Big city film location tours: Rome, London, New York, LA

Big cities are the easiest places to stand where a scene was shot, because the scenery is the city itself. In Rome the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon have been on screen since the silent era, and the best way to see them is the way Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck did in Roman Holiday, from the back of a Vespa, which we arrange with licensed drivers. In London, King's Cross, Leadenhall Market and the Millennium Bridge all turn up in the Harry Potter films, and a day with us adds the studio tour at Leavesden.

Across the Atlantic, New York gives you the Ghostbusters firehouse, Central Park and the Tiffany windows from Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Los Angeles gives you Griffith Observatory, the Bradbury Building from Blade Runner and the studio lots in Burbank and Hollywood. We keep those two because they are still the cities most people picture when they think of the movies.

City tours are the most walkable on our list. Expect 4 to 7 miles on foot on a full day, broken up by a van, a metro ride, lunch and a museum. The hotels are central, so you can go back for a rest or out again in the evening. We plan the famous spots for early morning, before the crowds, and leave the afternoons looser.

Cities are also where you are most likely to meet a real film crew at work. If we do, your leader shows you where to stand, and we keep moving. Private homes from famous films stay off the route: we tell their stories from the corner.

Each city tour leaves room for the city as it is today: a market, a long lunch, a museum that has nothing to do with film. Our leaders live in these cities, and the places they choose for coffee and dinner are often the part of the trip guests remember. Evenings are usually free, with suggestions.