Movies & Series Filmed in Greece
There are films that stay with you long after the credits roll, and somewhere in the back of your mind a coastline, a doorway, an extravagant home, or even the slant of afternoon light in a particular setting. You find yourself wondering whether the place was ever real, or whether you imagined it into being: it was real and it still is. And as it turns out, someone can take you there.
What follows are the films and series whose Greek locations have lived in our heads long after we left the cinema, the houses and harbours and hotels still a fond memory. Now we can tell you where those places are, and we can take you there, so you can make the fantasy real.
The Durrells (2016 - 2019, ITV)
Filming Location: Corfu Island
Corfu is the greenest of the Ionian islands and with a striking history: four centuries of Venetian rule, a brief British occupation and a procession of writers, painters and aristocrats who built houses along the coast and never really left. The UNESCO-listed Old Town has the bones of a Venetian city dressed in Greek life, and the northeast coast around Kalami and Kassiopi is where Lawrence Durrell really lived in the 1930s.
The grand villa at the center of the series is an 18th century seafront residence on the east coast, a short walk from the Gouvia marina and very much available to rent upon request. Two aces of Mediterranean gardens, a secluded beach at the bottom of the garden, a vintage pool, a tennis court, antique-furnished interiors and five en-suite bedrooms which can sleep up to 10 people.
It is one of the most unique and beautiful heritage villa rentals in this category you can find in Greece.
Frankly, we would recommend it whether you’ve seen the show or not.
Where to stay: The villa itself, available upon request; ask us about our private villas on the island.
Corfu is also renowned for its luxury seafront resorts, we can help you make a decision
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Filming Location: Amanzoe Resort, Porto Cheli and Spetses
Amanzoe is, by some distance, one of the finest places to stay in Greece. It sits on a hilltop above Porto Cheli, on the eastern Peloponnese, with 360-degree views over olive groves and the sea, and an architectural language that nods to the classical without ever overplaying it.
The resort runs on a scale that very few places in the country can match; pavilions, villas with private pools, an Aman spa, six restaurants, a private beach club ten minutes down the road, and direct speedboat access to Spetses and Hydra. It runs from April through November, and it works as well for a honeymoon as it does for a multi-generational family taking over a row of villas.
Rian Johnson clearly knew what he was doing.
Where to stay: Amanzoe, of course; Villa 20 was the production’s main location and is available to rent upon request
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
Filming Location: Kefalonia Island
Kefalonia is the largest of the Ionian islands, mountainous and densely forested, with a coastline that swings from the dramatic to the gentle in the space of a single drive. The entire film was shot here, across the north and centre of the island. The north has Myrtos, the famous white-pebble beach where the Italian soldiers swim and sing in the surf before the war turns on them, and where the sea mine washes up and is detonated.
Further up the coast is Fiscardo, the Venetian-era harbour village that was untouched by the 1953 earthquake that flattened most of the island’s other settlements. The south has a different character entirely; long sandy beaches, small villages running down to the water, and a slower, gentler rhythm that lends itself to a longer stay. The water across the Ionian sits at a different blue from the Aegean, deeper and more luminous, and the food is Italian-inflected from centuries of Venetian rule.
Pair it with Ithaca for a slow two-island Ionian trip.
Where to Stay: F Zeen and Eliamos in the south, both excellent; Emelisse in the north, near Fiscardo, for those who want the Venetian and remote side.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
Filming Location: Spetses Island
Spetses is a polished outpost on one of the Saronic islands, two hours from Piraeus by fast ferry, and gloriously car-free; private vehicles are banned in town, and the island runs on bicycles, mopeds, and horse-drawn carriages. The energy is unhurried and faintly aristocratic, with neoclassical mansions, a single grand hotel that anchors the harbour, and a coastline of pine-fringed coves that you reach on foot or by water taxi. Zogeria Beach, where parts of the movie were filmed, is on the north-western side, and is one the prettiest of coves and worth the windy drive across the island.
Pair Spetses with Hydra for a longer Saronic trip; the two work beautifully together, and neither requires you to get on a plane or drive a car.
Where to Stay: The Poseidonion Grand, the island’s grande dame, which appears in several scenes; or Yayaki Spetses for those who want something smaller and more contemporary.
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Filming locations: Skopelos Island, Skiathos Skiathos, and Damouchari (Pelion mainland)
Skopelos and Skiathos sit in the Sporades, the small archipelago in the western Aegean that almost no one outside Greece talks about, which is exactly why we love them. The two islands are pine-covered, deeply green, and refreshingly free of the August chaos that defines the Cyclades in high season; you can pair them comfortably over a week, with Skiathos giving you a livelier base and an international airport, and Skopelos giving you the slower, wilder version.
The now famous church (thanks to the movie) at Agios Ioannis Kastri, is perched 100 metres above the sea on a solitary rock; it’s a pilgrimage site in its own right, with 105 steps cut into the stone and a view across to Alonissos.
The producers reportedly looked at twenty-one Greek islands before picking these two; the criterion was the colour green.
Where to stay: Elivi on Skiathos; ask us about our private villas on either island, available upon request.
One Day: Episode 4 (2021, Netflix)
Filming Location: Paros Island
Paros has, for a long time, been the Cyclades island preferred by Greeks themselves; livelier than Folegandros, more refined than Mykonos, and with marble in the bones of half its buildings, quarried here since antiquity and used in the Venus de Milo and Napoleon’s tomb. Naousa, on the north coast, is one of the prettiest fishing villages in the Aegean, with a small Venetian fort half-submerged in the harbour and a network of bougainvillaea-draped lanes behind it that fill with restaurants. Parikia, the capital, is a working port town with a fourth-century church at its centre, the Panagia Ekatontapyliani, that predates almost everything in Athens. Santa Maria, on the eastern side, is the island’s headline beach.
Paros sits in the middle of the Cycladic ferry network, which makes it an easy pairing with most Cycladic islands, and even Crete.
Where to Stay: Cosme, a Luxury Collection property, sits a few minutes from Naousa harbour.
Vionne, a design-forward Cycladic hotel in a quiet corner just a few minutes drive from Naousa.
Luura, opening August 1st on the south of the island, is the new arrival to keep on your radar.
The Rooster on Antiparos is a 10-minute ferry ride from Paros and one of the most considered places to this side of the Aegean.
Ask us about our private villas across both Paros and Antiparos, available upon request.
The Odyssey (2026)
Filming Locations: Corinth, Pylos and Methoni in Peloponnese
The southwestern Peloponnese is the part of Greece that has had a real renaissance over the last decade, largely thanks to the Costa Navarino group, which has put serious investment into the region without overdeveloping it. Voidokilia is its centrepiece beach, a perfect crescent of white sand backed by dunes, archaeological sites, and a wetland that draws migratory birds; Nestor’s Cave, where the Cyclops sequence was filmed, sits at the cliff above. The Venetian-era castle at Methoni anchors the south end of the bay, and Pylos itself remains a working harbour town with proper tavernas and an unhurried evening pace.
The cast and crew were based at Costa Navarino for the shoot; you can be too.
Where to Stay: Mandarin Oriental Costa Navarino, the W, or The Romanos.
Ask us about our private villas in this area, available upon request.
The Riders (2026)
Filming Locations: Hydra Island and Athens
Hydra has been the artists’ island of Greece since the 1960s, when Leonard Cohen bought a house here and Brice Marden, Jeff Koons, and various others followed. It is car-free in the most literal sense; no roads exist on the island beyond the harbour front, and donkeys, water taxis, and your own legs do the rest. The harbour itself is a perfect natural amphitheatre, ringed by stone houses that rise up the hill in tiers, and the water is clear enough that the fish in the port look painted in.
Hydra is a 90-minute fast ferry from Piraeus and works as a long weekend or as part of a Saronic trip with Spetses.
Brad Pitt was filming here for five weeks in early 2026; the donkeys, presumably, were unimpressed.
Where to Stay: Hydrea Hotel for an Adults Only experience; Bratsera and Leto are terrific for families and friends alike and all options are walking distance from the port (no stairs, you’re welcome).
Maestro in Blue (2022 - Present, Netflix)
Filming Location: Paxos Island
Paxos is the smallest of the Ionian islands, just south of Corfu, and has no airport, which has kept the island gloriously itself. The whole island is roughly 10 kilometres long, covered in olive trees, and built around three small ports; Gaios in the south, Lakka in the north, and Loggos somewhere in between.
Antipaxos, the islet just below, has two beaches with turquoise and jewel-toned waters, reached by a short boat ride and best done as a day trip.
The first Greek series ever picked up by Netflix worldwide, Maestro in Blue did for Paxos what Mamma Mia did for Skopelos & Skiathos, on a smaller scale.
Where to stay: Ask us about our private villas across the island, available upon request; for a no-frills, beachfront adults-friendly hotel option we love Agali Hotel
If a scene stayed with you, tell us where. We’ll build the trip around it.