The Film: 'Anna Karenina' (Nov. 16)

The Trip: Russian Romance

The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg David Leventi

The new film version of Leo Tolstoy's novel about high society, hearts and happiness was shot in a theater-in-a-studio outside London. Experience the old-world opulence firsthand in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Anna Karenina, with her "elegant and modest grace," first appears stepping off the train from St. Petersburg. So start at Leningradsky Rail Terminal (Komsomolskaya Square 3), built in the mid-19th century as the terminus of the Moscow-St. Petersburg line. It may be modern inside, but the white-trimmed exterior and outdoor tracks are still evocative.

The new adaptations of "Anna Karenina," "Les Misérables" and "On the Road" just might inspire your next vacation destination.

Tour the pink Ostankino Palace Museum ( ), a lavish estate built by Count Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev in the late 1700s. Alexander II lived there for a time in the 19th century, before his coronation. The estate has its own theater and chandeliered halls where you can easily imagine Tolstoy's characters waltzing as their personal dramas played out.

The Tolstoy House Museum in Moscow contains many personal belongings of the writer, who lived there from 1882 to 1901 (21 Ulitsa Lva Tolstogo). For a glimpse of fine country living in the 19th century, visit Yasnaya Polyana, the sprawling country estate a few hours south of the city, where Tolstoy also lived and worked on and off throughout his life ( ).

Red Square serves as a backdrop in the film. In winter it's also home to a skating rink, where you can strap on rental blades and imagine you're in the Zoological Gardens skating area featured in the book and movie.

Keira Knightley in 'Anna Karenina' Laurie Sparham

Skip the day train from Moscow to the pastel palaces of St. Petersburg and opt for something closer to the trip on which Count Vronsky confessed his love for the married Anna Karenina. The overnight Red Arrow has been running since 1931 and has special first-class carriages—though it may be more inspiring outside than in. The private Grand Express train, which also makes the trip at night, offers luxury compartments clad in red velvet ( ).

The theater played a large role in "Anna Karenina," as a place where society met, mingled and judged. St. Petersburg's lavish Mariinsky Theatre opened in 1860 and made an appearance in the 1997 movie version. Opera and ballet performances take place all year ( ).

See how royalty lived by touring one of the beautifully preserved palaces in the area, like golden Yusupov Palace, where Rasputin was murdered ( ); the immense Peterhof Museum ( ) or Pavlovsk Palace, whose land was a gift from Catherine the Great ( ).

A stretch of the Seine in Paris Rostislav Glinsky/Alamy

The Film: 'Les Misérables' (Dec. 14)

The Trip: Victor Hugo's Paris

Much of this version of Hugo's grand, gritty epic was shot in England, but dip into vintage Paris instead. The narrow, barricaded streets of the 1830s are mostly gone; the wistfulness is not.

The Marais was a bastion for wealthy Parisians in the 1600s. By the time Victor Hugo lived there, in the 19th century, it was a working-class neighborhood whose residents likely provided fodder for his writing. Hugo spent 16 years at the Hôtel Rohan Guéménée at 6 Place des Vosges, where he penned part of "Les Misérables." The building is now a museum, Maison de Victor Hugo, that displays mementos, first editions and works of art related to the author. A special "Les Mis" exhibit commemorating the book's 150th anniversary will run through the end of September ( ).

'Les Misérables' Universal Studios

Monsieur Gillenormand, the rich grandfather of the romantic hero of "Les Mis," Marius Pontmercy, lived at 6 rue des Filles du Calvarie in the Marais. It's not a grand street, but well-mannered and full of neighborhood shops.

Paris Insight offers a three-hour walking tour of Victor Hugo's Paris, in the Marais neighborhood (about $60 per person, ).

One of Les Mis's student revolutionaries, Gavroche, takes refuge in the massive Elephant of the Bastille, the model for a never-built statue that stood in Place de la Bastille in the first half of the 19th century. (For the film, it was recreated at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England.) Though the pachyderm is long gone, the July Column commemorating the July Revolution of 1830 now stands in its place.

A key "Les Misérables" scene takes place in the sewers of Paris, "the conscience of the city," as Hugo's novel had it. The Musée des Egouts, or Paris Sewer Museum, offers a damp but relatively sanitary look at 500 yards of tunnels beneath the city. And you won't need to move a manhole to explore it—the ticket booth is near the southeast corner of the Pont de l'Alma bridge ( ).

The Jardin du Luxembourg is no hidden gem, but the elegant park does loom large in the novel's main romantic narrative—it's where Marius and Cosette meet, fall in love and rendezvous near the Rue de l'Ouest, now known as Rue d'Assas, in the park's southwest corner.

Near the end of the tale, Inspector Javert, who has been chasing Jean Valjean for years, is torn between his duty to turn in a former criminal and his compassion for the man. He commits suicide by jumping into the Seine from a scenic spot on the Right Bank, near Pont Notre Dame and Pont au Change.

The Film: 'On the Road' (Dec. 21)

The Trip: Beats Across America

Experience the wonder of Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel (without the hitchhiking or the drugs). Take an east-to-west road trip, visiting Beat landmarks along the way.

Start in New York, hitting the White Horse Tavern, a West Village bar Kerouac frequented (567 Hudson St.) and wandering by the Chelsea townhouse where he wrote "On the Road" (454 W. 20th St.). In the novel, Kerouac's alter ego, Sal Paradise, hears jazz at Birdland. Its latest incarnation is on West 44th St. ( ).

Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund in 'On the Road.' Gregory Smith

Cross Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson. Sal swung through the "bushy wilderness" of Pennsylvania, and so should you. In Chicago, he listened to bop in the Loop and bunked at the Y. Go to Green Mill Cocktail Lounge ( ) for music—and book yourself a nicer hotel.

Pause in Davenport, Iowa, where Sal first saw his "beloved Mississippi River."

Modern Denver would be unrecognizable to a 1940s denizen, but there are still bars on Larimer Street. Central City, about 40 miles off, was a mining center, then a ghost town, then where Sal saw Fidelio at Central City Opera ( ).

In Los Angeles, Sal ate at a kitschy, grotto-themed cafeteria, thought to be Clifton's Pacific Seas on Olive Street. The last Clifton's Cafeteria, whose décor is inspired by a redwood forest, is currently undergoing a renovation (648 South Broadway).

In San Francisco, visit the Beat Museum in North Beach (540 Broadway, ). Drink at Vesuvio Cafe, frequented by the Beat artists (255 Columbus Ave., ) and visit City Lights, the bookstore-publisher that was first to print Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." (261 Columbus Ave., ). The two are connected by once-grimy Jack Kerouac Alley, now paved with poetry.