A new film version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, directed by Georgia Oakley and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne, reaches UK cinemas on 25 September — and its backdrop is a road trip waiting to happen. Filming stretched from Dorset to Hertfordshire, mixing grand stately homes with one gloriously derelict moorland cottage.

The Dashwoods' home, Norland Park, is played by Kingston Russell House near Long Bredy in Dorset, a 17th-century manor given a Georgian stone facade in 1730. It's the house's screen debut, and it's not normally open to the public — but the south wing is listed on Airbnb, complete with an alcove bed, wood-burning sitting room and period furniture. Oakley chose it precisely because it looked loved but a little neglected, daisies growing out of the front steps.

At the other end of the scale, Barton Cottage is Ditsworthy Warren House on Dartmoor — an off-grid former rabbit-warren keeper's cottage that's essentially a roofless stone shell. Designers transformed it for the shoot, and it previously appeared in Spielberg's War Horse. Walk a short way to Drizzlecombe to see Bronze Age standing stones, including Dartmoor's tallest. Nearby Mothecombe Beach, owned by the Flete Estate, stands in as Barton Beach: a sheltered, shallow-water cove reached via a woodland path, good for beginner windsurfing and bodyboarding.

The stately stuff is plentiful. West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire, a canary-yellow Palladian house occupied by the real Dashwood family for over 300 years, doubles as Ferrars House; it opens in summer and its gardens are scattered with temples and statues. Knebworth House in Hertfordshire hosts a key Palmer-estate scene, and its estate cottages can be rented from £185 a night — with Oasis due back at Kneoworth Park in 2027. Broughton Castle near Banbury, a moated 1306 manor held by the Fiennes family for nearly 700 years, opens Wednesday and Sunday afternoons plus Bank Holiday Mondays from April to September. Penshurst Place in Kent, once Henry VIII's hunting lodge, charges £17 for house entry, though its parkland is free year-round.

London fans are catered for too. Rainham Hall, a National Trust Georgian house that played Mrs Jennings' town residence, runs a costume and prop exhibition from 24 September to 19 December. Lincoln's Inn offers £20 tours of 600 years of legal history, Horse Guards Parade stages the Changing of the Guard at 11am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the National Gallery — which appears on screen — is free. Private Wormsley Estate in the Chilterns, home of the Getty family and its Damien Hirst artworks, occasionally hosts opera and cricket.

For Austen devotees, this is a ready-made film-location itinerary across southern England: book the Dorset Airbnb, hike to Ditsworthy, then work your way through the summer-open houses. Just note the timing — most stately homes close from November, so plan the country houses for warmer months and save London for winter.