Where was Dirty Dancing filmed?

This coming-of-age dance romance became a cultural touchstone, and its most iconic moment, the lake-side lift, is etched into film memory. For travellers, the appeal is the chance to step into that summer-resort fantasy of music, mountains and first love, and even to stand in the very water where the famous lift was rehearsed.

Filming was split between two American settings. The famous lift was shot at Lake Lure in North Carolina, where the couple practise the move waist-deep in the mountain water. The resort itself, the fictional Kellerman's, was the stone-built Mountain Lake Lodge up in the Virginia mountains, which provided the heart of the film's holiday world.

Set-jetters can build a Blue Ridge mountains road trip around the two, wading at Lake Lure and staying or pausing at Mountain Lake Lodge, which still trades on its place in the film. The region pairs beautifully with the wider Appalachian scenery and small towns of the Carolinas and Virginia for a nostalgic, summery getaway.