Revealed: The Scene-Stealing Hotels From TV’s Top Shows

The hotels at the heart of The White Lotus seasons one and two were headliners in themselves – although the fictitious staff and clientele do leave something to be desired. Season one set the scene superbly within a supposedly serene tropical retreat, filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, in Hawaii. In the following series, the escapades (and Jennifer Coolidge’s award-winning Tanya) transferred to Sicily’s San Domenico Palace, another Four Seasons Hotel, in the breathtaking hilltop town of Taormina.

For the imminent and much-anticipated season three, the allure of Thailand has drawn the show’s creators to its shores. Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui will serve as one of the locations, with its paradisal island resort, where immense private villas overlook the Gulf of Siam, providing a superlatively cinematic location for some sure-to-be sensational drama. The stunning Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas, on the northern tip of Phuket, has also been reported as another ultra-luxurious sanctuary for the ill-fated guests at The White Lotus.

The high-octane action of spy thriller Black Doves might take place largely in the underworld of London, but some of the city’s most recognizable locations also feature – from the banks of the Thames to Somerset House, Borough Market, Liberty department store and Leadenhall Market. The Royal Lancaster Hotel, with its incredible vantage point overlooking Hyde Park, is the setting for hitman Sam (played by Ben Whishaw) as he returns to London, drinking in the atmospheric Park Lounge Bar, as well as offering up the place where Helen (Keira Knightley) first sets her sights on her future politician husband, Wallace (Andrew Buchan).

Enjoying the shared titular role with Lily Collins’ Emily, Paris provides the stage for the American millennial to blunder and enchant. French locales featured in the show over its seasons have included the sublime Molitor hotel, with its outdoor swimming pool – an Art Deco urban icon in the city – the place where Emily and Mindy (Ashley Park) debut the latter’s singing talents.

Outside Paris, viewers have also spotted the breathtaking Airelles Gordes hotel in scenes set in Provence. The hotel’s Clover Gordes restaurant (renamed L’Esprit de Luberon for the sake of the show) is where Emily and chef Gabriel enjoy a particularly picturesque lunch. The South of France also made an appearance in season two, with Emily spending a weekend at the legendary Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat on the Côte d’Azur.

Emily went even further afield in the latest season, heading for Rome, where she visited many of the city’s most renowned locales – from the Trevi fountain to the Spanish Steps and the Colosseum. She stays at the opulent Hotel Eden in the heart of the city – the beautiful La Terrazza is where Emily and Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) meet for breakfast, with the city’s sweeping views taking center stage.

For four seasons, we watched the Roy family exist at the less than enviable heights of torment, tantrums and toxic family drama. But those still in the depths of grief at the ending of Jesse Armstrong’s dynasty satire can immerse themselves in the far more covetable quiet luxury of the characters’ lives by visiting one of the desirable destinations the clan is known to have sojourned in.

For instance, maniacal tycoon Lucas Mattson’s (Alexander Skarsgård) ultra-modern Norwegian forest retreat in season 4, where the Waystar Royco brigade arrives for tense negotiations, was filmed at the architecturally astounding Juvet Landscape Hotel. Encircling guests (media moguls or not) in the soaring, verdant wilderness of Norway’s northwest coast, Juvet brings the outside in with towering glass walls in spectacular spaces – from the Landscape treehouse-style rooms to the sprawling Writer’s Lodge and Bath House spa. The scenery is suitably dramatic for cliff-hanger moments.

At the more traditional end of the scale was Scotland’s grand Gleneagles Hotel, a vast and prestigious country estate to the north of Edinburgh, which served as one of the locations for a company party, and a return to his Scottish roots for Logan Roy – and, indeed, his real-life counterpart, Brian Cox.

One of the most astounding plotlines in Inventing Anna – the series inspired by the story of heiress-imposter Anna Delvey – revolved around a now-infamous trip to Morocco. While the vacation depicted in the show got excruciatingly fraught as it went on, and ended with some severe post-vacation woes for Delvey’s party, the real-life palace hotel of La Mamounia in Marrakech is every part as wonderful and opulent as you would expect. The scenes were filmed in the very same riad (the largest the magnificent property has on offer) that the real trip took place in, surrounded by the hotel’s equally elegant, manicured gardens. There are also a number of striking New York hotels depicted in the show – which include The Mercer, 11 Howard and The Beekman – as Delvey hops between decadent suites, leaving immense bills in her wake.

In the TV adaption of David Nicholls’ beloved bestseller One Day, the rollercoaster relationship between Emma (Ambika Mod) and Dexter (Leo Woodall) plays out over two decades and across historical Edinburgh landmarks, the paradisal Greek island of Paros, magnificent country manors, the streets of Paris, and a scattering of London parks and restaurants. However, shortly after their fated final-night meeting during graduation, Emma tours some not-so-picturesque sights (mainly school halls) with her theater group, while Dexter gallivants in Rome. He meets his mother on the scenic terrace of Bio Hotel Raphaël, close to Piazza Navona, where the vista over the Eternal City’s rooftops is as enthralling as the will-they-won’t-they romance unfolding.

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