{"id":97177287,"date":"2017-07-13T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/?p=97177287"},"modified":"2019-09-19T21:46:33","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T21:46:33","slug":"your-game-of-thrones-travel-itinerary-5-must-see-places-from-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/your-game-of-thrones-travel-itinerary-5-must-see-places-from-the-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Game of Thrones Travel Itinerary: 5 Must See Places from the Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final season of\u00a0HBO\u2019s <\/span>Game of Thrones\u00a0<\/span><\/i>came to an end a few months ago, leaving thousands of fans of George R. R. Martin’s epic universe of violence, intrigues, and sex aching for their regular dose of action and treason. Since it doesn’t seem likely that the two last books of Song of Ice and Fire<\/em> will hit the bookstores anytime soon, you might think that the Seven Kingdoms are completely out of reach now. Or are they? What if you could actually set foot on some of the real-life locations where the TV show was shot? You don’t even need a dragon to take you there: some cheap flights to Spain, Iceland or Croatia to name a few places will suffice! Are you ready to discover the real Westeros?<\/span><\/p>\n

Destination: Northern Ireland\u00a0<\/strong>
\nGame of Thrones<\/i> location: A lot of Westeros<\/h2>\n
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Image via Flickr – CC BY 2.0 – Channing Brown<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Any <\/span>Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i> fan who’s itching to see the show’s breathtaking scenery first-hand needs to head to Northern Ireland. Many of the location shoots, especially for the first season, were carried out in this part of the UK. Most of the interior scenes were filmed at Paint Hall studios, located in the show\u2019s production base of Belfast. Unfortunately, most of the outdoor locations are not easily accessible. Quite a bit of the pristine scenery requires some serious trekking to get to. Thankfully, you can pay for a guided tour<\/span> to take you to places like the famous Dark Hedges (used to depict the King\u2019s Road), Castle Ward<\/a> in County Down (parts of Winterfell), County Antrim\u2019s Murlough Bay (the Iron Isles), Magheramorne Quarry (Castle Black), and others. Another interesting place to visit would be the quiet village of Saintfield in County Down, right next to the field where the brutal Battle of the Bastards of Season 6 took place!<\/span><\/p>\n

Destination: Iceland<\/strong>
\nGame of Thrones<\/i> location: North of the Wall<\/h2>\n
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Image via Flickr – CC BY-SA 2.0 – Peter Collins<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The areas beyond the Wall, the massive defensive fortification along Westeros\u2019s northern border, have been home to the rise of the most lethal threat to the Seven Kingdoms. You can pretend to be a member of the Night\u2019s Watch trudging along with Jon Snow through Wildling territory — all you have to do is book a flight to Iceland!<\/span>\u00a0Scenes were filmed at the massive Myrdalsjokull and Vatnaj\u00f6kull glaciers, as well as the renowned Lake Myvatn. Although they may be hard to recognize from the show, it\u2019s best to visit in the summer when most of them are not covered in snow. Another landmark you can visit is the “mountain that looks like an arrowhead” that Sandor Clegane sees in the flames where the army of the dead are marching past and where there is an ensuing battle with the White Walkers in Season 7. The actual location is Kirkjufell<\/a>, an iconic mountain and waterfall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Love The Walking Dead<\/em>? Check out our guide to the top\u00a0places any Walking Dead<\/em> fan should visit<\/a>!\u00a0[\/perfectpullquote]<\/p>\n

Destination: Spain
\n<\/strong>Game of Thrones<\/i> locations: Dorne, Dragonstone & The Dragon Pit<\/h2>\n
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Image via Flickr – CC BY 2.0 – Anna & Michal<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Given that the Westeros kingdom of Dorne is based on Medieval Spain, it makes sense that the show\u2019s producers would head to the southwestern European country to film scenes set in the fictional continent\u2019s southernmost region. The city of Seville\u00a0provided a lot of the Dornish stand-ins, the most famous being the real-life royal castle Alc\u00e1zar de Sevilla<\/a> and<\/span>\u00a0Season 6\u2019s flashback scenes of the Tower of Joy shot at Castle of Zafra<\/span>. If you enjoyed the tension at the meeting between\u00a0Cersei, Daenerys, Jon, Tyrion, and other characters at the Dragon Pit of King’s Landing, then you should stop by the Amphitheatre of Italica, the Roman ruins also located in Seville. The homecoming of Daenerys to her ancestral citadel of Dragonstone was also filmed in locations in northern Spain. Itzurun Beach — with its beautiful diagonal, multi-layered stone cliffs — featured prominently as the place where Daenerys sets foot once again in Westeros in Season 7. Viewers would think that the long winding stone stairway from the beach up to Dragonstone castle is nothing but CGI, but this location also does really exist in Spain! You can find the stairway near Bilbao at\u00a0San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, which leads up to a humble little chapel in real life. As you can see, there are plenty of options to explore.<\/span><\/p>\n

Destination: Morocco<\/strong>
\nGame of Thrones<\/i> location: Slaver\u2019s Bay<\/h2>\n
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Image via Flickr – CC BY 2.0 – Xiquinho Silva<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

If we convinced you to start looking for cheap flights to Spain<\/a> to discover the real Dorne, it might be a great idea to add nearby Morocco to your travel list.\u00a0<\/span>Because, if you loved the personal struggles and political and military arm-wrestling Daenerys had to endure before she landed in Westeros (and really, who isn\u2019t?), then you\u2019re going to want to head to this North African country<\/span>. Morocco served as the real-world location for the Khaleesi\u2019s dramatic conquest of Slaver\u2019s Bay in Season 3, with the ancient fortified city of A\u00eft Benhaddou<\/a> standing in for Yunkai the Yellow City and the Western city of \u00a0Essaouira representing Astapor, Home of the Unsullied. Both are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Sites and are definitely worth seeing even if they had never appeared on the show<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]If you’re a passionate Potterhead, check out our ultimate guide to the coolest Harry Potter<\/em> destinations<\/a>![\/perfectpullquote]<\/p>\n

Destination: Croatia\u00a0<\/strong>
\nGame of Thrones <\/i>location: King’s Landing<\/h2>\n
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Image via Flick – CC BY-SA 2.0 – Aleksandr Zykov<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The medieval metropolis of King\u2019s Landing is filled with danger and duplicity. The politics surrounding the Iron Throne could get your head chopped off or your body burned alive by wildfire, while the chaos on the streets could get you stabbed. For any serious fan of the series, this would be a must-see. While the Mediterranean island nation of Malta was used to represent Westeros\u2019s capital city in Season 1, filming moved to Croatia for the second one and stayed there until Season 5. The southern port city of Dubrovnik\u00a0<\/span>stood in for many King\u2019s Landing landmarks while the nearby Fort Lovrijenac portrayed the Red Keep. Season 2\u2019s legendary <\/span>Battle of Blackwater was also filmed in the port city’s bay and Cersei’s painful walk of atonement in Season 5 took place on the city’s Jesuit staircase.\u00a0<\/span>You can easily catch a guided tour<\/a> to see and learn more about these locations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Inspired to visit the real world destination of your favorite\u00a0Game of Thrones<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0locations? Tell us more in our comments section below!<\/strong><\/em>
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The final season of\u00a0HBO\u2019s Game of Thrones\u00a0came to an end a few months ago, leaving thousands of fans of George R. R. Martin’s epic universe of violence, intrigues, and sex aching for their regular dose of action and treason. Since it doesn’t seem likely that the two last books of Song of Ice and Fire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":97207692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,1416],"tags":[549,1920,424,979,1921,1040,1236],"class_list":["post-97177287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-history","category-travel-guide","tag-croatia","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-iceland","tag-morocco","tag-northern-ireland","tag-spain","tag-tv-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97177287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97177287"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97177287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97207691,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97177287\/revisions\/97207691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97207692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97177287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97177287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97177287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}