The White Lotus

A real filming location, and the White Lotus of season 2. This former convent on the cliffs of Taormina is now a Four Seasons hotel that plays the White Lotus resort: guests arrive here by boat and car, eat on the terraces and lounge by the pool, and Tanya, the rich and needy heiress played by Jennifer Coolidge, stays in a suite here. It is a real hotel that anyone can book.

Access · A working luxury hotel: you can book a room, and the bars and restaurants may take non-guests with a reservation. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Portia, Tanya's young assistant, joins the Di Grassos, three generations of Italian-American men (grandfather Bert, his son Dominic and grandson Albie) who came to Sicily to find their roots, on a visit to this Greek and Roman theatre carved into the hillside, with Etna and the sea behind the stage.

Access · Archaeological site with a ticket. It gets crowded and hot in summer, and evening concerts can change the opening times. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Ethan, a newly rich tech man on holiday with his wife Harper, goes for a dawn run along Corso Umberto, Taormina's main street, and across this terrace square above the sea, past the clock tower, then climbs on to the little church of the Madonna della Rocca above the town.

Access · Public square, free and always open. Busy from late morning in summer.

A real filming location. In the last episode Daphne, a cheerful wife who seems to know about her husband's cheating and not mind, takes Ethan, her husband's old friend, across the shallow pebble strip to this tiny island below Taormina, and the two wander off alone, leaving viewers to guess what happened. The island is a nature reserve.

Access · The beach is free; the island itself is a reserve with a ticket and limited opening times. Very busy in summer. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Bert, the Di Grasso grandfather, loves The Godfather, so the family (with Portia, until Tanya calls her back) visits this 18th-century villa, where Francis Ford Coppola filmed Michael Corleone's Sicilian scenes in 1971. Its name, Castle of the Slaves, comes from the two stone figures on the roof.

Access · Private property owned by a family: you see it from outside, and the inside only on guided tours booked in advance. Check before you go.

A real filming location, standing in for Palermo's Teatro Massimo. Quentin, a charming English expat who has befriended Tanya, takes her to Palermo to see Madama Butterfly, Puccini's opera about an abandoned wife, and she weeps in her box. The scenes inside the opera house were shot in Catania's theatre.

Access · Working opera house: you see the hall with a show ticket or on a guided tour when there is one. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Daphne surprises Harper, Ethan's wife, with a day trip to Noto, the Baroque town rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake: the two walk along Corso Vittorio Emanuele and sit on the wide stairs of this cathedral, before Daphne reveals she has rented a palazzo for the night.

Access · Free to see from the street. It is a working church: cover shoulders and knees and avoid services. Check before you go.

A real filming location, standing in for the hotel's beach in Taormina. The season opens here: Daphne, swimming, comes face to face with a body floating in the sea, and the story jumps back a week to show how it got there. The great rock of Cefalù and its Norman cathedral rise behind the sand.

Access · Public beach, free, with paid beach clubs along parts of it. Crowded in summer.

A real filming location, and the White Lotus of season 3. This hillside resort among the coconut palms plays the White Lotus on Koh Samui: the villas of the rich Ratliff family from North Carolina, of three old school friends (Jaclyn, Kate and Laurie) and of Rick and his young girlfriend Chelsea, plus the pool, the beach, the restaurants, the gym and the spirit house. It is a real hotel that anyone can book.

Access · A working luxury resort for staying guests; the restaurants may take outside bookings. Check before you go.

A real filming location, and part of the season 3 White Lotus. The Thai-style lobby, the tree-lined driveway, the security post and the hotel's jewellery shop were filmed here: Gaitok, a gentle young security guard, works at the gate, and armed men rob the shop. It is a real hotel that anyone can book.

Access · A working hotel; its beach restaurants are a way to see it without staying. Check before you go.

A real filming location: this old fishing street of wooden shophouses on Bophut beach plays the island's town centre. Jaclyn, Kate and Laurie, friends since school and now in their forties, come into town during Songkran, the Thai New Year water festival, and end up in a street water fight.

Access · Public street, free. Market evenings get very busy: check before you go.

A real filming location for the Buddhist monastery, inside and partly outside. Piper, the Ratliffs' serious younger daughter, says she is writing a thesis on its head monk: she visits alone, later brings her family, and her little brother Lochlan stays on to try life as a monk.

Access · Active temple: cover shoulders and knees, take off your shoes in sacred buildings and keep your voice low. No published opening hours: check before you go.

A real filming location. Rick, a moody guest on a secret mission of revenge, watches the snake show here with Chelsea; in a dark mood he lets the snakes out of their boxes, and Chelsea is bitten and taken to hospital.

Access · Live snake shows with a ticket, at set times. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Part of the Full Moon Party, the famous all-night beach party with neon paint and fire shows, was filmed on this quiet bay, together with Haad Rin Beach on the island of Koh Phangan, where the real party takes place. Saxon and Lochlan Ratliff go with Chloe, a young British woman who lives on the island with an older man.

Access · Public beach, free. The real Full Moon Party is on Koh Phangan, not here.

A real filming location. Laurie, the lonely lawyer of the three friends, spends a Muay Thai (Thai boxing) night here with Valentin, the hotel's Russian fitness coach, and his friends.

Access · Fight nights with tickets on several evenings a week. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Rick goes to Bangkok and meets his old friend Frank, played by Sam Rockwell, at the hotel's Bamboo Bar, which keeps its real name in the series: there Frank delivers his long monologue about his wild life in Thailand. The lobby was filmed here too. It is a real hotel that anyone can book.

Access · A working hotel; the Bamboo Bar takes non-guests, with a dress code and often a wait. Check before you go.