Want to go where 007 went? From Octopussy's Floating Palace to Blofeld's mountaintop lair to Scaramanga's rocky hideout, LAURENCE MACKINinfiltrates Bond's most iconic, exotic locations
THE CASINO
When not seducing improbably beautiful women or killing stooges twice his size, James Bond can usually be found testing his mettle at the casino tables. While the Casino de Monte-Carlo ( casinomontecarlo.com) is a stalwart of the series, having featured in several Bond films, the most alluring is Montenegro's Casino Royale from the 2006 film. If you want to roll at the same tables as Daniel Craig, though, you'll have to change countries – the Hotel Splendide where Bond and Vesper Lynd stayed is actually the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic ( pupp.cz, 00420-353-109-111), and the casino itself is the Kaiserbad spa in the same town. Well, of course he's elusive – he's a spy, for goodness sake.
PARADISE
Dr No is not the best Bond film in the canon, but it has one iconic moment that few other Bond films have matched: Ursula Andress rising out of the waves. (In fact, the scene was so good they did it twice, with Halle Berry repeating the trick in Cuba in Die Another Day – although she was actually coming out of the waves in Cadiz in Spain.) Dr No used Ian Fleming’s beloved Jamaica for many of its scenes – the waterfalls outside Ocho Rios doubled as the mystical Crab Key shore, and if you want to reproduce the famous Andress scene frame by frame, you’ll need to head to the stretch known as Laughing Waters.
Although not used as a filming location, surely one of the most authentic locations of all is the place where Ian Fleming wrote so many of the books. The writer's hideaway in Jamaica, called Goldeneye, is now an exclusive resort of cottages and suites ( goldeneye.com, tel: 00876-6229-007). Fleming's villa and his writing desk are still in place, although you might need to write a few thrillers of your own to cover the hotel tab.
Another location that has been well and truly taken over by its Bond associations is Scaramanga’s hideout off the coast of southeastern China, from The Man with the Golden Gun. In real life, this is Khow-Ping-Kan in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand, and it is usually packed with tourists who want to see “James Bond Island”, and perhaps recreate 007’s gun duel with Scaramanga (who was played in the film by Christopher Lee, a cousin of Fleming’s).
THE MOUNTAINTOP LAIR
Many Bond villains had an eerie menace that seemed to hum with malevolence – not so Telly Savalas, whose turn as Ernst Stavro Blofeld seemed a camp bit of casting in On Her Majestys Secret Service. But what he lacked in gravitas he made up for in real estate – his lair atop a mountain in Switzerland, which masqueraded as an allergy clinic, was top notch (until Bond blew it up, that is). The clinic is still there, at the summit of Schilthorn Mountain above Mürren, and is now home to a revolving restaurant called Piz Gloria ( schilthorn.ch). After you've enjoyed a typically lush meal and a shaken martini or two, you can follow in Bond's tracks and brave the black ski run that leads down to the Engtal. On second thoughts, maybe hold the martinis and die another day instead.
THE DESERT HIDEOUT
Quantum of Solace proved to be something of a difficult second album for Daniel Craig, but what it lacked in humour it made up for in spectacular locations, and none was more impressive than the Bolivian hotel at the end of the film where eco-terrorist Dominic Greene was hiding out (until Bond blew it up, that is.)
The hotel is actually the accommodation block of the Paranal Observatory of the European Southern Observatory in the Atacama Desert region of Chile ( eso.org). Unless you can produce some scientific credentials, or have the smooth-talking skills of a double O, however, it might be tricky to blag a night here.
So instead, why not opt for the Tierra Atacama ( tierraatacama.com)? It offers luxury accommodation with views of the Andes Mountains and all the benefits of the famed northern Chilean night sky, perhaps the best place in the world to view the stars.
THE ULTIMATE JUMP
One of the best things about Bond films are the opening scenes – from the truly astonishing stunt that sees Bond ski off a cliff only to deploy a Union Jack parachute in The Spy Who Loved Me, to the grit and grime of Bond earning his double Os by killing a man in a bathroom in Casino Royale. But GoldenEye must rank among the top openers. A lush vista of an enormous dam cuts to Pierce Brosnan sprinting along its centre, before he rapidly ropes up and executes a flawless, nonchalant bungee jump over the dam's 220-metre-high edge. You can recreate this scene in its entirety at the Verzasca dam in Switzerland, where it was shot, and you can even do the jump by moonlight if you are feeling particularly adventurous ( trekking.ch/en/). Now that really will take nerves of steel.
ASIAN ELEMENTS
You Only Live Twice has bragging rights for several reasons, not the least of which was Blofeld’s stunning lair (he’s got a flair for this sort of thing), a hollowed out Japanese volcano. That is, of course, until Bond. . . oh, you get the picture. In fairness, Blofeld had fitted out the place with a self-destruct system. And if you go to all that trouble hollowing out a volcano, and then fitting a self-destruct system, don’t be surprised when an agent of the British government decides to come along and deploy it. The lair itself is, unsurprisingly, a set, but the extinct volcano is in Kirishima National Park, near Kagoshima on Kyushu, Japan’s southern island. There are active volcanoes in the range though, such as Mount Shinmoedake which erupted in spectacular fashion in 2011, so some areas may not be accessible.
A little more close to reality is Himeji Castle, which doubles as a ninja-training school where Bond, played by Sean Connery, gets a few pointers. In reality, this hilltop wooden fortress is regarded as the finest example of its kind. It dates from the 14th century and has an intricate network of 83 structures. It’s known as the White Heron Castle, as it seems to float like a bird.
ONE FOR THE LADIES
If Bond is responsible for one thing, it’s for fuelling men’s imaginations with deeply improbable scenarios, and none were more outlandish than Octopussy’s Floating Palace, populated only by attractive women.
Brilliantly, the palace is actually the Taj Lake Palace hotel in Lake Pichola in Rajasthan, India ( tajhotels.com). We're assured men don't have to be debonair secret agents to visit the island, but you might need a wallet the size of a subcontinent to stay for long.
LONDON LOCATIONS
Exotic locations loaded with fast cars and beautiful women are all well and good, but every Englishman needs a home, and perhaps the best Bond location of them all is London. MI6's spectacular riverside headquarters at 85 Albert Embankment is the most obvious link to the films, but the building is not open to the public. You can recreate the boat chase scene from The World is Not Enough (sort of) by taking the Licence to Thrill high-speed boat trip ( londonribvoyages.com).
Ian Fleming wrote most of his books in the elegant 16 Victoria Square, located near Buckingham Palace, where he lived from 1953 until his death in 1964. He also owned a flat at 22b Ebury Street in Belgravia. He bought it from the fascist leader Oswald Mosley in 1934, and it is where Moonraker villain Sir Hugo Drax also called home. At one point, Drax is even chased down the street by Bond in his Bentley.
The brutalist Trellick Tower block in north Kensington has an unusual link to Bond. Ian Fleming got so infuriated in a planning dispute that he took revenge by naming one of his most devious villains after the tower block’s architect – Erno Goldfinger.
However, if you really want to live like Bond, than there’s only one option: live on the same square. Bond’s home is not explicitly revealed in the books, but it is on a “little plane tree’d square off the Kings Road” in Chelsea, and Fleming’s former assistant has identified Bond’s home as 30 Wellington Square.
This property is currently for sale through Charles McDowell Property Consultants for £6.35 million (€7.8m). Well, if you're anything like Bond, you can probably make that on a good night in Montenegro. See iti.ms/Xxahl4for details.