*Collaborative post

I adore travelling and I love to get cosy on the sofa to watch a good movie with my boys, particularly the old classics.  It’s therefore no surprise that whenever we travel as a family we search out famous movie locations.  I genuinely get a thrill visiting where movies have been filmed.   I love to imagine the actors and actresses milling around in between filming. I’ve even been known to act out scenes from famous movies, (much to the embarrassment of my eldest son!)

In this post I’ve shared famous movie locations we’ve visited as a family.  I’ve also shared movie locations visited and recommended by other travel bloggers.  I hope it inspires your future family travels.

Famous movie locations to visit on your next family holiday

During our recent family holiday in Lake Maggiore, the Italian Lakes, we popped across the border into neighbouring Switzerland and drove up to the mountains to get close to this well known Dam.  Do you recognise it?  It starred in the opening scene of a popular action movie…

Did you guess correctly?  It’s the Verzasca Dam which starred in the opening scene of Golden Eye.  I was obviously very (ahem!) disappointed that the booking office for this was closed…

We lived in Savannah, Georgia in the Deep South USA for three years. Savannah is a stunningly beautiful and historical city which makes it a popular place to film movies, including one of my all time favourites – Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks.  The bench from THE famous bench scene (“life is like a box of chocolates”) still exists as does the church with the spire (you see the feather floating past it in the movie).

Savannah is also the film set location of the rather eccentric Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the American crime drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusack.  The first year we were living in Savannah (2009) they filmed Nicholas Cage’s Last Song, the teen romantic drama film starring Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth and Greg Kinnear.  My husband actually stayed in the same hotel, the Marriott in Savannah, with all of the actors and crew and had a few drinks with Liam and Greg!  (How cool is that?  I was, as you can imagine, extremely jealous!) 

Closer to home we are surrounded by famous movie locations.  We love to visit the Forest of Dean and in particular the magical forest, Puzzlewood which has been used as a film set for many popular movies including The Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who and Merlin.  Exploring Puzzlewood is a rather surreal experience as the forest is untamed and quite eerie.  There are strange tree and rock formations, stepping stones shaped like dinosaur feet, a hidden wooden bench, dead ends, balancing beams and rather spooky looking trees!  It’s definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Gloucestershire.

Also on our doorstep is Gloucester Cathedral, used as the film set for several of the Harry Potter movies.  The scene where Moaning Myrtle flooded the toilets in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was filmed at the Cathedral as was the scene featuring the troll who smashed up the girls’ toilet trapping Hermione in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.   

 

Recommended movie locations to visit on your next family holiday

I love asking my fellow bloggers to share their recommendations.  They are a well travelled bunch!  Here are a few of the movie locations they have visited with their kids and thoroughly recommend…

Star from Autism Kids on Tour visited New York last year and made it her mission to visit the fire station featured in Ghost Busters.  It is an actual operational fire station, with the Ghost Busters sign outside on the pavement and a big Ghost Busters sign inside on the wall.  Very cool!  

Nikki and her family from Yorkshire Wonders took a ride on the Hogwarts Express, otherwise known as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.  The lovely rural station at Goathland was used as the set for Hogsmead in the first of the Harry Potter films.  You can read about their day out here – Riding the Hogwarts Express.

Kelly, from Let’s Go Somewhere Nice, visited the film set for Local Hero, the Bill Forsyth’s 1983 classic.  It’s not a film I’m familiar with to be honest but I’m going to check it out as Kelly has made me feel like I’ve missed out!  “Local Hero is a film about a Texan’s attempts to buy a tiny Scottish town to turn into an oil refinery. Like in all great narratives, things don’t exactly go to plan. It’s a simple story, told with warmth and wit and wonder.  The film is set in Pennan.  It a wonderful, sweet gem of a film”. 

Sara-Jayne, from Keeping up with the Jones Family, was on holiday in Castaway Cay (Disney’s Private Island) in the Bahamas whilst they were filming the Pirates of the Caribbean.  She kept her eyes peeled for Johnny Depp… but sadly he was nowhere in sight!

Kristie, from Mammaprada, regularly visits her favourite film set in Lake Como.  “It’s a gorgeous Villa called Balbianello. It was the location for Casino Royale, Star Wars Attack of the Clones and an older film called A Month by the Lake. It’s pretty incredible and was owned by an explorer who led the first Italian expedition to Everest”.  Check out her guide here – What to do around Lake Como. 

Looking for more travel inspiration?  Check out Travel Republic’s guide on famous film locations including The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio and the Gladiator starring Russell Crowe.  

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That’s a wrap folks!  If you’ve visited any famous movie locations and can recommend them to other families please do pop them in the comments section below. Thanks for stopping by.

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