Set-Jetting: Travel to the Real Places Behind the Screen
Set-jetting is travel built around a place you already know, because you've watched it. The mountains behind a favorite film, the castle a series was shot in, the landscape a show turned into a character of its own. The story brought the destination to your attention. The trip is about actually going.
These are real places, not attractions built to resemble something fictional. The planning is the same as any destination: getting the timing, the access, and the pacing right, with the added layer of knowing what someone is hoping to recognize when they arrive.
A Note on What We Offer
These are travel itineraries to real filming locations and the regions around them. They are not licensed tours, official studio experiences, or affiliated with any studio, production, or franchise. Where a location is open to the public, such as a national park, castle, or film studio tour, we plan around its actual visitor access. We do not offer or imply access to closed sets, franchise-branded events, or anything requiring a license we don't hold.
Destinations We Plan Around
Grouped by how the story maps to a place. Some franchises point to one destination. Others are spread across several, and the page says so rather than overstating a single location's role.
Single-Destination Journeys
Where one real place carries the story.
New Zealand
LORD OF THE RINGS · THE HOBBITMiddle-earth was built across New Zealand's South and North Islands, and much of that landscape is unchanged and visitable. This is a substantial trip, not a day excursion, with real distances between filming regions worth planning around rather than rushing.
Hampshire, England
DOWNTON ABBEY · HIGHCLERE CASTLEHighclere Castle is a working estate with limited public opening dates, which makes timing the central planning question rather than an afterthought. Best paired with a wider Hampshire or Cotswolds itinerary rather than treated as a single-stop day trip.
United Kingdom
HARRY POTTERSpread across several real UK locations: Oxford's colleges, Alnwick Castle, the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland, and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour outside London, which is the one licensed, ticketed studio experience in this list and is booked directly through the studio, not through us. The rest is UK travel that happens to pass through recognizable places.
Kauai, Hawaii
JURASSIC PARKMuch of the original film's jungle and coastline was shot on Kauai, and the island's helicopter and boat tours built around those valleys are a real, bookable part of visiting. A straightforward add to a broader Hawaii itinerary rather than a trip built around this alone.
Multi-Region Journeys
Where the story spans more than one real place, and the itinerary needs to reflect that honestly.
Star Wars Filming Regions
TUNISIA · IRELAND · ICELANDNo single Star Wars destination exists. Tunisia's desert stood in for Tatooine across multiple films. Ireland's Skellig Michael appears in the newer trilogy. Iceland's landscapes have doubled for several planets across the franchise. These don't combine into one trip easily, and part of the planning conversation is choosing which region actually matches what someone wants to see.
Yellowstone Country
MONTANA · YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARKThe show is set around a fictional ranch, but the real draw for most travelers is the actual region: Yellowstone National Park and the Montana landscape surrounding it. This is planned as a national park and ranch-country trip first, with the show as the reason someone started looking rather than the itinerary's structure.
Montauk, New York
STRANGER THINGSBefore it was Hawkins, Indiana, it was Montauk. The show was originally titled after this Long Island town, and its premise draws directly from the Montauk Project, a decades-old conspiracy theory about secret government experiments at Camp Hero and the nearby Montauk Air Force Station. Camp Hero is now a New York State Park, open to the public, which gives the trip an actual place to visit rather than just a name to recognize. This is Long Island beach town and history as much as anything from the show itself, arguably the more interesting trip: the real story behind the fictional one.
London
TED LASSOFilmed largely around Richmond and other real London neighborhoods. This pairs naturally into a broader London itinerary rather than standing alone as a destination.
If a place first caught your attention on a screen, we're glad to help you get there and make sure the trip holds up once you do.