Filming locations in New York City

New York is the most filmed city on earth, so set-jetting here is less a single trail than a string of neighbourhood pilgrimages, each on a subway line and each rewarding a themed afternoon on foot. The smartest way to do it is to think by district, letting the screen landmarks fall into the corners of the city they belong to rather than dashing across the boroughs.

Start in the West Village, the spiritual home of Sex and the City. Carrie Bradshaw's brownstone stoop on Perry Street is the show's most photographed address, best admired from the sidewalk where a chain marks where to stop, since it is a private home. A couple of blocks away, Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street is the little corner counter whose cupcakes the friends shared and a global craze followed. Take one to the leafy streets nearby and you have the perfect village morning.

Midtown delivers the grand and the gleaming. The recently restored Tiffany flagship on Fifth Avenue is where Holly Golightly gazes into the windows over coffee and a pastry at the start of Breakfast at Tiffany's, free to step inside, with a cafe upstairs if you truly want breakfast there. A short walk south, the lion-flanked steps and marble halls of the New York Public Library open Ghostbusters with its very first ghost, while over on the far west side the glass towers of Hudson Yards stand in for the Roy media empire of Succession, with the climbable Vessel and the Edge sky deck at the end of the High Line.

The character roles cluster downtown and beyond. In Tribeca, the working firehouse of Hook & Ladder 8 is the Ghostbusters' headquarters, its red doors unmistakable from the sidewalk. On the Lower East Side, Katz's Delicatessen stages the most quoted moment of When Harry Met Sally over a pastrami sandwich, with a sign marking the very table. And for the dedicated, a subway ride up to the Bronx reaches the long public staircase where Arthur Fleck dances in Joker, now an instant pop-culture landmark, used daily by residents and best visited respectfully by day.

Practically, lean on the subway and pick two or three clusters rather than trying to sweep them all. Many of these spots are private homes, working delis and active fire stations, so the etiquette is simple: admire, photograph from the public sidewalk, and keep the noise down. Base yourself anywhere central and the whole city is a themed afternoon away in every direction.