The best part about reading a book is that it can transport you to a place you’ve never been, and one that only exists in your imagination. The best part about watching film and TV is that it takes you somewhere you can actually visit.
Set-jetting, aka visiting locations you’ve seen while watching a movie, is still a huge trend in 2026 and shows no signs of slowing down.
While most people will travel to a specific destination after seeing it on screen, some people take it a step further by following in the footsteps of their favourite characters.
Plenty of films and TV shows have used hotels as their settings, and with the reopening of the “Lost in Translation hotel” in Tokyo, we thought it was time to take a look at some of the most iconic.
Lost in Translation: Park Hyatt Tokyo, Japan
Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) made the Park Hyatt Tokyo one of the world’s most famous addresses.
While the screenplay, and Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson’s performances, are what earned it numerous accolades, including an Oscar, the movie wouldn’t have been the same without the atmosphere, and the towering skyscraper hotel’s views over the Japanese capital.
The hotel reopened after a 19-month renovation in December 2025, but rather than a whole new design, the interiors are very much in keeping with the original, albeit slightly modernised or softened in places.
The Night Manager: Es Saadi Palace, Marrakech
The 2016 TV adaptation of John Le Carré’s The Night Manager focuses on former British soldier Jonathan Pine, now the eponymous night manager of a hotel in Cairo, as he is recruited to take down an international arms dealer.
However, the fictional Nefertiti Hotel as shown on screen is actually Marrakech’s Es Saadi Palace.
Best known for its gardens, which cover 80,000 square metres, the resort complex also includes a 3,000 square metre spa, a nightclub and a casino. The Palace is an all-suite hotel, and its restaurants make use of produce and herbs grown on-site for dishes and cocktails.
English actor Tom Hiddleston certainly isn’t the only famous face to have passed through these halls since the resort first opened in 1952, with guests over the years including Pierre Balmain, Josephine Baker and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Hangover: Ceasars Palace, Nevada, US
Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace was already famous well before The Hangover was shot here in 2009 (and no, not because the real Ceasar lived there).
Having opened on the strip in 1966, the hotel and casino has hosted numerous boxing matches and sports events (including two Formula 1 races in the early 1980s) as well as concerts from artists including Frank Sinatra, Cher, Dolly Parton and Adele, to name but a few.
It’s also long been a filming location, with other movies shot here including Ocean’s Eleven, Rain Man and Rocky III.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to stay in the actual suite from The Hangover movie – because it was built on a lot at Warner Bros. Burbank.
You can, however, stay at one of the hotel’s 3,960 rooms and suites, eat at one of the many restaurants (including celeb favourite Nobu), put your bets in at the sports bar, have a spin on the 1,324 slot machines, or relax at one of the six swimming pools.
The White Lotus: Various Four Seasons hotels
Few shows have given us wanderlust quite like The White Lotus, and it wasn’t just because we were stuck at home during the Covid pandemic.
The destinations chosen for each of the seasons – Hawaii, Sicily and Thailand (and soon to be the south of France) – are spectacular in and of themselves, but the Four Seasons hotel chosen in each takes things to another level.
In Hawaii, the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea boasts a gorgeous beach, several Instagram-friendly pools, three (yes, three) golf courses, and several world-class restaurants, including one from legendary chef Wolfgang Puck.
As for Sicily, the Four Seasons San Domenico Hotel is found on a clifftop within Taormina and overlooks the Ionian Sea.
From the restaurants to the infinity pool, you can’t escape the views that seem so perfect they were basically made for film (fun fact: they did make it onto the silver screen, and the hotel offers filming location tours that take you to nearby towns featured in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather).
For season three of The White Lotus, the Four Seasons Resort in Ko Samui was the main base for filming, with its gorgeous pool villas, but other properties used to create the fictional hotel include the Rosewood Phuket, the Anantara Mai Khao Phuket and the Anantara Bophut Koh Samui.
Pretty Woman: Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel
Another hotel that was famous long before it hit the silver screen, the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills once served as the home of a number of stars including Elvis Presley, Warren Beatty and John Lennon.
Its most famous “residents”, however, are fictional, as the property starred as the main setting for Pretty Woman.
The hotel has no problem milking its association with the 1990s classic, either, as you can book in for a “Pretty Woman experience” where you stay in the Penthouse suite, relax at the Beverly Hills Spa with a massage followed by a bath in your room, take part in a dining etiquette lesson and enjoy a picnic at a nearby park.
For regular guests, there are 395 rooms and suites, five restaurants and bars including Wolfgang Puck’s CUT, and a gorgeous outdoor pool.
Twin Peaks: Salish Lodge & Spa, Washington, US
You wouldn’t think that David Lynch’s cult classic TV show about a murder investigation would inspire many travellers, but the setting in Washington State really is that stunning (albeit in an eerie kind of way).
What’s known in the show as the Great Northern Hotel in Twin Peaks is in fact the Salish Lodge & Spa in Snoqualmie.
With just 86 keys, there is no room 315, but you can buy a key ring with Agent Cooper’s room number on it in the hotel gift shop, as well as other themed memorabilia.
Real-life guests can admire Snoqualmie Falls, learn more about the Snoqualmie Tribe at the visitor centre, book in for a spa treatment or relax in the sauna.
Sex and the City: Hotel Plaza Athénée
Mr Big moving to Paris in season two of Sex and the City is a major stumbling block for Carrie Bradshaw’s on-again, off-again relationship, but it wasn’t until season six that the love-her-or-hate-her protagonist herself heads to the city of love.
On her trip, with Aleksandr rather than Big, Carrie checks into the Hotel Plaza Athénée – and the scene setting shot of the Vogue columnist on the balcony surrounded by flowers while looking at the Eiffel Tower is something you can very much recreate if you check in yourself.
Part of the Dorchester Collection, every element of the hotel screams luxury, from the Dior Spa to the Michelin-starred restaurants (yes, they have two separate eateries given the nod by the tyre company’s reviewers).
While Carrie only spends two episodes in Paris, given it was the season finale, it certainly left an impression on us.