Filming locations in Atlanta & Georgia

Visiting Atlanta and Georgia: a set-jetting guide. Georgia is the film industry's southern powerhouse, and its small surrounding towns became the 1980s Indiana of Stranger Things. The fictional town of Hawkins is really an assembly of real Georgia places, a small-town square standing in for its centre and a faded shopping mall transformed into the gleaming Starcourt. You can chase the show across the Atlanta area, pairing the storefronts with the suburban mall over an easy day or two.

Start an hour south of Atlanta in downtown Jackson, whose old town square stands in for the centre of Hawkins. It is a free, real square you can simply walk around, and the shops and the cinema facade are recognisable straight from the screen. There is no ticket and no fuss here, just the pleasure of standing in the ordinary Georgia town that the show dressed up as small-town Indiana.

The other landmark is Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, the faded shopping centre transformed into the gleaming Starcourt Mall of the show's third season. It is a largely closed mall whose access varies, so check before visiting rather than assuming you can wander in, but the exterior is easy to see from the road, and its sign became a genuine fan landmark. It sits up in Atlanta's northern suburbs.

Atlanta is the natural base for the whole thing, with the two screen spots on opposite sides of the city, Jackson to the south and Duluth to the north. The city's film-tour operators cover plenty more ground for anyone who wants to go deeper, and central Atlanta's own attractions are a short drive from the Duluth mall. Treat it as a relaxed drive between the suburbs and you will trace Hawkins comfortably in a day.