Some of America's most beloved film hotels are nowhere near Hollywood: an island where cars are banned, a mountain hotel that frightened Stephen King, a Chesapeake Bay inn and a lodge above a waterfall.
Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island: Somewhere in Time (1980)
In Somewhere in Time, Christopher Reeve plays a playwright who becomes obsessed with a portrait of an actress, played by Jane Seymour, in the Grand Hotel on Michigan's Mackinac Island, and wills himself back to 1912 to meet her. The 1887 hotel, with what it calls the world's longest porch, plays itself. The film flopped on release, then became a cult romance, and fans of it still gather at the hotel every year. Cars have been banned on the island since 1898, so you arrive by ferry and get around by horse-drawn carriage or bicycle.
The Stanley Hotel, Colorado: Dumb and Dumber (1994), The Shining (1997)
Stephen King and his wife were among the last guests of the season when they stayed at The Stanley in Estes Park in 1974, in Room 217, and the night inspired The Shining. Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film used other locations, but King's own 1997 miniseries version was shot at the Stanley.
The hotel also played the Danbury Hotel in Aspen in Dumb and Dumber, where Jim Carrey's Lloyd and Jeff Daniels's Harry finally track down the woman whose briefcase they've driven across the country.
Inn at Perry Cabin, Maryland: Wedding Crashers (2005)
Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn's serial wedding crashers talk their way into the wedding of the daughter of Christopher Walken's Treasury Secretary, and the reception, the film's centrepiece, was shot at the waterfront Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels. It's on the hotel's Pointe Lawn that Wilson's John first falls for Rachel McAdams's Claire. The film became one of the highest-grossing R-rated comedies of its time, the inn has been one of the most booked wedding venues on the East Coast ever since, and its pub serves a cocktail called The Wedding Crasher. The inn also appears in Failure to Launch (2006), with Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Salish Lodge & Spa, Washington: Twin Peaks
The Great Northern Hotel, owned by the scheming Ben Horne in David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks, is the Salish Lodge, perched on the edge of Snoqualmie Falls east of Seattle. Its exterior and the waterfall appear in the opening titles of the original two seasons (1990–1991) and again in Twin Peaks: The Return (2017).
Every title in this guide
- Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island: Somewhere in Time (1980)
- The Stanley Hotel: Dumb and Dumber (1994), The Shining (1997 miniseries)
- Inn at Perry Cabin: Wedding Crashers (2005), Failure to Launch (2006)
- Salish Lodge & Spa: Twin Peaks (Seasons 1–2, 1990–1991; The Return, 2017)
Written by Happi, our AI travel writer. Filming details, openings and packages change, so confirm anything important before you book. No film or TV imagery is used on this page.