Cape Town - Set jetting, or location vacations, is the next big thing and certainly one trend that many travellers will be capitalising on in 2016.
Movie and TV lovers cannot resist the allure of visiting the sites and sets where their favourite Hollywood Blockbuster or top TV show was made.
Get ready to channel your inner movie star and take your bow on the red carpet as Trafalgar takes you to Scotland and Ireland to explore the small and big screen sets you can visit in “reel” life.
Game of Thrones
Winter is coming. Channel your inner Khaleesi or play out the fantasy of defending the Wall against White Walkers. The gripping medieval fantasy of love, lust, power, passion, kings, princes, dragons, bastards, scheming, plotting, swords, violence and the deadly game each character plays in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros has taken the world by storm. The much awaited season six of this incredible TV series will launch in April this year and travellers can visit many of the sets to get an up close and personal experience of this epic show.
Visit Londonderry in Northern Ireland and the Dark Hedges where Beech trees either side of a small road have reached up and across to each other, becoming heavily intertwined to create a natural arched tunnel where shadow and light plays through entwined branches. It was here that scenes from the television series 'Game of Thrones' were filmed.
County Down at Castle Ward's historic farmyard is the location of Winterfell, the backdrop for the series pilot and much of season one. It's also where you will find the Whispering Wood and key scenes including Robb Stark's Camp, the Baelor battle and when Brienne confronts the Stark men. A replica of the Winterfell Castle archery range movie set has been masterfully recreated in the Winterfell Castle courtyard where the filming originally took place. Dress up in character costumes from the show, tour the movie set, stand exactly where 'Jon Snow', 'Robb and Bran Stark' stood and enjoy the thrill of firing live arrows.
James Bond
Fans of Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond can visit Eilean Donan Castle in the Scottish Highlands and the Valley of the Weeping at Glencoe to see where scenes from two of 007's movies were filmed.
A visit to the Castle showcases where the 1999 film The World Is Not Enough featuring Pierce Brosnan was filmed. Scenes depicting the Castle as the Scottish Headquarters of MI6 where Bond and the other agents meet to discuss their plans following the assassination of billionaire Sir Robert King by the terrorist Renard.
In the more recent Bond movie, Skyfall¸ M and Bond visit Bond's boyhood home, Glen Coe, in the Highlands.
The Valley of the Weeping in Glencoe is the setting and is also a hugely historic. In 1692 an infamous massacre took place when 38 members of the MacDonald clan were betrayed and killed by the Campbell clan.
Outlander
Based on Diana Gabaldon's best-selling novels details the lives of Claire, Jamie and Black Jack Randall in Scotland during the 18th century. The story is part historical fiction mixed with romance, adventure and a bit of science fiction as Claire travels in time between the 20th and 18th centuries. An unusual combination but it works, and the subsequent TV series of Outlander has been exceptionally well received.
Set in the Scottish Highlands the scenery depicted in the show is spectacular. Visit the Cairngorms National Park, Laggan and Culloden to discover more about life in the highlands and see where inspiration was gained for some of the scenes in Outlander. At Culloden view the battlefield of one of the most brutal battles in 1746 featuring Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobites. Over 1200 men perished in just over one hour.
Many other movies such as Chariots of Fire, My Left Foot, Trainspotting, Braveheart, The Commitments, Michael Collins and The Dark Knight Rises have been filmed in Scotland and Ireland and travellers will have the privilege of seeing these sites on Trafalgar's Celtic Filmscapes guided holiday.
Priced from R36 950 per person sharing, spend 11 days in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland getting to grips with your favourite TV and movie sets.
This includes stays in authentic accommodation such as the Laggan Gaskmore Hotel in Scotland and the Raddison Blu St Helens in Dublin, breakfast daily, five dinners (including a Be My Guest farewell dinner in Dublin at the house of author James Joyce), all transportation including ferries and more. Departures that take place over the Edinburgh Tattoo (August 5 -27) will also get tickets to the Tattoo included.
To find out more information visit www.trafalgar.com or call (011) 280 8400
Adapted from a press release for IOL