Guides to Movie Set Travel

In an earlier post, I mentioned the movie Indian Summer and how you can visit the film's locations in Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada. Algonquin Park was added to my list of places to visit because of that movie. Other movies that have inspired people to travel are The Sound of Music, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Brokeback Mountain.

For information about movie locations for these and other films, check out the following sites:

1. Budget Travel's annual Movie Quest where they choose the year's top 10 travel-inspiring movies. That link will take you to the 2007 choices for best movie locations, but you can also get the top 10 choices for 2006 and 2005 and don't miss 2004's The 25 Movies That Literally Moved Us.

2. Jaunted's series on movie set travel. Each post describes a movie then makes suggestions of things to do, including where to stay, where to eat, and what to see when traveling to the movie's location.

3. Scotland: The Movie Location Guide- Includes Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Highlander, the Harry Potter movies, and Braveheart. This site has photos from the movies and explains where those shots were taken from.

4. North England Movie Tourism-Includes Harry Potter, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Elizabeth, Dracula.

5. Movie Map-North Wales- Includes Dragonslayer, Merlin, Willow, and Tomb Rader 2.

6. The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations-This site compliments the book, The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations (NEW updated edition).

7. Another way to find out where a movie was filmed is to search the IMBD or Internet Movie Database. You can also search specific countries and/or cities to see which movies were filmed there. Once you have a specific movie, try doing a internet search for detailed set locations.


*The above photo was taken at Cahir Castle in County Tipperary, Ireland. That gate is supposed to be the only working portcullis in Ireland and was used in the soundtrack for Braveheart. Scenes from the movie Excalibur were also filmed at the castle.

From other Travel Blogs...

Photo by harryalverson on flickr

I've been reading about the torture Greg from Vagabonding Begins! is going through at his kung fu school in Henan, China. Yikes! From Everybody was kung fu HURTING to Another day in paradise, his stories make me question his sanity. I admire his perseverance because the temptation to quit must be very strong. He is halfway through his training sessions, so at least the end is in sight!

Part of Greg's day is spent studying the Chinese language. He admits the class is difficult, but he has a great attitude about it. If he gets frustrated, though, he could read Rob's 5 Tips to Learning a Language Abroad over at Go Budget Travel.

For a more pleasant experience, Gadling has an article about the Denali Road Lottery. Even though Catherine didn't win one of the 1600 passes for this weekend, we can still read about the experience because Angie at Alaskan Explorer not only won a pass, but she also received a second pass for another day from a friend.

Rolf Potts at Vagablogging shared a great quote about traveling.

"That's what I like about traveling -- you can sit down, maybe talk to someone interesting, see something beautiful, read a book, and that's enough to qualify as a good day. You do that at home and everyone thinks you're a bum."
--Richard Linklater and Kim Krazan, Before Sunrise screenplay (1995)

How did I miss this movie? Probably because I was dealing with a 3 year old and a 1 year old and we didn't go out to movies back then.

For other travel articles, check out the section marked From Other Blogs in my sidebar.

Indian Summer

A fun story about friends who return to the camp they attended as children, Indian Summer is one of my favorite movies to watch on a rainy or snowy afternoon.

Camp Tamakwa is a real camp in Ontario's Algonquin Park, about 175 miles north of Toronto. The film's director, Mike Binder, wrote the story about the camp he attended in the late 60's and early 70's.

I've watched so many movies where I wish the set actually existed so we could visit it. The great thing about Indian Summer is the movie was filmed at the actual camp, and you can visit it. In the off season, Tamakwa is available for retreats and conferences, or you can go camping in other parts of Algonquin Park.

*related post: Guides to Movie Set Travel