5 Legendary Bond Film Locations You Can Visit

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Wednesday, 10 January 2018 15:40

Written by Henry Spencer

Connery & Andress trying to get away from it all

Watching a James Bond film can make you want a lot of different things: fancy cars, secret agent training, the company of a beautiful woman or handsome man, or even a new wardrobe full of sharp formalwear. The films are designed as much to be eye candy as anything else. Above all else, however, many of them can make you want to tour the world and see some of the incredible cities and gorgeous getaways that Bond and the surrounding characters tend to wind up in. It’s a sprawling franchise full of incredible destinations. Fortunately for us, the idea of visiting these destinations is more attainable than most of those other things mentioned above!

Generally speaking, Bond movies make use of real places rather than making them up, which means filming spots are perfectly accessible to anyone with a dose of wanderlust and a bit of initiative. To prove the point, here’s a look at five legendary locations from the films that you can actually visit in real life.

Dunn’s River Falls – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Fans will remember a scene in Dr. No when Sean Connery (Bond) and UrsulaAndress (Honey Ryder) ducked under a surreal waterfall in order to avoid capture, using bamboo shafts like snorkels. In the film, this happens in a fictional location. But the actual setting was the Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This location is among the most popular tourist destinations associated with an exotic Bond scene.Indeed, travelers insist you allot a couple of hours to climb the Falls if you happen to be visiting the Ocho Rios area.

Glen Etive – Glencoe, Scotland

This is the setting of one of the most recent Bond films: Skyfall. It was an unusual location in the franchise in that it represented not some far reach of the film where a villain lurked or a mission was necessary, but rather a chapter of Bond’s past. Glen Etive is an area in the Scottish Highlands that was used as the backdrop for “Skyfall,” where the country house from Bond’s childhood was. This is where the film reached its climax, and where Daniel Craig’s Bond had his final showdown with Silva (Javier Bardem). It’s a gorgeous place for a hike, as well as some general sightseeing.

Himeji Castle – Hyogo, Japan

You Only Live Twice, a 1967 Bond film, saw Sean Connery making his way to Japan, where he ultimately visited a sort of traditional ninja academy run by Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tanba). The academy itself doesn’t exist, but if you’ve ever been intrigued by the setting you’ll be interested to know it was created within Himeji Castle – a very real building in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan. It’s a postcard-perfect ancient sight that has been called the finest surviving example of 17th century Japanese castle architecture, and you can’t help but absorb a sense of adventure from seeing it in person.

Karlovy Vary Spa – Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

Daniel Craig’s first turn as Bond, in Casino Royale, involved casino venues arguably more intimately than any previous Bond film. Yet many are under the mistaken impression that the fictional “Casino Royale” was the Monte Carlo Casino. While there are some similarities, this isn’t accurate. The inspiration for the casino came from Ian Fleming’s time at the Casino Estoril in Lisbon – and the actual casino, or at least its beautiful exterior, was filmed at the Karlovy Vary Spa in the Czech Republic. It’s a renowned spa, and in fact the whole town of Karlovy Vary is known as a relaxing and attractive retreat well worth visiting.

James Bond Island – Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

It may surprise you to learn that there’s actually an island in Thailand that has taken on the name of James Bond. Such is the case, however, at TapuIsland, a pristine getaway that was used as the hideout for Christopher Lee’s famous Francisco Scaramanga villain. Scaramanga and Bond (RogerMoore) famously dueled on this very beach in The Man With The Golden Gun - but you can have a far more relaxing time if you manage to visit!

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