The Lost City: The real star of a new adventure movie is hiding in plain sight…
The Lost City In UK cinemas from 15 April
Ed Grenby - 1 April 2022
Sandra Bullock finds it. Daniel Radcliffe finds it. Even Channing Tatum – not a man much fêted for his geographic acumen – finds it. So just how hard can it be to locate the eponymous Lost City of this week’s big Hollywood release?
Well, let’s put it this way: you won’t need the film’s ancient map or hieroglyph-inscribed cave, just a reasonably priced fortnight in packageholiday hotspot the Dominican Republic. The movie’s plot sees Bullock – as romance novelist Loretta Sage – kidnapped by Radcliffe’s villainous billionaire so she can lead him to the fabled treasure of her previously-presumed fictional “Lost City of D”. Hunk-of-the-month Tatum plays the cover model of her books who tries to save her, Brad Pitt cameos as further eye-candy… and you can probably guess where they all end up in the climactic final scenes. Less predictable, perhaps, was the filmmakers’ choice to shoot the whole thing in the tourist-friendly eastern half of “Dom Rep”. The country, which takes up most of the Caribbean island it shares with Haiti, has long been popular with the fly’n’flop brigade – though, as Bullock and co will now avow, there are some truly cinematic natural wonders to explore, too.
Perhaps the most dramatic of all the film’s locations is Salto de Socoa, a jungle-fringed waterfall that plunges into a natural pool of CGI-defying aquamarine. In the film, the leads discover crucial clues etched into the walls of a secret cavern behind the cataract, but in reality the cave is pretty small. In fact, you’ll find little here besides local kids splashing about in the water at weekends. But if you’re hunting for a more happening spot, there are heaps of other falls in the area (look out for anywhere with “Salto” in its name), and plenty of tours available to the equally striking Damajagua Falls (also known as 27 Charcos). The Lost City’s crew were spoilt for choice when it came to shooting jungle scenes, too. Beyond its golden beaches and a few elegant, colonial-era cities, the Dominican Republic is carpeted with rainforest.
Several sequences in the film (and incidentally scenes in Jurassic Park) were shot in Los Haitises National Park – 600-odd square miles of jungle, mangrove, shore and 100ft-tall limestone karst islands in the picturesque waters of Samaná Bay. The best way to explore it is by boat (either canoe or, for the hard of paddling, with an engine), and your guide will point out pelicans, frigatebirds, herons and hawks, as well as enigmatic rock engravings made by the island’s indigenous Taíno people. It’s no spoiler to say that the watery cavern entrance concealing the movie’s actual Lost City was filmed in Los Haitises; but other bits of the City were shot in Iguabo- nita Cave, part of Scape Park at Cap Cana (scapepark.com). It’s one of many eco-parks, offering natural pools , animal encounters, zip lines , cenotes (azure-water-filled swimming holes), caves, horse rides and the like.
Most, like Scape Park, gather near Punta Cana, at the Dominican Republic’s eastern tip; that’s where the country’s biggest (and, indeed, brashest) resorts are found, too. A little calmer – though still with everything holiday-makers seek, from good restaurants to exquisite beaches – is La Romana, on the country’s south coast. The stand-out hotels here are a pair of Hiltons, one for families and one adultsonly (hilton.com/en/hotels/lrmdohh-hilton-laromana), but the seared-in-the-memory highlight of any south-coast stay is an excursion to the islands of Catalina or Saona, delectable droplets of soft sand and palm trees, with great snorkelling, a couple of raffish beach bars and seafood shacks and an even-more-holidayish-than-therest-of-your-holiday vibe.
The country’s other main tourist enclave is the Samaná Peninsula, in the north. Here you’ll find a handful of more rarefied hotels (though also more Americans, for whom the Dominican Republic is weekendably close). Samaná was the location for more Lost City shoot days: the white-sand beaches of Las Terrenas dazzle on screen almost as much as in real life, Arroyo Barríl Airport makes a dramatic backdrop to some of the film’s more explosive stunts, and then there’s Bahía de San Lorenzo. Without the camera crews, it’s a serene bay within the larger Samaná Bay, and a great base for whalewatching (between January and March, more than 300 humpbacks make their holiday home in the calm waters here).
The country’s capital, Santo Domingo, is worth a day trip wherever you’re staying. Its colonial heart has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1990, and makes a wonderful wander – the highlight is probably the Alcázar de Colón, the 1512 palace of Diego Columbus (Christopher’s son). Even more memorable is the Faro a Colón (Lighthouse to Columbus), the strange, sci-filooking mausoleum and museum to Columbus Sr inaugurated in 1992. Its massive modernist hulk houses 157 beams of light, so powerful it’s said they can be seen from space. No chance of Santo Domingo becoming a Lost City, then (godominicanrepublic.com).
Sandra Bullock finds it. Daniel Radcliffe finds it. Even Channing Tatum – not a man much fêted for his geographic acumen – finds it. So just how hard can it be to locate the eponymous Lost City of this week’s big Hollywood release?
Well, let’s put it this way: you won’t need the film’s ancient map or hieroglyph-inscribed cave, just a reasonably priced fortnight in packageholiday hotspot the Dominican Republic. The movie’s plot sees Bullock – as romance novelist Loretta Sage – kidnapped by Radcliffe’s villainous billionaire so she can lead him to the fabled treasure of her previously-presumed fictional “Lost City of D”. Hunk-of-the-month Tatum plays the cover model of her books who tries to save her, Brad Pitt cameos as further eye-candy… and you can probably guess where they all end up in the climactic final scenes. Less predictable, perhaps, was the filmmakers’ choice to shoot the whole thing in the tourist-friendly eastern half of “Dom Rep”. The country, which takes up most of the Caribbean island it shares with Haiti, has long been popular with the fly’n’flop brigade – though, as Bullock and co will now avow, there are some truly cinematic natural wonders to explore, too.
Perhaps the most dramatic of all the film’s locations is Salto de Socoa, a jungle-fringed waterfall that plunges into a natural pool of CGI-defying aquamarine. In the film, the leads discover crucial clues etched into the walls of a secret cavern behind the cataract, but in reality the cave is pretty small. In fact, you’ll find little here besides local kids splashing about in the water at weekends. But if you’re hunting for a more happening spot, there are heaps of other falls in the area (look out for anywhere with “Salto” in its name), and plenty of tours available to the equally striking Damajagua Falls (also known as 27 Charcos). The Lost City’s crew were spoilt for choice when it came to shooting jungle scenes, too. Beyond its golden beaches and a few elegant, colonial-era cities, the Dominican Republic is carpeted with rainforest.
Several sequences in the film (and incidentally scenes in Jurassic Park) were shot in Los Haitises National Park – 600-odd square miles of jungle, mangrove, shore and 100ft-tall limestone karst islands in the picturesque waters of Samaná Bay. The best way to explore it is by boat (either canoe or, for the hard of paddling, with an engine), and your guide will point out pelicans, frigatebirds, herons and hawks, as well as enigmatic rock engravings made by the island’s indigenous Taíno people. It’s no spoiler to say that the watery cavern entrance concealing the movie’s actual Lost City was filmed in Los Haitises; but other bits of the City were shot in Iguabo- nita Cave, part of Scape Park at Cap Cana (scapepark.com). It’s one of many eco-parks, offering natural pools , animal encounters, zip lines , cenotes (azure-water-filled swimming holes), caves, horse rides and the like.
Most, like Scape Park, gather near Punta Cana, at the Dominican Republic’s eastern tip; that’s where the country’s biggest (and, indeed, brashest) resorts are found, too. A little calmer – though still with everything holiday-makers seek, from good restaurants to exquisite beaches – is La Romana, on the country’s south coast. The stand-out hotels here are a pair of Hiltons, one for families and one adultsonly (hilton.com/en/hotels/lrmdohh-hilton-laromana), but the seared-in-the-memory highlight of any south-coast stay is an excursion to the islands of Catalina or Saona, delectable droplets of soft sand and palm trees, with great snorkelling, a couple of raffish beach bars and seafood shacks and an even-more-holidayish-than-therest-of-your-holiday vibe.
The country’s other main tourist enclave is the Samaná Peninsula, in the north. Here you’ll find a handful of more rarefied hotels (though also more Americans, for whom the Dominican Republic is weekendably close). Samaná was the location for more Lost City shoot days: the white-sand beaches of Las Terrenas dazzle on screen almost as much as in real life, Arroyo Barríl Airport makes a dramatic backdrop to some of the film’s more explosive stunts, and then there’s Bahía de San Lorenzo. Without the camera crews, it’s a serene bay within the larger Samaná Bay, and a great base for whalewatching (between January and March, more than 300 humpbacks make their holiday home in the calm waters here).
The country’s capital, Santo Domingo, is worth a day trip wherever you’re staying. Its colonial heart has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1990, and makes a wonderful wander – the highlight is probably the Alcázar de Colón, the 1512 palace of Diego Columbus (Christopher’s son). Even more memorable is the Faro a Colón (Lighthouse to Columbus), the strange, sci-filooking mausoleum and museum to Columbus Sr inaugurated in 1992. Its massive modernist hulk houses 157 beams of light, so powerful it’s said they can be seen from space. No chance of Santo Domingo becoming a Lost City, then (godominicanrepublic.com).