Dubrovnik played King's Landing from the second season onward, and it did so with unusually little help. Most of what appears on screen is the city as it stands: the same walls, the same limestone, the same lanes. That is why the locations are satisfying to visit and why they are easy to find without paying anyone. Almost all of them sit within the Old Town or a short walk from it.
A word on expectations first. There is no set. Nothing is dressed, signposted or preserved as a film location. You are looking at a working medieval city that a production borrowed for a few weeks a year, and the pleasure is in recognising it rather than in being shown it.
Fort Lovrijenac, the Red Keep
The obvious one, and the best. Lovrijenac stands on its own rock outside the western wall, reached by a flight of steps down from Pile and another long flight up. It stood in for the Red Keep from season two: Joffrey's name day tournament was staged on its terrace, and a good deal of Cersei and Tyrion's plotting happens on its parapets.
It is a genuine fortress with a genuine history, independent of the show. The inscription over the inner gate translates roughly as a refusal to sell freedom for all the gold in the world, which the Republic of Ragusa meant literally.
Entry is included with a city walls ticket, which is worth knowing because a great many visitors buy the walls and never realise Lovrijenac is covered. Climb it for the view back at the Old Town even if you have never seen the programme.
Pile cove and the Blackwater
The small shingle cove directly below Lovrijenac, tucked between the fort and the city wall, is where the Battle of the Blackwater was shot. Tyrion's sortie out of the water gate happens on that beach. It takes about two minutes to walk down to from the Pile gate and most people pass straight over it on the bridge without looking.
The same cove is where the kayak operators launch, which makes for an odd juxtaposition on a summer morning.
The Jesuit Stairs
The baroque staircase sweeping up to St Ignatius church is where Cersei's walk of shame began. It is the single busiest location in the city and the one most likely to have somebody standing in the middle of it having their photograph taken.
Go early. At eight in the morning it is empty and genuinely handsome; by eleven it is a queue with a staircase underneath it. The church at the top is worth the climb regardless.
Minčeta Tower
The great round tower at the highest, north-western corner of the walls served as the exterior of the House of the Undying, the tower Daenerys circles in Qarth trying to reach her dragons. You pass it on the wall circuit whichever entrance you use, since the route is one-way and Minčeta is the high point of it.
If you are doing the walls anyway, and you should, this one costs you nothing extra. Our wall circuit guide covers the timing and which gate to start from.
Lokrum, which played Qarth
The wooded island fifteen minutes offshore by ferry from the Old Port stood in for Qarth. The Benedictine monastery cloister there is where the Spice King's garden party was filmed, and the buildings around it grew out of an abbey founded in the eleventh century.
Lokrum also holds the one piece of actual set in Croatia: a replica Iron Throne, given to the city by the production, sitting in a small exhibition inside the monastery complex. It is smaller than it looks on screen, which everyone says and everyone is still surprised by.
Take the island on its own terms as well. Shaded paths run its length under holm oak and pine, and a small salt lake near the southern end warms up well before the open sea does. The botanical garden was planted in the 1950s with species brought from Australia and South America, several of which have since spread across the island on their own. The peacocks are descended from birds an Austrian archduke introduced in the 1860s, and they are entirely unbothered by visitors.
Fort Royal, the Napoleonic fort on the summit, is a twenty-minute climb and gives the widest view back at the walls and the Old Town.
Nobody stays on Lokrum overnight. The last boat clears the island, so watch the time rather than the light.
The ferry is worth planning around rather than turning up for. It runs from the old harbour through the season, the crossing takes about fifteen minutes, and the ticket covers the return leg and the island entry together rather than separately.
Two things surprise people. Dogs are not permitted anywhere on Lokrum, and the eastern shore carries a naturist section that is signposted but easy to walk into without noticing. Rangers sweep the paths before the final sailing, so the island empties properly rather than gradually.
Rector's Palace and the Rupe museum
The atrium of the Rector's Palace, just off Luza square, also served Qarth as the Spice King's residence. It is a beautiful courtyard in its own right and one of the few interiors in the city that repays a slow look.
The Ethnographic Museum in the old Rupe granary, up the hill on the western side, provided Littlefinger's brothel interiors. The building itself is the more interesting story: fifteen enormous grain pits cut into the rock, which kept the Republic fed through a siege.
Trsteno Arboretum
The gardens of the Red Keep, where Olenna Tyrell conducts most of her scheming, are at Trsteno, about twenty kilometres up the coast. It is a Renaissance arboretum begun in the fifteenth century, with a fountain, an aqueduct and two enormous plane trees by the road.
It needs half a day with the bus journey included, and it is the one location that does not fit into a walk around town. It is also the calmest of them by a wide margin. If Dubrovnik in August has worn you down, Trsteno is the antidote.
Tours & Day Trips in Dubrovnik
Boat trips, day tours and skip-the-line tickets around the city and the islands, via GetYourGuide.
Game of Thrones Filming Locations Walk
Walks the King's Landing exteriors, from Lovrijenac to the Jesuit Stairs, with stills to compare.
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Game of Thrones Walk with a Lokrum Option
The filming locations around the Old Town, with the option to add Lokrum, which played Qarth.
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Ninety-Minute Game of Thrones City Walk
A short circuit of the main Game of Thrones spots inside the walls.
Check availabilityWalking it yourself
Everything except Trsteno and Lokrum sits inside a compact loop, and the order that works is this: Lovrijenac and the cove first, in the morning light and before the queue; up onto the walls at Pile or Ploče for Minčeta; down into the Old Town for the Jesuit Stairs, the Rector's Palace and Rupe. That is a comfortable half-day at a normal pace.
A guided tour buys you the specific shot each spot appears in and someone holding up a still to compare, which some people enjoy a great deal and others do not need. Several operators run them daily in season, and the cards above are the quickest way to compare what each one covers. The locations themselves cost nothing beyond the walls ticket you were likely buying anyway.
What was filmed elsewhere in Croatia
Dubrovnik carried King's Landing, but it did not carry the whole show, and two of the other Croatian locations are close enough to reach from here.
Split stood in for Meereen. The cellars beneath Diocletian's Palace, a vast Roman undercroft that survived because it was filled with rubbish for centuries, became Daenerys's throne room and the vault where the dragons were chained. Klis fortress, in the hills above the city, provided the Meereen exterior.
Šibenik played Braavos. The cathedral of St James stood in for the Iron Bank, and the stepped alleys around it fill in for the city's streets.
None of these fits into a Dubrovnik day trip comfortably, since Split alone is around three hours each way. If you are travelling the coast rather than staying put, they are worth building into the route. Our day trips guide sets out what is realistic in a day from here and what is not.
Timing each stop against the crowds
The locations do not fill up at the same rate, which is what makes an early start worth more than an early ticket.
The Jesuit Stairs are the first to go and the worst affected, because they are narrow, central and the single most photographed spot in the city. They are quiet before nine and unusable by late morning.
Lovrijenac holds up better. Most visitors reach it after the walls rather than before, so the first hour after opening is genuinely calm, and the climb thins the numbers further.
Minčeta is the busiest point of the wall circuit whatever time you go, since every walker passes it and most stop. Entering at Ploče rather than the western gate puts you there ahead of the group that started behind you.
Lokrum runs on the ferry timetable rather than the clock, so the island empties between boats. The last two sailings of the day are the quietest hour on it.
Practical notes
Buy the city walls ticket once and use it for both the circuit and Lovrijenac on the same day.
Early morning is the answer to almost every crowding problem in this city, and it is the only time the Jesuit Stairs photograph cleanly.
Lokrum and Trsteno both depend on a return service running to a timetable. Check it before you go rather than after.
The Old Town is stone throughout and much of this walk is steps. Wear something with grip.
Filming took place across several seasons and some interiors were shot in studios in Northern Ireland, so several scenes people expect to find here were never shot here at all.
