James Bond has stepped out of the cinema screen, breaking free from the darkness of the television box to live among us! He is no longer just the adventurer who triumphs for the sake of good—even with a license to kill! Nor is he merely the man with unbeatable intellectual prowess, despite its simplicity, or even occasional naivety! He is not just the lover for whom the women of the world, literally and figuratively, fall at his feet!
Created in 1953 by English author Ian Fleming, James Bond stands as one of the most renowned fictional characters globally. Recognized for his espionage expertise, cutting-edge gadgets, and charismatic charm, Agent 007 has become a cultural icon, consistently generating excitement with each new film, video game, or related project. Though Fleming’s original novels were well-received and commercially usuccessful, Bond’s true rise to global fame began in 1962 when Sean Connery brought him to life on the big screen in Dr. No. The film’s tremendous success led Connery to portray the character seven times before ultimately stepping away from the role in 1983.
James Bond is an icon of history and an enchanter of geography. The reason? Every time I travel somewhere in the world, I find that James Bond has beaten me to it. They tell me: “007 lived here,” or “James Bond walked there.” “Here, Roger Moore dined,” and “There, Sean Connery had a drink.” “Here, the secret agent leaped into the air,” and “There, the heroic spy dived into the water.” And so, under countless skies, I have found him—from Lebanon to Kazakhstan, from Russia (with love) to America. It’s a journey of an adventurer, cities, and women. A journey spanning for decades. And every time I confirm my next step, I find the shadow of a man named… James… James Bond!
For just £190, you can hop into an air-conditioned car that will take you around the English capital, following in the footsteps of James Bond. The tour starts in Britain, the country featured most frequently in his films. The most significant location, of course, is the headquarters of MI6, where all the intricate plots and schemes unfold, not to mention other famous London landmarks.
The Bahamas—one of the world’s paradises, with a sun that gilds the skin—offer the perfect retreat for a secret agent coming from lands of frost and fog. And why not? There are 700 beaches to choose from! The journey from Britain costs £679, excluding expenses for yachts, diving, fishing, and all the activities J.B. enjoys.
Another filming location for James Bond’s crew was Phuket Island, where scenes from The Man With the Golden Gun were shot. Today, if the “new” James Bond visited, he might not recognize it, as it has become one of Thailand’s most advanced resorts. Travel from London for a week at just £379, and be sure to budget for sailing, water skiing, and other activities!
In 1969, the Alps served as James Bond’s battleground in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. A week in Alpe d’Huez costs only £262, where snow-covered mountains and crisp air—and perhaps a few charming ladies—await you.
If you are a fan of historical and cultural landmarks, then some of the best Bond filming locations include those featured in Casino Royale, particularly Prague, Czechia. Two nights in this cultural city will set you back £96.
And don’t forget to stop by Jamaica, a setting for some of Bond’s most famous films—the first, Dr. No, and Live and Let Die. Here, in its mountains, you can create your own adventure while golden-skinned bodies move along its shores. A week in Jamaica costs £402.
India also makes the list, specifically the Lake Palace in Udaipur, featured in Octopussy (1983). While there, you can take the Golden Triangle tour—Delhi, Agra (home of the Taj Mahal), and Jaipur. I visited these places with my wife, TV director Fatima Zahra, and our daughters, Huda and Fadwa. A highlight was meeting my friend, the Indian painter Muhammad Younis, who gave me a copy of the film.
The roulette table is a staple in James Bond films—he always bets on success, especially when it involves diamonds, as in Diamonds Are Forever. If your destination is Las Vegas, the city where the neon lights never dim, prepare to spend £540 for a seven-night stay—just the initial cost!
Roger Moore chose Egypt as the backdrop for a thrilling chase with the spy he loved, battling the man with steel teeth. He recommended visiting the Pyramids and downtown Cairo, but Luxor comes with a special price tag of £133. My summer trip last year, including a round-trip flight from Luxor to Cairo, cost me around £2,840… Egyptian pounds!
If you seek breathtaking underwater scenes, head to Mexico, where Licence to Kill (1989) was filmed. Its stunning beaches, golden bays, enchanting islands, and grand hotels make for an unforgettable experience. A week costs £425—charge it to British Intelligence! Meanwhile, across the British Channel, James Bond can spend two nights in Paris for just £80, reliving scenes from A View to a Kill, featuring the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral.
I thought of racing (Bond-style) through a cinematic reel capturing all his destinations:
In Dr. No, Bond moves between Britain and Jamaica, taking viewers from London’s heart to Crab Key. In From Russia with Love, he traverses the UK, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Italy, showcasing Zagreb, Belgrade, Venice, and Istanbul—where I still remember him moving beneath the domes of Hagia Sophia before encountering yet another of his many victims.
Bond then heads to Switzerland, the United States, and Mexico in Goldfinger, with scenes set in Geneva, Miami (Florida), Fort Knox (Kentucky), and Baltimore (Maryland). In Thunderball, he briefly departs the UK for Château d’Anet in France, Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and Miami.
Heading east in You Only Live Twice, Bond’s adventures unfold in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Kyushu, Japan. He returns to Europe in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, where action shifts between Piz Gloria, Switzerland, and Estoril, Portugal.
Diamonds Are Forever was a production milestone, filmed across seven countries, spanning an unnamed Latin American nation (possibly Cuba), Mexico, the U.S., Japan, Egypt, France, and the Netherlands. In Live and Let Die, locations included the U.S., Saint Monique (Caribbean), and Jamaica’s caves.
An Arab country appears in The Man with the Golden Gun, with Lebanon featured alongside Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Yellow Sea archipelago in China. Bond returns to Egypt in The Spy Who Loved Me, with scenes filmed in Cairo, Luxor, and along the Nile, before shifting to the Austrian Alps and Royal Navy submarines in Scotland, ending in Sardinia, Italy.
Once again, James Bond flies to America in Moonraker, just as he returns to Venice, Italy. However, this time, he discovers new territory as he ventures into the Amazon, explores Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and even journeys into outer space! In For Your Eyes Only, Bond appears in both familiar and new locations, filming in a villa outside Madrid, Spain, in Greek churches, along the Albanian-Greek border, and in various Italian sites in Ambetso. He continues his travels in Octopussy, where he reaches India (Delhi) and both East and West Berlin. Meanwhile, A View to a Kill takes a calmer approach, featuring locations in Siberia, Russia; Ascot, Britain; Paris, and San Francisco.
Gibraltar makes an appearance in The Living Daylights, along with Bratislava in Czechoslovakia, Tangier in Morocco, Vienna with its enchanting Austrian nights, a Russian military base in Afghanistan, Balochistan in Pakistan, and, of course, the UK.
In Licence to Kill, the adventurous hero travels through various cities, visiting Key West in Florida, the Bimini Islands in the Bahamas, and Isthmus City in the fictional Republic of Isthmus (Panama)! Once again, the romantic spy moves between the Soviet Union, France, Monaco, Russia, and Cuba—where the satellite dish was filmed—in GoldenEye. He also explores a new country, Vietnam, specifically Ho Chi Minh City, in Tomorrow Never Dies, alongside locations such as the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan, Hamburg in Germany, and the South China Sea.
As the world’s borders are no longer enough for him, The World Is Not Enough spans Bilbao (Spain), Sir Robert King’s estate in Scotland, a Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan, Baku (Azerbaijan), and Istanbul (Turkey).
In Die Another Day, Bond reaches the Demilitarized Zone in North Korea, as well as Hong Kong, Havana, London, and Iceland. Meanwhile, the latest film at the time, Casino Royale, as previously mentioned, was shot in Prague (Czech Republic), Mbale (Uganda), an African embassy in Madagascar, Nassau (Bahamas), Miami (USA), and both Venice and Lake Como (Italy).
Perhaps it’s no secret that in some of these scenes, Bond appears in locations he never actually visited—thanks to cinematic technology, of course. Apologies to the audience for the illusion!
“Bond Girls”
The term “Bond Girls” is an iconic cinematic concept, representing an extensive gallery of legendary actresses who often appeared in bikinis. They would start their scenes with a piercing gaze and deep-seated hatred toward our beloved hero, only for that hostility to transform into overwhelming passion. But because love can be fatal in Bond films, these women rarely survived beyond their brief screen time.
From Ursula Andress, emerging from the sea in a two-piece swimsuit like a living doll, to Shirley Eaton, who allowed the filmmakers to paint her naked body in gold, we have seen countless faces—one or more per film. Since most of these women were villains, their roles were never repeated, and because our hero is a globetrotter, he rarely returns to the places he previously “conquered.”
A total of 51 leading ladies have graced Bond films—quite a number! However, they weren’t all acting opposite the same man, as the Bonds changed over time, from Sean Connery and Roger Moore to the latest Casino Royale lead.
Among the most famous Bond Girls:
Eva Green and Caterina Murino (Casino Royale). Rachel Grant, Halle Berry, and Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day). Serena Scott Thomas and Denise Richards (The World Is Not Enough). Cecilie Thomsen, who played Professor Inga’s assistant, along with Michelle Yeoh and Teri Hatcher (Tomorrow Never Dies). Serena Gordon (Caroline) and Izabella Scorupco (Natalia) (GoldenEye). Talisa Soto (Lupe Lamora) and Carey Lowell (Pam Bouvier) (Licence to Kill). Kell Tyler (Linda) and Maryam d’Abo (Kara Milovy) (The Living Daylights). Mary Stavin (Kimberley Jones), Tanya Roberts (Stacey Sutton), and Fiona Fullerton (Pola Ivanova) (A View to a Kill). Kristina Wayborn (Magda) and Maud Adams (Octopussy) (Octopussy). Lynn-Holly Johnson (Bibi Dahl), Carole Bouquet (Melina Havelock), and Cassandra Harris (Countess Lisl) (For Your Eyes Only).Corinne Cléry (Corinne Dufour), Lois Chiles, and Emily Bolton (Manuela) (Moonraker). Sue Vanner, Olga Bisera, and Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me). Returning to The Man With the Golden Gun, we see Maud Adams (again), Carmen du Sautoy (Saida), and Britt Ekland (Mary Goodnight), and in Live and Let Die, we have Madeline Smith (Miss Caruso) and Jane Seymour (Solitaire).
In Diamonds Are Forever, Jill St. John (Tiffany Case) and Lana Wood (Plenty O’Toole) shine, while On Her Majesty’s Secret Service introduced Diana Rigg (Teresa), Angela Scoular (Ruby), and Catherine Schell (Nancy).
Bond’s journey also took him to Asia, where You Only Live Twice featured Tsai Chin (Ling), Akiko Wakabayashi (Aki), and Mie Hama (Kissy Suzuki). Meanwhile, Thunderball presented Molly Peters (Patricia), Claudine Auger (Domino), and Martine Beswick (Paula).
Goldfinger boasted a quartet of unforgettable women: Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore), Margaret Nolan (Dink), Shirley Eaton (Jill Masterson), and Tania Mallet (Tilly Masterson).
Earlier still, From Russia With Love introduced Daniela Bianchi (Tatiana Romanova), Aliza Gur (Vida), and Martine Beswick (Zora).
But the title of the first-ever Bond Girls belongs to Dr. No, featuring Eunice Gayson (Sylvia Trench) and Ursula Andress (Honey Ryder)—two women who set the standard for all who followed.
We pause with these captivating faces to remember Tatiana Romanova, who appeared in the opening scenes of From Russia with Love. This was also one of the rare occasions where Bond’s leading lady shared extensive screen time with him throughout the film.
M warns Bond that Tatiana is attempting to sabotage his mission to recover the cipher machine. His task is to bring both the machine and her back to England—despite all the old Soviet cunning. But why worry? After all, he’s James Bond!
They first meet in Bond’s hotel room, and as expected, any encounter with Bond leads to romance—which, in this case, was also secretly filmed. The two then set out to recover the machine, boarding the Orient Express as the tension escalates. And as always, the story leads to the inevitable ending we all know—because if it didn’t, James Bond films wouldn’t have continued from 1962 until today!
Natalia in GoldenEye
In GoldenEye, another Bond girl enters the scene—Izabella Scorupco, playing Natalya, a programmer working at a Russian space control station.
Disguised under the pretense of an inspection, General Ourumov and Xenia Onatopp arrive at the station and ruthlessly open fire, killing everyone—except, of course, for our heroine. (Otherwise, who would continue the film with Bond… James Bond?)
Natalya escapes and contacts Boris Grishenko online, eventually meeting him. But it turns out to be a trap set by the villainous Xenia Onatopp—one trap leading to another, with Bond himself becoming ensnared in the scheme. As they await the detonation of a time bomb, they make yet another escape.
Thanks to Natalya’s computer skills and Bond’s talent for using deadly gadgets for good, they ultimately outmaneuver their enemies.
Outpacing Bond
I have traveled to Tatarstan in the Russian Federation, Gujarat in western India, Ouarzazate in the Moroccan desert, the site of Ramses’ battle in Syria—at the ancient city of Kadesh—along with the ruins and dam of the Meroë Kingdom in Sudan, all the Gulf Arab states, the deserts and countryside of Jordan, Apulia in Italy, and Córdoba in Spain.
Finally, I have defeated James Bond and visited places he has yet to set foot in! (After all, he has already spoiled my opportunity to list the places where we actually crossed paths.)
The truth is, I could never fully “live the role”—there were no diamonds, no gold, and no silver. Apparently, Bond only appears where there are precious metals… and women.
I’ll be waiting for him in Egypt, standing before a poster of his film Skyfall, as the reels of yet another adventure start spinning—one filled with a new Bond, new cities, and new women.
Through it all, James Bond remains an adventurer, a traveler, and a man whose legend stretches across cities and women alike—an eternal figure in both history and geography!
