The most beautiful TV series locations in the world

While we rarely judge a TV series solely for its filming locations, there are some shows where the landscape and backgrounds give off as much main character energy as the protagonists themselves. Below, we take a look at the TV shows from the last few years that have made us wonder where filming took place – and even convinced us to book holidays as soon as we binge-watching the season.

The Last of Us

While the crumbling dystopian world of The Last of Us doesn't provide the best holiday travelling inspiration, the show features some breathtaking landscapes that make us wonder where it was filmed. The series imagines remnant versions of major cities like Boston, Kansas City, and Jackson, Wyoming, which were shot in a whopping 180 locations. Most of the main action was filmed in Alberta, Canada. Places like High River, Canmore, Waterton Lakes National Park, and Mount Royal University were used – some of which are recognisable, but all were altered to suit the show's aesthetic.

Virgin River

Based on a 20-strong book series by Robyn Carr, this series depicts life in a northern Californian town, among redwoods, waterfalls and epic scenery. But in reality, the series was filmed in Hollywood North, a new filming centre just outside of Vancouver in Canada. Some other Canadian vistas might be recognisable, including Mel's waterside cabin which is the caretaker's house in Murdo Frazer Park on Vancouver's North Shore; her place of work at New Westminster in the city's south-east, and the woods, water and skyscraper buildings of Burnaby in Vancouver's east side.

The White Lotus

After its initial success during the lockdown, The White Lotus has become a firm favourite of many. Season 1 was set in a luxury Hawaiian resort, which actually was filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea (in a one-location shoot, due to strict Covid guidelines). The hotel lives up to the tropical-paradise clichés with ease – its 15 acres house three pools, three restaurants (including Wolfgang Puck’s Spago), three golf courses, a spa and an art museum. Amazingly, the crew were given almost free rein, from the entrance and lobby to the restaurants, the spa and even the neighbouring Wailea Beach. Season 2 heads to Europe, and was filmed at San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel, on the north-east coast of Sicily. The hotel sits on the rocks a little inland, overlooking the Ionian Sea with views of Mount Etna. Unlike the first series, this season travelling around the area nearby. Scenes were filmed in Noto on the islands south-east and the coastal town of Cefalù, near Palermo.

Bridgerton

Another Covid success story, Bridgerton distracted millions of people from Covid gloom in 2020. The first series was primarily shot in Bath, the beautifully preserved city that has already served as a backdrop to so much screen drama (including in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, 2004’s Vanity Fair and 2008’s The Duchess, not to mention the time-travelling episode of Sherlock in 2015). Scenes were also shot in London and Surrey. For the second series, filming took place on a giant set on Sunninghill Estate in Berkshire, with action also returning to Bath as expected.

Poldark

The BBC’s swashbuckling period drama has inspired thousands of fans to head to the West Country. Visit Cornwall found that 13 per cent of visitors in 2019 listed the show as influencing their decision to holiday in Poldark’s wild Cornish landscape. Most filming took place on the Penwith peninsula, known for its clear water and white sand, as well as in pretty bays such as Penberth Cove. Poldark himself has a stint in London as an MP (mostly filmed in Bristol) – but it's the Cornish countryside that has the starring role here. Sarah James.

Game of Thrones

HBO's fantasy blockbuster might be set in a world of magic, dragons and evil zombies – but the majority of the series was shot close to home, in Northern Ireland. Magheramorne Quarry made appearances as Castle Black and The Wall, while the Dark Hedges, lined with beech trees, appear as Kingsroad in series two. Further afield, Croatia’s seaside city Dubrovnik can be seen as King’s Landing, and filming also took place in Iceland, across snowy peaks including Kirkjufell. Sarah James

Big Little Lies

The drama is based on the eponymous book set in a fictional Australian town, but HBO moved the story to the California coast, giving Monterey and the dramatic Pacific shoreline a lead part. Four-acre park Lovers Point has been used for many of the characters’ showdowns and is home to the fictional Blissful Drip Café, the women’s main meeting point. Rugged seafronts such as Carmel River State Beach and Del Monte Beach appear throughout, while Big Sur’s Bixby Creek Bridge (pictured) is one of the landmarks of the series. Sarah James

Emily in Paris

This cute comedy follows Lily Collins as Emily, an American expat living in the French capital. And while Parisians and expats alike have been pretty vocal about the show’s misrepresentation of life in the City of Lights, the glossy locations can’t be faulted. Showrunner Darren Star, who was also behind Sex and the City, takes us to lavish sites including the Palais Garnier, historic restaurant Le Grand Véfour and the well-known Jardin du Luxembourg, while Emily’s apartment is in pretty Place de l’Estrapade in the 5th arrondissement. And the show even does as the Parisians do and heads out of the city for a summer break in the Champagne region – actually filmed in the Loire Valley. Sarah James

Sex Education

The mix of Eighties-inspired American and up-to-the-minute British references in this sharply funny Netflix hit has kept fans guessing as to where the show is set – and filmed. Writer Laurie Nunn was inspired by cult movies such as The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, resulting in Moordale High’s letter-jacket-wearing jocks and fancy school dances. But the show was actually filmed along the Welsh border. Lead character Otis and his mum Jean’s extraordinary house sits on the River Wye, while the Forest of Dean also features heavily.

White Lines

This tale of drugs and debauchery from Money Heist’s Alex Pina is a love letter to the unique mix of glamour and wilderness found on Spain’s Balearic Islands. There are beaches and opulent villas, but look out for the Nineties flashback, with its blissful sunset shot of Es Vedrà, the islet off Ibiza’s south-west coast. Watch and yearn.

I May Destroy You

While dealing with some of the heaviest topics around, Michaela Coel’s riveting series also gave weight to style and location. London got a good showing, as did Italy. The scene where Arabella (played by Coel) reaches rock bottom on the sands of Battistini in Ostia was particularly distracting, equal parts ‘What’s she doing?’ and ‘Where is that?’.

Killing Eve

On her trips to Paris, Amsterdam and Rome, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) has made the life of the travelling psychopathic assassin all too attractive. Most irresistible of all, though, was her stay in Barcelona for Season 3. The splendour of La Casa Ramos, a beautiful modernist building on Plaça de Lesseps in the Gràcia district is – give or take the odd murder – the stuff of city-break dreams.

Succession

A dissection of America’s most ruthless, this show also gives us a peek into billionaires’ holiday habits, as the Roy family gather in an upstate New York retreat and in the Hamptons’ 175-million-dollar Henry Ford Estate at Jule Pond. Most fascinating, though, is their luxury-yacht trip to the Aegean and Cratia, particularly the island of Korčula – worth enduring a family conference for.

Riviera

A proper potboiler about secrets, lavish living and art, this soapy confection reveals its greatest attraction in the title. Newly widowed Georgina Clios (Julia Stiles) lives in a sprawling Tuscan-style villa, the real-life Château Diter near Grasse, but most breathtaking is a glimpse of the Hôtel Belles Rives in Juan-les-Pins, the one-time waterfront home of F Scott Fitzgerald and the Riviera in bricks-and-mortar form.

Normal People

The first big hit during lockdown was set in Dublin but, like I May Destroy You, its most memorable location was on holiday, when Connell (Paul Mescal) and Marianne(Daisy Edgar-Jones) are reunited at her family villa in Italy (which you can actually rent on Airbnb). Supposedly set in Trieste, this is Il Casale in Tenuta di Verzano near Sant’Oreste, about 25 miles north of Rome. Just as redolent of the perfect Italian tour is the pair’s bike trip to nearby Stimigliano for ice cream and unspoken desire.

The Last Wave

The BBC’s latest French import is a supernatural mystery but alongside the pourquoi of it all comes the setting, on the famed surf beaches of the endless Côte d’Argent on the Atlantic coast. There’s plot aplenty, but the real appeal is an invitation to imagine relaxing into a casual life of long days catching waves and longer nights spent in wooden-shack beach bars.

Gap Year

A flashback to backpacking years – whether you’re the right age to remember or just imagining a misspent youth – this comedy still revels in Asia’s big tourist spots. The gang visit the Great Wall, trek Malaysian jungles and tour Nepalese temples but the highlight is the Full Moon Party on Thailand’s Koh Phangan. It’s filmed at the real location, so you can almost feel the hot night air and the sand between your toes, leading you to book a trip you’ll regret.

Top Of the Lake

Scandi noir flipped to the other side of the world, this thriller captured the wonder of New Zealand’s South Island. Filmed around Queenstown, it lingers on the peaks, valleys and forests but above all the lakes. One in particular, Moke Lake, stands out: surrounded by mountains and little else, it’s where the mysterious GJ (Holly Hunter) pitches her women’s commune. Lovers of wilderness will admire her choice.

The Night Manager

This superior thriller from 2016 lingers in the memory, partly for its spectacular locations. There are lavish hotels in Marrakech (standing in for Egypt) and Zermatt, but the breakout star is the complex owned by villain Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), in real life Mallorca’s La Fortaleza, or Sa Fortalesa Albercutx de Pollensa (Albercutx Fortress). Set on a headland on the island’s northern tip, it’s made up of seven villas with terraces and two pools. Crime does pay, it seems.

Van der Valk

This reboot of a Seventies favourite sees Marc Warren taking the role of the Dutch detective in a variety of locations that remind the viewer just how close this glorious city is. He rings the changes with visits to the bohemian NDSM Wharf and a bizarre waterborne restaurant in Houthaven, but the scene that will have you booking the Eurostar is a cycle chase through the heart of the Grachtengordel canal district.

The Good Karma Hospital

A feelgood series in the Death in Paradise mould, this is supposedly set in the southern Indian state of Kerala but filmed in Sri Lanka, around the town of Galle. The hospital run by Lydia (Amanda Redman) is in fact the Amarasuriya Teacher Training College, but the star is the beach at Unawatuna, where Greg (Neil Morrissey) lives the dream running a bar on sands lapped by the Indian Ocean.

Little Birds

An exotic tale of an American ingénue in Fifties Tangier, this production is a riot of decadence and colour. Rather than Morocco, it was filmed just across the Mediterranean on the southern tip of Spain, in Tarifa. Better known for its windsports, this is a beach destination; its allure is down to the whitewashed houses and narrow streets of the Old Town, where the Moorish architecture transports viewers to another time.

Patrick Melrose

Among the wretched scenes of highly privileged agony and Benedict Cumberbatch’s magnetic performance, this prestige mini-series slipped in some beautiful surroundings. Chief among them is the title character’s childhood home in Provence, filmed at the 18th-century Château Unang, close to the village of Malemort-du-Comtat – the pastoral paradise for his personal hell.

The Durrells

Over four seasons, this show turned genteel penury into a vision of bliss with its Corfu setting and golden Thirties glow. There are numerous pretty coves and beaches, but really there’s no beating the family home. Villa Annemoyani is just to the north of Corfu Town, in Gouvia – though in a state of disrepair, it’s the ideal base for a long summer living the island life.

First published on CNT UK