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This past weekend was an exciting time in entertainment. HBO’s hit show “Game of Thrones” left fans stunned with the season five finale (don’t worry, no spoilers ahead), and the dinosaurs came back with a bang in “Jurassic World.” CNN Moneyreports that the hit movie, in the “Jurassic Park” series, created a new record with the highest-grossing box office weekend in U.S. history, making 208.8 million.
Both “Game of Thrones” and “Jurassic World” were filmed in iconic places, and the travel industry is taking notice. Here’s how you can travel to King’s Road and the place where the dinosaurs roam.
Tourism Ireland has partnered with HBO to showcase “Game of Thrones” locales for the second year in a row. In addition to cheeky promotions (“dragon’s eggs” at local markets); official signage points the way to filming locations throughout Northern Ireland.
Tour operator Brendan Vacations has introduced two specialty itineraries that explore the fictional settings of the show.
Their eight-day Home of Thrones self-drive tour includes Dublin, Belfast, the Giant’s Causeway and Antrim Coast. It winds its way through castles, farms, cliffs, caves and forests used in “Game of Thrones.” A highlight is the Dark Hedges, the spooky tunnel formed by intertwined, 300-year old birch trees. It doubles as the King’s Road in the series.
“There is definitely an interest in film tours. People watch these shows and they want to go see the locations, which are often quite beautiful,” said Brenda Staben, a front line agent with Hobson Travel.
Movie audiences are streaming into theaters to see “Jurassic World,” Universal Studios' summer blockbuster, with Steven Spielberg as its executive producer.
Kauai has a prominent role, with scenes showing the Napali Coast, Jurassic Kahili Ranch, Kauai Ranch, Valley House waterfall, tropical forests and mountain ranges. Many other scenes were filmed on Oahu.
Jurassic World follows “Jurassic Park” (1993), “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997), and “Jurassic Park III” (2001), each of which was filmed on Kauai to help create the tropical island settings.
In appreciation of Spielberg’s longstanding support of Kauai as a film location, the Kauai Visitors Bureau (KVB), in conjunction with the County of Kauai, created a special tribute video, “Mahalo Nui Loa Steven Spielberg”, and posted it on YouTube. “Mahalo nui loa” is the Hawaiian phrase for “thank you very much.” The entire video was shot, edited and scored by a Kauai-based production team.
