What it's like to travel the world with James Bond

Jamaica is a good starting point for a Bond trip around the world. Author Ian Fleming wrote many of his novels about the British secret agent while in Jamaica. Ocho Rios also served as the backdrop for the spectacular appearance of Swiss actress Ursula Andress as 007's love interest in the first Bond film, "Dr. No" in 1962.

In the third film of the series, James Bond pursues his adversary on a high alpine pass road near Andermatt. It provided the perfect opportunity for Sean Connery to drive his Aston Martin, which has become the most famous Bond car of all. His nemesis, Goldfinger, played by German actor Gert Fröbe, is driven through the mountains in a Rolls-Royce.

What could be a more stunning location than a futuristic restaurant overlooking the Alps? At the time of filming the sixth Bond film in 1969, starring George Lazenby as 007, the revolving eatery on the 2,970-meter-high (9,744 feet) Schilthorn mountain had just been completed. In the film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" it serves as a hideout for Bond villain Blofeld.

In the south of Thailand in the Andaman Sea lies Ko Tapu, a 20-meter-high (65-foot) rock formation. Today, the limestone column is often referred to as James Bond Island thanks to Bond actor Roger Moore, who made it famous in the 1974 film "The Man with the Golden Gun." Incidentally, Christopher Lee, who played Bond's antagonist Scaramanga, was actually related to James Bond author Ian Fleming.

The Eiffel Tower is one of the main landmarks featuring in the seventh and last film starring Roger Moore as James Bond. In the 1985 movie "A View to a Kill," he chases Grace Jones up the Eiffel Tower before she escapes via parachute. The subsequent chase, in which Bond races through the streets of Paris in a stolen Renault, features other touristic highlights in the French capital.

Even in Bond films, locations are not always what they seem. In 1995, in the first Bond film with Pierce Brosnan, Switzerland's Contra dam, also known as the Verzasca dam, served as a backdrop for a bungee jump into a Soviet chemical weapons factory. Shortly after the film's release, the dam became a popular destination for bungee jumpers.

Only the best hotels will do for 007, and among them is Hamburg's legendary Hotel Atlantic. In the 1997 film "Tomorrow Never Dies," starring Pierce Brosnan, the hotel is the setting for a love scene which, as so often in Bond films, ends tragically. However, the hotel was only filmed from the outside, while a British golf club was used as the setting for the interior.

In 2006, Daniel Craig played James Bond for the first time. While the main setting for the showdown with his adversary in "Casino Royale" is in Montenegro, most of the filming was done in the Czech Republic. Scenic towns including Karlovy Vary and Loket (pictured) serve as backdrops to the action flick.

Opera and theater stages are also popular filming locations in Bond movies. James Bond crashes a secret meeting of international criminals at the Bregenz Festival in the 2008 film "Quantum of Solace," killing adversaries. The action takes place during a performance of the tragic opera "Tosca," held on the world's largest floating stage, the Seebühne Bregenz.

While James Bond is certainly a world traveler, his home is London. In the 50th anniversary year of the Bond series, the British capital plays a particularly prominent role. MI6's headquarters on the River Thames are destroyed in a terrorist attack, and the organization must relocate. Much of the movie was filmed in London's massive Pinewood Film Studios (pictured).

The release of the latest Bond film, "No Time to Die" was postponed several times due to production constraints and the global pandemic. It was supposed to be released in 2019, the year the Italian city of Matera was European Capital of Culture. The city's district of Sassi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, serves as a setting for a fast-paced chase scene.