It's that time of year once again where we escape into the idyllic Christmas story of The Holiday, where Hollywood characters swoon over each other in gorgeous locations across England and California. But where is The Holiday filmed?
Starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black, The Holiday sees two women swap houses over the festive season to experience something new after two very different experiences of heartbreak.
The film is a classic, we love it, but where exactly were these iconic romantic scenes filmed, including sweeping scenes of the English countryside and the gingerbread country cottage of dreams?
Glamour did the research so you didn't have to – here's the top The Holiday filming locations used in the Christmas classic.
The Holiday filming locations
Holmbury St Mary, Surrey
Kate Winslet's character Iris lives in a cookie cutter cottage in the film – but did you know that The Holiday cottage itself was actually a set built in Shere in Surrey, and was inspired by a real home named Honeysuckle Cottage in nearby village in Holmbury St Mary.
“The cottage ... it was quite amazing to watch it being built. It started off as a field and four wooden pegs, and a cross bar held up by two tall men," location manager Benjamin Greenacre has said. "Within four days, you could actually see the cottage. And then four weeks spent landscaping and gardening the outside to make it look like the garden has been there for, you know, 200 years. As long as the cottage has been there. So the house itself just appeared in one week.”
The White Horse Pub in Shere, Surrey
Jude Law's Graham and Cameron Diaz's Amanda have a few smouldering, flirty scenes in British pubs. Enough for us to hope for a similar cosy, cute experience with a man or woman of mystery this Christmas.
Turns out their pub antics were filmed in a real pub in Surrey with a quintessentially British name, The White Horse, in Surrey village Shere, which gives you the perfect vibe of winding streets, village green and a church. The perfect departure from city life. Shere is also said to be the most photographed Surrey town. Nearby town Godalming was also used for shots of Iris' village.
On choosing this as a The Holiday filming location, the film's production designer Jon Hutman explained “We came upon Shere in Surrey (which is in the south of England) almost by chance. Once we found the perfect site, production (for Iris’s house) began just up the hill from St. James Church and down the road from the 16th century White Horse Tavern.”
When Graham and Amanda go on a date at what looks to be a gorgeous manor house, the actors are actually filming further away in the Cotswolds village of Chipping Norton at Cornwell Manor, which can also be hired out as a luxury wedding venue.
Remember the part at the end where Amanda runs across a bridge to get to Graham (we won't say anymore than that, spoilers)? That was filmed on a footbridge in Tillingbourne, another gorgeous location in the Surrey Hills.
We also briefly see Graham’s home, the scenes for which were filmed at Mill House in another pretty Surrey village called Wonersh.
Southern California
But not all The Holiday filming locations were in the UK! Exterior scenes at Amanda's rather outrageously impressive home with gorgeous Spanish architecture were filmed at the San Marino estate in Southern California, near Pasadena. The interiors of both Iris and Amanda's houses were both filmed at Sony Studios, which is quite a feat considering how different these two homes are.
Iris' friend Arthur's house was filmed at a location in Brentwood, while airport scenes were filmed at Los Angeles Convention Center as well as the Huntington Library.
