I remember the first time I went to New York City: it was 1992, I’d just turned 21 and it felt like one big, neon-filled movie set. As I walked around Manhattan, head craned, eyes out on stalks, I saw that, yes, there really was steam coming out of the manholes; taxis really were bright yellow; and skyscrapers really did seem to, well, touch the sky.
The only glimpses I’d had of New York previously had been in films such as When Harry Met Sally and Ghostbusters. I didn’t know it at the time, but that made me an early set-jetter – and I’ve been one ever since. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to zip around Rome on a Vespa after seeing Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday?
According to Expedia, more than half of travellers worldwide say they’ve booked a holiday to a destination they’ve seen on screen. Whether it’s France (Emily in Paris) or Italy (in the second series of The White Lotus), London (the Harry Potter films) or Norway (Succession season four), there’s a whole world of glamorous places to discover, not to mention location houses (Saltburn, we’re looking at you) to explore.
So if you’re looking to do the same, these are the Oscar-worthy ways to do it…
IF YOU LOVED… Gladiator II
GO SET-JETTING TO… Malta
A mere quarter century after Ridley Scott’s blockbuster film Gladiator came to the island of Malta to be shot in the year 2000, his sequel, Gladiator 2, returned to its atmospheric locations in 2024. This time, the story focuses on Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal), the son of the original warrior, Maximus (Russell Crowe) who’s forced into slavery and aims to fight his way to freedom as - well, the clue’s in the name - a top gladiator.
While an amphitheatre and ancient Roman buildings were constructed near the shore at Fort Ricasoli, the 17th century fort itself - situated in the small village of Kalkara, across the harbour from capital city Valletta - will play a role, as it did in the original film. The sequel’s cast were enchanted by their surroundings, with Denzel Washington, who plays gladiator owner and arms dealer Macrinus, saying, “Malta is a character. You can feel the history here and it was the perfect place to shoot,”, while Pedro Pascal, who plays Marcus Acacius, a Roman general who trained under Maximus, agrees, saying “Location is everything when it comes to telling a story.”
Malta gives the film its breathtaking landscapes and iconic backdrop; don’t miss Valetta, which is home to the magnificent, gilt-covered St John’s Co-Cathedral and beautiful Barrakka Gardens, or the peaceful, silent city of Mdina.
GET THERE: Standard rooms at the centrally-located, stylish boutique hotel, the Melior, on Valetta’s handsome, historic Republic Street, start from around £88 per night; meliormalta.com.
IF YOU LOVED… Bad Sisters
GO SET-JETTING TO… Dublin, Ireland
The premise of the Bad Sisters may have been dark - five sisters, played by Sharon Horgan, Eve Hewson, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle and Sarah Greene – plot to kill the nasty husband of Duff’s character, Grace, but the locations couldn’t have been more charming. Set in Dublin, and filmed in and around Ireland’s handsome capital, the scenery was just as compelling as the premise.
As the second series launches, you’ll see some of the familiar areas where the first series was shot, such as The Forty Foot in Sandycove, an iconic sea-swimming spot in Dublin Bay where the Garvey sisters often meet up and which has been a sacred swimming place for locals for over two centuries. Howth, a suburb of the city which sticks out on a peninsula, is known for its natural coastal scenery, and is where the character of Eva Garvey’s house is located.
A lot of filming also took place in Malahide, a northern suburb of Dublin, which features historical monuments such as Malahide Castle, and places like the Malahide Marina (one of the places Becka and Matt go on their dates). Let’s not forget Dublin itself, which has many sites of interest, from The Guinness Storehousewhere the original Black Stuff was produced, to Trinity College, home to the historic Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript dating from around 800AD.
Don’t miss a visit to Dublin Castle, originally built on the site of a Viking fortress, or to Kilmainham Gaol, now the largest unoccupied prison in Europe but formerly home to some of Ireland’s foremost political prisoners, including Charles Stewart Parnell and President Eamon de Valera.
GET THERE: Stay at the luxurious, five-star Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen’s Green, which first opened in 1824 and has hosted guests from Elizbeth Taylor and Paul Newman to John F Kennedy and Michelle Obama. Rooms from £324 per night; theshelbourne.com.
IF YOU LOVED… The White Lotus
GO SET-JETTING TO... Taormina, Sicily
Who didn’t love the locations of The White Lotus’s second series, starring Jennifer Coolidge? Most of the action took place at the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace hotel, a former monastery overlooking Mount Etna in Sicily’s Taormina.
Further afield, Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and Daphne (Meghann Fahy) took a trip to Noto, known for its baroque architecture, where they visited the Palazzo Ducezio and the cathedral. They stayed in the sumptuous Villa Tasca, which can be booked from around £4,699 a night, so you’ll need a film star’s salary to afford it! In another scene, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) and Jack (Leo Woodall) visited pretty Cefalù, with its old port and Norman cathedral.
GET THERE: Rooms at the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace (fourseasons.com/taormina) cost from £1,282 a night. First Choice (firstchoice.co.uk) offers four nights at the Panoramic Hotel Taormina from £835pp, including return flights; visitsicily.info/en.
IF YOU LOVED… Barbie
GO SET-JETTING TO… Venice Beach, Los Angeles, USA
Barbie burst on to our screens last year in a splash of bubble-gum pink, and even if we can’t visit Barbie Land itself, the real world that Barbie and Ken found themselves in is much more accessible. In one memorable scene, actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling go rollerblading along the Venice Beach boardwalk in lurid Lycra, passing swaying palm trees, while another scene was shot outside Venice City Hall.
The real Venice Beach is a small, vibrant, bohemian beach community you can easily explore on foot (rather than rollerblades). Take a private guided walking tour (around £196pp, bikesandhikesla.com) and visit the peaceful canals that gave the area its name in 1905, as well as chic shopping street Abbot Kinney Boulevard (no neon Lycra here), named after Venice Beach’s founder.
GET THERE: British Airways Holidays (britishairways.com/losangeles) offers five nights at the four-star Hotel Erwin in Venice Beach from £1,119pp, including return flights from London Heathrow; visitveniceca.com.
IF YOU LOVED… Yellowstone
GO SET-JETTING TO... Montana and Utah, USA
The open plains of Montana and Utah are the stunning backdrop to this Western-like drama about the Dutton family, owners of a large ranch bordering Broken Rock Indian Reservation and Yellowstone National Park. Patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) spend much of the show trying to fend off developers who want to build on this beautiful land (Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford star as John’s ancestors in the prequel, 1923).
In real life, the Dutton family home can be found some five hours from Yellowstone National Park. Privately owned, the Chief Joseph Ranch is a functioning cattle ranch in Darby, Montana, and you can stay in a cabin on the property from around £1,100 a night (chiefjosephranch.net/cabins).
GET THERE: Enjoy a ranch holiday of your own with Abercrombie & Kent (abercrombiekent.co.uk), which offers five nights in a cabin at Lone Mountain Ranch in Big Sky, Montana, from £3,299pp, including return flights and the chance to explore the surrounding wilderness, go hiking or fly-fishing, see the geysers in Yellowstone Park and enjoy plenty of horseback riding; visitmt.com.
IF YOU LOVED… James Bond: No Time To Die
GO SET-JETTING TO… Jamaica
Daniel Craig’s last hurrah as 007 took him, as is the Bond movie way, to dozens of stunning locations, including Jamaica, which also featured in the first James Bond film, Dr No, in 1962. The Caribbean island holds a special place in the Bond canon, as it’s where Ian Fleming wrote all 14 books.
The author fell in love with Jamaica after his first visit in 1943 and had a house built near a town called Oracabessa on the northeastern coast, with its own beach, which he named GoldenEye. Today, it belongs to the co-founder of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, who’s turned it into a serene 52-room resort, and you can also stay in Fleming’s original villa (for an eye-watering £6,000 a night; theflemingvilla.com) and see the typewriter he used to write many of the Bond books.
A third Bond film, Live and Let Die, was also shot on the island, and all three movies feature distinctive settings such as the buzzy seaside town of Montego Bay, the long, sweeping beach at Negril, the smart hotel and yacht club at Morgan’s Bay, and the evocative Blue Mountains.
GET THERE: Original Travel (originaltravel.co.uk) offers an eight-night Classic Jamaica package from £2,675pp, including three nights in the Blue Mountains, four nights at GoldenEye and return flights; visitjamaica.com.
IF YOU LOVED… Succession
GO SET-JETTING TO… Norway
While most of Succession was set in New York City, home to the obnoxious but compelling Roy family (including Sarah Snook as Shiv, right), in season four, episode five, they go to Norway to meet tech mogul Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård). One memorable location was the Juvet Landscape Hotel, near the village of Sylte. A modernist glass and timber-clad structure in a towering pine forest, it sits on a snaking stretch of mountain road called Trollstigen, a stone’s throw from the West Norwegian fjords.
The stunning, natural wilderness is ideal for hiking, particularly in the Romsdal mountains. You can get the cable car to Eggen restaurant at the top of Nesaksla mountain, which also featured in the episode. Within the same area is the famous Trollveggen, or Troll Wall, Europe’s highest perpendicular mountain wall. This was also the setting for a spectacular stunt in last year’s Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, where Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt leaps dramatically off a 4,000m high cliff called Helsetkopen on his motorbike.
You can also see Norway’s incredible landscapes in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (on the charming Rauma Railway), No Time To Die (on the corkscrew-like Atlanterhavsvegen, or Atlantic Ocean Road), and Dune (at the wave-thrashed Myresanden Beach on the Stad peninsula).
GET THERE: Rooms at the Juvet Landscape Hotel (juvet.com/en) start from £369 a night. Discover the World (discover-the-world.com) offers a 12-night self-drive package to the region from £2,499pp, excluding flights; visitnorway.com.
IF YOU LOVED… Emily in Paris
GO SET-JETTING TO… Paris, France
The well-worn trope of the American in Paris was given new life in 2020, when enthusiastic millennial Emily Cooper, played by Lily Collins, crosses the Pond for a social media job and has to negotiate a new country, new career and new friends. Her wide-eyed discovery of the City of Light takes her to iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Élysées and the Palace of Versailles, but also to lesser-known parts of the French capital, including the Parc de la Villette, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Belleville district and the Art Deco Piscine Molitor.
The frothy, light-hearted show’s success has led to a variety of hotels and restaurants benefitting from the so-called ‘Emily effect’, from the Café de Flore and Boulangerie Moderne to Hotel George V. Season four aired this autumn, attracting even more fans eager to buy a beret and wander around charming areas such as the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain-des-Prés with a baguette (the bag, not the bread).
GET THERE: You can book an official Netflix Emily in Paris holiday with Dharma Productions (seekdharma.com/brands/parisbyemily) from around £2,830pp for five days. First Choice (firstchoice.co.uk) has a four-night stay at the four-star Château Frontenac Hotel from £662pp, including flights from London Gatwick; parisjetaime.com.
IF YOU LOVED… Harry Potter
GO SET-JETTING TO… London
Some of the Harry Potter film series’ most iconic scenes were shot in London – Australia House on the Strand was turned into Gringotts Bank, King’s Cross Station is the home of Platform 9¾ (you can have your picture taken next to a luggage cart that disappears into a wall beside it) and the Millennium Bridge dramatically collapsed in the opening scenes of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The capital is also home to the record-breaking stage adaptation Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which scooped nine Olivier Awards just a year after opening and is still packed with fans every night. It’s a mesmerising mix of live spell-casting, thrilling wand duels (be prepared for dementors swooping past you) and characters vanishing into thin air.
While the production features all-new costumes, props and sets, you can find those actually used in the films just a train ride away at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. You’ll walk through the Great Hall of Hogwarts and down the cobblestone streets of Diagon Alley. There’s also a green-screen experience, which lets you fly through scenes from the film on a broomstick – something you can’t do over London itself!
GET THERE: Holiday Extras (holidayextras.com) offers a two-day Harry Potter-themed break in London from £328pp, including an overnight hotel stay with breakfast, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London (wbstudiotour.co.uk) and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child tickets (uk.harrypottertheplay.com).
