These Luxury Hotels Will Put You Right In Your Favorite Movie Setting
Like movies, hotels can provide a much-needed escape, even if you're just doing a "nearcation" and staying somewhere not far from where you live. Sometimes, movies will show you an imagined place you might want to visit, existing only because set builders temporarily constructed it on a studio backlot or sound stage, or because animators used CGI with no substance beyond the digital realm.
The flip side of that is films shot on location, which have been known to drum up interest in real places and make them outright tourist destinations. Yet even those places are subject to the ravages of time, with once-popular filming locations like the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas having long since closed and undergone demolition. Still, there are many existing hotels — in L.A., Vegas, and elsewhere — that have played a key role in famous movies.
It takes a special breed of hotel to serve as a film's central location. You've likely heard about how the setting in some movies feels like a character itself. Well, these hotels aren't background extras or supporting players; they're stars, and checking into them might make you feel like a movie star yourself.
There's no better place to start than Hollywood itself, so pack your bags as we begin there and move eastward to four other destinations with beautiful (if not always affordable) luxury hotels that have graced the silver screen.
The Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles (Pretty Woman)
"So, what hotel you staying at?" asks Vivian (Julia Roberts) in "Pretty Woman." She's driving around Los Angeles with the filthy rich Edward (Richard Gere), and he says he's staying at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. It's now a Four Seasons hotel, but it's still called the Beverly Wilshire. It offers a special movie-themed "Pretty Woman for a Day" package, where you can get a taste of the extravagant Beverly Hills lifestyle that Vivian experiences in the film.
The package includes a hand-drawn aromatherapy bath, along with a massage, meals, and a Rodeo Drive tour with your own personal wardrobe consultant and stylist. Instead of struggling with the stick shift of a Lotus Esprit as Edward does, you'll be riding around in a Mercedes.
The package requires a two-night stay and is only available for specialty suites, one of which is the penthouse suite, as seen in the film. It's since been renovated and looks a little different now. Unfortunately, the $3,000 "business proposition" that Edward makes Vivian wouldn't even cover the cost of a single night in the modern penthouse — $25,000. Maybe if you win the lottery you can stay there. Otherwise, there's no shame in booking a less astronomically priced room.
The Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas (Ocean's Eleven)
The Bellagio opened on the Las Vegas Strip in 1998, but it was still the new casino on the block when it served as the main setting of "Ocean's Eleven" in 2001. The movie made it famous, so much so that its former director of hotel operations told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "There's not a day that goes by that people don't come by Bellagio and talk about 'Ocean's Eleven.'"
This is another Julia Roberts movie, but it's one where she joins an all-star ensemble, led by George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Clooney's character, Danny Ocean, and his heist crew target the Bellagio's casino vault. Roberts plays his ex-wife, Tess, who favors the restaurant Picasso, which is decorated with authentic paintings by the cubist master. She works at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, which Paste Magazine calls one of the best museums in Vegas.
The "Ocean's Eleven" cast lived at the Bellagio for nearly five weeks while they were shooting the movie. Unless you win big at gambling, an extended stay like that may be cost prohibitive for budget travelers. However, even if you don't stay at the hotel, you can still stop by and watch the free Fountains of Bellagio show, just as the movie characters do at the end.
The Plaza Hotel (Home Alone 2: Lost in New York)
If you're the type of traveler who would like your luxury hotel to supply you with "your very own cheese pizza" and a limo ride around Manhattan, The Plaza Hotel may have the perfect package for you. The "Home Alone 2: Fun in New York" package comes with both perks and is inspired by the hotel's appearance in the 1992 Christmas comedy sequel.
When young Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) gets separated from his family at the airport and boards the wrong flight to New York, he finds himself checking into The Plaza, a National Historic Landmark, with his dad's wallet and credit card. Kevin's parents never lose their luggage (here's the first thing you should do if you do), but by now, losing their son has become "a McCallister family travel tradition." This time, it enables Kevin to enjoy a luxurious suite near Central Park, the single most-filmed location in the world.
You can do that at The Plaza with or without the "Home Alone 2" package, though the package offers a four-hour limo ride that will take you around to famous Manhattan landmarks seen in the film, such as the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall. It also includes a "Home Alone" sundae with 16 scoops of ice cream. Since Fairmont now manages the hotel, you're not likely to see former owner Donald Trump, who reportedly allowed the filmmakers to shoot in The Plaza's lobby in exchange for a cameo.
The Raffles Singapore and Marina Bay Sands (Crazy Rich Asians)
"Crazy Rich Asians" begins with Michelle Yeoh buying a hotel that wants to turn her and her family away in the rain. What follows is the ultimate Singapore movie, as much a travelogue as it is a fairytale rom-com.
In terms of hotels, "Crazy Rich Asians" bounces around, even crossing the border into Malaysia for a bachelorette party at the Four Seasons Resort Langkawi. For most of the film, though, Constance Wu and Henry Golding's characters make the historic Raffles Hotel their home base in Singapore. It first opened in 1887 and its Long Bar, which is open to non-hotel guests, is where the Singapore Sling cocktail was invented. They stay in the presidential Sarkies Suite, and we get a glimpse of its private balcony toward the end of the movie.
The movie wraps up with "one more night" in Singapore and a lavish party scene, complete with fireworks and synchronized swimmers in the infinity pool atop the Marina Bay Sands hotel. So, this is a two-for-one: You can enjoy the time-honored, plantation-and-palm-trees vibe of the Raffles, and then go for the big finish at the futuristic, three-towered Marina Bay Sands. The latter has an observation deck that's open to the public, and the building serves as a focal point for numerous shots of Singapore's skyline throughout the movie. Right behind Marina Bay Sands Is Gardens by the Bay, where the big wedding reception was filmed.
The Park Hyatt Tokyo (Lost in Translation)
Being associated with a certain movie can be a double-edged sword for some upscale hotels, as Instagrammers flock to them with cameras and they turn into tourist attractions. Like other hotels on this list, the Park Hyatt Tokyo used to offer a movie-themed package — one that would give you the same experience as Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) in "Lost in Translation," complete with karaoke and a shiatsu massage.
In recent years, the hotel has stopped offering the package and distanced itself a bit from the movie, perhaps because it and the 52nd-floor New York Bar (which also appeared on "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown") are no big secret anymore. It's not uncommon to see tourists in the bar, but other parts of the hotel retain a feeling of exclusive luxury for guests.
Like the Marina Bay Sands, the Park Hyatt Tokyo and its facilities span three interconnected tower blocks, each of which holds restaurants and spaces that provide stellar views, starting with the bamboo lounge on the 41st floor. The swimming pool and fitness center on the 47th floor live up to the hotel's description as an "oasis of calm;" and in your room, you can sit on the windowsill and look out over Tokyo's skyline, just like Charlotte in the movie. When all is said and done, you can fly back to L.A. and stay at the famed Chateau Marmont, where writer-director Sofia Coppola shot another film of hers, "Somewhere."