From When Harry Met Sally to You’ve Got Mail: how to live in a Nora Ephron rom-com this autumn

No one has done more to romanticise autumn than the late writer and filmmaker, Nora Ephron. Through her oeuvre, we’ve come to long for that time of year when we kick through autumn foliage, eat warm soup and wear chunky knit sweaters. Her most famous rom-coms feature characters hooking up for cuffing season, buying pumpkins instead of flowers for a dinner party, and of course, reading books, writing letters and yes, sending an occasional email. Even the soundtracks of these movies feel particularly cosy, with Jazz classics like It Had To Be You by Harry Connick Jr or Autumn in New York by Ella Fitzgerald. Then there are the characters themselves who eulogise on the magic of autumn, most famously Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) in You’ve Got Mail, who says, “Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”

So if you’re hoping to recapture a little of the offline magic of a Nora Ephron autumn, here’s where to go, what to do and what to wear.

You’ve Got Mail, 1998

Possibly the most autumnal of Ephron’s films, You’ve Got Mail is quite clearly a love letter to New York in the fall. It stars Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks as two bookshop-owning rivals (hers is independent, his is big money) who inadvertently fall in love in an AOL chatroom discussing life, love and, of course, literature. With falling leaves as the film’s backdrop, not to mention endless references to the season, it’s clear that Ephron wanted us to appreciate just how beautiful this time of year can be.

Where to go: The film is set in New York, with the majority of filming having taken place in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. You can stand outside the apartments of both Kathleen Kelly (Ryan) and Joe Fox (Hanks) – which are located at 328 West 89th Street and 210 Riverside Drive respectively – and visit their bookshops too (The Shop Around the Corner is at 106 West 69th Street, while Fox Books Superstore is at West 17th Street and 7th Avenue) but best of all, you can retrace their footsteps in the final romantic scenes at 91st Street Garden in Riverside Park. Hotel Belleclaire on the Upper West Side is the perfect base – with Art Deco decor, it feels Kathleen Kelly-approved, and it’s minutes from the area’s literary strip of book stores. See more Condé Nast Traveller-approved recommendations of the best hotels in New York.

What to do: Browse small, independent bookshops and get chatting to the staff about recommendations. Yu & Me Books is a classic independent store, selling a selection of stories from new Asian American voices. Follow with an afternoon sipping hot chocolate in steamy cafes and buying a pumpkin to decorate.

When Harry Met Sally, 1989

There is a scene in When Harry Met Sally which has become synonymous with autumn: it’s when the two main characters, Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) are walking through a golden-hued Central Park, with the trees in the background and the leaves on the ground coloured in a rich palette of reds, oranges and yellows. The film charts the couple’s will-they, won’t-they friendship, as it grapples with the question of whether or not men and women can ever truly be friends. A coming of age film about moving from young adulthood to the cusp of middle-age, it’s become a classic for all the right reasons – not to mention infamous for that ‘I’ll have what she’s having’ deli scene.

Where to go: Despite starting in Seattle, the film is set predominantly in New York, and specifically in Manhattan. The majority of shooting also took place in the Big Apple (bar a few scenes shot in New Jersey and Los Angeles), with famous spots to visit including the aforementioned Katz Deli, the Loeb Boathouse and Bethesda Terrace in Central Park, the Egyptian Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Puck Building in SoHo, where they finally delicate their love for each other on New Year’s Eve. While you could stay near Greenwich Village, where the couple’s journey in New York begins, we prefer The Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo, a stone’s throw from The Puck Building. The decor is cosy and comforting (a Kit Kemp signature), there’s a buzzy bar, plus a cute courtyard full of foliage, ideal for recreating that autumn in New York feeling.

What to do: Get a pastrami sandwich at a deli, watch a movie with your bestie on the phone at the same time, and go for leaf-crunching walks in the city.

Sleepless in Seattle, 1993

Another cosy classic starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, Sleepless in Seattle follows Sam Baldwin (Hanks) a grieving architect who has lost his wife to cancer. When his young son phones in to a radio show about loneliness (the ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ of the title), a young reporter called Annie (Ryan) hears it and is moved to tears by how he talks about his late wife. Writing him a letter, she asks him to meet her at the Empire State Building. The film is notable for not bringing the two leads together until the very end, but is a classic of the genre nonetheless, and ranks high in people’s favourite romantic movies of all time.

Where to go: A rare example of an Ephron film that isn’t predominantly set in New York (though it does appear at the Empire State Building climax, of course), Sleepless in Seattle is instead a great opportunity to explore another of the most autumnal cities in the US. Much of the film was shot in Seattle, including the scenes set on Sam’s houseboat at 2640 Westlake Avenue North, on the west shore of Lake Union, and The Athenian Seafood Restaurant, where Sam and his best friend Jay (Rob Reiner) famously talk about love. For an authentic experience, stay at the city’s only over-water hotel, the four-star Edgewater Hotel, which also once hosted The Beatles – no doubt Jonah, Sam’s son, would love it (he famously references music trivia about the band during the film, including the conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney is dead).

What to do: Write letters to loved ones, listen to the radio, and perhaps stay on a house boat.