TAKING THE ULTIMATE HARRY POTTER FAN VACATION
We travel to London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland for a two-week vacation packed full of Harry Potter-themed sights, filming locations, activities, tours, and more - the ultimate vacation for two ardent fans of Harry Potter and all things Wizarding World!
JUMP TO…
In December 2019 my boyfriend Sam and I planned a trip to London for summer 2020, with a visit to the Warner Bros Studio Tour - The Making of Harry Potter being the driving reason behind choosing the UK as our destination. For obvious reasons, that trip in summer 2020 never took place. Instead, we’d find ourselves postponing it to winter 2020, then summer 2021, then winter 2021, never quite knowing when we’d actually be able to take the trip but hopeful 6 month delays would line it up with a time when the COVID situation in the UK and the availability of vaccinations and boosters would make the trip doable. Every time we delayed the trip, we ended up adding more Harry Potter-themed activities to the point the planned itinerary was decidedly Harry Potter-focused. At that point, we decided we might as well go all-in on the Harry Potter and commit ourselves to taking The Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation. That’s precisely the trip we were finally able to take in late May and early June 2022 - an Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation packed full of Harry Potter-themed activities, with a special focus being on visiting filming locations from the movies we’re each tremendous fans of and bringing ourselves closer to the magic of the Harry Potter books and movies we each love so much.
a quest to visit the studio tour…
The idea for this trip came about with the decision to fly to London to, first and foremost, visit the Warner Bros. Studio Tour - The Making of Harry Potter. Gradually, after postponements, reschedules, cancelations, additions, modifications and more, we found ourselves embarking on a Potter-packed two week journey to the UK!
Bringing ourselves closer to that magic and immersing ourselves into it as much as possible really ended up being the goal of the trip and what we were after - a pursuit other Harry Potter fans are entirely familiar with, I’m sure. We go to the Wizarding World theme parks at Universal because they immerse us in that magic; we read fan fiction and watch fan videos on YouTube because they immerse us in that magic; we read the books and watch the movies over and over again because they immerse us in that magic.
We’ll never be able to read the books or watch the movies for the first time again. I’m sure Harry Potter fans like myself can relate to the bittersweet feeling of knowing we’ll never be able to recreate the magic, excitement, and enthusiasm we experienced those very first times we turned those pages or got excited for midnight releases, engrossed ourselves in those stories, sat in that dark theatre with a crowd of other excited fans to watch the movies the night they came out, and so on. Thankfully, there are other ways we can relive or even newly discover that magic and visiting the Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour for the first time was a way for us to do so. Further, pursuing all kinds of new Harry Potter activities, visiting filming locations, seeking out sites relevant to the conception and creation of the books, retracing the footsteps of the films’ actors and characters and the books’ author, and finding ourselves among countless other Harry Potter fans would provide the perfect opportunity to enjoy what was indeed a magical journey to London and Edinburgh in the United Kingdom on our Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation from May 27 to June 9, 2022.
Choosing the Potter-most Hotels
“Did you think we were gonna be staying in a five-star hotel? Finding a Horcrux every other day?”
While it’s a simple choice to pick the United Kingdom for a Harry Potter-themed vacation, choosing where to stay once there takes a bit more work and research. In actuality, the very first iteration of the trip had us taking the Eurostar from London to Paris for the day for a little mid-vacation vacation. After a couple postponements and delays kept adding more time to the trip (I had a set amount of Virgin Atlantic airfare credit, so had to find travel days with rates that lined up with that to avoid having to spend too much more on airfare), we ended up with an itinerary that included several nights in Paris stuck between 8 nights in London. We’d ultimately replace Paris with Edinburgh as COVID testing and isolation requirements were looking too burdensome and expensive - Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, of course, so meant only having to deal with entry testing once. By the time we took the trip, testing and isolation requirements in the UK were dropped entirely. At this point we were so committed to a Harry Potter-themed trip and Edinburgh was such an important part of that, though, the matter was settled - we’d have to find hotels in London and Edinburgh!
For London, we had two prime candidates - the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London at St. Pancras International Station, and Hazlitt’s Hotel in the Soho district of London.
The facade of St. Pancras station and the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel would be familiar to any Harry Potter fan - it stands in for King’s Cross in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets! When Ron and Harry take off in Mr. Weasley’s flying Ford Anglia early in the movie, they do so in front of St. Pancras station. The very last scene in the entire film series - the epilogue at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 - starts with the camera panning up on St. Pancras station (again standing in for King’s Cross). St. Pancras and Kings Cross stations are right next to each other, and the exterior of St. Pancras was used for the shot as it’s far more visually impressive than King’s Cross. Interestingly, while the exterior of St. Pancras stood in for King’s Cross in the movies, the exterior of the actual King’s Cross station is what the replica is based on at Universal Studios in Orlando.
We were excited by the prospect of staying in a hotel that appeared in the movies, and the St. Pancras Renaissance also originally made practical sense when Paris was part of our trip as Eurostar trains depart from St. Pancras station. Further still, the hotel’s proximity to King’s Cross - right across the street, even, and sharing an underground station - would mean we could easily walk over to the Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 3/4 inside King’s Cross and be close to a King’s Cross station that had great significance in the books and movies. Even after we swapped out Paris for Edinburgh, the St. Pancras Renaissance was a great option - LNER trains to Edinburgh Waverly depart from London King’s Cross nearby.
Ron and Harry take flight in Mr. Weasley’s flying car, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The building in the background, standing in as Kings Cross station in the movies, is actually St. Pancras station and the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel.
Another prime candidate for London lodgings is Hazlitt’s Hotel in Soho. A small boutique hotel with only a couple dozen rooms, Hazlitt’s enjoys a reputation that extends well beyond its size - it’s long been a favorite London hotel of J.K. Rowling herself, and in Hazlitt’s safe are a couple first edition copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - each signed by Rowling, with notes to the hotel.
One look at Hazlitt’s and it’s not hard to see why Rowling and so many other authors (including the late Anthony Bourdain) love it - the hotel is named after an essayist, has libraries and sitting rooms full of old books, and is overflowing with quirky charm and character. Rooms have four-poster beds and antique furnishings; hallways and stairwells are narrow and crooked; guest rooms are packed full of their own libraries of books; each room is individually decorated; immediately outside Hazlitt’s front door is the lively Soho neighborhood, long a favorite of authors, musicians, and artists.
Behind this unassuming front door of a Georgian townhouse in Soho, London, is Hazlitt’s Hotel.
A charming boutique hotel, J.K. Rowling herself is known to be a big fan and one of the uniquely furnished and decorated rooms has long been her favorite.
Ultimately, all of the delays and postponements left us having to cancel our plans to stay at the St. Pancras Renaissance in London for the first 4 nights of our trip. It so happened that when we canceled the trip in December 2021 and pushed it back to May 2022, the new itinerary had us in London leading up to Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. With loads of events scheduled to celebrate the Queen’s 70th year on the throne, hotels were filling up fast and rates were climbing through the roof. We skipped the St. Pancras Renaissance and stayed at St. Ermin’s Hotel near St. James Park for the several days we had in London before heading up to Scotland. While it has no Potter connection, the St. Ermin’s Hotel was wonderful. I was adamant Hazlitt’s be a part of the trip, and we were fortunate enough to enjoy it for our final 5 nights in London after returning from Edinburgh. With its character and charm (did I mention the hotel also has an old cat that lives there? Sir Godfrey!), Rowling connection, and being situated in Soho (very close to many of the Harry Potter activities we had planned), it was our London hotel priority and it lived up to all our expectations.
We stayed in the hotel’s Teresa Cornelys Suite, named after the 18th Century singer who lived in the area, was one of Casanova’s lovers, and was a well-known London socialite. All of the rooms in Hazlitt’s are named after famous people who have personal connections to the area, to the buildings that house it, and even to the William Hazlitt after which the hotel is named. Our suite was nothing short of remarkable - a large, tall, supremely comfortable bed, a writing desk in the window, a sitting room with a mini bar and shelves full of books, a narrow staircase that led to the prefects perfect ensuite bathroom a floor above, paneled walls that hid closets and storage, and antique period furniture. Further, breakfast was delivered to the room each morning we wanted it. Further still, the staff were all incredibly friendly, the sitting rooms in the hotel (including the ones with fully stocked honor bars) were all super comfy and cozy, and… Sir Godfrey the cat!
I wouldn’t fault you for thinking Hazlitt’s must be supremely expensive, given how luxurious it looks. In truth, its prices were entirely reasonable and it really was remarkable value - charm, personality, great service, a wonderful room, and an excellent location.
Location is one of the prime selling points for anyone looking to spend some Harry Potter-themed days in London, and Hazlitt’s is mere steps away from places like the House of MinaLima, Cutter & Squidge, and the Palace Theatre at which Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is playing - all part of our Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation itinerary - making Hazlitt’s the best possible place we could have stayed.
Other London hotel suggestions for a Harry Potter-themed trip:
The Great Northern Hotel. Attached directly to King’s Cross station, the GNH is just steps away from the Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 3/4 and the actual filming locations within King’s Cross.
The Georgian House. This small, boutique hotel in Pimlico, London can fully immerse you in a Harry Potter experience - it has Harry Potter-themed rooms and activities on-site, including a wizarding-themed afternoon tea and cocktails classes, as well as wizharding-themed rooms!
When it came to booking a hotel for the Edinburgh portion of our Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation, the nargles were out to get us. We originally booked 4 nights at the Radisson Collection Royal Mile. While this hotel didn’t have any Harry Potter connection or theming, it was situated on the Royal Mile at the intersection with George IV Bridge - a short walk and even stone’s throw from The Elephant House, Victoria Street, Greyfriars Kirkyard, and other Old Town Edinburgh locations we’ll discuss more of later! It’s not hard to see why fans of Harry Potter see inspiration for names and locations in the books all over Edinburgh’s Old Town, and we wanted to be right in the middle of it. Unfortunately, the Radisson Collection Royal Mile was going through some issues at the time. When we booked it in January 2022 to stay May 31-June 4, the hotel’s website said the property would be closed until February 2022. This wasn’t an issue, as they’d be reopening well before we were to arrive. Over the course of the next couple months, though, that reopening date kept getting pushed back. Eventually the website said they’d not be reopening until the day after we were to check in, so we had to cancel (and when we did finally get to Edinburgh and walked by the hotel in person, it was still covered in scaffolding. As of this writing in mid-June, the hotel is still closed).
The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh
Looking out over Edinburgh, from Calton Hill, towards Edinburgh Castle. The clock tower on the Balmoral Hotel is visible on the right. J.K. Rowling booked a suite at the Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh and wrote much of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows there. The suite she stayed in now bears her name. This historic hotel is probably the most luxurious hotel in Edinburgh.
Because of all the uncertainty over travel, prospect of further postponements and cancelations, and getting a late start on looking for a hotel because of the situation with our first choice, I ended up narrowing our search down to properties we could book through American Express travel (because of certain perks and points through that). We chose the Kimpton Charlotte Square in Edinburgh’s New Town. Though not smack dab in the midst of the medieval charm of Edinburgh’s Old Town, our room at the Kimpton Charlotte Square would have views of Edinburgh Castle, and the entire area is so compact it only ever took us 10 minutes to walk anywhere we wanted to go. Further, its location made for some wonderful exploration of other parts of Edinburgh - it’s located right between George Street and Rose Street, with countless restaurants and pubs and shops close by.
If ever a city were to inspire stories of wizards and witches and a castle school, it would be Edinburgh. With Edinburgh Castle towering above the Scottish capital and narrow, winding, cobbled gray streets throughout the Old Town, it truly is a magical city.
If we’d had an endless supply of galleons to spend on an Edinburgh hotel, we could have gone with:
The Balmoral. Of all the hotels in Edinburgh, this one has the most meaningful connection to the Harry Potter novels. It’s at this hotel that J.K. Rowling booked a suite for an extended stay, and in which she wrote Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. That suite - now called the J.K. Rowling Suite - is available for booking if you have a few thousand dollars a night to spend! Even if you’re not staying in that particular suite, though, perhaps guests of more affordable rooms can still ask for a tour of the suite in which Deathly Hallows was written.
The Witchery. Another small boutique hotel, albeit a pricey one, The Witchery has a handful of individually decorated rooms and suites that could leave you feeling like you stayed in one of the common rooms at Hogwarts or one of the professor’s apartments. Its restaurant is also one of the best-known in Scotland.
All around Edinburgh are other lodging options, including actual castles and AirBnBs (including a number of Harry Potter-themed options).
A POTTER-HEADS GUIDE TO LONDON
“Can we find all this in London?”
”If you know where to go!”
Our view as we flew over London and the Thames river on our broomsticks the London Eye.
Spending time in London and Edinburgh makes for a wonderfully thorough Harry Potter-themed vacation - London is the place to be to see sights and locations that were featured in the movies, and Edinburgh is where you want to be to be for locations that inspired the writing of the books.
All over London are spots any fan of the Harry Potter film franchise would recognize, from places as important to the stories as King’s Cross to seemingly inconspicuous sidewalk curbs or alleyway entries at which a second glance has you realizing you’re looking at a familiar and notable movie location.
Our search for Harry Potter filming locations included two main approaches - devoting time to freely walk around the city seeking out places we knew we could easily find and spending another day with a private black cab and tour guide to cover as much ground as possible while getting to places we might have a harder time covering on our own. An additional advantage of booking the private black cab driver, through See More Taxi Tours, is they picked us up from our hotel bright and early in the morning of our Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter visit and took us to some sites on the way to the studio. They waited for us during the 4 hours we spent inside the studio tour, then picked us up after to take us around London to visit more sites. It was a fantastic way to spend the day, and really made for a fun day packed full of Harry Potter-focused awesomeness - the actual studio tour with its authentic sets, costumes, props and more, followed by visits to actual filming locations all over the city.
Among all the awesome places we were able to visit were:
Leadenhall Market
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (or Sorcerer’s Stone), Harry and Hagrid walk through this covered market while Harry reads off the list of Hogwarts school supplies he needs to buy. “Can we find all this in London?”, Harry asks Hagrid. “If you know where to go!”, answers Hagrid.
The original Leaky Cauldron. In Leadenhall Market is a rounded white doorway to what is now a migraine clinic (and has been other medical clinics in the past). In Philosopher’s Stone, this rounded doorway is painted black and is the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron.
King’s Cross and the entrance to Platform 9 3/4. While movie fans will want to line up in front of the Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 3/4 to get their photo pushing the luggage trolley through the wall, the actual filming location is between platforms 4 and 5 inside the station (platforms 9 and 10 don’t touch, so they had to do some renumbering for the films). In the photo gallery below you’ll see one titled The Entrance to Platform 9 3/4. Follow down the silver escalator to the right of the trains. That first archway just behind the big silver box (an elevator) is the one featured in the photos below because it’s still “clean” and looks like the entrance in the movies. For the actual one the Weasleys and Harry run through to get to the Hogwarts Express, follow the photo forward. Pass the lighted sign and pass the trash cans. You’ll see another archway column with a trolley rack fastened to it - that’s the actual one from the movies. You need a ticket to get to the train platforms, but our licensed guide was able to get us on to the platforms. We also traveled from King’s Cross to Edinburgh a couple days later, so could again access the platforms.
King’s Cross Station
The red circle in the center highlights the actual archway in to which the Weasleys and Harry run to get to Platform 9 3/4. We paid it a visit, but took pictures in front of the archway closer to the elevator and escalator because it’s not covered up by signs and a rack.
Come on! Platform 9 3/4 this way!
Sometimes you just gotta be a shamelessly goofy Potterhead tourist. 🤓⚡️. The actual archway they go through in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is further down from this one, but now has a trolley and sign in front of it. So I got this picture in front of a “clean” one closest to the big silver elevator above.
The entrance to Diagon Alley in Half-Blood Prince. It’s a quick scene early in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The Death Eaters fly through the sky, over Trafalgar Square, up Charing Cross Rd., then down an alley off Great Newport St. That is where Diagon Alley can be found. They burst in to Ollivander’s Wand Shop, and seize Ollivander.
12 Grimmauld Place. Weather wasn’t cooperating with us as we left the Studio Tour, with it being the one day of rain we had on our trip. We still lucked out in that sense, as we spent much of the rainy day indoors at the Studio Tour and the rest with a car to take us all over town to visit filming locations. While I never made it out of the car to snap a decent picture, we were able to visit London’s Claremont Square - the filming location for 12 Grimmauld Place in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (and Deathly Hallows 1!). The map and images below will guide you to 12 Grimmauld Place for your own visit to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix!
12 Grimmauld Place
Heading east on Pentonville Rd. from King’s Cross station, you’ll shortly reach Claremont Square - the filming location for 12 Grimmauld Place in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, and other members of the Order of the Phoenix land in the park in the center of the square, then step through a gate to arrive in front of the Black family’s ancestral home.
The Black Family Home
On the south side of the square, face the Georgian townhomes and look for numbers 23-29 (running left from the red door in the picture to the right). The west, south, and east sides of the square all look quite similar, so be sure you’re at the south side for the correct row of homes!
The entrance to the Ministry of Magic. At the corner of Great Scotland Yard and Scotland Place in London (just east of Whitehall) is the entrance of the Ministry of Magic! In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a red phone box was placed here for the visitor’s entrance Mr. Weasley and Harry use. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, Harry, Hermione, and Ron seize a few Ministry employees and drag them in to a garage to assume their identities using the polyjuice potion. A single visit to this spot covers two important movie scenes! The garage door is just an unremarkable background feature in Order of the Phoenix, but the very same spot was redecorated and featured more prominently Deathly Hallows 1!
The Entrance to the Ministry of Magic
This London street corner makes two memorable appearances in the Harry Potter films - as the location of the visitors entrance to the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (left) and again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 when Harry, Hermione, and Ron knock out three ministry employees to break in to the Ministry
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For Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, they put a red telephone box at this corner to the right and digitally inserted another bridge between two buildings beyond it, so that each street had a bridge. In truth, only the bridge in this photo exists. You’ll also remember the garage door being brown and paneled in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.
The Knight Bus pickup spot. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry leaves 4 Privet Drive and walks down the street, wheeling his luggage behind him, to a park on the corner. He sits down on the curb, flustered and frustrated and unsure of what to do and where to go. Soon, streetlights start to flicker and a cold wind begins to blow. Harry peers across the street to see a large, snarling black dog emerging from the bushes. Harry looks to be in serious trouble, before the Knight Bus races up around the corner and screeches to a halt in front of him. The filming location used for this scene was just outside of the Warner Bros. studio, and can be an easy visit for anyone already at the studio tour. Directions to it are below! While it was also wet and rainy when we visited this spot, it was awesome seeing the filming location of one of my favorite scenes in what is by far my favorite Harry Potter movie!
Visiting the Studio Tour?
Take a little detour either before or after, around Aerodrome Way to Dowding Way. The open field on your left (in the red circle here) as you enter Dowding Way is where Harry Potter wheeled his case to and sat down at after inflating aunt Marge. While sitting here, he spotted “The Grim” (Sirius in animagus form), then was surprised by the Knight Bus! Our guide took us by this spot after we left the studio tour.
What you doin’ down there?
A street-level view of the curb Harry sits on (to the right) in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The filming location is just outside the Warner Bros. studio, and so is a very easy visit if already there! Obviously they’d put playground equipment in it for the movie, but fellow Prisoner of Azkaban-obsessed fans will immediately recognize the location!
The Leaky Cauldron in Prisoner of Azkaban. While the Leaky Cauldron’s filming location was at Leadenhall Market in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, a different market and filming location was used in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Borough Market. Under the rail bridge on Stoney Street, there’s a taco shop (at least when we visited; it’s been other businesses in the past) that sits near where the Knight Bus stops to drop off Harry and is the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. When you’re here you can even look up at the building above to visualize Harry looking out the window of his room at the trains as they speed by! I’m not sure if they filmed that in this building, but they did make the scene in the movie fit perfectly into the real-world filming location of the Leaky Cauldron.
The Millennium Bridge. This bridge enjoys a fairly dubious honor in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - it gets destroyed very early in the movie during the Death Eater Attack! It’s fitting that the bridge wobbles and falls apart in the movie, as it got the nickname “The Wobbly Bridge” when it was first built because it actually wobbled. Engineers fixed the scary wobbling issue, but they couldn’t save it from the Death Eaters. As you walk north on the bridge and face St. Paul’s Cathedral, you get a bonus Harry Potter site spotting - the City of London School, which is the school a young Daniel Radcliffe attended. I’m not sure what house he was sorted into there.
Shaftesbury Avenue, and the area around Piccadilly Circus. Apparently, it was a huge undertaking when filming for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 took over Piccadilly Circus to film the scenes where Harry, Hermione, and Ron flee Fleur and Bill’s wedding and apparate into central London. It’s not hard to see why, as Piccadilly Circus is a very busy place and it’s wild to imagine they took the whole place over for a quick movie scene! We passed through it several times when journeying around London, and our first time walking through made it a point to seek out some filming locations on our own. Hermione mentions her parents brought her to the theatres at Shaftesbury Avenue, and there are indeed loads of theatres in the area. Sadly, the sidewalk they first walked down (with the rough columns and guy in the bear costume) was under construction, covered in scaffolding, and closed to pedestrians when we were there. The shopping arcade they walk down shortly after defeating the Death Eaters in the cafe was easy to find, though - it’s on Great Windmill Street, between Shaftesbury Ave. and Coventry St., about a block east of Piccadilly Circus.
Lambeth, and other bridges and vistas. It’s on Lambeth Bridge that the Knight Bus has to squeeze between two red double-decker buses in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. As you make your way around London, you’ll likely recognize countless other spots from the movies as well - Harry, Tonks, and other members of the Order of the Phoenix fly over the Thames in front of a number of well-known London landmarks and under many of London’s bridges.
Ultimately there’s just something incredibly awesome about visiting in person a location you’ve seen in movies countless times. I’ve watched all of the original Harry Potter films more times than I could hope to count and visiting locations I’ve enjoyed on screen so many times and where the actors and crews who brought these wonderful films to us stood and worked was a tremendous thrill. Now we just have to make it back to the UK to visit the spots we missed, get pictures in the spots we weren’t able to get pictures in, and venture further afield to other locations (more time in the Highlands, perhaps, or to Dobby’s grave in Wales? 👀).
VISITING THE WARNER BROS. STUDIO TOUR LONDON - THE MAKING OF HARRY POTTER
“For in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own. Let them swim in the deepest ocean or glide over the highest cloud.”
Simply put, visiting The Making of Harry Potter studio tour was (and was always going to be!) the highlight of this trip. It was the foundation upon which the trip was originally built and planned when we conceived of it back in late 2019. At that time, we splurged on the Deluxe Tour tickets (COVID led them to suspend offering that tour and issuing us a refund but it may be coming back soon - an excuse to revisit!) and the first thing we did with every postponement was schedule a new date for the studio tour and plan our trip around that. The customer support staff at the Warner Bros. studio tour were so great and accommodating with this - while it would occasionally take a few weeks for them to process things with all the other inquiries and requests they were getting and how chaotic travel was for everyone amidst various surges, lockdowns, changing travel rules, etc., they were huge helps when it came to finding new dates and rebooking our tickets.
The Chamber of Secrets has been opened!
Before I continue, I’ll put this ***SPOILER WARNING*** here. We never wanted to know too much about the tour before going and I made it a point to avoid things like YouTube videos because I wanted it all to be fresh and new for us when we got there. While we stayed on top of special events and exhibits (like the Halloween theming the Studio Tour puts in place that time of year, or the Christmas theming that goes in around the holidays; we’d visit during the Magical Mischief theme) to know what to look forward to and I eagerly followed the Studio Tour on Instagram and Twitter, we didn't want to know about every display or prop or costume because we wanted to enjoy the excitement of discovering it all while there. Further, while we knew there would be a Gringott’s set, Great Hall set, and so on, we didn’t want to know how the sets would be revealed to us or too many details about them ahead of time.
I’d totally understand if you wanted to skip over much of this if you have your own planned visit to The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour coming up, but have also included only a fraction of the pics I took with this post so there’s plenty for you to see on your own. There’s a link to a much bigger gallery of my Studio Tour images below, and you can choose to click it or skip it.
As mentioned previously, our visit to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour - The Making of Harry Potter was part of a day packed full of Harry Potter from early morning to early evening. Our See More Taxi Tours guide Andrew picked us up from our hotel at 8am and we took in a few sights around our hotel in Westminster (including Lambeth Bridge, over which the Knight Bus speeds between two double-decker buses in Prisoner of Azkaban) before we headed out to Watford and the Warner Bros. studio. Watford is a good 40-minute drive north from central London, so we started making our way there fairly early for our 9:30am time slot.
As we exited the motorway and covered the final mile or so to the studio, our excitement was palpable. We’d been looking forward to this moment for years, and part of me didn’t want to take for granted we’d finally get to visit the studio until actually stepping through the doors. In December 2021 we were a few days away from our flight from San Francisco to London when Sam got COVID and we had to postpone the trip; in December 2019 the idea that a summer 2020 vacation wouldn’t happen because of a global pandemic wasn’t even imaginable. With all of the trials and tribulations leading up to this moment, it wasn’t until we pulled in to the parking lot, got out of the car, and approached the entryway that I finally allowed myself to think, “This is it! We’re here!”.
The making of Harry Potter Studio tour got you Thirsty?
get some A’ry Poh’a bo’ohws’o’wo’er!
The front door itself certainly does its part to add to the excitement and let you know what you’re in for, with actual chess pieces from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets standing guard outside. Once inside, the dragon on whose back our favorite trio escape from Gringotts soars above, and at your appointed time you enter a room filled with moving posters from all the films (and portraits above!) as staff welcome you to the Studio Tour and give a quick introduction.
Without going in to too much detail so as to not spoil things for anyone else, I’ll say I was truly floored by the remarkable job the Warner Bros. Studio Tour does with delivering the experience and making it exciting immersive. If they wanted, they could just fill a warehouse full of sets and props and folks like myself would still be utterly enthralled. They take things further, though, by revealing sets to you in surprising ways, laying things out in a manner that makes for impressive and impactful reveals, and incorporate some movie magic of their own to make the Studio Tour an entertaining spectacle in its own right.
What’s more, while there are some set pieces and elements, you can really spend as much time inside the Studio Tour as you wish - study every prop, take in every detail of every wonderfully detailed set, read every sign, engage with every interactive exhibit, just stand and stare wistfully at your favorite items from your favorite movies, or aimlessly meander through the exhibits taking it all in.
The costumes were some of my favorite elements of the tour, whether Dumbledore’s fancy robes or the regular clothes the trio wore when not in class. There’s something really neat about knowing these were the actual items the actors wore - costume and wardrobe have such personality.
The Studio Tour also gives you fascinating insight in to the… well… Making of Harry Potter! Video presentations, interviews, models, production notes, hand-drawn designs and sketches - all of these things provide an amazing behind-the-scenes look into the process of making these films I love so much, from conception to release.
Visiting should be a bucket list item for every fan of the Harry Potter films, and towards the top of the list at that. While it’s far from cheap or easy to get to the UK for those of us in North America or other parts of the world, it’s more than worth saving up and making it a goal - you’ll be thrilled you did! For those in the UK or who are a shorter flight or even train ride from London, the Studio Tour would be worth many visits - they have seasonal events and specials to help keep it exciting and new for repeat visitors. I’m already looking forward to a trip back sooner rather than later.
POTTERING ABOUT EDINBURGH
“…Edinburgh is very much home for me and is the place where Harry evolved over seven books and many, many hours of writing in its cafés.”
Adding Edinburgh to our vacation itinerary was essential to making it more than just a trip to the UK with some Harry Potter activities involved to it becoming a true Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation. While London, with all its filming locations and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Watford, allows you to get up close and personal with Harry Potter franchise filming locations, Edinburgh is an essential part of the Harry Potter story as it’s where Rowling spent so much time writing the books. Further, for film fans whose hunger for all things Harry Potter wasn’t quite satiated in London, you don’t need to travel far from Edinburgh into the Scottish Highlands to discover loads of filming locations there (which we did!).
If ever a city came straight from central casting to inspire a series of books about wizards and witches, mystery and magic, and turreted castle wizarding schools, it would be Edinburgh. Edinburgh’s Old Town, with its cobbled streets lined with towering gray stone buildings, looks and feels mystical! It leaves you feeling like you’ve not only stepped back in time, but into another world.
There’s a reason the most-liked photos of Edinburgh’s Old Town on Instagram or elsewhere are usually shot at dusk or when the skies are cloudy and gray and rainy. It’s not so much that’s the only kind of weather you get in Edinburgh but that dark, foreboding lighting and weather just fits with Old Town Edinburgh’s aesthetic perfectly.
We wouldn’t get a cold, gray, cloudy Edinburgh and streets wet with rain. While that kind of weather best fits Edinburgh’s mysterious aesthetic, it’s not so wonderful for travel. We lucked out in that our 4 nights and 5 days in Scotland were packed full of sunny skies and wonderfully pleasant weather, and it was so warm we found a light hoodie left us overdressed and sweating!
When it comes to Edinburgh’s Harry Potter connections - just as in the books themselves - there’s likely a fair amount of fiction. Everywhere you go, you find something that someone is saying inspired some part of the Harry Potter stories, often with no actual documentation that's the case. The stories have become real through being repeated so often. There's a Potterrow street around the University of Edinburgh that some say inspired Harry's name. There's the turreted George Heriot School that not only looks like a castle, but I was told even had its students divided in to four houses with house colors that matched those at Hogwarts. There's the Greyfriars Kirkyard - the mysterious, haunted cemetery directly behind The Elephant House cafe where Rowling admitted she spent plenty of time writing - with headstones said to have inspired names in the books. There lies Thomas Riddell (Voldemort), Elizabeth Moodie (Mad-Eye Moody), and William McGonagall (Professor Minerva McGonagall). There's more than one winding, diagonal street lined with quirky shops and weathered stone architecture that very well could have been the inspiration for Diagon Alley (though the same gets said about more than one street in London).
I'm not here to pass judgment on any of it, and while we went about Edinburgh taking things in good humor and with a grain of salt we were committed to having fun and embracing all of Harry Potter's Edinburgh lore. After all, whether or not a specific place actually inspired something in the books mattered less to us than it truly looking and feeling like it very well could have, as that’s what made it fascinating for us. The first night we arrived in Edinburgh we went on a ghost tour with City of the Dead Tours. It was loads of fun and even a bit spooky at times (and took us in to Greyfriars Kirkyard, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to do it). While I'm not one to say whether any actual ghosts were lurking around us on the tour and wouldn’t fault anyone for being skeptical, I find ghost tours are a wonderfully fun way to hear about local history, enjoy some entertaining storytelling, and get some fascinating background on a place you're visiting. Similarly, while tours of Potter sites in Edinburgh might embellish, they're a chance to get caught up in that Harry Potter excitement in a city that surely has deep Potter connections, often led by tour guides who themselves are eager and enthusiastic fans of Harry Potter, while among other Potterhead travelers who are as excited as you to be following in Harry Potter's footsteps (be they real or imagined). Go in with a bit of skepticism, but an open mind and readiness to have fun.
[Consider Potter Trail for your Edinburgh tour]
With all that being said, the spots around Edinburgh we were thrilled to visit included:
The Balmoral Hotel. While we didn’t stay here (that would have added too much to the trip cost. I'm committed to coming back one day to stay here, though, and even spend at least one night in the J.K. Rowling Suite… if I could just win that Triwizard Tournament…), we did get plenty of up-close looks at it. Arrving in Edinburgh by train, you step out of Edinburgh Waverly with the Balmoral towering above you. They even say the Balmoral's clock runs a few minutes fast (which it indeed does) to help folks catch their trains on time. J.K. Rowling did indeed stay an extended period of time in the suite that now bears her name to write much of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I do find it neat to think she was a struggling writer when she first put pen to paper to start on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone then was so successful by the time she wrote Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows she could afford an extended stay in a huge suite in Edinburgh's poshest 5-star hotel.
Greyfriars Kirkyard. As mentioned above, we visited Greyfriars Kirkyard our first night in Edinburgh as part of a ghost tour. We went back a couple days later with the private tour guide (also booked through See More Taxi Tours) with whom we spent the morning visiting various Harry Potter locations along with other fascinating parts of Edinburgh. Seeing Thomas Riddell's grave was a must for our trip. Who knows whether that headstone actually inspired Voldemort's name, but I believe Rowling admitted it might have subsconsciously done so. It's not hard to imagine Rowling strolling through the kirkyard as it's open to the public, is a peaceful and pleasant place to walk through, and is steps away from places she’s acknowledged writing the books in. Further, it has enough history to draw visitors in - Greyfriars Bobby, the terrier who spent 14 years by the grave of his master and was adopted by the caretakers of the kirkyard and of whom a statue now stands outside, is the kirkyard's original claim to fame. As with some of the Harry Potter lore there might be some fiction to the story of Greyfriars Bobby. But anyone who wants to spoil that story for me is a wicked little Death Eater and can eat slugs.
McGonagall's Grave, and the George Heriot School. While in Greyfriars Kirkyard, with our main goal being to see Thomas Riddell's grave, the sound of bagpipes drew me over to a metal gate. I peered through, and was treated to the sights (and sounds, of course) of the George Heriot School's pipeband marching and practicing in a field. I assume they were getting ready for Platinum Jubilee events, and it was neat to watch and listen to them (they were remarkably good for a band made up of students - so good I was certain it was a military band as we approached). While watching the band through the gate, I looked over to my left and spotted William McGonagall's grave. This McGonagall was a poet - his dubious claim to fame is that of being Scotland's worst poet. It's not hard to imagine either his headstone or even his name being well-known in general helped inspire Professor McGonagall's name. While Rowling has stated no schools in Edinburgh were the inspiration for Hogwarts, the urban legend among Potterheads is that the Heriot school, with its turreted stone edifice and four student houses, was a possible inspiration for Hogwarts. Even lacking any Hogwarts connection, it's an impressive building with a neat history - it was once a school for orphans, which likely contributes to why some think it was inspiration for the school orphans Tom Riddle and Harry Potter attended.
Victoria Street. Just off the Royal Mile is this curved shopping street, with its medley of colorful storefronts, cobbled surface, and historic architecture. I was aware of its supposed connection to Harry Potter as a possible inspiration for Diagon Alley before the trip, but Sam wasn't. As soon as he saw it, though, he commented on how it made perfect sense this street could have been the inspiration for Diagon Alley. The street is so well known for its possible Potter connection that there are some Potter-themed shops on it - Museum Context, the Enchanted Galaxy, and more spots traveling witches and wizards would love.
The Elephant House. While this cafe billed itself as "The Birthplace of Harry Potter", Rowling had actually started writing the books well before she ever set foot in it. Nonetheless, she has confirmed she did indeed spend a fair amount of time writing there, so there's no doubt portions of the books were penned in this cafe. Sadly, it's closed now - in 2021 a fire broke out in a different business that shares the same building, and The Elephant House was damaged. I'm not sure if and when they'll be reopening, or whether they'd be doing so in the same location, but for now it sits empty and boarded up. It's a bit of a bummer knowing this cherished piece of Potter history might be lost forever, but here's hoping they manage to reopen. Thankfully the table Rowling sat at and did much of her writing was saved from the fire. They do have a sister location - Elephants and Bagels - and their online store is stll up and running.
The Elephant House in Edinburgh, Scotland
Located on George IV Bridge, the Elephant House is the cafe in which J.K. Rowling spent a fair amount of time writing the Harry Potter books. It’s not quite the “birthplace” of Harry Potter, as Rowling had been writing Harry Potter well before she first visited the Elephant House, but she did definitely spend time writing there. Sadly, the Elephant House is closed now - a neighboring business caught fire, and the blaze damaged the Elephant House so badly it now sits empty.
Nicolson’s Cafe. Truth be told, I couldn’t tell you the full history of this place. When J.K. Rowling frequented this cafe, it was called Nicolson’s. Apparently, her brother-in-law was a part owner and the place was so big she didn’t feel too guilty about buying a single cup of coffee and taking up an entire table while she spent hours on end writing. She’s confirmed as much in interviews and on Twitter. Where I get a little lost on the history of Nicolson’s is all the difference places it has been since. When we originally started planning this trip, the space was occupied by a restaurant called Spoon. Sadly, they closed during the pandemic. Before Spoon and after the original Nicolson’s, the space was a Chinese buffet. After Spoon closed, new owners took over, have renamed it Nicolsons Cafe, and have embraced the Rowling and Harry Potter connection fully - there’s Harry Potter theming inside and they’re more than happy to welcome Potterheads through the door (just buy something!). While the business isn’t the same the building is, and you can still imagine J.K. Rowling sitting by a window writing and occasionally watching all the people stroll by on busy sidewalks.
(EDIT: It’s mid-August 2022, and I’ve just found out the latest iteration of Nicholson’s Cafe has closed and this space is again occupied by a Chinese restaurant - the business in this space changes more often than the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts! I’m sad for the proprietors of Nicholson’s Cafe, but wish all the best for the owners of the new Chinese restaurant!).
J.K. Rowling's handprints outside the city chambers. If you’re on the Royal Mile facing the Edinburgh City Chambers, approach the courtyard through the archways on your left, look down, and keep an eye out for J.K. Rowling’s handprints in the ground. Because of the cultural impact of her books and all her charitable work, Edinburgh gave her the honor of having her handprints cast in the ground there. Since we were already on the Royal Mile so much and so often during the trip we couldn’t resist a quick look.
Now is as good a time as any to touch on the elephant in the room. I adore J.K. Rowling for what her imagination and creativity brought to the world and all the endless hours of joy, pleasure, and excitement her characters and stories have brought me. There is no other series of literature or film that means as much to me, that I cherish so much, that I revisit so often, and that I even identify with to such an extent as the Harry Potter franchise. Further, I greatly admire J.K. Rowling for her commitment to many worthwhile social causes and all of the wonderful charitable work she’s done - it’s said she’d be the world’s only billionaire author were it not for having given so much of her fortune to charity and she spends considerable time, energy, and money on charitable causes still. The plain and simple fact of the matter, though, is I disagree with her when it comes to her views on gender identity. Transexuals are the gender they identify as, full stop.
There’s no denying I’d thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to eagerly, enthusiastically embrace all things Harry Potter and admire and even idolize J.K. Rowling without the cloud of her views on trans rights hanging over it all and it does disappoint me she seems so committed to a viewpoint I think is the wrong one. My adoration of all things Harry Potter eclipses any one individual, though. While there’s no denying I owe Rowling a great deal because of the world she created and appreciate her greatly for having created it, so many countless other individuals play huge parts in my enjoyment of the franchise and how much it means to me. The actors who flawlessly portrayed the characters I adore - or are even the reason I adore that character - are huge parts of how I see the franchise and why I love it so much. The screenwriters, producers, directors, designers, composers, and the many innumerable members of the cast and crew of the movies are all such huge parts of how much the franchise means to me. Fellow Potterheads and fans - who I chat with online or run in to at amusement parks and bookstores and cafes - are hugely responsible for how much the franchise and fandom means to me. The people at Warner Bros., Universal, Avalanche, Portkey, and Wizarding World who’ve turned a world of magic and myth in to tangible reality in the Studio Tour, theme parks, and games - allowing us all to really connect with the world of Harry Potter in new and fantastic ways and fully immerse ourselves in to it - all play a part in what the world of Harry Potter means to me. Friends and loved ones who discovered Harry Potter with me, went out of their way to bring me along with their journeys in to the wizarding world, and with whom I bond over our shared love of the franchise all deserve so much credit for my enjoyment of it.
I truly hope J.K. Rowling changes her mind on the issue one day, and that trans people have one less negative voice they have to deal with amidst what must surely seem at times like a chorus of negative voices. I’d love it if J.K. Rowling could use her voice and what is clearly her strong commitment to philanthropic and other social justice causes (for which she deserves credit) to also support trans people. I do love that so many of my fellow Harry Potter fans are so outspoken in support of trans rights. While I truly doubt I’ll ever meet J.K. Rowling, on the off chance our paths were to ever cross through chance and happenstance I’d express my sincere, heartfelt, and endless thanks for her having created characters and a world that mean so much to me, share my disagreement with her views on gender identity and hope that she change hers, but wish her nothing but happiness regardless. More than anything else, though, I wish every transgender person freedom from the prejudice, misunderstanding, and even persecution (these days throughout the US especially) misguided views on gender identity subject them to.
National Center for Transgender Equality (transequality.org)
A JOURNEY ON THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS
“Funny way to get to a wizard’s school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?”
What’s an Ultimate Harry Potter Fan vacation without a journey on the Hogwarts Express?
Our ride on the Hogwarts Express - actually a trip on West Coast Railways’ steam train, The Jacobite - was one of the most significant items on our trip itinerary, while also being one of the very last additions.
The Jacobite steam train runs over the West Highland Line, much of which was actually featured throughout the Harry Potter films. While the Glenfinnan Viaduct (pictured above) is the most recognizable portion of the line for fans of the Harry Potter films, many other stretches of the train’s journey also appeared in the movies. Further, the train travels along lochs and through portions of the Scottish Highlands that were used for filming.
The Moment We’d been Waiting for!
The train crossing over the Glenfinnan Viaduct is the highlight of the trip for most everyone on it. People rush to the windows for the best views after the conductor gives you all a few minutes’ notice you’re about to reach the viaduct. The ground below and hillsides above were full of people snapping pictures of the train and waving up at us. No flying cars were spotted, and the dementors didn’t stop us.
When we first added Scotland to our itinerary, our aim was to be in the UK through late December and early January. The Jacobite steam train only runs between April and October, though, so we didn’t really give any thought about attempting to get out to the Highlands or ride the train. When we had to cancel our December departure and found ourselves looking at taking the trip in late May and early June, a journey on the Hogwarts Express suddenly became an option! Once we realized it could be done, we had to work out the logistics of making it happen!
The Jacobite runs between Fort William in the Scottish Highlands and Mallaig on the west coast of Scotland - neither of which are particularly close to Edinburgh. We only had 4 full days in Edinburgh to work with (not including travel days from or to London) and contemplated renting a car to drive to Fort William, riding the bus out there, trying to catch an early morning train to Fort William, or even hiring a taxi. Ultimately, we discovered a number of tour companies offer all-day tours that depart from Edinburgh bright and early in the morning, venture around the Highlands, drop you off at Fort William to ride the train, include the train ticket, then bring you back to Edinburgh after.
The dates of our trip made Grayline Tours Scotland’s “The Magical Highlands Tour” the one for us. Grayline is one of several tour companies offering full day tours departing from Edinburgh that include rides on the Hogwarts Express (Haggis Adventures being another one worth noting). I gathered, based on looking at various tour companies’ schedules, that different companies are assigned different days. On some days, no day tour that included steam train tickets were available at all; on certain days, Haggis Adventures would be the only ones offering the tour; on certain other days, Grayline would be the only one offering such a tour (while I put in the leg work and research to try and dig around and see what I could find in order to book direct with the tour operator, it’s likely easier to just do a search on Viator or TripAdvisor to see what days are available).
Anything from the trolley, dears?
Yes, there’s a trolley! More than one, in fact. This trolley had beverages, and another had snacks and treats (including chocolate frogs, yes). Yet another had souvenirs from the store. You can see what a Standard Class carriage looks like - plenty comfortable, with 2x2 seating around a large table and partitions between each table. And no, dementors didn’t suck off that guy’s face. I just didn’t want to include another guest’s face without their permission (though they were super friendly, were a big train fan, and had ridden the Jacobite a number of times before!).
The advantage of booking this all day tour is we didn’t have to worry about transportation at all - all we had to do was meet the bus and tour guide in front of The Elephant House at 6am on the day of the tour, find a seat on the bus, relax and enjoy ourselves, board the train when the time came, and take loads of pics. Further, we visited a host of captivating and fascinating locations along the way. The disadvantage is we had little control over much of the itinerary and details (as is the case in a bus tour). First class or compartment style seating wasn’t an option, and everyone on the tour was assigned seats in standard class (which was still nice and comfy, but those seeking more of the Hogwarts Express experience might prefer the higher travel classes). By far the biggest disadvantage we suffered, though, was in having no control over what side of the train we sat on. Simply put, on the outbound journey from Fort William to Mallaig you absolutely want to be on the left side of the train. The left side gets all the best views of the Glenfinnan Viaduct, the numerous lochs along the way, and all the stunning scenery. When the train runs from Mallaig to Fort William, you want to be on the right side of the train as you face forward in the direction of travel for all the best views. Our assigned seats had us on the less desirable side in both directions. This proved to be tremendously disappointing, and I think the tour company could have done a better job ensuring all their guests had the chance to sit on the desirable side for at least one leg of the journey. I wrote to them after our trip suggesting they look into this but they told me the train company assigns seats and they have no control over it. I’d read reviews of other tour companies’ offerings, though, that mention the tour company takes the initiative in getting their guests to swap sides so everyone has the chance to sit on the preferred side at least once.
While being relegated to the bad side of the train was a bummer, it wasn’t enough of one to ruin the day. Because our Hogwarts Express ride was such a last minute addition to the trip and we really had just one choice of tour operator to make it happen, the only real alternative to sitting on the bad side of the train for us was not getting to ride the train at all. So I was just happy to be there in the first place, and the day had plenty more to offer on top of the train ride. We enjoyed absolutely spectacular weather all day long - gorgeous blue skies and brilliant sunshine. Mallaig’s rocky coast is nothing short of remarkable, and we had stunning views of the Isle of Skye and the Inner Hebrides while walking along the rocky shore. Our minds were blown by how beautiful Glencoe is - magnificent views in every direction. We spotted castles in the distance, and saw castles up close; we got to meet some Highland cows; we ate delicious food in cozy cafes in quaint villages; we learned about the history of places we passed, and the Highlands in general; we met other Potterhead travelers and bonded with them on the journey (most on the train were Harry Potter fans). Further, while I think Grayline couldn’t quite deliver on the Harry Potter promises of this tour, our guide was clearly passionate about Scotland and sharing his knowledge of Scottish history and geography with us so the day was a pleasure.
If anything, this trip to and through the Highlands and on the “Hogwarts Express” didn’t leave us marking an item off our Harry Potter fan to-do list - it added even more to that list. I want to get back to the Highlands, book a compartment on the Jacobite with friends, actually rent a car and travel around filming locations at our own pace to spend as much time in them as we want, and see as much of every bit of the Highlands as possible. We traveled to Scotland having heard countless tales of the beauty and majesty of the Highlands, and left with them having exceeded all expectations.
Potter-Themed Activities to Make the Trip More Magical
“Let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”
One of the best things about being an avid Harry Potter fan is you have an entire universe of Harry Potter at your disposal that extends well beyond the books and movies. There are a host of official Wizarding World places to visit and things to do - theme park attractions in California and Florida, the Studio Tour in Watford, the play in London and New York and other cities, and a Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience near Manchester in the UK. Further, fellow fans and Potterheads are constantly adding to the universe of Harry Potter-themed places to go and things to do - Harry Potter-inspired coffee shops and stores and restaurants run by fellow fans, online communities and endless volumes of fan fiction, countless hours of fan videos on YouTube, Harry Potter-themed tours and escape rooms and more. At any given moment, untold numbers of Harry Potter fans are manifesting their love for all things Harry Potter in all manner of creative and clever ways, and many even make a living doing so!
In Edinburgh and London, a robust “Harry Potter Economy” exists, and it’s impressive - at times even overwhelming - just how many different ways you can satisfy your need for more things Potter, and how much money you can spend doing so.
Wizarding School: Fang of the Serpent
We did the Wizarding School escape room at Breakin’, and it was loads of fun! I’m pleased to say we completed the escape room with no hints and 1 minute and 26 seconds to spare!
We discovered all new mysteries as wizarding school students with Breakin’ Escape Rooms. We both thoroughly enjoy escape rooms, and when we found out a popular Harry Potter-inspired escape room was located just one tube stop away from Kings Cross and St. Pancras station (where our trip originally had us staying), we made sure we booked ourselves a spot. While we’d eventually move to a hotel further away, we kept the Breakin’ Escape Room booking as they’d been so friendly and accommodating with all our trip postponements and we’d read loads of good reviews. Those good reviews were very well deserved, also! Obviously, with an escape room review you don’t want to go in to too much detail and we don’t have any pics from inside the escape room. What I can say, though, is staff were super friendly and welcoming, the escape room was extremely well done, challenging, loads of fun, marvelously decorated and assembled, and deeply engaging and entertaining.
While we picked Breakin’ in London for our escape room adventure, some other options you might consider for your own Harry Potter Fan Vacation include:
The Department of Magic in Edinburgh. They offer a bunch of wizarding-themed activities, from potions (cocktail) mixology classes to a couple of wizarding-themed escape rooms. They’re conveniently located in Old Town, as well, just off the Royal Mile.
London Escaped, in south London, has a Wizarding School escape room among it’s many themed escape rooms. Had we stayed on the Southbank we for sure would have checked out this escape room.
Enigma Quests in London. Just north of Leadenhall Market, Enigma Quests has a School of Witchcraft and Wizardly escape room among their offerings.
When in London, one also needs to enjoy afternoon tea (unless, of course, it’s Dolores Umbridge offering it to you). Just a couple of blocks away from Hazlitt’s Hotel in Soho is Cutter & Squidge - a bakery and cafe cooking up all manner of delicious pastries and cakes and snacks and also offering The Potion Room Afternoon Tea. We picked Cutter & Squidge’s wizarding and potion-themed afternoon tea in part because they are so close to Hazlitt’s and in the heart of Soho, but also because we’d read fantastic reviews of their food and their afternoon tea experience. It’s a bonus their name would have them fitting right in alongside Flourish and Blotts, Slug and Jiggers, and Gambol and Japes in Diagon Alley. Again, the reviews were well-earned - as with many of the other activities we’d booked, we had to postpone and reschedule our afternoon tea appointments a few times and the staff and Cutter & Squidge was always accommodating and understanding; their actual Potion Room is charmingly decorated and really surrounds you in a magical atmosphere; the potions master who presented the tea and guided us through the potion making was brilliant - she was funny, entertaining, and a natural-born performer who had smiles on the faces of everyone in the room and made us all giggle frequently. Finally, an afternoon tea must have good eats and drinks and Cutter & Squidge delivered on that front. While neither of us are big tea drinkers, we each found the tea selected pretty tasty. The sandwiches, scones, and sweets that came with the tea didn’t last long before we’d gobbled them up, and the extra juices and mocktails (neither of us drink alcohol) we ordered were as delicious as the tea. I will say I wish we’d gotten more sweet things (cakes and pastries and such)… but I’d likely be saying the same no matter what, as I have a shamelessly insatiable sweet tooth.
If you’re looking to indulge in even more wizarding themed afternoon tea experiences, some options include:
The Georgian House Hotel in London. It has Harry Potter-inspired rooms you can stay in, potions cocktail classes, and wizarding afternoon tea, in their hotel in Pimlico.
The Cauldron in Edinburgh and London. They also offer cocktail potions classes, a wand-making activity at their London location, and afternoon teas in London and Edinburgh.
The Warner Bros. Studio Tour - The Making of Harry Potter isn’t the only thing Warner Bros. and the Wizarding World have for fans of Harry Potter in London. Right there in the center of the city, in Covent Garden, there is the Harry Potter Photographic Exhibition. While this photographic exhibition does have some authentic props and costumes from the films, its true draw are all the production stills and behind-the-scenes images and video presentations that give you an in-depth look in to the making of the movies. I have seen the movies countless times and consider myself an obsessed fan, but learned all manner of things at the photographic exhibition that I wasn’t aware of before. I learned that David Yates always had his dog on set with him, and I’m quite sure that dog is a puggle as it looks just like our puggle! I learned that two members of the Weird Sisters - the band that played at the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - were real-life members of one of my all time favorite real-life bands, Radiohead (with 2 more from another awesome British band, Pulp)! We read every word of every label and caption on every photo and display and by the time we left the exhibit we had not only gained a great deal more appreciation for all that went in to the production of the movies but also managed to learn so much about each of the movies and the stories behind them. With the Warner Bros. On Location - The Harry Potter Photographic Exhibition being right in Covent Garden, we were able to go in the morning then leisurely walk back to Soho for our Potion Room afternoon tea at Cutter & Squidge.
The very last booking made for our Ultimate Harry Potter Fan vacation was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Before you get the wrong idea, I wasn’t necessarily opposed to seeing the play (though Sam had listened to the audiobook and wasn’t holding his breath to see it live). My main issue was it is quite the time commitment. The play is presented in two parts, each lasting about 2.5 hours and with a couple hours between them. You’re taking your seat not long after 1:30pm and wouldn’t be done with your day at the theatre until well past 9pm! Further still, we were a bit wary of spending 6 or so hours in a packed theatre when we had to get negative COVID test results in order to fly back home to the US. Ultimately, though, we decided to take the plunge on getting tickets. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child plays at the Palace Theatre, after all, and that is only a couple minutes’ walk from Hazlitt’s Hotel. We also figured going all-in on a Harry Potter-themed vacation meant we may as well go over the top with it and spend the near entirety of a full day at a Harry Potter play. The trip we ended up taking was several days longer than the one originally conceived in late 2019, so we had the time to spare and seeing the Cursed Child on the last day of our trip meant we could get our COVID tests in the morning before filing into a packed theatre (incidentally, were I the Cursed Child, Murphy’s Law would be my curse - after all the anxiety around the risk of failing a COVID test and getting stuck overseas for 10 additional and expensive days, the US finally announced they were dropping their pre-departure testing requirement the morning after we arrived home).
I will say that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’s storyline left us each wanting. I can see why many fans don’t consider it canon and can understand why it receives so much criticism. At the same time, I’m glad we went and actually quite enjoyed it. The production was incredibly well done, with set and stage design most impressive. The actors were wonderful, and I most definitely found myself developing a fondness for the characters of Albus Severus and Scorpius and invested in their friendship. Certainly, there’s a disconnect between the criticism I’ve read about the play and its script online, and the reception it received in that theatre and with that crowd when we saw it. To put it lightly, the audience loved it. At the end of each act and part, the applause was raucous and enthusiastic and it was clear people were genuinely enjoying it. I went in worried about COVID, but it was that enthusiasm for the play and the joy of the audience that proved to be contagious as I couldn’t help but feel some of that myself (Ok, ok… awful callback to the earlier COVID points but I couldn’t help myself)! So don’t feel like you need to avoid Harry Potter and the Cursed Child if you’re embarking on your own Harry Potter Fan Vacation, and if you can get some cheap tickets through the TodayTix lottery it’s all the more reason to go (we booked through the normal channels online and paid regular price, but had registered for the TodayTix lottery back when we’d planned to go in December thinking we’d let fate decide and go if we won or skip it if not). Harry Potter and the Cursed Child also plays in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hamburg, Toronto, and Melbourne - some of those productions being re-worked, single-part shows - so there are plenty of opportunities to see it.
The Palace Theatre
Just steps away from where we were staying at Hazlitt’s Hotel is the Palace Theatre, where Harry Potter and the Cursed Child plays. It’s a time commitment if you choose to see it - two parts, each 2.5hrs long, with a couple hours between them. There’s no doubt the audience thoroughly enjoyed the show, though. Look into the ticket lottery at TodayTix.com if you want to take a shot at a chance for super cheap tickets.
An absolute must visit for any Harry Potter fan, when in London (or New York or even Osaka) is the House of MinaLima. Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima created the graphic universe for the Harry Potter film franchise. Most all elements of graphic design and all graphic props - from the Daily Prophet to wanted posters, Hogwarts Express tickets to Hogwarts acceptance letters, emblems and icons for the Ministry of Magic to its pamphlets and printings, covers and pages of text books to other printed school materials, tapestries and family crests to educational decrees and Quibbler covers - were conceived of and created by MinaLima. The graphic design of the films contribute so much to the feeling of the films and the sentiments they evoked. The world of Harry Potter is magical and mystical and almost unimaginable, yet also exists within and alongside the muggle world we know and recognize. MinaLima’s designs help create and convey that - they are antique yet timeless, quirky and fanciful. They’re like nothing we’ve seen before on one hand and entirely familiar on the other. I love the designs they created and the aesthetic they produced for the Harry Potter films and the magical world in which Harry Potter exists and I’m one bad financial decision away from decorating my entire house in MinaLima’s wizarding world style… though at least one room of our new home will be done up with that aesthetic and many a MinaLima print, I don’t doubt.
The House of MinaLima in Soho is both a store on the ground floor and gallery in the basement.
shopping, shopping and shopping
“This lot won’t come cheap!”
Oh yes, we spent more than I’d care to admit at the House of MinaLima. They had limited edition prints I just couldn’t resist, and even before we landed in London I’d committed myself to picking up a number of special souvenirs from MinaLima. While I bought their edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone here in the US, I waited to buy MinaLima’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets directly from them in London because copies there are signed. Thankfully Hazlitt’s Hotel is ideally situated for a MinaLima shopping spree as we didn’t have far at all to walk so we could drop all our bags off after loading up on prints and souvenirs of the visit.
Beyond MinaLima, we came across a seemingly endless string of Harry Potter-themed shops. While we made it a point to walk in to and explore every single one, I’m proud to say we resisted the temptation to spend money at every single one and survived the trip with our wallets intact. In case you find yourself wandering around the UK looking for excuses to spend money on Harry Potter merchandise, though, here’s a list of options…
Haggard Alley in Mallaig, Scotland. If you take the Jacobite steam train/Hogwarts Express to Mallaig, be sure to exit the station once there and follow the road to the right. Walk just beyond the moored fishing boats and you’ll see a tiny little wizarding shop down a tiny little alley.
Museum Context, in Edinburgh. Museum Context actually has two locations in Edinburgh, each on a street I’ve heard people say inspired Diagon Alley (coincidence?). Their larger location is on Victoria Street, with another opposite the Royal Mile on Cockburn Street. They’re both worth a visit for Harry Potter merchandise, books, quirky and fun gifts and souvenirs, or even a fun little photo op at the Victoria Street location!
House of Spells, in London. It’s just down the street from the Palace Theatre, on Charing Cross Road, and I must say they had quite a robust collection of Harry Potter merchandise. I saw a number of items there I didn’t see in many of the other Harry Potter stores we wandered in to, and I actually bought a little gym bag there as our overflow carry-on for our flight home (we bought so many souvenirs I was worried our luggage would be overweight, so bought an extra bag to carry stuff in).
Hamley’s Toy Shop, on Regent Street. While not Harry Potter-specific, this store had loads of Harry Potter toys on offer, and a great Noble Collection section for Harry Potter collectibles and replicas.
The Lego Store in Leicester Square. When we went to the Lego store, we were disappointed to find the entire second floor was closed for remodeling. Normally, it’s the biggest Lego store in the world. With much of it off-limits when we went, there wasn’t as much to see as we’d hoped. When fully open, though, I’m sure the store is wonderfully impressive and has a huge collection of Harry Potter lego sets.
Forbidden Planet, on Shaftesbury Avenue, in London. Maybe Hermione’s parents used to take her here too! This store is packed full of collectibles, comics, books and more - a nerd’s paradise. Amidst all the items and collectibles for all the entertainment franchises and names represented is a decent bit of Harry Potter stuff.
Ultimately, you just can’t beat all the official shops - The Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross, the shop at the Photographic Exhibition in Covent Garden, and all the shops at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour most of all. You’ll see merchandise you didn’t even know existed, and we were not only overwhelmed by all the incredibly awesome products on offer but also by how well-priced everything was! I suppose we were expecting amusement park prices, paying the premium you pay when trapped within the gates as a captive shopper caught up in the moment. In truth, everything was very reasonably priced at all the official shops and with so many product options on offer you might find yourself having to buy an extra bag for the flight home as well!
Hello, Harry!
If you find yourself in Leicester Square, keep an eye out for Harry as he whizzes by on his Nimbus 2000! Leicester Square has a number of movie theaters and is London’s cinema center. Around the square are statues to a number of iconic characters, including Mr. Bean, Paddington the bear, and Harry Potter.
MISCHIEF MANAGED
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably figured out calling our trip The Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation might be a bit of a misnomer. On the ultimate vacation we would have done all there was to do and seen all there was to see. On the ultimate vacation, pandemic-induced delays, postponements, schedule changes, and cancelations wouldn’t have kept us from the hotels we’d originally planned to stay in and we’d not have sat on the wrong side of the Hogwarts Express. An Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation would have checked off every single box, rather than giving us yet more ideas for yet more future trips in pursuit of further immersing ourselves in the magic of Harry Potter. This is not a complaint by any means, though - nothing remotely approaching one! I loved every moment of this trip from start to finish. Even all the delays and postponements, with all of the extra effort and expense they added and panicked scramblings they brought about, graced me with the opportunity to spend not just months but multiple years planning and plotting and eagerly looking forward to this trip. What would have been a trip conceived in late 2019 and completed in summer 2020 instead involved over two and a half years of excitingly researching, organizing, anticipating, and dreaming.
Yes, there’s something bittersweet about the trip now having ended just as there’s something bittersweet about knowing I’ll never again be able to read the Harry Potter books or watch the Harry Potter films for the first time and recreate that magic as I experienced it then. Fortunately, I don’t have to. Every time I read the books or watch the movies I’m filled with enjoyment and delight, and have a lifetime of that to look forward to. Doing all there is to do and seeing all there is to see were never possible. There will always be new attractions popping up, new friends to travel with, different people to meet along the way, and new and different ways to experience what we already know. Most wonderfully, at every given moment there is someone else out there discovering Harry Potter for the first time. Sometimes that person is a friend or loved one telling me about their journey, sometimes that person is a total stranger sharing their experience venturing in to the wizarding world on YouTube or TikTok or writing about it on Reddit or Twitter. Sometimes that person will be the child of someone I meet on my travels, born long after the books came out and now embarking with their parents on their own Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation. Yearning to experience the joy and excitement of discovering the world of Harry Potter for the first time led me to the realization I can do precisely that through the shared discoveries of others. Likewise, my Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation didn’t end when we boarded our flight at Heathrow to return to the US. Instead, it’s ongoing. Instead, it’s never-ending. We’ll continue to find new ways to immerse ourselves in the magic, new people to enjoy that experience with, and new meaning in the experiences we’ve had before.
This post isn’t about having completed the Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation. It’s about having just begun it.
After all this time?
Always.
Trip: What I dubbed our "Ultimate Harry Potter Fan Vacation", planned and organized on our own.
Dates: May 26, 2022 to June 9, 2022 (May 26-31 in London, May 31-June 4 in Scotland, and June 4-9 back in London.
Countries Visited: England and Scotland, United Kingdom.
