Twenty years on, The Holiday still earns its annual rewatch — and its filming locations are closer to real life than you might think, with one big catch for cottage fans.
The 2006 rom-com, starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black, swaps between sun-soaked Los Angeles and a snowy English village. The snowy village, sadly, is partly a mirage: Iris's beloved Rosehill Cottage was never a real home. It was a temporary facade built in a field near St James's Church in Shere, Surrey, and every interior shot was filmed on a Californian soundstage. The outside exists only for a few weeks a year in film-land.
But Surrey itself delivers plenty of recognisable moments. Shere, one of the county's prettiest villages, doubles as Iris's neighbourhood — you can walk over the same stone bridge across the River Tillingbourne that Amanda crosses in one of the film's key scenes. The village pub where Amanda and Graham have their date is still pouring: it now operates as a Chef & Brewer, with a roaring fire for winter visitors and outdoor seating once summer arrives.
A short drive away, the village of Godalming stood in for Iris's actual home turf, while the exterior of Graham's house — the one with the adorable kids, for fans keeping score — is The Mill House in Wonersh. Neither is open to the public, so this is a stroll-and-admire affair rather than a knock-on-the-door one.
Across the Atlantic, Amanda's Mediterranean-style mansion is a real address: 1883 Orlando Road in San Marino, an upscale suburb near Pasadena. Again, only the exterior is the real thing — interiors were shot on a stage. Arthur's house, where the elderly screenwriter befriends Iris, is at 163 South Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Production also used Beverly Hills locations: Greystone Mansion hosted the interior lunch-date scenes, and The Grill on the Alley covered the restaurant scenes.
For travellers, this makes a tidy two-centre pilgrimage. Surrey is an easy day trip or weekend from London — Shere and Godalming sit within about an hour of Waterloo by train, and both villages have pubs, tea rooms and riverside walks to fill an afternoon beyond the film sites. The LA half slots neatly into any city break: San Marino is also home to the Huntington Library and Gardens, Brentwood pairs well with a drive through the Palisades, and Greystone Mansion's grounds are open to the public in Beverly Hills.
Fair warning for superfans: no Rosehill Cottage to pose outside, and December in Surrey is far from guaranteed to be snow-dusted like the movie. Go anyway — the villages are charming in any weather, and finishing the day in the film's actual pub with a pint feels like the closest you'll get to living the plot.
