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50 Iconic Movie Locations Around the World

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If you want to pay homage at the bed and breakfast where Bill Murray kept waking up in "Groundhog Day," you'd head to Pennsylvania, right? Wrong. The picture-perfect inn — yes, you can actually stay there — is in Illinois. It just goes to show that filmmakers will get creative to find the perfect shooting locations for their movies . After all, the willingness of an audience to suspend disbelief can depend on how well a movie's set matches its story. If you've ever been curious about where some of your favorite films were shot, check out our list of 50 iconic movie locations that you might want to add to your travel bucket list .

Related:   Famous Movie Homes That Will Bring Back Memories

Cherry Tree Inn

Woodstock, Illinois "Groundhog Day" The Victorian bed and breakfast from Harold Ramis' 1993 comedy "Groundhog Day" still serves as an actual B&B . Previously known as the Royal Victorian Manor, it was finally sold in 2017 for $695,000 , and its current name echoes the name of the establishment where Bill Murray stayed in the film: The Cherry Street Inn. The real Groundhog Day festival is a tradition in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, some 500 miles away from Woodstock — and we hate to break it to you, but this year's "forecast"  calls for six more weeks of winter.

Related: Rent Buffalo Bill's House for a Creepy 'Silence of the Lambs' Experience

Los Angeles "Die Hard" The Fox Plaza in Los Angeles was completed in 1987. Just one year later, the postmodern building served as the exterior of the fictional Nakatomi Plaza, in which John McClane spent most of "Die Hard" hunting down German terrorists. Former President Ronald Reagan also had offices  in the building after leaving the White House, and today Fox Plaza is still in operation.

Related: Terrible Movies Starring Beloved Actors

Skellig Michael

County Kerry, Ireland "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" A Gaelic Christian monastery was built on this small, striking island off the coast of Ireland sometime between the sixth and eighth centuries. And on a different timeline, in a galaxy far, far away, Skellig Michael served as the refuge of Luke Skywalker in at least two of the "Star Wars" films. It's also one of the most beautiful views in the world .

Related: 30 Free Things to Do in Ireland

Görlitz Department Store

Görlitz, Germany "Grand Budapest Hotel" The Görlitz department store  was one of the longest-running department stores in the world, operating out of a beautiful art nouveau building from 1913 to 2009. It served as the main set for Wes Anderson's 2014 film "The Grand Budapest Hotel," which won an Academy Award for best production design.

Related: 19 Iconic Department Stores We Miss

Ballinesker and Curracloe Beaches

Wexford, Ireland "Saving Private Ryan" Beaches figure prominently in many movies . The unforgettable D-Day landing scenes from Steven Spielberg's 1998 "Saving Private Ryan" were shot on two beaches in Ireland that are part of a nature protection area.

Katz's Delicatessen

New York "When Harry Met Sally" At 205 E. Houston St. in Manhattan sits Katz's Delicatessen, the lunch spot featured in the unforgettable "I'll have what she's having" scene from "When Harry Met Sally" (1989). It's also one of America's most iconic restaurants .

Amityville Horror House

Toms River, New Jersey, and Salem, Wisconsin "The Amityville Horror" (1979 and 2005) One of the scariest places in America , it's rumored to be haunted and was the place where a disturbed young man killed six of his family members in 1974. The lore behind the house at 112 Ocean Ave. in Amityville, New York, inspired two movies with the same name, as well as several sequels. The house featured in the 1979 film  is at 18 Brooks Road in Toms River, New Jersey, (shown above) while the 2005 remake featured a home at 27618 Silver Lake Road in Salem, Wisconsin.

Related: 21 Horror Movie Locations Across America

Island of Ischia

Naples, Italy "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cleopatra" This gorgeous Mediterranean island in the Tyrrhenian Sea served as the 1950s-era set of "The Talented Mr. Ripley," a 1999 psychological thriller starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. It became a massively popular tourist destination, attracting millions each year for its natural beauty and thermal spas. The island was also featured in the 1963 historical drama "Cleopatra," starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Hitching Post II Restaurant

Buellton, California "Sideways" Anyone who's seen Alexander Payne's 2004 dark comedy "Sideways" will likely remember The Hitching Post II , the restaurant where Miles, a wine enthusiast and struggling writer, was a regular. Next time you're visiting California's Central Coast, consider stopping in for some California-style barbecue and wine — just not merlot, if you want to follow in Miles' footsteps.

Christ Church Cathedral

Oxford, England "Harry Potter" series Oxford's Christ Church Cathedral is known to draw more than 300,000 visitors each year, many coming because the 16th century cathedral served as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the "Harry Potter" movies.  

Laguna, Philippines "Apocalypse Now" Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic "Apocalypse Now" was set in Vietnam and Cambodia, though the filmmaker's notoriously disastrous shoot actually took place in the jungles of the Philippines. About the shooting, the filmmaker was quoted as saying "We were in the jungle. There were too many of us. We had access to too much money, too much equipment. And little by little we went insane." Fans could follow in the wake of Capt. Willard and his crew by taking a guided trip up the Bumbungan River , which was the river next to Col. Kurtz's compound in the 1979 film.

Jordan "The Martian" Wadi Rum, also known as the "Valley of the Moon," is a protected desert in Jordan that bears a striking resemblance to the surface of Mars. That's presumably why Ridley Scott featured it in two of his space-themed films: "Prometheus" in 2012 and, more recently, 2015's "The Martian." Scenes from "Lawrence of Arabia" were also shot here. More recently, the location has appeared in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" as the fictional planet Pasaana.

Devils Tower

Wyoming "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" The first United States National Monument, Devils Tower  is a massive rock formation — more technically known as a laccolithic butte — in the Bear Lodge Mountains of Wyoming. It was featured in Steven Spielberg's famous 1977 alien flick "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Related: 32 National Monuments Everyone Should Visit at Least Once

Dallas City Hall

Dallas "RoboCop" The imposing, modernist features of Dallas City Hall  appealed to the filmmakers of 1987's "RoboCop," who turned it into the headquarters of Omni Consumer Products — the corporation that created RoboCop. Most visitors haven't gone to gawk, though, but to pay a ticket.

Florida "The Truman Show" Seaside  became famous after serving as picturesque Seahaven Island in 1998's "The Truman Show." In real life, Seaside is a planned community that was designed in the New Urbanist style, which emphasizes walkable neighborhoods.

Jordan "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" Carved out of a sandstone rock face in the first century A.D., this stunning temple, part of the ancient city of Petra, served as the resting place of the Holy Grail in the 1989 third installment of the "Indiana Jones" franchise. It's been a tourist attraction since it was rediscovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812.

The Bench at Chippewa Square

Savannah, Georgia "Forrest Gump" The park bench where Forrest Gump sits  and tells his life story throughout most of the 1994 box-office hit was in Chippewa Square in the downtown historic district of Savannah, Georgia. The square is still there but the bench was moved to the Savannah History Museum.

Timberline Lodge

Mount Hood, Oregon "The Shining" Perched at an elevation of 6,000 feet in Mount Hood National Forest lies the Timberline Lodge , which served as the exterior of the fictional Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 "The Shining." It gets at least a 4 out of 5 review across most major hotel rating services.

United Methodist Church

La Verne, California "The Graduate" The modernist church featured in 1967's "The Graduate" was perfect for the film's famous final scene in which Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) convinces the woman he loves not to marry another man through brilliant use of the art of persuasion. Actually, he just shouted her name over and over and banged his fists on the second-story glass wall. The church remained open for worship after its star turn — even for weddings.

Hook & Ladder Company 8 Firehouse

New York "Ghostbusters" (1984), "Ghostbusters II" (1989), and "Ghostbusters" (2016) The Tribeca firehouse featured in the "Ghostbusters" movies was built in 1903 and has remained in operation throughout the years. In fact, the firefighters of Hook & Ladder Company 8 were some of the first responders on Sept. 11, 2001. The historic firehouse has received a $6 million upgrade  in recent years and remains a popular place for passersby to snap photos .

Related: 10 Historic Firehouses Across America

Varda Viaduct

Varda, Turkey "Skyfall" This century-old viaduct is the tallest in Turkey, standing at about 320 feet. In 2012's "Skyfall," James Bond falls off the viaduct after getting shot during a fight on top of a train traveling the single-track railway. Varda Viaduct is a popular tourist attraction  mainly for its beautiful design, though.

Hatley Castle

British Columbia, Canada "X-Men" series Hatley Castle  was used as the exterior for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the "X-Men" movies. In real life, the castle was used as dorms for Royal Roads Military College and now as the administrative center for Royal Roads University.

Baseball Diamond

Dubuque County, Iowa "Field of Dreams" The famous baseball diamond featured in "Field of Dreams" was built for the movie, but it was left behind for the landowners after the film's completion. It became a major attraction  for baseball and movie fans alike.

The McCallisters' House

Winnetka, Illinois "Home Alone" The iconic Georgian house  featured in "Home Alone" is at 671 Lincoln Ave. in this village a little north of Chicago. In December 2022, the stately brick home was offered for rent on Airbnb for one night for only $25.

Hawaii "Jurassic Park" franchise Kauai's striking mountains and lush landscapes served as the backdrop for scenes throughout Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" franchise. The locations are inaccessible to tourists except by guided tours , when they run.

Glenfinnan Viaduct

Inverness-shire, Scotland "Harry Potter" series At 416 yards, the Glenfinnan viaduct is the largest concrete railway bridge in Scotland. It was featured in four of the "Harry Potter" movies during scenes in which students were traveling to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. To people who take ScotRail passenger trains on the West Highland Line, it's just how they get around.

Related: 36 Spectacular Train Trips Around the World

L Street Tavern

Boston "Good Will Hunting" South Boston's L Street Tavern was the local hangout for Will and his friends in the 1997 Oscar-winning film "Good Will Hunting." After the death of Robin Williams, who appeared in the film, the bar released a statement saying he was very kind and "certainly put us on the map, as we have visitors all over the world to see the little corner tavern where they filmed the Academy Award-winning film. He will be missed."

The Parkers' House

Cleveland "A Christmas Story" "A Christmas Story" (1983) is based in Indiana, but the exterior shots of the Parker family's house were filmed in Cleveland, where the house stands today — with a leg lamp proudly displayed in the front window. It's since been renovated to match the interior of the home shown in the film and opened to the public , a complement to the A Christmas Story House Museum across the street. According to its website, it's also currently for sale.

Mayan Temple Ruins

Tikal National Park, Guatemala "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope" George Lucas reportedly chose the Mayan temple ruins at Tikal National Park as the filming location for the Massassi Outpost rebel base in his first "Star Wars" movie (later retitled "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope") after seeing a poster at a travel agency in London. Today, the park is a UNESCO National Heritage Site .

Related: 18 Things You Must Do While Traveling Central America

The Robinsons' House

Beverly Hills, California "The Graduate" Although it had an all-white exterior when "The Graduate" was filmed, the Robinsons' house  featured in the film still stands today, with a pool in the back, at 607 N. Palm Drive in Beverly Hills.

New York "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Located at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan is Tiffany's & Co., the luxury department store where "nothing very bad could happen to you," or so said Holly Golightly in 1961's "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The store opened an on-site cafe in 2017 so that, finally, visitors could actually have breakfast at Tiffany's.

Related: Exceptional Restaurants and Cafes In Your Favorite Stores

Coney Island

New York "The Warriors" "The Warriors" was filmed in many locations throughout New York City , but some of the most memorable scenes were shot in Coney Island, including the 1979 film's climactic final battle sequence.

Marin County Civic Center

San Rafael, California "Gattaca" The pink stucco walls and peculiar balconies of Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin County Civic Center complex served as the set for some memorable interior shots feature in 1997's "Gattaca," a sci-fi film in which eugenics has become a widespread practice. These buildings are the only government facilities designed by Wright that ever saw construction. 

Related:   40 Famous People's Homes You Can Visit

Marriott Marquis

Atlanta "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" and "Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1" Some scenes that took place in the Capitol in "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" and "Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1" were shot in the Marriott Marquis, a hotel famous for its 50-story atrium that was once the largest in the world.

Martha's Vineyard

Massachusetts "Jaws" There was maybe no better place to set this classic monster movie than the affluent summer colony of Martha's Vineyard , where the biggest threat to inhabitants before Steven Spielberg's 25-foot shark had likely been experiencing a sunburn. Some locations featured in the film have remained basically unchanged.

Related: The Truth About Shark Attacks

Doune Castle

Scotland "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" It might have been England's Camelot in the 1975 movie, but in real life, Scotland's Doune Castle  served as King Arthur's home. The castle still stands today near Stirling.

Switzerland "GoldenEye" In 2002, respondents to a Sky Movies poll voted James Bond's epic bungee jump from Switzerland's Contra Dam in the opening sequence of "GoldenEye" the best movie stunt of all time. Thrill-seekers who can get to the dam at all can  recreate the 720-foot plunge for about $275 .

Grand Bazaar

Istanbul, Turkey "Argo" The real-life story behind Ben Affleck's 2012 film "Argo" took place in Iran. But filming there was impossible, so the production team chose Istanbul instead. Some scenes were shot in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, one of the world's oldest covered markets still in operation.

Hotel Sidi Driss

Tunisia "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" George Lucas chose the adobe caverns of Hotel Sidi Driss  as the set for Luke Skywalker's childhood home in the very first "Star Wars" movie. The hotel remains open to guests, complete with decorations from the movies in some of the rooms.

Tabernas Desert

Andalucía, Spain "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" Even though this quintessential Western was set in the Old West, it was filmed partly in Spain's Tabernas Desert , which is a 170-square-mile national park. 

Related: 30 Greatest Western Movies Ever Made  

Hāmākua Coast

Hawaii "Avatar" James Cameron's "Avatar" was created using a mix of CGI and real-life shots. Some of the latter were filmed on the Hāmākua Coast  on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Mehrangarh Fort

Jodhpur, India "The Dark Knight Rises" Perched 400 feet above the city of Jodhpur in the Indian state of Rajasthan is the behemoth Mehrangarh Fort, which Bruce Wayne sees after he escapes a brutal underground prison in the 2012 end of director Christopher Nolan's "Batman" trilogy. In an interview, Nolan said locals thought the crew "was nuts shooting in 120-degree [Fahrenheit] heat."

Greece "Mamma Mia!" The simple white houses and gorgeous ocean views of Skiathos Town, on the small Greek island of Skiathos in the Aegean Sea, served as the backdrop for most of the 2008 star-studded movie "Mamma Mia!" It only helped draw 150,000 people annually to visit the island, which boasts more than 50 beaches.

The Villages of Savoca and Forza d'Agrò

Sicily "The Godfather" Even though the don's family comes from Corleone, Sicily, the filmmakers chose to shoot the classic 1972 gangster film in the nearby villages of Savoca and Forza d'Agrò because Corleone was too developed.

Bayon Temple

Angkor Thom, Cambodia "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" In her 2001 quest to recover some ancient magical artifacts, Lara Croft, played by Angelina Jolie, travels to the 12th-century Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom, the last city of the Khmer Empire. At least then, she could have just booked a guided tour.

Caesars Palace

Las Vegas "Rain Man" In an attempt to win big by counting cards in blackjack, the long-lost brothers played by Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man" decide to visit Caesars Palace on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip. The casino remains open, but counting cards is just as much a no-go as it was in 1988.

Related: 22 Must-See Vegas Attractions That Aren't on the Strip

Ohio State Reformatory

Mansfield, Ohio "The Shawshank Redemption" The Ohio State Reformatory operated as a prison for almost a century until closing its doors in 1990, just a few years before the filming of "The Shawshank Redemption" (which came out in 199). In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, producer Niki Marvin said she chose the site because it had the two qualities she was looking for: a timeless style and being absolutely empty. The reformatory went on to provide "Shawshank" tours most of the year .

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia "Rocky" The Philadelphia Museum of Art is the third-largest art museum in the country and has been one of the most popular attractions in the city. But what drew in many tourists besides the art were the museum's steps, which Sylvester Stallone climbed in the iconic training scene from the 1976 film "Rocky." Jogging the steps is free, while admission to the museum is $25 for adults .

Related: Most Iconic Staircases Around the World

Queenstown, Glenorchy, and Arrowtown

New Zealand "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy The striking landscapes of Queenstown, Glenorchy, and Arrowtown in New Zealand served as Middle-earth in many scenes of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. Visitors can book tours for about $245 and up for adults and $125 for children who wanted to take full- and half-day  "Lord of the Rings"-themed tours  of the country.

Related: 26 Stunning 'Game of Thrones' Filming Locations Worth Visiting

California "The Birds" In Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" (1963), Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is terrorized by a massive flock of aggressive birds that descend on the seaside town of Bodega Bay. Bodega Bay is a real town, and between Bodega Bay and nearby Bodega lies the restaurant, schoolhouse, and other locations featured in the film.

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31 Iconic Filming Locations Around the World You Can Actually Visit

From Walter White's house to the beach from Lost , here's where to find some of Hollywood's most iconic filming locations.

If you could step into the world of your favorite film or television series, would you? Most of us wouldn't hesitate to answer "yes." And while there is, of course, no way to magically transport yourself into the movie of your choice, you can visit the real-life locations where several iconic flicks and series were filmed.

From entire towns to tiny, hidden gems off the beaten path, Hollywood tends to go for unique and extravagant locales when it ventures off the backlots (think ancient Middle Eastern temples, otherworldly terrain, and the glamorous streets of Manhattan ). But that's not the rule. For example, our list includes an unassuming New Mexico gas station and a set of city steps in the Bronx.

So, whether you're dreaming of living out your Lord of the Rings fantasies or you're just dying to get a photo in front of Walter White's Breaking Bad house, the list below will tell you exactly how and where to make that happen. And who knows? Maybe a few of these iconic filming locations are even close enough to inspire a summer road trip!

Hobbiton in Matamata, Waikato, New Zealand — The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies

Alisha McDarris/Travel + Leisure

The cozy town of Hobbiton, home to Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, may have been created specifically for The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films , but the storybook-like set remains. If you ever find yourself in the New Zealand town of Matamata, you can book one of several guided tours which takes fans to filming spots like the Green Dragon Inn, Hobbit Holes, and the Mill.

Al Khazneh in Petra, Jordan — "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"

If you're a fan of the Indiana Jones film series (and let's be honest, who isn't?), you may know this wonder of a structure as the mystical temple of the Holy Grail, which is carved into the side of a canyon. In reality, the Al Khazneh temple exists as an ancient mausoleum in Petra, Jordan . Visitors aren't able to venture inside the temple, but they're not missing much — in contrast to the film's intricate chambers and booby traps, the inside of Al Khazneh is simply a small, stone room.

Mokule’ia Beach in Oahu, Hawaii — Lost

Dreaming of visiting the crash site of Oceanic flight 815 ? Head to Oahu's Mokule'ia Beach , which was used as not only the crash site, but also the location of the survivors' camp in the first season of the mega-popular series. Though the series changed filming locations in the later seasons, fans of the show often stop by Mokule'ia to see where it all began. Book a tour to see more Lost sites, such as the Dharma village, Jacob's lighthouse, and more.

Dubrovnik, Croatia — Game of Thrones

If you were to walk down the streets of coastal city Dubrovnik, Croatia , you'd immediately recognize the cobblestone roads and gothic architecture as King's Landing, aka the capital of the Seven Kingdoms in Game of Thrones . If you want to snap some selfies in particularly iconic spots, head to the Old Town neighborhood or the Walls of Dubrovnik, where members of the Lannister family spent much of the series brooding.

Astoria, Oregon — "The Goonies"

Because the '80s classic was both set and filmed in Astoria, the Oregon port town is filled with "Goonies" relics. While there's no comprehensive tour of all the must-see film sites, fans regularly create their own tours by visiting the home of Mikey (Sean Astin) and Brand (Josh Brolin) on 38th street, Ecola State Park (the former site of the Fratellis' restaurant), Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, and more.

King’s Cross Station in London — Harry Potter

Even if you've only seen the first Harry Potter film once, you likely remember the iconic scene in which Harry and the Weasley family walk straight through a brick wall at King's Cross Station to reach Platform 9-and-three-quarters. The magical platform to the Hogwarts Express is seen and mentioned again multiple times throughout the film series, and has become so well known that King's Cross Station actually marked the platform between platforms nine and 10. HP fans now regularly stop there for photoshoots.

Oxford University in England — Harry Potter

The famed English university served as the set of numerous scenes throughout the Harry Potter series. From staircases to cloisters to the school's Bodleian Library , so many corners of the university ended up becoming parts of Hogwarts that a visit there may feel like a visit to the actual wizarding world. To top it off, the great hall of Oxford's Christ Church College was the inspiration behind Hogwarts' Great Hall, and the two are nearly identical.

Glenfinnan Viaduct in Inverness-shire, Scotland — Harry Potter

Glenfinnan is a scenic hamlet in the Scottish Highlands , and it also happens to be the home of the Hogwarts Express track, aka the Glenfinnan Viaduct. The elevated track, which was used in the second and third Harry Potter films ("The Chamber of Secrets" and "The Prisoner of Azkaban," respectively), draws fans from all over the world. You can see the viaduct by stopping at the Glenfinnan Visitor Center, or by booking a train ride across it .

Baseball Field in Dyersville, Iowa — "Field of Dreams"

"If you build it, he will come!" The famous line from 1989's "Field of Dreams" must've been somewhat prophetic, because now, people from around the world come to see the Iowa baseball field that was built for the movie. Head to Dyersville on any given summer day and watch hoards of film buffs gather on the diamond to play some ball, tour the site, or even rent out the home from the movie .

Devil’s Tower in Wyoming — "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

Any "Close Encounters" fan will recognize Devil's Tower as the mysterious mountain at the center of the movie's plot. The otherworldly, flat-topped structure is actually a real mountain (or butte) in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of northeastern Wyoming. It became the first U.S. national monument in 1906, and while you won't find any extraterrestrial beings at its base, you will see plenty of wildlife and awe-striking scenery.

Painted Ladies in San Francisco — Full House

Most '90s babies will remember the scene in the opening credits of Full House in which the Tanner family has a picnic in front of a scenic row of colorful houses. Well, those houses actually exist. If you head to San Francisco's Alamo Square, you can sit on the lawn and take in the sight of those 7 iconic Victorian homes across the street. (Though if you want to see the house used as the Tanners' actual home in the show, you'll have to head a mile northwest to 1709 Broderick Street.)

Apartment Building at 90 Bedford Street in New York City — Friends

Friends has amassed a cult following of sorts over the years, so it's only fitting that the apartment building used for exterior shots of the characters' homes became a major tourist attraction . While the interiors of the two main apartments in the show were actually just Burbank-based sets, the greenish-gray facade used for the exteriors can be found on the corner of Bedford and Grove Streets in Manhattan's Greenwich Village .

Skellig Michael, County of Kerry, Ireland — "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

Good news, Star Wars fans: You can visit a piece of the film franchise's history IRL if you're willing to travel to a remote part of Ireland . The island of Skellig Michael played the part of Ahch-To, the rocky planet where Luke Skywalker and Rey spent time in "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi." Interestingly, most parts of Skellig Michael that fans see in the movies are actually part of a 1,500-year-old Gaelic monastery.

Hanapepe Valley in Kauai, Hawaii — "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World"

Remember that scene in the original "Jurassic Park" film where the cast helicopters down onto Isla Nublar as a giant waterfall cascades behind them? Well, that waterfall really exists — in Hawaii. It's part of Kauai's lush Hanapepe Valley, which is actually the site of several scenes in both "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World." Hawaii visitors can even go on guided Jurassic Park -themed tours to see multiple filming locations from the movies.

Albuquerque, New Mexico — Breaking Bad

Any Breaking Bad fan would recognize the house at 3828 Piermont Dr. NE in Albuquerque, New Mexico: It's the home of Walter White. But that's not the only location from the show you can visit around town. Stop by the A1A Car Wash (actually called Mister Car Wash) at 9516 Snow Heights Circle, then head to Mexican restaurant Twisters on Isleta Boulevard, which played the role of the Los Pollos Hermanos fast food joint in the show.

Doune Castle in Doune, Scotland — "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

Fun fact about Doune Castle: It was used to depict nearly every castle the characters travel to in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" — the producers simply used different angles to create the illusion that numerous locations were used. Head to the Stirling district of central Scotland if you'd like to visit — and because fans of the film regularly stop by, there should be plenty of people around with whom you can discuss the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.

Point Dume, Malibu — "Planet of the Apes"

This unassuming beach may not look much different than any other beach along the California coast , but it's actually part of one of the most famous plot twists in cinematic history. At the end of the original "Planet of the Apes" film, the characters walk along this very beach, believing they're on another planet, only to come across the ruins of the Statue of Liberty. Though no props from the movie remain, fans regularly stop by Point Dume for photos.

Skopelos, Greece — "Mamma Mia!"

It's hard to forget the vibrant colors and stunning architecture of the Greek island in "Mamma Mia!" Though the story takes place on a fictional island, fans can visit the real-life island of Skopelos in the western Aegean Sea, where the movie was shot. You can even hop on a bus tour that takes fans to several iconic filming locations, including the Agios Ioannis Chapel and Kastani Beach.

Belvoir Castle, Wilton House, Burghley House, and Hatfield House in England — The Crown

The Crown 's filming locations include towns and palaces all over the United Kingdom , but fans are most likely to recognize England's Belvoir Castle, Wilton House, Burghley House, and Hatfield House — all of which have ties to real royalty. These four estates were used for both exterior and interior shots in the series, and fans may particularly recognize Belvoir Castle and Wilton House as a stand-ins for Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace , respectively.

Carrie Bradshaw’s Apartment in New York City — Sex and the City

And I couldn't help but wonder... what ever happened to Carrie Bradshaw's apartment? If you, like many Sex and the City fans, have asked yourself that question in recent years, the answer is right where it's always been: 66 Perry Street in Manhattan's West Village. Though the interior shots of Carrie's famous digs were filmed on sets, you can visit the brownstone used for the exteriors. While you're at it, grab a seat on a SATC hotspot tour to see more famous locales from the show.

Bayon Temple, Cambodia — "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider"

Believe it or not, the ethereal stone palace Angelina Jolie's character travels to in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" was not a set built for the movie. This very real Cambodian structure is known as Bayon Temple, and fans of the franchise can find it in the Jayavarman capital of Angkor Thom. It was originally built as a Buddhist temple, but tourists now visit to see Bayon's hieroglyphic-like art and "face towers," which feature hundreds of carved faces.

Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio — "The Shawshank Redemption"

If you want to get up close and personal with the prison Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) famously escaped from in "The Shawshank Redemption," you can — but you'll have to travel to Ohio rather than Maine, where the film takes place. Ohio State Reformatory lies about halfway between Cleveland and Columbus , and if you stop for a photo or tour (the reformatory hasn't actually been used as a prison since 1990), you'll notice it still looks exactly like Shawshank State Penitentiary.

Cafe des 2 Moulins in Paris — "Amélie"

Whether you sit down and have a meal at Cafe des 2 Moulins or simply stop out front for a photo, this aesthetically pleasing eatery is a must-visit for fans of French rom-com "Amélie." The quintessential Parisian cafe, adorned with bright red awning, is the workplace of the film's title character, and pays homage to its history with paintings of Amélie incorporated into the decor. You can find the cafe at 15 Rue Lepic in Montmartre.

The Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles — "La La Land"

Few films open with as much gusto as "La La Land." The vivacious dance moves, the brightly colored cars and clothes, and downtown Los Angeles glimmering in the distance — it's truly an unforgettable scene, and it all takes place on the Harbor Freeway, one of LA's busiest roadways. Because the road is an elevated highway, there aren't many ways to visit it, per se, but if you're in LA, you can drive across it near the city's center.

Varda Viaduct in Adana, Turkey — "Skyfall"

If you're a James Bond fan, the ominous Varda Viaduct is worth a visit. Originally built as a railway between Europe and the Middle East, the viaduct was featured in the opening chase scene of 2012's "Skyfall" and has become a treasured piece of Bond history. You can visit by riding a train across or by parking at a nearby overlook.

Staircase at West 167th Street in the Bronx — "Joker"

For years, the set of steps that connect Shakespeare and Anderson Avenues in the Bronx's Highbridge neighborhood were just that: a set of steps. That all changed when Joaquin Phoenix famously danced down them in 2019's "Joker." When the stairs even appeared in the film's poster, fans began flocking to New York City just to take a photo in front of them. The steps are, of course, still there today, but you may have to fight through a crowd of Batman fanatics to get a good look at them.

Tom’s Restaurant in New York City — Seinfeld

While all those famous Monk's Cafe scenes in Seinfeld were filmed on a soundstage, an actual New York diner was used for the exterior shots! Tom's Restaurant in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood starred as the eatery Jerry and his friends frequented in the sitcom, and the restaurant is still open today. According to reviews, the food there is actually pretty fantastic — and you can head to the corner of Broadway and West 112th Street to try it for yourself.

Apartment Building at 455 Water Street in Brooklyn — Gossip Girl

Whether you're an Upper East Sider, a Brooklynite, or none of the above, you likely remember the brown brick apartment building next to the Manhattan Bridge as the home of Penn Badgley's Gossip Girl character, Dan Humphrey. Well, if you head to Water Street in Brooklyn's glitzy DUMBO neighborhood, you can actually catch a glimpse of the building's interior. While NYC Gossip Girl tours exist, most focus on Manhattan locations and leave the beloved Brooklyn facade off the list.

Pike Place Market in Seattle — "Sleepless in Seattle"

Are you a romantic-comedy superfan? If so, you may want to plan a trip to Seattle for a DIY "Sleepless in Seattle" tour. The city's ever popular Pike Place Market is the setting of multiple scenes, whereas the houseboat used as Sam and Jonah's home in the film can be found on the dock near Westlake Avenue North. And make sure to check out Athenian Seafood Restaurant & Bar, which features a barstool with a plaque reading "Tom Hanks Sat Here," referencing the scene filmed there.

Katz Delicatessen in New York City — "When Harry Met Sally"

Want to have what she's having? Head to 205 East Houston Street on New York City's Lower East Side to find Katz Deli, aka the place where the most iconic scene from "When Harry Met Sally" took place. Aside from its appearance in one of the most well-known rom-coms of all time, Katz Delicatessen has also become famous over the past few decades for serving up enormous pastrami sandwiches (which is just another reason to visit, if you ask us).

Stairs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art — "Rocky"

Cue the "Rocky" theme music! Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa triumphantly running up a city staircase is arguably one of the most iconic scenes in cinematic history. And if you head to Philly , you can not only see those exact stairs, but you can recreate the scene entirely. The staircase actually serves as the entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but luckily, you can visit the stairs without having a ticket to the museum.

Hillary Maglin is a digital editor who splits most of her time between New York City and Pittsburgh. You can find her on Instagram @hillarymaglin , where her DMs are always open to discuss travel gear, wine bars, and Taylor Swift's latest record.

30 Famous Movie Locations Around The World You Can Visit

If you're the kind of traveler who sees a place like Carrie's brownstone in NYC and starts quoting "Sex and the City," this is the list for you. Spotting iconic locations from our favorite films and television shows can be a fun way to stay connected to some of our favorite stories and characters. Although some places exist only on studio lots, visiting real-life movie locations is a popular tourist activity.

A few of the spots we mention below are more obvious. For example, The Art Institute of Chicago for "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is well known, but others may be a surprise, like the formerly defunct shopping center in Görlitz, Germany, which got back on its feet after "The Grand Budapest Hotel." If you're a major movie nerd (like us), then a lot of these places should be on your must-visit destination list. This is just a preview of some of Earth's most incredible and famous movie locations.

Al-Khazneh in Petra, Jordan - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

When it comes to iconic views of Jordan, only some come close to Al Khazna or The Treasury. That's because, in part, of its role in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Because some of the final moments of the film take place in front of the massive facade built into the rock, visitors are more aware of this magnificent structure. It's believed to have been built sometime in the first century B.C. Although you can't go inside it, you can marvel at the incredible exterior architecture.

The Art Institute of Chicago - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

The Art Institute of Chicago  is only in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" for a few fleeting minutes. Yet Chicagoans will forever talk about it. Filmmaker John Hughes, who is from Chicagoland, used the scene to highlight some of his favorite paintings in the Institute. You can visit the art museum, one of the best in the world, to see some of the ultra-famous pieces there. One such piece that is beloved and featured in the film is George Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

Café des 2 Moulins in Paris, France - Amélie

In her namesake film, Amélie Poulin works at the Café des 2 Moulins . Located in Paris, France, the cafe, whose name translates to the Cafe of Two Windmills, references the two famed windmills in the city at the Moulin Rouge and the Moulin de la Galette. Although the café has changed a little since "Amélie" came out in 2001, it is still quite reminiscent of its silver screen counterpart. Stop by for something to eat and take a load off.

Cabazon Dinosaurs in Cabazon, California - Pee-wee's Big Adventure

The enormous roadside attractions known as the Cabazon Dinosaurs have been delighting visitors for decades. Although over 100 of them exist, a few are more iconic than others, like Mr. Rex. But Paul Reubens cemented these ancient photo-friendly dinos into the tourist lexicon in his 1985 film "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." You can stop by to visit them any day of the week during daytime hours. Some of the dinos even get new paint jobs from time to time. For example, Mr. Rex was temporarily repainted with a grey suit and red bow tie in homage to Pee-Wee Herman after Reuben's 2023 death.

Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Japan - Inception

Although "Inception" was not technically filmed on location in Japan, the intricate set of a dreamy castle sequence will look very familiar. That's because the castle was based on Nijo Castle in Kyoto, so much so that you'll marvel at the amount of detail the staged set for the film took on. While it wasn't directly filmed at the castle, you can tour the inspired location and get a feel for the mind-boggling film. Nijo Castle is open for public tours, so you can get a sense of its monumental history, dating back to 1603.

Grand Central Station in New York City - Men in Black II

"Men in Black II" is far from the only movie filmed at Grand Central Station in New York City. Other movies like "Friends with Benefits," "I Am Legend," and "The Fischer King" were also filmed here. Still, Grand Central is where the agents discovered Locker C-18, where a host of little aliens were living — so it's a pretty big deal in the movie. The lockers aren't here anymore, though you're certainly welcome to explore the station to take in the sights. Just maybe avoid rush hour when it'll be the most crowded.

The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey - Argo

A lot of scenes in Ben Affleck's "Argo" were filmed in the massive Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey. The flurry of colorful shops and stalls made for a perfect aesthetic for the American hostages to hide from their would-be captors. This market is one of the largest in the world, with almost 4,000 vendors covering over 60 streets. As the world's oldest bazaar, there is so much to see and do here besides following the footsteps of "Argo." It's open every day except Sundays and holidays. There is no entrance fee or reservation system.

Hatley Castle in Colwood, British Columbia - X-Men 2

When it wasn't serving as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Hatley Castle in Colwood was also Lex Luthor's lair in "Smallville" and the Queen family home in "Arrow." Even so, its visage is probably best known from its appearances in the "X-Men" films, specifically "X-Men 2." Hatley Castle is over a century old, though it looks much older. You are welcome to visit the castle itself on a paid guided tour, though the formal gardens are free to visit during daylight hours.

The McCallister home in Winnetka, Illinois - Home Alone

Ah, the dreamy McCallister home. A Christmas favorite for anyone who loves "Home Alone" or homey Midwestern home designs, this house is still very much as it was in the 1990s. This privately owned home is located in Chicago's luxe suburb of Winnetka. You can see the home at 671 Lincoln Ave. Although you can't go inside, it has been listed on Airbnb for a special Christmas stay before. So, you can go by for a quick look outside, but be mindful that folks live here.

Hook & Ladder Company 8 Firehouse in New York City - Ghostbusters

Homebase for the Ghostbusters from, well, "Ghostbusters" is still alive and well in New York City. Over at Hook & Ladder Company 8 Firehouse, you'll see the backgrounds for many of the beloved film's big scenes. Although the exterior of the firehouse is what was used for the film, you may be able to score an informal tour of the inside if the firefighters aren't busy. You can also buy some souvenirs while you're here, too, if you need some ectoplasm-related gifts.

Katz's Deli in New York City - When Harry Met Sally

At over 130 years old, Katz's Deli in NYC is known for a few things. It's known for its pastrami on rye, being the oldest deli in New York City, and for the line "I'll have what she's having" from "When Harry Met Sally." It was here that Billy Crystal uttered those infamous words. You can even sit at the table where Crystal and Meg Ryan sat and enjoy your deli delicacies. If you can't find the table, just ask or peek around for the plaque.

King's Cross Station in London, England - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Students of Hogwarts heading to the school must catch the Hogwarts Express. The only way to do that is via Platform 9 ¾ at King's Cross station in London. Although Muggles can't access this fantastical train, they can take photos at the famed Platform 9 ¾ sign at the train station. Below the sign, you'll see a half-exposed cart with luggage and a cage stacked upon it. It doesn't cost anything to visit the sign, though you may want to bring some spending money for The Harry Potter Shop located at Kings Cross.

Countryside in Matamata in New Zealand - Lord of the Rings

Ever wanted to visit a real-life Hobbiton? Wander the Shire in search of hobbitses? You can if you visit the area around Matamata in New Zealand. This gorgeous rural town will help you live out your wildest Middle Earth dreams. This entire countryside represents a bunch of different locations from "Lord of the Rings." Whether you're looking for Hobbit holes or Fangorn Forest, you'll be amazed at how many otherworldly spots reside in the same area. Your best opportunity to get the most out of seeing these areas is through a locally-led, guided tour.

Notting Hill Bookshop in London, England - Notting Hill

You know how Julia Roberts owned a bookshop in "Notting Hill?" Well, it's a real bookshop named  Notting Hill Bookshop  – rather than The Travel Book Company, as it's referred to in the movie. Although it is no longer known as The Travel Bookshop, you'll still find this beloved store at 13 Blenheim Crescent in London. Since the film came out, store ownership has changed hands a few times. Even so, the exterior will let even the stingiest romantic swoon just a little on the streets of London. Don't forget to buy a book while you're here.

Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington - Sleepless in Seattle

To be more specific, you'll want to go to The Athenian Inn at Pike Place Market. While the market itself (especially the emblematic Public Market sign) made its way into "Sleepless in Seattle," Athenian Inn is where Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner's characters eat. You can still visit the over 110-year-old restaurant and grab some delicious seafood. Grab a seat at the chromium counter for the ultimate "Sleepless" moment. Go ahead and do your best Jay and Sam impressions; we won't judge.

Pilgrim Baptist Church of South Chicago in Chicago, Illinois - The Blues Brothers

For major fans of the cult classic "The Blues Brothers," spotting a filming location is a big deal. When it comes to one of the biggest scenes in this film (aside from the epic car chase through Downtown Chicago), look no further than the Pilgrim Baptist Church at 3235 E. 91st Street. The interior shots of the church weren't shot on location, though you'll immediately recognize the church's steeple. Visiting for photo ops outside the church is easy enough, but maybe avoid Sundays for fewer crowds.

Point Dume in Malibu, California - Planet of the Apes

Film buffs are likely to recognize Point Dume at Zuma Beach along the Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles. After all, this is where the buried Statue of Liberty is discovered in "Planet of the Apes." Though it's a popular filming location and has also been featured extensively in other films like "The Big Lebowski," "Iron Man 3," and "Knight and Day," the public beach is open for visitors to swim, dive, or just rest on the soft sand.

Doune Castle near Sterling, Scotland - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

If you find yourself wondering if a swallow could, in fact, carry a one-pound coconut, you'll find your movie geekout moment at Duone Castle. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" fans will immediately recognize the look of this castle in which King Arthur and his band of merry knights kept watch. "Game of Thrones" fans may also recognize it as Winterfell from the pilot episode. The castle grounds are open to the public with a paid entry fee. You can visit the courtyard and cellar if you're able to handle a steep and cobbled tunnel.

Selfridges in London, England - Love Actually

Do you remember the scene in "Love Actually" in which Alan Rickman's character buys a necklace from Rowan Atkinson? That took place in the famed Selfridges department store in London. Since it's a public store, you're able to visit it for free! At over 100 years old, Selfridges is known as one of the best department stores in the world. Perhaps you, too, can purchase a necklace from the jewelry counter for a loved one — just make sure it's for the right loved one before Christmas, okay?

Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire, England - Bridget Jones's Diar

Stoke Park isn't a city park. It is a country club where both "Bridget Jones's Diary" and two "James Bond" films were shot. The dreamy hotel and country club setting are perfect for film lovers or anyone looking for an uber-romantic getaway. Stoke Park is also home to a spa, golf club, and a few restaurants. It's a private club, but the restaurants are open to the public.

The Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California - Pretty Woman

Owned by the Four Seasons, the luxe Beverly Wilshire Hotel , made famous by "Pretty Woman," is full of incredible ways to relive your favorite moments from the movie. This gilded hotel has tons of free photo ops within its spellbinding walls if you aren't able to actually stay in a room for a true Julia Roberts moment. The Beverly Wilshire Hotel is the epitome of glamorous Los Angeles hotels, so even if you're just a middling "Pretty Woman" fan, it's well worth a visit.

The Getty Center in Los Angeles - Star Trek: Into Darkness

Los Angeles is home to a lot of the filming locations for "Stark Trek: Into Darkness." However, it's hard to top being the site of Starfleet headquarters. The movie chose none other than the astonishing Getty Center to be the HQ for Starfleet members. Visiting the Getty Center, an architectural phenomenon of an art museum, is free. Trekkies will undoubtedly recognize the exterior of the Getty Center, though you should certainly spend an afternoon roaming its halls admiring the artworks.

The Llanerch Diner in ​​Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Silver Linings Playbook

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence's 2012 film "Silver Linings Playbook" put a roadside diner on the map. The Llanerch Diner in Upper Darby outside of Philadelphia is where the two characters eat a meal together. Like at Katz's Deli, which we mentioned earlier, the famed booth here is marked and frequently requested by fans of the film. You're welcome to come to Llanerch for a meal and, hopefully, eat where Cooper and Lawrence did, though you may need to wait behind other diners.

The Plaza Hotel in ​New York City - The Way We Were

When it comes to making an impression on the filmgoing public, few locales do it like The Plaza in New York City. Seven films have taken place, at least in part, at this astonishing hotel. Starting with Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest," this hotel is practically a co-star. Though it shines just as brightly in "The Way We Were," which is widely considered one of the best films ever made. Relive Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford's meeting from "The Way" or the painful scenes from Baz Luhrman's "The Great Gatsy" while you're in the hotel's charming presence.

The Swan House in Atlanta, Georgia - The Hunger Games

Built in 1928, the classical mansion known as The Swan House in Atlanta is full of swan imagery as it was owner Mrs. Inman's favorite animal. In "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," the Swan House becomes the central home for President Snow, showcasing one of Atlanta's most beautiful places. The house is part of the Atlanta History Center , and you can visit the Swan House to explore the tremendously intricate interior. Is anyone else ready to volunteer as tribute?

The Virgil in Los Angeles, California - A Star Is Born

Another Bradley Cooper film, this time opposite none other than Lady Gaga, "A Star is Born" catapulted several Los Angeles locations into pop culture. One such location was The Virgil , where Jackson and Ally meet. You're more likely to see stand-up here rather than drag performances, though you'll still recognize the popular East Hollywood libation station. Even better, there is a weekly show called Hot Tub at The Virgil, which Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal host.

Timberline Lodge in Mount Hood, Oregon - The Shining

One look at the Timberline Lodge might send a chill up your spine. That's because its exterior was made famous by Stanley Kubrick's creepy film "The Shining." The jury is still out on whether or not the hotel is haunted, though brave souls can stay here to find out for themselves. Horror nerds love visiting this place to reconnect with their Stephen King roots. While you won't find official tours here, there have been "The Shining" themed parties held here for Halloween from time to time. Finally, if you're looking for room 217, you won't find it – there isn't a room 217 here.

Union Station in Chicago, Illinois - The Untouchables

It should come as no surprise that Brian de Palma's Chicago-based, Prohibition-era film "The Untouchables" was shot all over Chicago. There are countless locations we could list here, though none would be more epic than the shootout scene at Union Station. Union Station is a frequent on-screen location, so it may look familiar. Chicago's beautiful train station, which is free to visit, is captured incredibly amid the battle between coppers and mobsters. Opened in 1925, Union Station is a glimpse into Chicago's artistic history. It is a personal favorite spot in the city and a great excuse to take the train.

Görlitzer Warenhaus Department Store in Görlitz, Germany - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Before the movie was filmed, the Görlitzer Warenhaus Department Store sat abandoned. Now visitors can explore the gorgeous building once again to live out their "The Grand Budapest Hotel" dreams. The Art Nouveau store is an exquisite example of saved architecture. Although visitors can't experience the store in its entirety, they can go inside some of it. Kaufhaus Görlitz is still under renovation in a years-long rehabilitation to return to its original beauty.

Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia - Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

The stunning 12th-century, UNESCO World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat, Cambodia , made for incredible shots throughout "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider." Before the film came out, the temple complex wasn't a huge tourism draw from the Western world. "Lara Croft" changed that, and now it is immensely popular. In fact, per Khreativa Cambodia , "Lara Croft" was the first international film to feature Angkor Wat to a Western audience. Like millions of other visitors, you can explore the temples at Angkor Wat with tickets or guided tours

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75+ Famous Movie Locations You Can ACTUALLY Visit!

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Great movies entertain and move you with compelling characters in faraway lands. Amazing movies inspire you to actually visit those places! And there are dozens of awe-inspiring famous movie locations around the world that are accessible to you RIGHT NOW.

I’m not talking about private properties, studio backlots or the depths of darkest Peru… I’m talking about national parks, cafés, castles, beaches, hotels and museums . Real, tangible places all over the world that are wide open to visitors. Adventure is out there! And with the locations of movies dotted around the globe from America to Australia, you’re just a flight or train ride away.

Have you ever felt compelled to follow in the footsteps of Frodo Baggins, raid tombs with Lara Croft or have whatever she’s having with Sally from When Harry Met Sally ? Then you NEED to read this list of the best and most famous filming locations of movies you’ve already watched over and over again . These are famous movie locations every self-respecting movie lover dreams of visiting.

Famous Movie Locations You Can Visit Today!

Famous Movie Locations in Europe

Café des deux moulins as seen in amélie (2001).

Where:  15 Rue Lepic, 75018 Paris, France

Read more: Amélie Filming Locations in Paris, France

The streets of Paris feature in hundreds of films so it’s apt we begin our journey of iconic movie locations around the world here.  Amélie  is a whimsical French comedy about the life of one timorous young woman and her observations of the city and people around her. She works at a café, Café des Deux Moulins, in Montmartre and today it looks just as ruby red and inviting as it did in the film 20 years ago! Absolutely one of the best film locations in Paris.

Royal Palace of Caserta as seen in Angels and Demons (2009)

Where:  Piazza Carlo di Borbone, 81100 Caserta CE, Italy

Read more: Angels and Demons Filming Locations in Italy

What happens when you’re filming a movie in Italy which rips into everything the Catholic church holds dear and 50% of it is set in Vatican City? You use the Royal Palace of Caserta near Naples as a stand-in, of course! And this is just what Angels and Demons  and  Mission: Impossible III  (2006) did. Built during the mid-1700s, the Royal Palace of Caserta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest royal residence in the world. It was also used as a filming location in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace  (1999) to serve as a palace on Naboo.

Odesa Steps as seen in Battleship Potemkin (1926)

Where:  Odesa, Odesa Oblast, 65000 Ukraine

This is a shooting location to be appreciated by the finer film fan. Sergei Eisenstein’s cinematic classic Battleship Potemkin  used this harbourside staircase to backdrop his groundbreaking montage of a baby carriage propelling down the steps away from a horrified mother. So famous, Brazil  (1985) and The Untouchables  (1987) have both parodied this exact scene. Eastern Europe doesn’t get a lot of love from Hollywood, unfortunately. So, the Potemkin Steps in the Ukrainian city of Odesa is an oddity on this list of famous movie locations.

Promenade Plantée as seen in Before Sunset (2004)

Where:  1 Coulée Verte René-Dumont, 75012 Paris, France

Read more:  Before Sunset Filming Locations in Paris, France

What happens nine years after you reunite with an American man whom you met on a train from Budapest to Vienna and spent one life-changing night with during your early 20s? Take him on a mini walking tour of your hometown, of course! The follow-up to 1995’s Before Sunrise ,  the Promenade Plantée is one of the many Parisian filming locations featured in Before Sunset . The park is actually a disused railway line-turned-green space, like New York’s High Line.

Curracloe Beach as seen in Brooklyn (2015)

Where:  Coolrainey, Curracloe, Co. Wexford, Ireland

Read more: Brooklyn Filming Locations in Ireland, New York & Canada

There isn’t a better movie that expresses the pain and heartache of moving abroad and starting a new life. Especially one with such gorgeous movie film locations! Brooklyn  follows a young Irish girl who sets sail for a new life in America sometime in the 1950s. Featuring filming locations on both sides of the pond, it’s Curracloe Beach in County Wexford that had movie-goers dreaming of summers in Ireland.

Belfry of Bruges as seen in In Bruges (2008)

Where:  Markt 7, 8000 Brugge, Belgium

Read more: In Bruges Filming Locations in Bruges, Belgium

Not one of the most famous Hollywood film locations, but one of the most unusual. The medieval city of Bruges was the movie location of choice for this darkly comedic film about a pair of assassins instructed to hide out in Belgium after a job went awry. In Bruges  shot all over the city, but it’s the Belfry of Bruges that is one of the most notable movie places in the film. With canals, good beer and fantastic architecture, it’s the perfect choice for a European city break.

Sirmione as seen in Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Where:  25019 Province of Brescia, Italy

Read more:  Call Me By Your Name Filming Locations in Northern Italy

Under the Tuscan Sun  (2003),  The English Patient  (1996)… There are so many fantastic films set in Italy. But one of the best from recent years has to be Call Me By Your Name  (2017). The film focuses on a precocious 17-year-old named Elio and his relationship with the 24-year-old Grad student who joins his academic family at their Italian villa for the summer. The tourist town of Sirmione on Lake Garda features in one special scene, particularly the ruins and Jamaica Beach.

Villa del Balbianello as seen in Casino Royale (2006)

Where:  Via Guido Monzino, 1, 22016 Tremezzina CO, Italy

Read more: 22 Amazing Films Set in Italy to Inspire You to Visit

Italy seems to be the main place where movies were filmed outside of Hollywood! And they probably will be for some time, because Italy has so much to offer. One villa that’s caught the eye of multiple productions is Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como . It’s one of the most famous locations you could visit in Italy. Not only did it feature in Casino Royale,  but also in  Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones  (2001).

Neuschwanstein Castle as seen in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Where:  Neuschwansteinstraße 20, 87645 Schwangau, Germany

Read more: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Filming Locations in Germany, England & France

Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria might be super-famous on Instagram right now, but did you know it’s also been used for filming locations in movies? Specifically, the 1960s family classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ! It stood in as the exterior of the palace in Vulgaria. Definitely one of the most famous movie locations in Germany and a bucket list locale for anyone hunting fairytale castles around Europe .

Nyhavn Harbour as seen in The Danish Girl (2015)

Where:  København K, Denmark

The Danish Girl  isn’t the progressive trans film that we wanted it to be, but the scenes shot around the harbourside Nyhavn area of Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen look like paintings. It’s unlikely you would head to Copenhagen without also hitting up the city’s most famous site, but just in case you were… You know not to miss it. The patchwork houses might be a hotbed of activity and tourists trawling around the pavements but it’s 100% worth the effort.

Rosslyn Chapel as seen in The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Where:  Chapel Loan, Roslin EH25 9PU Scotland

Read more:  Visiting Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh: The Da Vinci Code Location

The Da Vinci Code  might be known for its Paris-set filming locations , but the pivotal scene set and shot in Rosslyn Chapel just outside of Edinburgh is the most memorable. Expert craftsmanship is evident both inside and out of this tiny church and it’s steeped in conspiracies and mystery. It’s a fantastic place to visit as a little excursion from Scotland’s capital city, especially for film fans.

Highclere Castle as seen in Downton Abbey (2010-2019)

Where:  Highclere Park, Highclere, Newbury RG20 9RN England

There are so many amazing stately homes around England that act as movie locations in TV shows and films. But there’s one that’s warmed our hearts more than any other within the last decade or so. Highclere Castle was  the  Downton Abbey and home of the well-to-do Crawley family. Though the castle isn’t open all the time because it’s actually someone’s real-life home (I’m not jealous…), visiting the castle is a must-do for TV fans.

Juvet Landscape Hotel as seen in Ex Machina (2014)

Where:  Alstad 24, 6210 Valldal, Norway

Hotels are perhaps one of the easiest movie locations to visit because you just book a night and, boom! There you are. But the Juvet Landscape Hotel is up near the Arctic Circle in Norway so that might make visiting slightly trickier. It’s the main location for the sci-fi thriller Ex Machina  as a CEO’s sleek ultra-modern hideout. This hotel is absolutely the best choice if you want a secluded, country break while also ticking off a fantastic filming location too.

Mini Hollywood as seen in For a Few Dollars More (1965)

Where:  Carretera Nacional 340A, km 464, 04200 Tabernas, Almería, Spain

Read more:  23 Incredible Films Set in Spain to Inspire You to Visit

Who knew that the dusty landscape of Southern Spain strongly resembled the desolate deserts of the Wild West? Director Sergio Leone knew this back in the 1960s. He shot many scenes from his Dollars Trilogy at what is now known as Mini Hollywood in Almería, Spain . Yup, the set is still there! And it’s been preserved as a fun Wild West town so you can live like yellow bellies and black hats for the day.

The Dark Hedges as seen in Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

Where:  Bregagh Rd, Stranocum, Ballymoney BT53 8PX Northern Ireland

Read more:  Game of Thrones Filming Locations in Northern Ireland

Whether you love it, hate it or have very strong, lengthy opinions on it… Game of Thrones  has firmly cemented itself in pop culture for a long, long time. It’s also encouraged many armchair tourists to get off their backsides and travel to the famous film locations in this multi-award-winning HBO drama. Game Of Thrones was shot in Malta , Morocco, Spain, Croatia, Iceland, Scotland, and of course Northern Ireland where the Dark Hedges (or the King’s Road in Season Two) are.

Kaufhaus Görlitz as seen in The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Where:  An der Frauenkirche 5-7, 02826 Görlitz, Germany

Read more: The Grand Budapest Hotel Filming Locations in Germany

Zubrowka might be a fictional place, but the German city of Görlitz on the Polish border sure isn’t. It’s where director Wes Anderson shot the majority of his ensemble film The Grand Budapest Hotel . Locations include the old Kaufhaus Görlitz department store which was dressed up as the titular art deco-style hotel. If I could live in any of the filming locations for movies on this list, it might be The Grand Budapest.

Bar Vitelli as seen in The Godfather (1972)

Where:  Piazza Fossia, 7, 98038 Savoca ME, Italy

Read more: The Godfather Filming Locations in Sicily (Parts I, II & III)

Most of  The Godfather  is set in New York, but there’s a section where Michael Corleone has to hide out in his father’s homeland after a high-profile hit. Sicily in this film seems traditional, naive and savage at the same time. One of the famous movie locations from the first film is Bar Vitelli in Savoca , the bar owned by Michael’s first father-in-law. It’s still open and you might see one or two homages to the film inside.

Glenfinnan Viaduct as seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Where:  A830 Road, Glenfinnan PH37 4LT Scotland

Read more: Harry Potter Filming Locations in Scotland: A Complete Guide

Any self-respecting Harry Potter fan has either visited or dreams of visiting Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Scottish Highlands . There are many Harry Potter filming locations across Scotland and England , but this is the best and one of the most famous movie locations in the world. Grab your Nimbus 2000 (or hop in your father’s Ford Anglia) and fly to the iconic viaduct to watch the Jacobite Steam train pass twice daily. Ten points to Gryffindor if you arrive on time to watch!

Old Royal Naval College as seen in The King’s Speech (2010)

Where:  King William Walk, Greenwich Peninsula, London SE10 9NN England

Read more: The King’s Speech Filming Locations in England

Believe it or not, the Old Royal Naval College in London’s Greenwich Park  has stood in for many famous movie locations over the years. In fact, Empire Magazine called it “the most popular filming location in the world.” Thor: The Dark World  (2013), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides  (2011). Four Weddings and a Funeral  (1994), Les Misérables  (2012) and  The Crown  (2019) have all filmed scenes here. The King’s Speech  notably used the building as a stand-in for Buckingham Palace which makes complete sense considering they were built within around 20 years of each other.

Trevi Fountain as seen in La Dolce Vita (1960)

Where:  Piazza di Trevi, 00187 Roma RM, Italy

Read more: La Dolce Vita Filming Locations in Rome, Italy

The most famous fountain in the world and a pretty iconic filming location, too! At least for fans of Fellini films. I can’t imagine back in 1732 that architect Salvi predicted a Swedish actress would be traipsing through his Trevi Fountain in Rome over 200 years later. But that’s just what happened in La Dolce Vita.  Maybe don’t try it nowadays… There’s usually a swarm of tourists all taking snaps and it’s a very important monument.

Juliet’s House as seen in Letters to Juliet (2010)

Where:  Via Cappello, 23, 37121 Verona VR, Italy

Read more: Letters to Juliet Filming Locations in Verona and Tuscany

Sidestepping the fact that the original Romeo & Juliet  play didn’t *actually* feature a balcony and this building only dates back to the 1930s… This is Juliet Capulet’s house in Verona , everyone! And the courtyard is featured in the delightfully soppy romcom Letters to Juliet  about the Secretaries of Juliet who respond to love letters left for Juliet. Don’t forget to fondle the statue of Juliet’s bosom for good luck.

Church of Agios Ioannis Kastri as seen in Mamma Mia! (2008)

Where:  Skopelos 370 03, Greece

My my, how could you resist falling in love with the islands of Skiathos and Skopelos in  Mamma Mia ?! Specifically, the Church of Agios Ioannis Kastri where Sophie’s wedding is held high on top of a hill. There aren’t many famous movie locations shot in Greece , but Mamma Mia  more than makes up for that.

Palace of Versailles as seen in Marie Antoinette (2006)

Where:  Place d’Armes, 78000 Versailles, France

Read more: Marie Antoinette Filming Locations in France

Can you *believe* that whoever runs the Palace of Versailles near Paris let Sofia Coppola shoot her anachronistic display of debauchery called  Marie Antoinette  wherever she wanted? Well, they did! The palace has over 700 rooms and is almost 400 years old so it can’t have been easy persuading them. It’s one of the most fun films set in France and it really is the most decadent palace I’ve ever seen.

Shakespeare & Company Bookshop as seen in Midnight in Paris (2011)

Where:  37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Paris, France

Read more: Midnight in Paris Filming Locations in Paris

Shakespeare & Company bookshop has been a Paris institution since the 1920s when James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway frequented. Today, it’s a refuge for starving writers nicknamed “Tumbleweeds”, an English-language bookshop for tourists and a popular movie location. Not only did it feature at the end of Midnight in Paris,  but in Before Sunset and  Julie & Julia  (2009) too.

Doune Castle as seen in Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975)

Where:  Castle Hill, Doune FK16 6EA Scotland

Read more: Doune Castle: Outlander, Monty Python & Game of Thrones Location Guide

The hilarious one-liners aren’t the only memorable thing about Monty Python and The Holy Grail. The rugged Scottish and English film locations are pretty awesome, too.  Doune Castle  is one of the most prolific locations in cinema these days, having also featured in the  Game of Thrones  pilot and the Outlander TV show as Castle Leoch. Just remember to not pay attention to a knight farting in your general direction.

The Notting Hill Bookshop as seen in Notting Hill (1999)

Where:  13 Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, London W11 2EE England

Read more: Notting Hill Filming Locations in London

This is just a travel bookshop, situated in Notting Hill, asking a big-budget Hollywood rom-com to film there. Hugh Grant’s broke bookshop owner hits the jackpot when he meets Julia Robert’s famous actress in his humble London neighbourhood in the rom-com Notting Hill . The store is now called The Notting Hill Bookshop but it’s very much still open for you to wander through the aisles stacked with dusty memoirs and guidebooks.

Belchite as seen in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Where:  50130, Zaragoza, Spain

Read more: 23 Incredible Films Set in Spain to Inspire You to Visit

Belchite, not far from Catalonia, in Spain is one of those heartbreaking, ruined cities which has been somewhat revived as a movie location. Both sides bombed and obliterated this entire town during the Spanish Civil War between 1936-1939, leaving only rubble and buried corpses. Pan’s Labyrinth  is set just after the Spanish Civil War so it’s fitting the production shot there, and Belchite also appeared in  Spider-Man: Far From Home  (2019) as a ransacked Mexican village.

Umschlagplatz as seen in The Pianist (2002)

Where:  Speicherstraße 6, 44147 Dortmund, Germany

Read more: The Pianist Filming Locations in Poland

Let’s keep the happy times rolling with a film about the holocaust and a real-life location used for the film. The Pianist  is inspired by the true story of a Polish-Jewish musician who attempts to evade capture during WWII. Umschlagplatz is located in an old Warsaw ghetto  and is where the Nazis held Jewish people before transporting them via train to death camps. The film was shot in a real-life location, where there is now a memorial resembling a freight train carriage with its doors open.

Popeye Village as seen in Popeye (1980)

Where: Triq Tal-Prajjet, Il-Mellieħa, Malta

Read more: 36 Films Shot in Malta to Watch Before You Visit

The film set created for Popeye  on the west coast of Malta was  so  good, the country decided to keep it and turn it into a little amusement park! How awesome is that? Now, there’s a whimsical fishing village aptly named Popeye’s Village you can visit and pretend you’re a cartoon fisherman! Eat fish and chips, sail across the high seas and maybe you’ll run into Olive Oyl, Popeye and Swee’Pea if you’re lucky.

Cliffs of Moher as seen in The Princess Bride (1987)

Where:  Burren Way, Shingaunagh North, Co. Clare, Ireland

Read more: The Princess Bridge Filming Locations in England & Ireland

Definitely one of the most iconic and most famous movie locations in the world. But you might better know the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare as the Cliffs of Insanity. Yes! The mythical cliffs in Rob Reiner’s  The Princess Bride  are one of Ireland’s most popular tourist attractions. If you’re planning an Irish road trip , you  have  to brave the wind and check them out. But I wouldn’t try scaling them as Dread Pirate Roberts did in the film. The view is much better from the top, anyway.

Wicklow Mountains in P.S. I Love You (2007)

Where:  R759, Co. Wicklow, Ireland

Read more: P.S. I Love You Filming Locations in Ireland

It’s unlikely that you’ll run into the love of your life on a remote, one-track road in the middle of Ireland’s Wicklow Mountains , but it happened in  P.S. I Love You!  Though most of the film is set in New York, the locations in County Wicklow and Dublin are the most wanderlust-inspiring. Just hop on a plane to Dublin, drive a couple of hours, and take a stroll on the old long walk of a day-i-ay-i-ay… Let’s hope you meet an Irishman with a  proper  Irish accent and not whatever Gerard Butler croaked out in the movie.

The Mouth of Truth as seen in Roman Holiday (1953)

Where:  Piazza Della Bocca Della Verità, 18, 00186 Roma RM, Italy

Read more: Roman Holiday Filming Locations in Rome, Italy

The legend says that if a liar places his hand in the Mouth of Truth outside this church in Rome , it will be eaten. Unfortunately, the quirky marble face is roped off so tourists can’t actually attempt this like Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck did in Roman Holiday . But that doesn’t stop them from queuing for a photo opportunity! It’s fairly near the Colosseum so definitely an accessible movie location to visit on your next trip to Rome .

Piłsudskiego Bridge as seen in Schindler’s List (1993)

Where:  Most Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego, 33-332 Kraków, Poland

Read more: The Schindler’s List Filming Locations in Poland

Steven Spielberg kept his 1993 holocaust epic  Schindler’s List  as realistic as possible, shooting scenes where the real-life events occurred in Kraków, including the Oskar Schindler’s actual apartment. Piłsudski Bridge  is where the Nazi officers marched Jews across from the ghetto to the Radziwie district. Not the most thrilling of filming locations but an important and historic one.

Kirkjufell Mountain as seen in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Where:  Road 54, Grundarfjorour 350 Iceland

Read more: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Filming Locations in Iceland & New York City

Sometimes you need a push to seek adventure, like Walter Mitty, but it’s always worth it when you do. In  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,  a search for a lost file negative takes the titular protagonist on a quest through Greenland, Iceland and the Himalayas. In reality, Iceland was the only country utilised for locations outside of the USA. But what a cinematic country it is! Though Walter might have longboarded down a mountain, I think just hiking to Kirkjufell mountain is enough adventure for most of us.

Residenzplatz as seen in The Sound of Music (1965)

Where: Residenzplatz 4, 5020 Salzburg, Austria

Read more: The Sound of Music Filming Locations in Salzberg, Austria

Climb every mountain, ford every stream, wander every city square until you find Maria… Something like that, right? The classic musical  The Sound of Music  is set in Salzburg, and that’s exactly where most of the outdoor locations were filmed!  Residenzplatz  is a stunning, clean white plaza with a golden fountain which Maria stops to splash while travelling from the convent to Captain von Trapp’s mansion. One of the most famous movie locations for any lover of musicals!

The Fairy Glen as seen in Stardust (2007)

Where:  Highland Skye, Uig IV51 9YG Scotland

Read more: Stardust Filming Locations in Scotland & England

It’s no wonder this magical fairytale-esque adaptation decided to shoot many scenes in Scotland , where myths and folklore are weaved into the National identity. Heck, their national animal is a unicorn, for crying out loud. The Fairy Glen near the village of Uig in the Isle of Skye is where Lamia and Ditchwater Sal meet near the beginning of the film and it’s a truly enchanting backdrop and an amazing place to visit.

Skellig Michael as seen in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

Where:  Skelling Islands, Co. Kerry, Ireland

This is the fourth and final time Ireland is appearing on this list of iconic movie locations you can actually visit, but this is possibly the most popular movie location of them all. Despite its remoteness. And it’s thanks to a little film series called Star Wars.  Skellig Michael plays the role of the faraway planet named Ahch-To where Luke Skywalker is in hiding at the end of  The Force Awakens  (2015) and nearly all of The Last Jedi.  The little puffins that populate the UNESCO World Heritage Site were morphed into porgs via CGI. Because if you weren’t already dying to visit Skelling Michael, YES, there are puffins!

Spanish Steps as seen in The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)

Where:  Piazza di Spagna, 00187 Roma RM, Italy

Read more: The Talented Mr Ripley Filming Locations in Italy

There aren’t many wanderlust-inspiring thrillers out there. Probably because the words “wanderlust” and “murder” don’t tend to pair well together. But they do in The Talented Mr Ripley  where Matt Damon’s Tom Ripley cons and lies his way around the Italian islands, Rome and Venice. Tom hides at the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome while spying on his pals, and I suppose if you’re going to cheat your way to the top you may as well do it somewhere bloody lovely like Rome.

Riesenrad Ferris Wheel as seen in The Third Man (1949)

Where:  Riesenradplatz 1, 1020 Wien, Vienna, Austria

Read more: The Third Man Filming Locations in Vienna, Austria

The Riesenrad Viennese Ferris Wheel not only features in the black and white classic film  The Third Man,  but it’s where Celine and Jesse share their first kiss in  Before Sunrise  (1995) . It first opened in 1897 which might put some people off for safety reasons but you have to admit, they don’t make ’em like this anymore! It’s still one of the most popular tourist attractions in Vienna and an iconic filming location.

Hotel Carlton as seen in To Catch a Thief (1955)

Where:  58 Boulevard de la Croisette Cs 40052, 06400 Cannes, France

Read more: To Catch a Thief Filming Locations in the South of France

Alfred Hitchcock shot his South of France-based crime movie To Catch a Thief all over the area including Monaco, Nice and of course Cannes. The Croisette is the main beach-front street lined with glitzy hotels, including the Hotel Carlton which is where Grace Kelly’s character stays in the film. This is a shooting location you can absolutely visit, providing you have a few ££ to pay for a room!

Tibidabo Amusement Park as seen in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Where:  Plaça del Tibidabo, 3, 4, 08035 Barcelona, Spain

Read more: Vicky Cristina Barcelona Film Locations in Barcelona and Oviedo, Spain

There’s barely a cobbled side street, bar or tourist attraction in  Vicky Cristina Barcelona  doesn’t feature. So it would be odd if the Tibidabo Amusement Park didn’t pop up eventually! It’s a fairground that sits on Mount Tibidabo literally on the edge of the Catalonian capital city and the views are absolutely stunning. Bet you didn’t think there would be so many Ferris wheels on this list of famous movie locations.

Haweswater Reservoir as seen in Withnail & I (1989)

Where:  Bampton, Penrith, CA10 2RP England

Read more: Withnail & I Filming Locations in the Lake District, UK

This is one of the best filming locations near me, the ginger woman writing this list, so I had to include it! Withnail & I is a British comedy classic shot in several places around the village of Shap in Cumbria, Northwest England. The out-of-work London actors who travel up here on holiday (by mistake) walk along the banks of Haweswater Reservoir not far from their cosy cottage. If you’ve not seen it, it’s one of the best movies filmed near me and I fully recommend it.

Famous Movie Locations in Africa

Aït benhaddou as seen in gladiator (2000).

Where:  Douar Ait Ben Haddou, Ait Ben Haddou 45000 Morocco

Read more: Gladiator Filming Locations in Morocco, Malta & Elsewhere

Can you actually believe a place like this exists on Earth?! Luckily it does because a lot of movies have utilised Aït Benhaddou in Morocco , a tiny fortified UNESCO World Heritage site town, as a movie location. Aside from Gladiator, The Mummy  (1999),  Alexander  (2004),  Kingdom of Heaven  (2005), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time  (2010), and  Game of Thrones  have all shot scenes here.

Masai Mara as seen in Out of Africa (1985)

Where:  Ngiro-are Road, Kenya

Perhaps the most difficult of all the iconic filming locations to travel to, but absolutely the most rewarding. The Meryl Streep and Robert Redford epic Out of Africa was shot on location in Kenya’s Masai Mara . Head there during the Great Migration between May and December and hopefully, you’ll find zebras, wildebeest, lions and leopards as well as the gorgeous landscape.

Sidi Idriss Hotel as seen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Where:  Matmatat-Al-Qadimal, Tunisia

There are many hotels on this list of the most famous movie locations in the world. Partly because they’re one of the easiest filming locations to visit! You just book a room and boom, job done. But there’s something particularly special about the Sidi Idriss Hotel in Tunisia . It stood in for Luke Skywalker’s ranch back on Tattooine in  Star Wars Episode III: A New Hope and it’s still open today. And it looks exactly the same today as it did 40 years ago.

Famous Movie Locations in Asia

Maya bay as seen in the beach (2000).

Where:  Koh Phi Phi Le, Ao Nang Thailand

Read more: The Beach Filming Locations in Thailand

This is the most-visited beach in Thailand. And though you may have heard it closed in 2018 , from personal experience, I can tell you that boat trips still enter the cove and you can snorkel in the waters. You just can’t (currently) set foot on the beach.  Maya Bay in Koh Phi Phi Lei  is where Danny Boyle filmed his backpacker movie  The Beach  and with some CGI trickery made it seem closed off from the rest of the world. Just like in the movie!

Hongcun Ancient Village as seen in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)

Where: Northwest Corner, Yi County 245500 China

China doesn’t feature in Western films too often, so the best we have is Hongcun Ancient Village  which was featured in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon  directed by Taiwanese American director Ang Lee. It may have been an untouched, almost abandoned village once but now it’s very popular with tourists. Fun fact: the village is built in the shape of an ox head, with a nearby mountain as the face and houses lining the river as the horns.

Lebua State Tower as seen in The Hangover Part II (2011)

Where:  1055 Si Lom, Silom, Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500, Thailand

Read more: The Hangover Part II Filming Locations in Bangkok

Bangkok is known for its rooftop bars and one of the fanciest, shmanciest of them all is the Lebua bar at the State Tower . This is where Bradley Cooper & Co. attempts to strike a deal with Paul Giamatti to get themselves out of hot water and find the bride’s younger brother in The Hangover Part II . If you go to the bar (and you absolutely should!), order the Hangovertini. It’s a special cocktail that was concocted for the cast and crew that’s still on the menu.

Petra as seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Where:  Petra – Wadi Musa 77110 Jordan

Read more:  17 Best Movies Set in Venice, Italy to Inspire Your Trip

Named by UNESCO as, “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage”, it’s no wonder everyone’s favourite whip-cracking archaeologist visited here in the third film. Petra, Jordan  (dubbed the Rose City because of its pink-hued sandy colour) is a bucket list location in its own right. A wonderfully preserved, subterranean city that is unlike anything else in the world. And  it’s a filming location in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ? Win-win!

Angkor Thom as seen in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

Where:  Angkor Archaeological Park ក្រុងសៀមរាប, 17000, Cambodia

Angkor Wat might be the biggest religious complex in the world, but Angkor Thom in Cambodia was the last standing capital city of the Khmer Empire. And  it’s a location in the very noughties film  Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.  The temple is quite a stunning sight, not just because of the sheer size and age, but the nature that has reclaimed the monument. As with Petra, it really is a wonder in and of itself, even if the temple wasn’t a filming location.

Park Hyatt Hotel as seen in Lost in Translation (2003)

Where:  3-7-1-2, Nishishinjuku, Tokyo 163-1055, Japan

For relaxing times, make it Suntory time. I’d say sleeping in a £££-per-night hotel room in the centre of Tokyo must be quite relaxing too, eh? Once you get over the shock of how much you’re spending. But think of the thread count. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson’s characters are staying in the Park Hyatt Hotel when they form an unlikely friendship as a way to cope with their loneliness in  Lost in Translation.

Phang Nga Bay as seen in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Where:  Ao Phang Nga National Park 81180 Thailand

Read more: The Man with the Golden Gun Filming Locations in Thailand

Christopher Lee’s thrice-nippled Bond baddie Scaramanga owned one hell of an island, which is now a very popular attraction. But if you’re a film fan, it’s one worth visiting! James Bond Island in Phang Nga Bay  is just off the northeast coast of Phuket and it’s very easy to reach via boat trip. Let’s just hope you don’t get caught up in any duels ala  The Man with the Golden Gun  while you’re there.

Burj Khalifa as seen in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

Where:  1 Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Blvd, Dubai UAE

Personal note: I saw  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol  in IMAX twice when it was released. And both times when Tom Cruise scaled the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai , literally the tallest building in the world, I was a sweating wreck of a woman. My feet melted into jelly. But I was fascinated that the film made me react so viscerally that I had to go back for more. 

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus as seen in Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Where:  Dhobi Talao, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Area, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001, India

It’s very possible that India produces more Bollywood films per year than America produces Hollywood films. So there must be hundreds of amazing Bollywood filming locations in India! However, the exterior of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj train station in Mumbai where  Slumdog Millionaire  ends is just gorgeous and so ornate, it had to be included.

Famous Movie Locations in Australasia

King’s canyon as seen in the adventures of priscilla, queen of the desert (1994).

Where:  Petermann NT 0872, Australia

One of my favourite queer films,  The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert  follows three drag performers who travel from Sydney to Alice Springs for a show in an old bus named Priscilla. The three protagonists dress in their Gladrags at the end of the film and stand on top of King’s Canyon in the Northern Territory . They did consider Uluru or Ayer’s Rock for the location, but it’s a sacred structure. Their path was hilariously renamed ‘Priscilla’s Crack’ so you can literally follow in their footsteps!

Hobbiton as seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Where:  501 Buckland Road, Matamata 3472, New Zealand

Who wouldn’t want to stay for tea at Bilbo Baggins’ house in Bag End? The studio set of Hobbiton, which was built for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, is open to visitors and Hobbits alike. There are so many iconic movie locations from the series around New Zealand, but this is the most accessible to visitors. And honestly, doesn’t it look outstanding? So much detail and creativity. Let’s just hope you don’t spot Gollum or any Black Riders when you visit…

Pine Oak Court as seen in Neighbours (1985-Present)

Where:  Vermont South VIC 3133, Australia

I know few people outside of the UK and Australia have heard of the hit soap opera Neighbours.  Far fewer think it’s good, and even fewer actually watch it. I’m in that latter category, so this entry is purely self-indulgent. I actually have “ making a pilgrimage to Ramsay Street “, the fictional Neighbours neighbourhood (called Pine Oak Court in Melbourne in real life) on my bucket list. But you can’t blame me. Apparently, it’s where good neighbours become good friends.

Famous Movie Locations in the USA

Devil’s tower as seen in close encounters of the third kind (1977).

Where:  WY-110, Devils Tower, WY 82714, USA

Before it was a makeshift helicopter pad for otherworldly beings in Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Devil’s Tower in Wyoming was the USA’s first national monument and a sacred place for indigenous tribes. The shape of this rock formation is striking and super important to the plot of the film. It might not be the easiest shooting location in the USA to visit, but I bet it’s one of the most fascinating. Apparently, you can rock climb it! Haha, no thanks. That will happen the day I follow Tom Cruise up the Burj Khalifa.

Route 66 as seen in Easy Rider (1969)

Where:  Chicago Illinois to Los Angeles, California USA

Read more:  50 Best American Movies to Inspire a Trip to Every State

Not one of the most famous movie locations that you can easily visit today, but one of the coolest! Easy Rider romanticises the hippie and free love generation. And driving down Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles (or vice versa) is a dream for many petrolheads and fans of Americana from this bygone era.

They may have shot the film on the real Route 66, but the old highway looks a lot different today. More direct, larger freeways redirected traffic away from the iconic route. So, many of the motels with neon signs, restaurants with checkered tablecloths and kitschy roadside attractions have sold up shop.

Art Institute of Chicago as seen in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Where:  111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603, USA

One day, a ballsy teenager named Ferris Bueller decided to skip school and have an unforgettable day off in his hometown of Chicago. In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, he and his pals steal an expensive car, sing and dance on a parade float and admire some hella expensive and famous art at the Art Institute of Chicago . Kids stuff, you know? It is a really amazing gallery, though. The institute features notable works like American Gothic, Water Lillies and Pablo Picasso self-portraits.

Monument Valley as seen in Forrest Gump (1994)

Where:  Indian Route 42, Oljato-Monument Valley, AZ 84536, USA

At least Forrest didn’t stop running before  he reached Monument Valley in Arizona . At least he actually got to see this crazy beautiful, sacred place before heading home! The sandstone buttes in the Navajo tribal park have been immortalised in cinema time and time again. Before Forrest Gump,  there was  Stagecoach  (1939),  Once Upon a Time in the West  (1968),  National Lampoon’s Vacation  (1983),  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade  (1989) and  Back to the Future Part III  (1990). And there are just SO many others! It’s one of the most famous movie locations in the world.

New York Public Library as seen in Ghostbusters (1984)

Where:  476 5th Avenue, New York City, NY 10018, USA

You might be thinking, “but the Firehouse is the most famous movie location in  Ghostbusters !” And you might be right. But the New York City Public Library is iconic and featured in  so  many films. Aside from the ghoul-chasing comedy series,  Breakfast at Tiffany’s  (1961),  The Thomas Crown Affair  (1999),  Spider-Man  (2002) and  Sex And The City: The Movie  (2008) are just  some  of the other films shot here.

Salvation Mountain as seen in Into the Wild (2007)

Where:  Beal Road, Calipatria, CA 92233, USA

There’s some phenomenal Alaskan scenery in  Into The Wild , but this list is all about accessible shooting locations. Salvation Mountain in California  might also be a little hard to reach, but it’s worth it. Built as a tribute to Jesus and the Christian faith, it’s unlike any other expression of love in the world. Some parts of the “mountain” are open for others to express their own love via spray paint.

Martha’s Vineyard as seen in Jaws (1975)

Where:  Martha’s Vineyard, MA 02539-8137, USA

Luckily, the shark in Jaws  was animatronic and not based on a true story. Otherwise, no one would want to visit this famous filming location! Standing in for Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts  is popular with holidaymakers and keen fishermen. It provides the idyllic backdrop for a deadly troublemaker to send ripples of fear throughout the island. But how on earth did they manage to make four Jaws  movies? Surely, you’d never get people to go back after the second time.

Griffith Observatory as seen in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Where: 2800 East Observatory Road, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA

So many films are shot in LA every year. Like,  so  many. Hundreds. It’s where all the major studios are situated therefore it’s a convenient location to set and shoot movies. But Griffith Observatory  might just offer the most Hollywood glamour out of any other LA movie location. James Dean’s Rebel Without A Cause  shot here, as well as  La La Land  (2016). It doesn’t hurt that it offers a dreamy viewpoint of LA and is a beautiful building.

Philadelphia Museum of Art as seen in Rocky (1976)

Where:  2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130, USA

One of the only famous movie locations where you need to have a base level of fitness to fully reenact the iconic scene. I think a few laps around the block is worth it to run up the famous Rocky steps outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art .  Rocky ‘s budget was less than $1 million and it grossed 225 times that amount at the box office. It was a phenomenon at the time, and it’s legendary now. Just like Balboa himself.

Edmund Pettus Bridge as seen in Selma (2014)

Where:  Selma, AL 36703, USA

With a story as important as  Selma ‘s, sometimes the real deal is the only location that is good enough. Reimagining the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march lead by Martin Luther King Jr, the Edmund Pettus Bridge was where the march began. And though the rest of the film shot in Georgia, this is exactly where director Ava DuVernay shot this important scene. An important movie location and an important monument in America’s history.

Timberline Lodge as seen in The Shining (1980)

Where:  27500 East Timberline Road, Government Camp, OR 97028, USA

The ski lodge that inspired the original Stephen King novel is in Colorado (where the film is set) but the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining  is actually Timberline Lodge in Oregon . Don’t worry, you won’t get nightmares if you book a stay here. While the exterior shot in Oregon, director Stanley Kubrick shot the interiors in a London Studio. So cast any thoughts of creepy girls, blood tsunamis and axes from your mind… It’s just a cute, wintery lodge! Nothing murdery happening here.

Dead Horse Point State Park as seen in Thelma & Louise (1991)

Where:  UT-313, Moab, UT 84532, USA

One of the biggest lies the movies ever told: Thelma and Louise might plunge to their deaths in the Grand Canyon, Arizona in the movie, but in real life, that scene was shot at Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah . But you’d never tell because it’s also a jaw-droppingly amazing canyon that’s almost 6,000 feet deep spanning thousands of acres. So I think, with everything considered, we can forgive Thelma & Louise for their deception.

Golden Gate Bridge as seen in Vertigo (1958)

Where:  San Francisco, CA, USA

Alfred Hitchcock’s  Vertigo  is regularly voted one of the best movies of all time. It’s also got some cracking movie locations around the city of San Francisco. The most iconic movie location from the film has to be the  Golden Gate Bridge . The brick-red suspension bridge is one of the most famous monuments in the country and really needs to be appreciated in real life to truly understand its scale and magnificence. Just don’t jump into the Bay as Madeleine does in the movie; not a clever idea.

Katz’s Delicatessen as seen in When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Where:  205 East Houston Street, New York, NY 10002, USA

When Harry Met Sally is one of the best movies of all time! It’s basically a perfect film, don’t fight me. And Katz’s Deli in NYC is one of the most famous movie locations in the USA. Not only can you sit at the table where Sally fakes an orgasm to prove a point (if the restaurant isn’t absolutely rammed, which it normally is), but you can also order deli-cious over-stuffed sandwiches too. Gosh, aren’t movie locations just the gift that keeps on giving?

Famous Movie Locations in North & South America

Prairie mountain as seen in brokeback mountain (2005).

Where:  Kananaskis, AB T0L 0K0, Canada

Read more: Brokeback Mountain Filming Locations in Canada & the USA

There are so many films that shoot in Canada as a stand-in for somewhere else. Which is a shame, because Canada has  so  many beautiful locations! It should be able to claim a few for itself. The Canadian Rockies feature more than a few times as a stand-in for US northern states. In  Brokeback Mountain,  Prairie Mountain in Alberta acts as a mountain range in Wyoming where Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal’s cowboys develop a romantic relationship.

Iguazu Falls as seen in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull (2008)

Where:  Misiones Province, Argentina and Paraná, Brazil

Indiana Jones sure gets about a bit. First, he’s hitting up Petra, one of the seven man-made wonders of the world, and now he’s tackling one of the seven natural wonders of the world in Iguazu Falls in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Situated on the border between Argentina and Brazil, it’s actually a system of approx. 275 falls that make up the world’s largest waterfall.

Machu Picchu as seen in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

Where:  08680, Peru

If anyone’s counting,  Machu Picchu in Peru makes this the third and final wonder of the world on this list of famous movie locations. The Incan city is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But what isn’t at this point? Every item on this list is beautiful, famous, awe-inspiring or all three.

Gael García Bernal’s Che Guevara visits Machu Picchu during the biographical film The Motorcycle Diaries.  Production really went all out, because so many of the films were true-to-life, including this citadel. The lush green forests, the cloud-topped mountains… The locations really are beautiful, and this is a seminal South American film.

Bahia De Cacaluta Beach as seen in Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Where:  Santa María Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico

Speaking of Mexican actor Gael García Bernal… His role as a teenage boy on a road trip with his best friend and an older woman in Y Tu Mamá También  was his big, break-out role. The three spend the movie driving out to Boca del Cielo , which means Mouth of Heaven, a fictitious beach. Luckily, the real beach, Bahia De Cacaluta in Oaxaca, Mexico , is just as beautiful as you’d hope.

And those are the most iconic, famous movie locations you can visit around the world! Have you visited any of these movie stop locations or wanted to? Let me know in the comments below!

Read next:  50 Best American Movies to Inspire a Trip to Every State

Hey! I wrote this. And I'm the human (and hair) behind Almost Ginger. I live for visiting filming locations, attending top film festivals and binge-watching travel inspiring films. I'm here to inspire you to do the same! Get in touch by leaving a comment or contacting me directly: [email protected] .

5 thoughts on “ 75+ Famous Movie Locations You Can ACTUALLY Visit! ”

As I was reading through these locations, I wanted to stay on the mail list, so I did not click on any of the links. Bur I would like to add a couple things, filmed at the Trivi Fountain was also 3 Coins in a Fountain and I think Rome Adventure too. John Wayne or maybe John Ford loved filming the westerns in Monument Valley. Yentl featured one of the bridges approaching Prague with a city view of the Black Church and towers. And a correction, “Star Wars, A New Hope” was episode IV, not III. It was the 1st of the saga. I was watching it in the theater for the third time in 1977 when I went into labor with my 1st child!!! I plan on using this list to try to see movie sites in places I may be visiting on our next trip. Thanks!!!

No problem! You can always right-click on a link and choose ‘open in a new tab’ to read afterwards if you wanted. Oh, you’re totally right, there are so many filming locations that are used more than once, I couldn’t possibly add them all! It would make for a very, very long post. The Trevi Fountain is definitely most notable for appearing in La Dolce Vita, so that’s why I chose that one to focus on. It looks like I put Episode IV for ‘A New Hope’ unless I wrote it incorrectly elsewhere and I can’t find it? So please you liked the post! 😀

That is amazing research, and soooo interesting! I’ve only seen just a few of them (and missed on la bocca della verita because the line was too long for my impatient self), but It really makes me want to add them all to my bucket list! Thank you so much for all that info. Can I just add that the Spanish Steps in Rome were also one of the filming locations of Roman Holiday. At one point, you can see Audrey Hepburn sitting on the steps eating gelato 😉 Congrats on that amazing post!

Thank you so much for that lovely comment! 😀 Yes it was a very long line, I also didn’t wait haha! You’re absolutely right, the Spanish Steps were a filming location in Roman Holiday and it’s listed in my ‘Roman Holiday Filming Locations in Rome, Italy’ blog post along with a photo of Audrey eating said gelato 😉 It’s such a great film!

I second that 🙂 Congrats on your blog, by the way. Like I said, it makes me want to go everywhere and see it all 🙂

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101 places all movie lovers should visit

From Harry Potter’s station platform to the Rocky Steps: a bucket list of must-visit spots for film fans

Photograph: Hobbiton Movie Set

Remember the last time you went somewhere – anywhere – exciting? After a year parked on the sofa, movies have become our passports to strange, exotic places. With that sense of escapism in mind, we’ve mapped out 101 places around the world that offer something for every film fan, cinephile and pop-culture nerd. It ticks off everything from legendary film locations, to studio tours, to movie museums, to delis where you should always have what Meg Ryan is having. There are three lots of iconic staircases, a prison or two, a couple of boats, and at least one crashed train. And if none of that tickles your DVD collection, look out for the high school where Ferris skivved off and the Breakfast Club did detention. Oh, and you can check into the cinema hotel where you dial ‘007’ for room service. Happy trails. NB: Most of the locations on this list are either reopening or planning to reopen. Check with their official sites by clicking on the main images for the latest info. From Cape Town to Amsterdam: these are the 50 most beautiful cinemas in the world .

An email you’ll actually love

1.  Platform 9¾, London

Harry Potter famously left for Hogwarts by running through a King’s Cross Station wall and emerging at Platform 9¾. Possibly to discourage people from attempting it, the station has its own magical Potter photo op: a luggage trolley embedded into a wall between the real platforms 8 and 9, providing the joyful illusion that you’re heading for Hogsmeade Station rather than, say, Leeds. Neighbouring St Pancras Station, with its more striking gothic facade, was used for the station’s exterior shots – a decision that had Londoners grumbling about accuracy in a movie that also features a flying car and a bank run by goblins. It’s a cottage industry these days, with a professional photographer on hand to capture the moment and a Harry Potter shop nearby. Then you can hop on the Met line to Watford and see the whole platform recreated at the franchise’s studio tour.  Phil de Semlyen  

Fun fact  Platform 9¾ was actually filmed between platforms 4 and 5, where the Victorian brickwork is more substantial than on the real 9 and 10. 

🎬 Read our review of  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

📍Discover more of the best things to do in London

2.  Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia

The obvious reason to stop in at this ex-prison-turned-museum in central Philly is to visit the surprisingly primly appointed cell where Al Capone once spent seven months. But as any 1 2 Monkeys stan will tell you, it also held Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt when it stood in for the movie’s psychiatric hospital. ‘This photo shows cell blocks 210 and 211,’ says Eastern State’s senior VP Sean Kelley, ‘where the film’s main asylum scenes were shot.’ Eastern State has also stood in for a Malaysian prison in Vince Vaughn drugs drama Return to Paradise and Drago’s Russian gym in Creed 2 , though the latter ended up on the cutting room floor. These days, Eastern State discourages filming – ‘It’s in a beautiful state of decay,’ says Kelley, ‘but it’s difficult to make it look like an active prison’ – but welcomes all comers for a wander and/or an IPA in a new beer garden that’s run with a socially conscious local brewery . Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The audio tour is narrated by Steve Buscemi, who once scouted the location for his own prison drama Animal Factory . 

🎬 Read our review of 12 Monkeys

📍Discover more of the best things to do in Philadelphia

3.  The Stanley Hotel, Colorado

It’s amazing to think people actually choose to stay at Colorado’s Stanley Hotel. Sure, this secluded retreat in the Rocky Mountains is renowned for its lush grounds and epic views – but, y’know, have you seen The Shining ? This is the place author Stephen King and wife Tabitha made a brief sojourn, only to find the hotel eerily empty and cut off from the outside the world. It was once a health retreat for tuberculosis sufferers, built by Yankee steam-powered car inventor Freeman Oscar Stanley, but later became a luxury resort and is now a major tourist destination for the movie’s legions of dedicated fans. Whatever you do, avoid room 237. Huw Oliver Fun fact  You should also avoid room 217. That was the room King and his wife actually stayed in. It’s said to be haunted, owing to an electrical explosion that gravely injured the hotel’s chief housekeeper in 1911. 

🎬 Read our review of The Shining

4.  St Abbs, Scotland

Welcome to New Asgard: Better known as St Abbs, a harbourside hamlet in Berwickshire about the size of Thor’s actual abs and the only fishing village in the Marvelverse. Retooling it to represent Tønsberg in Norway in  Avengers: Endgame , directors Joe and Anthony Russo set up camp here during production. It’s where Chris Hemsworth’s Norse god comes to nurse his sorrows – and several hundred beers – until his fellow Avengers cajole him out of it. If he’d stayed he might have enjoyed the coastal walks, clifftop views and top-notch scuba diving. There’s no pub in the harbour but you can pick up one of the Ebbcarrs Cafe’s enviable lemon curd sponges. Which might explain Thor’s waistline. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  Thor’s New Asgard local, The Cormorant and Tun, can be found at 6 Seaview Terrace (though it’s a house not a pub).

🎬 Read our review of Avengers: Endgame

5.  Alien Museum, Barcelona

Think you love Alien ? Meet Luis Escribano, an Alien fan so dedicated to the sci-fi-horror masterpiece, and the Aliens franchise as a whole, that he’s slowly rebuilding it round the corner from his Barcelona home . He really loves Alien . His immersive 70-square-metre museum features a stretch of corridor from the USCSS Nostromo, part of the shuttle Narcissus, Ash’s lab and a section of the Hadley’s Hope settlement from Aliens, even an Alien³ set. If you fancy taking the hour-long guided tour (€20), message Escribano on Instagram or email [email protected] . On display are costumes, props, and even the odd pulse rifle. Just keep an eye out for the facehugger. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The museum is keeping pace with the franchise: on display is one of the Engineer’s ampules from Prometheus , signed by Ridley Scott.  🎬 Read our review of Alien

6.  The Hollywood Museum, Los Angeles

Tons of joints in Hollywood claim to conjure that old sense of silver-screen glamour, but only one literally created it. Polish-born beautician Maksymilian Faktorowicz started out selling wigs in LA, and by the 1920s he occupied this impressive art deco building with his Max Factor cosmetics company, which both created and cornered the industry and consumer markets for screen-ready make-up. Lucille Ball’s red curls? Marilyn Monroe’s blonde locks (supposedly)? You can thank Max Factor for that, and the Hollywood Museum ’s collection is stocked with all sorts of make-up tins and beauty contraptions. But the bulk of the exhibition space is dedicated to decades-spanning displays of props and costumes – some playfully silly, like the Dungeon of Doom and its recreation of Hannibal Lecter’s jail cell. Michael Juliano 

Fun fact  When you walk into the pink lobby, look for the doors that led to the original make-up rooms, each with a sign that designates whether it was for redheads, blonds, brunettes or ‘brownettes’.  🎬 Read our review of The Silence of the Lambs

📍Discover more of the best things to do in Los Angeles

7.  Maine North High School, Illinois

We wouldn’t usually point you towards a police station (maybe the one in The Terminator ), but this high school-turned-cop-shop has insane movie pedigree. Say hello to Shermer High, the seat of learning for just about every sporto, motorhead, geek, blood, waistoid and dweebie in a John Hughes movie – plus the odd righteous dude. Maine North High School closed in 1981 but it was used in both The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – along with Hughes’s own alma mater, Glenbrook North, eight miles across the north Chicago burbs. Nowadays, the building is used by the Illinois State Police and the sports fields are townhouses. Judd Nelson-style Insta poses have to happen on the tarmac. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The school gets a misspelt credit at the end of The Breakfast Club as ‘Main High School’. Way to upset a school, guys.

🎬 Read our review of The Breakfast Club

8.  Hobbiton, New Zealand

The marketability of movie sets has its limits – it’s hard to imagine queues round the block to visit The Village – though not in this corner of Middle-earth. Originally built for The Lord of the Rings movies, then re-upped more permanently for The Hobbit films, Hobbiton is one of the keepers: a perfectly preserved mini hamlet on a 1,250-acre New Zealand sheep farm that has morphed from film set to tourist gold just swimmingly. All Frodo’s favourite spots – Bag End, the Party Tree, Bagshot Row – are present and correct on the tours. Our pick? The Second Breakfast tour for hungry hobbitses. Getting there (and back) from Auckland is an easy drive. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  A Pennsylvania architect and Tolkien nut commissioned his own Hobbit house , complete with a 54-inch round hobbit door.  

🎬Read our review of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

9.  Ice Q, Austria 

This gleaming bar-restaurant 3,048 metres up in the Alpine resort of Sölden looks like the sort of place Bond villains go for after-work drinks. It has its own space-aged cable car, a gourmet restaurant and, since Spectre filmed here in 2015, a James Bond exhibition for anyone looking to keep the British end up after a long day’s skiing. In the movie it was the clinic where 007 meets Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) and then a big old mountain chase kicks off. The exhibition has more of a Bond villain lair set-up, with slick visuals complemented by ridiculous views of the Alps. You’ll get a look at how that big action scene came together and the chance to check out some vintage Bond props (Scaramanga’s golden gun is on display). When you’ve had a browse, best bet is to head to the bar and order a Vesper martini in an ostentatious fashion. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  Because the ice base beneath it moves, the building’s foundations are also movable. Which is apparently not as terrifying as it sounds. 🎬 Read our review of Spectre

10.  The Forrest Gump bench, Georgia

Any reason to visit the stunning squares of Savannah, with their oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, is a good one. But we’ll be honest: we’re cheating a little here. The actual bench that Tom Hanks sat on in  Forrest Gump  is in a local museum a few streets away ( the Savannah History Museum ). But there’s certainly a bench on the north edge of Chippewa Square, where, in the movie, there was also a bus stop at which Gump would sit and tell his colourful life story (‘Life… box of chocolates… etc’) to random strangers, offering them a chocolate for their troubles. You can visit the location and then check out the real bench at the museum within a few blocks. A bench is just a bench though; Chippewa Square is a little gem, a tranquil shady spot, surely about as pleasant as Hanks himself. Dave Calhoun

Fun fact  They used several fibreglass benches to shoot those scenes in Forrest Gump . Only one ended up in the museum.

🎬 Read our review of Forrest Gump

11.  Museum of the Moving Image, New York

Manhattan gets the glory, but, just across the East River, Queens offers a handful of really worthwhile museums. One is the Museum of the Moving Image, which sits on the Kaufman Astoria Studios complex (built back in 1920), where, famously, the TV series Sesame Street  is shot. MoMI leans into this heritage: it has a great ongoing Jim Henson exhibition, where you can trace his career and play around with his methods. There’s also a corner where kids can experiment with stop-motion animation. Both are strong reasons to bring little ones along to this unstuffy celebration of TV and film, while exhibits dedicated to old camera equipment and filmmaking techniques are more geared to adults. The museum also has an impressive cinema – good for catching classics – and also runs outdoor screenings. It’s a great reason to venture to Queens. Dave Calhoun

Fun fact   The first two films featuring the Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), were shot at the Astoria Studios.

🎬 Read our review of  The Cocoanuts

📍Discover the best museums in New York

12.  The State Central Film Museum, Moscow

The  Muzey Kino is the place to head for an epic trawl through Russian and Soviet cinema, from A(ndrei Rublev) to Z(vyagintsev). Weirdly, Russia is not overly blessed with cinema museums, but this one, opened in 1989, does all the heavy lifting with a huge archive (there are 20,000 film posters alone), three cinemas and a ton of rare materials delving into everything from montage cinema to the epics of Sergei Eisenstein. It’s an entire film studies module under one neoclassical roof. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  Sergei Eisenstein’s front room is on display ( pictured ), complete with his furniture, photos given to him by Chaplin and Einstein and a portrait painted for him by Parisian socialite Kiki. 

13.  The Ghostbusters Firehouse, New York

Of all of the fantastical things to happen in the paranormal comedy Ghostbusters , one of the most unbelievable is that its rag-tag group of scientists are able to somehow buy an entire empty firehouse in the middle of downtown Manhattan. (They ain’t ’fraid of no broker’s fees!) But we digress. Firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company 8, the still fully operational firehouse with a starring role in the 1984 film, is one of the rare famous film locations in NYC that’s still in pristine shape. In fact, it looks like it was just airdropped onto Varick Street straight from a studio backlot. (That’s largely thanks to a multi-million dollar renovation that just finished in 2018.) It’s a must-visit spot for any Ghostbusters fan who can be certain they’ll walk away with a Class 5 Insta shot from their pilgrimage – whether they’re a keymaster or a gatekeeper. Will Gleason

Fun fact  The firehouse is so famous it even has its own Playmobil set .

🎬 Read our review of Ghostbusters

📍 Which are the New York landmarks that New Yorkers love ?

14.  Royal Theater, Texas

Turns out it wasn’t the last picture show in The Last Picture Show . The declining Texas cinema in the 1971 Best Picture nominee is now thriving in author-screenwriter Larry McMurtry’s old hometown of Archer City. In the movie, it’s closing down after a final screening of Red River . When Jeff Bridges, Cloris Leachman, Cybill Shepherd and co rolled into town, it really was just a shell after a fire six years earlier (the interiors were filmed in another Texas theatre). Thanks to a $250,000 rebuild led by local businessman Abby Abernathy, it’s a working theatre again: plays and gigs, mostly, with the occasional movie screening – including the black-and-white one that made it famous. The film evokes mixed feelings here. ‘Archer City is a bible belt town and it was split down the middle during filming,’ remembers Abernathy. ‘Half objected to what was seen as an X-rated movie being shot here. Today, I don’t think they really care.’ Film fans stop by regularly to grab a selfie – and see that monochrome cinema in full colour. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The theatre features on this handy map put together by the Texas Film Commission. Look out for Paris, Texas and Office Space locations – and Southfork Ranch from Dallas (obvs). 🎬Read our review of The Last Picture Show

15.  Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad

Officially the world’s biggest film studios , Ramoji’s colossal scale is best explained in stats: More than 350 Hindi films made every year, 47 soundstages, 1,600 acres, six hotels, countless sets and at least one bird park. Its founder, Telugu film producer Ramoji Rao, created it as India’s answer to a Hollywood studio, but it’s more like India’s answer to all the Hollywood studios sellotaped together. This is where Baahubali , India’s most expensive movie franchise, was filmed. If its scale is breathtaking, so is its familiar array of Indian landmarks: the Taj Mahal, Mysore’s Brindavan Gardens and the Buland Darwaza are all replicated here in loving detail. Cute red buses ferry wide-eyed tourists around daily to soak up the sights and partake in live shows offering kitschy versions of the serious business going on around the studio. Oh, and there’s a theme park too. Because why not? Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  If you want to visit the home of Bollywood, head for Mumbai Filmcity. Tours will take you right into the heart of India’s song-and-dance spectaculars.

16.  Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it’s the Netherlands’ movie museum and archive , a building with big Imperial-base-on-the-Ice-Planet-Hoth energy that’s just as bleeding edge inside as out. Within, you’ll find four cinemas, a film poster gallery, 1,500 bits of rare filmmaking gadgetry (a Mutoscope, Mitchell Camera and Kinamo among them) and enough fun, kid-friendly explainers to turn your wee’un into Martin Scorsese. This is where you can watch The Hateful Eight in 70mm, catch the Stanley Kubrick exhibition or just mosey around some eye-popping visual art. Skip the Rijksmuseum next time and give it a whirl. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  It’s located among the galleries and bars of the newly developed Amsterdam-Noord and is  a free ferry ride from Centraal Station. 

17.  Museum of Modern Art, New York 

It may be more famous for its collection of abstract paintings and sculptures, but MoMA is also a spot every film lover should visit while they’re in NYC. Founded in 1935, its Film Library includes 30,000 films and 1.5 million film stills. From its 50-year-old New Directors/New Films festival (presented in association with Film at Lincoln Center ) to its regular screenings of rare and classic films, there’s generally something taking place every day at the midtown institution for cinephiles to take advantage of. Even better, the museum’s current virtual cinema programme presents a curated selection of fantastic films online, hand-picked by museum curators. (The schedule also features new films every week as well as Q&As with filmmakers.) It’s a spot where you can both peer into cinema’s past while also catching its future. Will Gleason

Fun fact  Among the museum’s holdings are original negatives of the Biograph and Edison companies and the world’s largest collection of DW Griffith films.

📍Discover New York’s must-visit museums

18.  Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles

Plenty of places have a DeLorean, and a couple even have a movie-used stunt version, but only one place has the DeLorean, the most used and detailed version – flux capacitor and all – from the set of Back to the Future . Only a slice of Petersen’s  motorised collection is dedicated to movie cars, but they go beyond the obvious icons with unexpected picks (the yellow VW bus from Little Miss Sunshine , Walter White’s Pontiac Aztec) and behind-the-scenes inclusions (a motorcycle with a pair of sidecar seats for filming). But for the most recognisable automobiles, the collection tends to go the extra mile, including the art deco Keaton-era Batmobile and the cartoonish West-era Batcycle, vehicles from both Blade Runners and a real-life recreation of Lightning McQueen. Michael Juliano 

Fun fact  There are another 250 cars stowed beneath the museum in a garage dubbed ‘the Vault’, which you can visit with an additional ticket. Look out for Knight Rider ’s KITT and Steve McQueen’s personal Jaguar while you’re there.

📍Discover more of the   best things to do in Los Angeles

19.  Mad Max 2 Museum, New South Wales

V8 Interceptors, props and other Mad Max -abilia adorn what has to be the world’s first and only museum to a sequel. Unexpectedly, this Aussie temple to Mad Max 2 is the passion project of a Pommie enthusiast, Adrian Bennett, who followed his lifelong love of the movie from Yorkshire to the place it was filmed – Broken Hill in the scorching New South Wales outback – first on holiday, then permanently. ‘I was so taken by the beautiful landscape in the movie, I knew I had to move here,’ Bennett remembers, ‘after checking with my wife.’ He opened the museum in 2010. Aside from the original and replica vehicles, his most prized exhibit is the Feral Kid’s metal boomerang and tiny music box. Check in ahead of time to pay a visit. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  The museum will welcome locals, fans and wannabe road warriors for a celebration to mark Mad Max 2 ’s fortieth anniversary in March 2022 – the pandemic pushed it back a year. 🎬Read our review of Mad Max 2

20.  The Making of Harry Potter, London 

Anything that can lure 14 million people to Watford has got to have some major pulling power. Sure enough, this studio tour-cum-Potter-treasure-chest is basically Valhalla for Harry Potter fans. Visiting is far from cheap (tickets for children five to 15 cost £38), but a thre--and-a-half-hour tour recreating both the world and the world-building of the franchise in micro detail guarantees value for your hard-earned galleons. Look out for the Great Hall of Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, Platform 9¾ and Diagon Alley, as well as props, costumes, dragons, hippogriffs and butterbeer on tap. You’ll get fleeced in the shops on the way out but won’t mind a bit. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  One exhibit offers the macabre sight of Charity Burbage being fed to Voldemort’s pet snake in front of an audience of Death Eaters. Match that, Madame Tussauds.

🎬Read our review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

📍 This magical map  shows all the Harry Potter locations in London

21.  BFI Southbank, London

With a recent spruce up adding a laser projector and a new screen to its arsenal of film-projecting tech, the NFT1 auditorium is the jewel in the British Film Institute’s (BFI) crown. The red curtain lends a sense of occasion to every screening in this 450-seat cinema where respectful, cell-phone-free crowds soak up film seasons covering everything from Black British filmmaking to comedy greats. But that’s only one reason to visit this corner of London’s culture vulture South Bank: there are two buzzy bars that ebb and flow with moviegoers like a king tide and a DVD and book shop that fills the sizeable gap left by streaming sites (check out Fopp across the river in Covent Garden for hard-to-find films, too). There’s also the Reuben Library, an endlessly useful resource for anyone who wants to go deep on their film studies, and a Mediatheque to watch rarities from the BFI archives. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  BFI Southbank went by ‘NFT’ – the National Film Theatre – until a polarising rebrand in 2007. Londoners are pretty relaxed about it these days.  📍Discover more of the best   things to do in London

22.  Highclere Castle, England

If there really is a place called Downtonia (cc Tatler ), this huge Hampshire pile is its capital city. In Downton Abbey  it’s the home of the Grantham family – although bonus marks if you recognise it as Totleigh Towers from Fry and Laurie’s evergreen J eeves and Wooster . IRL, it’s the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon who live here and who have welcomed the show’s cast and crew over six seasons to film in the house and on its 1,000 acres of grounds – oh, and one, soon to be two , movie spin-offs. More imposing than the Dowager Countess herself, the castle was completed in 1842 and is dripping in history (the fifth Earl was on the expedition that discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun). Tours are usually packed with fans on a pilgrimage to Downton. And if Hampshire is out of range, Lady Carnarvon has a podcast for you. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  No one is quite sure how many rooms there are. The best guess is around 300. 

🎬 Read our review of Downton Abbey

📍Discover 20 amazing UK castles you can actually stay in

23.  Atlas Studios, Morocco

Like hungover backpackers rushing for a bus, movie productions have had a habit of leaving their shit behind when they’ve wrapped filming these huge, sun-baked film studios in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. Which is sweet news for any movie lovers taking the $5 guided tour. On the checklist? Chariots from Gladiator , jeeps from Black Hawk Down , a fighter jet from The Jewel in the Nile (the first Hollywood movie to film here) and that bus Brad Pitt once sat on in Babel . There are also a dozen or so recognisable movie sets uncannily rendered in styrofoam, including the city of Yunkai from Game of Thrones . GoT completists can also visit the fortress village of Aït Ben Haddou, 25 kilometres away, which also stood in for Essos in the show. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  A Tibetan house from Martin Scorsese’s Kundun remains intact, right down to the giant prop Buddha inside and the dolly tracks laid for filming.

24.  Katz’s Delicatessen, New York

It may be getting slowly swallowed on all sides by luxury condo towers, but – praise, Nora Ephron – the iconic Lower East Side sandwich spot Katz’s Deli is still standing on Houston Street. Alongside its sky-high pastramis and copious wall signage, the deli is, of course, known for the scene in When Harry Met Sally... where Meg Ryan’s character demonstrates her impressive talent for faking orgasms to both Billy Crystal and an entire room full of stunned patrons. (Who could forget that famous line delivered by a nearby diner: ‘I’ll have what she’s having!’) For those looking for an extra level of detail, you can even enjoy a sandwich underneath a hanging sign marking the exact spot where the scene was filmed. (Well, half a sandwich. No way you’ll ever be able to finish a full one in a single sitting.) The sign reads: ‘Where Harry met Sally… Hope you have what she had! Enjoy!’ Will Gleason Fun fact  The iconic ‘I’ll have what she’s having!’ line was actually delivered by the mother of the film’s director, Rob Reiner. 🎬 Read our review of When Harry Met Sally...

📍Discover the best delis in New York

25.  Monuriki, Fiji

If you ever happen to be in Fiji, this uninhabited, kilometre-long island is well worth a spot on your itinerary. It is, of course, the setting for Robin Crusoe-y survival classic Cast Away in which Tom Hanks is marooned after his FedEx plane splashes down in the Pacific. Getting here is a lot less stressful: Monuriki is found in the breathtaking Mamanucas Islands and visitable via day trip from the nearby island resorts. There’s not much on the island, bar the odd crested iguana and bleached sands, but the azure waters around are heaven for snorkelling and, if necessary, paddling after bobbing volleyballs. Altogether now: ‘ Wiiiiiilson !’ Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The ‘Help Me’ SOS sign on the beach was left there after filming wrapped and is still there today.

🎬 Read our review of Cast Away

26.  Union Station, Chicago

A longtime hub of the United States’s railway system thanks to its central location in the approximate middle of the country, Union Station’s spacious Great Hall has hosted a pivotal romantic confession in My Best Friend’s Wedding and a superpowered battle in Man of Steel – but a certain marble staircase is the station’s real star. Located on the southern end of the building just off Canal Street, these stairs are where Kevin Costner gets caught in a climactic shootout with gangster Al Capone’s goons in The Untouchables while a baby in a stroller slowly rolls down the steps (spoiler alert: it survives unscathed). The nearly century-old grand staircase received a $2 million overhaul in 2015, but it still retains the same dramatic look that made it an ideal locale for a Prohibition-era showdown. Zach Long

Fun fact  Famously, an homage to Battleship Potemkin (see the Odessa Steps entry), The Untouchables ’ steps sequence was itself spoofed in a Naked Gun 33 ⅓ scene that features extra prams, heavily armed postal workers and the Pope.

🎬 Read our review of The Untouchables 📍Discover the best things to do in Chicago

27.  Wadi Rum, Jordan

‘Like nothing I’ve ever seen anywhere else on Earth.’ So says Ridley Scott, a man who has been everywhere else and would definitely know, of Wadi Rum . The filmmaker has made three movies in Jordan’s ethereally beautiful sandstone and granite wadi ( The Martian , Prometheus and All the Money in the World ), but it was David Lean who first had film fans pilgrimaging to the area after shooting most of 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia here (cineastes with sat nav can find the spot where Lean shot Prince Faisal’s camp at N29° 42' 50" E35° 25' 20"). Since then, it’s probably best known as Mars’s earthly stunt double, its crimson rock formations offering a convincing surrogate for the red planet. It’s also a lot easier to get to: an hour’s drive from Aqaba and 90 minutes from Petra, of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade fame . Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  It has stood in for two Star Wars planets (Jedha and Pasaana), and will soon star as the desert planet Arrakis in Dune . Someone get this valley an agent.

🎬 Read our review of  Lawrence of Arabia

28.  The Rocky Steps, Philadelphia

If you’re looking for Rocky inspiration, there are three options: punch some meat, go for a jog while a mate shouts at you through a megaphone, or run up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art   – aka ‘the Rocky Steps’ – just like Sylvester Stallone in Rocky and Rocky II . The museum itself has a, um, rocky relationship with its film past which can be summarised as: ‘happy for the visitors, even happier when they actually step inside’. The 8' 6" bronze Balboa statue commissioned for Rocky III once sat outside the museum entrance, then moved to the Spectrum arena across town, and now lives in a quiet cove next to the steps. ‘It didn’t seem appropriate for a movie prop, rather than a piece of fine art, to have the most celebrated spot in front of our amazing art museum,’ says Visit Philadelphia’s Cara Schneider. If you’re an art-loving boxing fan who loves Stallone movies, it’s the ultimate day out. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  At the top of the stairs, there’s a bronze plaque imprinted with Rocky’s sneaker prints situation on the exact spot where Sylvester Stallone once stood. 🎬 Read our review of Rocky

29.  Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin

Next door to Berlin’s biggest Imax screen in Potsdamer Platz is this more discreet temple to cinema. The Deutsche Kinemathek’s walk-through exhibition time travels through a century of German cinema, from Weimar silent films to the Nazi propaganda industry, and right up to the present day – via the country’s new wave (spot Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s director’s chair). There are always exhibitions aimed at younger movie lovers, and as it’s a major film archive, there’s a wealth of historic documents, storyboards and other rarities squirreled away in the vaults – including Marlene Dietrich, Ken Adams and Werner Herzog’s own archives – for viewing via prior appointment. Germany is spoilt for choice with film museums and there’s another, the Film Museum Potsdam , just outside of town near the famous Studio Babelsberg . Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  Among the many Marlene Dietrich treasures are letters from David Bowie, Jean Cocteau and Ronald Reagan, 95 film scripts and even her old school books. 

📍Discover the best things to do in Berlin

30.  National Cinema Museum, Turin

Standing in the atrium of Italy’s cinema museum inside Turin’s massive Mole Antonelliana is a bit like being on the ground floor of some huge department store that sells film history. It’s where to come to learn how cinema evolved in this none-more-cineaste corner of the world. It tells the story of how, thanks to trade links between the city’s car and steel industries and Lyon, the home of the Lumières brothers, this new art form was imported and Turin became Italy’s film capital. Then, in the 1930s it all went south – literally – when Rome’s Cinecittà Studios was founded. It’s all recorded here – along with awesome movie props, like Darth Vader’s helmet from The Empire Strikes Back , Marilyn Monroe’s heels, and the robes Peter O’Toole wore in Lawrence of Arabia . And that freaky-looking dude on the ground floor? Say buongiorno to the Moloch from the 1914 silent epic Cabiria . Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  You can grab a ticket to the Mole’s Panoramic Terrace, 85 metres up, and spy the Alps in the distance. 📍Discover the 21 best things to do in Italy

31.  Headland Hotel, Cornwall

Nicolas Roeg’s wonderfully icky adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches was filmed in this Grade II-listed seaside edifice in Cornwall. In the movie, it’s the Excelsior Hotel that Angelica Huston and her brood of warty sorceresses decamp to; in real life, it’s the five-star Headland Hotel, where a night in one of its ocean rooms will set you back £500 in high season and there are no warty sorceresses. If you want to stay in a room used in the movie, 223 is the one to book. If you’re just here for the seaside good vibes, the Cornish coastline, including the surf-tastic Fistral Beach, is about 50 yards away. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  During the shoot, Rowan Atkinson flooded the film’s production offices when he fell asleep with the bath running a floor up.

🎬 Read our review of The Witches

32.  Doune Castle, Scotland

The one place where it’s not just not annoying, but actively necessary to quote Monty Python, this medieval strongpoint on the banks of the River Teith in Scotland stood in for a multitude of castles in The Holy Grail . Doune Castle ’s Great Hall is where the ‘Knights of the Round Table’ song was filmed, King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his knights later return here to be taunted by the French and try to storm the place via Trojan Rabbit. For the £5.50 entrance fee, you’ll also experience some Game of Thrones lore. The castle was used as Winterfell in season one. It also stood in for Outlander ’s fictional Castle Leoch. Fittingly, the audio tour is co-narrated by Python hero Terry Jones. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  If you want to visit The Holy Grail ’s Castle Aaaarrrrgggghhhh, head for Castle Stalker about a hundred miles away on Scotland’s west coast. It’s here that King Arthur is taunted a second time by the French, before the police arrive and shut the film down. 🎬 Read our review of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

📍Discover the best places to visit in Scotland

33.  Filmhuset, Stockholm

Walking into the Brutalist home of the Swedish Film Institute in central Stockholm is like stepping into the mind of a filmmaker. The window lines on the façade replicate the holes in a 35mm film strip, its steel staircase swirls like celluloid, and the elevator doors are designed to look like make-up mirrors. Some locals love the building; others have not been so keen. Its memorabilia and well-stocked archives make it a must-visit for anyone who knows their Roy from their Bibbi Andersson. And if you’re heading off on a Seventh Seal -style trail to Ingmar Bergman’s island of Fårö, stop here first for a nose among his screenplays, letters and photos. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  When it was designed in the ’60s, the Swedish military barred it from having windows facing its HQ next door. Instead, architect Peter Celsing designed a giant eye staring directly at their offices.

34.  Cinecittà, Rome

A film studio so famous it has its own Google Doodle , this ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’ is sacred soil for movie buffs. It was set up by Mussolini, who liked to refer to cinema as ‘a powerful weapon’ (and has some expertise in that area), and its problematic genesis has been mirrored in recent times, with strikes, fires, and productions opting for cheaper eastern European studios. But it’s back on the moviemaking map – Spectre filmed here – and remains an iconic place for a pilgrimage. A €15 ticket gets access to the sets where Fellini shot La Dolce Vita and Elizabeth Taylor played Cleopatra, as well as The Italian Museum of Moving Images next door. There you’ll find Richard Burton’s tunic from Cleopatra , sections of Ancient Rome from HBO’s Rome , and a permanent Fellini exhibition. Bellissima.  Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  There’s theme park outside of Rome, Cinecittà World , that takes its name from the studio. It was designed by Oscar-winning production design Dante Ferretti, who sadly failed to include a high-adrenaline Satyricoaster among its rides. 🎬 Read our review of La Dolce Vita

35.  Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Frankfurt

There’s a lot of cool film memorabilia on display at the Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (go with ‘DFF’). You’ll find an original Darth Vader helmet, a xenomorph costume from Alien and Marlene Dietrich memorabilia. Though your kids will be busy recreating Avatar on the museum’s green-screen simulator and definitely won’t want to hear about that time you saw the Star Wars re-release in the ’90s. Like the other national movie HQs on this list, the DFF is a hybrid of film museum, cinema and archive, where you’ll find casual movie lovers and academics, restoration work close by the exhibitions on local luminaries like Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Romy Schneider. The main exhibition is divided into four parts: Image, Sound, Montage and Acting. Head to Acting for the juicy Hello! mag insights into the lives of movie stars. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The globe-trotting Stanley Kubrick exhibition was organised and launched by the DFF back in 2004. Since then, it’s stopped in 20-odd cities, from London to Seoul.

36.  Universal Studios Hollywood, Los Angeles

If you’re forking out to visit this just-north-of-Hollywood theme park , then of course you’re going to ride the Harry Potter and Jurassic World attractions. But don’t pass up the tram tour. Yes, it’s technically a SFX-filled ride (with a particularly dreadful Fast & Furious scene). But it’s also a living, breathing piece of cinema with roots that date back more than a century. Depending on what’s closed off for filming, the narrated tram ride snakes its way through active backlot sets (if you’re lucky, you’ll see the rebuilt Hill Valley set), a flooded old west town and familiar movie landmarks like Bates Motel, Whoville and the plane crash site from Spielberg’s War of the Worlds . And even the theme park-y elements should leave you smiling – the water-and-fire-filled Jaws encounter is a rubbery delight. Michael Juliano 

Fun fact  The earliest version of the tram tour we know today started in 1964, taking film fans into the commissary, past Doris Day’s dressing room and through a western shootout.

37.  Potemkin Stairs, Odessa

One of cinema’s most famous and homaged scenes (see the Chicago Union Station entry) , Battleship Potemkin ’s Odessa Steps sequence is so iconic that myth and fact have blurred completely. There was no actual Tsarist massacre of civilians on its 192 granite and sandstone steps, although director Sergei Eisenstein was channelling real-life protests into this frenzy of jump-cut violence and panic through which a single pram tumbles. As a tribute to the masterpiece shot in its midst, the Ukranian city of Odessa officially changed the name of the steps to the Potemkin Stairs for the film’s fiftieth anniversary in 1955. For anyone with an actual pram, it’s worth noting that there’s a funicular railway running alongside the steps. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  In a visual trick Eisenstein would definitely have been into, the stairs appear endless when viewed from the bottom.

🎬 Read our review of Battleship Potemkin

38.  Gordale Scar, Yorkshire

One does not simply walk into Malham National Park… you’ll need to drive, or you can take the bus. When you get there, accessing its JRR Tolkien-inspiring valley, Gordale Scar, requires a hobbity hike too. It’s here that The Lord of the Rings writer is said to have drawn inspiration for Helm’s Deep, site of The Two Towers ’ epic dust-up between Saruman’s army and a scratch team of doughty warriors. The connection is more anecdotal than proven, but legend has Tolkien venturing into the Yorkshire Dales during his time as English professor at the nearby University of Leeds. It’s certainly easy to visualise bloodthirsty Uruk-hai scrambling into this 16 million-year-old limestone gorge. Your best route in is via the Malham Landscape Trail. Head to the park centre for a map. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  Ultra runner and part-time cartographer Dan Bell has created a ‘Middle Earth’ map of the area in the style of Tolkien’s own drawings. The perfect pressie for the Merry in your life.

🎬 Read our review of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

39.  Ava Gardner Museum, North Carolina

What do Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Lucille Ball, Arnie, Judy Garland and Jimmy Stewart have in common? They all have entire museums dedicated to them. As does Ava Gardner, whose career and megawatt stardom are celebrated in this shrine to her in Smithfield in her home state of North Carolina. The museum, a passion project by two Gardner superfans that was 20 years in the making, walks through the life of the Pandora and the Flying Dutchman and The Killers actress – from her humble upbringing eight miles down the road to marriage to Sinatra, Oscar nominations and life in London. It’s a heartfelt love letter to a local hero, full of personal photographs, costumes and memorabilia. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The museum shop sells Gardner’s fried chicken and double-decker pie recipes. 

🎬 Read our review of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

40.  The Cinema Museum, London

There’s nowhere in the world quite like The Cinema Museum , a higgledy-piggledy vault of cinema memorabilia that occupies what was once Charlie Chaplin’s poorhouse in a quiet nook of London’s Elephant & Castle. It’s been threatened by developers in recent times – you can sign the petition to save it here – but its survival feels vital for anyone who cares about the evolution of cinema going from nickelodeons to multiplexes . Every year, thousands of visitors from as far away as Brazil and India make light of its ‘best kept secret’ label to book in for a mosey around its velvet seats, antique projectors and admission boards, or to take in a silent movie in its screening hall. It’s the definition of irreplaceable. Phil de Semlyen  

Fun fact  The museum’s collection is regularly augmented by donations. One superfan gave it four crates of Charlton Heston memorabilia alone. 

📍Discover more of the best   things to do in London

41.  Skjoldenæsholm Castle, Denmark

It’s usually impossible to pinpoint exactly where a film movement began. Not Dogme 95, which kicked off its low-budget, lo-fi, low-everything reign of moviemaking disruption in this incongruously posh manor house 50 miles west of Copenhagen. This is where new Oscar-winner Thomas Vinterberg’s funny-bleak family drama Festen , the first Dogme film, was shot in 1997. The story of a clan gathering for a sixtieth birthday, a dinner and the public exhuming of horrifying secrets, it was filmed with Dogme’s famous Rules of Chastity. So no lighting, no music, no fancy props and presumably no access to the swanky lakeside grill or lakeside picnics. And guess what? Skjoldenæsholm is happy to host your family gathering for real. Yikes. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  The hotel was still running while Festen was being filmed. Guests would patiently wait to pass through the cast and crew, while the hotel chef ended up in the film as he was working in the kitchen while a scene was being filmed.  

🎬 Read our review of Festen

42.  Juvet Landscape Hotel, Norway

That hoary old cliché about a location being ‘another character’ in a movie absolutely applies to Ex Machina ’s sleek Scandinavian bolthole. IRL, the house of slippery tech genius Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) is an uber-chic hotel and spa tucked away near Norway’s fjords. Ex Machina ’s cast and crew spent 19 days filming at Juvet in August 2013, so only its summery side appears in the film, but it’s equally stunning when blanketed in winter snow. Tom Cruise also loves this corner of Norway – so much so that the new Mission: Impossible movie will feature a sequence filmed in nearby Hellesylt in which he drives a motorbike off a cliff . As you do. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  If you’re hoping to recreate the iconic ‘Get Down Saturday Night’ moment and wondering which room to check into, bad news. It was shot at Pinewood.

🎬 Read our review of Ex Machina

43.  The Fugitive train, North Carolina

The Fugitive is not just the story of a falsely accused man on the run from a dogged US Marshal while trying to unpick the mystery of his wife’s murder. Okay, it is mostly that, but scratch a little deeper and you’ll find a weird and kinda wonderful tale of Hollywood not cleaning up after itself. The train and bus used in the scene where Harrison Ford’s surgeon Dr Richard Kimble is almost horribly squished are still sitting where Warner Bros left them back in 1992. Sticklers for local landscapes may spot that this isn’t Illinois where the scene is meant to take place, but remote North Carolina, where the privately owned All Great Smoky Mountains Railway bravely offered its service when other railways were hiding in the nearest farmhouse, henhouse or outhouse. If you want to visit the scene of the crash, hop on one of its trains at Dillsboro and look out for the derelict engine with ‘Illinois Southern’ on the side. Phil de Semlyen  

Fun fact   The Fugitive ’s equally famous dam scene was filmed at Cheoah Dam across the state. 

🎬 Read our review of The Fugitive

44.  The African Queen, Florida

Thought the African Queen sank at the end of the movie? Think again. Cinema’s most famous steamboat is alive and well in the Florida Keys, thanks to a circuitous journey from the Congo to the Sunshine State, via California and Oregon, and then a painstaking restoration job by Florida couple Lance and Suzanne Holmquist. At different points, this English-built chugger originally named the Livingstone, languished in a Florida cow pasture and was moored to a Holiday Inn. Now it’s used for pleasure cruises, where a $59 ticket will buy you a 90-minute putter down the leech and rapids-free Port Largo Canals, the chance to work on your Humphrey Bogart impression, and a big helping of film history. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  Another Bogey classic, Key Largo , is set on the same spit of land. Despite being filmed almost entirely in Hollywood, it’s made the actor a local hero – until 2017 there was an annual Humphrey Bogart Film Festival here.

🎬 Read our review of The African Queen

45.  The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, Exeter

A favourite of  UK film luminary Mark Kermode , this movie treasure trove is housed within the University of Exeter but very much open for the film history newbies and the cine-literate alike. Like a West Country cousin to London’s Cinema Museum, it revels in the ephemera of both moviegoing and moviemaking down the years: you’ll find one of only 200 original Lumière Cinématographes alongside a thousand other items in the two galleries. It is based on the collection belonging to Scottish auteur Bill Douglas (The Bill Douglas Trilogy), who with his old RAF friend Peter Jewell, spent a lifetime collecting magic lanterns, peep shows, music hall handbills, Chaplin postcards and other movie-going artefacts. It now holds over 85,000 items – some on display, most in the archive but all accessible. It’s all free to explore.  Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The museum’s collection was recently boosted by  13 Golden Age movie posters donated by Dwight Cleveland , the owner of the world’s largest private poster collection. 

46.  Swan House, Atlanta

President Snow’s (Donald Sutherland) Capitol mansion in The Hunger Games is found in Atlanta, Georgia. Swan House, a classical pile built in 1928, was used extensively in Catching Fire and more briefly in Mockingjay . The house’s opulent dining room and the room used as Snow’s office both still have plenty of Panem vibes. The Atlanta History Center used to run movie-centric Swan House Capitol Tours, though nowadays Hunger Games fans will need to get round under their own steam or take a group tour of the house and try their luck with Katniss-related questions. May the odds, etc. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  There are bird design motifs throughout the house – although swans rather than mockingjays.  🎬 Read our review of  The Hunger Games

47.  The Exorcist Steps, Washington DC

Forget The Joker steps in the Bronx , this Georgetown spot is the real stairway to movie heaven. Like many of the entries on this list, The Exorcist Steps’ notoriety is at least partly the result of one movie fan’s passion. DC resident and The Exorcist superfan Andrew Huff campaigned for the steps, the site of the horror classic’s bloody climax, to be made an official landmark. After a few months of canvassing support and $10,000 later, director William Friedkin and screenwriter-novelist William Peter Blatty were unveiling an official plaque at the foot of the steps. ‘I love the city and horror films, especially this one,’ says Huff, ‘so it became a labour of love for both’. There are 75 stairs in all, running alongside a building that once housed streetcars (back when the city had them) and ‘the Exorcist House’ at 3600 Prospect Street. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  During filming, Georgetown uni students charged for rooftop access to watch stuntman Chuck Waters lob himself down the newly rubber-lined steps – twice. 

🎬 Read our review of The Exorcist

48.  The Prince Charles Cinema, London

If ‘the PCC’ was a filmmaker, it’d be a mix of Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan: obsessional, in love with movies and wanting to show them in the proper format, godammit. The West End’s repertory cinema is the place to come for 70mm screenings of Die Hard , Lord of the Rings marathons, and to meet the other people who can quote all of Withnail and I . Its reputation as a haven for cult cinema is well-earned and its spoon-lobbing screenings of The Room are legendary, but there’s a real something-for-everyone programming ethos. There’s nothing especially shiny about it, no slick cocktail bar or plush members area – although the sticky floors are purely an urban myth these days and for a tenner, the membership scheme saves regulars a motza – just pure cinephilia. If you love films, you’ll always be among friends. Phil de Semlyen  

Fun fact  There’s a suggestions board in the downstairs bar. Stick a film down and it could be screening within weeks.

📍Discover London’s 25 best cinemas

49.  Chaplin’s World, Switzerland

The Little Tramp had a big house and it’s situated on a hillside overlooking Lake Geneva in the Swiss town of Corsier-sur-Vevey. It’s about as far as you can get from the Elephant & Castle poorhouse of his childhood (see the London Cinema Museum entry), a palatial pad that he lived in for 20 years until his death in 1977. It’s now a museum to the silent era superstar behind City Lights , Gold Rush , and about six million perfectly timed pratfalls. With detailed mock-ups of Chaplin’s Hollywood studio and sets replicating his movies, it’s at the vibrant, kid-friendly end of the film museum spectrum – there’s nothing stuffy here – although the waxworks, including Chaplin’s friend Albert Einstein in the bathroom, are a little intense. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  Down the road is the Modern Times Hotel . There’s a Chaplin statue outside and the Little Tramp is emblazoned on the side of the building.

🎬 Read our review of Modern Times

50.  Field of Dreams, Iowa

Nothing sums up the magic of the movies like the enduring appeal of this stretch of idyllic farmland in the American midwest. As Ray Kinsella’s (Kevin Costner) ghostly pal tells him in Field of Dreams , build it and truckloads of people will come – we’re paraphrasing – and they’ve kept coming ever since. Tens of thousands every year since the decision was made to keep the baseball diamond (and farmhouse) intact after the movie. And it’s not just film fans and passersby that stop in. The actual Chicago White Sox are scheduled to pop by to take on the Yankees here in your classic life-imitating-art-imitating-life double play. If both teams don’t emerge from the cornfields, someone needs to have a word. Phil de Semlyen  

Fun fact  You can rent the whole field for $125 per hour. If you didn’t bring a bat with you, the shop sells them. 🎬 Read our review of Field of Dreams

51.  The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne

The ACMI timed its recent renovations perfectly, emerging from lockdown all shiny and new just as Melburnians were re-entering the world with fresh eyes and abundant vigour. New centrepiece exhibition ‘The Story of the Moving Image’ is marvellous, tracing cinema’s beginning from First Nations storytelling with shadow and fire, right through to the latest innovations – all with a fun, hands-on approach to learning. The two cinema screens remain great places to see arthouse movies, with a focus on career retrospectives of filmmakers like Wong Kar-wai and Claire Denis. It’s also the home to ace non-profit film society Melbourne Cinémathèque and the outré trappings of monthly film club Cinemaniacs, as well as blockbuster exhibitions about the moviemaking business. Stephen A Russell Fun fact  With only room for one car in the centrepiece gallery, the ACMI team couldn’t choose between one from the hit TV show Bush Mechanics and the Interceptor from Mad Max . So they spliced two replicas together.

📍Here are 101 things to do in Melbourne at least once in your life

52.  The Palace Hotel, New South Wales

It’s well-known that Australians love their coffee, and not just in the cosmopolitan surrounds of Melbourne. Nope, the frontier mining outpost of Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales erected its very first coffee palace way back in 1889, as commissioned by the temperance movement. These days, The Palace Hotel is a proper bush pub that’s more likely to slake your thirst with a cold, frothy one than a soy chai latte. And what a place to get loose, with its plethora of astounding murals. But the real reason it has secured its place in Australian cinematic history is through its starring role in Stephan Elliott’s glorious drag walkabout The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert . A memorable stop off for Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp on their drag crusade across the country, it’s been a tourist hotspot ever since. We’re not sure the temperance movement would approve. Stephen A Russell Fun fact  You can book yourself into the very room the lads kipped in in the movie, the Priscilla Suite, for about $230 per night. 

🎬 Read our review of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

53.  Empire State Building, New York

It’s a legendary landmark by any standards – the Eighth Wonder of the World, no less – so the Empire State Building doesn’t really need to lean into its film past to bring in the crowds. Not with those sexy lines, the 360-degree views of New York and enthralling building-of exhibits. Then again, it’s been scaled by movie stars as diverse as Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant, and the big man, King Kong . It’d be a crime not to lean into that a little bit. Sure enough, stop in at the second floor exhibition and you’ll find the furry mitts of a huffing and puffing Kong emerging from the wall like it’s 1933 all over again. The 10,000-square-foot gallery also features an immersive 72-screen theatre running clips of the building’s many pop and movie culture cameos, from Wonder Woman to An Affair to Remember . Phil de Semlyen 

Fun fact  You can book in for an all-access tour, complete with green room access and champagne, for $460. It’s what Jay-Z would do. 

🎬 Read our review of King Kong

📍The 101 best things to do in New York City

54.  The Cathay, Singapore

This iconic building in Singapore’s arts and heritage district of Bras Basah Bugis is easily recognised by its art deco facade. The 16-storey building is home to Cathay Cineplexes, which has been a long-time fixture in the city’s entertainment landscape, as well as The Cathay Gallery, a free-to-enter mini-museum for movie buffs to geek out in. This hidden gem is a time capsule of movie memorabilia that dates back to the early 1930s, with retro cinema chairs, film reels, projectors, cameras and posters on display. It also takes you through the storied history of the Loke family, who were pioneers of Singapore’s film industry and the brains behind the Cathay entertainment empire. Expect the original black-and-white trailer of Cathay’s 1957 horror flick Pontianak to be screened here too. Cam Khalid

Fun fact  Home of the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation when it opened in 1939, The Cathay was used for Japanese propaganda broadcasts during the wartime occupation.

55.  Bodega, California

Alfred Hitchcock was a big one for spicing up the soundstage work with magnificent real-life locations (the Royal Albert Hall in The Man Who Knew Too Much , most of San Francisco in Vertigo etc), as well as some that looked like locations but weren’t (Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest ). One that was real and has since become legendary by association is Bodega, little more than a hamlet on northern California’s Sonoma Coast, and the setting for Hitch’s flappy fearfest, The Birds . Really, the honours are split between Bodega and nearby Bodega Bay, although the docks that feature in the film are long gone. As this pic by local photographer Francesca Scalpi shows, the old Potter School, from which Tippi Hedren and a class of schoolkids escape death by pecking , is still very much in situ in Bodega. These days, it’s a private residence rather than a school, and the monkey bars have gone, but it’s still a great spot for birdwatching . Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact   The Birds is celebrated in Bodega Bay at the annual Hitchcock Film Festival . Come for the murder, stay for the chowder.

🎬 Read our review of The Birds

📍Discover our favourite places to visit in California

56.  Bavaria Studios, Munich

The place where Das Boot was filmed and where The NeverEnding Story was made, this famous old studio began life in 1919 as a Bavarian riposte to Berlin-based big guns like UFA. Hitchcock shot his 1926 lost film The Mountain Eagle here, and Kubrick came here to make Paths of Glory , filming the chateau scenes at the nearby Schloss Schleissheim . Situated in the Munich suburb of Geiselgasteig, it had the good fortune to land on the western side of the Iron Curtain, guaranteeing a post-war revival thanks to films like Cabaret (the Kit Kat Club was a set here) and The Great Escape . Nowadays, it’s as famous as a place where you can ride on the actual Falcor in its NeverEnding Story props or visit the cramped U-boat set used in Das Boot . Ping! Phil de Semlyen Fun fact   Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was also filmed here. That’s Bavaria that the Wonkavator is flying over.  

57.  Powell & Pressburger blue plaque, London

The greatest British double act this side of Ant and Dec, Michael Powell and his Hungarian émigré partner-in-cinema Emeric Pressburger were responsible for such indelible classics as The Red Shoes , A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus . In 2014, the pair received the greatest honour London can give its sons and daughters: a Nando’s black card. No, an English Heritage blue plaque to mark the location of their official base between 1942 and 1947. Martin Scorsese calls this partnership ‘the longest period of subversive filmmaking in a major studio ever’ and it all happened in a spartan office in this 1930s block at 125 Gloucester Place, adjacent to the Marylebone Road. Our advice? Skip Madame Tussauds down the road and go pay tribute to the dynamic duo. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  Alfred Hitchcock’s South Kensington flat also has a blue plaque. A two-bedder he shared with his new wife Alma Reville, it featured furniture he designed himself. 

🎬 Read our review of The Red Shoes

📍Where to go to discover London’s newest blue plaques

58.  Francis Ford Coppola Winery, California

Is the wine the side hustle or was Apocalypse Now the side hustle? With Francis Ford Coppola, an accomplished winemaker and master filmmaker, it’s probably a tie these days. He’s been in the wine business since buying a vineyard with the money he made on The Godfather in 1975. The focal point is Inglenook, his pride and joy in Napa, but the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Sonoma’s Alexander Valley is the place to visit. He had The Godfather ’s production designer Dean Tavoularis design it to look like Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, and it’s a kind of Disneyland for the tipsy and the abstemious alike. There’s wine tasting, tours, hikes, outdoor games, a swimming pool and best of all, a movie gallery filled with Oscars and other memorabilia. It’s a place where you can see Don Corleone’s actual desk from The Godfather and then buy a case of Wizard of Oz merlot from the shop. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  Coppola got in early on the whole wine-in-a-can trend and has dedicated a tinnie to his daughter, Sofia. The Sofia Mini promises ‘fresh aromatics, elegant flavors, and light effervescence’. Gentle ennui may ensue.

59.  The Bradbury Building, Los Angeles

This beautiful brick-and-wrought-iron atrium has been a staple of noir movies, notably Double Indemnity , and its sunny offices popped up in the downtown LA-loving (500) Days of Summer . But the 1893 building’s most defining role came from playing against type in Blade Runner . As JF Sebastian’s creepy, doll-filled apartment, the Bradbury Building swapped its golden hues for sickly blue fog that silhouettes its stacks of staircases. In real-life, it’s easily LA’s most radiant interior – though the public is only invited to admire it from the ground floor. If you manage to find yourself in the members-only co-working space on the second floor, look for large prints of contact sheets and a killer portrait of Harrison Ford in a trench coat that were taken by on-set photographer Stephen Vaughan. Michael Juliano 

Fun fact  Despite its sci-fi connections, the building’s name has nothing to do with author Ray Bradbury. But there is a script-worthy (though dubious) story that mining magnate Lewis L Bradbury commissioned it after his dead brother contacted him via ouija board.

🎬 Read our review of Blade Runner 📍Discover more of the   best things to do in Los Angeles

60.  Filmmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany

There’s an old adage among German town planners that no city can’t be improved with the addition of a film museum. Okay, there isn’t but there may as well be. They’re as plentiful as you might expect in the country of Murnau, von Trotta and Wenders. Düsseldorf doesn’t have the film pedigree of Berlin or Munich, but this four-storey rabbit warren of film treasures is a worthy companion to Filmpark Babelsberg, Bavaria Studios, Deutsche Kinemathek et al. And one thing it has that they don’t is a detailed exhibition on shadow puppets, an ancient art that informed the birth of film (and that’s really fun to do when you make rabbit shapes). That focus on the art form’s past is reflected in classic posters, costumes and props, while its present is represented by the funky replica film set upstairs. One thing: not much of this is in English so have your translation app to hand. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact  The in-house cinema, the Black Box, has a restored Welte organ for its silent movie screenings.

61.  Sony Pictures Studios, Los Angeles

You won’t find the Yellow Brick Road or the Emerald City, but you will literally head over the rainbow as you enter this historic studio . Yes, this was where The Wizard of Oz was shot back when it was the MGM lot, and artist Tony Tasset’s arching Rainbow sculpture near the entrance will make sure your troubles melt like lemon drops. The studio’s footprint has been significantly downsized since the ’30s: in particular, virtually all of its colourful backlot sets are now gone with the wind (which was partially shot here, too). But that small size actually makes it perfect for an on-foot tour. The magnolia tree-lined sidewalks and white art deco facades provide a pleasant ambience that the other tram-fueled, industrial-edged studios lack. Michael Juliano

Fun fact   Oz , of course, wasn’t the only thing to shoot here. The studio was also home to Singin’ in the Rain , Ben-Hur , Spider-Man and North by Northwest , including the scale model of Mount Rushmore.

62.  VideOdyssey, Liverpool

‘A tsunami of extreme nostalgia’ is how English video shop owner and geek godhead Andy Johnson describes his Aladdin’s cave of VHS movies, arcades and movie memorabilia. And he’s not kidding. VideOdyssey is the kind of place to make curious twentysomethings – the majority of its regulars – feel like archaeologists stumbling upon some strange land. He remembers people initially dismissing the store as a mad pipe dream. ‘But word spread and we’re celebrating our third birthday in a few months,’ he says. ‘And we’ve had visitors from all over the world.’ The secret of survival has been building a like-minded community, with regular evening movie screenings and collectors stopping in on the hunt for rare tapes. ‘You can always spot them, because they never give the arcade machines a second glance,’ says Johnson. ‘Then I know it’s time to get serious.’ If you want to rent a film, there’s 10,000 to pick from, a week’s rental costs £2.50. Oh, and there are no late fees. Blockbuster, it ain’t. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  The store supplies free Nostalgia SOS packs to the over-seventies, including ten tapes and a VCR.

63.  Museo Chicote, Madrid

This is the Madrid bar at which warring politicians, from Primo de Rivera to La Pasionari, have clinked glasses, Ernest Hemingway found inspiration, and movie stars like Ava Gardner (a regular), Grace Kelly and Sophia Loren once partied. Museo Chicote has been the city’s most iconic cocktail bar since the ’30s, as well as a key location in Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embrace s and the recent TV hit  Arde Madrid , a Spanish series about Gardner’s frenetic nightlife. Its original owner, Perico Chicote, was a barman at Madrid’s Ritz Hotel behind a bar that swiftly brought in political heavyweights and movie stars. His legendary collection of spirit bottles and the secrets whispered between the bar’s art deco walls once made him one of the most powerful figures in the city. The only thing more powerful than that lingering aura is the house cocktail, El Chicote, a head-spinning potion of sweet vermouth and gin. Marta Bac

Fun fact  Perico Chicote’s collection of rare booze bottles was so vast, Aristotle Onassis once offered 30 million pesetas ($230,000) for it. Chicote declined.

🎬 Read our review of Broken Embraces

📍Discover the 49 best things to do in Madrid

64.  Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming

There are rock stars and then there are star rocks. Thanks to its role in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Devils Tower is definitely one of the latter. This 1,300-foot butte was picked for the movie because it looked like a less obvious version of John Ford’s western locations  – a kind of hipster Monument Valley – and its eerie beauty definitely makes it look like an obvious spot for aliens to land (even if that scene was filmed at an Air Force base in Alabama). It’s much-visited these days, with a 1.3 mile Tower Trail that loops around its base and gives incredible views up its vertical sides. It’s a sacred space for Native Americans, who hold ceremonies here every year and refer to it as ‘The Bear’s House’. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact  Between June to September, there’s a free nightly screening of Close Encounters at the nearby campsite.

🎬 Read our review of Close Encounters of the Third Kind

65.  Randy’s Donuts, Los Angeles

Even if you’ve never taken a bite of a glazed donut from Randy’s , you probably already know what its shop looks like. A leftover from LA’s mid-century affair with novelty architecture, this drive-through is topped with a 33-foot-tall doughnut sign that’s been filled with a hungover Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 and a runaway car in Earth Girls Are Easy , the shop’s first starring role. Beyond its filmography, it’s clear that screenwriters and animators have a soft spot for those doughnuts, because The Simpsons , Mars Attacks! and Zootopia have all lovingly parodied that recognisable sign. Michael Juliano 

Fun fact  Though the Inglewood spot is the one you want, you’ll find five others in SoCal with scaled-down versions of the sign (and three in South Korea). And the donuts don’t disappoint – you can pick up a dozen for $13.60. 📍Discover more of the   best things to do in Los Angeles

66.  Villa del Balbianello, Italy

Star Wars locations come in all shapes and sizes, from the rocky outcrop of Ireland’s Skellig Michael ( Episodes VII and VIII ), to Death Valley ( Ep IV ), to Tikal in Guatemala ( Ep VI ). Even a London tube station popped up in Rogue One . But if you’re looking to whisk someone away for a romantic Jedi-related date, and they’re not into searing heat, bracing Atlantic air or thousands of commuters, try this former monastery on Lake Como. It was used by George Lucas as Padmé Amidala’s lakeside bolthole in Attack of the Clones , albeit with a CG renovation to make it look more Naboo-y. It’s also a Bond location – 007 comes here to recuperate from his Le Chiffre ball-whipping in Casino Royale . You can tour the house and gardens for €22, or just head straight to the terrace to recreate Anakin Skywalker’s astonishingly bad ‘I don’t like sand’ speech. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact : The villa has some cachet in Bollywood, too. Indian cinema’s power couple, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, were married here in 2018.

🎬 Read our review of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

67.  HMS Surprise, San Diego 

Master and Commander bores – and we’re everywhere – wish this replica Royal Navy man-of-war has starred in more than one Jack Aubrey movie. But it has at least found a good home since the 2003 sea movie: In San Diego’s Maritime Museum, where it regularly pops out for a sail on the bit of the high seas nearest the SoCal coastline. Until the movie it had been known as HMS Rose, having been built in 1970 as an exact replica of a real 18th century frigate of the same name. Then Peter Weir, Russell Crowe and ten Oscar nominations happened and it became a film star and kept its stage name (it’s basically a more seaworthy Cary Grant). It was sold to the museum on the condition that 20th Century Fox could borrow it back for future movies. So how about a sequel, people? Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact : Russell Crowe has been back for a visit, taking his band 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts to show them his old command. 

🎬 Read our review of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

68.  Hotel Sidi Driss, Tunisia

It’s maybe not the height of luxury but this Star Wars location-turned-hotel is so well preserved, it might have been encased in carbonite since 1977. Fans won’t need telling that Hotel Sidi Driss was once Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s homestead (before that unfortunate incident with the stormtroopers), and it’s barely changed since George Lucas recreated Tatooine in Tunisia. Expect minimal fuss and few mod cons, but maximum fan frisson as you sit down for tagine in the actual Lars family dining room. There are 20 underground cave rooms to choose from and dinner, bed and breakfast will set you back about $10. You will not be asked to do any moisture farming or droid maintenance while you’re here. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : For more Star Wars history, head for the nearby seaside town of Ajim, the location for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s house and the Mos Eisley, and very much not a hive of scum and villainy IRL.

🎬 Read our review of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

69.  Hengdian World Studios, China

A life-sized replica of Beijing’s Forbidden City is just one of the epic sets spanning 5,000 years of Chinese history at this sprawling outdoor film studio in Zhejiang province. Founded in the mid-’90s in what was a quiet farming town, ‘Chinawood’ has become a bucket list destination for fans of the country’s martial arts movies and period dramas. It’s been the backdrop for some of Chinese cinema’s most legendary fight scenes and high-drama palace betrayals (power struggles, back-stabbing concubines... you name it). Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Drago n and Zhang Yimou’s Hero both filmed here. Today, the studio covers more than 2,500 acres, is the filming location for around 70 percent of the country’s film and TV series, and has been known to pull in 20 million tourists in a single year. Amy Snelling

Fun fact : One of its recent TV productions, period drama Story of Yanxi Palace , has had more than 15 billion views on iQiyi, China’s answer to Netflix.

70.  Westwood Village Memorial Park, Los Angeles

LA is full of star-studded cemeteries. Bette Davis, Buster Keaton and Gene Autry reside at Forest Lawn, while Judy Garland, Marion Davies and Cecil B DeMille all rest at the Paramount-neighbouring Hollywood Forever. And then there’s the compact and less showy Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery , which feels like a celluloid secret in comparison. If you’re looking to pay tribute to a cinematic vanguard, search for the grave of Billy Wilder (look in the southeast corner of the cemetery). For Some Like It Hot fans, the site is hallowed ground for the Austrian auteur’s comedy classic as co-stars Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon were both laid to rest here, too, and Wilder’s headstone has a clever nod to the film’s last line: ‘I’m a writer but then nobody’s perfect.’ Michael Juliano 

Fun fact : It’s also the final resting place for Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Natalie Wood, Bettie Page, Truman Capote, Rodney Dangerfield, Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, Frank Zappa and Merv Griffin, who comes close to Wilder’s epitaph: ‘I will not be right back after this message.’

71.  Manhattan Bridge view, New York

Standing at the crossing of Brooklyn’s Washington and Water Streets gives this killer view of the Manhattan Bridge. The Insta hordes know it and descend on it daily. But Once Upon a Time in America director Sergio Leone got there first, framing his Jewish street kids, Noodles and co, against this backdrop in a shot so ridiculously cool, it ended up on the poster. One thing you won’t see in the frame is the Empire State Building, which is clearly visible on a clear day. This bit of the film predates its construction by a good decade. Anyone fancying a visit to this corner of Dumbo (‘Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass’) should hop on the subway to York Street or the NYC Ferry to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 1. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : Take a stroll for a few blocks and you can pick up a Hollywood biography or movie making-of book from killer indie bookstore PowerHouse Arena .

🎬 Read our review of Once Upon a Time in America

72.  Weta Workshop, New Zealand

Saruman had Isengard, Peter Jackson has Weta Workshop. The company’s Wellington home is the prop-making, costume-designing engine room of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies – and myriad other movies, not all directed by Jackson. From modest beginnings bringing splatter to Jackson’s cult early films, Braindead and Bad Taste , it’s now the world-building powerhouse where James Cameron comes to figure out what the Na’vi have for breakfast. It’s a total geek fantasia, in other words, and since 2012 tours have shepherded wide-eyed movie lovers through a Smaug’s lair of models, bigatures, chainmail, weapons and the odd goblin. These days, it’s a proper cottage industry, with hands-on workshops sharing the tricks and techniques of Oscar-winning SFX-ers. Stop in at the shop, the Weta Cave, to pick up an orc for the garden. Phil de Semlyen    Fun fact : Weta takes its name from a local New Zealand insect – fittingly, a bug heavyweight. 🎬 Read our review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

73.  HR Giger Bar, Switzerland

Attached to a museum in Gruyères, Switzerland that’s devoted to the work of the creator of Alien ’s xenomorph and the cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s ‘Brain Salad Surgery’ LP is a bar where you can have a drink amid biomechanical decor. Designed by HR Giger himself, this watering hole is filled with eerie architectural details like spinal cords and rib cages that arch across the ceiling and bone-y seats fit for a Space Jockey – there’s even a wall of creepy baby heads. While you’re soaking in the sights, you can enjoy a glass of HR Giger-branded absinthe, a Nostromo cocktail (black vodka, Coke and lime) or an Alien Blood shot (a boozy combo of rum, curaçao and Baileys). The seating is limited and the bar is a popular attraction, so be prepared to wait your turn to sit in this tavern fit for an alien queen. Zach Long

Fun fact : There’s a second, slightly less atmospheric HR Giger Bar that predates this one, located in Giger’s birthplace of Chur, Switzerland.

🎬 Read our review of Aliens

74.  Judy Garland Museum, Minnesota

Showbiz’s Buckingham Palace, the Judy Garland Museum is a place of pilgrimage for Judyphiles and, to a lesser extent, Wizard of Oz devotees (though it’s more Garland-centric than solely Oz-focused). It’s to be found in the wood-frame Grand Rapids house where Garland – then Frances Ethel Gumm – spent the first four years of her life in the 1920s, and was the brainchild of local artist Jackie Dingmann when it first opened in 1975. Aside from affording a nose around Garland’s childhood home, complete with its original furniture and fixtures, what’s striking is its unsugarcoated representation of this complex woman and all her triumphs and struggles. Amid all the furs, photos and memorabilia – and the actual horse-drawn carriage from The Wizard of Oz – that makes it an emotional place to visit. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : A pair of Dorothy’s slippers was stolen from the museum in 2005. They were recovered by the FBI 13 years later.

🎬 Read our review of The Wizard of Oz

75.  The Hollywood Sign, Los Angeles

It adorns plenty of lazy establishing shots of Los Angeles, and it’s been destroyed by aliens ( Independence Day ), earthquakes ( Earthquake ) and a sharknado (…you know the movie). But framing that perfect view of the sign for yourself is actually a little bit trickier than the movies make it seem. Plug the Hollywood Sign into your map app of choice and it’ll send you a mile-and-a-half away to a viewing spot at the Griffith Observatory. Instead, make your way to Lake Hollywood Park, a secluded green space just under the sign. If you want as close of an encounter with those famed nine letters as you legally can, hike up to a trailhead on Deronda Drive that’ll eventually take you behind the sign. Michael Juliano 

Fun fact  The ‘Hollywoodland’ sign was only supposed to be up for a year and a half when it was built in 1923. It eventually lost its ‘land’ suffix and, after falling into disrepair in the ’70s, was restored thanks to a fundraising campaign led by Hugh Hefner.

📍Discover more of the   best things to do in Los Angeles  

76.  Pathé Tuschinski, Amsterdam

Our pick of the world’s most beautiful cinema is an essential port of call for anyone in, around or within a nine-hour flight of Amsterdam. Its origin story involved a poor Polish Jewish tailor who travelled across Europe to open his dream picture palace, suffering a fire, bankruptcy and the Nazis along the way – and that sense of history endures to this day. Two of  the cinema ’s three original screens have been lovingly restored, while the main auditorium remains perfectly preserved right down to its Moroccan carpets and vintage Wurlitzer-Strunk organ – and there are three others in a more modern annexe. For the ultimate luxe treat, pay for a box in the opulent main auditorium and order Dutch treats (Amsterdam ossenworst, bitterballen et al) and film-themed cocktails (try the Godfather Highball). Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact : The Tuschinski boasts major music history, too. Its main theatre, the Grote Zaal, has seen Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf and Dizzy Gillespie all performing live.

📍Five magical day trips to take from Amsterdam

77.  Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle

Want to see Luke Skywalker’s severed hand, an authentic Michael Myers mask and Dorothy’s dress from The Wizard of Oz ? They’re all on display, along with hundreds of other artefacts, at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP, for short), a sprawling institution that celebrates cinema, video games, music and literature. Movie buffs should head for the ‘Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film’ and ‘Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction’ exhibitions, each of which houses a long list of screen props and costumes. You’ll find even more cinematic ephemera in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Hall of Fame – including the Staff of Ra from Raiders of the Lost Ark . It’s a silver screen treasure trove that’s full of surprises. Zach Long

Fun fact : MoPOP’s building was designed by Frank Gehry, the architect behind similarly wavy buildings like LA’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

78.  Toho Studios, Tokyo

Founded in 1932, Toho Studios is one of Japan’s most prominent and longest-running production hubs. Famous classics that the studio is known for include Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and genre-defining kaiju film Godzilla . In more recent years, the studio has expanded its site where up to 200 commercials and 60 films are produced annually – even Netflix is getting in on the act, leasing two of the studio’s soundstages. There are no tours available for visitors to see the inner workings of the studio beyond its walls, but anyone is welcome to view and take a selfie with the small Godzilla stationed at the entrance or the famous Seven Samurai mural just behind it. Emma Steen

Fun fact : Moving with the times, Toho is partnering with TikTok to host an experimental film festival this summer. 

🎬 Read our review of  Seven Samurai

📍Discover  the best things to do in Tokyo

79.  Ghibli Museum, Tokyo

To fans of master animator Hayao Miyazaki, Tokyo’s Ghibli Museum is almost as hallowed as historical local landmarks like the Meiji Jingu Shrine. The museum can accommodate up to 2,400 people a day, but it’s so popular that tickets are often sold out weeks – even months – in advance. If you are lucky enough to book a slot (tickets aren’t available at the venue), you’re in for a treat. Even from the outside, the museum is impossibly charming, with brightly coloured walls shrouded in vines and Totoro welcoming visitors from a glass booth at the entrance. Inside, you’ll find the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro , which kids can’t resist clambering on to, as well as exhibitions that highlight the process behind Studio Ghibli classics like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke . Don’t skip the mini cinema, where you can catch animated short films – including one with a backstory to Howl’s Moving Castle . Emma Steen

Fun fact : Japan will soon also boast a Ghibli theme park – it’s scheduled to launch in 2022.  🎬 Read our review of My Neighbor Totoro

📍Discover the best things to do in Tokyo

80.  Pennan, Scotland

The iconic British red telephone box (famous, often, as a place to pee or sleep or worse) may have gone out of general service back in the 1980s, but there are still over 8,000 of them in use. This one in a sleepy Aberdeenshire coastal village has a strong Hollywood pedigree. In Bill Forsyth’s 1983 classic Local Hero , it’s from here that a young American oil executive repeatedly phones his Texas boss (Burt Lancaster) to report on his progress at trying to buy up the village to turn it into a lucrative oil refinery. Now you, too, can turn up in the village and pretend to act out scenes from Forsyth’s McDavid-v-Goliath crowd-pleaser. Dave Calhoun

Fun fact : There was no red phone box in Pennan when they made Local Hero ; they used a prop. The phone company installed a real one afterwards to cash in on the popularity of the film.  

🎬 Read our review of Local Hero

81.  Green Mill, Chicago

These days, the Green Mill operates as one of Chicago’s last-remaining late-night jazz clubs, where you can sit down with a stiff drink and take in a set from a seasoned local act. But during the Prohibition era, the club was a favourite haunt of Al Capone. Singer and comedian Joe E Lewis had his throat cut by one of Capone’s men in 1927, after he turned down a contract at the Green Mill – an incident that inspired the 1957 Frank Sinatra film  The Joker Is Wild (Lewis survived the attack – just) . The bar’s notoriety has made it a popular cinematic backdrop since then too, serving as a watering hole where John Cusack contemplates his relationships over a beer in High Fidelity and a business that James Caan blows up (through the magic of special effects) in Michael Mann’s neo-noir classic Thief . Zach Long Fun fact : Capone was rumoured to have had an escape route via a trapdoor behind the bar that led to a series of tunnels beneath the street.

🎬 Read our review of High Fidelity

📍The best jazz clubs to check out in Chicago

82.  Hatley Castle, Canada

Let’s face it, most of us secretly wish we’d gone to Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters to channel our superpowers (binge viewing and ping pong in our case) a bit more constructively. You can do the next best thing, though, and pay a visit to the real-life location of the X-Mansion. Better known as Hatley Castle, it’s actually in British Columbia, not the comic-book setting of New York State, in easy reach of Vancouver, where many of the X-Men movies and Deadpool were filmed. It’s been a go-to location for films and TV for years (MacGyver once took down a villain here), but there’s other reasons to visit beyond following in the footsteps of Patrick Stewart (and Richard Dean Anderson) – including an ornate Japanese-style garden and a free museum. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact : The Cyclops-eyed will have noticed that other country piles have played the X-Mansion, including Canada’s Casa Loma and Parkwood Estate in X-Men , and England’s Englefield House in X-Men: First Class .

🎬 Read our review of X-Men

83.  Tabernas Desert, Spain

In southern Spain, closer to Africa than Madrid, is one of Europe’s only deserts. Until the ’50s, only windblown bushes crossed this arid expanse of Almería. Then Hollywood producers discovered it, and, as the saying goes, nothing was ever the same again. It quickly became the go-to place to shoot westerns, with everything from Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy to Sergio Corbucci’s Compañeros filmed here. And not just westerns: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , Lawrence of Arabia , Cleopatra , and Conan the Barbarian  were all shot here. In 2020, the European Film Academy made it one of the 12 treasures of European film culture, alongside the Bergman Centre and the Potemkin Stairs. María José Gómez

Fan fact : There are three studios-cum-theme parks to visit: Oasys Park (aka Mini Hollywood), where The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was filmed; Western Leone ; and the largest, Fort Bravo (aka Texas Hollywood). Saddle up and have a mosey through western history. 🎬 Read our review of A Fistful of Dollars

84.  Sky Pizza, Seoul

Almost overnight , Parasite ’s Oscars win transformed this humble Seoul pizzeria into a cult tourist hotspot. In the movie it’s called Pizza Age and it’s where the Kim family earn a very modest crust folding thousands of pizza boxes. Away from its film work, it’s better known as Sky Pizza, a ten-seat restaurant that, thanks to Bong Joon-ho’s magnificent black comedy , is positively thriving. Sales doubled when Parasite won the Best Picture Oscar, with local pride (and an influx of tourists) translating into a new-found appetite for sweet-potato pizza and selfies. Surely a strategic tie-in with Lenny’s Pizzeria from Saturday Night Fever is only a matter of time? Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : The Kims’ side hustle was partly inspired by a Canadian, Breanna Gray, whose Jedi-like pizza box folding skills the family marvel at on YouTube.   🎬 Read our review of Parasite

85.  Hotel Paradiso, Paris

You’ve seen Cinema Paradiso ... now stay at Hotel Paradiso . This box-fresh Parisian bolthole in the 12th arrondissement launched in March with a whole new concept in hospitality: A hotel in which you’re never more than about ten yards from a big screen and an almost endless library of films to watch. Sure, outside is the City of Light, Eiffel Tower and all, but why even venture out when so much thought has gone into this 36-room cinephile temple? Besides, you can always head up to the roof (there’ll be a cinema screen up there soon too) for a quick look before returning to your Louis Malle binge or sesh in the La La Land karaoke suite. It’s the brainchild of brothers Elisha and Nathanaël Karmitz, the MDs of French cinema chain and distributor  MK2, and one of the hotel’s rooms acts as a private booth to its adjacent cinema. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : The hotel’s phone number ends in ‘2001’. To reach reception from the rooms, you dial 007. 

📍Discover the 93 best hotels in Paris

86.  New York Bar, Tokyo

Tokyo was a star in its own right in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation , so it’s ironic that the famous bar that once hosted ennui-struck Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is named after an entirely different city. Located on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt, the New York Bar is one of the swankiest venues in town. Johansson’s character hastily ordered a simple vodka soda – don’t do this, it’s a waste. Instead, pore over the extensive cocktail menu, which features inventive blends of sake and sakura liqueur or espresso and amazake, as well as premium Japanese whiskeys of the sort Murray’s character was hired to endorse. With hand-crafted tipples, a killer view and nightly music from the bar’s jazz band, even the most disillusioned souls will find themselves dazzled here. Emma Steen  

Fun fact : The cocktail list includes the Lost in Translation -homaging LIT, a heady combo of sake, cherry blossom and peach liqueurs, and cranberry. Its pink hue is said to be inspired by Charlotte’s underwear at the start of the movie.

🎬 Read our review of Lost in Translation

87.  Bergman Centre, Sweden

Ingmar Bergman was ahead of the curve with the whole moving-to-the-country life hack. The great Swedish auteur moved to the remote Baltic island of Fårö after discovering it while location scouting Through a Glass Darkly in 1960. He shot other films there, including Persona and Shame , and lived and died there. Nowadays, his legacy is maintained by the Bergman Centre. This former school building brims with memorabilia for Bergmaniacs to revel in, from his Oscar for Fanny and Alexander to his lucky teddy bear, to the light meter that once belonged to his legendary cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Bergman bike safaris are also on offer, taking in Hammars Beach and other famous film locations. Or you can just stay and pretend to checkmate Death with the big chess set outside. Phil de Semlyen

Fun fact : Each summer Bergman Week sees film luminaries like Willem Dafoe and Ang Lee journey to the island to celebrate the great man.

🎬 Read our review of Persona

88.  Cineteca Nacional de Mexico, Mexico City

This vast palace of movie culture has made the neighbourhood of Xoco, in Mexico City, a huge draw for cinephiles. The 49,000-square-metre complex – the biggest film archive in Latin America – has bars, cafés, restaurants, ten cinema screens and a gallery. A fire tore through parts of the building in 1982, ruining many precious documents, negatives and objects. But a 2012 renovation by Mexican starchitect Michel Rojkind has given the institution a new lease of life. Several big-hitting annual festivals take place here, and there’s even a panoramic outdoor screen in the gardens that hosts free screenings for locals. Huw Oliver Fun fact : For anyone working up an appetite roaming this huge space, there’s an in-house ice-cream parlour that serves up a mean banana split. 

89.  Institut Lumière, Lyon

The world’s first action movie was filmed in this grand old building. The movie? La Sortie de l’Usine Lumière à Lyon . The action? Strolling, mostly. Nothing explodes, no one is gunned down – it’s just the employees of film pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière leaving their factory – but it heralded the beginning of a new technology that’s lovingly preserved in the Lumières’ old château and film shed to this day. The art nouveau museum is as close as you can get to a time machine back to the beginning of film. You’ll find the Cinématographe n°1, the camera the Lumières brothers used to shoot La Sortie de l'Usine , on display, their 360-degree Photorama, and even the ‘hand-pincer’ they invented to help World War I amputees. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : You can order a Francis Ford Coppola rosé or a glass of Brad Pitt’s champagne from a café wine list that reads like an IMBd page.

90.  Hôtel de Glace, Québec

You’ve seen Frozen . Then, if you have kids, you’ve seen it again. Then you’ve seen it 137 more times. Eventually, when you’ve managed to prise the remote control from their tiny hands, you may have idly wondered what inspired its wintry kingdom and Elsa’s ice palace. Say hello to Canada’s Hôtel de Glace, the midway point between chic rest stop for the Gourmet Traveller set and the bit of the Shackleton expedition when things went seriously wrong. Co-directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee discovered the place prepping Frozen and channelled its crystalline look into Elsa’s palace of frosty solitude. The place itself is much more than just the hotel version of one of those novelty vodka bars from the ’00s: the most expensive suite has a hot tub and a fireplace, and guests can go dog-sledding in the woods or fling themselves down the outdoor snow slides.   Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : The hotel opens between January and March, then it’s demolished and rebuilt every November using 500 tons of ice and 30,000 tons of snow.

🎬 Read our review of Frozen

91.  Alcatraz Island, San Francisco

San Francisco Bay’s fortified and now defunct island prison inspired on-screen stories almost as soon as it opened in 1934. But it was after its closure in 1963 that it took off as an occasional filming location, starting with Point Blank and continuing with Clint Eastwood thriller Escape from Alcatraz . As an active national park now – and a remarkably popular one whose reservations book months in advance – you can’t exactly shut the entire thing down for shooting. So while the delightfully ridiculous The Rock did indeed partially film on the island, most of the Bayhem were shot on a soundstage. (Alas, you won’t actually find a minecart with Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery underneath the island.) Michael Juliano

Fun fact : M iles of power  cable was run beneath the bay f or 1979’s Escape from Alcatraz ,  restoring electricity to the deteriorating island.

🎬 Read our review of The Rock

92.  LA River, Los Angeles

A brief history lesson: To counteract destructive winter floods, the Army Corp of Engineers began to line the Los Angeles River and its tributaries in concrete, starting in 1936. Ever since, it’s reduced portions of the river to a feeble trickle for much of the year – and turned it the perfect spot to film the most heroically reckless racing scenes in cinema. Different stretches are used, from Drive ’s joyride through Reseda or Grease ’s race under the now-demolished 6th Street Bridge (probably the most recognisable area). If we had to single out just one spot, it’d be Bull Creek, a tributary that runs through the northern section of the Valley, star of that chase in Terminator 2: Judgment Day . Michael Juliano

Fun fact : With  the chopper flying under the Pacific Coast Highway near the river, T2 ’s helicopter scene was so dangerous that James Cameron personally took over from the camera crew.

🎬 Read our review of Terminator 2: Judgment Day

93.  Hearst Castle, California

Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s coastal castle remains one of the most unforgettable monuments to unfathomable wealth. In the 1930s, Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies kept the San Simeon estate’s grounds filled with zebras, camels and kangaroos, and the interior with stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Mary Pickford. Despite those Old Hollywood connections, though, the castle has only hosted two notable film shoots: a scene in Spartacus at the ancient Greek- and Roman-inspired Neptune pool, and a Lady Gaga music video. But Hearst’s life story and the castle’s gothic touches served as the clear inspiration for Charles Foster Kane’s surreal tomb of luxury, Xanadu, in Citizen Kane . Watch the film’s opening newsreel of Xanadu and then come see for yourself. Michael Juliano

Fun fact : Mank ’s recreation of the mansion is the next best thing to visiting. David Fincher’s team didn’t set out to replicate it, but the dining room they created – all stone, arches and tapestries – nails its opulence.

🎬 Read our review of Citizen Kane

94.  Paramount Studios, Los Angeles

Of the big five studios, Paramount Pictures is the only one whose HQ is still within the actual neighbourhood of Hollywood – and among all of the other smaller soundstages and lots in the area, the only one that actually opens its doors to the public. Between the studio tour, TV show tapings in the soundstages and occasional ticketed events on the New York backlot like Frieze or the Taste, you can find plenty of excuses to get on the other side of those famous wrought iron gates – and you absolutely should. Paramount looks exactly like the postcard version of a movie studio – probably why it doubled as Woltz International Pictures in The Godfather and played itself in Sunset Boulevard . It’s relatively compact, so seemingly every green space and office can double as a location, particularly along the western flank that once housed Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball’s Desilu studio. Michael Juliano 

Fun fact : On most days it’s just filled with cars, but the ocean-hued Blue Sky Tank can be filled with nearly a million gallons of water. It was used as the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments and more recently as the edge of the world in The Truman Show .

📍Take a deeper dive into LA’s studio tours

95.  Görlitz, Germany

There are many reasons to visit this picturebox, film-centric town: Its brewery turns out an award-winning pilsner; the local speciality is something called ‘Silesian Heaven’, a collaboration of smoked pork and fruit that will have your arteries putting in a leave request; and it has a lovely river wending through it. It’s getting solid fives on TripAdvisor, even before you throw in the fact that it looks like a Wes Anderson movie. Specifically, The Grand Budapest Hotel , which was filmed here in 2013. You can see why Anderson picked it: Görlitz is a town with its own colour palette (pinks and oranges, mostly), full of grand townhouses and historic squares. Possibly the only downside is that there’s no real Mendl’s bakery here to pick up a Courtesan au Chocolat ( this spectacular creamery in nearby Dresden stood in for it). The fictional pastry’s real-life creator is here, though: head for Cafe Ca Re for a treat. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : The town shot a tribute video in the style of Wes Anderson to say auf wiedersehen to him and his crew. 🎬 Read our review of The Grand Budapest Hotel

96.  The Lighthouse Cafe, Los Angeles

La La Land has an uncanny ability to make already-beautiful LA landmarks like the Griffith Observatory and the Colorado Street Bridge even more captivating, and to add lesser-known spots like Angels Flight Railway and, er, the 110 and 105 carpool ramp on to out-of-towners to-do lists. Hermosa Beach’s Lighthouse Cafe sits somewhere in between the two categories. As in the film, it’s indeed a proper jazz club, one that dates back to 1949 and which has hosted the likes of Chet Baker and Miles Davis. But the vibes here are way different than on the silver screen: For starters, it’s right off the beach, so don’t be surprised if you see more bikinis than button-downs. And though jazz is certainly still part of the line-up, you’re just as likely to find local bar bands. If you’re looking for your La La Land moment, you’ll want to head around to the parking lot side of the club where you’ll find the lovely neon sign on the back brick wall. Michael Juliano

Fun fact : The stained-glass lighthouse medallion pinned behind the stage isn’t original to the club, but is a leftover from the film shoot.

🎬 Read our review of La La Land 📍Discover the best jazz club nights in Los Angeles

97.  Warner Bros. Studio, Los Angeles

What started as a small studio in Burbank in the 1920s is now a sprawling lot that – compared to all of the others in LA – we can simply describe as ‘the most’. Warner Bros. Studios is about the same size as the Vatican. Its exterior sets – accessible on foot and aboard a tram via the studio tour – span city, suburb and jungle areas, and its 30 or so soundstages dwarf any other lot in town. Ever wondered where The Goonies managed to fit One-Eyed Willy’s ship? Or Dunkirk ’s sinking destroyer? The humblingly huge Stage 16. Want to see a Batmobile? Here’s a warehouse full of them, in Burton, Schumacher, Nolan and Snyder flavours. A bit of an archives addict? Take a seat on the Central Perk couch or scope out galleries stuffed with Harry Potter props. Basically, it’s a cinematic Disneyland (oops, wrong studio). Michael Juliano

Fun fact : Whether it’s playing River City ( The Music Man ) or Stars Hollow ( Gilmore Girls ), the studio’s midwestern town square can make any season work – the leaves can be individually removed from or added to the trees. 

Read our review of The Goonies .

98.  George Eastman Museum, New York State

Kodak founder George Eastman invented the film stock that was loaded into the cameras of cinema pioneers like Eadweard Muybridge, Alice Guy-Blaché and Georges Méliès. His old house, a sprawling mansion in upstate New York where he had his eureka moments, is now a museum-cum-time capsule. It’s a space where you can feel yourself tiptoeing that blurry line between moving pictures and the still kind as you explore an array of early filmmaking kit and black-and-white photography. Or you can take a stroll through the yucca-filled conservatory, complete with wall-mounted elephant (Eastman had a Hemingway-esque thirst for stuffing wild animals), or explore his mini photo-processing lab. There’s also a 500-seat cinema – the Dryden Theatre – so you can watch a film in the home of the man who helped create the medium. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : Martin Scorsese stores his films in the museum’s huge archive, while Spike Lee, Kathryn Bigelow and others also keep their celluloid collections here.

99.  La Cinémathèque Française, Paris

In a country that venerates le septième art like no other, this is where you go to properly bone up on all things movies. This striking postmodern building – designed by Frank Gehry, no less – is in the slightly out-of-the-way Parc de Bercy, in the city’s east. But it’s totally worth the schlep: inside, you’ll find four screens, a restaurant, an exhibition space, a bookshop and the especially brilliant Musée du Cinéma, which holds legendary costumes worn by Hollywood greats (Garbo, Leigh, Taylor), original posters, early projectors, and objects like the head of Mrs Bates from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Bresson, Clouzot, Godard, Truffaut, Resnais, Chabrol were all regulars here at one point or another – why not join the club? Huw Oliver

Fun fact : In 1968 the Cinémathèque’s founder, Henri Langlois, was booted out by the country’s culture minister, as the institution was put under government control. Huge protests ensued – a precursor of the May ’68 student riots.

📍Discover the 22 best museums in Paris

100.  Monument Valley, Arizona

John Ford’s Point, Forrest Gump Hill… Monument Valley wears its cinematic past so firmly on its sleeve, you’d half expect there to be a spot called ‘That Gulch Where Chevy Chase Crashed His Station Wagon in Vacation ’. Its towering buttes and dusty plains are instantly recognisable from everything from Forrest Gump to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Easy Rider . But most of all, it’s a place of pilgrimage for western fans: the spot where Ford filmed The Searchers , Stagecoach and My Darling Clementine . Stay at Goulding’s Lodge or the aptly named The View hotel , which offers valley vistas from every room. The valley is part of the Navajo Nation, and Arizona Tourism recommends signing up for a tour with an authorised Navajo guide. If you’re self-driving, it’s $20 to take a car (or stagecoach) on the unpaved 17-mile signposted loop. There’s a couple of hiking trails, too. Phil de Semlyen Fun fact : Be sure to stop in at the museum at Goulding’s Lodge. It tells the story of Henry Goulding, the sheep trader who first introduced John Ford to Monument Valley.

🎬 Read our review of The Searchers

101.  Café des Deux Moulins, Paris

Rue Lepic is one of those roads that hums constantly. Sloping up touristy Montmartre, this street is filled with traditional shops, from butcher and bakery to fishmonger, and you can’t move for all the locals having casual chinwags on the pavement. It’s just the kind of place you’d choose to set a film that evokes an oh-so quaint and nostalgic image of Paris – which was exactly what Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was going for. Want to retrace the title character’s steps? You should start with a double espresso at the Café des Deux Moulins. This is where Amélie herself waits tables, and few sensations beat wiling away the hours at one of the prized terrace seats. The service is brusque, and music blares constantly, but that only enhances the vibe. Your next stop? Monsieur Collignon’s greengrocer on the Rue des Trois-Frères: another of the movie’s key locations. Huw Oliver Fun fact : The café is named after two local windmills: the Moulin de la Galette, which is now a restaurant, and the Moulin Rouge, which is better known as the birthplace of the can-can.

🎬 Read our review of Amélie 📍The 20 best cafés in Paris right now

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Wednesday April 10th 2024

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Have you ever wanted to discover the the beautiful, the fascinating or the simply odd places where films were made?

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UPDATED: 15 FEBRUARY 2024

The reputation of John Carpenter's 1988 thriller grows. They're here... they're among us... Put on your shades, follow us around Los Angeles and see if you can spot them >>>

They Live (1988)

Updated: 10 february 2024.

Saltburn's mansion is not one of the screen regulars but a very private home that's not appeared on-screen before. Then there's Oxford, and even a bit of London, too >>>

Saltburn (2023)

Updated: 5 february 2024.

The fantastical city of this irresistible origins story is a mash-up of European countries but, among the sets and the FX, there's a surprising amount of the real England >>>

Wonka (2023)

Updated: 30 january 2024.

Revisit Los Angeles of the 1950s with the wonderful period locations for Tim Burton's loving tribute the the notorious – though never boring – maverick director >>>

Ed Wood (1994)

New addition: 10 november 2023.

Where else would Barbie – leaving Barbieland after a bout of existential angst – rock up in the real world but on the California coast at Venice Beach Boardwalk? >>>

Barbie (2023)

Updated: 23 october 2023.

Revisit Los Angeles of the 1960s with our expanded, in-depth three-page feature on Quentin Tarantino's epic, complete with plenty of new original photographs and details >>>

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)

Updated: 6 october 2023.

Revisiting Michael Mann's visual love-letter to Los Angeles in the Nineties... what's changed since then and what's still there. Take a new look around the City of Angels >>>

Heat (1995)

New addition: 23 july 2023.

If you're as much a fan of dusty, desert roads, truck stops and motels as I am – you'll love this trip. Just don't play pranks on psychotic drivers in big trucks... >>>

Joy Ride (2001)

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Mind your manors

The two 'Wayne Manors' from Christopher Nolan 's Batman trilogy, but three different stately homes from three different periods, and in the wrong order. It's complicated. Find out the full story >>>

A TALE OF TWO WAYNE MANORS

Hit the deco.

A special evening in Los Angeles ? Try Cicada , in the gorgeous art deco Oviatt Building , a former 20s haberdashery store on South Olive Street , downtown. With elegant wood-panelling and Lalique glass, this is the luxury restaurant in which Julia Roberts had a hard time with those slippery little snails in Pretty Woman . Its not surprisingly a screen favourite: more recently, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had a bit of a spat here in Mr and Mrs Smith , it's the site of Viola Davis ' briefing at the opening of Suicide Squad and it becomes a 'Roman' restaurant for Tarantino 's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood .

Cicada, Downtown Los Angeles

Sheer torture....

Yes, Eli Roth fans, there really is a Museum of Torture – and it is the one seen in Hostel . It's not in Slovakia, though, but in the beautiful Medieval village of Český Krumlov , in the Czech Republic , where much of the film was shot. It's not tucked away down a creepy staircase (hello, this is a major tourist attraction!) but on the village's main square.

Museum of Torture, ČeskY Krumlov

40 film locations around the world

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written by Rough Guides Editors

updated 3.08.2021

• 1. Harry Potter, Christ Church College, Oxford

The “dreaming spires” of Oxford have starred in many a film ( The Italian Job , Howard’s End , The History Boys ), but it’s the college of Christ Church that’s most recognizable in the Harry Potter films, doubling up as the inimitable Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. From the cavernous wood-clad Great Hall and the echoey sixteenth-century staircase to the spooky cloisters and quadrangles, Christ Church makes the perfect setting for magical escapades.

2. Jaws, Martha’s Vineyard

3. inception, nijo castle, 4. pretty woman, beverly hills, 5. lord of the rings, matamata, 6. notting hill, london, 7. the beach, ko phi phi leh, 8. gladiator, ait ben haddou, 9. ghostbusters, new york, 10. monty python, doune castle, 11. shaun of the dead, duke of albany, 12. angels and demons, vatican city, 13. trainspotting, calton street bridge, 14. forrest gump, savannah, 15. the shining, timberline lodge, 16. groundhog day, punxsutawney, 17. amityville horror, amityville, 18. skyfall, glencoe, 19. argo, grand bazaar, istanbul, 20. the hunger games, dupont state forest, 21. star wars, hotel sidi driss, 22.the good, the bad and the ugly, tabernas desert, 23. avatar, hawaii, 24. the sound of music, salzburg, 25. the dark knight rises, mehrangarh fort, 26. the league of extraordinary gentlemen, rudolfinum, 27. mamma mia, skiathos, 28. the avengers, cleveland, 29. the godfather, savoca, 30. lawrence of arabia, wadi rum, 31. les misérables, gourdon, 32. the king’s speech, ely cathedral, 33. lara croft: tomb raider, cambodia, 34. rain man, caesar’s palace, 35. planet of the apes, malibu, 36. rebel without a cause, griffith observatory, 37. indiana jones and the last crusade, petra, 38. shawshank redemption, ohio state reformatory, 39. x-men, gooderham worts distillery, 40. saving private ryan, curracloe beach.

© Andrei Nekrassov/Shutterstock

The world’s most infamous fish laid claim to many innocent lives beneath the stunning turquoise waters of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts , an affluent summer colony accessible by boat and air only. Local residents were picked by director Steven Spielberg to moonlight as extras in the film, including Chief Brody’s two young sons.

© Michael Sean O'Leary/Shutterstock

The mind-bending film, Inception (2010), flits from country to country and city to city – as dream-world scenes are apt to do – but we kick off the tale in Japan , in the ornate seventeenth-century Nijo Temple. Or rather, a staged Warner Bros. set with a design based on Nijo Castle… which is, in reality, located in Kyoto and open to the public.

© picotan/Shutterstock

Pretty Woman , the iconic 1990 rom-com starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, is set in Los Angeles . Gere plays Edward Lewis, a successful businessman who hires a beautiful prostitute, Vivian Ward, to be his escort at several high-flying events. She stays with him at the impossibly glamorous hotel, Beverly Wilshire, where she enjoys a luxurious week of scented bubble baths, champagne and, eventually, true love. Awwww.

Bevelry Wilshire hotel © Flavia8/Shutterstock

Related articles from the blog

J.R Tolkien’s “Middle Earth” is mocked up in New Zealand ’s picturesque rural village, Matamata , in the heart of the Waikato region (North Island). The Shire’s quaint thatched cottages surrounded by idyllic countryside of flower-strewn meadows, baa-ing sheep and tinkling streams is also known as “Hobbiton” where LOR fans can take tours and pretend they too are hobbits.

© aaron choi/Shutterstock

Whenever you’re feeling down, put on a Richard Curtis film: his feel-good offerings are bound to cheer you up. The 1999 film, Notting Hill , is a tried-and-tested film formula featuring classic Brit actor Hugh Grant as bumbling William Thacker, who falls in love with celeb of the day, Anna Scott (Julia Roberts). As the title suggests, the film is set in the gentrified, oh-so-pretty London neighbourhood of Notting Hill, showing off Portobello Road market and that blue door on Westbourne Park Road.

Notting Hill in London © andersphoto/Shutterstock

A paradise concoction of sugar-soft white sand and translucent sea, framed by glorious mountains, Ko Phi Phi Leh was the bewitching backdrop to Alex Garland’s novel-turned film, The Beach . A fresh-faced Leo di Caprio runs amok with a beach community fuelled by marijuana-lovin’, but it’s the glorious Thai scenery that steals the show here. Following the film, visitors flocked here in their droves, leading to environmental concerns.

© Don Mammoser/Shutterstock

Most Gladiator fans can recite the immortal lines: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius…Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next”. It’s a heady and emotional Oscar-winning film, made all the more potent by its surroundings, from the dank forests of “Germania” (near Farnham, Surrey) to the scorched African town of Aït Ben Haddou , near Ouarzazate in Morocco , where Maximus is sold into slavery.

Ait Ben Haddou

© saiko3p/Shutterstock

The Hook and Ladder 8 Fire Station in Tribeca, New York City , has enjoyed a somewhat spookier past as the headquarters for Peter, Ray and Egon, three oddball parapsychologists who set up a business ridding the city of troublesome ghoulies. The fire station is still in use today, so if you’re visiting armed with camera and questions, do be careful of fast-paced, on-duty vehicles.

Tribeca © Yulia Mayorova/Shutterstock

It’s a thoroughly English story about King Arthur and his band of knights, but the 1975 film, Monty Python and The Holy Grail was filmed mostly in Scotland . Dating from the thirteenth century, Doune Castle, near Stirling, appeared as Arthur’s home, Camelot, complete with Great Hall and Round Table. The castle wasn’t just Camelot though, as due to restrictions imposed by the authorities on filming in the area, it had to step up as Guy de Lombard’s abode, as well as “Castle Anthrax” and “Swamp Castle”.

© Heartland Arts/Shutterstock

This BAFTA-winning extravaganza combined undead zombies, irascible parents (brilliantly played by Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton), long-suffering girlfriends and a directionless chap named Shaun (played by the matchless Simon Pegg). The film was shot entirely in London , mostly in the north round Finchley, Crouch End and Finsbury Park, but (weirdly) hops south of the Thames to Shaun’s “local”, “The Winchester”, actually the Duke of Albany in New Cross, now redeveloped into flats.

Crouch End © pixstory2/Shutterstock

A best-selling thriller that delves deep into the murky world of a secret society, The Illuminati, Dan Brown’s first novel, Angels and Demons , was turned into a film in 2009. Tom Hanks plays protagonist Robert Langdon, who energetically romps around the symbol-strewn Vatican City – though of course, this is not the real Vatican City… it’s all film studios and substitution.

© luckyraccoon/Shutterstock

Starring reputable actors such as Ewan McGregor (Renton), Robert Carlyle (Begbie) and Kelly Macdonald (Diane), the original Trainspotting movie is a tough and destructive story about heroin abuse in the late 1980s. The backdrop is an economically depressed Edinburgh , and the opening scene, where we meet Renton and his friend Spud running down Princes Street to the Calton Street Bridge, is duly filmed in the Scottish capital. After this though, most of the filming switches to Glasgow .

© Dmitry Naumov/Shutterstock

With a narrative to melt the hardest of hearts, amplified by a wonderful soundtrack, Forrest Gump (1994) opens with a contemplative Forrest sitting on a bus stop bench in Chippewah Square, Savannah , Georgia , telling his story to anyone who will listen. Now in The Savannah History Museum, not far from the square, the bench is where Forrest utters that immortal line, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know which one you’re gonna get”.

© ClaudiaMMImages/Shutterstock

You may or may not have plucked up the courage to see Stanley Kubrick’s pyschological horror film, The Shining , but you’ll have certainly heard of it. The terror takes hold within creepy “Overlook Hotel”, where Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is employed as a winter caretaker, accompanied by his wife and psychic son, Danny. The hotel’s interior was filmed in Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England, though the exterior is actually the Timberline Lodge in Mount Hood, northern Oregon .

© St. Nick/Shutterstock

We are in Punxsutawney, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania … again and again and again. It’s February 2nd and arrogant weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is inexplicably trapped in a time loop, reliving the same day, until he manages to break the spell by capturing his love interest, Rita’s, heart. The film’s “Punxsutawney” is actually a city in Illinois called Woodstock.

Gobblers knob, Punxsutawney © HMHass/Shutterstock

The subject of no less than ten films – the first dates to 1979 – the Amityville Horror is based on a novel by Jay Anson, which detailed the story of the Lutz family who move into a ghoul-ridden, Dutch Colonial-style house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville. They stay just 28 days, supposedly tormented by ghosts of the victims of Ronald DeFeo Jr, who murdered six family members there in 1974.

Number 23 in the Bond series, Skyfall welcomes back Daniel Craig as the one and only Agent 007. But we say goodbye to beloved M, played by Judi Dench, who (spoiler alert!) is killed. Filming locations included London and Turkey, as well as Scotland – where Skyfall, Bond’s family home, is sequestered away in the misty glens of Glen Coe (though the house itself is a plywood and plaster creation knocked up in Surrey).

Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning offering tells the story of six Americans who escape a besieged embassy in the middle of Tehran, Iran in 1980. They are forced into hiding, until Tony Mendez (Affleck) helps them escape, using an elaborately concocted ruse. Of course, filming in Iran was an impossibility, so the film-makers opted for the chaotic, colourful bazaars and crowded streets of Istanbul in Turkey to substitute.

Lamps for sale on Grand Bazaar at Istanbul, Turkey © Berke/Shutterstock

The science fiction hit of 2008, The Hunger Games was written by Suzanne Collins and adapted for the movie screen in 2012. Violent, imaginative and hugely compelling, the “Games” take place within the beautiful pine forests, craggy mountains and rushing waterfalls of DuPont State Forest in North Carolina .

The ancient troglodyte building, Hotel Sidi Driss, in the Berber village of Matamata in the Tunisian desert, is also known as the Stars Wars Hotel. Consisting of five pits connected by a series of underground tunnels and staircases, it was where Luke Skywalker grew up with his aunt and uncle Lars in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope . The connection with the “galaxy far, far away” has ensured the hotel’s popularity – at least as a day-trip, if not an overnight stay.

Underground Berber Caves In Sidi Driss, Matmata, Tunisia © Slimstyl/Shutterstock

It needs no introduction: this acclaimed Spaghetti Western stars Clint Eastwood as Blondie (“The Good”), Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes (“The Bad”) and Eli Wallach as Tuco (“The Ugly”) and involves tense gun duels, violent hangings, Confederate v Union forces, stolen gold and relentless heat – the latter provided by fierce sunshine in Tabernas Desert, in Andalucía , Spain.

Tabernas, Spain © Ysbrand Cosijn/Shutterstock

A mind-blowing mix of live action and computer-generated sequences, Avatar (2009) is predominantly set within a rainforest backdrop populated by a nature-loving, blue-skinned race, the Na’vi. It’s difficult, therefore, to tell what’s a real-life location and what’s “technified”, but one thing is for sure – Hawaii looks pretty amazing in Cameron’s hectic motion picture.

© schoukse/Shutterstock

The hills are alive in and around Salzburg , where much of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, written by Robert Wise, was filmed – and where the Von Trapp family story originates. There are lots of historical inaccuracies in the film (for example, the family didn’t really live in this magnificent mansion), but who really cares, when this musical spawned tuneful classics such as “Do-Re-Mi” and “Edelweiss”.

© canadastock/Shutterstock

As he successfully escapes the depths of the dingy underground prison, Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) is confronted by the sight of the magnificent Mehrangarh Fort . Balanced superbly on a cliff overlooking the city of Jodphur in Rajasthan , the fifteenth century palace makes a suitably terrifying setting for the “Pit” that once imprisoned indomitable Bane.

Prague stars as the movie location of the 2003 comic-book caper, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen . The “London Club”, where the League is assembled by M, is the grand Rudolfinum, Prague’s erstwhile House of Commons and now concert venue, home to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

View from Charles bridge to the Rudolfinum on the right bank of the river Vltava in Prague © Angelina Dimitrova/Shutterstock

A toe-tapping extravaganza of ABBA hits belted out by actors like Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried, and, um, Pierce Brosnan, Mamma Mia! is bound to make you want to hop on a plane and get to Greece , fast. The sunshine, sea, sandy beaches and tavernas are donated courtesy of Skiathos , a gorgeous island in the Aegean.

In The Avengers , a medley of superheroes – think Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk and Thor – join forces to stop Thor’s villainous brother Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) from conquering and ruling Planet Earth. The city of Cleveland in Ohio doubles up as New York City, scene of some especially chaotic battle scenes; “Stuttgart Square”, where Loki forces the public to kneel to him, is Cleveland’s Public Square.

© Kenneth Sponsler/Shutterstock

The ultimate gangster movie, The Godfather (1972), is a violent and complex story of family loyalties, murder, coercion, drugs, Dons and offers “he can’t refuse”. The Corleone family, headed up by Vito (Marlon Brando), come from the town of Corleone in Sicily , however due to its overdeveloped look, the filming shifted over to the prettier, more atmospheric villages of Savoca (pictured) and Forza d’Agrò, near Taormina .

Savoca, Sicily, Italy © Simone Padovani/Shutterstock

A rust-red valley hewn into the sandstone east of Aqaba in Jordan , Wadi Rum has long been inhabited by humans, who have left their mark on the rocks and valley walls since prehistoric times. A more recent connection is to Lawrence of Arabia , the 1962 movie based on the life of T.E. Lawrence (who passed through the area during the Arab Revolt in 1917–1918), which was mostly filmed here.

© Shutterstock

It’s a French story by thoroughly French novelist Victor Hugo, but epic musical “Les Mis” was shot pretty much entirely in England, including the dockyards of Portsmouth, a chapel in London’s Little Venice and the elegant Naval College at Greenwich. There is one unquestionable French scene, however, and that’s the lovely hilltop town of Gourdon in the Alpes-Maritimes, where main man Jean Valjean secures his redemption.

© Christian Mueller/Shutterstock

Westminster Abbey , site of real-life coronations, is played by Ely Cathedral in director Tom Hooper’s 2010 oh-so-British film, The King’s Speech. Stammering Duke of York (Colin Firth) is “cured” of his vocal affliction by Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, and successfully conquers his first radio broadcast as King George IV, following the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII.

View of the South part of the Cathedral from The Gallery Street in Ely © Christophe Cappelli/Shutterstock

Kick-ass adventure- and archeology-lover, Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is on an Illuminati-thwarting mission in Cambodia – in the beautiful temple complex of Angkor Thom , to be exact. The full splendor of the area is on very much on show, including the 54 incredible towers carved with enigmatic smiling faces.

Rain Man tells the heartwarming tale of two brothers who embark upon a cross-country car trip from Ohio to Los Angeles . Dustin Hoffman plays autistic savant, Raymond (“Rain Man”) while Tom Cruise is his abrasive brother Charlie, who, once he learns Raymond has an excellent memory and mental calculator, carts him off to win at blackjack in the Las Vegas casinos in Nevada. Caesar’s Palace is where Charlie teaches Raymond how to dance.

Las Vegas evening © Shutterstock

Planet of the Apes has popped up in a few forms over the years – including a 1970s TV series and a Tim Burton re-hash in 2011. The original film (1968), complete with a bewildered and craggy-looking Charlton Heston, comes to an end on delectable Westward Beach in Malibu (between Zuma Beach and Point Dune), a gorgeous strip of yellow sand lapped by frothy waves.

© R Scapinello/Shutterstock

Representing James Dean’s zenith as cultural and acting icon – he was to tragically die in a car crash before the release of the film – Rebel Without a Cause is a stark social commentary on the moral corrosion of 1950s American youth. The influential school trip and explosive final shootout takes place at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles , where a bust of Dean has been erected in the building’s grounds.

Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California © Sean Pavone/Shutterstock

The Last Crusade (1989) is the third installment in the popular Indiana Jones series, and here we head to the ancient city of Petra in Jordan . The Holy Grail is supposedly housed in the “Canyon of the Crescent Moon”, actually – in real life – the Al Khazneh. The intricate sandstone carving and Greek-influenced architecture make it an exceptionally beautiful structure.

Ohio State Reformatory is an imposing nineteenth-century building in Mansfield, Ohio , that shows off a mix of architectural styles – Victorian Gothic, Queen Anne and something called Richardsonian Romanesque. Behind this impressive facade huddled the inmates of Shawshank State Penitentiary – Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) and Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman) among them.

The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield Ohio is on the register of historical places © aceshot1/Shutterstock

Though it’s set in New York, the 2000 blockbuster featuring comic-strip favourites such as Wolverine and Magneto, is filmed for the most part in Ontario , Canada . The Gooderham Worts Distillery, once one of the largest distillers in the British Empire and now an entertainment district in downtown Toronto, appeared in the opening scene as a Polish concentration camp.

© lastdjedai/Shutterstock

Steven Spielberg’s horrifying and emotional depiction of the 1944 D-Day Landings in his Oscar-winning war epic, Saving Private Ryan , used windswept Ballinesker and Curracloe beaches in Wexford , Ireland, to stand in for Omaha Beach in Normandy . The beaches are Blue Flag beauties known for bird-watching.

A view a the Curracloe beach in Co. Wexford In Ireland © Shane Lambert/Shutterstock

Top image © luckyraccoon/Shutterstock

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15 Real Movie Locations You Can Actually Visit

By rudie obias | nov 4, 2015.

While many major films shoot on a closed sound stage, sometimes productions venture out into the real world to create movie magic. Here are 15 locations from famous films that you can actually visit.

1. The Firehouse from Ghostbusters

The Ghostbusters' New York City headquarters sits at 14 North Moore Street on the corner of Varick Street in TriBeCa. It's actually the home of Hook & Ladder Company #8 , a fully working and operational New York Fire Department firehouse. Though the exterior of Ghostbusters HQ was in New York City, its interiors were filmed at another firehouse in Los Angeles, which is located at 225 E. 5th Street. Fire Station #23 was decommissioned in 1960 and the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission declared it a Historic Cultural Monument.

2. Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard

Wikimedia Commons

Die Hard 's Nakatomi Plaza is located at 2121 Avenue of the Stars, which is actually Fox Plaza , the corporate headquarters for Twentieth Century Fox in Los Angeles, California. A majority of Die Hard was filmed there, despite the building being under construction at the time of shooting. Fox Plaza is also featured in Speed, Airheads, and Fight Club . All four movies were released by Twentieth Century Fox. 

3. The House from A Christmas Story

While A Christmas Story is based in Indiana, the exterior house shots were filmed on location in Cleveland, Ohio. The Parkers' home is located at 3159 W. 11th Street in the Tremont neighborhood. After purchasing the house, Brian Jones set about renovating the house—including the interior, which the production shot on a soundstage in Toronto—into an exact replica of the Parkers’ house in the film. It's open to the public and serves as a museum that is full of props and movie memorabilia. There's even an "official" Chinese food restaurant located a few blocks away from A Christmas Story House and Museum , but it's not the same location featured in the holiday film.  

4. OCP Headquarters from Robocop

manabouttinseltown.blogspot.com

Although the original RoboCop took place in Detroit, Michigan, future downtown Detroit was an amalgam of Pittsburgh and Dallas. In fact, OCP corporate headquarters was actually Dallas City Hall ; the production used matte paintings to make the building appear taller. 

5. The Hotel from  The Grand Budapest Hotel

The department store Görlitzer Warenhaus (de) was used for the atrium lobby of the titular Grand Budapest Hotel. The store was scheduled for demolition, but the production saved it. “The columns, the staircases, that really magnificent window and that huge chandelier, that was already there, that’s all original,” production designer Adam Stockhausen told The Hollywood Reporter . “We built everything else.” Currently, the department store is under renovation and will re-open in early 2016.

6. Yavin IV from Star Wars

The Massassi Outpost rebel base on the fourth moon of Yavin in the original Star Wars film was shot on location at the Mayan temple ruins in The Tikal National Park in Guatemala. Director George Lucas picked the location after he saw a poster at a travel agency while shooting in London, England.

7. The Tribute Training Center from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Marriott Marquis Hotel at 265 Peachtree Center Avenue NE in Atlanta, Georgia is where you'll find the posh Tributes' Quarters and Training Center from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire . The hotel was chosen for its gigantic atrium—at one time the largest in the world—and beautiful glass elevators. The Tributes' living quarters were filmed on the 10th floor and a set was built on the hotel's roof.

8. Subterranean Pool from 127 Hours

Homestead Resort

At the beginning of 127 Hours , Aron Ralston (James Franco) meets two hikers (Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn); the trio dives into a subterranean pool with a 55-foot drop. The pool is actually a natural hot spring located at the Homestead Resort in Midway, Utah. But you can't recreate the scene: The resort won't let you dive into the hot spring like the actors did in the movie for safety reasons.

9. The Overlook Hotel from The Shining

While the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining was an elaborate set on a sound stage at EMI Elstree Studios in England (the largest set ever built at the studio), the fictional hotel is based on two real hotels in the United States. The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, California was the inspiration for the interior of the Overlook, while Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon was used for its exterior and establishing shots.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado was the original inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in the novel The Shining . Author Stephen King was disappointed that Kubrick didn't shoot at The Stanley, but the made-for-TV version of The Shining  was filmed at the Colorado hotel in 1997 instead. The Stanley also appeared in Dumb and Dumber in 1994.   

10. Camp Towanda from Wet Hot American Summer

Camp Channel

Wet Hot American Summer was shot at Camp Towanda , a sleepaway summer camp in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Though the movie takes place during the summer, it was actually filmed during the spring before new campers arrived for the season. Unlike what the title suggests, it was actually very cold and rainy throughout the 28-day shoot. The producers told the owners that Wet Hot American Summer was a family comedy, so they could get clearance from Camp Towanda to shoot there. After the camp owner's watched it, they were appalled by the movie.

11. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters from X-Men

Hatley Castle , located in British Columbia, Canada, was used as the exterior for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-Men movies. It first appeared in  Generation X, a made-for-TV movie in 1996, but later it found its way into X-Men, X2: X-Men United , and X-Men: The Last Stand throughout the 2000s. Twentieth Century Fox also used Casa Loma in Toronto and Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Ontario for exteriors, while movie sets on a soundstage in Los Angeles were used to shoot interiors.

12. The Baseball Diamond from Field of Dreams

Universal Studios built the field of Field of Dreams in Dubuque County, Iowa, near the city of Dyersville, straddling the land of two farmers. After filming completed in 1988, the field was left behind for the landowners : the Lansing family, who owned the house, the infield, and right field; and the Ameskamp family, who maintained left and center. At first, there were two driveways, two gift shops, and two parking lots, and equipment purchased from left field couldn’t be used on the right. But in 2007, the Ameskamps sold their part of the baseball diamond to the Lansings. Currently, Go the Distance Baseball, LLC owns the 193 acres where the film was shot; there are plans to develop a new $74 million complex called Baseball Heaven .

13. The Cherry Street Inn from Groundhog Day

While Groundhog Day takes place Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, it was almost entirely filmed in  Woodstock, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The cozy bed and breakfast where Bill Murray's Phil Connors stays is Royal Victorian Manor , located at 344 Fremont Street. Woodstock also hosts an annual Groundhog Day, where fans can experience the movie with special events around the town—including a two-night stay at the Royal Victorian Manor.  

14. Top Notch from Dazed & Confused

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Top Notch , located at 7525 Burnet Road in Austin, Texas, served as one of the teen hangouts in Dazed & Confused:  It's where David Wooderson, played by Matthew McConaughey, first got the word out about the party at the Moontower (no longer a functioning site) at the film's climax. You can still grab a burger at the Top Notch today.

15. Hogwarts from Harry Potter

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter film series is actually a few locations around England: Christ Church College and Cathedral in Oxford was used for its 16th-century stone staircase , and the design of its dining hall inspired Hogwarts' Great Hall; Gloucester Cathedral was used for the school's hallways in the first two films; Lacock Abbey near Chippenham in Wiltshire was used for a number of Hogwarts’ classrooms; and Bodleian Library of Oxford University, Fourth Form Room of Harrow Old Schools in Greater London, and Alnwick Castle in Northumberland were all locations used to bring Hogwarts alive on the big screen.

A majority of Christ Church College and Durham Cathedral's architecture inspired the design of the numerous Hogwarts movie sets at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire, England.  

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100+ Filming Locations You Should See In The USA

by Enchanted Serendipity | Feb 10, 2019 | Film & TV , Film Locations , Filming Locations , United States | 0 comments

The United States is the epitome of Hollywood moments, and that’s why I love it. It is so familiar to me even before I get there. Some cities in the US are so full of filming locations that you can find them on every corner if you look hard enough.

However, some of the best movie and tv filming locations in the USA are those which are found in the most obscure places – small towns and off the beaten track regions – which many tourists haven’t even heard of. But often enough, Hollywood has – and have made more than one film or tv show in that location. They’re the ones I love most. Sometimes I see a location so much I can spot it immediately now. That’s my secret talent. But for me, it’s about the chance to explore real places – real streets, real houses, real towns in and outside of the larger tourist filled cities of America.

Since 2008, I have traveled across the United States chasing filming locations and it has led me to some of the most amazing towns and locations I could have ever wished to see. And I am not the only one who does this. So for this particular article, I asked fellow travelers what their favourite filming locations were in the US, and I received a huge response back. Thus, this won’t be one of those generic “Top 10 filming locations” to see in the USA articles. Far from it. There are so many more than 10 top filming locations in a country as big as the USA, and you will soon see why.

Many of these locations, I have been to myself – which only highlights just how popular some of these filming locations actually are within the United States. But some are still on my list, and I want to see them now more than ever.

If you are traveling in the United States and want to add something fun to your itinerary, I wholly recommend you visit some of these locations and the towns that they live in to make your vacation even more exciting. One of the best travel memories one can have is getting to say “I’ve been there!” when you spot one on a re-watch of something you love.

So what are the most popular and iconic filming locations that all travelers should see when exploring the USA?

Here are our top picks of what is on offer in the US – but there is so much more than just what we have listed here (and more will be added over time!) All locations featured are broken down into STATE and CITY so they are easier to find. And any questions – just ask! And if you are heading over to the USA soon, be sure to join my Facebook community USA & Canada Travel Planning !

– Los Angeles –

(2005 – 2013).

by Toni of Enchanted Serendipity

TV Show Synopsis

Based on the UK series of the same name, The Office  is set in Scranton, Pennsylvania in the style of a ‘mockumentary’, using a single camera setup.  The Office  centers on the employees of Dunder Mifflin, a mediocre paper company run by boss, Michael Scott. Cameras follow the everyday lives of the employees as they attempt to get through their workdays, and navigate their personal relationships with each other – in and outside of the office.

Steve Carrell (Michael Scott), John Krasinski (Jim Halpet), Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute), Jenna Fischer (Pam Beasley)

About The Office  Dunder Mifflin Filming Location

Was The Office filmed in Scranton? Sorry guys, it wasn’t. Fans of the show will recognize many filming locations from  The Office   within the Northern Los Angeles areas (not Scranton!). But it is one specific location which 5 years after the show ended – still draws fans to it, myself included – the office building where  The Office  took place.

While the interior of The Office was shot on an LA set, the Chandler Valley Center Studios is the actual exterior of the Dunder Mifflin building, and was used throughout it’s entire series run. Many memorable scenes were shot outside in the carpark and the entrance of the building or the accompanying street, with classic scenes including “The Fire” episode aka when “Ryan started the fire”, when Michael runs Meredith over with his car and Pam and Jim’s secret relationship finally being exposed.

As a fan of the show – I have no actual number on how often I have watched this show from start to finish, it is that good – to be able to see this very location in the flesh was everything to me this past September. This is the epitome of locations for  The Office fans and always will be.

The Dunder Mifflin building from  The Office is located at 13927 Saticoy Street in Van Nuys, Los Angeles. 

Beverly Hills Cop

By Toni of Enchanted Serendipity

Film Synopsis

Axel Foley is a cop from Detroit stirring up trouble for the Beverly Hills Police Department when he investigates his friends murder.

Eddie Murphy (Axel Foley), Judge Reinhold (Det. Billy Rosewood), John Ashton (Sgt. John Taggart)

About The  Beverly Hills Cop  Filming Location

A visit to Beverly Hills makes any fan of  Beverly Hills Cop feel like they are back in the film. Whether it is the City Hall, which stood in for the Beverly Hills Police Department or just Rodeo Drive, it’s hard not to hear Eddie Murphy’s signature laugh everywhere you go. But one location is a real highlight when in Los Angeles, and that is the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Downtown LA.

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel is famous for the iconic “banana in the tailpipe” scene in  Beverly Hills Cop ; where Axel realizes he is being followed to his hotel by the Detectives, so he sends out room service to their car so they don’t see him placing bananas in their tailpipe. Thus, when he exits the hotel a few minutes later, they go to follow him and their car breaks down. This scene is one of the best in the film, and thus why many trek to this location – myself included. But far more has been shot at the Biltmore than just  Beverly Hills Cop,  from  Pretty In Pink  to  Ghostbusters to Pretty Woman  so it is one location worth checking out if you’re exploring Downtown LA.

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel from  Beverly Hills Cop is located at 506 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles.

Pretty Woman

The unlikely coupling of a prostitute named Vivian, who works Hollywood Blvd and a rich and handsome visiting businessman named Edward is the main plot point in this romantic drama. After Edward hires Vivian to be his date (with benefits) for the week; business and pleasure intertwine in one of the most popular love stories to ever grace our screens – and made Julia Roberts a household name.

Julia Roberts (Vivian Ward), Richard Gere (Edward Lewis), Hector Elizondo (Barney Thompson)

About The  Pretty Woman Apartment Filming Location 

Any lover of  Pretty Woman  would recognize the Las Palmas Hotel as Vivian’s Apartment from the opening and closing scenes of Pretty Woman . The most notable scenes that were shot here are the opening ones when Vivian leaves her apartment to work Hollywood Blvd; and the “grand gesture” of Edward rescuing Vivian by climbing the ladder to her fire escape to profess his love for her – and to save her from her LA lifestyle.

This is the ultimate  Pretty Woman location beyond Rodeo Drive and the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Rodeo Drive. “Big Mistake!…HUGE!” remember? If you are walking along Hollywood Blvd, a pit stop to this location is a must, as it really is within walking distance to Hollywood and Highland and those touristy areas.

The Pretty Woman apartment is located on 1738 N Las Palmas Ave, Los Angeles.

The Brady Bunch

(1969 – 1974).

Here’s a story…about a mum with 3 daughters who marries a dad with 3 sons, add in a housekeeper and a dog and you have a very large bunch of people under one roof! This show is the ultimate television classic and it’s house is an icon among all of the filming locations in Los Angeles.

Florence Henderson (Carol Brady), Robert Reed (Mike Brady), Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady)

About The Brady Bunch  House Filming Location

The Brady Bunch  house is the ultimate icon in Los Angeles – and is said to be the 2nd most photographed house in the United States, behind The White House in Washington DC. Most recently, it made the news after former N’SYNC member Lance Bass lost out to HGTV for the purchase of the house, after it went on sale for the first time in 50 years.

HGTV are going to renovate the house for a TV special so that coverage alone will pay for the cost of the house – which set them back a cool $3.5 million USD – over $1.5 million more than the $1.89 million USD asking price! You will need a car to get to this house given how suburban it is and as always please respect the property if you visit. It is a private residence and not a real film set.

The Brady Bunch  house is located at 11222 Dilling St, North Hollywood.

Father Of The Bride

When daddy’s little girl returns after studying abroad with an engagement ring and a soon to be husband – George Banks finds it really hard to let her go. Add in an over the top wedding planner and a wedding that blows the budget and his sanity…can George give his daughter the wedding of her dreams or will he crack under the pressure?

Steve Martin (George Banks), Diane Keaton (Nina Banks), Martin Short (Franck Egglehoffer), Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Annie Banks)

About The  Father Of The Bride  House   Filming Location

Pasadena is a charming town to visit anytime you visit the Los Angeles area. So many films and television shows have used properties right here as the houses for their productions. Why? Because all the houses in Pasadena are just stunning pieces of architecture and so are the streets they sit on! The jewel in the crown in this neighbourhood though is the  Father Of The Bride  house. And one look at it will explain one.

Though only the exterior of this house was used in Father Of The Bride , the front of the house was used at this location – but not the backyard where those famous basketball scenes were shot. That was another property. This house is so pretty, and sits on a lovely street where people walk their dogs and bicycle along. It is honestly straight out of a movie – even in real life. And luckily for me, I have been able to see it twice! If only Steve Martin and Diane Keaton were there to say hello to!

If you visit please ensure you are respectful of the homeowners and their property, as well as those who live on the street.

The  Father Of The Bride house is located at 843 S. El Molino Ave, Pasadena. 

Gilmore Girls

(2000 – 2007).

A mother –  daughter story full of fast talking, pop culture and small town charm. Thirty-something Lorelai Gilmore has raised daughter Rory on her own since she was 16. Now, with a teenage daughter, a re-established but complicated relationship with her parents, dreams of opening her own inn and the endless characters which make small town life in Stars Hollow that much more charming – no day is ever boring in this town.

Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore), Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore), Kelly Bishop (Emily Gilmore), Edward Herrmann (Richard Gilmore).

About The Gilmore Girls  Stars Hollow Filming Locations

When visiting Los Angeles, a detour to Burbank is a must with a tour of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. The Warner Bros Tour is the best studio tour in Los Angeles, as well as the United States. Fans get to see so much.

Luckily, fans of the show don’t need to settle for just one location from Gilmore Girls . There are tons here with the entire Stars Hollow town on offer to explore! Fans can see the houses used in the filming, including Lorelai’s house, Sookie’s house and Kim’s Antiques. Luke’s Diner and Miss Patty’s Dance Studio are also there to see, as well as the town square, where so much happened throughout the series – though whether the iconic Gilmore Girls   gazebo is in the square on your visit is pure chance. (Sometimes it is there, or taken out depending on what is filming on the day).

If you want to know what the Warner Bros tour is like, read all about what you can see right  here . It is truly amazing and one of the best things to do in LA.

The Warner Bros tour is located at 3400 W. Riverside Drive, Burbank.

An Australian girl meets a boy at the beach during her Californian Summer – who turns out to be the stud of the local high school, which she ends up attending. It’s 1950’s America in all it’s musical glory. Summer Lovin indeed.

Olivia Newton-John (Sandy), John Travolta (Danny), Stockhard Channing (Rizzo), Didi Conn (Frenchy)

About The  Grease High School Filming Location

Grease  is as classic as Hollywood films come. And best of all for fans of  Grease  the high school is a real location found in Venice Beach, California. The exterior of Venice High School was used as the setting of Rydell High, which becomes clear the minute you see it. It’s such a well known building on a worldwide scale.

The exterior of the building, front and back were used in the filming, though fans are only really able to see the front as it can be deemed as trespassing if you try and enter the school grounds – which is the case in any school. This is a real functioning school and people can’t just walk around it wherever they like – especially if kids are around.

That all being said, if you’re visiting Venice Beach during the school year or school day, just be mindful of all of this and respect the grounds.

The  Grease  high school, Venice High School is located at 13000 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles.

Photo ©Sarah Davidson

New York City police officer, John McClane travels to LA to save his marriage on Christmas Eve. However, he’s not the only outsider heading to the Nakatomi Plaza for the company Christmas party; as terrorists take over and hold everyone and the building hostage. John may be the only man that can save them.

Bruce Willis (John McClane), Alan Rickman (Hans Gruber)

About The  Die Hard  Nakatomi Building Filming Location

When people visit Los Angeles, many make a point of tracking down the famed Nakatomi Plaza aka “the Die Hard building” during their visit. It is as iconic as the Hollywood sign here. This film was a hit, given the amount of sequels on offer. So it only makes sense that this location is so popular, especially for the male population.

In real life, the Die Hard building it’s the Fox Plaza Tower. Not the ‘Nakatomi’ obviously, but the building is the same as what it looked like in the film so one can really re-live their  Die Hard  dreams in LA. I mean c’mon – who doesn’t want to pretend they are Bruce Willis for a day right?

A picture with this building is a must if you love  Die Hard  and are in LA. Yippee-ki-yay and all that!

The Nakatomi building from Die Hard  is located at 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, Los Angeles.

(1994 – 2004)

Six friends living in New York encounter all the issues that come along with adulthood: romance, career, friendship and more. Life isn’t always easy, but one liners and comedic moments make this one of the best sitcoms in TV history.

Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), David Schwimmer (Ross Gellar), Counteney Cox (Monica Gellar), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay).

About The  Friends Central Perk Filming Location

There are two major locations of  Friends that fans of the show can see in the United States. One is located in Los Angeles and the other in New York City (see the NYC section below for that one!). Like the Gilmore Girls locations; the Friends coffee house, Central Perk is located right at the end of the Warner Bros. Tour in Burbank for all to enjoy.

Visitors can sit on the couch and have their photo taken just like I did, in the re-created Central Perk set – which looks just how it appeared in the final scene of the final episode of Season 10. Seeing Central Perk is a must for any Friends  fan given the number of endless iconic scenes that were shot here. It really does bring it all back when you see it – and the couch is pretty comfy too!

This is one of the major highlights on the Warner Bros tour – so don’t miss out on it.

The Warner Bros tour is located at  3400 W. Riverside Drive, Burbank.

By Ketki of  Dotted Globe

La La Land   revolves around the life of two star-crossed lovers who must choose between their careers in Tinseltown and their relationship.

Ryan Gosling (Sebastian), Emma Stone (Mia)

About The  La La Land  Griffith Observatory Filming Location

La La Land, won six academy awards in 2016 and was shot at various locales in Los Angeles.

Ryan Gosling looks plain gorgeous throughout the movie and the songs are very catchy. One of the popular scenes has the couple visit Griffith Observatory and dance inside it. Griffith Observatory is an iconic LA location and is visited by thousands of visitors every day.

It is my favorite place in the city for a couple of reasons: interesting science exhibits, beautiful views of LA and for its reputation as a filming locale. Apart from La La Land , Griffith Observatory has been featured in various other movies including Rebel Without a Cause , The Terminator , and Transformers .

Visitors can also see a show inside the Planetarium theatre, where the La La Land characters dance to a song and the famous Foucault Pendulum which displays earth’s rotation. While I visited Griffith Observatory for the first time before La La Land was released, it felt great to see the Observatory pictured in the movie.

The Griffith Observatory is located at  2800 E Observatory Rd, Los Angeles.

(2016 – Present)

The emotional story of two parents and their unique triplets, told in the present tense with flashbacks to the past.

Milo Ventimiglia (Jack), Mandy Moore (Rebecca), Chrissy Metz (Kate), Justin Hartley (Kevin), Sterling K. Brown (Randall)

About The  This Is Us  House Filming Location

This Is Us  shot to the top of the ratings over the past 2 years, and rightfully so. It is so emotional – no matter what the episode. But, that’s what has helped it skyrocket to all the USA filming location lists. When I made it to the US last September, I knew I had to see the 2 houses I could get to which were Randall’s Mansion House and the Pearson family home (pre fire).

Randall’s house is actually located in Altadena – and when I saw it I recognised it immediately as the original house from 7th Heaven – which changed after the first episode to a house in Santa Monica. Randall lives here with his family in This Is Us  and since he has really made a life for himself in the show, this is highlighted by the grandeur of his house and neighbourhood. The house is really impressive to look at though.

The Pearson house is located between Pasadena and Glendale in Eagle Rock, about a 15 minute drive from Randall’s house. This was where the Pearson family lived until a house fire gutted it and ultimately killed Jack due to his health issues which resulted from the smoke of the fire.

Both locations are worth seeing if you a fan of the show and are found in truly beautiful areas of Los Angeles – places I would happily live in. But there are heaps more out there to see – so I will be back to see more.

The  This Is Us  houses are located at:

Randall’s House is located at 1090 Rubio St, Altadena.

Pearson family home is located at 5223 Shearin Ave, Los Angeles.

(1998 -2006)

Three sisters living in San Francisco, discover their destiny to battle against the forces of evil, using their special powers.

Shannen Doherty (Prue), Holly Marie Combs (Piper), Alyssa Milano (Phoebe), Rose McGowan (Paige)

About The Charmed House Filming Location

In the 1990s,  Charmed was one of the hottest shows on television. Lasting 8 seasons, and establishing a new re-boot in 2018, it seems that the show still resonates with fans.

The  Charmed  house is not located in San Francisco like many people like – thus the magic of Hollywood. But it is found in Los Angeles in a suburban area of Angelino Heights, a stone’s throw from Echo Park and Dodger Stadium. The house is pretty epic to see in the flesh. I saw so many locations the day I saw the  Charmed  house and pulling up unsure about what I was there to see was quickly resolved when I saw the house. I knew it was  Charmed that I was standing in front of.

The  Charmed  house is located at 1329 Carroll Ave, Los Angeles.

Back To The Future

In this 1980’s classic, Marty McFly is transported back to the 1950’s – to the time his parents first met. To protect his own future existence, he must ensure his parents fall in love, as well as save the life of eccentric scientist Doc Brown upon his return.

Michael J. Fox (Marty), Christopher LLoyd (Doc), Lea Thompson (Lorraine)

About The  Back To The Future  House Filming Location

The  Back To The Future  House is one of the most recognized in Hollywood history. And the street the house sits on is as well, because it is where that famous quote “where we’re going, we don’t need roads” is said at the conclusion of the film.

I have heard different accounts from people who have been to  The Back To The Future house and some say the owners of the house are quite frustrated by the people who stop by and take photos of their house, and I even read that they wished the house had never been used in the film, but I didn’t find any of that when i went in Sept 2018 – though I didn’t stay too long just in case it was true!

But if you enjoy classic films and want to go truly back to the 80’s, then coming to see the  Back To The Future  house is a must! It really doesn’t get better than this! If you go to the top of the street too, you’ll recognise it as the place the “Lyon Estates” signs were located as well, which Marty skates past – which is pretty cool too.

The  Back To The Future  House is located at 9303 Roslyndale Avenue in Arleta, California. (Within the San Fernando Valley area).

– Buelleton, Santa Ynez, Solvang & Los Olivos –

No California roadtrip is complete without wine – so why wouldn’t there be a film about a bachelor party long weekend, exploring the local wine areas of Buelleton, Los Olivos, Solvang and Santa Ynez? That’s exactly what  Sideways did – although it was adapted from the novel of the same name too. Miles and Jack hit the road to celebrate Jack’s last days as a bachelor, but complications arise when Jack decides to have one last hurrah before tying the knot, with a local woman named Stephanie. Miles, while dealing with his own issues of becoming a published author, also finds himself caught up in a complicated relationship – as well as having to keep tabs on Jack.

Paul Giamatti (Miles), Thomas Haden Church (Jack), Sandra Oh (Stephanie), Virginia Madsen (Mya)

About The Sideways  Tour Filming Locations

Fans of  Sideways   can take the  Sideways   self tour when visiting the Santa Barbara County region.

From staying at the Sideways Inn (where Miles and Jack stayed when exploring the area in Sideways ; to eating dinner at The Hitching Post II (where Miles introduces Jack to Mya); the Wine Merchant Cafe in Los Olivos (where Miles demands that “we are not drinking any fucking Merlot!”) or indulging in breakfast at the Solvang Restaurant (there is a plaque on the booth Miles and Jack sit in); to drinking at any one of the wineries featured in the film, this is one cool area to explore if you love Sideways .

The wineries worth seeing as part of the  Sideways   tour include:

Fess Parker (where Miles gets drunk and drinks out of the spit bucket) , Kalyra Winery (An Australian winery where Miles and Jack meet Stephanie), Foxen and Firestone.

The Santa Barbara county wine region is truly remarkable – and actually gives Napa Valley a run for its money. Whether you love the film or not, this is one region that must be explored if you are driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Do not miss it.

The Sideways Filming Locations Worth Seeing Are:

Sideways Inn, located at 114 E, CA-246, Buelleton

Hitching Post II, located at 406 E Hwy 246, Buellton

Solvang Restaurant, located at 1672 Copenhagen Dr, Solvang

Kalyra Winery, located at 343 N Refugio Rd, Santa Ynez

Fess Parker Winery, located at   6200 Foxen Canyon Rd, Los Olivos

Wine Merchant Restaurant, located at 2879 Grand Ave, Los Olivos

– Death Valley National Park –

By Melynda of  Traveling Mel

A Galaxy is in the midst of war with the Imperial Forces under leader Darth Vader, holding Princess Leia hostage in a bid to quell a rebellion. Can Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, work together to help the Rebel Alliance restore freedom to the Galaxy – and save the Princess?

David Prowse (Darth Vader), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO).

About The  Star Wars Death Valley Filming Location

When my sons and I were hiking through Mosaic Canyon in Death Valley National Park a few years ago, we ran into a Park Ranger. He started talking to us about the geology and biology of the park. It was very interesting. But, what really sparked the kids’ interest was finding out that parts of Star Wars , starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and many others, was filmed partially in Death Valley.

The 1977 film, directed by George Lucas about a galaxy in the midst of a civil war, was filmed all over the world. Part of the movie takes place on a planet called Tatooine, and was filmed primarily in Tunisia. When they needed to do retakes after returning home, they used Death Valley as a stand in. Some of the places in Death Valley that were used in the film are:

-Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes – scene where R2D2 goes his separate way after he and C3P0 crash their escape pod on Tatooine (spliced with footage shot in Tunisia)

-Artists Palette & Golden Canyon – Canyon where R2D2 is abducted by Jawas (spliced with footage shot at Sidi Bouhlel, Tunisia)

-Artist’s Drive – Where the miniature Sandcrawler was filmed for the shot of R2D2 being carried up to it by Jawas

-Desolation Canyon – Canyon where Tusken Raiders mount Bantha before Luke Skywalker is attacked (spliced with Sidi Bouhlel footage)

-Dante’s View  – panoramic establishing shot of Mos Eisley (spliced with Sidi Bouhlel footage of Luke and Obi-Wan standing on rocky outcrop)

My kids are huge Star Wars fans, and I remember seeing it in the movie theaters when it was first released. Hiking in Death Valley took on even more mystique as we imagined it as Tatooine.

Death Valley National Park is located at 328 Greenland Blvd, Death Valley, California

– San Diego –

Some like it hot.

By Chris of  Explore Now or Never

In this iconic romantic comedy, two male musicians dress in drag in order to skip town after Chicago mafia puts a hit out on them for witnessing a murder. They join an all-girl band headed to a gig in Florida, where they become enamored with fellow band mate and ukulele player “Sugar” (Marilyn Monroe). From there, it’s a crazy dust-up of mistaken identities and men in drag while one of the boys courts Sugar dressed as a millionaire and the other rebuffs the advances of a real millionaire. Love triumphs in the end, which is especially satisfying since this film flirts with the ideas of homosexuality…groundbreaking in its day.

Marilyn Monroe (Sugar Kane), Jack Lemmon (Jerry), Tony Curtis (Joe).

About The  Some Like It Hot  Filming Location

With its distinctive red roofs, palm trees, pergolas and white wood siding, The Hotel Del off the coast of San Diego on Coronado is immediately recognizable as the  scene of beachy shenanigans  from  Some Like It Hot… almost 60 years after it was filmed there!

Hollywood style stars in the cement sidewalk just in front of the hotel commemorate the event with the names of director Billy Wilder and each of the major actors.  If you head up the stairs to view the swank pool with the Pacific just beyond, it’s easy to envision Marilyn on a film break here with a cocktail in hand. And just behind the hotel is Coronado’s famous Silver Strand State Beach…where families, teenagers, and other romantic adventurers are still swimming and sunning all these years later.

The  Some Like It Hot  hotel is located at 1500 Orange Ave, Coronado.

Film Synopsis 

Hotshot fighter pilot Maverick has the skills in the sky as well as with the ladies. Sent to school to compete against the other Top Guns, can he land the top spot and the heart of flight instructor Charlotte? Full of action, romance, an epic 80’s soundtrack and 3 signature theme songs including “Dangerzone”, “Take My Breath Away” and “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”…what film has managed to intertwine classic music into it’s storyline as much as this? None!

Tom Cruise (Maverick), Anthony Edwards (Goose), Kelly McGillis (Charlotte), Val Kilmer (Iceman).

About The Top Gun  Bar Filming Location

When one visits San Diego,  Top Gun is everywhere – the naval presence, the bars and of course the coastal views. It’s not hard to remember that  Top Gun is home to this amazing city. The ultimate highlight here in San Diego is Kansas City Barbeque – a historic and harbor district bar – which many refer to as ‘the Top Gun bar’.

The food is really good here – the BBQ sauce is to die for. And the Top Gun  memorabilia and naval themes here make it a fantastic place to visit when dining in San Diego.

The actual part of the barbeque where filming of Top Gun  took place is the restaurant interior area on the left hand side when you walk in. This is the scene where Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan sing “Great Balls of Fire”, at the piano with Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. The bar area was not used in the filming but still has memorabilia all around – including the famous piano they sang on which has been placed in the corner of the left hand side of the establishment – where the bar itself is.

On a side note – many people ask if the Top Gun house, the house Kelly McGillis lives is still standing? It is.

The  Top Gun house, is located about 40 minutes from San Diego. Everything around it has been demolished – but not the house because of its historical significance within the film but also the area, as it is one of the last cottages still standing since it was built in the 1880s. Though it is not in the best state either. It has been proposed that it will be saved and restored – even though developers are planning to build a hotel on the vacant lot next to it. The city has confirmed fans will still be able to visit the house, but hopefully it begins to look a lot better than the state it is currently once they do this.

The address for Kansas City Barbeque is 600 W Harbor Dr, San Diego.

The address for the  Top Gun  house is 102 N Pacific St, Oceanside.

– San Francisco –

(1987 – 1995).

By Constance of  The Adventures Of Panda Bear

Every single Full House fanatic knows about the famous ‘Painted Ladies’ that are shown in the opening credits of Full House  from season 4. The TV show Full House , was about the Tanner family’s life in San Francisco, California. This location is where the Tanner family have a picnic in Alamo Square park with Postcard Row in the background.

Bob Saget (Danny Tanner), Candace Cameron (DJ Tanner), Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie Tanner), John Stamos (Uncle Jesse), Dave Coulier (Uncle Joey), and Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen (Michelle Tanner).

About the  Full House Filming Location

The Painted Ladies are also known as “Postcard Row” because they are often featured in postcards. These 7 colorful homes are a set of California Victorian houses located by Alamo Square in San Francisco.

It is definitely a popular spot for fans of Full House to visit even though the houses aren’t actually in the show, they used another house as a stand-in at 1709 Broderick Street .

We’ve seen so many fans of the show visit and take photos with the houses. The homeowners take care to maintain the homes so they are always beautifully colored and the Victorian details are gorgeous to behold.

As fans of the show, we loved visiting the Painted Ladies, but Alamo Square has also gotten super crowded because of the homes. People will double park on the street just so they can take a photo and tour buses will pass by to join in on the fun. In that sense, it isn’t the most relaxing spot in San Francisco, but it is still worth a visit. Just be sure to follow traffic rules and stay safe.

Alamo Square is located at Steiner St & Hayes St, San Francisco.

Mrs Doubtfire

A father who will do anything to see his children following his divorce, dresses up as a British housekeeper called Mrs Doubtfire and is unknowingly hired by his ex-wife to look after their children.

Robin Williams (Daniel Hillard /Mrs Doubtfire), Sally Field (Miranda Hillard)

About the Mrs Doubtfire Filming Location

The Mrs Doubtfire  house is one of the most famous San Francisco filming locations of all time. It’s so popular that pretty much every time I have been – another fan has always been there; plus when Robin Williams died, which truly gutted me; fans placed flowers right here on the front stoop, because this was the epitome of film locations to do with this film and Robin Williams.

The  Mrs Doubtfire house is located on Steiner Street, just like the address in the film. It remains one of the most famous movie houses of all time and rightfully so – it is magnificent. Although with a tree in the front area of the house now, it does look a little different to how it appeared in the film.

If you are in San Francisco, this is one must stop location in a really nice, but hilly area. And on a further note, the  Party of Five  house is literally around the corner (follow the corner the Mrs Doubtfire house is on along Broadway and it’s 100 metres or so from there) at 2311 Broadway, San Francisco .

The  Mrs Doubtfire  house is located at 2640 Steiner St, San Francisco.

Deloris, a Reno lounge singer goes into witness protection after witnessing her mobster boyfriend commit a murder. A detective places her in a convent in San Francisco, where she does anything but keep a low profile. Can she stay safe or will the mobsters get to her?

Whoopi Goldberg (Deloris Van Cartier), Kathy Najimy (Sister Mary Patrick), Harvey Keitel (Vince), Maggie Smith (Mother Superior)

About the  Sister Act  Church Filming Location

I have managed to get to this location once – but only because I had a car. I don’t recommend catching public transport or walking down this way from the San Francisco CBD area as it won’t take you through the best neighbourhoods. Take a bus tour that will go past it if nothing else if you aren’t planning on hiring a car.

That said, the  Sister Act  church is one of the coolest filming locations you can see in San Francisco. Standing there in front of a place you have seen so many times – because who hasn’t seen  Sister Act  100 times right? is such a memorable moment. This location really took me back to childhood, and the area does look pretty similar to how it did in the film. Thus it is so easy to picture scenes in the film and hear “Just A Touch of Love” in your head as you stand there and take it all in. If you’re lucky enough to be there when a church service is taking place – you can even go inside.

I loved seeing this location – I just wish I could find my photo of it but for now this one will have to do in the meantime.

The  Sister Act  church is located at 221 Valley St, San Francisco.

The Princess Diaries

By Laura from What’s Hot

Mia Thermopolis is a perfectly ordinary awkward teenager. Then suddenly she finds out that she’s actually a princess and heir to the throne of Genovia! She embarks on a journey to learn all the ins and outs of royal life with the help of her grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi.

Anne Hathaway (Mia) Julie Andrews (Queen Renaldi)

About  The Princess Diaries  filming location

The Princess Diaries is set in San Francisco and there are a couple of filming locations dotted around the city. The most fun filming location to visit is the arm wrestling machine in the Musee Mecanique, where Mia takes her grandmother on a day out in the bay. I had to visit myself so I could see if I could beat the machine! Whilst I thought the machine’s strength was all for show in the movie, it turns out it’s actually pretty damn strong – I didn’t stand a chance.

It was my first visit to San Francisco so I feel like I experienced all the same emotions as Queen Clarisse as I discovered more about sprawling San Francisco and slowly fell in love with it. I even tried a corn dog, just like they did! I was so happy to discover that these parts of the film were real locations, as “Genovia” most definitely does not exist!

The  Princess Diaries  arm wrestling machine is located at Musee Mecanique at Pier 45, Fishermans Wharf, San Francisco.

-Monterey & Big Sur-

Big little lies, (2017 – present).

By Mary Beth of  MBSees

Big Little Lies is based on Liane Moriarty’s book of the same name, about a murder mystery involving three well-to-do moms who live seemingly perfect lives by the beach.

Reese Witherspoon (Madeline), Nicole Kidman (Celeste), Shailene Woodley (Jane). Meryl Streep has been introduced for the second season.

About the  Big Little Lies F ilming Locations

I recently got to see Big Little Lies filming in Pacific Grove, California, and it was a mini-bucket list moment!

I’ll be honest, I had never watched the HBO series before discovering that it filmed in my newly-adopted hometown. I found out after a local casting call for the show in Monterey which, of course, I had to attend! While I didn’t get a role, my excitement knowing it would be filming just a mile from my house was too much – I had to go see for myself. The park I work-out at was suddenly transformed into a film set with Reese, Nicole and Meryl strolling around on the same patch of grass where I exercise three time a week… eeeeekkkk!!! For 3 days, I stood behind the police line with dozens of other fans, anxiously watching these fabulous ladies film scenes for the upcoming season.

Now that I’ve seen it being filmed, I can’t  not   watch Big Little Lies . It’s pretty cool seeing a television show, knowing you were standing just off to the side at the exact moment that episode was taped. I yell, “I’ve been to that park!” and “I ate at that restaurant!” and “I was there!” every time I see a place I recognize on Big Little Lies . It never gets old!

Lovers Point Park is located at 631 Ocean View Blvd, Pacific Grove.

– Savannah –

Forrest gump.

By Erin of  Sand Sun & Messy Buns

If you’re not familiar with Forrest Gump, the movie tells the tale of a simple man from Alabama who lives an extraordinary life filled with memorable adventures. Forrest, brilliantly played by Tom Hanks, always found himself in the right place at the right time to witness – and become an active participant in – some of the most important moments in history. Forrest narrates the story of his life from a bench located on Chippewa Square in Savannah, and the spot where he famously sat with his box of chocolates is still one of the most-photographed locations in Savannah.

Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump), Sally Field (Mama Gump), Gary Sinese (Lt. Dan), Robyn Wright (Jenny)

About The  Forrest Gump  Bus Stop Filming Location

Most tourists don’t realize the bench isn’t actually located IN the square! The bench was a prop designed specifically for the movie, and it was placed along the road on the north side of the square, where you see the Chippewa sign in this photo. (The sidewalk beneath the bench was part of the prop!)

Paramount Studios created 4 benches for the movie, and they donated one to the city of Savannah. It currently sits in the Savannah History Museum, which is located inside the Savannah Welcome Center. It’s roped off in the museum, so unfortunately you can’t take a selfie on it.

You can, however, still dine in Jenny’s Café. It currently goes by the name Debi’s Diner.

Thanks to Georgia’s numerous tax credits for filmmakers, plus the presence of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Savannah has become known as the “Hollywood of the East Coast” in recent years. It’s common to spot celebrities (Chloe Sevigny and AnnaSophie Robb are currently in town, amongst others.)

In the past month, I’ve been on the set of Goodbye Stranger , Disney’s upcoming live-action Lady and the Tramp movie, multiple times. I was able to watch as they added fake snow to the treetops and brought in snow machines to turn our Southern streets into a wintry wonderland!

No matter when you visit Savannah, there’s a good chance you’ll spot celebrities and/or film crews in action. It’s incredibly fun to watch movies such as Forrest Gump , The Conspirator , or Forces of Nature , and then visit the actual locations in town! Others must love it as much as I do, because Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is widely credited with putting Savannah on the tourism map! Tourism from that book and the following movie is still going 20 years later.

Chippewa Square is located on Bull Street, Savannah.

Debi’s Diner and is located on 10 W. State Street, Savannah.

Savannah History Museum is located at 303 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Savannah.

– Oahu –

Jurassic park.

By Michelle of  Travel Fun Fam

Kualoa Ranch in Kaneohe, Hawaii is commonly known as Jurassic Valley. As you may have guessed from the nickname, it’s where the famous Jurassic Park trilogy and the newer Jurassic World movies have all been filmed. The movies tell the story of John Hammond, a  billionaire that created a theme park where the main attraction is dinosaurs. What could possibly go wrong? Right?

Even if you have not seen any of the films, over the years Jurassic has become a synonym for dinosaur thanks to actors like Sam Neill (Alan Grant), Jeff Goldblum (Ian Malcolm), Julianne Moore (Dr. Sarah Harding) and most recently Chris Pratt (Owen).

About The  Jurassic Park  Filming Location

As soon as you arrive you will feel like you are entering the Jurassic zone and will find yourself humming the theme anthem. Many things in the movies are edited but the mountains and all the greenery found in the area cannot be replicated. It’s nature at its best after all!

We certainly did not want to leave and, of course, when we got home we watched a few of the other movies filmed at Kualoa Ranch mentioned by the tour guide. Suddenly, we started to see past the Hollywood magic since we knew what was real and what was green screen or photo shopped. However, it is still amazing to watch the movie and say “that’s by the field near the dead tree!”, or “that’s by the 50 First Dates road!”

Truly a unique experience that changed the way we view movies filmed in Hawaii.

Kualoa Ranch is located at 49-560 Kamehameha Hwy, Kaneohe.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Photos provided by Julie Barker and Katy from Untold Morsels

A heartbroken musician from Los Angeles heads to Hawaii to forget about his ex-girlfriend, tv star Sarah Marshall – who happens to be at the same Hawaiian resort – with her new singer boyfriend. Can he get over her with the help of a customer service representative named Rachel?

Jason Segel (Peter Bretter), Kristen Bell (Sarah Marshall), Russell Brand (Aldous Snow), Mila Kunis (Rachel Jansen).

About The  Forgetting Sarah Marshall Filming Location

Forgetting Sarah Marshall  is one of Hawaii’s most notable films and truly makes this destination shine on film.

The hotel which featured in the film is not in Honolulu like many expect it to be. It is located in Oahu, but on the North Shore region at one of the most well-known hotels in that area, The Turtle Bay Resort Hotel.

Many features of The Turtle Bay were included in  Forgetting Sarah Marshall , including the front reception desk, hotel lobby, grounds and some of the exterior suites and villas. However, they have renovated and changed things since the filming so it doesn’t look entirely the same as it did in the film in those areas as you can see by the photos.

I am dying to stay here and explore the North Shore a lot more, but currently live vicariously through my mates Julie and Katy who shared their photos with me for the purpose of being included in this post.

The Turtle Bay Hotel is located at 57-091 Kamehameha Hwy, Kahuku, Hawaii.

– Chicago –

My best friend’s wedding.

After making a pact that they marry if they are both single when they turn 28, Julianne and Michael’s friendship becomes complicated when he meets and proposes to 20-something Kimmy. With only 4 days notice of the impending nuptials, can Julianne win the heart of her best friend before she loses it to someone else?

Julia Roberts (Julianne), Dermot Mulroney (Michael), Cameron Diaz (Kimmy), Rupert Everett (George)

About The  My Best Friend’s Wedding  Union Station Filming Location

Chicago is often featured in Hollywood films, and when  My Best Friend’s Wedding   was released it did help put Chicago back on the map for Hollywood. While many locations for the film were filmed in Chicago, one location is a real highlight from My Best Friend’s Wedding , and that is Union Station right in the heart of Chicago.

Featured in an array of films including  The Untouchables , Union Station is where Julianne finds Michael. He is looking for Kimmy after she sees Julianne and Michael kiss – throwing the wedding into jeopardy. It is here that Julianne realises she doesn’t love Michael like she thought she did, and in fact wants him to marry Kimmy and be truly happy. She comes clean about every plan she created to sabotage the wedding and promises Michael that she will find Kimmy so he can marry her as planned, which she ends up doing.

Union Station is a truly stunning location in Chicago – whether you love the films shot here or just love seeing historic buildings. There are many beautiful train stations in the United States but this one is one of the prettiest and just from the photo you can see why. The fact that a pivotal scene was shot right here from  My Best Friend’s Wedding  only adds to it’s charm for fans when visiting. Union Station even get in on the film location aspect with a set up of film posters with information about what films where shot at Union Station. So, it’s nice that they expect film fans to visit for this reason – as much as catching a train is fun!

Union Station is located at 225 S Canal St, Chicago.

– Winnetka –

An 8 year old boy named Kevin McCallister, is left home alone when his family accidentally leave for their trip to Paris without him. Given it’s Christmas, burglars are on the prowl, including idiot “wet bandits” Marv and Harry, who underestimate Kevin and his determination to protect his house. Can he do it?

Macaulay Culkin (Kevin),  Joe Pesci (Harry), Daniel Stern (Marv).

About The  Home Alone House Filming Location

If there was one filming location I wanted to see in my life, it was the Home Alone  house. And luckily for me – I have now seen it twice! However, not everyone is so lucky because the owners started fixing the house up over the past couple of years so it hasn’t been easy to see with fencing up all around it. (And apparently the garage has been demolished).

When they can eventually see it in all it’s former glory, fans of the film can reminisce about all the major scenes that took place right here, including Kevin’s famous “I’m not afraid anymore!” speech. It never gets old – and that scream haha!

That said, this is one location people trek to when visiting Chicago. It is a short train ride out to the suburbs from Chicago’s Ogilvie Station to the town of Winnetka. The  Home Alone church is located in Wilmette, the next town over. I find it a highlight to venture out into the outer towns of Chicago because they are as picturesque as they appear on screen. Lovely houses, beautiful tree lined streets and safe feeling neighborhoods. No ‘wet bandits” here.

The Home Alone house is located at 671 Lincoln Ave, Winnetka, Illinois (and the Murphy’s house is right across the road from it too at 656 Lincoln Ave!)

– Woodstock –

Groundhog day.

An egotistical weatherman re-lives “Groundhog Day” over and over again, an event which takes place in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on Februaury 2nd every year – much to his frustration. No matter what he does, he cannot escape it – not even by death. So he starts to help the people of Punxsutawney in a bid to win the heart of his producer, Rita.

Bill Murray (Phil), Andie McDowall (Rita)

About The Groundhog Day Filming Locations

Groundhog Day takes place every year in Puxutauney, Pennsylvania, where the Groundhog may predict 6 more weeks of Winter. But for the filming of Groundhog Day , this took place in a very small, blink and you’ll miss it town, Woodstock, Illinois, about 90 minutes’ train ride outside Chicago.

Best of all, the entire Woodstock town celebrates it’s standing as being the Groundhog Day town, which is great for fans when they visit. They even have a self-guided tour map and plaques around the city that people can use, to enjoy all the sites from the film whether it is Gobbler’s Knob itself, the Bed and Breakfast Phil stays in which is actually an inn you can stay in called Royal Victorian Manor; the hotel Rita stays in called the Pennsylvanian Hotel, which is actually the Woodstock Opera House, the diner, the bowling alley or even the street where Phil steps in an icy puddle after talking to Ned Ryerson. Bing!

All the good memories of Groundhog Day are found right here and pretty much look exactly the same as they did in the film, beyond a few modern improvements. Which is why fans really relish coming here.

When I visited Woodstock, I experienced a major train delay due to a personal incident on the tracks between Chicago and Woodstock, which meant the 90 minute journey took over 5 hours – we literally sat on the train for that long! I ended up with about an hour in Woodstock before I had to get back to Chicago. But I managed to see it all (I had to run between places) and look forward to returning for a proper visit on another trip. I will drive next time though. Woodstock is a cute as hell town, and is well worth a visit, particularly if you love  Groundhog Day.

The  Groundhog Day filming locations worth seeing are:

Gobbler’s Knob is located at the Southwest Corner of Woodstock Square Park.

Phil’s Bed & Breakfast The Cherry Street Inn, Royal Vicotiran Manor is located at 344 Fremont Street, Woodstock. 

Pennsylvanian Hotel, The Woodstock Opera Hotel is located at 121 Van Buren Street, Woodstock

The street Phil steps in a puddle is located at 100 Cass Street, Woodstock. 

– Winterset –

Bridges of madison county.

A housewife whose husband and children are away on a trip, embarks on a life changing love affair with a man who is in town to photograph the historic bridges of Madison County. This is no sordid love story, but a tragic one about finding your soulmate – too late.

Meryl Streep (Francesca), Clint Eastwood (Robert)

About The Bridges of Madison County Filming Locations

Iowa is often called a flyover state. But it shouldn’t be.

Nestled less than an hour’s drive from Des Moines, sits Winterset, Iowa. A town which is home to many amazing things. Winterset is the setting for the novel “The Bridges of Madison County”, and the subsequent film which followed. But it is also home to an American icon of history – the house that country western actor and Hollywood icon John Wayne was born in. There is also a birthplace museum all about him there too.

But the ultimate highlight here in Winterset for film lovers, or just those who love beautiful places, are the 6 covered bridges of Madison County. Where are the Bridges of Madison located? Five of the bridges are located within Winterset’s town limits, and one is located in the neighbouring town of St Charles. The covered bridge which featured in The Bridges of Madison County  however is the Holliwell Bridge. Constructed in 1880, this bridge is a true highlight – but all of them are lovely to visit. The Winterset Visitors Center in the main town square has props from the film on show, which is a really lovely touch, including the ironing board Meryl Streep’s character used in the film.

Visitors can take a self-tour of the bridges which takes around 2-2.5 hours if you pace yourself well. If you want longer, you can stretch it out. You can read all about the Bridges of Madison Country self tour I took right  here .

The Holliwell Bridge is located at 123 Holliwell Bridge Rd, Winterset, Iowa.

– New Orleans –

Four best friends embark on New Orleans for Essence Fest for the ultimate girl’s trip! Nothing can go wrong…right?

Jada Pinkett-Smith (Lisa), Tiffany Haddish (Dina), Queen Latifah (Sasha), Regina Hall (Ryan)

About the  Girls Trip Carousel Bar Filming Location

Girls Trip was one of the breakout successes for 2017, and if you have seen it you’ll understand why. It’s truly hilarious.

One filming location that is well worth seeing – and it’s a hidden gem location that tourists don’t always know about when visiting New Orleans – is the Hotel Monteleone and it’s iconic Carousel Bar.

The hotel and the Carousel Bar feature in the film so for fans, it is like stepping into the film. I loved just walking around taking photos and picturing all of the scenes that took place here. The Carousel Bar is an icon in New Orleans – in line with the status of beignets. (Eat some at Cafe Du Monde!)  Girls Trip  filmed here during the scenes where the girls check into their hotel and see Ryan’s husband talking to another woman, so it is a memorable part of the film.

The Carousel Bar does turn like a carousel – but at a really slow pace! But it is still cool to sit in and have a drink. It opens at 11am and there are always people waiting – so bear that in mind when you visit.

The Carousel Bar from  Girls Trip is located at 214 Royal St, New Orleans (inside the Hotel Monteleone).

– Vacherie –

The skeleton key.

Caroline, a nurse living in New Orleans quits her job at a local hospice to work for Violet, an elderly woman whose husband has suffered a stroke. After getting suspicious about Ben’s illness, and the mysterious history of the mansion, Caroline realizes that Violet is keeping a sinister secret.

Kate Hudson (Caroline), Gena Rowlands (Violet), John Hunt (Ben), Peter Sarsgaard (Luke)

About the  Skeleton Key  House Filming Location

Louisiana is full of plantation homes – which are 100% worth visiting. One plantation home which currently is not available to tour, but accessible if you gain permission like I did, is the Felicity Plantation which is located in Plantation County, an hour outside New Orleans. The Felicity Plantation is where  The Skeleton Key  was filmed.

What I love about the Felicity Plantation is it looks like how it did in the film – except the backyard area which was built on for the film and removed. There is no bayou or pier on the Felicity Plantation.

So how did I get access to a plantation that doesnt run tours or is open to the public? I emailed the owner – who happens to own and run tours for the neighbouring Plantation, St Joseph Plantation, a sugar cane plantation that is well worth touring to learn the history of the region. The owner allowed me access and took me over there herself so I could take some photos of it. I will forever be in debt to her for that! It was a dream come true, and I had it all to myself.

The Felicity Plantation is not currently open for tours but it is being renovated and tidied up so that tours can be run here in the near future. Once this happens, I will update about it all here.

The Felicity Plantation is located at 3535 LA-18, Vacherie, Louisiana. 

Interview With The Vampire

Louis, an 18th Century Lord is turned into a vampire due to his suicidal thoughts about the loss of his family by Lestat, a vampire. Louis is interviewed about his life by a San Francisco journalist in present day, which sees him reflect on his maker, who he wishes to leave but its guilted into staying with after a 10 year old girl is turned.

Brad Pitt (Louis), Tom Cruise (Lestat), Kirsten Dunst (Claudia), Christian Slater (Daniel)

About The  Interview With The Vampire  Filming Location

Although many films and television shows have shot here including Days Of Our Lives , it is  Interview With The Vampire   which remains the most famous – unless you count Beyonce’s Deja Vu video? – to film at Oak Alley Plantation.

Oak Alley Plantation is a stunning property located a few minutes from the Felicity Plantation, and is famed for it’s Oak Alley pathway which leads to the Plantation home. Tours are available at Oak Alley – or if you are short on time, just pay admission and enjoy the grounds. I can guarantee you will spend at least 30 minutes photographing and having photos taken of yourself on the Oak Alley pathway no matter what you do. But it is a great tour and well worth doing to understand the history of this home and how it compares to other plantation homes in Plantation County.

Whether you are a fan of  Interview With The Vampire, Beyonce or whatever else filmed here – you will never forget a visit here. It is truly stunning!

Oak Alley Plantation is located at 3645 LA-18, Vacherie, Louisiana.

Massachusetts

– boston –, good will hunting.

Will Hunting has a genius-level IQ, but works as a janitor at MIT. When he is the only person to solve a difficult math problem, his talent is discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. When Will is arrested for attacking a police officer, Professor Lambeau makes a deal to get leniency for him if he will get treatment from therapist Sean Maguire.

Matt Damon (Will Hunting), Minnie Driver (Skylar), Stellan Skarsgard (Gerald Lambeau), Robin Williams (Sean Maguire), Ben Affleck (Chuckie)

About the  Good Will Hunting  Park Bench Filming Location

Boston is a great city to visit. But one filming location that should not be missed – even if it hadn’t made it into the film  Good Will Hunting , is the Boston Public Gardens. Here there is an expansive landscape of greenery, with ponds and boat rides and just stunning scenery existing everywhere.

For fans of the film, it’s seeing the park bench where Robin Williams and Matt Damon sit (which when Williams passed away, was also turned into a shrine by fans, like the  Mrs Doubtfire  house was too). In the scene, Williams’s character Sean serves Damon (Will) with a monologue about his past and about loving his wife who he lost to cancer and being so vulnerable with her that he truly felt loved. He talks about the fact that Will hides behind books, and doesn’t take real chances in his life, be vulnerable and if he wants to live a great life that he needs to look at how he is living his right now. That if he is willing to open up about himself to Sean, to take those steps, that Sean will be there.

This scene is one of the most memorable in cinematic history. It is a highlight in the film thanks to the quote “You’re move, Chief”, and the setting only makes it stronger. To sit on this park bench and take it all in is a rite of passage in Boston and should not be missed whether you love the film or just a scenic place. It was a huge deal for me to sit here and think of this scene when I visited Boston.

The  Good Will Hunting  park bench is located in Boston Public Garden, right in line of the statue of George Washington. (Arlington Street Entrance)

(1982 – 1993)

A Boston bar where everybody knows your name. Resident bartender Sam is in love with Diane (and then Rebecca). In between his love pursuits, he serves liquid gold to all the regulars at the bar with some of the most well-known characters in television history, Frasier Crane starting out right here.

Ted Danson (Sam), Reah Pearlman (Carla), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), Shelley Long (Diane), Kirstie Alley (Rebecca), Woody Harrelson (Woody).

About The Cheers B ar Filming Location 

Is the Cheers bar a real bar? Unfortunately not. This Cheers Bar location wasn’t used in the actual filming of  Cheers , but it is the ultimate filming location for most people traveling to the USA, because it is the bar that Cheers was based on. The exterior of the bar was used as a stock shot for the bar though, like many tv shows and films out there, so it’s still a decent filming location to go to.

The Cheers  bar is popular, and because of the continued interest in the   bar as a filming location, a modern day replica has been built on the first floor of the building. But it is only a replica and not the exact bar which was used in the filming of the show. But, it’s as close as you’ll get to the real thing, which is still really cool!

The  Cheers bar is located at 84 Beacon St, Boston.

– Las Vegas –

The hangover.

Two days before his wedding, Doug and his groomsmen travel to Las Vegas for his bachelor party. The next morning they wake up with no memory of the night before, Doug is missing and the antics of the night only serve to get worse as they recount their steps to remember it and find Doug so he can make it back in time to say I do.

Bradley Cooper (Phil), Zack Galifianakis (Alan), Ed Helms (Stu), Justin Bartha (Doug), Ken Jeong (Mr Chow)

About  The Hangover  Filming Locations

When one visits Vegas, The Hangover   is the one film which people think of. There are a number of filming locations for The Hangover   on offer in Las Vegas. But the major one that was used is Caesar’s Palace. The hotel entrance, foyer and swimming pool of Caeser’s Palace were all used in the filming of  The Hangover – so an even better experience for fans would be staying here to really get the complete Hangover experience.

The Las Vegas Strip was also featured in the film, as well as a few places off the Strip, including the empty lot opposite the Luxor where Mr Chow first appears, and Atomic Liquors, a dive bar that is open for drinking – and a local favourite when exploring Fremont Street; which is the location where the car accident happens that the guys are involved in with Mr Chow.

And just in case you’re wondering – No, the real Caesar did not live here and the hotel is not pager friendly.

Caesar’s Palace is located at 3570 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas.

– Albuquerque –

Breaking bad, (2008-2012).

By Helen of Differentville

When chemistry teacher Walter White is diagnosed with lung cancer he decides to start a sideline to make some extra money for his family – cooking crystal meth with local drug dealer Jessie Pinkman. AMC’s Breaking Bad ran for five seasons and is widely thought of as one of the most iconic TV shows of the decade.

Bryan Cranston (Walter White) , Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman), Bob Odenkirk (Saul Goodman)

About The Breaking Bad  Filming Locations

When your partner is THE biggest Breaking Bad fan and he has his 5oth birthday coming up, there’s only one place to take him to celebrate – Albuquerque – the city where Breaking Bad was filmed.

You don’t have to search hard to find where the show was shot – the location of almost every scene has been documented online. You want to go to the Tiki bar where Combo sells drugs – hit up Burt’s Tiki Lounge (it’s not at all scary in real life!), you want to sweeten your coffee with stevia in the café where Lydia gets her comeuppance – it’s all good, The Grove Cafe & Market has packs on the table. And talking of tables, Garduno’s on Louisiana Blvd is where to go if you want guacamole mixed at yours – awkward silence not included.  The Visit Albuquerque tourist board even offer a self-drive map.

The most iconic locations include the homes of the main characters – Walter White and Jessie Pinkman – although the people who live in the homes had no idea what they were signing up for when they started this thing. As such, the couple who live in Walter White’s house recently put up a fence to try and stop people throwing pizzas on the roof to try and get a particularly iconic shot. Jessie’s house has also had a few alterations and doesn’t look quite the same perhaps to stop the pilgrims.

Still standing though is the Octopus Car Wash (known as A1 in the series) that Walt sets up to launder his money – and they were pretty okay with people wandering in to take pictures. The laundry where Gus Fring sets up his meth lab is less open to visitors, but you can see the outside. Lawyer Saul Goodman’s office is also still standing – a restaurant called Hooligans in the middle of a strip mall – possibly waiting for its new appearance in Better Call Saul .

Sadly, the highlight of the trip for us is no more. On Walt’s birthday, he’s alone and broken and he goes to Denny’s for his traditional free breakfast, making a number 50 in bacon. It was the number one thing my partner wanted to do on his 50th and the waitress made sure he ordered the same breakfast and sat in the same chair as Walt. But progress stops for no-one and the Denny’s closed shortly after we visited. The famous Twisties that stands in for the Los Pollos Hermanos is still standing though and has a handy sign for you to take pics next to on the wall.

I could go on and on as there are so many Breaking Bad locations in Albuquerque that you can visit. But, if you want to pick up a souvenir from your trip make your last stop the Candy Lady in the Old Town – she made the famous blue meth for filming and you can buy it in little baggies – complete with a note for the TSA in case they open your suitcase!

Breaking Bad is of course no more, but it’s prequel Better Call Saul is still filming in the city – even now we shout ‘we’ve been there’ when we see them sitting in the Route 66 diner. Bryan Cranston however, does still own a home in the city – so keep an eye out in his favourite restaurant El Pinto. That man in the hat and glasses might be EXACTLY who you think he is.

The Breaking Bad locations can be found at various locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

– New York City –

Breakfast at tiffany’s.

Based on the novel by Truman Capote, Breakfast At Tiffany’s  is the story of Holly Golightly, a superficial New York socialite. Paul Varjak, a struggling writer, moves into her building and they become friends. Ultimately Paul falls in love with Holly but will she reciprocate his feelings or follow her own ambitions instead?

Audrey Hepburn (Holly Golightly), George Peppard (Paul Varjak), Mickey Rooney (Mr Yunioshi)

About The  Breakfast At Tiffany’s  Filming Location

Nothing says New York other than Tiffany & Co – a jewelry store which sees millions enter it’s doors just to say they have been there.

When it comes to the film  Breakfast At Tiffany’s however, it is the opening shot of Audrey Hepburn getting out of a taxi and standing in front of Tiffany & Co eating breakfast at sunrise which remains iconic. Her outfit in this scene is mimicked to this day on any Halloween, with Hepburn dressed to the nines in a long, black cocktail dress, pearls around her neck, dark sunglasses on with her hair in an up-do.

This is quintessential classic New York City, and if one was to recount Hollywood’s most memorable moments, this would easily be in the top 5 of all time. You don’t need to have seen this film to know what this outfit and scene represents. So why would you miss seeing it when you’re in New York?

On a side note, Sweet Home Alabama also filmed here – where Patrick Dempsey proposes to Reese Witherspoon, and outside Tiffany’s is where Trey proposes to Charlotte in Sex and the City .  So this location is very much a romance one these days!

Tiffany and Co is located at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, New York City. 

Sex & The City

(1998-2004).

By Melissa of Thrifty Family Travels

Sex and the City is a TV series which has also been turned into two movies.  Both the TV series and films follows the life of Carrie Bradshaw, a columnist working in Manhattan, as well as her three best friends Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda.

Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie), Kim Cattrall (Samantha), Kristin Davis (Charlotte) and Cynthia Nixon (Miranda).

About The  Sex and the City   Apartment Filming Location

It was pretty surreal standing outside Carrie Bradshaw’s house. Having seen it countless numbers of time over the years whilst watching the show, I kept waiting for her to pop out the door or to walk down the street after being out partying all night.

It was pretty easy to spot the house as there were quite a few other fans out the front taking photographs. I used to watch Sex and the City as a young single female, so I really relate to the show as I was going through similar things at the time with dating and friends etc.  Plus it was just super cool seeing Manhattan – such a cool city. I haven’t seen the show or film since visiting her house, but I do suspect next time to do watch it, it will feel rather different now having been there and knowing what the surrounding area looked like.

The  Sex and the City  apartment, aka Carrie’s apartment is located at 66 Perry Street, New York City.

Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), David Schwimmer (Ross Gellar), Counteney Cox (Monica Gellar), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay)

About the  Friends   Building Filming Location

Besides the Warner Brothers tour where you can sit in the real Central Perk coffee house, the next best thing for Friends  fans is to see the apartment building that was used in the show. Although the interior was a set, the exterior is not.

When exploring the Village in New York City, a detour to the Friends building is a must. Every time I am there, I see someone taking a photo of this building. It’s that popular – about the same as Carrie’s Apartment in Sex and the City , which isn’t too far from this location.

On a side note, this building has been used for more than Friends . It was also the location of the romantic comedy starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhart, No Reservations . In the closing scene of that film, the cafe on the ground level of the building was the ‘restaurant’ the characters opened…so there is some trivia for you!

To visit New York City and not visit the  Friends apartment building would be blasphemy – so make sure you stop here!

The  Friends  apartment building is located at 90 Bedford Street, at the corner of Grove Street, New York City. 

(1989-1998)

Seinfeld  follows a New York stand up comic, and his neurotic friends as they circumnavigate friendship, dating and more in a show that is literally about ‘nothing’.

Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry), Jason Alexander (George), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine), Michael Richards (Kramer)

About The  Seinfeld  Restaurant Filming Location

Seinfeld  is a show that is set in New York City – but it was actually filmed in LA and the Seinfeld apartment exterior is in LA as well. However, one of the icons of the show, the local diner restaurant called Monk’s is located in New York City and is a real restaurant which has been serving New Yorkers since the 1940’s.

The restaurant exterior is not hard to recognise given how often it appeared in the show and is actually a restaurant called ‘Tom’s Restaurant’, located right within reach of Columbia University. But the interior of the restaurant was not used in the show, that was a set in LA made specifically for  Seinfeld . However, fans continue to trek to eat here, just so they can say they did…so why not join in on the fun and do it too? Maybe eat a big salad?

The Seinfeld Restaurant, Tom’s Restaurant is located at West 112th Street and Broadway, New York City. 

Home Alone 2

A young boy, who was already left Home Alone on a previous Christmas, is heading to Florida with his family for another Christmas vacation. In their rush to get to the plane, Kevin loses his family in the airport, and ends up on a plane to New York City. Shacked up at The Plaza Hotel in New York, it’s not long before he’s discovered by his enemies and ‘wet bandits’, Harry and Marv, who want revenge for his last ‘alone’ stint; as well as the hotel concierge, Mr Hector. Will Kevin ever get to celebrate Christmas with his family?

Macaulay Culkin (Kevin), Joe Pesci (Harry), Daniel Stern (Marv), Tim Curry (Mr Hector).

About the Home Alone 2 Hotel Filming Location 

Home Alone is one of the best films ever made. But, many people rate  Home Alone 2 as being better than the original because it built on what the first one did so well.

For fans of Home Alone 2 , there are a number of locations one can see in New York, including the famed Rockefeller Tree – because Kevin loves Christmas trees; Central Park, where Kevin befriends the pigeon lady and of course The Plaza Hotel – where Kevin stays in all his “ding, dang, dong” luxury after making it it New York all by himself. The Plaza is a cool hotel to explore. You can’t access the lobby itself – well, you couldn’t on my last visit, unless you are a guest so that is annoying. But, Charlie Sheen did go crazy here and trash his hotel room, so i guess security measures are needed…

On the basement level, there is a Food Hall which is open to everyone, with heaps of yummy things to enjoy – with nice treats or bigger meals, or even just a clean toilet stop if needed. I always visit that to take a breather and do a toilet stop here, because New York is a huge city and navigating it isn’t easy if you don’t know where things are – like the good toilets!

Home Alone 2 isn’t the only film that has filmed here, with the likes of Bride Wars , Big Buisness , The Way We Were , Sex and the City and more setting scenes right here. It is a true icon of New York City.

New York City is at its best at Christmas which only adds to it’s allure. But for many, it is synonymous with Kevin and the Home Alone 2 story.  Or is it just me that thinks this?

The Plaza Hotel from Home Alone 2 is located at 768 Fifth Ave – right where Central Park begins.

How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days

A magazine columnist and an advertising executive secretly undertake a 10 day bet. Her bet – to make him break things off. His bet – to make her fall in love with him. Is all fair in love and war?

Kate Hudson (Andie), Matthew McConaughey (Ben)

About The  How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days  Filming Location

There are many romantic comedies out there to see filming locations from, but How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days  was a surprise hit and has a classic edge now that it is have been over 15 years since it was made. There are many filming locations on offer for  How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days but the main one to see is on Staten Island and man is it a good one!

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk & Beach is a real gem and was the location where Ben teaches Andie how to ride a motorcycle along the boardwalk. The Verrazanno-Narrows Bridge sitting in the distance makes for a really pretty backdrop too. I completely love it here whether I loved this film or not. What a highlight of a place to visit when visiting New York City.

Additionally, you can take the Staten Island ferry over to Staten Island – which is free, and re-create another  How To Lose A Guy scene. The Staten Island ferry was also featured in  Sex and the City  and  The Dark Knight – among others. So why would you miss out on that too?

The How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days boardwalk is located on Father Capodanno Blvd, Staten Island, New York.

One Fine Day

An architect and a reporter end up with their children for the day after they miss their kid’s school field trip drop off. Given their hectic schedules, they agree to put aside their bickering for the day – but their children don’t make that plan an easy one to follow.

Michelle Pfeiffer (Melanie), George Clooney (Jack)

About the  One Fine Day  Central Park Filming Location

Central Park has had a zillion appearances in movies and television shows. But there are certain areas of Central Park which seem to appear more than others.  One Fine Day was one such film which utilized this – with the Bethesda Terrace a trademark when it comes to New York filming locations. Here, was where George Clooney picks Michelle Pfeiffer up so she doesn’t have to walk through a puddle.

Additionally, everything from  Friends With Benefits  to  It Takes Two  to  Gossip Girl to 27 Dresses  has used this location in Central Park. Plus, if you keep walking and hit the famed “Mall” in Central Park, you’ll find yourself walking around almost every New York City filming location with so many films and tv shows having filmed right here. Personal favourites include, The Other Woman, Big Daddy, Maid In Manhattan and more.

Bethesda Terrace and The Mall are located in Central Park, New York City. 

Serendipity

Two strangers fatefully meet at Bloomingdale’s in New York City, sparking a ‘what if’ scenario in their lives many years later when both are set to marry other people. Does serendipity really exist?

John Cusack (Jonathan), Kate Beckinsale (Sara), Jeremy Piven (Dean), Bridget Monahan (Halley)

About The  Serendipity Filming Location

Serendipity is a movie which means a lot to me – my blog name which I carefully selected even has the name in it. I love the word Serendipity – a fortunate accident, a twist of fate, meant to be…which is why I ended up at Serendipity 3, a restaurant and general store which is one of the most iconic restaurants in New York City.

Serendipity 3 has been a filming location in a number of films and tv shows, not just as the cafe Jonathan and Sara drink frozen hot chocolates in after first meeting in  Serendipity.  Besides this scene, it has been featured in everything from  One Fine Day to  Glee  to  Keeping Up With The Kardashians,  when it filmed in New York.

If you want an awesome dessert – I love the chocolate sundaes, they have some amazing things to try here, plus other menu items that are savoury or larger meals. I always eat here every time I visit New York. I love the decor, the vibe of this place and that it’s been in so many films and tv shows. But best of all, because it played such an iconic role in the film  Serendipity .

Serendipity 3 is located at 225 East 60th Street.

North Carolina

– asheville –, richie rich.

by Paul from Travel Is Life

Richie Rich is the film adaption of the comic book about the world’s wealthiest kid. Richie (played by Macaulay Culkin), his butler, and his new friends embark on a mission to save Richie’s parents and thwart the plan of an evil businessman who is intent on stealing their family fortune.

Macaulay Culkin (Richie Rich), John Larroquette (Lawrence Van Dough), Edward Herrmann (Richard Rich), Christine Ebersole (Regina Rich), Jonathan Hyde (Herbert Arthur Runcible Cadbury), Michael McShane (Professor Keenbean)

About The Richie Rich Filming Location

The Biltmore Estate is the largest privately owned estate in America and the biggest tourist attraction in Asheville, NC – my hometown. Most tourists have heard about this HUGE house because of its history, architecture, and wineries, but not everyone who visits realizes that it was also a filming location for several movies including Tap Roots (1948), The Swan (1956), Being There (1979), The Private Eyes (1980), Mr. Destiny (1990), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Richie Rich (1994), My Fellow Americans (1996), Patch Adams (1998), Hannibal (2000), and The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012).

My dad accidentally fell into the role of playing a security guard extra in Richie Rich when they filmed part of the movie there in 1993. My family read in the local newspaper that Warner Brothers was looking for child actors to be extras in the movie, so my sister and I went down to the audition, only to discover that the newspaper got the story wrong. The studio was actually looking for ADULT actors, not children, so they ended up choosing from all the parents of the children who showed up to audition – including my dad who got cast the role of a security guard for “looking mean”. My dad earned $40/day as a non-speaking extra but got to meet Macaulay Culkin and all the other actors who were there filming at The Biltmore Estate, which the studio used to portray Richie Rich’s home in the movie. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for our small city of Asheville NC – which at the time, wasn’t quite on the Hollywood map yet!

Everytime I visit The Biltmore Estate, I’ll always remember the big fountain and that giant front door from the scenes in Richie Rich that my dad appeared in!

The Biltmore Estate is located at One Lodge Street Asheville, North Carolina.

– Outer Banks –

Nights in rodanthe.

A divorcee looks after a hotel in the Outer Banks for her friend. The hotel has one guest, a doctor who is visiting to speak to a former patient’s family. Over the space of the weekend, they find comfort and love within each other but are soon faced with a tragic twist of fate.

Diane Lane (Adrienne), Richard Gere (Paul), Viola Davis (Jean)

About the  Nights In Rodanthe  House Filming Location

The  Nights In Rodanthe  house is as spectacular as they come. And it’s one of the most famous Nicholas Sparks filming locations in the United States. Best of all – you can stay at the Nights In Rodanthe house, as it is a vacation rental.

You will notice the house isn’t sitting on the beach like it was in the film. It was moved a little further back, but still on the beach to protect it from hurricane weather. You can read more about the Nights In Rodanthe house and how you can stay in it here .

Above all else, the Outer Banks in North Carolina is a must stop destination and missing it would be a disservice to your trip if you’re near there. You can drive along the Highway with epic coastal views on the side of the road, houses on stilts on the beach and sand dunes whirling sand across the road as you go. This destination is spectacular!

The Nights In Rodanthe house is located on Highway 12, at Beacon Rd East, Rodanthe. 

– Wilmington –

Dawson’s creek, (1997 – 2002).

Four teens starting their freshman year of high school, have to navigate growing up without growing apart in this coming of age series which spanned 6 seasons.

James Van Der Beek (Dawson), Katie Holmes (Joey), Joshua Jackson (Pacey), Michelle Williams (Jen)

About the  Dawson’s Creek  Filming Locations

Set in the picturesque town of Wilmington, North Carolina, and surrounding regions,  Dawson’s Creek  really put Wilmington on the Hollywood Map as the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts.  Dawson’s Creek  was also one of the biggest shows in the late 1990’s, so for many who visit it is the chance to re-live one’s youth and explore a town which looks so familiar – you think you have been there. I constantly have deja-vu whenever I visit here!

Whether it is a walk down the historic main street area or along the river, or exploring the UNCW campus which stood in for Capeside High School (Alderman Hall specifically), it is pretty endless what locations you can see to reminisce about this show. Hell’s Kitchen where Joey worked in Season 5 is a real restaurant, as are the restaurant’s that stood in for Leery’s Fresh Fish and Pacey’s Restaurant in the final episode.

The house Dawson lives in with his parents is also a favourite for visitors but it is a private residence so if you do make it there please be respectful and ask permission before entering the creekside area of the property. Otherwise, just stick with the other locations which are easily found around the town.

Seeing Dawson’s house was a real highlight for me in 2008, and it was the one filming location I wanted to see more than anything else in the world. I was lucky enough to get a personal tour of the real house, so I know what it looks like inside and how it compares to the Dawson’s Creek set. But sitting on the pier, looking up at Dawson’s room or standing on the porch – which I had access to really made it easy to pretend I was in Capeside for the day. And it was cool to see what props they still had up all those years after filming took place.

The Dawson’s Creek locations worth seeing are (pictured):

Dawson’s House –  6424 Head Road, Wilmington

Capeside High School – UNCW Campus, 601 S College Rd, Wilmington

Historic Wilimington (main street area, riverwalk etc) Market Street and North Water Street

Hell’s Kitchen 118 Princess St, Wilmington

Elijah’s Resturant (Pacey’s Restaurant) Wilmington Riverwalk.

One Tree Hill

(2003 – 2012).

Two half brothers end up on the same high school basketball team, creating drama in the town they live. Ego’s, NBA dreams, girlfriend issues, daddy issues, parents who are never there and more keep this small town full of intrigue. But can these two brothers learn to get along for the sake of the team and their own relationship?

Chad Michael Murray (Lucas), James Lafferty (Nathan), Hilarie Burton (Peyton), Sophia Bush (Brooke), Bethany Joy Lenz (Haley)

About The  One Tree Hill  Filming Locations

Like  Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill   is everywhere in Wilmington, North Carolina.

One Tree Hill made better use of the town however, using a lot more than  Dawson’s Creek ever managed to. Fans of the show can tour the town on their own – or do an actual tour by a local, which will take you through the main historic Wilmington areas. The  One Tree Hill sets no longer exist, so a trip to the Screen Gems studios is not worth doing now. But back when the show was on, it definitely was as fans got to step inside Tree Hill.

For those who have never been, Wilmington is one of the best coastal cities to visit in the United States. The high school gym that was used for One Tree Hill  was actually the high school gym Michael Jordan played in – which explains why the number 23 is synonymous with the show.

Highlights for fans of  One Tree Hill  though include a visit to Tree Hill High School, stopping by the various houses from the show, particularly Brooke’s, Lucas’s, Nathan’s and Peyton’s.

Dan’s beach house which is actually a house rental – though it doesn’t seem to have been updated much since the show, is a real life filming location with the interior and exterior having been used in the show. The location of Haley and Nathan’s beachside wedding at Fort Fisher, Karen’s Cafe/ Clothes Over Bros (which is now a surf store), River Rd where Lucas and Peyton meet, the river where Haley tutors Nathan – which you can’t actually find but there are similar benches which make it close enough and the Rivercourt – which was torn up so it no longer exists – but lucky fans did score a piece of it, myself included.

One Tree Hill   capitalised on what  Dawson’s Creek started in Wilmington, whether it’s Wilmington itself, or the outer surrounds of Fort Fisher, Carolina Beach, Airlie Gardens or the mall. When you are visiting here, it is like stepping right into the show. And that’s why I have been there FOUR times now. It is my favourite place in America.

The One Tree Hill   locations worth seeing include (pictured)-

Tree Hill High School, Cape Fear Community College, 411 N Front St, Wilmington

Brooke’s 2314 Tattersalls Drive, Wilmington

Lucas’s house – 1829 Wrightsville Ave, Wilmington

Dan’s Beach House (front and back were used, as was the interior) – 1515 S Lake Park Blvd

River Rd, where Peyton and Lucas meet – Plantation Road SE (find the river and you’ll see the bend).

Haley and Nathan’s wedding spot – Fort Fisher Recreation Reserve – Fort Fisher Blvd South (right across from the aquarium)

– Mansfield –

The shawshank redemption.

By Leah of Yoder Toter Blog

The Shawshank Redemption was filmed in and around Mansfield, Ohio.  The movie follows the accusal and prison time of Andy Dufresne and his friendship with prisoner, Red.  While incarcerated, Dufresne is put in charge of helping the Warden and other guards with their financial matters.  It is this role that allows Andy to see that Warden Norton is receiving bribes and laundering the money. Eventually, Andy escapes Shawshank Prison and withdrawals the laundered money.

Tim Robbins (Andy Dufresne), Morgan Freeman (Red), Bob Gunton (Warden Norton), James Whitmore (Brooks Hatlan).

About  The Shawshank Redemption  Filming Locations

The main filming location for the movie is the Ohio State Reformatory.  The Reformatory opened in 1896 and once housed 155,000 inmates within its walls.  The visit can be one of history, eeriness, and awe. The 6-story cell block is a sight to behold!  Fans of the film will “geek out” on numerous things from The Shawshank Redemption – such as Brooks’ last words, Andy’s escape tunnel, and the solitary confinement area. Besides its popularity as setting for the film, The Ohio State Reformatory is also well-known for its paranormal activity.

Fans of The Shawshank Redemption can also visit filming locations within a short drive of the Reformatory.   The Shawshank Trail covers 16 sites!  Fifteen of the sixteen are within an hour’s drive – the last one is the beach in Zihuatanejo, Mexico; where Andy Dufresne and Red eventually reunite.

As a longtime fan of the film and now a local in Mansfield, Ohio; I often find myself wanting to watch the movie again just to see our little city on the big screen.  Pugh Cabin, site of The Shawshank Redemption’s opening scene, is located within Malabar Farm- a popular hiking spot for our family. It’s a fun thing to have one of your favorite films- and your personal life- collide.

If you’re a fan of The Shawshank Redemption, the 25th Anniversary of the film is happening in 2019 and actors from the film will be participating in local events.  Those interested can check out the event page HERE .

The Shawshank Redemption filming locations are located at various locations in Mansfield, Ohio.

– Cleveland –

A christmas story.

Photos provided by Bridget from Travel Is My Everything

©Bridget Kent Cooper

Based on the humorous writings of author Jean Shepherd, this beloved holiday movie follows the wintry exploits of Ralphie Parker, who spends most of his time running from a bully and dreaming of his ideal Christmas gift, a “Red Ryder air rifle.”

Peter Billingsley (Ralphie), Melinda Dillon (Mother Parker), Darren McGavin (Old Man Parker)

About the  A Christmas Story  Filming Location

A Christmas Story  is a favourite for many. And unlike many houses which have been used over the years as ‘movie houses’, this house is very interactive for fans of the film. It is open year round for public tours, and you can even stay there overnight if you’re visiting from further away and need accommodation.

Across the street, there is an  A Christmas Story Museum, which contains everything from props, costumes, movie memorabilia, and behind the scenes photos which have never been shared anywhere else. There is a gift shop there as well.

If you are a fan of  A Christmas Story stopping by here and spending some money helps to keep the house and museum operating, as well as keeping it in the best shape possible. So if you are planning to visit Cleveland a stop here is a must for this true cinema classic. Tickets are $13 for adults, Children 2-12 years are $10, Seniors $11.50.

The  A Christmas Story   house is located at 3159 W 11th St, Cleveland.

– Astoria –

The goonies.

By James from Off With The Kids

This 80’s classic tells a tale of bunch of local kids who embark on a great and perilous adventure in an attempt to find a pirate treasure worthy of saving one of their homes.  The ‘Goonies’ must navigate through a maze full of deadly obstacles, all while trying to escape a family of convicts chasing them.

Sean Astin (Mikey), Josh Brolin (Brand), Jeff Cohen (Chunk), Corey Feldman (Mouth)

About The Goonies Filming Locations

I personally love  The Goonies  because I grew up in the ’80s watching this film repeatedly; however, I also love the nostalgia of 80’s films as I’m a huge fan of the era.

One of the best reasons to visit this filming location is because unlike with many other movies that are filmed at various locations or in a location not true to the actual setting of the movie, most of  The Goonies  was actually filmed in the real town portrayed in the movie!  This is very rare with movies today.  Whether it was the local high school, the bowling alley, the jail, or even the main character’s houses, all are real places in Astoria that could actually be visited!

On multiple occasions I’ve visited Astoria, and was able to check out many of the locations used for filming.  You can read about them all in my article here .  One of my favorite parts was when a couple of family members and I reenacted the jail escape scene just as it was portrayed in the film!  This was a lot of fun.  Due to how popular  The Goonies  is, I wasn’t surprised to find other fans waiting to doing the exact same thing!

Watching the movie today is extra fun because I can say I’ve been to those exact locations.  I stood where those actors stood, and even acted out some of the same scenes! If you’re a fan of  The Goonies , or even just a fan of visiting movie filming locations, you won’t be disappointed with this one.  There are many locations to see all within close proximity, and offer a fun experience for the whole family.

The Goonies filming locations can be found in various locations in Astoria, Oregon. 

Kindergarten Cop

A police officer takes on an undercover job as a kindergarten teacher in Astoria, Oregon in a bid to finally apprehend a drug lord. While he may be a model police officer, can he keep his cover when dealing with 5 year olds?

Arnold Schwarzenegger (John Kimble), Joyce Palmieri (Penelope Ann Miller), Pamela Reed (Phoebe O’Hara), Richard Tyson (Cullen Crisp), Linda Hunt (Miss Schlowski)

About the  Kindergarten Cop Filming Locations

I have been dreaming of visiting Astoria, Oregon for as long as I can remember. Why? Because I love  Kindergarten Cop. 

When you visit Astoria, you really feel like you are in the film – and that doesn’t happen too often for me. The film used so many locations in and around Astoria, and it all still looks EXACTLY the same as it did back then. That is part of the charm.

Fans of the film can take a self-tour of the  Kindergarten Cop filming locations from the elementary school, the motel John and Phoebe stay in during their job, Joyce’s house, the Marina/ restaurant area and the main street of town. It’s all right here.

But if you start quoting the film as you explore, yelling “It’s not a tumor!” or “SHUT UPPPPP!!!!!” don’t blame us – because we guarantee it will happen!

The main Kindergarten Cop filming location to see in Astoria is John Jacob Astor Elementary – which filmed many scenes inside and outside this building. This is the epitome of filming locations for this film. And I loved every minute of my visit there.

The Kindergarten Cop elementary school is located at 3550 Franklin Ave, Astoria .

Pennsylvania

– philadelphia – .

A small-time boxer gets a rare chance to fight heavy-weight champion of the world, Apollo Creed in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect. Can the underdog win?

Sylvester Stallone (Rocky), Tahlia Shire (Adrian), Carl Weathers (Apollo)

About The  Rocky Steps Filming Location

When one visits Philadelphia, aka Philly – there is only one filming location one cares to see – and best of all it’s free.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Steps, aka The Rocky Steps is where countless visitors to Philadelphia have trekked to re-create what is possibly the most re-created scene in Hollywood history. In  Rocky,  Sylvester Stallone trains to take on heavyweight Apollo Creed, and runs up the stairs before fist pumping in jubilation at the top. Thus, when visiting the  Rocky  Steps, one must of course take a run up and celebrate at the top too!

Other films have re-created this scene with  In Her Shoes having a scene with Toni Collette walking dogs and running up the stairs in triumph during her own personal issues, which she begins to overcome.

The Rocky Steps are located at Spring Garden St, Philadelphia. 

South Carolina

– charleston –, the notebook.

A man reads a story to a woman suffering from dementia about young love in the hopes that she will remember it is about them and how they fell in love.

Ryan Gosling (Noah), Rachel McAdams (Allie), Gena Rowlands (Allie), James Garner (Noah)

About  The Notebook  Filming Locations

Charleston, South Carolina is home to  The Notebook . And while not every location is available to see, given the house Noah built is a private residence located on Wadmalaw Island – and the owners are not wanting fans to really stop by apparently, many locations are.

Two of the best Notebook  locations fans can see in Charleston, is the intersection where Allie and Noah dance and almost get run over by a car. Interestingly, this intersection was made to look like the 1920s era, which is very obvious when you are standing there and comparing the scene to where you are standing. They really changed it up to make it look old.

The second location is Boone Hall Plantation – made famous from it’s appearance in  North and South with Patrick Swayze. It was also the location where Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively were married in 2012. Boone Hall Plantation was the Summer residence of Allie’s family and has a beautiful tree lined oak alley, similar to Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana. Boone Hall Plantation does have tours so you can explore the property. However, the exterior of this house was only used in  The Notebook,  if you are looking to see the interior of Allie’s house, that was shot inside Calhoun Mansion, a house you can also tour in Charleston – but they don’t allow photos.

For more information on all  The Notebook locations you can see in Charleston, click here .

The Notebook intersection is located at King St and Mary St. 

Boone Hall Plantation is located at 1235 Long Point Road, Mt Pleasant.

– Nashville –

The coal miner’s daughter.

By Carol of Wayfaring Views

Nashville is a honky tonk town and Loretta Lynn gained fame with her song “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl”. She was a regular at the Grand Ole Opry (and the Ryman). Coal Miner’s Daughter chronicles Lynn’s life including her childhood poverty, her teenage marriage and her rise as a country music star.

Sissy Spacek (Loretta), Tommy Lee Jones (Doolittle), Levon Helm (Ted), Beverly D’Angelo (Patsy)

About The  Coal Miner’s Daughter Filming Location

Visiting the Ryman is like going to church. In fact, the auditorium was born from a fiery pulpit when Thomas Ryman “saw the light” and built it in 1892 as a permanent location for gospel meetings. The Grand Ole Opry located there in 1943 and kept the music going. There is something special about a building that was purpose built for music and I could almost hear the echoes of the Opry and Loretta Lynn when I was there.

In addition to the Coal Miner’s daughter and the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman was also the set for TV tapings of the Johnny Cash Show, American Idol and Nashville. It should be a must see on anyone’s  Nashville itinerary  and few people visit without being a fan of at least one of those movies or TV shows.

The Ryman Auditorium is located at 116 5th Avenue North, Nashville. 

– Smithville –

Hope floats.

Birdee Pruitt finds out her husband has been unfaithful on live television. Returning with her daughter to the small town of Smithville, Texas to live with her mother, Birdee must re-build her life and has the chance to rekindle a childhood romance with a man named Justin Matisse.

Sandra Bullock (Birdee), Harry Connick Jr (Justin), Mae Whitman (Bernice), Gena Rowlands (Ramona)

About the  Hope Floats  Filming Location

Many people ask where did Hope Floats actually film in Texas? The answer is Smithville, Texas. A real town in the United States which actually boasts about being the “Home of Hope Floats”- they even have a sign on the freeway exit! Fans of the film can visit the town and re-live all the moments of  Hope Floats  right at their own leisure as this is one small town – but full of so much charm.

Whether it is exploring the main street where many scenes took place, including where Birdee gets a job at the photo development store, to the historic home she lives in with her mother, to the elementary school, diner and local bar – it is all here to see.

As a fan of Hope Floats , I spent a good hour or two photographing everything I could find – I drove around the streets and found the elementary school funnily enough and thanks to Youtube, I managed to work out which store was the photo store Birdee worked at, and where Harry Connick Jr stood by his car waiting for Birdee with flowers. It is not a hard town to explore at all, and makes me love  Hope Floats  even more now that I know what it feels like to stand there and explore this town.

The Main Street of Smithville, Texas is Main Street . Birdee worked at the photo store on the intersection of Main and 2nd St . The scene with Harry Connick Jr took place with his truck across the road from the photo store on Main and 2nd .

Birdee’s mother’s house aka “the Hope Floats house” is the famous McCollum-Chapman-Trousdale  House  which is located at 201 E. Eighth & Olive Street .

– Monument Valley –

By Melissa of The Wandering Queen

Forrest Gump  takes us through the historical adventure of a man named Forrest Gump. He lives life with a childlike optimism and becomes a football star, a Vietnam veteran, ping pong champion, and even runs across the USA.

Tom Hanks (Forrest), Sally Field (Mrs Gump), Robin Wright (Jenny)

About the  Forrest Gump Monument Valley Run Filming Location

Monument Valley is one of the best places to visit if you are a western movie or a Forrest Gump Fan. The area has been featured in countless films since the 1930s. Located on the eastern border of Utah and Arizona, Monument Valley is not near any major cities, but, I recommend making the drive to experience this one of a kind place.

The last area where Forrest ends his cross-country run is located near Monument Valley. You can take pictures in the area where Forrest ends his journey in the film. There is even a sign marking the end of his journey.

The Forrest Gump Running Road is located on US Highway 163 at Mexican Hat . ( Look for the sign if driving from Monument Valley and it will be on your left. That’s where you need to be!

– Pembroke –

Dirty dancing.

Summer 1963, Frances “Baby” Houseman vacations with her family at Kellerman’s, a resort in the Catskills, before joining the Peace Corps. This Summer will ultimately change her life, as she learns to finally be independent and in control of her own life choices, but also follows her heart after she falls in love with the dance director at the resort, Johnny. But will it cost her her family’s love and respect?

Jennifer Grey (Baby), Patrick Swayze (Johnny), Kelly Bishop (Marjorie Houseman), Jerry Orbach (Dr. Jake Houseman)

About the  Dirty Dancing  Filming Location

Dirty Dancing   is a cult classic, with one of the most popular movie soundtracks in existence.

But best of all for fans, they can re-live  Dirty Dancing  themselves by staying at the Mountain Lake Lodge Hotel in Pembroke, Virginia. The closest airport to get here is in Roanoke, Virginia – with about an hour drive to the hotel.

For me, I made it here in 2008, on my very first trip to the United States. I had to stay here and be part of it. Back then, Patrick Swayze was sick with pancreatic cancer, but still alive; and being here made me appreciate the legacy he and this film had on this region, even all those years later.

The Mountain Lake Lodge Hotel has really embraced their role within  Dirty Dancing   and welcome guests for  Dirty Dancing  weekends, dancing in the gazebo and more. When you visit here, you really do feel like you are back in the film – it is incredible.

As soon as you arrive and start exploring, head out to the back of the hotel which leads to the lawn, as this is the “front” of the hotel that Baby and her family arrive at. If you continue to walk inside and turn left, the restaurant which was also used in the film is still there to enjoy. If you walk outside onto the balcony of the restaurant (I ate out there), some scenes were also shot here, but back then this balcony wasn’t enclosed, it was open.

The Mountain Lake Lodge Hotel still has signs up around the grounds, and guests can stay in the Houseman apartment which is located opposite the main hotel building. As I walked around the grounds I found so many scene locations including the tunnel Johnny and Baby drive through when they head out to practice dancing, as well as the forest walk scene where Johnny and Baby look down on her father with Lisa and her college love interest Robbie.

It is a really cool experience to stay here, and given this film is my favourite – it was a real dream come true. Dirty Dancing  was the very first film I owned on VHS as a 6 year old – thanks dad! The hotel is a real escape from the real world, and the hotel rooms don’t have televisions. But to spend a few days here, and eat meals in the restaurant and explore the grounds – that is all any fan of  Dirty Dancing  needs. I can’t wait to stay here again on my next trip back for a relaxed escape.

The Dirty Dancing Hotel aka The Mountain View Lodge Hotel is located at 115 Hotel Cir. Pembroke, Virginia.

– Seattle –

Grey’s anatomy, (2005 – present).

Meredith Grey, the daughter of an esteemed surgeon is accepted into the Seattle Grace residency program alongside other interns, Christina Yang, Izzie Stevens, Alex Karev and George O’Malley. She starts her first day in the program realizing that the one night stand she had the night before was with the new head of neurosurgery, Derek Shepherd. Can she become the Doctor she is destined to be – or will her romantic dramas, and the egos of the other interns impact on her success?

Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey), Sandra Oh (Christina Yang), Justin Chambers (Alex Karev), Katherine Heigl (Izzie Stevens), T.R. Knight (George O’Malley).

About the  Grey’s Anatomy  Filming Locations

Seattle is Grey’s Anatomy.

Although  Grey’s Anatomy   is filmed in Los Angeles, and the exterior of Seattle Grace/Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital is located in Los Angeles as well; the skyline of Seattle and the Space Needle is a paramount view in Grey’s Anatomy . As are ferryboats, as Dr McDreamy likes to make reference to.

But one place real fans of Grey’s Anatomy   can enjoy in Seattle, which is a stone’s throw from one of the best views of the Space Needle in Seattle; is Ellis Grey’s house or Meredith’s House as she takes residence with Izzie and George in Season 1. The house is a beauty, and has amazing views of the Space Needle because it sits atop the Queen Anne neighbourhood and scenic overlook.

So if you are making it to the Queen Anne overlook at Kerry Park, stopping by Meredith’s house is a must if you love  Grey’s Anatomy.  It is literally 2 blocks up from it!

When visiting Seattle as well, a ferryboat ride is a must – you can visit either Bremerton or Bainbridge Island which makes for a nice afternoon or day out of the city. Plus, you can pretend you’re Dr Derek Shepherd making the trek into work while you’re at it on the way back in.

The Meredith Grey house is located at 303 W. Comstock St, Seattle.

The Seattle Grace/Grey Sloan Memorial/Mercy West Hospital in Los Angeles is located at Veterans Administration Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center at 16111 Plummer Street, North Hills. 

Sleepless in Seattle

A widower’s son calls into a radio program on Christmas Eve to help his father find love again. Annie, a reporter from Baltimore hears the show and sets about finding out who ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ is. Even though she is engaged to another man, she soon finds herself falling in love with Samuel, with a plan to meet him on top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day.

Tom Hanks (Samuel), Meg Ryan (Annie), Bill Pullam (Walter), Rosie O’Donnell (Becky), Ross Malinger (Jonah), Rob Reiner (Jay).

About the  Sleepless In Seattle  Filming Locations

Sleepless In Seattle  has many filming locations on offer. But there are a few worth seeing over others that any fan should see when visiting Seattle including Samuel’s houseboat, Pike Place Market and the Athenian Restaurant.

The Houseboat that was used in  Sleepless In Seattle   is a real houseboat, which has real people living on it. It is part of a gated community, so is generally not accessible. However, you can see it from the roadway, and if you have a great lens on your camera, you can capture a nice shot of it from a distance. I also was able to see the houseboat from Gasworks Park as I had a good zoom on my camera too. But this is as close as you’ll likely get if you try and see it. Plus, it is a private residence so stepping out onto the dock and having a photo taken is severe trespassing  – so don’t do it without getting permission first.

In Seattle, a visit to Pike Place Market is pretty standard for anyone. This is the one place to visit to highlight your visit to Seattle. But one must stop is the Athenian Restaurant in Pike Place Market. Two scenes were shot right here, one outside in the market – where Victoria buys food to make Samuel and Jonah dinner. And inside the restaurant, when Samuel meets his friend for lunch, and they discuss him dating again. The restaurant is so used to fans visiting that they even placed plaques on the bench the two sat in for the scene, with them saying “Tom Hanks sat here”, “Rob Reiner sat here”.

To read more about  Sleepless In Seattle  here filming locations in Seattle click . To read about Sleepless In Seattle  filming locations in New York and Balitmore click here .

The  Sleepless In Seattle  Houseboat is located at 2460 Westlake Avenue North, Seattle.

The Athenian Restaurant is located at Pike Place Market, Seattle.

New to town Bella, meets mysterious Edward when she starts her new high school. She soon realizes his secret when she discovers he is a Vampire. Can she survive their love?

Kristen Stewart (Bella), Robert Pattinson (Edward)

About The Twilight High School Filming Location

Kalama, Washington was one of the towns which took on the setting for Forks, Washington, as it was the location of the Forks High School.

For fans of the  Twilight films, this location is one of the best to see because such a pivotal scene took place, as it was where Bella first realized Edward was different, when he saved her from being crushed by a car in the school parking lot. Kalama is a cool town to explore, and an detour here when exploring Washington or even Oregon is a really nice option.

Additionally to this location, Bella’s house from Twilight is not far from the high school location, so you can hit two birds with one stone here. It’s such a cute house – there are signs up about not trespassing, so be aware of that. The house sits on sort of a dead end road, so you really can’t miss it, but it’s probably better for all residents that you walk up the hill and not drive up.

I am not really a Twilight fan – but I will admit seeing these houses, and the Cullen house in Portland were really cool!

Kalama High School from Twilight  is located at 548 China Garden Road, Kalama, Washington. 

Bella’s House from Twilight is located at 184 South 6th Street St. Helens, Oregon

Washington D.C.

By What The Saints Did Next

Forrest Gump is a comedy/drama following the extraordinary life story of a man growing up in 1950s Alabama, USA and his infatuation with only childhood friend, Jenny.  Despite his simple mind Forrest goes on to teach dance moves to Elvis Presley, wins a football scholarship, becomes a war hero, a ping-pong champion, meets US Presidents, runs the span of America and becomes financially secure as an early investor of Apple.  Jenny, a free spirit periodically pops into his life and together they have a son.  Jenny and Forrest eventually marry but she dies at a young age of an unknown illness.

Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump), Robin Wright (Jenny Curran), Sally Field (Mrs Gump), Gary Senise (Lieutenant Dan), Mykelti Williamson (Bubba Blue).

About the  Forrest Gump  Lincoln Memorial Filming Location

One of the most memorable scenes from the movie is the reunion of Forrest and Jenny wading inside the reflecting pool of the Lincoln Memorial.  I was star-struck and SO tempted to replicate this but the presence of park rangers nipped the thought in the bud, plus the water did not look inviting!

Although Forrest Gump is one of my all-time favourite movies I haven’t watched it since our visit. But the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool is a popular location for many movies and TV shows and features regularly in Madam Secretary, House of Cards and The Fixer (Scandal).  I always get a jolt of contentment when I see it on the screen, that I’ve been THERE.  In fact, the whole of Washington DC, is like walking around a movie set of sorts, a great place to visit for film and TV buffs.

That’s all I have to say about that!

The Lincoln Memorial is located at 2 Lincoln Memorial Cir NW, Washington, DC.

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29 Famous Filming Locations You Can Visit in the United States

When you’re watching your favorite TV show or movie, it’s easy to forget that the backdrops — mundane diners, cabins in the woods, otherworldly planets, you name it — often exist in real life. In fact, some of pop culture’s most iconic filming locations are way closer to home than you might think. 

Whether you want to experience some movie magic in real life on your next stateside road trip or if you’re otherwise just looking to get some fresh air, these 29 famous filming locations are certainly worth exploring. And don’t worry: our picks aren’t all based in Los Angeles . 

Editor’s Note: For information on the latest pandemic-related travel requirements and advisories, be sure to check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) websites, as well as airline and destination requirements regarding mask-wearing, quarantine, and COVID-19 testing.

Beverly Wilshire Hotel – Pretty Woman | Beverly Hills, CA

Pretty Woman (1990) has the distinction of being one of the highest-grossing romantic comedies of all time. Ironically, one of its most iconic filming locations happens to be one of the highest-grossing luxury hotels of all time — the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, nestled in the ritzy neighborhood known as Beverly Hills.

In the film, Julia Roberts plays Vivian Ward, a Hollywood sex worker who is hired as an escort by businessman Edward Lewis who is portrayed by Richard Gere. Hilarity ensues — as does (un)expected romance. Super fans can do more than just snap photos of the hotel. The Beverly Wilshire offers the “Pretty Woman for a Day” experience, complete with a Rodeo Drive shopping spree.

Mrs. Doubtfire’s House – Mrs. Doubtfire | San Francisco, CA

Located at 2640 Steiner Street in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood, the iconic house from the Robin Williams comedy Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) stands out, even amid the other showy homes in the area. After Williams’ tragic passing in 2014, fans have made a habit of leaving flowers and other mementos on the sidewalk.

In 2016, the three-story Victorian went on the market for a cool $4.45 million. Even with royalties from her successful children’s show, it’s unlikely that even Euphegenia Doubtfire could afford it.

The Griffith Observatory – The Terminator | Los Angeles, CA

Ahead of 2019’s latest sequel to The Terminator (1984), Terminator: Dark Fate fans may want to revisit some of the notable locations featured in the original films. For those who’ve missed the first film, it stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular cyborg assassin who is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of humanity’s future savior.

Although all this sounds grim, one of The Terminator ‘s most iconic filming locations is also one of Los Angeles’ most beautiful vistas. In the film, Schwarzenegger arrives in 1984 and emerges from the Griffith Observatory , located in LA’s Griffith Park. Nice night for a walk, eh?

Baseball Diamond – Field of Dreams | Dyersville, IA

“If you build it, they will come” is beyond apropos for this site. Yes, Universal Pictures actually built the baseball diamond for Field of Dreams (1989). Located just outside Dyersville, Iowa, on farmland owned by two separate families, the field has certainly become a fun tourist stop.

In the ’90s, the Upper Deck Company hosted charity games featuring celebrities and Hall of Famers, and stars from the film — including Kevin Coster — played an exhibition match on the field to commemorate the film’s 25th anniversary. Additionally, in 2020, the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees played on the iconic diamond for the “MLB at Field of Dreams” event.

Steps & Rocky Statue – Rocky | Philadelphia, PA

Unlike other over-hyped sites that aren’t all that they’re cracked up to be — yes, that’s directed at you, Liberty Bell — the Rocky series has ties to two winning sites. Considered two of the most-visited tourist attractions in Philadelphia, the Rocky Statue and “Rocky Steps” complete any Insta post.

The Rocky Statue was actually created for the third installment in the series, but due to the famous running-up-the-stairs scene from the franchise, the statue has taken on a new life. The influence is so great, that VisitPhilly.com even calls climbing the stairs and striking that famous two-arms-raised victory pose a “rite of passage.”

Circus Liquor – Clueless | North Hollywood, CA

Unlike Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), hopefully, you don’t find yourself stranded — or, you know, mugged for your Alaia at gunpoint — when you visit this Clueless (1995) filming location. Located at 5600 Vineland Avenue, Circus Liquor is now a North Hollywood landmark.

While the flashing neon sign makes for a great photo opp, there isn’t much else to do in this run-of-the-mill plaza. As Cher would say, it’s a full-on Monet — “From far away, it’s okay, but up close, it’s a big old mess.”

RR Diner & The Great Northern – Twin Peaks | North Bend/Snoqualmie, WA

Featured prominently in David Lynch’s landmark TV series Twin Peaks , the Double R Diner is known for being “where pies go when they die.” In reality, Twede’s Cafe located in North Bend, Washington, does serve up some heavenly cherry pie — as well as a themed mural and souvenirs.

In the neighboring town of Snoqualmie, the show’s Great Northern hotel stands above a waterfall. Known as the Salish Lodge & Spa, the real-life hotel makes its own honey and offers a Twin Peaks -themed stay package, complete with a map of other locations fans can visit.

Nakatomi Plaza – Die Hard | Los Angeles, CA

In Century City, Los Angeles, California, the 34-story Fox Plaza skyscraper towers against the skyline. Aside from a few scenes portraying the infamous Christmas party, most of Die Hard (1988) was shot there, in what was portrayed as the fictional Nakatomi Plaza. Of course, a scale model was used to shoot scenes of the damaged skyscraper.

The building looks almost exactly as it did when the film was made, but there aren’t any official Die Hard tours, unfortunately. Not a John McClane fan? Fox Plaza was also featured in Fight Club (1999) as well as episodes of The X-Files and Brooklyn Nine-Nine .

Carrie Bradshaw’s Apartment – Sex and the City | New York, NY

If you agree with the masses that New York City is Sex and the City ‘s “fifth character,” then you probably can’t help but wonder… is Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment the sixth member of the ensemble? Contrary to what viewers are told, Carrie didn’t live on the Upper East Side for filming purposes.

The apartment — with its iconic stoop — stands in the West Village at 66 Perry Street. The apartment’s owners aren’t too thrilled with all the fanfare, roping off the stoop so gawkers can’t sit. Moreover, they have even gone so far as to ask Google to blur the building on “street view” to prevent any unwanted, would-be visitors.

Apartment Complex – Mulholland Dr | Los Angeles, CA

The fictitious Sierra Bonita apartment complex from David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr (2001) is located at 2900 Griffith Park Boulevard. Although it’s a source of horror in the film — what with the main characters finding a decomposing corpse there — the complex isn’t all that creepy in real life.

In fact, while working on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), several prominent Disney animators lived in the complex and reportedly based the dwarves’ cottage on the fairy-tale-like architecture. Mulholland Dr fans can also visit Pink’s Hotdogs in Hollywood and the titular street itself for more David Lynch-inspired thrills.

Cabazon Dinosaurs – Pee-wee’s Big Adventure | Cabazon, CA

Formerly called Claude Bell’s Dinosaurs, the Cabazon Dinosaurs from Tim Burton’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) are located just west of Palm Springs. Both the 65-foot-tall T-rex and the 150-foot-long Brontosaurus (Dinny) are visible from Interstate 10 — and for good reason too.

Claude Bell, who formerly worked as a sculptor for Knott’s Berry Farm theme park, created the dinosaurs to attract more patrons to his nearby restaurant. Bell called Dinny “the first dinosaur in history… to be used as a building.” Now, a so-called “creationist museum” has moved in at the site.

Grand Central Market – Blade Runner | Los Angeles, CA

Are you a replicant who has always wanted to replicate scenes from Blade Runner (1982)? Well, don’t fret. Although Ridley Scott shot most of the scenes featuring dystopian downtown Los Angeles on the Warner Bros. Studio backlot, a few memorable sequences were filmed on-location.

If you visit the Santee Alley at 317 South Broadway, you may recognize it from the chase scene featuring Deckard (Harrison Ford) and replicant Zhora (Joanna Cassidy). About a mile north, you can find yourself shoulder-to-shoulder with other replicants – er, tourists, in Grand Central Market.

Monk’s Diner – Seinfeld | New York, NY

Located at the corner of West 112th Street and Broadway, Tom’s Restaurant has been serving up diner fare since the 1940s. Although the family-owned restaurant was featured in the Suzane Vega song “Tom’s Diner” in 1987, it rose to pop culture fame thanks to Seinfeld (1989 – 1998).

In the show, the main cast hung out at Monk’s constantly, and all those exterior shots of Monk’s were really of Tom’s. Fans may be surprised by the interior — those scenes were filmed on a soundstage. Still, stop in and order a “big salad” to go.

Crain Communications Building – Adventures in Babysitting | Chicago, IL

The diamond-shaped, 41-story Crain Communications Building is undoubtedly a fixture of Chicago’s recognizable skyline. In the 1987 cult classic Adventures in Babysitting , the film’s climactic chase scene takes place on Michigan Avenue, in full view of the skyscraper.

Although it has frequently slipped into Chicago-based features, the building has a more obvious role — and takes a beating — in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). In 2017, a Los Angeles-based investment manager struck a $132 million deal to buy the building.

Point Dume – Iron Man and Planet of the Apes | Malibu, CA

Located on Malibu’s coast, Point Dume juts out over the Pacific Ocean. If you’ve never been to Malibu, you may still recognize this location from several blockbusters, including the sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes (1968).

In Apes , the Point’s cliff face is famously obscured by a matte painting of a destroyed Statue of Liberty, which seemingly washed ashore. In more recent years, Marvel fans will recognize Point Dume as the fictional location of Tony Stark’s seaside mansion in the Iron Man and Avengers films.

The Getty Museum – Star Trek: Into Darkness | Los Angeles, CA

There are plenty of reasons to visit The Getty Museum — art, culture, and Star Trek . In earlier iterations of the sci-fi series, the facade of the original StarFleet Academy was shot farther north at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant & Japanese Garden.

Thanks to J.J. Abram’s more recent installments in the Star Trek series, StarFleet Academy set up shop at The Getty Museum in LA proper. While in the Hollywood area, Trekkies may also want to visit Bronson Canyon and Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park .

Hook & Ladder Company 8 Firehouse – Ghostbusters | New York, NY

The Hook & Ladder Company 8 is a fire station in New York City, located in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan at 14 North Moore Street. The firehouse’s exterior became famous after being featured in the supernatural comedy Ghostbusters (1984).

In an early draft of the script, writers envisioned the Ghostbusters crew as a public service of sorts, like a fire department. Reportedly, Dan Aykroyd knew about the firehouse and suggested it. Today, visitors are free to snap pictures of the location, which embraces its Ghostbusters lineage.

Randy’s Donuts – Mars Attacks | Los Angeles, CA

Randy’s Donuts — a building topped with a giant version of the much-loved breakfast item — is a great example of novelty architecture, which was popular in Southern California from the 1920s through the 1950s. The drive-in donut shop has been featured in everything from Iron Man 2 (2010) to Arrested Development (2003 – 2019).

However, its use in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (1996) is one of the most memorable. Despite being an LA landmark since 1953, Burton transports the donut shop to the Midwest in his alien attack satire.

The Swan House – The Hunger Games | Atlanta, GA

May the location scouting be ever in your favor — especially if you’re shooting a project in the Atlanta area, where the film industry is booming. Luckily, the odds were good for the folks behind The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) when they stumbled upon the city’s Swan House.

Although the 1920s-era house is usually home to the Atlanta Historical Society, it became a temporary home for Hunger Games ‘ villain President Snow (Donald Sutherland). The crew found ways to protect the historic home while filming and even built sets on the surrounding grounds.

Katz’s Deli – When Harry Met Sally | New York, NY

Katz’s Delicatessen is accustomed to film-lovers and neighborhood regulars stopping by. In the deli’s 131-year history, no film has made more of an impact on the restaurant than When Harry Met Sally … (1989). Famously, Meg Ryan’s Sally shows Billy Crystal’s Harry how easy it is for women to fake having a good time in bed.

Today, Katz’s proudly hangs a sign over the booth the duo filmed the scene in and even hosted a reenactment contest to honor the film’s 30th anniversary. And if you can’t have what she’s having, you could always go for the pastrami on rye.

Timberline Lodge – The Shining | Mount Hood, OR

The Timberline Lodge is located on Mount Hood, about 60 miles east of Portland, Oregon. The lodge was part of a Works Progress Administration project during the late 1930s. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt performed a dedication for the lodge.

These days, the Timberline Lodge rakes in upwards of 2 million visitors a year. Look familiar? It served as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s film version of The Shining (1980). Fun Fact: The Overlook’s interior was inspired by a hotel in Yosemite National Park .

Public Garden Bench – Good Will Hunting | Boston, MA

Sure, 500 Days of Summer (2009) might have an iconic bench scene, but Good Will Hunting (1997) has the iconic bench scene to end all bench scenes (if that’s the kind of thing you’re into tallying). As you might recall, Robin Williams and Matt Damon’s characters share an emotional moment on the famous bench.

Located in Boston’s Public Garden, the bench is an easy site to check off your list. Following Williams’ sudden passing in 2014, Bostonians turned the bench into a memorial for the late actor. There’s even a petition to add a bronze statue of Williams to the site.

Mandrake Falls’ Main Street – Mr. Deeds | New Milford, CT

Mr. Deeds (2002) starring Adam Sandler is set in the small town of Mandrake Falls, New Hampshire. However, most of the sequences that take place in that scenic New England setting were actually shot in New Milford, Connecticut.

Comparable to Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A., New Milford’s Bank Street and nearby town green are the epitome of small town America. All signs of filming have been removed but visitors can still stroll down the quaint streets and even catch a movie at the historic Bank Street Theater.

Amity Island – Jaws | Martha’s Vineyard, MA

Known for its white sand beaches and deadly shark attacks, the fictional Amity Island from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) is located off the coast of New England. Although Amity is based on Long Island in the book, the film was shot at the quaint vacation spot known as Martha’s Vineyard.

Located off the coast of Massachusetts, Martha’s Vineyard is a much quieter alternative to the Cape. The crew decided filming on the less-crowded island would be easier than setting up shop on a heavily-populated Montauk beach.

Thelma & Louise Point – Thelma & Louise | Dead Horse Point State Park, Moab, UT

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the ending of Thelma & Louise (1991) — or stumbled upon a gif about it — then skip this one for now. At the end of the film, the iconic duo make a last ditch effort to escape the law — and drive right off a cliff, hands clasped.

Although Thelma and Louise wonder if they’ve driven all the way to the Grand Canyon, the scene was shot in Utah’s Dead Horse Point State Park. For a small fee, visitors can stand thousands of feet above the Colorado River. Google Maps even marks the location as Thelma & Louise Point.

Sandstone Buttes – Forrest Gump | Monument Valley, UT

After enduring some real heartbreak, Tom Hanks’ titular character in Forrest Gump (1994) just starts running — and doesn’t stop. Starting in Greenbow, Alabama, he sets off aimlessly on a cross-country marathon. Over three years, he garners a legion of followers, not to mention the beard to end all beards.

And then, one day, Forrest decides he’s done and just stops running. Behind him, you can see the backdrop of Monument Valley with its giant sandstone buttes. Of course, if you visit Monument Valley Park, you will recognize it from almost every old Western film, plus Back to the Future Part III (1990), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and more.

Goonies’ House – The Goonies | Astoria, OR

Located at 732 Duane Street in Astoria, Oregon, the house from the cult classic film The Goonies (1985) is listed as “Closed” on Yelp. In fact, while visitors can stop by the iconic house, they might find it completely unrecognizable. No, it hasn’t been remodeled. The owners just don’t want visitors snapping photos.

To dissuade gawkers, the owners of the “Goonies’ House” have covered the building in blue tarps, obscuring the facade. A sign posted near the driveway warns tourists to turn around — or the police will be called. Although Goonies never say die, it’s still a good idea to be cautious if you visit this location.

Endor – Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi | Redwood National Park, CA

Although giant redwoods may feel familiar to Californians and Pacific Northwesterners, Star Wars creator George Lucas thought the immense trees looked otherworldly. So alien, in fact, that a grove in Redwood National Park in California served as the setting for the forest moon of Endor.

Home to the teddy bear-like Ewoks, Endor is probably one of the most inviting planets in the Galaxy — by Star Wars ‘ standards — and the park is much the same. You won’t see any filming relics in this Humboldt County park, but it’s still fun to picture speeder bikes whizzing between the redwood trunks and AT-STs falling victim to Ewok-made snares.

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Film Sets You Can Plan Your Vacation Around

Think about how cool it would be to visit Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine. Or to see the exact areas of Martha's Vineyard where Steven Spielberg filmed  Jaws . Or, maybe your dream is to play Rocky Balboa and climb all 68 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, then triumphantly raise your arms in victory when you finally reach the top.

If checking out any those iconic film sets you can visit sounds like the perfect road trip, let this list be your guide. We ranked the coolest movies sets and film sites around the world, locations that you can plan your vacation around, or perhaps even make the focal point of your trip.

While most films are shot on studio lots, these famous film locations are open to the public.

This list can put you in Dr. Richard Kimble’s shoes before he jumped into the Tennessee River. It can take you to Iowa, where you can stand of the same baseball field as Kevin Costner and say, “If you build it, he will come. The list can also show you exactly where to grab a slice at Mystic Pizza.

So, if you’re a movie fan who always wanted to check where some of the greatest films were actually shot, this list of the coolest movie locations from around the world is a good place to start. Also, be sure to upvote your favorites. 

The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit - Middle-Earth

Harry Potter - London Area

Pirates of the Caribbean - Wallilabou Anchorage

Star Wars - Luke's Island

If you've seen Episode VII: The Force Awakens , you know Luke Skywalker pops up in the final scene, chilling on a picturesque island. But did you know that you, too, can dramatically turn around while standing atop that very same rock in the sea? Skellig Michael  is an Irish island in County Kerry, and also a  UNESCO World Heritage Site. Though u ninhabited today, it was once the site of a sixth-century Christian monastery.

The Shining - The Overlook Hotel

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is hired as a winter caretaker for a secluded hotel in Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece The Shining . The only hitch is that the hotel has a tendency to drive its winter inhabitants totally crazy due to its isolation. Kubrick used the real Timberline Lodge in Oregon for the film's locale. Its doors are opened to fans of the film year-round. The lodge is now a National Historic Landmark, and it boasts the longest-running ski season in the United States. Timberline also provides plenty of fun activities, including music performances and dining for its guests, to ensure that cabin fever is not an issue like it was for Torrance.  A visitor even captured what he thinks is the image of a ghost standing on the main staircase.

The Stanley Hotel- where Stephen King found the inspiration to write announced in 2015 its plans to build a horror-themed museum on site. The Stanley Film Center, backed by Simon Pegg & Elijah Wood, will also build a working production studio and sound stage for filming, producing, and editing new movies, as well as a film archive center, an auditorium, and traveling film exhibits.  

Jaws - Amity Island

The Hunger Games - District 12

Care to see the area where Katniss and Gale hunted in the blockbuster film The Hunger Games ? Check out Pisgah National Forest  in North Carolina, the beautiful, lush landscape surrounds the dystopian world of the film's District 12.

Star Wars - Tatooine

The Goonies - Goonie Rock

The 1980s coming of age comedy Goonies was primarily filmed in various locations throughout scenic Astoria, OR. The actual house where Mikey and Brand lived, the house that was being seized by the bank and launched the whole expedition to find the pirate treasure, is a real house. It is located at 368 38th Street. "Goonie Rock," where the iconic concluding beach scenes were shot, will require a few hours of driving, heading south to Cannon Beach, OR and Haystack Rock.

Batman - Gotham City

Gone With the Wind - The Mill

Surprisingly, not a single scene from Gone With the Wind is shot in Georgia, where the movie takes place. Unfortunately, there is only one location left from the Hollywood classic, and you'll have to head over to Little Rock, AR to see it. Pugh's Old Mill serves as the mill in the opening scene of the southern drama.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Devil's Tower

Rocky - Philadelphia Museum of Art

Schindler's List - Plaszow Labor Camp

Mystic Pizza - Mystic Pizza

Field of Dreams - Baseball Field

Scream - Stu's House

What's your favorite scary movie? If it's  Scream , you need to donate to this Kickstarter and get your official invite to Stu's house. Fans have the opportunity to watch Wes Craven's 1996 masterpiece in Stu's house in Tomales, CA, the site of the film's murder-filled, party climax. 

Tickets are still available for $200 through July 25, 2018 . The screenings take place from October 26 - 28. 

A League of Their Own - League Stadium

The Fugitive - Cheoah Dam

The Blues Brothers - The Mall

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Lists that explore the creative, visually stunning, most unforgettable worlds in film, TV, literature, comics, video games, and other media.

30 Most Famous Filming Locations in NYC to Visit

Looking to visit some of the most famous filming locations in NYC on your visit? Whether you’re a movie buff, a diehard fan, or someone who just enjoys visiting movie locations – this guide is for you!

New York City is a hub for creativity and entertainment, with some of the world’s most iconic films and television series being shot on its bustling streets and at some of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. From Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge, New York’s landmarks have become synonymous with countless classic movies and tv shows.

Whether you’re a cinephile or just looking for an adventure in the city, exploring these famous filming locations in New York City can be a thrilling experience. In this guide, we’ll take you on a tour of some of New York City’s most recognizable movie sets and reveal behind-the-scenes stories that will leave you spellbound. So grab your camera and let’s hit the streets for some of the most iconic New York City filming locations!

And who knows, you might even encounter a New York City filming location in action! There are always productions filming all over the city from the most popular shows on TV now based in NYC, to sequels, to the next big movie or tv show!

Iconic NYC Filming Locations

Fdny ladder 8.

Address: 14 N Moore St, New York, NY

FDNY Ladder 8 is an iconic firehouse that is well known for its friendly firefighters as well as its apparel shop. However, Hook & Ladder Company 8 is best known for being one of the primary New York City movie locations for Ghostbusters , as the firehouse served as the titular group’s main headquarters.

Located in TriBeCa, it’s a great spot in NYC to visit if you’re a diehard fan of the 1984 classic and want to take some memorable pictures, especially since this active firehouse pays homage to Ghostbusters with signs and painted sidewalks.

This FDNY Ladder is active and were some of the first responders on 9/11. Please just keep that in mind and stay out of their way when visiting this iconic filming location in NYC. They are friendly and used to visitors, but use your best judgment to not get in the way if there are any emergencies.

Friends’ Apartment Building

Address: 90 Bedford St, New York, NY

Located in Greenwich Village , the Friends Apartment is one of the most popular New York City filming locations thanks to the highly iconic 90s show for which it was used for ( Friends )!

For fans of the series (and there are plenty out there), this spot is a dream come true as you will get to see the exact building used for the exterior shots that opened each episode.

There’s also a popular café right below the apartment called Little Owl , which is a perfect restaurant for grabbing dinner, once you’re done taking pictures!

Carrie Bradshaw’s Brownstone

Address: 66 Perry St, New York, NY

As far as popular New York TV series go, there’s no television show more quintessential than Sex and the City . And if you just so happen to be in the city, the apartment for the show’s main heroine, Carrie Bradshaw, is also located in Greenwich Village (not too far from Friends Apartment) on a residential block and is pretty easy to get to.

Given its huge popularity as a tourist attraction, the owners have since chained the main stoop off from visitors–but it’s still one of the most worthwhile filming locations in New York City to visit, if you’re a big fan of the HBO drama series or looking to check out out some of the reboot And Just Like That filming locations .

• Grand Central Terminal

Address: 89 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017

A historical landmark with astonishing architecture—Grand Central Terminal is one of the most famous filming locations in NYC and has served as a momentary backdrop for a large array of popular films.

Such films embedded in the station’s history include Men in Black 2, Midnight Run, Superman: The Movie, North by Northwest, The Fisher King, Carlito’s Way, Hackers , and many more not to mention popular television series like the original Gossip Girl .

Come visit this beautiful New York attraction and pass through the same walls that so many fictional heroes, cops, and gangsters have been racing across for decades!

• The Plaza Hotel

Address: 768 5th Ave, New York, NY 10019

This 5 -star hotel, known as The Plaza , has not only hosted a lot of world leaders and high profile celebrities but many movies as well.

The most notable one is a filming location for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York where Macaulay Culkin’s character Kevin resides in throughout most of the film. Donald Trump, the owner of the hotel at the time, approved of the film being shot here under one condition—that he’d be included in the film. So, if you ever wondered how the famed personality and disgraced former President earned his cameo—that’s how.

Other notable films shot at The Plaza include North by Northwest , Sleepless in Seattle , and The Great Gatsby .

• New York Public Library Main Branch

Address: 476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018

Located at Bryant Park— the New York Public Library Main Branch is one of the most noteworthy movie locations in NYC, not just for its film history, but for its breathtaking exterior (and interior) design as well.

This library has hosted a long list of films in its day including Spider-Man (2002), Breakfast at Tiffany’s , 13 Going on 30 , The Day After Tomorrow as well as the aforementioned Ghostbusters (1984) as the titular group encounter their first ghost at this library.

The New York Public Library is a great spot to visit in general, but for film buffs especially since many of the most famous New York movies are filmed here!

Address: 205 E Houston St, New York, NY 10002

This legendary diner has been serving classic deli sandwiches for decades and is well known for its generous portion sizes of pastrami.

But apart from their food, Katz Deli is also one of most well-known New York City filming locations out there due to so many classic films being shot here like Donnie Brasco , Enchanted , and We Own the Night .

And the most memorable of movie scenes to ever be shot here and one of the most famous New York City filming locations has got to be the scene from When Harry Met Sally, where the titular heroine acts out a fake orgasm. A scene that will surely go down as one of the most famous scenes in film history! In fact, this New York City filming location is so legendary that they have a sign hanging above the table to let you know which table that scene happened at.

• Coney Island

Address: 1208 Surf Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11224  

Coney Island has not only served as a key attraction for tourists but also one of the most essential New York City movie locations. Thanks to its memorable seaside view, amusement park, and boardwalk—Coney Island serves as the perfect backdrop for any genre.

Psychological drama, comedy, action, crime-thrillers, you name it. Some of the most famous movies filmed in Coney Island include Requiem for a Dream , The Warriors , Brooklyn , Men in Black 3 , The Wiz, and Brighton Beach Memories . All of which are great Brooklyn movies worth checking out before your next visit to Coney Island.

And for fans of the TV series Mr. Robot , it’s worth noting that the secret society that protagonist Elliot joins uses Coney Island’s Eldorado Arcade as their main hideout!

• 5th Avenue – Tiffany & Co.

Address: 727 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10022

You may have heard of the classic 1961 rom-com known as Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring the iconic Audrey Hepburn. But what you may not know is that the titular location for which the film was shot at, Tiffany & Co. Store, is still up and running on Fifth Avenue with its lustrous exterior design, it’s no wonder Tiffany’s flagship store was used for this movie.

Other famous films that were shot at this high-end jewelry shop include Sweet Home Alabama and Sleepless in Seattle !

• Empire State Building

Address: 20 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001

Out of all the movie locations in NYC, none are more synonymous with the city itself than the Empire State Building! And it should go without saying many climactic scenes throughout movie history have taken place at the famous landmark.

It’s been featured in films like  Superman II as well as the previously mentioned Sleepless in Seattle . Not to mention, it was one of the many filming locations for Elf in New York City too, one of the best Christmas movies set in NYC !

But of course, the most famous scene shot at the Empire State Building would go to 1933’s  King Kong , where the iconic primate climbs to the top of the building during his climactic rampage through the city. This movie would do so well, it would spawn a dozen other films based on the same story and there’s even a tribute to King Kong when you visit the Empire State Building ! 

• Times Square

The intersection of Seventh Avenue, 42nd Street, and Broadway, New York, NY 10036

Like the Empire State Building— Times Square is one of the most famous filming locations in NYC and serves as a great setting thanks to its mesmerizing lighting and intoxicating billboards.

Many of the greatest New York films contain scenes that were shot here such as Taxi Driver, Big, Birdman, The Devil Wears Prada , as well as Jerry McGuire . There’s even a trippy scene from 2002’s Vanilla Sky which shows Tom Cruise running through an eerily empty Times Square. This was a once in lifetime opportunity for the film crew who had special permission to shut down the area, so you’ll likely never see Times Square this empty outside of this film unless you were here in March 2020.

• Radio City Music Hall

Address: 1260 6th Ave, New York, NY 10020

Radio City Music Hall has been featured in many well-known films ( Rosemary’s Baby, Rocky III, Annie ), but none greater than the 1972 Crime-drama The Godfather ! It’s outside this location, we see the Michael Corleone and Kay exiting out of—having just watched The Bells at St Mary’s.

Unlike many filming locations in New York City, this legendary theater has been around since 1932 and still stands as one of the largest indoor theaters to date. It’s especially worth visiting after you’ve seen the film, as you’ll notice the building looks nearly the same now (over five decades later) as it did then!

• Rockefeller Center

Address: 45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111

One of the most famous and recognizable New York City filming locations, Rockefeller Center is not only a great spot for photos—but movies as well.

Some film buffs out there may have been able to spot Rockefeller Center in films like Elf , John Wick 2 , and Midnight Cowboy . And even TV shows like Empire and Marvel’s Hawkeye have scenes shot at this landmark. Not to mention the comedy tv series 30 Rock , which was even set here.

The center also serves as the background for the very heartfelt mother-son reunion at the end of Home Alone 2 .

• Central Park

Address: 59th Street to 110th Street (Between 8th and 5th Ave), New York, NY

Out of all the New York City movie locations, Central Park has got to be one of the most popular spots for filmmakers to shoot scenes at, and naming every film shot at this location would be a daunting task to say the least.

But some of the most famous and noteworthy movies were shot here include Spider-Man 3, When Harry Met Sally, Wall Street, Léon: The Professional, The Avengers, Kramer v. Kramer, Big Daddy, Maid in Manhattan, Elf, Night at the Museum and Serendipity .

That’s right, Central Park can be spotted in every single one of these films (and many more) not even including the countless television series!

• American Museum of Natural History

Address: 200 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024

With its rich exhibits, and its fascinating collection of fossils and bones—the American Museum of Natural History serves as one of the best movie locations in NYC to make film magic.

The historic museum has been making cameos all throughout movie history, spanning numerous decades.

The museum can be seen in films like Malcolm X, Splash, Manhattan , and Bringing Up Baby . There’s a particularly funny scene in the screwball comedy, Bringing Up Baby, where one of the dinosaur skeletons fall during an interaction between the two leads (Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.)!

Also, the movie Night at the Museum is entirely set in the American Museum of Natural History and many of the exterior scenes were filmed here while the rest was filmed in a set.

• Brooklyn Bridge

Used to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn together—the Brooklyn Bridge is not only a great place to take memorable photos, but is also one of the most ideal filming locations in New York City given its incredible view.

The Brooklyn Bridge has made brief (and extended) appearances in Donnie Brasco , The French Connection, Sophie’s Choice , and Marathon Man . The bridge also appears briefly in the film I Am Legend before its very sudden collapse—marking a very dark chapter in Will Smith’s character’s life!

Not to mention, this is one of the most famous Brooklyn filming locations for TV series too, like the iconic scene in Sex and the City where Miranda and Steve meet halfway on the bridge to determine their future together.

• Statue of Liberty

Chances are—if you haven’t seen or visited the Statue of Liberty in person , you’ve most likely seen it numerous times in both movies and television. In fact, showing a decapitated lady liberty is a popular way for filmmakers to signal to the audience that the city has collapsed—with Cloverfield and Escape from New York being clear examples.

Or as a romantic date idea in the movie Hitch , where Will Smith’s character takes Eva Mendes to Ellis Island on jet skis, but totally backfires.

But one of the most memorable cameos that the statue has made in a film would have to be in 1968’s Planet of the Apes —which has become one of the most quoted and iconic scenes in movie history!

• Tom’s Restaurant

Address: 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025

Every 90s sitcom has that one iconic hangout spot for which the main friend group frequents. For Friends , it was Central Perk. And for  Seinfeld , it was Monk’s Cafe! While the café’s name may have been fictional, Tom’s Restaurant is very real and is one of the most famous filming locations in NYC as its exterior was used while shooting the show.

Being one of the primary locations for an acclaimed series, it’s only right that fans make time to visit this spot and admire its glory!

• The Unisphere

Between Grand Central Pkwy and, Van Wyck Expy, 11354

Among all of the New York City filming locations—The Unisphere is a very popular when it comes to Marvel. It’s been used in the background of movies like  Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger , and Spider-Man: Homecoming . 

It has also shown up in TV shows like  King of Queens  as well as  CSI: NY .

However, the globe’s most notable appearance is in the original  Men in Black , as the Unisphere can be spotted during the film’s epic climax where Agents J and K try to take down a big bug monster! 

Hip-hop fans will also recognize the globe in legendary Brooklyn hip-hop artist , The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems” music video.

• 7B Horseshoe Bar AKA Vazacs

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Address: 108 Avenue B, New York, NY 10009

A unique dive bar located in East Village—7B Horseshoe Bar is one of the most well-known New York City movie locations (particularly among locals) thanks to its jukebox and punk rock aesthetic. And for the movie and TV buffs out there, you may know 7B from its notable film cameos throughout the years!

That’s right, the bar has popped up in legendary classics like  The Godfather II , as well as 80s hits like  Crocodile Dundee , and T he Verdict .

And for  Jessica Jones fans, the bar serves as a stand in for Luke Cage’s bar which shows up in the pilot!  

• Washington Square Park

Washington Square, New York, NY 10012

It’s hard to talk about great movie locations in NYC without mentioning the highly popular Washington Square Park—a lively park that’s perfect for people watching as well as movie scenes.

Everything from action films like Avengers: Infinity War , to black comedies like Inside Llewyn Davis have been shot here. And of course, we got mention Barefoot in the Park which delivers the promise of its title in the film’s climax at Washington Square Park.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel , one of the most iconic New York shows in recent memory, used the park for a scene in its first season where the heroine is called up to speak during a Jane Jacob’s rally!  

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Address: 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028

Being that The Met is one of the most famous filming locations in NYC, we got to mention this rich museum of art. This massive museum has made many guest appearances in films like The Nanny Diaries, Hitch, When Harry Met Sally, and A Perfect Murder .

And the central heist from Ocean’s 18 is also shot at the Met.

It’s also worth mentioning, the popular teen drama series Gossip Girl made frequent use of the museum’s steps as the sitting spot for the cool students!

• Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Heights is one of the best NYC neighborhoods to stroll through on a nice day and is also ripe for good filmmaking.

The neighborhood has shown up in gangster flicks like The Departed as well as dance dramas a like Saturday Night Fever . And the home used for the Castorini family’s townhouse in the romantic-comedy Moonstruck is located in Brooklyn Heights (19 Cranberry Street).

And on the TV side—iconic series like Boardwalk Empire and Billions have also made frequent use of this neighborhood!

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Staten Island, NY

The suspension bridge known as Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island) offers some of the best views in the city and it’s very shocking that the bridge hasn’t been used in more films.

But the famed bridge can be cited in films such as The Usual Suspects as well as previously mentioned Saturday Night Fever which has a very memorable scene by the bridge where the Tony character (played by John Travolta) asserts to Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) that a man was buried in the cement there!

• Flatiron Building

Address: 175 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010

Formerly known as the Fuller Building—Flatiron Building is quite an achievement of New York architecture and it feels almost criminal to not include in a Manhattan centered movie. The New York skyscraper has made its way into movies like Armageddon, As Good As It Gets , and even Godzilla .

The Flatiron Building also made appearances throughout Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy in which it was used as the Daily Bugle!

• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Address: 1071 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128

Another one of the great filming locations in New York City would have to be the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which thanks to its gorgeous interior and exterior design—lends itself greatly to moviemaking.

Some movies where you can spot the museum are Three Days of the Condor , the 2000’s rendition of Hamlet as well as the previously mentioned films Manhattan and Men in Black. The museum also appears in the second season of the much-underrated TV series Person of Interest !

• Queensboro Bridge

Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, New York, NY 10044

With its beautiful (almost somber) view, Queensboro Bridge serves as one of the best movie locations in NYC for more introspective and meditative scenes. The bridge has shown up in the movies The Dark Knight Rises, The Godfather, Anger Management , as well as the recent smash hit Spider-Man: No Way Home .

The Queensboro Bridge was also used for one of 1979’s Manhattan most iconic scenes where the two leads (Diane Keaton, Woody Allen) are seen in the park just below the bridge!

Not to mention, this is the bridge Kevin crosses on his way from the airport to the city in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York .

Macy’s Herald Square

Address: 151 W 34th St., New York, NY 10001

Known as the largest department store in America—the Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square is a very famous NYC landmark and has shown up in a ton of movies throughout the years.

Movies like Radio Days, Miracle on 34th Street, King Kong , and Ocean’s 11 have all been filmed at this department store.

This Macy’s even shows up in Kanye West’s music video for his 2005 song “Make Em Say” where the artist plays a homeless man enjoying the empty mall afterhours!

• The Dakota Building

Address: 1 W 72nd St, New York, NY 10023

The Dakota Building (AKA the Dakota) is one of the most famous filming locations in NYC (as well as infamous). While the building may forever be linked to the tragic passing of John Lennon, the landmark is also remembered for the many movies that were filmed here.

Some notable ones include the previously mentioned paranormal films Ghostbusters and Rosemary’s Baby —as well as Woody Allen’s 1986 classic Hannah and Her Sisters .

• Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is one of the most impressive venues in the US and has hosted performances for many art forms including music, dancing, and of course—cinema! The illustrious list of films shot here include (but not limited to) Ghostbusters, While We’re Young, Black Swan, Sweet Home Alabama , as well as one of the great Hollywood satires— The Producers !

Legendary Filming Locations in NYC (Summary):

• FDNY Ladder 8 
• Friends’ Apartment Building
• Carrie Bradshaw’s Brownstone
• Verrazano Narrows Bridge
• Macy’s Herald Square

About the Author

Eric Garner is a Brooklyn-based writer who was raised down South who loves talking about film, TV, hip-hop, and fashion.

Eric Garner is a Brooklyn-based writer who was raised down south who loves talking about film, TV, hip-hop, fashion and sharing some great recommendations around Brooklyn.

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13 'Twilight' film locations in the Pacific Northwest you can visit in real life

With a new companion book coming out on Aug. 4, "Twilight" fans will once again visit the moody, mysterious town of Forks, Washington — this time from the perspective of Edward Cullen, the iconic (and dreamy) centenarian vampire. While Stephenie Meyer's best-selling series takes place in the Olympic Peninsula, nothing was filmed in the area for the movie adaptations. In fact, only two major locations were used in the state of Washington — and not a single scene was shot in the real-life town of Forks . However, if you visit today, you'll see an old, red truck proudly parked in front of the city's chamber of commerce.

Though the films pay attention to Washingtonian culture with references to "Vitamin R" and Red Vines, the locations used to bring Forks and La Push to life on the big screen were actually filmed in Oregon and British Columbia. If you're feeling inspired by the new retelling of this supernatural story and want to visit Bella's old stomping grounds, here's a list of the most popular "Twilight" film locations you can still visit in the Pacific Northwest.

Edward's Backyard

The other noteworthy "Twilight" scene shot in-state features Cape Horn, WA. When Edward takes Bella on a tree climbing/flying adventure out his bedroom window, they're really soaring through treetops in Skamania County. While you can't have the same "spider monkey" view as Edward and Bella, you can see the Columbia River - closer to the ground - from the Cape Horn Overlook.

La Push Beach

"It's La Push, baby!" Except it's not La Push — it's Cannon Beach in Oregon. And after the first film, the Quileute reservation beach was recreated again at Incinerator Rock in Long Beach, B.C., for "New Moon".

Dress Shopping

St. Helens, OR was used as a stand-in for Port Angeles and its shops. If you look through the shop window during the prom dress scene, you'll see the St. Helens city hall, which was also used in Disney's "Halloweentown".

Vampire Baseball

When the Cullen crew plays thunder baseball, there's a huge waterfall shown in the background. While Washington certainly has its share of amazing falls , the waterfall seen on screen is Oregon's Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

Forks Bridge

At the very beginning of the first film, Bella and her dad Charlie Swan are seen driving across a dramatic, long bridge and into the town of Forks. You can drive across the same bridge though, in reality, it's nowhere near Forks. It's called The Bridge of Gods, and it crosses the Columbia River and spans the Washington and Oregon border.

Forks Police Station

Vernonia, OR likely has a stronger claim to be the official "Twilight" town, as two of the city's main intersections were used in establishing shots for Forks. And the Wauna Federal Credit Union in town was used as Chief Swan's police station.

Forks High School

The exterior for the home of the Spartans, as well as the infamous school parking lot scene where Edward saves Bella's life, was shot at Kalama High School in Kalama, Washington. However, after the first film, the franchise was shot in the Vancouver, B.C. area. Forks High School was recreated at David Thompson Secondary School for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and the graduation scene in the school gym was shot at Como Lake Middle School for "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse."

Hunting Grounds

The thick, moss-covered forest in the film opening looks just like the Hoh Rainforest, but it's another Oregon dupe. These chase scenes with the deer were filmed in Silver Falls State Park, about 20 miles away from Salem, OR.

The Carver Cafe

In the "Twilight" book, the Forks diner frequented by Bella and Chief Swan was called The Lodge, but the film used a locally-owned restaurant in Damascus, OR and didn't change the name. The Carver Cafe is still open today and cheekily advertises to "come get a bite."

The final scene in "Twilight" — a Monte Carlo-themed dance with an incredibly romantic, twinkling gazebo — was shot at the View Point Inn in Corbett, OR. Unfortunately, the building suffered a fire that took the second floor in 2011, but as the inn is on the National Register of Historic Places, there's hope in the Portland community that it can be restored.

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25 Famous Filming Locations In London That You’re Sure To Recognise

London looks best on the big screen, and so we've rounded up our favourite filming locations in the capital!

Our fair city has had its fair share of screen time and we’re not at all surprised – if you haven’t noticed, it looks pretty good on camera. Chances are you’ve watched at least five of these films (if you haven’t, who even are you?) but the real question is, how many of these London filming locations have you actually visited? Time for a spot of set-jetting!

1. Love Actually

Of course we had to start with this one! If you head to Gabriel’s Wharf and sit on the bench directly in front of The Wharf restaurant, you’ll be sat in the exact same spot as Daniel and Sam when they talk about the ‘ total agony of being in love ’. Though the scene isn’t totally accurate (they ‘moved’ St. Paul’s Cathedral to make it appear nearer), it’s still a perfect place to go and sit if you’re feeling agonisingly in love with someone who doesn’t even know your name (it happens to the best of us, Sam).

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Over in Notting Hill (we’ll get to that particular film later), you’ll find the location of one of the film’s most iconic moments. Andrew Lincoln declaring his love for Keira Knightley via oversized flash cards may not have aged well – NOT OK ANDREW – but nevertheless, if you want to stand in the same place, head to St. Luke’s Mews. That hot pink house is the very one used for filming the now-contentious scene and is arguably one of the most famous filming locations in town.

You can also visit Selfridges on Bond Street , where Alan Rickman tries to buy a necklace from Rowan Atkinson. And of course you could visit Heathrow airport where the famous opening and closing scenes are filmed, but a trip to Heathrow isn’t recommended unless you actually have a plane to catch, or somebody to go and meet. If that is the case though, make sure you do it in true Love Actually style!

2. Harry Potter

If you’re potty about Potter, London is full of magical places for you to visit and plenty of filming locations too. Of course there’s platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station, but you already know that. Aside from posing in front of a brick wall, there are tons of other Pottery locations you can visit: the beautiful Leadenhall Market , which is the location they used for Diagon Alley; the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron, which is now an opticians in Bull’s Head Passage; Australia House, where they filmed the interior of Gringotts (though sadly you can only see it from the outside because the goblins won’t let you in); and, of course, London Zoo’s reptile house, if you fancy practising your parseltongue.

3. Four Weddings And A Funeral

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Hugh Grant, floppy hair, befuddled expression. It has to be a 90s London rom-com, right? In Four Weddings And A Funeral , you can catch him running along the South Bank, snogging Andie MacDowell outside his flat at 22 Highbury Terrace, or getting cold feet at Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great (named St Julian’s in the film) in Smithfield. Further out, you and your beau can recreate Charles and Carrie’s first night together at the far end of the Metropolitan line – Amersham is home to both The Kings Arms and the Crown Hotel, which combine to make ‘The Lucky Boatman’ in the film.

4. Shaun of The Dead

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Unfortunately you can’t head to The Winchester for a nice cold pint, because it’s no longer there. The old Duke of Albany in New Cross, which filled in for Shaun’s favourite pub in the film, has since been shut down and turned into flats. However, other spots from the film are still dotted around London, mainly in the Crouch End and Finchley areas: Broadway Fruiterers in Crouch End, the place where Shaun bought his mum some flowers; the local supermarket, Landis, which is actually an Asda in Park Royal; Foree Electronics where Shaun used to work, which is actually Garland Electronics in North Finchley; a nd Weston Park Grocery Store in Crouch End, which is where Shaun starts to notice bizarre headlines in the newspapers.

5. A Clockwork Orange

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Despite everyone in the film having northern accents, A Clockwork Orange was mostly filmed in London. Thamesmead, the grim housing estate where Alex DeLarge lived, is worth the trip if you’re a fan of the film, or even if you’re just a fan of really bleak and brutalist architecture (it also featured as a set for TV show Misfits ). Meanwhile, the Kings Road branch of McDonald’s was, in a former life, the setting for the scene in which Alex picks up two girls in the record store. The subway in the opening scene of the film, where the droogs attack the old tramp, can also be found over in Wandsworth. So, you know, whenever you fancy a really weird day out head to one of these filming locations…

6. Les Miserables

Though supposedly set in France, Les Miserables was actually filmed in the UK for the most part. Passed off as Paris in the movie, the Old Royal Naval College is where Lamarque’s funeral procession was held. The Greenwich location has been a very popular movie set and has featured in a range of films, including the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. France and the Caribbean? Quite the chameleon, this entry on this filming locations in London roundup.

7. Notting Hill

The famous blue door, which leads to the home of William Thacker aka Hugh Grant, can be found at 280 Westbourne Park Road. For a while the door was painted black because the owners didn’t like the attention their house was getting (I mean, who can really blame them?). However the door is now blue again, much to the pleasure of avid Notting Hill fans.

The Travel Book Company that William Thacker owned on Portobello Road never actually existed, but is now a souvenir shop called ‘Notting Hill’ (obviously…). There was a Travel Bookshop just off of Portobello Road, which William’s store in the film was based on, but it closed in 2011. Another bookshop took its place though and is called The Notting Hill Bookshop (again, obviously…). You can find it at 13 Blenheim Crescent.

Of course, there are plenty of other locations around London which feature in the well loved rom-com, including the Ritz hotel, where William manages to disguise himself as a Horse and Hound reporter. Up north, in Hampstead Heath, you can also visit the movie set within the movie set. Kenwood House is a hidden gem which is definitely worth a visit, even if you aren’t a Notting Hill fan – not that such a person exists, of course.

8. 28 Days Later

Pretty much a where’s where of famous London spots, is this one. Cillian Murphy, having awoken from his conveniently-timed coma, wanders across Westminster Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament, through Whitehall, up the Mall, into the City of London, back to Tottenham Court Road, to the statue of Eros, and on to Canary Wharf station. Phew!

9. A Hard Day’s Night

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For this joyous romp through a day in the life of The Beatles, the film makers got pretty creative with Marylebone Station, which features both as itself and Liverpool Lime Street station – a very short train ride indeed! Elsewhere, chase sequences were filmed around Notting Hill Gate, whilst Ringo’s solo adventure is a meandering one which takes him to Lancaster Road, the Putney Towpath, and the Turk’s Head pub in Twickenham.

10. A Fish Called Wanda

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Maida Vale is your first stop for dark comedy A Fish Called Wanda, for Michael Palin’s house is Aubrey House, on Maida Avenue. Many of the getaway scenes were filmed around Clerkenwell , whilst Mrs Coady’s house is at 69 Onslow Gardens in South Kensington. And finally, if it’s seduction you’re after, John Cleese’s character borrowed one of the luxury flats at New Concordia Wharf to impress Wanda – let’s hope you have more luck than he did…

11. An American Werewolf in London

You may not be fond of Tottenham Court Road station, but at least you’ve never been chased through it after dark by a bloodthirsty werewolf. Other featured locations include 64 Coleherne Road, where Daivd undergoes his transformation, and GAP on Piccadilly Circus, which was once the soft porn theatre known as Eros Cinema. Fun fact for you next time you go shopping there! It also recently feature in Luther: The Fallen Sun .

12. Paddington

View this post on Instagram A post shared by London Paddington (@london_paddington_station)

He’s named after the station, and even has a statue inside it, but Paddington isn’t the only train station to appear in Paddington . Marylebone makes another appearance on this list, standing in for the station frontage (as Paddington’s isn’t actually all that nice). Away from rail termini, you’ll find the Brown’s home on the very pretty Chalcot Crescent in Primrose Hill, whilst their local station ‘Westbourne Oak’ is actually a composite of Maida Vale and Little Venice , St. John’s Wood, and the disused Jubilee line site in Charing Cross (which has also seen screen time in Skyfall , to name just one other example). Finally, Gruber’s antique store is better known as Insta-friendly Alice’s Antiques on Portobello Road.

13. Withnail & I

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Sadly, most of the iconic London locations from this cult classic have been demolished over the years, including the ‘Mother Black Cap’ pub which stood on Tavistock Crescent in Notting Hill. However, its inspiration – Camden’s Black Cap and Mother Red Cap – is now The World’s End, which works nicely both for “ Two large gins. Two pints of cider. Ice in the cider ” and a cheeky trip to Underworld . Additionally, you can find Uncle Monty’s house at 35 Glebe Place in Chelsea and various other filming locations nearby.

14. Bridget Jones’ Diary

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The film zips all over town – and across the country, too – but most of the intrigue for film fans lies in Borough. Bridget’s flat is located above The Globe pub on Bedale Street, just around the corner from Borough Market . Depressing fact for you: it would have cost her roughly £190,000 when the film was released in 2001, but by 2016, estimates for a one-bedroom flat in the area had risen to £650,000. Now let’s face it – it’ll be over a mill. Fun!

View this post on Instagram A post shared by VISIT LONDON (@visitlondon)

Elsewhere in the area, you’ll find Daniel Cleaver’s flat on Clink Street, and the couple share their first kiss in Shad Thames (once known as the larder of London for all the food that was stored here). For Bridget and Mark’s first kiss, meanwhile, you’ll want to head to the Royal Exchange Buildings, opposite the Bank of England. We can’t guarantee the snow, though.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Melissa Dobson (@mel_bubbly)

Double Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger arguably gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen as the iconic Judy Garland in Judy . It was so good in fact that she bagged herself one of those aforementioned Oscars. The film itself was almost entirely filmed in and around the capital, with the stage door of the Noël Coward Theatre and the art deco interior of the Grade II-listed Banking Hall both featuring prominently.

Perhaps the filming location most used throughout the 2019 flick though is the Hackney Empire on Mare Street, which stands in as a replica to the famous London Hippodrome (now the casino) as it was in the Sixties.

16. The Bourne Ultimatum

Undoubtedly one of the best action series of all time, The Bourne Series has been filmed everywhere from Goa to Berlin and Madrid to Tangier in Morocco. The third instalment though was also filmed in our beloved London Town, with one incredible sequence where (spoiler alert), Paddy Considine’s character is shot in the head in Waterloo Station.

Other spots featured in the film include Hatton Garden, Charing Cross, Lower Marsh and even the five-star hotel Rosewood London.

17. V For Vendetta

Now if you haven’t heard of V For Vendetta , then you must have been living under a rock for almost 20 years. Based on a graphic novel by acclaimed writer Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd, it follows a freedom fighter who uses terrorist tactics to fight an oppressive society in a futuristic and totalitarian Britain.

Though much of the film was shot on sound stages, the scenes that took place in the abandoned London Underground were filmed at the disused Aldwych tube station, and for the final scene based at Westminster, the area from Trafalgar Square and Whitehall up to Parliament and Big Ben had to be closed for three nights from midnight until 5 am. This was the first time that this security-sensitive area had ever been closed for filming, so it’s a pretty special one!

18. James Bond (Skyfall, Spectre and No Time To Die)

Now who doesn’t love a Bond movie? After all, they’re pretty much ingrained into British culture as he’s a literary treasure, and it’s no surprise that the capital has been featured in pretty much all of them. While there are far too many locations here to mention in all 25 of them (and counting), filming locations of choice include the National Gallery in Skyfall , where 007 meets Q, and 1 Stanley Gardens, Notting Hill, W11 (AKA Bond’s flat in Spectre ).

In the most recent flick, 2021’s No Time To Die , Bond met M (Ralph Fiennes) just outside the Rutland Arms on the lower mall adjacent to Hammersmith Bridge – why not see if they can rustle you up martini afterwards?

19. About A Boy

About A Boy made waves on its release back in 2002 with both critics and punters alike. Starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz and a young, bowl cut-wearing Nicholas Hoult, it follows a rich, child-free and irresponsible Londoner (Grant) in his thirties who invents an imaginary son (Hoult) on his quest to find single women.

Obviously being based in London, there are plenty of filming locations you might recognise in this one, but London Zoo , the BFI IMAX in Waterloo, Regent’s Park and Hakkasan Hanway Place are probably the most famous.

20. The King’s Speech

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lord Davenport (@33portlandplace)

The King’s Speech swept the Oscars back in 2011, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor for Colin Firth. It chronicles the real life story of the future King George VI whose wife, her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, asks renowned speech therapist Lionel Logue to help cure him of his stammer.

As you can imagine with a film about the Royal Family, there are plenty of London locations used in this one. Battersea Power Station , 6 Fitzroy Square and the Royal Naval College all feature here, but perhaps the most interesting spot used in the film is 33 Portland Place W1, which doubles as the speech therapist’s office. You might recognise it, as it was also featured in Amy Winehouse’s Rehab music video – it also now is used as an exclusive party pad!

21. Run, Fat Boy, Run

2007’s Run, Fat Boy, Run was massively popular with viewers due to its likeable cast and funny gags. Londoners also might recognise plenty of spots used for filming here – Spitalfields Market , Dalston (which by the way was also used for the Britney Spears music video Criminal – who knew?) and Hampstead Heath all feature, but perhaps its most iconic location is a real East London staple.

Yep – we’re talking about Columbia Road . Famous for its signature flower market, there are numerous spots used in the film from this famous London thoroughfare, including one of our favourite pubs, The Royal Oak.

22. Kingsman: The Secret Service

View this post on Instagram A post shared by London Pub Facades (@londonpubfacades)

Speaking of pubs, our next entry on this list of the best filming locations in London has a great couple of scenes in one classic boozer of the river. Called The Black Prince in Kennington, it was featured in the scene where lead character Eggsy (Taron Egerton) has a run-in with a bunch of local thugs led by his stepfather, as well as the car scene afterwards.

Other locations of note used throughout the 2014 blockbuster include the Alexandra Road Estate in South Hampstead, Holborn Police Station, and of course, Savile Row.

23. Spider-Man: Far from Home

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tower Bridge (@towerbridge)

A late entry to this list of filming locations in London, but for good reason. Though the action hops across Europe on Spidey’s summer break, the climactic scenes take place in London – with a memorable finale unfolding inside Tower Bridge, on their terrifying glass floor , no less. Things should be a little less intense during your visit, hopefully.

24. Sherlock Holmes

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brompton Cemetery (@brompton_cemetery)

Our penultimate addition to this roundup of the best filming locations in London is another one of our literary heroes. Yep, that’s right – it’s none other than Sherlock Holmes himself. And while there have been plenty of adaptations over the years, we’re talking about the 2009 film and its sequel – Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows .

Victorian London features heavily in both, with locations including Brompton Cemetery, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Reform Club all being used throughout. St. Bartholomew The Great in Smithfield and the Freemasons’ Hall were also both seen too.

25. Napoleon

Directed by the legendary Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Alien, The Martian), Napoleon follows the story of Napoleon Bonaparte duh (Joaquin Phoenix) and his swift, ruthless climb to Emperor as well as his volatile relationship with his wife, the Empress Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby).

And how do we know this was filmed in London we hear you ask dear reader? Well – this author (who lives local to Greenwich) saw it being filmed at the Old Royal Naval College on his lunchtime run. Through watching the film, I can confirm that it was most likely the scene where poor old Marie Anoinette loses her noggin’ to the guillotine in the French Revolution in Paris .

So there you have it – a roundup of filming locations in London you really can’t miss. From Napoleon to The Bourne Ultimatum, there are a whole host of big blockbusters which have been shot here. See if you can spot your favourite scenes!

Also published on Medium .

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10 things we'd have wanted to see in back to the future 4 if it'd ever happened.

While it’s probably for the best that Back to the Future 4 seems unlikely, there are some interesting questions that a sequel could have explored.

• Back to the Future's legacy remains intact by quitting while it was ahead, unlike other 1980s classics with legacy sequels.
• A sequel could have explored new time periods, parodied different genres, adapted the stage musical, or focused on Doc's sons.
• A legacy sequel would have lost the 1980s charm of the original trilogy, but it could have been an interesting new era for the franchise.

Robert Zemeckis has stated that Back to the Future 4 will never happen, and while this is probably good news, there are some things which a sequel could have delivered. The Back to the Future trilogy came out between 1985 and 1990, and although there have been some calls for a sequel, many fans are content to leave it as it is. This makes Back to the Future a rare example of a franchise quitting while it was ahead, ensuring that it's legacy remains intact.

While Ghostbusters , Blade Runner , Top Gun and many more 1980s classics have received legacy sequels in recent years, Back to the Future is one franchise that seems untouchable. Legacy sequels and reboots have been hit-and-miss, so it may be for the best that Back to the Future remains in the past. Still, this means that all the untapped potential of a Back to the Future sequel will never be realized, and there are a few things that fans of Doc and Marty would have wanted to see.

11 Ways Back To The Future Was Almost Completely Different

10 another historic setting, back to the future has a lot of fun with its quirky period locations.

Back to the Future Part III uses its Western setting to parody Western movies. Using this same technique, Back to the Future 4 could try to parody other historical genres, like war movies or Roman epics.

Back to the Future contrasts the 1980s with the 1950s, and Part III goes even further by sending Doc and Marty to the Wild West in 1885. Any potential Back to the Future reboot or sequel could travel to a completely new time period. If the series stays in America, the characters could find themselves in the Prohibition era facing up to a Biff Tannen-esque Al Capone, or in the midst of the Revolutionary War.

Back to the Future Part III uses its Western setting to parody Western movies. Using this same technique, Back to the Future 4 could try to parody other historical genres, like war movies or Roman epics such as Gladiator and Ben-Hur. A lot of Back to the Future 's funniest moments come from the similarities and differences between different time periods, so more time travel would undoubtedly be a good thing.

9 A Musical Adaptation

A sequel could adapt the successful stage musical, rather than attempting a true remake.

There are many reasons why a Back to the Future remake shouldn't happen , but a musical adaptation could be one way of avoiding too many direct comparisons. Casting anyone else in the roles of Doc Brown and Marty McFly would be a recipe for disaster, and removing the 1980s charm would also alter the movie beyond recognition. However, this doesn't mean that a remake of the original is impossible.

A stage musical version of Back to the Future has received positive reviews in London and New York City , and there are plans for a North American tour. Back to the Future is just one of many movies which have become musicals , but it might be a good idea to go via the Mean Girls route and adapt the stage show back into a movie. This wouldn't please all fans of the original movie, but it would be a great way to reboot the story without directly copying it.

8 More On Jennifer's Story

Marty's girlfriend could have had a more active role.

Jennifer could have joined Marty and Doc, rather than staying behind like she does in Back to the Future Part III.

Marty McFly's love interest never gets as much attention as he or Doc do, and Back to the Future could have fixed this. Jennifer's main role in the movies is simply to be Marty's girlfriend. She gets a little more development in Part II when she wakes up in the future, but the fact that Back to the Future recast Jennifer twice just goes to show how her character isn't as important as any of the movie's other stars.

By the end of the Back to the Future trilogy, Jennifer has learned about Marty's time-traveling adventures with Doc, and she and Marty seem happy together. This means that her inclusion in any hypothetical Back to the Future 4 would be all but certain. She could have taken on a more active role as a character who shapes the plot for her own reasons. For example, she could have joined Marty and Doc, rather than staying behind like she does in Part III.

7 Tales From The Time Train

Comic books already provide the blueprint for a back to the future sequel.

Hardcore fans of Back to the Future will know that the story didn't end with Part III. Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale has continued the story in a series of comics made by IDW Publishing. One particularly interesting potential plot for Back to the Future 4 could have been taken from Tales From the Time Train, a series of six comics which follows Doc and the Brown family on an adventure through time.

Back to the Future Part III 's ending sends Marty and Doc in different directions. Marty stays in his own timeline with Jennifer while Doc flies off in the time-traveling train with his family. Tales From the Time Train shows the Brown family visiting the World's Fair in New York in 1939, but they are soon drawn into a dangerous plot featuring German spies. Tales from the Time Train has a Doctor Who feel, with Doc inadvertently becoming involved in a mysterious and deadly game of espionage.

6 Jules & Verne

Doc's children could be the ideal stars for a hypothetical legacy sequel.

Back to the Future 4 could have been like a road trip movie through time, with Jules and Verne taking the DeLorean for a joyride.

Whether or not Back to the Future should have taken inspiration from the comics, it definitely could have shifted focus toward Jules and Verne, Doc's two sons. They appear briefly at the end of Back to the Future Part III , but their future is left a mystery. Presumably, they travel off on several madcap adventures with their parents and their dog, Einstein. Back to the Future 4 could have seen what happened to them after they grew up.

Based on Doc's relationship with Marty, it's safe to assume that he would have been a loving father, but he probably would have thrust his two sons into some dangerous situations from time to time. It's unknown how this would have affected the boys growing up. Because there are two of them, Back to the Future 4 could have been like a road trip movie through time, with Jules and Verne taking the DeLorean for a joyride.

5 Marty's Life As A Father

Marty's life would have been different to the one that was shown in part ii.

Back to the Future Part II shows Marty as a father, but his life isn't as happy as he thought it would be. Fortunately, Marty turns down the street race that will cause most of his problems in Back to the Future Part III, so he avoids the troubled marriage and the unfulfilling career ahead of him. Part III ends with the hopeful message that Marty's future is still unwritten, and it can be anything he wants it to be.

This happy ending is an optimistic conclusion to the trilogy, but if Back to the Future 4 ever happened, then it would also be a great open-ended set-up for Marty and Jennifer to go on some more adventures. With their future uncertain, anything could happen to the two of them, and their children, if they still had them, likely wouldn't be very similar to the ones which appeared in Part II.

4 Robert Zemeckis As Director

Back to the future 4 should never happen without the original director's approval.

The only acceptable way for Back to the Future 4 to become a reality would be for Robert Zemeckis to change his mind about the project.

Robert Zemeckis won't allow a Back to the Future reboot to take place within his lifetime, and neither will his writing partner Bob Gale. Any attempt at continuing the franchise without either of both of these men would be met with disappointment from fans, and it would probably be little more than a hollow imitation of all the things which have made Back to the Future so popular for so many years.

The only acceptable way for Back to the Future 4 to become a reality would be for Robert Zemeckis to change his mind about the project. Perhaps if he came up with a new idea that was as exciting to him as the original trilogy, then he would want to revisit the story, but any reboot or sequel should be on his terms. Legacy sequels without the same team of creatives rarely if ever strike the correct tone.

3 A Look At The Different Timelines

Back to the future could provide the antidote to multiverse fatigue.

Doc explains in Back to the Future that altering the events of the past can send shockwaves through to the future, and that making different decisions sometimes creates alternate timelines which branch off from the reality that he and Marty experience. This suggests that Back to the Future could have a multiverse, although the franchise came out decades before multiverses would become the latest Hollywood trend.

With the MCU, the Spider-Verse movies, The Flash, The Lego Movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once and more contributing to the influx of multiverse movies, it's the perfect time for a fresh set of eyes to deconstruct the phenomenon. Back to the Future could take a playful approach to its multiple timelines in much the same way it toyed with the tropes and paradoxes of time travel sci-fi. It could be fun to see all the different versions Marty existing across the multiverse.

2 Doc Figuring Out Why 2015 Was So Different

Back to the future could explain why 2015 wasn't filled with hoverboards.

A modern-day sequel or reboot of Back to the Future would have to choose how to represent the 21st century.

Back to the Future Part II shows Marty in the distant future of 2015. Some of Back to the Future 's predictions have come true, like digital currency and video calls, but many more are still sci-fi fantasies, like automated dog walkers and flying cars. Back to the Future has a complex timeline , so it's possible that Marty's actions in Part III somehow stopped the future which is shown in Part II from ever happening.

A modern-day sequel or reboot of Back to the Future would have to choose how to represent the 21st century. The movie could either show 2024 in the same way that Part II shows 2015, with hoverboards and people wearing two ties, or it could show a more realistic modern age. If this were to happen, Doc would have to figure out what events caused the timeline to shift so dramatically.

1 Cameos From The Original Stars

Back to the future could have paid tribute to the originals, even if it came decades later.

Back to the Future 4 wouldn't feel the same without Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox , but if the franchise ever wanted to move forward, then it would have to formulate a plan to do so without them. However, this doesn't mean that they should be cut entirely. A hypothetical Back to the Future 4 could use the franchise's old characters just like Star Wars or Ghostbusters, with them in reduced roles, but still playing an important part.

Michael J. Fox has hinted at returning to acting , even though he previously announced his retirement in 2020. Fox has been living with Parkinson's disease since the 1990s, and he has spoken about how this has made acting much more difficult for him. This would limit the kind of role that he could have in Back to the Future 4, but fans would love to see him involved in whatever way is possible.

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Looking for fun things to do this weekend April 12-14? Top 5 events in Palm Beach County

Though winter is officially over, spring is still a fantastic time in South Florida. Think late-season cool fronts and brisk (even blustery, we'll take it), heat-crushing, ocean breezes. This is still the time to venture outside enjoy festivals, greenmarkets and the area's incredible entertainment. This weekend see crafts, works of art and more at the Delray Affair, dig into some great 'N'awlins' fare at the Cajun Crawfish and Music Fest in Jupiter or kick back along the West Palm Beach waterfront and watch "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem." No matter what, just go out. Don't waste your life staring at your phone or watching other people do things on television that you could be out doing. Seriously, you've got one life, live it!

In addition to the top five events listed there's always something great happening at places like  The Norton Museum of Art  or the  Maltz Jupiter Theatre. On top of that you could always just enjoy a great meal with an equally great view at one of Palm Beach County's  waterfront restaurants  from Jupiter to Boca Raton. Plus, we've curated a list of the best things to do all year in the county, and here it is: your bucket list of 55 fun must-try things to do in Palm Beach County.

1. The Delray Affair

Though technically at retirement age, the Delray Affair shows no sign of slowing down. The "Greatest Show under the Sun" is one of the largest arts and crafts festivals in the United States and will cover 10 city blocks. It will feature an "eclectic" mix of art, great crafts and funky products from over 500 artists. Enjoy food vendors and a beer garden at Old School Square. There also will be live music by Adam Fine, Carey Peak, Jason Colannino, Stryder and the Taylor Road Band.

The event is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 14. Atlantic Avenue, downtown Delray Beach. Information: delrayaffair.com

2. The Cajun Crawfish & Music Festival

Held at downtown Abacoa, this two-day festival will include delicious, authentic Cajun cuisine including fried oysters, jambalaya, gumbo, crawfish etoufeé, po' boys of all varieties, beignets, plenty of crawfish and much more. Wash it down with classic cocktails like hurricanes, grenades and Virginia's Champagne Hurricane specialty drink. There will also be cooking demonstrations, live music and more. Pets on leashes are allowed. Lawn chairs encouraged. WRMF's Virginia Sinicki will be master of ceremonies.

The event is 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 13 and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, April 14. 1267 Main St., Jupiter. $5. Information: cajuncrawfishmusicfestival.com

3.Screen on the Green: 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem'

Kick back as four turtle brothers (Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello and Michaelangelo) set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers while simultaneously opening a can against a mysterious crime syndicate and an army of mutants. Featuring the voices of Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, John Cena, Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph, Giancarlo Esposito and more.

The event is 6:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 12. The Great Lawn, 100 N. Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Free. Information: wpb.org

4. Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Held at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum, the film festival's theme is "Reel Action" and it will feature 13 short films regarding conservation. There also will be food trucks including Tina's Treats, Little Moir's and Best Pizza Heaven, and a bar truck providing refreshing drinks, all in the great outdoors near the iconic lighthouse. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.

The event is 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 13. 500 Captain Armour's Way, Jupiter. $25. Information: jupiterlighthouse.org

More: Live in West Palm Beach or just visiting? These 17 things should be on your to-do list

5. Run 4 the Sea

Support Loggerhead Marinelife Center's mission to promote ocean conservation and protect threatened and endangered sea turtles in Run 4 The Sea's timed four-mile race or a one-mile fun run for children 12 and younger. A sport-style participation T-shirt will be issued to the first 500 registrants, and each runner will receive a finisher medal.

The event is 7 to 10 a.m. Saturday, April 13. 14200 US 1, Juno Beach. Adults $45, kids $25. Race day registration fees $50 for adults. Information: marinelife.org/run-4-the-sea

Eddie Ritz is a journalist at  The Palm Beach Post , part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at  [email protected] . Help support our journalism.  Subscribe today .

7 things to stream this weekend, from a sexy and scandalous historical drama to an Oscar-winning film

• Check out new shows like "Ripley" and "Sugar."
• Movies like "The Zone of Interest" are newly streaming.
• You can also catch up on the premiere of "Vanderpump Villa.""

There's drama of all sorts to watch this weekend.

For the unscripted kind, you can tune into "Vanderpump Villa," the latest reality show centered on one of "Real Housewives" alum Lisa Vanderpump's hospitality businesses .

There are also thrillers like "Ripley" and "Sugar" out now, along with the historical drama "Mary & George."

Here's a complete rundown of all the best movies and shows to stream this weekend, broken down by what kind of entertainment you're looking for.

If you're looking for a thriller, check out 'Ripley'

Andrew Scott — aka Moriarty in "Sherlock" and the Hot Priest who emotionally wrecked us all in "Fleabag" — leads this psychological thriller adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel "The Talented Mr. Ripley." He's mesmerizing as the titular conman, starring opposite Dakota Fanning and Johnny Flynn.

Streaming on: Netflix

... or 'Sugar'

For another flavor of Western European white man in a drama with a twist, check out "Sugar." Colin Farrell stars as John Sugar, a Los Angeles private eye investigating a woman's disappearance in this contemporary take on the classic noir detective story .

Streaming on: Apple TV+

Reality TV lovers should tune into 'Vanderpump Villa'

No, it's not just a fancy and French "Vanderpump Rules." Yes, it does have all the drama you've come to expect from the attractive but messy service industry workers employed by Lisa Vanderpump. Come for the fabulous chateau, stay for the yelling and flirting.

Streaming on: Hulu

For a shocking true story, watch 'Scoop'

"Scoop" is a fictionalized drama about Prince Andrew's disastrous 2019 BBC interview about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . Rufus Sewell plays the disgraced royal, while Gillian Anderson stars as journalist Emily Maitlis.

Want a scandalous historical drama? Try 'Mary & George'

Good news for people who have enjoyed Nicholas Galitzine being hot and wildly charismatic in "Red, White & Royal Blue," "Purple Hearts," and "The Idea of You" trailer we all watched a record-breaking number of times. In this psychosexual historical drama based on a scandalous true story, he plays George Villiers, a young man who connives with his mother, Mary ( Julianne Moore ), to seduce the king of England.

Streaming on: Starz (via Hulu or Prime Video )

The Oscar-winning film 'The Zone of Interest' is now streaming

This historical drama of a very different sort from filmmaker Jonathan Glazer focuses on German SS officer and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his family, who live in a home next to the concentration camp during the Holocaust. Sandra Hüller, who also won acclaim for leading another Oscar-winning 2023 film, "Anatomy of a Fall," costars as Hedwig, Rudolf's wife and the mother of his five kids.

Streaming on: Max

For a horror fix, watch 'Night Swim'

It's a haunted pool! Need I say more?

OK, I will: It's produced by horror powerhouses Jason Blum and James Wan .

Streaming on: Peacock

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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Civil War Plays Like a Nightmare. You Should Still See It.

A24’s most expensive movie to date is borderline incoherent. that doesn’t mean it’s not important..

The year is unspecified—it could be a few years into some alternate future, or it could be right now. The president, a clean-cut establishment type played by Nick Offerman, is unnamed, his party and political affiliations unclear (though his rhetoric in an address to the nation sounds disturbingly authoritarian). And the precise nature of the domestic conflict that has torn the United States apart and turned the nation’s major cities into zones of open warfare is unexplained. In Civil War , the provocative fourth feature from Alex Garland ( Ex Machina , Annihilation , Men ), the details about why and how America collapsed into violent chaos are immaterial. What Garland wants is to drop us into the middle of that violent chaos as it unfolds, to make us see our familiar surroundings—ordinary blocks lined with chain drugstores and clothing boutiques—recast as active battlegrounds, with snipers on rooftops and local militias enforcing their own sadistic versions of the law.

One thing Garland’s at times frustratingly opaque script does go out of its way to clarify is that the ideological fissures in this alternate version of America occur along different fault lines than the ones that remain from the country’s actual civil war. The main threat to what we’ll call the Offerman administration is the secessionist group the Western Forces, a Texas-California alliance that’s intentionally impossible to extrapolate from our current red state–blue state split. There is also a separate rebel movement of some kind based in Florida, but above all, there is unchecked street violence and general social disorder. One early exchange of dialogue suggests that the war has been going on for some 14 months, which seems like too short a time for the country to have fallen into the advanced state of dystopia in which we find it: highways choked with empty cars, most of the population in hiding, the internet all but nonfunctional except in a few urban centers. But again, the point is less plausibility than viscerality. Garland got his start writing a zombie movie, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later , and he has also co-written an award-winning action video game. Civil War , A24’s most expensive movie to date, sometimes plays like a mashup of those two genres, with the viewer as first-person player and our armed fellow citizens as the zombies.

As the film begins, Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a veteran war photographer,  is in New York City, holed up at a hotel that doubles as a makeshift command center for the press. Knowing that the Western Forces are on the verge of taking the capital, Lee and her longtime professional partner, a wire-service reporter named Joel (Wagner Moura), are planning a perilous road trip from New York to D.C. in the unlikely hope of landing an interview with the embattled president. Lee’s longtime mentor, news editor Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), warns them that the plan is sheer madness—then asks if, despite his age and limited mobility, he can get in on the action.

As they’re preparing to leave, they’re joined, despite Lee’s protests, by Jessie ( Priscilla ’s Cailee Spaeny), an aspiring photojournalist in her early 20s who idolizes Lee’s work but has no experience in war zones. Bringing along the stowaway Lee disparages as a “kindergartner” will only, she argues, put all of them in even more danger. These doubts turn out to be justified: The presence of Jessie, a live wire with a penchant for unnecessary risk-taking, makes the journey to D.C. even more perilous, while forcing Lee to confront how jaded she’s become after years of compartmentalizing her most scarring memories. On the way to the capital, this multigenerational foursome encounters gas-station vigilantes, a shootout at an abandoned Christmas-themed amusement park, and a gut-churning encounter with a racist militant played by Dunst’s real-life husband, Jesse Plemons.

In its vision of journalism as a form of amoral adventure-seeking, Civil War belongs to a long tradition of films about hardened war correspondents in far-flung places, movies like A Private War and The Year of Living Dangerously . But the fact that the carnage these reporters are documenting is homegrown shifts the inflection significantly. Suddenly it’s impossible to exoticize or otherwise alienate ourselves from the bloodshed onscreen, which makes us ask ourselves what we were doing exoticizing it in the first place. This effect of moral immediacy is Civil War ’s greatest strength, and the reason it feels like an important movie of its moment even if it isn’t a wholly coherent or consistently insightful one.

Garland’s idea of throwing us in medias res during a civil war in progress is a bold gambit, and his cinematic instincts—his sense of where to put a camera and how long to draw out a moment of suspense—are often keen. The horrible realities he makes us look at—intra-civilian combat, physical and psychological torture, the everyday depths of human depravity—are summoned powerfully enough that Civil War remains emotionally and physically affecting even as the ideas it seeks to explore remain fuzzy. Is this a critique of contemporary journalism or a salute to the courage of reporters on the front lines? If it’s meant to be suspended somewhere in between, how does the filmmaker position himself on that line, and how should we, the audience, feel about the protagonists’ sometimes dubious choices?

Even as they document street battles and point-blank executions, adrenaline junkies Jessie and Joel occasionally exchange devilish grins. Meanwhile, Lee is all but incapable of normal human relationships because of her unacknowledged PTSD. A late sequence finds them unofficially embedded with an especially ruthless death squad; it would seem important to establish whether this alignment is meant to signify their ultimate journalistic corruption or a necessary compromise for the survival of the Fourth Estate. Even on the level of plot logic, the movie poses a question that the script’s curiously thin worldbuilding never answers: If the internet and most of the nation’s industrial infrastructure are in ruins, how are ordinary people reading Joel’s articles and looking at the photos that Lee herself struggles for hours to upload? If it is intended in part as a satire of journalistic opportunism, Civil War should be more specific about the conditions of 21 st -century media in wartime, especially given that it’s coming out at a moment when front-line reporters face more physical danger than at any time in recent memory.

All we learn of Lee’s background is that, like Jessie, she is from a farm town in the interior of the U.S., with parents who are in stubborn denial about the crumbling of the republic. But because Kirsten Dunst is a remarkable artist, she makes this somewhat underwritten character, who on paper could have been a stoic “badass” stereotype, into a complex and indelible presence. Dunst also, perhaps for the first time, loses the girlish quality she has brought even to middle-aged characters: Lee Smith is a plain, scowling woman with a glum, even abrasive mien. She’s a person whose perspective on life has narrowed down to the size of a camera lens, yet she’s also a committed journalist and a fiercely loyal colleague. As the other three sort-of protagonists, Moura, Henderson, and Spaeny all turn in finely tuned performances that bring a depth to their characters beyond what the script provides, but it’s Dunst whose thousand-yard stare and deep-buried grief will stay with me.

“What kind of American are you?” Plemons’ fatigues-and-pink-sunglasses-clad character asks the journalists one by one as he terrorizes them at gunpoint in the movie’s scariest and most successful sequence. (Not for nothing, it’s also the moment that suggests the most strongly that the vaguely defined conflict in this fictive America has everything to do with race.) That may be the screenplay’s smartest single line, in that it dispenses with the metaphorical quality of Civil War ’s imagined political dystopia and presents us with the real question many Americans are asking each other and themselves right now, sometimes in a self-reflective mode, sometimes in a contentious or overtly threatening one. As the unfolding of that encounter with Plemons makes clear, as soon as the question is asked with a weapon in your hand, it becomes a trick question, posed not to start a conversation but to set a trap. Civil War often leaves the audience feeling trapped in an all-too-realistic waking nightmare, but when it finally lets us go, mercifully short of the two-hour mark, it sends us out of the theater talking.

Solar eclipse 2024: How to take photos of the eclipse and not damage your eyes or camera

Experiencing this eclipse will be one of those moments we likely will want to remember, especially since there won't be another until 2044.

But, before you head out and try to take photos of the celestial event, there are a few things to know for the safety of you and your camera.

When is the solar eclipse in Delaware?

Though Delawareans won't be able to see a full eclipse of the sun, the partial eclipse begins at 2:07 p.m.  and ends at 4:34 p.m. on Monday, April 8.

The maximum eclipse begins at 3:23 p.m.  

Eclipse 2024: It's total solar eclipse day 2024! What time is the eclipse, how to follow path in Delaware

Protect your eyes and your phone

In much the same way one should  protect their eyes  while watching the eclipse by  wearing eclipse glasses , one should protect their phone when taking pictures of it.

For taking casual photos with a phone before or after totality , use solar film or hold eclipse glasses over the lens to protect it.

Remember to protect both your eyes and your phone. If you are viewing from an area where totality will be reached, eye and lens protection can be removed during those two to four minutes of totality only, but Delaware is not in the path of totality so if you are here, leave glasses on.

If you are using a telescope or binoculars with a phone, use a solar filter to protect against concentrated sunlight.

Samsung recommends using a solar filter when taking longer exposures during the event when using its phones.

What if I don't use a filter to shoot the eclipse?

Photography experts caution against shooting without a filter. Cameras can magnify the intensity and brightness of sunlight,  B & H Photo and Video reiterates, and this can damage equipment.

Experts also warn that pointing a phone at the sun could "fry" the device. They instead emphasize shielding the lens with eclipse glasses  or obtaining a solar lens ahead of time.

Don't try to capture an eclipse selfie

With a proper solar filter, you can capture the sun with the front camera lens during the solar eclipse, but it won't make the best selfie.

Stocks said the camera will have trouble focusing on both you and the sun. She recommends taking a photo focusing on each and blending the two with editing software.

• Personal Care

Solar Eclipse Eye Protection: How to Tell If Your Glasses Are Safe or Fake Today

Watching the solar eclipse? You don't want to get caught with rip-off eclipse glasses today. What to know.

Special glasses can protect your eyes when watching this year's solar eclipse.

Ready? The total solar eclipse is today -- April 8, 2024 . This eclipse, which will be visible across North America, is the last one in the continental US for almost 20 years. If you're in the path of totality today or outside the area and viewing a partial eclipse, you're going to need solar eclipse glasses to protect your eyes while staring at the sun. 

Solar eclipse glasses are special glasses that block out the most dangerous parts of the solar spectrum for human eyes. When you look through them, the sun should appear as an easy-to-view yellow-orange circle. Use them to watch the entire eclipse, but be aware that these glasses will block out all light -- so you won't want to use these glasses while walking, driving or doing anything besides eclipse viewing. 

Read more: Need Free Solar Eclipse Glasses? Stop by Warby Parker

However, bad actors may sell eclipse glasses that don't actually do anything to protect your eyes from the sun. So, if you're viewing the eclipse in person today, you're going to want to make sure that your eyes are really being protected. Read on to find out about the steps you can take to make sure your solar eclipse glasses are legit. 

For more, here's how Solar Snap can help you take great eclipse photos  and why you should download your Google Maps route before you travel to see the eclipse.

Check the ISO number of your eclipse glasses

According to the American Astronomical Society , a real and safe pair of solar eclipse glasses should be labeled with ISO 12312-2 (sometimes written in more detail as ISO 12312-2:2015), which is an international safety standard that denotes the glasses reduce visible sunlight to safe levels and block UV and IR radiation.

Total Solar Eclipse 2024: The Best Photos We've Seen

Check the list of reputable eclipse glasses vendors

However, fake glasses may also be labeled as being compliant with ISO 12312-2 because, as a general rule, people are greedy, selfish and not to be trusted. To double-check the veracity of your eclipse glasses' ISO claims, you can see if the vendor from which you purchased the shades is trustworthy in the eyes of the AAS. See its list of Reputable Vendors of Solar Filters and Viewers . Really, the safest thing you can do is pick a vendor from the above list and purchase your glasses from there, so there are no concerns about counterfeits and fakes when it comes to your eye safety. 

The list also includes big-box retailers and chains where you can grab AAS approved eclipse glasses, including Warby Parker , which is giving glasses away for free starting April 1. Personally, I got my glasses from a trusted local museum, but I'll still be checking mine to make sure that I'll be protected. 

In assembling its list, the AAS checks to make sure a manufacturer earned its ISO rating with proper, labs-based testing. It also asks manufacturers for their authorized resellers and resellers for their manufacturers. If the vendor of your eclipse shades is listed, then you are safe. But the opposite isn't necessarily true. If your vendor isn't listed, it doesn't necessarily mean they are slinging counterfeits. It just means the AAS hasn't checked them out or hasn't been able to track everything down.

So, what are you to do if your vendor isn't on the list? Perform an eye test.

How to test your solar eclipse glasses

If your mystery pair of eclipse glasses look pretty darn dark, that's a good place to start start. You should not be able to see anything through them except the sun itself or something similarly bright.

What's something as bright as the sun you can use as a test? The AAS suggests you check sunlight reflected off a mirror or a shiny metal object. If sun is behind the clouds or on the other side of the earth when you want to test your glasses, you can use a bright-white LED such as the flashlight on your phone or a bare lightbulb. The reflected sunlight or bright, white, artificial light should appear very dim through a safe pair of eclipse glasses. If you can see light behind a lamp shade or a soft, frosted light bulb through the glasses through your eclipse glasses, then you know that these glasses aren't strong enough to stare safely at the sun. 

When staring at the sun through safe solar eclipse glasses, the sun should appear comfortably bright like the full moon, according to the AAS. If your eclipse glasses are uncomfortable to use, that is also a good sign that they might not be legitimate. 

For more, here's how to buy last-minutes solar eclipse glasses and where you can get a free pair of eclipse glasses .

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