There's the trip. And then there's the Swan House. We stayed here and I'm telling you with my whole chest, everything else on this trip is incredible and this is still the highlight.
Something happens when you walk in that door. The trip stops being a tour and starts being an experience. You're not looking at the place anymore, you're in it. In the yellow kitchen. In Bella's room. With rain hitting the windows and the record player going and the actual town of Forks right outside.
It's magic and I don't say that about a lot of things.
What the House Actually Is
Quick reminder from Chapter 1, there are TWO Swan Houses. This is the book one. A 1905 farmhouse in the actual town of Forks that Stephenie Meyer used for inspiration when she was writing. Forks officially named it the real Swan House in 2006, before the first movie ever came out. Before Robert Pattinson was cast. Before any of it.
Stephenie described Bella's house as a small two story home with a green lawn and a gravel driveway and a second floor bedroom looking out at the trees, and that's exactly this. It's even in The Twilight Saga Official Illustrated Guide. There's a little wooden sign on the front that says Home of the Swans and I'm not gonna lie, I got a little emotional at the sign haha.
Inside it's the sunny yellow kitchen (Rene's doing) and Charlie's recliner in the living room and a dining table that matches the movie and the whole feel of Charlie and Bella's house the way you pictured it. Three themed bedrooms plus a den with trundle beds, sleeps eight. Two full bathrooms and the upstairs one has a clawfoot tub. Starlink wifi that works out here. The owners have been so careful about the book details and they're still adding stuff.
Book at bellaswanhouse.com or search Airbnb. And book it NOW, like close this and go book it. People reserve this a year out. If your dates aren't showing check back for cancellations. But don't wait.
Before You Get There
The Swan House is what you make it. If you show up unprepared you'll still have a great time. But if you do a little bit of prep before you leave home you'll have nights you talk about for years. Here's what makes the difference.
Reread the Forks chapters of Twilight the week before. You want Bella's voice in your head when you walk into that yellow kitchen. Reading it fresh makes the house hit sooo different than going in cold.
Watch the first movie the night before you leave. Or on the drive if someone else is driving (Chris haha). Get it back in your head so when you're in that house you're layering the book and the movie and the real thing all on top of each other. It's a lot. It's wonderful.
Download the soundtracks before you go. Carter Burwell's score and Bella's Lullaby for pulling up to the house, and the New Moon soundtrack for the drive (my fav, more on that in Chapter 7). It needs to be playing when you pull up. Non negotiable. And you don't need to bring vinyl, the house already has the complete Twilight Saga soundtrack collection on record. All five. Sitting right there by the record player.
Plan the steak dinner before you get there. More on this below but you need to stop at Forks Outfitters on the way in for groceries. Don't skip that step.
The First Walk Through
You pull up. The soundtrack's on. It's probably raining because it's Forks and it's almost always raining. You see the yellow kitchen light through the window and something in your chest does a thing.
Take your time going through the house that first time. Every room and every detail. Look at what they did with Bella's room, the bedding and the colors and the window. Look at the yellow kitchen and think about Bella making awkward small talk with Charlie in here and burning stuff on the stove because she was never great at cooking but she tried.
Put the record player on. Sit in the living room for a minute before you start doing things. Just be there. The house deserves that and so do you after however far you drove to get here.
The Steak Dinner
This is the thing. This is what I think about when I think about this trip. And it costs almost nothing extra.
In the books, one of the first things Bella does after getting to Forks is make steak and potatoes for Charlie. Small domestic little scene but it matters. She's trying. She's making a home somewhere that doesn't feel like home yet. She's feeding her dad because that's who she is.
You make that dinner. In that kitchen.
Stop at Forks Outfitters on South Forks Avenue before you check in and buy your groceries. A good steak, ribeye or New York strip. Potatoes and butter and salt. Buying groceries at the same store Bella would've used in the same town and then driving to the house to cook is part of it. Don't skip that sequence.
Cook it in the yellow kitchen. Use the actual stove and set the table and sit down and eat together. I made this dinner in that kitchen and I'm STILL not over it. It tasted so much better than it had any right to because of where we were and what we were doing and the feeling in that room.
Salt and pepper your steak, a lot. Cast iron if the house has one. Butter and a smashed garlic clove for the last two minutes. Baste it. Let it rest. Roasted potatoes in the oven while the steak does its thing. That's it. Charlie Swan isn't a complicated man and neither is this dinner, but in that kitchen it's the best meal of the whole trip.
The Record Player
The house has a record player and all five soundtracks on vinyl already there. I put New Moon on first obviously.
I had Carter Burwell's score spinning in that living room while rain hit the windows and I started crying a little. I'm telling you so you're ready. The music and the house and the rain and the yellow kitchen light and knowing you're in Forks, Washington does something to a person. Something specific and good.
Take a video. The record spinning and the needle and the rain and the kitchen behind it. You'll watch that video for years.
Trivia Night
Pull up questions on your phone or screenshot Chapter 10 before you leave home, there's a whole three tier trivia section built exactly for this. Easy stuff any fan knows, then stuff you only know if you watched carefully, then stuff that'll humble even the biggest Twihard.
Split into teams. Argue about the answers. Somebody in your group won't know Twilight was based on Pride and Prejudice and the chaos that follows is a highlight. Winner picks the movie. Losing team has to do a dramatic reading of the mushroom ravioli scene. Those are the rules.
Trivia in that house with the soundtrack going and rain outside becomes a memory while it's still happening. You know in the moment you'll be talking about this night for a long time.
Movie Night in Bella's Living Room
Watch the first Twilight. The house has the whole saga on DVD and a DVD player right there in the living room so you don't even have to bring anything. In the actual Swan House in the actual town of Forks in the actual rain. Pause when you recognize something. Rewind the scenes that get everybody even though you've all seen them forty times.
Watching it here is a specific kind of thing I can't fully describe. The movie looks different in the place it was written about. More real. Like the gap between the screen and the story just closed a little.
Bring snacks that feel right. Popcorn and apple cider and something warm. Make a whole evening of it.
Sleeping in Bella's Room
Bella's room is upstairs. King bed, the purple bedding just like the movie, string lights, the dreamcatcher hanging right there, and the window looking out at the trees exactly how it should. Stand at that window for a second. That's the window she stared out waiting for Edward. The owners are still adding book stuff like her antique dresser and rocking chair to get it exactly right.
Sleep there. That's the whole instruction. Just sleep there and let the whole trip settle into your bones and see what you dream about.
The other rooms: Charlie's room is upstairs too, queen bed and little flannel and fishing nods everywhere for our favorite dad. Downstairs is the Jacob room with La Push decor, and the Wolf Den with two twin trundle beds for whoever's lowest on the totem pole (or the kids). But Bella's room is Bella's room and if you can get it, get it.
The Waffle Bar Morning
The waffle bar. The WAFFLE bar. The house has a whole waffle breakfast station set up in the kitchen and I need you to understand how right this is.
You wake up in this house. It's probably still raining. The forest's right outside. And you make waffles in the yellow kitchen in your pajamas with nowhere to be till noon. Hot chocolate and waffles and the record player again if you feel like it. Sitting at that table in the morning light talking about last night.
This is the morning you'll try to recreate at home and never quite get because the kitchen will be the wrong color and it won't be raining right and it won't be Forks. But you'll keep trying because that morning was something.
What to Bring
Twilight soundtrack downloaded and ready
Nothing for the record player, all five soundtracks are already there on vinyl
Groceries from Forks Outfitters for the steak dinner
Trivia questions or a screenshot of Chapter 10
The book to have in the house if you want it
Rain gear for the next day
Candles if you're feeling it, the house is so cute in candlelight
Snacks for movie night
This House Was Made for a Girls Trip
Something about doing this with your people, the ones who read these books with you and saw the midnight showing and had the posters and were Team Edward or Team Jacob and never fully switched, turns everything about the Swan House up. It sleeps eight across three themed rooms and the den, so a real group fits.
Trivia gets competitive. Movie night gets emotional. Somebody's gonna cry at the New Moon forest scene and everybody's gonna pretend they didn't almost cry too. The yellow kitchen in the morning with everyone in pajamas talking about last night is exactly what girls trips are supposed to feel like.
Assign rooms on purpose. Make the steak dinner a group thing where everyone has a job. Let the house be the destination and not just the place you sleep. The memories are in the details and this house is full of them.
bellaswanhouse.com or Airbnb. 775 K Street, right in the heart of Forks, a mile from Forks High and the Twilight museum and 16 miles from La Push. Book as far ahead as you possibly can, summer weekends and festival weekend in September fill up fastest. No pets (it's allergy friendly), no smoking, and the yard is private so if you're not a guest, photos from the street only.
"It's an extraordinary thing to meet someone who you can bare your soul to and who will accept you for what you are."
Edward Cullen · Twilight