Set-Jetting: Film Destinations to Visit Solo

Set-Jetting: Why Film and TV Tourism Is Perfect for Solo Female Travelers in 2026

“Set-jetting” — the practice of visiting destinations because of their appearance in films or television series — has moved from travel-industry buzzword to genuinely mainstream travel motivation. A 2025 VisitBritain study found that 40% of international tourists to the UK listed film or TV appearances as a factor in their destination choice. Netflix’s internal data has shown that tourist visits to destinations featured in popular series increase by an average of 50-70% in the year following a show’s release. In 2026, set-jetting is not a niche behavior — it is one of the primary drivers of global tourism patterns.

For solo female travelers specifically, set-jetting has particular appeal: it provides a built-in narrative framework for a destination, gives you specific “things to find” that structure exploration in a satisfying way, and creates a ready-made conversation starter with both other travelers and locals. There is a specific pleasure in standing in a location you have seen a hundred times on screen and experiencing the gap between the cinematic version and the reality — which is usually both less spectacular and more interesting than TV suggested.

This guide covers the five most compelling set-jetting destinations for solo female travelers in 2026, with practical visiting information, safety notes, and what the show gets right and wrong about each place.

Key Takeaway: Set-jetting provides solo female travelers with a built-in exploration framework, strong social connection potential with fellow fans, and access to genuinely excellent destinations — while the best film locations often reveal cultural and historical depth that no showrunner intended.

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1. Sicily — The White Lotus Effect

The third season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” filmed at San Domenico Palace in Taormina, Sicily, and the resulting tourism boom to eastern Sicily has been dramatic. Hotel bookings in Taormina increased by over 200% in the months following the season’s release, and the broader region around Syracuse, Noto, and the Baroque hill towns has similarly benefited from the show’s extraordinary visual rendering of the Sicilian landscape.

What the show captures: The extraordinary beauty of the Sicilian coast, the architectural grandeur of Taormina’s clifftop position above the Ionian Sea, and the particular quality of Sicilian light that makes everything look simultaneously ancient and impossibly blue.

What to actually do there: Taormina’s Greek Theater (Teatro Antico di Taormina, dating to the 3rd century BCE) is one of Sicily’s most spectacular ancient sites — a nearly complete ancient Greek amphitheater with Mount Etna visible behind the stage. The combination of a 2,300-year-old theater and an active volcano is one of the most distinctly Sicilian views imaginable.

The San Domenico Palace hotel (where White Lotus Season 3 filmed) is open for dining and hotel stays. A room costs approximately €500-1,200 per night. A morning coffee on the terrace at the adjacent bar costs approximately €4 and provides essentially the same view at 0.5% of the price.

Beyond Taormina, the Baroque towns of the Val di Noto — Noto, Ragusa, Modica, Scicli — are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and among the most architecturally extraordinary places in Italy. They also appeared in various White Lotus episodes and in the long-running Inspector Montalbano Italian TV series.

For solo female travelers: Sicily is generally safe and increasingly well-developed for independent tourism. Taormina itself is very tourist-oriented and comfortable. In smaller inland towns, dressing modestly (covered shoulders and knees in traditional areas) is appreciated. Sicily has an excellent food scene — the arancini (stuffed rice balls), cannoli (cream-filled pastry shells, best eaten at the source rather than in a tourist shop), and granita (iced coffee or fruit drinks) are essential.

Getting there: Catania’s Fontanarossa Airport is the main gateway, served by Ryanair, easyJet, and other European carriers from multiple European cities. High-speed Frecciarossa trains connect mainland Italy to Sicily via the Messina ferry connection. From Catania, Taormina is approximately 45 minutes by train.

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2. Paris — Emily’s City and the Real One

“Emily in Paris” (Netflix) has contributed significantly to the already-extraordinary tourist draw of Paris, particularly among younger international visitors. The show filmed extensively in the 1st and 5th arrondissements — the Palais-Royal gardens, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pont de l’Archevêché, and various streets in the Marais — and created a version of Paris that is whimsical, color-saturated, and consistently 15-20% more charming than the reality.

What the show gets right: Paris is extraordinary. The architecture, the food, the cafe culture, and the energy of the city are genuinely as good as advertised. The specific locations used in Emily in Paris — the Palais-Royal arcades, the St-Germain-des-Prés area, the flower markets of Île de la Cité — are all worth visiting regardless of the show.

What the show gets wrong: Paris is also a real city with real challenges for solo female travelers. Pickpocketing on the Metro (particularly lines 1, 4, and the RER B from the airports) is a genuine concern. Street harassment exists at lower but present levels. And the Eiffel Tower area has a persistent scam ecosystem (fake petition signers, friendship bracelet wrappers, fake charity collectors) that requires constant alertness.

Emily in Paris filming locations to visit:

• Palais-Royal gardens: Where Emily frequently walks and has picnics. The arcades surrounding the gardens contain some of Paris’s most interesting independent shops. Free to enter; open daily.
• Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots in St-Germain-des-Prés: The classic literary cafes where Sartre, de Beauvoir, Hemingway, and Picasso once worked and argued. Yes, tourist prices. Yes, worth one coffee.
• Pont de l’Archevêché: The bridge adjacent to Notre-Dame (currently being restored post-fire; reopened in December 2024) where Emily has several memorable scenes.
• Place de l’Estrapade: The pretty square with the fountain that functions as the neighborhood landmark in the show. In reality, in the 5th arrondissement near the Panthéon — a pleasant, lived-in neighborhood with fewer tourists than St-Germain.

Solo female tip: The best Emily in Paris experience for solo travelers is to use the show’s locations as a framework for exploring Paris’s lesser-visited right bank neighborhoods — the Marais, the Canal St-Martin, and Montmartre’s residential streets rather than the tourist-heavy main drag — where the real Parisian character lives.

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3. Chicago — The Bear’s Kitchens and the City Behind Them

“The Bear” (Hulu/Disney+) transformed public consciousness about Chicago in a way that no tourism board campaign could have achieved: the show’s visceral, technically precise depiction of professional kitchen culture is set in a version of Chicago that feels entirely authentic. While much of The Bear filmed on Los Angeles studio sets, numerous exterior shots and several key scenes filmed at real Chicago locations — and the city’s food scene is every bit as extraordinary as the show suggests.

Chicago’s actual restaurant scene: The city has one of North America’s finest restaurant cultures, with a particularly strong tradition of high-end tasting-menu restaurants (Alinea, Girl & the Goat, Smyth) alongside excellent casual dining and an extraordinary sandwich culture (the Italian Beef sandwich that drives The Bear’s plot is a real Chicago staple, available at Al’s Beef and Portillo’s among many others).

The Bear filming locations:

• The Beef (fictional) is partially inspired by and set near Al’s Beef on West Ontario Street — an iconic 1938-founded Chicago beef sandwich institution. The Italian Beef sandwich (thinly sliced seasoned beef on Italian bread, dipped in the cooking juices, topped with hot or sweet peppers) is as good as the show suggests. Approximately $8-12.
• Wrigley Field area in Lakeview features in several exterior scenes. The neighborhood around the stadium (Wrigleyville) has an extremely active sports bar and restaurant scene.
• The Chicago River and Riverwalk feature in establishing shots throughout the series. The Riverwalk is excellent for solo walks — it runs along the river through downtown with cafes, kayak rentals, and views of the extraordinary architecture.

Chicago for solo female travelers: Chicago is a genuinely excellent solo travel destination — well-organized public transit (the L elevated rail covers most tourist areas efficiently), a walkable lakefront, excellent accommodation options at multiple price points, and a culture that is notably warm and direct in a way that makes solo women feel less isolated than in more anonymous cities. Safety is neighborhood-dependent — the Loop, River North, Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, and Lakeview are all comfortable for solo female tourists; certain south side neighborhoods are not recommended for independent tourist exploration.

Pro Tip: Book a table at a Chicago restaurant that exemplifies The Bear’s philosophy — technically precise, ingredient-focused, creative without pretension. Elizabeth (James Beard award-winning tasting menu), Lula Cafe (neighborhood restaurant with extraordinary seasonal cooking), and Au Cheval (the best burger in Chicago, regularly cited as the best burger in America) are all extraordinary solo dining experiences.

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4. Bath — Bridgerton’s Regency Romance

“Bridgerton” (Netflix) used Bath’s UNESCO-listed Georgian architecture as the visual grammar for its alternate-history Regency England setting, and the result has been a consistent surge in visitor numbers to one of England’s most beautiful cities. The Royal Crescent, the Circus, and the Pulteney Bridge all feature prominently in the series, and they are every bit as extraordinary in person as they are on screen.

Bath’s real history is better than Bridgerton’s fiction: Bath was the actual leisure and society capital of Georgian England (18th-early 19th century), and Jane Austen — whose novels predate Bridgerton’s fantasy by two centuries but occupy the same cultural space — lived here from 1801 to 1806. The Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street is an excellent museum covering Austen’s time in Bath and the city’s role in her novels.

The Roman Baths are the city’s most extraordinary historic attraction: a remarkably preserved 1st-century CE Roman bathing complex built around the city’s hot springs (the only natural hot springs in the UK). The water is still hot (approximately 46°C), and while you can no longer bathe in the Roman Baths themselves, the adjacent Thermae Bath Spa allows you to swim in modern rooftop pools fed by the same spring water. Booking in advance for Thermae is essential — particularly on weekends.

Bridgerton filming locations:

• Royal Crescent: The enormous curved Georgian terrace is the most iconic Bridgerton exterior. The No. 1 Royal Crescent museum gives access to period-decorated rooms showing how the interiors looked in Jane Austen’s era.
• Holburne Museum (at the end of Great Pulteney Street): Used as Lady Danbury’s house in Bridgerton. The museum’s permanent collection includes important works by Gainsborough and Turner and is free to enter.
• Assembly Rooms: The 18th-century social rooms where Bath’s fashionable society gathered for balls, concerts, and card games — directly equivalent to Bridgerton’s social season events. Now contains the Fashion Museum (currently being relocated to new premises).

Bath for solo female travelers: Bath is excellent for solo women — a compact, beautiful, highly walkable city with excellent independent restaurants, a lively arts scene, and the kind of manageable scale that makes independent exploration consistently rewarding. It is significantly smaller and much more affordable than London, making it an excellent UK base that rewards two to three days of exploration.

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5. Bucharest — Wednesday’s Gothic Romania

“Wednesday” (Netflix) filmed its spooky Nevermore Academy scenes at Cantacuzino Castle in Buşteni (approximately 100 kilometers north of Bucharest in the Prahova Valley) and at various Bucharest locations, triggering a significant increase in Romanian tourism that HerTripGuide has tracked consistently since the show’s release. Romania is genuinely extraordinary for solo female travelers — dramatically undervisited, extraordinarily beautiful, highly affordable, and historically fascinating.

Bucharest beyond the Wednesday aesthetic: Romania’s capital is a complex, fascinating city with an architectural legacy that mixes Belle Époque French-influenced design (Bucharest was called “the Paris of the East” in the early 20th century) with brutal communist-era concrete (including the Palace of Parliament, the second largest building in the world by floor area after the Pentagon, built by Ceaușescu at tremendous human cost). This contrast makes Bucharest one of the most intellectually interesting capital cities in Europe.

The Old Town (Centrul Vechi): Bucharest’s historic center has been extensively renovated and now houses an extremely active bar and restaurant scene. It is the entry point for most visitors and features reasonably preserved 19th-century architecture alongside the inevitable tourist economy.

The Palace of Parliament: The most extraordinary Communist-era building in Europe, and absolutely worth a guided tour to understand the megalomania and human cost behind its construction. Tours run daily; book online at the palace website. The sheer scale of the interior — room after room of chandeliers, marble, and custom-woven carpet — is genuinely jaw-dropping.

Cantacuzino Castle (Buşteni): The “Nevermore Academy” exterior can be visited on a day trip from Bucharest via CFR train (approximately 1.5 hours, 30-50 RON / $6-10 each way). The castle is open for guided tours and offers extraordinary Carpathian mountain views. Combine with a visit to Peleș Castle (Sinaia) on the same route — one of the most beautiful royal palaces in Europe.

Romania for solo female travelers: Romania is safe and increasingly well-developed for independent tourism. Street harassment exists but is not aggressive. English is widely spoken in Bucharest and tourist areas. The currency (Romanian Leu, RON) makes the country extremely affordable — budget travelers can explore comfortably for $35-50 USD per day, including accommodation.

For solo women planning a Bucharest visit as part of a Balkans circuit, HerTripGuide’s Balkans solo budget guide covers the regional transport and accommodation context. And for managing the social side of solo travel to film locations — where you often want to share the experience with someone — the strategies in our getting started guide on meeting fellow travelers apply directly to the set-jetting community that gathers at popular filming locations.