Real places in Fictional writing

Question

I am writing a fictional novel. Is it okay to add factual information amongst my characters? For example my destination in the story, or geographical areas in my story.

Answer 1

One is free to mention specific places and real people in a work of fiction if one chooses to. As long as one avoids defamation, there is no legal issue.

Whether this helps the story, by providing a sense of realism, or harms it in some way, depends on the nature of the story and the skill of the writer. But such mentions are very very common.