Set-Jetting: Travel to the Real Locations Behind 2026's Biggest Shows
From Outlander's Scotland to Emily in Paris and Shogun's Japan, set-jetting is reshaping where people go. A practical guide to filming-location travel that does not feel touristy.
"Set-jetting" — traveling to the real locations where your favorite films and TV shows were filmed — went from niche to mainstream in 2026. Travel industry surveys consistently rank it among the year's defining trends. Here's the practical guide: which shows are driving which destinations, and how to do set-jetting without ending up on the bad version of a tourist trail.
Why set-jetting is bigger than it used to be
Film tourism has existed for decades — people have been visiting Lord of the Rings locations in New Zealand since 2001. What's different in 2026 is scale and specificity. Streaming has produced a constant pipeline of geographically specific shows. Emily in Paris made Parisian café culture aspirational again. Shogun doubled interest in feudal-era Japan sites. The White Lotus made specific Sicilian and Thai resorts internationally famous overnight.
What this means practically: every six months there's a fresh set-jetting destination on the rise. The locations are usually beautiful — TV scouts pick beautiful places — but they fill up fast once a show hits.
The 2026 set-jetting hotlist
Scotland — Outlander
The longest-running set-jetting destination in 2026. Doune Castle (Castle Leoch in the show), Culross Village (Cranesmuir), Hopetoun House, Aberdour Castle, and Linlithgow Palace are the core locations. Edinburgh works as the hub. The best window is May–June (long days, fewer crowds than peak summer).
Travel tip: Book Doune Castle entry timeslots in advance — they sell out daily in summer. Hire a car. Trying to do Outlander sites by train will make you miserable.
Paris — Emily in Paris
The locations are real and visitable: Café de Flore (Emily's regular), Place de l'Estrapade (her apartment building, 1 Place de l'Estrapade), the boulangerie Du Pain et des Idées, Palais Garnier. Most are clustered in the 5th arrondissement around Quartier Latin.
Travel tip: Don't make this the whole trip. Emily in Paris locations are best as a half-day add-on to a regular Paris trip, not a full vacation. The actual buildings are unremarkable in person; the experience is the surrounding neighborhoods.
Japan — Shogun
The show was filmed primarily in British Columbia, but the historical locations it depicts are real Japanese sites: Himeji Castle (the most photographed castle in Japan and the visual reference for the show), Matsumoto Castle, Kyoto's samurai-era temples, and Kamakura. Visiting these gives the show's settings context.
Travel tip: Pair this with a slow trip through Kyoto and Kanazawa. The "set-jetting" angle works as a thematic frame for what's otherwise a classic Japan cultural trip.
Sicily and Thailand — The White Lotus
Season 2 was filmed at the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Taormina, Sicily. Season 3 at the Four Seasons Koh Samui in Thailand. Both resorts are now booked solid for the full year following each season's release.
Travel tip: You don't need to stay at the actual resorts to enjoy the destinations. Taormina the town is the real draw — the Greek theatre, Castelmola perched above, the beaches at Isola Bella. Koh Samui similarly works perfectly well as a destination without the Four Seasons price tag.
Iceland — True Detective: Night Country
Set in fictional Alaska, filmed in northern Iceland (specifically Reykjavík, Akureyri, and the Vestmannaeyjar islands). The Night Country aesthetic — endless winter darkness, geothermal landscapes, isolated villages — is genuine to northern Iceland in December–February.
Travel tip: Iceland in winter is genuinely brutal. If you're set-jetting this one, base in Akureyri rather than Reykjavík, dress for actual Arctic conditions, and don't expect to drive yourself — book transport with locals who know how to handle the roads.
New Zealand — perpetual Lord of the Rings + Rings of Power
Hobbiton in Matamata remains the most-visited single film location in the world. Tongariro National Park (Mordor), Edoras (Mt Sunday), and the Pelennor Fields scenes (Twizel) anchor the South Island route. Amazon's Rings of Power added new locations including Piha and the Coromandel.
Travel tip: This is the original set-jetting destination, and the local tourism infrastructure is fully built around it. You can do dedicated multi-day LOTR tours that handle everything. Worth it if you're a fan.
Mexico City — Narcos: Mexico, Roma
Both shows used real CDMX locations heavily. Roma is more rewarding to set-jet because the locations are tied to a specific neighborhood (Colonia Roma) that's interesting in its own right. Walking the streets of Roma Norte with the film in mind transforms ordinary blocks into specific scenes.
How to set-jet without ruining the destination
The dark side of set-jetting: when a small village in Croatia gets used for one season of Game of Thrones, then has to absorb 100x more tourists than it can handle. Some habits that keep you on the right side of this:
- Visit off-peak. September–November and February–April are usually the best windows for everywhere except tropical destinations. Avoid the immediate post-release rush.
- Stay outside the named location. Sleep in a nearby town. Take the day trip. This reduces strain on the small place that became famous.
- Spend money locally. Eat at independent restaurants, buy from local makers, hire local guides. If a place is going to be famous because of TV, the least the visitors can do is spread money to the people who actually live there.
- Don't trespass or harass residents. Many "filming locations" are private homes. The owners didn't consent to becoming tourist attractions. Stay on public streets.
- Skip locations that explicitly ask not to be visited. Some Scottish estates and Sicilian villages have asked tour operators to stop bringing groups. Respect that.
The strongest set-jetting itinerary structure
The mistake first-time set-jetters make: building the whole trip around the show. The strongest itineraries treat filming locations as accents within a broader destination trip.
So instead of "10 days hitting every Outlander filming location," try "10 days in Scotland with two days of Outlander stops integrated into a normal Scotland trip — Edinburgh, the Highlands, Skye." You get the show's resonance plus a real travel experience.
This approach also produces a better trip if you're traveling with someone who hasn't seen the show. The filming-location stops become bonus context, not the entire reason to be there.