Licence to Chill: Holiday in three classic Bond-film locations
007: Road to a Million Available from 10 Nov Amazon Prime Video
Ed Grenby - 3 November 2023
"No, Mr Bond," as Goldfinger so nearly put it, "I expect you to fly…" The glamour of travel and the exoticism of far-flung locations have always been key ingredients in the James Bond cocktail – and that’s as true as ever of the latest extension of the franchise, 007: Road to a Million, which starts on Amazon Prime this week.
The premise in this adventure game show series is that the Controller – Brian Cox, every bit as drolly sinister as in Succession, but noticeably less sweary – dispatches pairs of contestants across the world to take on spy-style challenges and solve questions that could lead them to a £1 million prize. And, presumably, innuendo-laced closing-credit encounters with beautiful Bond girls/boys.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like the show’s amateur agents get any more lounger-time than their hero: just as we never see Sean Connery or Daniel Craig idly reading a Jackie Collins by the pool, or enjoying a pizza on the piazza, these guys are very much on a henchman’s holiday, working their way around such lovely locales as Venice, Jamaica, and the Swiss Alps.
The rest of us, however, have a licence to chill – so here’s how to holiday in three classic Bond-film locations that are all revisited in the new series. Remember to order those vodka martinis shaken, not stirred…
LONDON LIBATIONS
Sure, you could stand outside the many office buildings, private clubs, and Underground stations featured in films from 1962’s Dr No onwards – but if you want to actually enjoy your Bonding moments in the capital, give these a go instead. Start by replicating Pierce Brosnan’s high-speed river chase in The World Is Not Enough with a 45mph boat ride down the Thames (thamesribexperience.com).
Then, for something more sedate, try Trafalgar Square’s National Gallery: it was in Room 34, beneath Turner’s exquisitely melancholic The Fighting Temeraire, that Daniel Craig met Ben Whishaw’s Q in Skyfall. Mere steps away are Rules (rules.co.uk), London’s oldest restaurant – ask for “M’s table” to dine where Ralph Fiennes did in Spectre – and the Corinthia hotel (corinthia.com/london). The latter is one of London’s most luxurious hotels, and has a long acquaintance with espionage: during the Second World War, Room 424 was the first home of MI9.
The shadowy Special Operations Executive also started there, with secret tunnels linking the building to nearby Whitehall. Later, Daily Express artist Yaroslav Horak used it as MI6’s HQ in his Bond comic strips. More recently, the Corinthia made an appearance in No Time to Die and Skyfall. Perhaps more important than any of this is that its deliciously decadent bar, Velvet, serves seven different kinds of martini…
FROM VENICE WITH LOVE
Bond’s love affair with Venice is enduring. Starting in 1963, with Sean Connery’s From Russia with Love, running through 1979 and Roger Moore in Moonraker, it rises to a torrid climax with Daniel Craig’s first outing as the super-spy, 2006’s Casino Royale. You may not wish to re-enact the various betrayals, murders, and dramatically sinking palazzi Bond endures, so start instead with a gondola ride down the Grand Canal like Roger Moore. At €80 for 40 minutes, you don’t want to get stuck behind half a dozen couples doing the same route, so max out the romance factor by getting off the main canal thoroughfares. Your gondolier will take whatever route you request – though may demur at turning their boat into a hovercraft to whizz through St Mark’s Square, as Moore’s does.
For a push-the-vaporetto-out stay, it has to be the Cipriani (belmond.com/cipriani), where Craig moors his sailboat towards the end of Casino Royale. Separated from the city’s tourist-thronged hub by half a mile of calm lagoon, it’s an island of calm and discreet luxury.
The ducal splendour of the Doge’s Palace (palazzoducale.visitmuve.it) is the highlight of many travellers’ visits to La Serenissima, but aim to time your trip so you catch the sunset at its Bridge of Sighs: it makes an irresistibly seductive finale to the day, as Connery and Daniela Bianchi’s Tatiana demonstrated at the end of From Russia with Love.
VILLA-INY IN JAMAICA
Ian Fleming’s home-from-home in the West Indies has a double claim to be the spiritual birthplace of 007: first, the former naval commander wrote all 13 Bond books on the island; and second, the movie franchise arguably began here, an hour and two minutes into that first film, Dr No, when Ursula Andress emerged from the Caribbean Sea in a white two-piece. That was at Laughing Waters beach – still a lovely, quiet, waterfall-fringed little stretch of sand – beside the picturesque resort town Ocho Rios; but you can also visit key locations from perennial favourite Live and Let Die. That episode’s crocodile-hopping escape was filmed at the Jamaica Swamp Safari Village (jamaicaswampsafarivillage.com), while Green Grotto Caves served as the secret underground lair of villain Dr Kananga, aka Mr Big (greengrottocavesja.com).
Choosing where to stay is straightforward enough: Fleming’s villa, GoldenEye, is available to rent, as are another dozen or so properties that have been built on its sprawling grounds and now operate as a hotel (goldeneye.com).
Take it easy, though – unlike those would-be Bonds, you have all the time in the world…
"No, Mr Bond," as Goldfinger so nearly put it, "I expect you to fly…" The glamour of travel and the exoticism of far-flung locations have always been key ingredients in the James Bond cocktail – and that’s as true as ever of the latest extension of the franchise, 007: Road to a Million, which starts on Amazon Prime this week.
The premise in this adventure game show series is that the Controller – Brian Cox, every bit as drolly sinister as in Succession, but noticeably less sweary – dispatches pairs of contestants across the world to take on spy-style challenges and solve questions that could lead them to a £1 million prize. And, presumably, innuendo-laced closing-credit encounters with beautiful Bond girls/boys.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like the show’s amateur agents get any more lounger-time than their hero: just as we never see Sean Connery or Daniel Craig idly reading a Jackie Collins by the pool, or enjoying a pizza on the piazza, these guys are very much on a henchman’s holiday, working their way around such lovely locales as Venice, Jamaica, and the Swiss Alps.
The rest of us, however, have a licence to chill – so here’s how to holiday in three classic Bond-film locations that are all revisited in the new series. Remember to order those vodka martinis shaken, not stirred…
LONDON LIBATIONS
Sure, you could stand outside the many office buildings, private clubs, and Underground stations featured in films from 1962’s Dr No onwards – but if you want to actually enjoy your Bonding moments in the capital, give these a go instead. Start by replicating Pierce Brosnan’s high-speed river chase in The World Is Not Enough with a 45mph boat ride down the Thames (thamesribexperience.com).
Then, for something more sedate, try Trafalgar Square’s National Gallery: it was in Room 34, beneath Turner’s exquisitely melancholic The Fighting Temeraire, that Daniel Craig met Ben Whishaw’s Q in Skyfall. Mere steps away are Rules (rules.co.uk), London’s oldest restaurant – ask for “M’s table” to dine where Ralph Fiennes did in Spectre – and the Corinthia hotel (corinthia.com/london). The latter is one of London’s most luxurious hotels, and has a long acquaintance with espionage: during the Second World War, Room 424 was the first home of MI9.
The shadowy Special Operations Executive also started there, with secret tunnels linking the building to nearby Whitehall. Later, Daily Express artist Yaroslav Horak used it as MI6’s HQ in his Bond comic strips. More recently, the Corinthia made an appearance in No Time to Die and Skyfall. Perhaps more important than any of this is that its deliciously decadent bar, Velvet, serves seven different kinds of martini…
FROM VENICE WITH LOVE
Bond’s love affair with Venice is enduring. Starting in 1963, with Sean Connery’s From Russia with Love, running through 1979 and Roger Moore in Moonraker, it rises to a torrid climax with Daniel Craig’s first outing as the super-spy, 2006’s Casino Royale. You may not wish to re-enact the various betrayals, murders, and dramatically sinking palazzi Bond endures, so start instead with a gondola ride down the Grand Canal like Roger Moore. At €80 for 40 minutes, you don’t want to get stuck behind half a dozen couples doing the same route, so max out the romance factor by getting off the main canal thoroughfares. Your gondolier will take whatever route you request – though may demur at turning their boat into a hovercraft to whizz through St Mark’s Square, as Moore’s does.
For a push-the-vaporetto-out stay, it has to be the Cipriani (belmond.com/cipriani), where Craig moors his sailboat towards the end of Casino Royale. Separated from the city’s tourist-thronged hub by half a mile of calm lagoon, it’s an island of calm and discreet luxury.
The ducal splendour of the Doge’s Palace (palazzoducale.visitmuve.it) is the highlight of many travellers’ visits to La Serenissima, but aim to time your trip so you catch the sunset at its Bridge of Sighs: it makes an irresistibly seductive finale to the day, as Connery and Daniela Bianchi’s Tatiana demonstrated at the end of From Russia with Love.
VILLA-INY IN JAMAICA
Ian Fleming’s home-from-home in the West Indies has a double claim to be the spiritual birthplace of 007: first, the former naval commander wrote all 13 Bond books on the island; and second, the movie franchise arguably began here, an hour and two minutes into that first film, Dr No, when Ursula Andress emerged from the Caribbean Sea in a white two-piece. That was at Laughing Waters beach – still a lovely, quiet, waterfall-fringed little stretch of sand – beside the picturesque resort town Ocho Rios; but you can also visit key locations from perennial favourite Live and Let Die. That episode’s crocodile-hopping escape was filmed at the Jamaica Swamp Safari Village (jamaicaswampsafarivillage.com), while Green Grotto Caves served as the secret underground lair of villain Dr Kananga, aka Mr Big (greengrottocavesja.com).
Choosing where to stay is straightforward enough: Fleming’s villa, GoldenEye, is available to rent, as are another dozen or so properties that have been built on its sprawling grounds and now operate as a hotel (goldeneye.com).
Take it easy, though – unlike those would-be Bonds, you have all the time in the world…
ED GRENBY