Filming locations in Dubrovnik

Few places make set-jetting as effortless as Dubrovnik, where almost the entire walled old town spent a decade standing in for King's Landing in Game of Thrones. The most famous scenes were filmed right on the City Walls: walk the two-kilometre circuit and the rooftops, the old harbour and the sea-facing ramparts line up exactly as they appear in the capital's exterior shots. It is the rare film location you can trace from start to finish in a single afternoon stroll.

Just outside the western walls, Fort Lovrijenac rises on its own rock and doubled as the Red Keep, including the courtyard used for the Blackwater sequences. Handily, the same ticket covers both the walls and the fort, so keep your stub for the steep climb up to its dramatic platform over the Adriatic. The two sights sit barely a couple of minutes apart, with the little West Harbour cove tucked directly below the fortress.

Everything clusters inside the compact Stari Grad, which is why Dubrovnik is the easiest set-jetting day in Europe. Enter through the Pile Gate, descend onto the marble Stradun, and you are within a short walk of every filmed corner. For the full overhead view that no scene quite captures, ride the cable car up Mount Srđ and look down on the whole limestone city wrapped in its ramparts.

Timing is the one thing worth planning. The walls bake in summer and fill with cruise crowds by mid-morning, so go at opening or in the late afternoon and allow sixty to ninety minutes for the loop. Spring and autumn are kinder for both heat and queues. Stay inside or just outside the old town so you can wander out at golden hour, when the stone glows and the day-trippers have sailed away.