Let’s start with a confession. Since it was first released back in December 2006, I’ve seen The Holiday approximately seventy-five times! (Yes, it gets at least five watches every. single. Christmas.).
I can quote entire scenes, I know the score by heart, and I’ve lost count of the many occasions I’ve rocked out to Mr. Brightside in sync with a slightly inebriated, cardigan-clad Cameron Diaz!
What can I say, it’s the ultimate Christmas and New Year flick, plus it’s not only the romances, stellar cast, and wickedly funny script that keep me coming back year after year.
Both Amanda and Iris’s houses are taken straight out of my letters to Santa, and look like my Christmas real estate wishes come true. So, naturally, I had to track them down and see where one might find the picture-perfect The Holiday houses in real life.
Amanda’s house in Los Angeles
If you too have fallen head over heels for Amanda’s gorgeous Tuscan-style home in Los Angeles, you’ll be happy to hear that it’s an actual home and not the product of some clever studio set with CGI slapped on top of it.
The exterior scenes where we see Amanda and Ethan’s breakup, Miles and Iris’s first meeting, and her adorable leap for joy upon discovering the property has a pool, were all filmed on location at a stunning seven-bedroom property in California.
The Tuscan-style property that played the role of Amanda’s house in The Holiday is located at 1883 Orlando Road in San Marino, a small town in Los Angeles County, Calif. and is the former home of esteemed architect Wallace Neff.
Worth well over $10 million, the 10,324-square-foot mansion made famous by the 2006 movie has an impressive total of 7 bedrooms and 7 baths.
Key facts & figures
- Bedrooms: 7
- Baths: 7
- Square footage: 10,324 sq. ft.
- Year built: 1928
- Lot size: 0.77 acres
- Amenities: formal dining room, a library with corner fireplace & carved wood ceiling, lower-level media/game room, inner courtyard and private side garden with pool & spa, paddle tennis court, rose garden
- Last sold: $9,500,000 (2019)
It’s the former home of lauded architect Wallace Neff
Exemplifying the finest in architectural design, craftsmanship, and materials, The Holiday house welcomes visitors with an imposing staircase and walk-in bar, a spectacular living room with coved ceilings, an intricate chandelier, iron wall sconces, and an oversized fireplace — all original to the house and dating back to when it was first built back in 1928.
And the unique architectural details and exquisite exterior make a little more sense after learning that the house was previously home to lauded architect Wallace Neff — who designed and built it for himself and his family.
Neff was the go-to architect for the rich and famous in the early half of the 20th century, having designed timeless properties like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks’s legendary Pickfair estate, and the Ojai Valley Country Club, now part of the Ojai Valley Inn.
Interior shots were filmed elsewhere
However, despite the recognizable exterior, if you look at photos from inside the house, you’ll notice that these aren’t the super-posh, modern interiors we see in the movie.
That’s because all of the scenes inside Amanda’s home were filmed on a specially constructed soundstage at Sony Studios’ Culver City lot.
The expansive set was almost 8,000 square feet which according to IMDB cost a whopping $1 million to construct! And that was of course without a roof, any exterior walls, heating, plumbing, or electricity.
From the impressive open-plan kitchen and chic, yet cozy living area to the state-of-the-art gym and impressive gated driveway landscaped to perfection, Amanda’s house is pretty much the perfect getaway home.
It even boasts an envy-inducing media room complete with thousands upon thousands of classic movies and an enormous television to watch them all on.
Fun fact, as Iris browses Amanda’s alphabetized movie collection on her first full day at the house, a case for the movie Enigma, which Kate starred in back in 2001 can be seen on the right-hand side of the shot!
Iris’ cottage in Surrey
I must say, your house looks idyllic. Just what I need.”
Sorry to be the bearer of genuinely bad news but Rosehill Cottage doesn’t exist. How did it look so real in the movie, you ask? Well, because it was… sort of.
The outer shell of Iris’ picture-perfect stone-clad home was inspired by a real-life property known as Honey Suckle Cottage in Holmbury, St Mary and was built from scratch — stone wall, garden gate, and front yard included!
While the Honey Suckle Cottage looked the part, the production crew decided that it was too far from the cast and crew in London. So they recreated it brick by brick in a studio.
Amazingly, it took production just a couple of weeks to construct and a total of four weeks to fully landscape and make sure the house and its surrounding area looked genuinely like a 200-year-old property.
The inside of the home, like Amanda’s, was filmed on a soundstage, but that could never make me love those snuggly beamed ceilings, the cozy open fireplace, and her teeny-tiny bath any less!
The house that inspired it is real, though
While Rosehill Cottage might not be real, the humble little brick house that it was based on does exist — and recently got some new owners who weren’t aware of its enduring popularity before moving in.
The Holmbury St Mary house that inspired Rose’s house in The Holiday, known as Honeysuckle Cottage, was purchased in 2019 by Jon and Cressida Bromley.
The couple, who paid £625,000 for their charming abode, weren’t aware that their new house was featured in the hit 2006 movie, and couldn’t quite understand why people kept snapping photos of their property.
“Then we saw it in Country Life article saying something like ‘the inspiration for ‘The Holiday’ cottage is back on the market’, owner Jon Bromley shared with Mirror UK.
The couple then decided to bank on the house’s fame and put their Honeysuckle Cottage up on AirBnb as a vacation rental. The news set the internet ablaze, with thousands of media outlets announcing that you can stay at The Holiday cottage (or, as some publications said, you can “go fall in love with Jude Law” in an idyllic setting.
But all the attention may have proven to be too much for the Bromley family, as the link to the Airbnb listing has been taken down and we haven’t managed to find it as a rental on the platform anymore. That’s okay, let’s see what other locations are open to visitors.
More swoon-worthy homes and locations from ‘The Holiday’
Our leading ladies may have had the prettiest homes of all, but the beauty of this movie doesn’t stop there.
So we took things a step further and tracked down a few of the other memorable The Holiday filming locations — including an architectural gem designed by lauded architect Richard Neutra that may have caught your eye.
Graham’s English manor home
Just like Amanda and Iris’ homes, the interior scenes for Graham’s breathtaking rural home were created and filmed on the soundstage at Sony.
The outside, however, is very real. The property used for exterior shots is called The Mill House and it stands overlooking the River Wey in Tilford, Surrey. It has five bedrooms, a drawing-room, a family room, a breakfast room, a cloakroom, a study, and more.
It even boasts formal gardens and a paddock! No sign of Graham’s cow though…
Arthur’s house
Another real home! Arthur’s property is located on Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood California.
For anyone taking notes, that’s nowhere near the home used for Amanda’s house but hey, movie magic! The 22-room home which was owned for 40 years by the late comedienne Phyllis Dillier, was chosen for its ‘Old Hollywood’ vibe.
Miles’ house
Miles’s ultra-modern home is arguably one of the best-looking residences in the whole movie. And, you guessed it, it really exists!
The three-bedroom Ohara house, built in 1959, was designed by famed modernist architect Richard Neutra and is located on a pretty hillside in Silver Lake. Unlike the other homes in the movie, interior scenes for Miles’ home were also filmed there!
The quaint & Christmassy Surrey village
If you fancy cruising around tiny snow-filled lanes in search of way too much party food and wine for one person like Amanda, you can!
The scenes around Rosehill cottage were filmed in some of the most photographed villages in Surrey, England, including Godalming and Shere. The latter in particular being particularly beautiful.
Thinking you’ve seen this heavenly little village somewhere before? You probably have!
Shere has featured in an impressive number of Hollywood blockbusters over the years including, Four Weddings & A Funeral (1994), Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason (2004), The Wedding Date (2005), The Mummy (2016), and Disney’s live-action Beauty And The Beast (2017). Honestly, the list goes on and on!
The video shop
Though there’s now a bank in its place, the video store where Iris and Miles browse the shelves to find movies on Arthur’s list was once a real Blockbuster video located in Brentwood, LA.
Some movie cases even had to be removed as both Winslet and Black had starred in some of the films!
Fascinatingly, this scene (just like many of the lines during Jude Law’s Mr. Napkin Head impression and Miles’ ‘accidental boob graze’) was largely improvised by Jack Black as he picked up DVD cases and proceeded to sing the theme songs to Kate Winslet’s character.
The now-famous cameo from Dustin Hoffman was also completely unplanned.
Hoffman happened to be having lunch in the area and upon seeing all the cameras and crew set up, decided to stop by to see what was happening. He and Nancy Myers are old friends so together, they decided to write him into the scene!
The White Horse pub
The White Horse, Graham’s preferred watering hole and place where he reunites with Amanda after thinking she had gone back to LA, is a very real country pub also located in the village of Shere.
Plan your own holiday
So, if you’re planning a trip to England and hope to see all of The Holiday filming locations in their white Christmassy glory, it could just happen. Whilst filming in Surrey, production had arranged faux snow for their month-long shoot but it ended up snowing for real three times whilst they were there!
If the UK’s out of the question, you could always sign up for your very own house swap. The site Amanda and Iris use in the movie, homeexchange.com, actually exists!
Per their website, they’re the world leader when it comes to home exchange vacations. “With over 150,000 members in 145 countries, discover an affordable, authentic and safe way to travel the world. Discover how you can exchange homes for your next vacation,” their homepage reads, promising a wild experience taken straight out of our favorite holiday flick.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, my 76th re-watch is well overdue. Happy Holidays!
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More memorable homes from your favorite holiday movies
The Real-Life Home Alone House: Then and Now
‘A Christmas Story’ House: Where to find it & how much it’s worth
Where is Dunnock Manor, the Sprawling Family Home in ‘Father Christmas is Back’?
