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Guide · 5 min read

The Game of Thrones location trail: Croatia, Spain, Iceland & beyond

How the show's real-world sets fit together across Europe, from King's Landing in Dubrovnik to Dorne in Seville and Dragonstone on the Basque coast.

No show did more to launch the modern set-jetting boom than this one. Over eight seasons the production fanned out across Europe and North Africa, and because it favoured real castles, walls and coastlines over green screen, the map it left behind is unusually followable. Here is how the headline locations fit together.

Croatia: the capital

Dubrovnik is the essential stop. The city walls are King's Landing's ramparts, and Fort Lovrijenac just outside them played the Red Keep. You can walk both on a single ticket in a morning, which is why the old town gets so busy, come at opening time.

Spain: Dorne, Braavos and beyond

Spain carried much of the later seasons. The Real Alcázar of Seville became the Water Gardens of Dorne, its courtyards barely needing a prop. Up in Catalonia, the steps of Girona Cathedral stood in for the Great Sept of Baelor, while the lanes below played Braavos. On the Basque coast, the causeway out to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe is unmistakably Dragonstone.

Iceland and Northern Ireland: the North

For everything north of the Wall, the crew went to Iceland, where the rift valley at Þingvellir doubles as the road to the Eyrie. The show's true home, though, was Northern Ireland: Castle Ward is Winterfell, and the studios that built the interiors sit nearby.

Planning the trail

You don't have to do it all in one trip, the locations split neatly into a Croatia leg, a Spain leg, and a UK-and-Ireland leg.

See the full list on the Game of Thrones page, each spot with a map and how-to-visit notes.