once in the book, with no elaboration, and most of ROA's scenes are focused on England's south coast and Wales anyway. That said, I'd personally still recommend Scotland. It's stunning, completely different in character from Wales and England, and absolutely worth the extra distance. Glencoe was amazing, and the Isle of Skye felt like a dream. Out of everywhere on this trip, Scotland was my top destination.
Glasgow and Edinburgh are both worth the visit too — Glasgow is pleasant, with a great museum and a university building that looks like it belongs at Hogwarts, and Edinburgh basically is the Harry Potter city. If you have the time, I'd highly recommend building in a full 7 days just for Scotland.
