SIENA, ITALY
Quantum of Solace
The latest Bond is due to finish filming a chase over Siena's rooftops this
weekend and will be back in May to shoot the culmination of the scene in the
Piazza del Campo. In the movie 007 will, apparently, emerge from the
fountain in the piazza just as the famous Palio horse race ends. The network
of tunnels under the city is, meanwhile, being replicated at Pinewood
Studios.
If you want to catch the action, a three-night break with Railbookers (0844
4821010, www.railbookers.com),
starts at £569pp in May. If you'd rather hang on for the real Palio, it
takes place on July 2 and August 16.
LAUGHING WATERS, JAMAICA
Dr No
The iconic scene where a white bikini-clad Ursula Andress walks out of the
ocean and collects shells while a seriously smitten 007 looks on was shot on
the beach at Laughing Waters. It's near Dunns River Falls outside Ocho Rios
and is one of many locations on the island used in Bond films.
If you're a diehard fan, the only place to stay while checking them out is the
three-bedroom Fleming House, the main villa on the 15-acre Goldeneye estate,
now run by Chris Blackwell's Island Outpost (01895 450731, www.islandoutpost.com).
This is where Ian Fleming wrote the Bond novels and it costs £1,262 a night,
sleeping up to six, full board.
PIZ GLORIA, MÜRREN, SWITZERLAND
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
When Bond escapes in the usual flurry of bullets from Blofeld's hideout, he's
actually on top of the Schilthorn near Mürren in the Bernese Oberland. The
production team found the building when it was still under construction and
helped to pay for its completion in return for exclusive use during filming.
It claims to be the first revolving restaurant in the world.
Reached by cable car, it still has a Bond exhibition showing clips from the
movie and a James Bond breakfast is served some Sundays during the winter
season. This costs £46 including return cable car from Stechelberg (00 41 33
8260 007, www.schilthorn.ch).
SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN, RIO DE JANEIRO
Moonraker
The fight on top of the cable car between 007 and Jaws, one of the classic
Bond villains, ends with Jaws crashing into the control tower and falling
promptly in love with a short blonde with pigtails. It takes place on the
second stage of one of the oldest cable car rides in the world, built in
1912, and pleasingly, the cable cars are called bondinhos in Portuguese.
The cable car up to Sugarloaf runs daily every 20 minutes from 8am to 10pm.
Tickets cost £10.20 (www.bondinho.com.br).
ARECIBO OBSERVATORY, PUERTO RICO
GoldenEye
When Bond and Natalya Simonova are in Cuba looking for a huge satellite dish,
what they think is a lake turns out to be a radio telescope in disguise. Of
course it wasn't filmed in Cuba but in Puerto Rico at the Arecibo
Observatory, the world's largest radio telescope.
A spectacularly winding 75-minute drive from San Juan, the observatory is open
to the public and the entrance fee of £2.50 includes a film show and a visit
to the observation platform from where you can look down at the dish - which
is a whopping 305m (1,000ft) in diameter (www.naic.edu).
EIFFEL TOWER, PARIS
A View to a Kill
Bond's meal with the informant Achille Aubergine in the Jules Verne restaurant
is cut short when the bonkers baddie May Day stabs Aubergine in the neck.
She legs it up the tower chased by 007, and then parachutes off the top -
with him still in hot pursuit.
The Jules Verne (00 33 1 45 55 61 44, www.lejulesverne-paris.com),
on the second floor of the tower is now run by the French superchef Alain
Ducasse and lunch starts at £60pp. If you're content with just climbing the
677 steps to the second level for the stupendous view, this will cost £3 but
it's a tough climb - wimping out and taking the lift will cost £6.
KARLOVY VARY, CZECH REPUBLIC
Casino Royale
The casino where Bond plays a dangerous game of poker against the corrupt
banker Le Chiffre and eventually wins is not in Montenegro but the spa town
of Karlovy Vary, a mini-Prague full of pastel-coloured baroque buildings. A
disused spa known as the Kaiserbad was used as the exterior of the casino
and the Grand Hotel Pupp became the Hotel Splendide, where Bond stays.
The Pupp (00 420 353 109 111, www.pupp.cz)
now has a three-night Bond package starting at £253pp that includes visits
to a shooting range and beer spa, plus entry to its casino with three chips
thrown in for luck.
KYUSHU, JAPAN
You Only Live Twice
Mt Aso in southern Kyushu was the location for some of the helicopter dogfight
scenes - 007 is piloting the autogyro supplied by Q - and it provided the
exterior shots for Blofeld's rocket base, secreted inside the hollow
volcano. Mt Aso has the largest basin-shaped crater of any volcano in the
world and one of its five volcanic peaks is still active.
Kyushu, also famous for its hot springs and good hiking, is included in Titan
HiTours' (0800 9885823, www.titanhitours.co.uk)
12-day Kyushu to Kyoto trip, which starts at £2,375pp.
UDAIPUR, INDIA
Octopussy
Bond sneaks over to the island home of the eponymous international jewel
smuggler and her girlie gang in a fake crocodile built by Q and after the
obligatory night of passion, fights off a group of assassins armed with
deadly yo-yos and manages to escape the real croc-infested waters.
The floating palace was built in 1746 by Maharana Jagat Singh II and is now
the Taj Lake Palace Hotel (00 800 4588 1825, www.tajhotels.com).
Butlers, descendants of the original palace retainers, are on hand to look
after guests but anyone hoping for a trip over to the island in Octupussy's
barge, powered by a troop of luscious lovelies, will be disappointed. Rooms
booked online start at £265 per night.
JÖKULSÁRLÓN, ICELAND
Die Another Day
The diamond and ice palace of the evil Gustav Graves and Bond's explosive car
chase across the ice were filmed on Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon where
giant floating blue icebergs create a magical landscape.
Vamos Travel (0870 7624017, www.vamostravel.com)
can organise a tailor-made Glacial Lagoon 007 tour from June to September.
First, there's a 55-minute flight to Hofn from Reykjavik, then a guided tour
through stunning coastal scenery and up towards Vatnajökull - Europe's
largest glacier. Later, there's a chance for snowmobiling before cruising
around the lagoon icebergs. The price of this day trip however, might leave
you shaken, not stirred - it's £800pp. A three-night trip to Iceland in a
three-star hotel with Vamos starts at £395pp including flights.
