Tintin tourism

Tintin tourism is travel inspired by The Adventures of Tintin, the comic series created by the Belgian artist Hergé. The series began in 1929 and ran for decades, with 24 albums that have been translated into dozens of languages. Over the course of the series the young reporter Tintin, his dog Snowy and companions such as Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus travel across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, and even to the Moon.

Hergé drew on real buildings, ships, cars and aircraft for his adventures, and he often worked from photographs and reference material. Many of the stories travel the world, but Hergé himself did not visit most of the places they depict. Several settings, such as the kingdoms of Syldavia and Borduria, were invented. Many "Tintin locations" are therefore fan-identified and may differ from the drawn scenes.

Brussels is the heart of Tintin tourism. Hergé was born and worked there, and the city is closely tied to the series.

• 50.83764.34781 26 Rue Terre-Neuve (Tintin's apartment) (26 rue du Labrador) (Marolles district, Brussels). In the albums Tintin lives at 26 Rue du Labrador. That street does not exist in Brussels. The address was inspired by 26 Rue Terre-Neuve, where Hergé's grandmother lived. The building is a private home, so look from the street. The fictional address "26 Rue du Labrador" does exist in Louvain-la-Neuve, where it is the address of the Hergé Museum.  (updated Oct 2026)
• 50.84174.4652 Stockel metro station (Brussels, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (Metro line 1)). Hergé lived in the area, and the station is decorated with scenes from the Tintin albums. The neighborhood has a Tintin shop and is a quieter alternative to the city center.  
• 50.83634.34723 Place du Jeu de Balle (Marolles district, Brussels). A daily flea market in the Marolles. It is the model for the market where Tintin buys a model ship in The Secret of the Unicorn (1943). Go in the morning for the best atmosphere.  
• 50.8474.35444 La Monnaie (Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie) (Place de la Monnaie, Brussels). The opera house is cited as an inspiration for the opera interior in The Seven Crystal Balls (1948). The theatres of the Galeries and the Parc are also cited as influences.  
• 50.8514.35245 Hotel Metropole (Place de Brouckère, Brussels). A grand hotel from the 19th century that appears in The Seven Crystal Balls.  
• 50.8454.36256 Brussels Park and the Royal Palace (Royal Quarter, Brussels). The Park of Brussels and the Royal Palace are cited as models for scenes in King Ottokar's Sceptre (1939), including the palace of the Syldavian king.  

• 50.8474.35281 The Tintin Shop (Boutique Tintin) (13 Rue de la Colline, near the Grand-Place, Brussels). The official Tintin shop, with books, prints and merchandise.  

• 47.49941.4587 Château de Cheverny (Moulinsart) (Loire Valley, near Blois, France). The model for the front of Marlinspike Hall (Moulinsart in French), Captain Haddock's home. The château is an historic house. It also has a permanent exhibition about the Tintin albums and the hall.  
• 47.2735-2.21378 Saint-Nazaire (Brittany, France). The port from which the ship Pachacamac sails to Peru in The Seven Crystal Balls (1948). The Peruvian voyage continues in Prisoners of the Sun (1949).  
• 48.85662.35229 Paris (Paris, France). Orly airport appears in Tintin in Tibet (1960), and Paris is the main setting of the unfinished Tintin and Alph-Art (1986).  
• 46.216.14210 Geneva and Lake Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland). The Calculus Affair (1956) is set partly around Geneva, Nyon and Lake Geneva, and the area near the main station (Cornavin) is often linked to the story.  
• 56.45-611 Scotland (Highlands and islands, Scotland). The Black Island (1938) begins in England and moves to a fictional Scottish island. The island itself is invented, though fans often link it to the west coast of Scotland.  
• 51.12791.313412 Southern England (Dover and the Sussex coast, England). Tintin crosses the Channel and travels through the south of England in The Black Island (1938), by train, car and plane.  
• 55.755837.617313 Moscow and Berlin (Moscow, Russia and Berlin, Germany). In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1930), the first album, Tintin travels from Brussels through Germany to the Soviet Union and across Russia.  

• -2.8823.6614 Congo (Then the Belgian Congo). Setting of Tintin in the Congo (1931). It is the most controversial album, because of its colonial attitudes and depictions of Africans. Hergé later redrew it.  
• 31.79-7.0915 Morocco and the Sahara (Morocco and the western Sahara). Tintin and Haddock travel through a French-ruled Moroccan setting and across the Sahara desert in The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941). The port of Bagghar in the album is fictional.  
• 31.265332.301916 Egypt and the Red Sea (Port Said, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, Egypt). The opening of Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934). The route follows a cruise ship from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, with a stop in Egypt and the discovery of a pharaoh's tomb.  

• 27.717285.32417 Kathmandu and the Himalayas (Kathmandu, Nepal and the Himalayas). Tintin travels to Nepal and the mountains of Tibet in Tintin in Tibet (1960), to search for his friend Chang after a plane crash. The village of Gosainthan appears in the story. Hergé has said it is his favorite.  
• 244518 Arabia (Arabian desert and Red Sea coast). Tintin travels in the Arabian desert in Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934), and later through the invented emirate of Khemed in Land of Black Gold (1950) and The Red Sea Sharks (1958).  
• 20.5978.9619 India (Fictional princely state of Gaipajama, India). The second half of Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934) takes Tintin to British India, where he is drawn into a drug-smuggling plot. The kingdom of Gaipajama is fictional.  

• 31.2304121.473720 Shanghai (Shanghai, China). Main setting of The Blue Lotus (1936). The plot of the album follows Tintin through the International Settlement and the Chinese city during the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria.  
• 29.7116.221 Manchuria and Hukow (Northeastern China and the Yangtze). The Blue Lotus also takes Tintin to the Mukden incident in Manchuria and to Hukow on the Yangtze river.  
• -6.2088106.845622 Jakarta (Jakarta, Indonesia). Tintin, Haddock and Calculus land at Kemajoran airport in Flight 714 to Sydney (1968), on their way to a conference in Sydney. Their flight is hijacked and diverted to a fictional island in Indonesia (Pulau-Pulau).  

• 41.8781-87.629823 Chicago (Chicago, United States). In Tintin in America (1932), Tintin fights Al Capone-style gangsters in Chicago, then travels west to the prairie and visits an Indian reservation.  
• 39-10024 American West (Plains and Western states). After Chicago, Tintin travels through the American West in a series of adventures with cowboys, Native Americans and oil prospectors.  
• -13.532-71.967525 Peru (Callao, Cusco and the Andes, Peru). Setting of Prisoners of the Sun (1949). The Temple of the Sun, the Andes and the Peruvian coast are drawn from Inca history and the study of archaeology.  
• 15-7026 Caribbean (Caribbean Sea). The treasure island of Red Rackham's Treasure (1944) is a fictional Caribbean island, reached by sea after the search for the sunken ship Unicorn.  

• 65-1827 Arctic (Arctic Ocean and Iceland). Tintin sails on the ship Aurora in The Shooting Star (1942) to find a meteorite in the Arctic Ocean.  
• Moon – Tintin, Haddock, Calculus and Snowy reach the Moon in Destination Moon (1953) and Explorers on the Moon (1954), about 15 years before the real landing.

Several important Tintin settings are invented and cannot be visited. They are included so fans know which locations are fictional.

• Syldavia – A small kingdom in the Balkans, the setting for King Ottokar's Sceptre (1939). It is partly based on Eastern European customs and language, and the capital is Klow. It returns in Destination Moon (1953) and The Calculus Affair (1956). The royal palace in the album is based on the Royal Palace of Brussels.
• Borduria – Syldavia's neighboring and hostile state. Shown in King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Calculus Affair.
• Khemed – An invented Arab emirate on the Red Sea, in Land of Black Gold (1950) and The Red Sea Sharks (1958).
• San Theodoros and Nuevo Rico – Invented Latin American republics in The Broken Ear (1937) and Tintin and the Picaros (1976).
• Gaipajama – A fictional Indian princely state in Cigars of the Pharaoh.
• Marlinspike Hall (Moulinsart) – Captain Haddock's home, in the invented village of Marlinspike. See the Château de Cheverny above.

• 50.6694.61228 Musée Hergé (26 Rue du Labrador, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (about 30 minutes from Brussels by train; a short walk from Louvain-la-Neuve station)). A museum opened in 2009 and dedicated to Hergé's life and work, in a modern building by Christian de Portzamparc. It has original drawings, documents and multimedia displays. Check the official site for opening times and tickets.  (updated Oct 2026)
• 50.85174.358629 Belgian Comic Strip Center (Rue des Sables 20, Brussels). A museum of Belgian comics in a former department store designed by Victor Horta. It has a large section on Tintin, including a model of the moon rocket from Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon.  

• Fiction tourism
• Brussels