The third season of House of the Dragon has landed, finally giving fans of the show a more fitting ending to the second season. A colossus of TV, it has continued the legacy of Game of Thrones by commanding huge viewership figures as and when it lands. After three days, WBD reported a global audience figure of 21.5 million.
While that does mark a slight eight per cent dip on the 2024 launch of Season 2, it is currently competing with the titanic FIFA World Cup, and the rushed close to the second season fell rather flat. Even so, it’s a huge hit, and a fair chunk of its appeal is the aesthetic powered by the choices of masterful location scouts.
Following on from the groundwork laid by its predecessor, you can visit many of the most iconic sights of House of the Dragon.
Westeros Proving to be a Tourism Boon
Game of Thrones was so big that even now, it continues to propel tourism figures to the locations it framed so beautifully. Northern Ireland has been among the biggest winners of this trend. In 2018, Tourism Northern Ireland reported that 350,000 visitors – or one in every six out-of-state visitors – came because of Game of Thrones.
That pumped over £50 million into the local economy that year alone. Then came the opening of the Game of Thrones Studio Tour, which has enjoyed continued growth in recent years. In January 2026, when A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was released, visitor figures jumped 94 per cent for their strongest year-on-year growth.
Along with the locations in the shows generating real-world interest, it’s important to note how relevant the setting remains. Game of Thrones continues to be watched through reruns by fans, despite the finale, and the brand has grown into other corners of entertainment.
Forever trending on platforms for internet bingo UK fans access, the official Game of Thrones game still boasts tremendous appeal. With the iconic soundtrack and symbols from the show, the number of players it gets shows that there’s still a lot of love for the original show and, of course, its glorious settings.
Wales, Surrey, and the Iberian Peninsula
For the prequel series, the show’s location scouts switched from Northern Ireland to Wales. As is shown in this list from the BBC, the team took to many spots around Wales, including some of its most stunning castles. Yr Eifl Granite Quarry is said to stand in for Dragonstone’s castle, while Harrenhal was drawn from Dinorwig Quarry.
Elsewhere, Ogwen Valley, the Penmachno Roman Bridge, and so many spots in Anglesey can be seen throughout the show’s run. Further east, the team also made its way to Surrey for some forest sequences. The dense, Crown Estate-managed Barossa and Swinley Forest played host to the filming crew for the third season.
Jumping out of the UK, the Iberian Peninsula was, once again, a popular filming location for Westeros. Spain’s Cáceres and Trujillo were used for filming, with the former being a stand-in for King’s Landing. From Portugal, the historical village of Monsanto, ‘the city of stones,’ and the nearby castle Penha Garcia will appear in the show.
The prominence of Game of Thrones during its run, the popularity of more recent visits to Westeros on TV, and its enduring place in entertainment continue to inspire holiday decisions.
