When Georgette Blau first got into the movie-tour business, she knew fans would enjoy reliving big-screen moments. She just didn’t know how much. “There were barely any movie-tour companies when I started my own nine years ago,” says the founder of On Location Tours and the Association of Tours for TV and Movies. Today there are nearly 100. Check out a few of Blau’s favorites:
Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour
Los Angeles
During a two-hour tour of the Warner Brothers Studios back lot, small groups board a studio tram that whisks them all over the 110-acre lot. You’ll stop in at prop warehouses, costume departments, and the sound stages of primetime shows like Two and a Half Men. You’ll also pass some of the most famous streets in movie history, including French Street, home to the Parisian café flashback scene in Casablanca. $45
Theater-on-Wheels Movie Tour
Boston
During this two-and-a-half hour tour, you’ll visit the locations of movies like The Departed and Fever Pitch. Good Will Hunting gets the best coverage. Cozy up to the bar at the L Street Tavern where most of the drinking scenes were shot. The bar from Cheers is also a favorite, so don’t forget your camera—or your ID. $35
Philadelphia in the Movies Film Tour
Philadelphia
On Philly’s only movie tour, you can run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art just like Rocky Balboa. See more than 50 film clips on the two-and-a-half-hour tour as you visit 38 different movie sites. Retrace Toni Collette’s steps through the Italian Market from In Her Shoes, and check out the South Philly home where Haley Joel Osment’s character saw dead people in The Sixth Sense. $35
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Georgette Blau had more movie tour favs than we had space to print. She offers two more picks:
Monterey Movie Tours
Monterey, California
It's hard to imagine a more gorgeous backdrop for a movie tour than California’s Monterey Peninsula, home to Pebble Beach, 17-Mile Drive, and Cannery Row. This three-hour bus tour—run by local film aficionado Doug Lumsden—meanders through some of California’s most exclusive oceanfront properties while reintroducing passengers to clips from classic Monterey-filmed flicks. You’ll pass Spanish Bay, where Marlon Brando squared off with Karl Malden in One-Eyed Jacks. You’ll also stop at the mansion-like Lodge at Pebble Beach and step onto Pebble Beach Golf Links, where Elizabeth Taylor rode her horse in National Velvet. $49
Where Hollywood Meets History Movie Tour
Richmond, Virginia
The Virginia State Capitol building has stood in for the White House countless times, as you’ll learn on this tribute to Richmond’s deep-seeded relationship with Hollywood. Run by screenwriter and film teacher Helene Wagner, the two-hour bus tour educates passengers with movie clips, snippets of Virginia history, and anecdotes about how various locations right outside the window were transformed into famous scenes—from the Civil War prison camp in Cold Mountain to the opening shoot-out scene in Hannibal. $35
Get the scoop on even more movie tours below:
In San Francisco, you can take a three-hour tour of Bay Area film sites—including those for Mrs. Doubtfire, The Maltese Falcon, and The Princess Diaries—or dig deeper on a personalized Hitchcock tour that focuses on either Vertigo or The Birds and Shadow of a Doubt. In the nation’s capital, take a Washington Walks tour (next offered in August) to see sights from Independence Day, The Exorcist, and others. For a different sort of movie tour, check out more than 40 stars’ homes in Hollywood on a two-hour bus tour.
On June 1, a large fire at Universal Studios destroyed several historic movie sets, including the courthouse square from Back to the Future and a New York streetscape used in Spider-Man 2 and Transformers. But the studio tour re-opened just a day later, and today you can take the tram around the lot to see sights like Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane and the Bates Motel from Psycho.
