Movies have played a huge role in giving my face that incredulous expression while watching the panorama of the world around us. Who wouldn’t get charmed by the scenes shot in the south of France in ‘The Good Year’? I loved the film as much for its lazy pace as for its locations. I would give up my job too if I could stay at places like Bonnieux (thumbnail photo). Sound of Music (Austria) and Lord of The Rings (New Zealand) gave me two more spots for my travel itinerary.

If you love movies and just want to travel to some of the beautiful places they showcase (it’s called movie tourism these days), hop on to these ten sites which are all about locations where movies where shot.

Where Was It Filmed (Beta)

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What looks like a simple search engine for movie locations around the world is actually a user contributed website that helps you find movie locations. You can also contribute and earn points by your own inputs and also by approving the ones of the other contributors. You can also check out the alphabetical index on the site which is gradually being built up. As the screen shows, you get the location on a Google Map too.

Movie Locations

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It touts itself as the ultimate travel guide to film locations around the world. Behind the business like façade, there’s quite a lot of data on with the site being constantly updated. The site is enriched by original location photographs, trivia, links and travel details. There’s also a world map which goes with it (screenshot above). You can browse through the site with the name of the movie or search with an actor’s name.

Movie Locations Guide [No Longer Available]

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The almost similarly named site to the above one is not as rich, but it includes a few extras like the Google Earth mashup to see the location on the virtual globe, and a location quiz to jog your grey cells. The list of movies covered is not huge and the site doesn’t seem to be getting any updates. But it’s an interesting read nonetheless.

Film Maps

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We have covered Filmmaps in our directory and it is certainly one of the more focused sites on movie tourism. The stats say that the site covers 4304 film locations from 1861 films. You can log-in with Facebook connect and add your own films. Check out Popular Locations, Featured Films, or drill down to locations by country. The last option could really help you plan out places to visit when you land in a foreign country as each country is again divided by the regions and the films shot there.

IMDb

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We return to our old favorite when it comes to all things movies. There are other movie sites of course, but IMDb is like an encyclopedia. It helps that it has a search engine (go to the Advanced Search page) which lets you search for movie locations. IMDb also has a location matching link which shows you all the other movies that have been shot at a particular location.

Wikipedia

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Search with Google with a movie’s title will usually turn up IMDb first and Wikipedia second. Many movies get a complete look through here and that includes detailed information on the locations used for a movie. You might have to do a bit of reading as sometimes the locations might not be plainly mentioned under a Wikipedia heading like 'Production'. Check out the screenshot. I guess you know which film is being talked about there.

If you want to get a complete overview of movie locations that covers 100 years of set locations with data taken from IMDb, then check out this mashup - 100 Years of Set Locations - 2,001 Films Mapped.

Investigating famous film locations is great fun if you are a movie buff. It’s all the more so, if you happen to be a travel buff too. Are you one? Which are your favorite movie location spots? Have you ever deliberately planned out a trip that took you to one? Do let us know.

Image Credit: Wikipedia