You have watched it forty times. Now go and stand there.
Which Dubrovnik staircase is the walk of shame. Whether the Warner Bros studio tour needs its own day. What Hobbiton costs once the coach from Auckland is included. Reviews of the tours that take you to the place the camera was.
Four locations that carry a whole trip on their own.
The studio, the walking tour, the island set and the day out to the coast that everyone comes home talking about. What each costs and how long it takes.
01The whole dayHarry Potter Warner Bros Studio TourLeavesden holds the standing sets, the Great Hall and the real props. Coach from central London, and you will want the full afternoon.
02The two-hour versionHarry Potter Magical Guided Walking TourCloses, kirkyards and the cafe where the first chapters were written. Edinburgh does this on foot, cheaply, in the dark half of the year too.
03The island setHobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour TicketThirty-nine hobbit holes kept exactly as the second trilogy left them, gardened daily. The only film set on earth rebuilt in permanent materials.
04The coast dayGiant’s Causeway and Game of Thrones Day TourBasalt columns in the morning, Winterfell and the Dark Hedges after lunch. One minibus does both out of Belfast.
Britain shot most of it, and you can walk into nearly all of it.
Studio sets in Hertfordshire, wizarding streets in Edinburgh, Winterfell on the Antrim coast, Downton in Hampshire. Four kinds of British film day, what each one costs to board, and where it starts.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour
The studio dayStanding sets, real props, the Express on its platform.
The London walkDoorways, alleys and the bridge, on foot in two hours.
The Edinburgh walkThe closes and kirkyards the names were lifted from.
The Antrim runWinterfell, the Dark Hedges and the causeway in one day.
All 255 British film location days →
The Harry Potter tours people actually queue for.
See the full list →
Two tickets do most of the work: Leavesden for the sets and the props, and a guided walk for the streets the books were written in. Everything else is a variation on transport.
Pick the story first. The map sorts itself out afterwards.
Ten franchises carry most of what is bookable, and each one lands in a different country. These are the lists, biggest first.
A studio tour is the set itself, not a ride with a queue.
Leavesden, Burbank, Cinecitta, Film City in Mumbai and the Atlas lot at Ouarzazate keep standing sets, costume stores and prop rooms open to ticket holders. Slots are timed and the good ones are gone weeks out.
The film location tours more people take than any others.
Every location tour we have reviewed →Nine tours carry a startling share of the demand on this site. Here is what each one gets you through the door of.
1
Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour
Travel from Victoria Coach Station to Warner Bros. Studio Tour London by air-conditioned coach. Spend at least four hours seeing authentic sets, costumes, props, Gringotts, Diagon Alley, and the Hogwarts Express at your own pace. A representative handles ticket exchange, but no tour guide is included.
From · $117
Read our review →
2
Warner Bros. Studio Harry Potter Tour & Branded Bus
from $151
3
Harry Potter Magical Guided Walking Tour
from $19
4
Warner Bros. Studio Harry Potter Tour with Transfers
from $117
5
Warner Bros. Studio Harry Potter Tour with Transfers
from $116
6
Hobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour Ticket
from $71
7
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood
from $76
8
Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour
from $111
9
Giant’s Causeway and Game of Thrones Day Tour
from $26
Spoilers, distance, photographs, and whether the tour is allowed to say the name.
Location tours run on rules the listing rarely mentions. Guides show stills at the exact camera position, which means plot given away in front of you. Studio tickets are timed to the minute and non-transferable. Most walking tours are unofficial, so the poster in the guide is doing the work the licence will not let the title do. Sets and stages usually allow photographs; a working stage does not.
What a day at the filming location actually costs.
Every tour on the site grouped by price. The walking tours are cheap enough to do two in a day; the studio tickets are the line item to plan around.
Guided walks, self-guided trails and city location tours you can slot into a spare morning.
Studio tickets with transfers, the Hobbiton coach out of Auckland, full-day coastal runs.
- 1Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tourfrom $117
- 2Hobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour Ticketfrom $71
- 3Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywoodfrom $76
Private guides, two-set days and the long drives that reach a location nothing else goes to.
Three sets that were never struck.
Almost every set is dismantled the week the unit moves on. These three were kept, and a ticket puts you inside them.
Hobbiton, Matamata
The first build was plywood and it was pulled down. For the second trilogy the crew put the hobbit holes up in permanent materials on the same sheep farm, and the family who own the land kept them. Thirty-nine doors, a working garden crew, laundry pegged out and a real pint at the Green Dragon at the end. Nothing was filmed here after 2012 and it has been maintained as if the cameras come back on Monday.
- 1Hobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 8,167 reviews
- 2Hobbiton™ Movie Set Walking Tour from Shires Rest★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,577 reviews
- 3Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Guided Day Trip from Auckland incl lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,677 reviews
Leavesden Studios
Two aircraft hangars outside Watford held the Potter unit for ten years, and when it wrapped the sets stayed up. The Great Hall, Diagon Alley, Gringotts, the Express on a platform with a working smoke effect. Entry is timed to the quarter hour, non-transferable, and it sells out well ahead of the date. Give it four hours and take the earlier slot.
- 1Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 26,588 reviews
- 2Harry Potter: Warner Bros. Studio Tour from King’s Cross★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 6,442 reviews
- 3Harry Potter Studio Tour and Oxford Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,098 reviews
The walls of Dubrovnik
No set was built here at all. The old town played King's Landing as it stands, which is why the guides carry stills: you are shown the frame, then the staircase in front of you. Cruise arrivals fill the walls from mid-morning, so an early start is the difference between the shot and a queue on the ramparts.
- 1Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 5,995 reviews
- 2The Original Game of Thrones Tour & Lokrum Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,064 reviews
- 3Dubrovnik Game of Thrones Tour & Optional Lokrum Island Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,702 reviews
Dubrovnik plays a capital city, and it has not changed a stone since.
Blackwater Bay, the Red Keep gardens on Lokrum, the steps down from the Jesuit church. Split has the cellars, and the speedboat runs out of both towns reach the island scenes in a day.
Every Croatian location day →
New Zealand rented out its whole landscape and kept one village.
Hobbiton is two hours south of Auckland and runs on timed entry with a guide the entire way round. Queenstown covers the mountain scenes, and Wellington keeps the workshop that made the armour. Most people do the first as a day trip and regret not staying for the evening banquet.
- 1Hobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour Ticketfrom $71
- 2Hobbiton™ Movie Set Walking Tour from Shires Restfrom $74
- 3Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Guided Day Trip from Auckland incl lunchfrom $229
In Los Angeles the location tour and the celebrity home tour are the same bus.
The Hollywood sign, the Griffith Observatory terrace, the Beverly Hills gates and the studio lots in Burbank. Open-top buses do the loop cheaply, the walking tours cover the Walk of Fame properly, and the studio ticket is the one that needs a date.
London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dubrovnik: the run most fans do first.
Oxford
Dubrovnik
RomeBy country and city
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