Other travel companies take the experience even further by placing travelers right in the plot of their favorite series. OvationNetwork travel advisor Christopher Bellot recently studied every episode of The White Lotusâs first season to plan a murder mystery group trip for a clientâs milestone birthday held at the Four Seasons Wailea, where the show was filmed.
âI had newspapers printed that were delivered each day âcoveringâ the âmurder’ investigation and we named different guests and people of interest, then the âperpetratorâ was revealed at a special dinner on the sand complete with White Lotus Resort branding,â he tells AD. âWe have so few shared experiences these days with so much going on in the world that when groups of friends or a family find something, it really adds tremendous fun and great memories to embrace it. Who doesnât want to spend a few days living inside their favorite show or movie?â
While one aspect of set-jetting is visiting bucket list places that top many travelersâ lists, like Paris and Hawaii, another aspect is that the trend brings travelers to destinations they would have never otherwise considered. For Lauren Bunde, a publicist based in Brooklyn, HBOâs My Brilliant Friend inspired her to book a trip to the volcanic Italian island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples.
âI had never heard of Ischia before seeing [the characters] travel to the island on the series,â she tells AD. âIn season two episode four, the main characters spend a day on the beach in Ischia, and while thereâs a lot of drama going on between them, itâs difficult not to be distracted by the beauty of the place theyâre filming.â
Conversely, the destinations arenât always the most glamorous. AMCâs Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul inspired battery specialist Steve Brown to book a far-flung journey from Chichester, England, to Albuquerque to see the showâs famous (and sometimes infamous) sites including Comboâs Corner, the home of main character Walter White, Owl Café, and Twisters, the filming location of the fictional restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos. The experience was a stark contrast to his daily life in southern England. âIn New Mexico, the desert seems huge and empty, and the landscape contrasts acutely with Englandâs lush, green, verdant, fields full of wet sheep,â he tells AD. âItâs that feeling of my own insignificance in that vast desert scape that was unfamiliar and remarkable to me.â