Re-enact your favourite movie in these 7 hotels that made award-worthy appearances on the silver screen. Book yourself in using the new momondo hotel search.
The Plaza Hotel – New York City, USA
The Plaza Hotel, New York City.
Movie hotels don’t get more A-list than The Plaza. The crowning French-Renaissance château-style landmark of Midtown Manhattan is a titan of American culture, having featured in countless movies across the years, from American Hustle to Scent of a Woman, North by Northwest and Crocodile Dundee 2, as well as featuring prominently in “the Great American Novel”, The Great Gatsby.
Its starring role, however, is without doubt in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York from 1992, where the young Kevin McCallister checked in to Suite 144 and splashed out on bottomless supplies of ice cream, limousine tours of the Big Apple and extra-large cheese pizzas.
Such luxury doesn’t come cheap, but if you’re willing to cough up the dough for the extremely large bill (or maybe if you have your absent father’s credit cards), book yourself up for a pampering at The Plaza.
Turtle Bay Resort – Oahu Island, Hawaii
The Turtle Bay Resort, Hawaii.
As the major hotel on the north shore of Hawaii’s Oahu Island, Turtle Bay Resort is treated a bit like royalty in Hollywood. Offering over 800 acres of lush and unspoilt tropical rainforest, it’s been used as a film location in movies such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Pirates of the Caribbean IV, as well as playing “the island” in ABC’s cult series LOST.
You might need be an actual movie star to afford one of the 42 private bungalows at the resort, but great deals can always be found elsewhere on the site. A mini-village of a resort, beyond the gorgeous surrounding nature, Turtle Bay features two 18-hole golf courses, 10 tennis courts, several pools and restaurants, plus a luxury spa.
In short, it’s the perfect summer sun resort, and definitely somewhere worth getting, ahem, lost.
Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce, Bruges, Belgium
Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce, Bruges, Belgium. © Emilio J Santacoloma
When in Bruges, why not go “In Bruges” and stay in the Relais Bourgoundisch Cruyce? This beautiful hotel between two canals features heavily in the 2008 black comedy, where two hitmen (played by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) are trying to keep a low-profile in the so-called “Venice of the North” after a job goes horribly wrong.
Its charms may have been lost on the two bickering guns-for-hire, but the 16th century, waterside resort – boasting stained glass windows and 16 antique-filled suites – is considered one of the most romantic boutique hotels in Europe. Check-in and fall in love.
Park Hyatt Toyko – Japan
The Park Hyatt Hotel Tokyo. © kadluba
Ever wake up and wish you were Bill Murray? Well, some dreams can’t come true, but at least you can follow in the inimitable comic genius’ footsteps by spending a night at the Park Hyatt Tokyo.
This swanky 5-star joint famously featured in the 2003 offbeat comedy Lost in Translation, where an existential crisis-stricken Bill Murray found an unlikely companion in the equally pensive, pink wig-wearing Scarlett Johansson.
Housed in the capital’s second-tallest building, the Kenzo Tange-designed Shinjuku Park Tower, the Park Hyatt is the height of Japanese elegance. Features include a sky-high swimming pool with a glass ceiling, rare 2,000-year-old wood suite furnishings and unrivalled panoramic views of the city skyline.
If none of that quenches your thirst, you can always make like Murray and sip on whisky in the top-floor New York Bar, which is often praised as the finest cocktail bar in the whole of Tokyo.
Grandhotel Pupp First Class – Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
The Grandhotel Pupp, Czech Republic. © Scully Photo
Whether you like your martini shaken or stirred, only the best is served at the Grandhotel Pupp First Class. The clue is in the name.
Besides hosting the annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, this grand 18th century resort was used as a principal film location for the 2006 Bond flick, Casino Royale.
If he wasn’t an international man of mystery on a mission, we’re sure Bond, James Bond, would have fallen in love with the splendour on offer of this 5-star Pupp. Spend the night and be treated to a treasure chest of luxuries that include a Thai massage parlour, casino club and a selection of the finest gastronomic restaurants in all of Western Bohemia.
It’s no doubt the crowning jewel of the gorgeous spa town of Karlovy Vary. 007 didn’t settle for anything less than this 5-star lodging, so why should you?
The Ellangowan Hotel – Creetown, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland
The Ellangowan Hotel, Scotland. © JHongosh
No doubt you’ll already aware that you can check yourself in to the creepy madhouse of Colorado’s Stanley Hotel as featured in The Shining. But, if you want to spend the night somewhere truly spooky, the Ellangowan is the place to be.
This charming bed and breakfast in the bucolic Scottish seaport town of Creetown was once used as “The Green Man” public house in the legendary mystery movie The Wicker Man.
Featuring a noteworthy local restaurant on the ground floor and just 8 en-suite rooms above, The Ellangowan is definitely a modest local spot, but anyone who’s a fan of the notoriously creepy cult classic will take pleasure in having a pint, spending a night or frolicking around this quirky little abode.
Fontainebleau Miami Beach – Florida, USA
The Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach. © Phillip Pessar
There’s no resort on the palm-tree stuffed Millionaire’s Row that typifies the excess and scantily clad luxury of Miami Beach better than The Fontainebleau.
This extravagant Neo-Baroque complex has been showered with a hot mix of praise and disdain over the last fifty years. A-list naysayers (such as Joni Mitchell and Woody Allen) have called it tasteless and tacky, while those in favour of its pomposity have ranked it ninety-third on the “America’s Favourite Architecture” top 150 list.
Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny it, and neither could the movies. Over the last fifty years, the Fontainebleau – particularly its 40,000-square-foot spa, bowtie shaped swimming pool and the throng of obligatory, scantily clad bikini babes and bods – have featured heavily in films such as The Bodyguard, Goldfinger, Frank Sinatra’s A Hole In the Head and the 1983 remake of Scarface.
