I once stayed at the Hyatt (now Andaz) hotel on Sunset in West Hollywood where, apart from seeing Axl Rose in the foyer, I visited the rooftop pool that featured in the cult film This is Spinal Tap. The so-called “riot hotel” was also the scene of many real band-behaving-badly moments back in the day.
I didn’t seek out this rock’n’roll experience (it came as part of a deal secured by a friend), but there are plenty of people who do want to stay in hotels with connections to the rich and famous.
To that end, TripAdvisor has produced a list of such places.
They include the Taj Lake Palace Udaipur, from the James Bond film Octopussy; Le Bristol Paris, as seen in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris; the Plaza New York from Home Alone 2; Beverly Wilshire Beverly Hills, from Pretty Woman, and Lebua at State Tower in Bangkok, which was featured in The Hangover Part 2.
There are listings for all sorts of films, helping you, for example, to take an Amelie-inspired tour around Montmartre or see the real outback Australian town featured in Peter Weir’s The Cars that Ate Paris. And who could resist a visit to The Grand Budapest Hotel? (Spoiler: it’s not in Hungary.)
Rough Guides recommends 40 locations, including those for the Harry Potter films, Inception, Gladiator, Ghostbusters, Avatar, Lawrence of Arabia and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
But wait, there’s more — from BuzzFeed, Global Film Locations (including places featured in music videos and TV shows), Visit London (all in the British capital, of course), and MSN (covering every US state).
Update: After I tweeted a link to this, a friend asked: “Why would you want to [visit such places]?” My best answer is that being where a favourite film was made gives a fan a closer sense of connection to that film and the people in it. Also, many of us are simply curious about the way Hollywood “repurposes” places to make them seem what they are not, which is certainly the case with the Harry Potter locations.
