Game of Thrones Real Life Locations

Head to Stirlingshire, Scotland for a glimpse at House Stark; Doune Castle is also known as Winterfell.  To get there, you may want to consider doing a local tour or go it alone like The Hound, or with your partner like Brienne of Tarth (with Podrick, of course).  To get to Doune from Glasgow or Edinburgh take the train to Stirling for about one hour then transfer for a 30-minute bus ride.  If you rent a car it only takes 40-minutes from Glasgow and one hour from Edinburgh; and it takes you half-way to Loch Ness!

Study to be a maester at Girona, Catalonia, Spain where the rich city of Oldtown makes its home.  To get there, fly to Barcelona, Spain and take the 38-minute train to Girona.  There are plenty of hotels and private home rentals available so that you can have a few days to take in all the knowledge and banking of Braavos.

While in Spain you may as well visit the birthplace of a beloved GoT character, but you’ll probably only want a quick visit as this area is known for being extremely cold and the climate unpleasant.  With that said, the Castilla de Zafra is a sight to see, no doubt.  Getting there may be a challenge as there is very little public transportation to really get you all the way there.  There are tour groups that will take you the whole way, or consider renting a car and making the 2 ½ hour drive from Valencia (which made our list for 6 Affordable and Romantic European Cities blog post).

It’s difficult to pinpoint any one spot in Iceland as the North of the Wall sets are, essentially, barren mountains.  However, you can check out one of the only “hot scenes” that we saw in the North; namely the sweet love between Jon and Ygritte.  The underground hot spring of Grjótagjá (have fun trying to pronounce that) is located near Lake Mývatn and remains hot and steamy year-round.  To get there, you’re in for a voyage: it’s located in the center-northern part of Iceland and 5 ½ hour drive from Reykjavik, if you’re going in the winter be careful as the roads will sometimes close, and are covered in at least an inch of ice throughout the season.

It’s hard to believe that such a place exists!  To be fair, much like many of the other locales, King’s Landing is comprised of a combination of a few real-life cities as well as a few CGI touch ups with a building here, a mountain there, and sometimes an entire ocean added in post.  Nonetheless, you will find yourself in awe when you visit Dubrovnik.  Short of the occasional wildfire outburst, Little Finger’s brothels, and a giant chair made of swords you’ll feel like you’re actually in King’s Landing.  Getting there is easy as it’s a relatively large city with an international airport, though flights may be cheaper through other cities nearby.  Additionally, Croatia is such a beautiful country and is amazingly affordable that it would be worth the extra week or so to travel across the country to take your time getting to Dubrovnik.