Visit Iceland to see where your favorite films and TV shows were shot – Orange County Register

Moments after being seated for a traditional Icelandic dinner at Hotel Rangá’s understatedly elegant restaurant, my table was greeted by the affable property owner. Aware of my Southern California roots, he pointed to a two-top across the dining room and whispered, “Those ladies having dinner over there said they’re staying here because of ‘The Real Housewives of Orange County.’” The hotelier gave a wide smile as he spoke a bit louder. “Two years later and I’m still getting business off that show.”

If not for the arrival of our starters, small plates of reindeer carpaccio and smoked puffin, the social and sprightly 72-year-old would have gushed more about when seven on-again off-again friends from south Orange County invaded South Iceland like well-coiffed modern-day Vikings.

Season 12 of the long-running Bravo series is the gift that keeps on giving for Fridrik Pálsson, proprietor of the quirky and remote Hotel Rangá, located a 90-minute drive southeast from Reykjavik, the country’s capital and only major city. Almost accidentally, the 52-unit lodge-styled resort has become the “it” inn among the rich and famous. Pálsson, CEO of a frozen seafood wholesaler before changing careers in 2003, needed to phone friends in America when “The Real Housewives of Orange County” knocked from 4,500 miles away, seeking on-location hospitality in exchange for exposure to a core demographic.

“I didn’t have a clue,” Pálsson said, disadvantaged that “RHOC” airs in Finland and Sweden, but not his corner of the Nordics. “I didn’t know what I might be getting myself into, they all said to do it.”

Hotel Rangá served a four-star base camp for the cast and crew. Their adventures yielded three Iceland-set episodes that originally aired stateside in October and November 2017. The fickle friends, when they weren’t drinking, dining, dishing and disagreeing, visited glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls and even the hospital during their stay; Vicki Gunvalson needed emergency medical attention for what might have been a heart attack. Health scare, squabbles and all, Pálsson said the OC ladies are welcome back anytime.

So are Kim Kardashian, her husband Kanye West and sister Kourtney, who checked in a year earlier for season six of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” Past guests also include actress Charlize Theron, American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, and the king of Sweden.

The welcome mat in front of Hotel Rangá stretches the entire South Iceland region for all comers, but it’s A-list celebrities who are flocking here like Icelandic sheep, only much richer and less tasty. Even sweeter to the country’s economy, where stars go, fans follow for icy hot “Location Vacations.”

Many early risers at Skógafoss on a recent weekday acknowledged they were at the majestic waterfall because of HBO’s “Games of Thrones.” That’s where Jon (Kit Harington) and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) smooched after riding dragons in the premiere episode of season eight. The wintry scene was digitally enhanced, but that didn’t seem to bother the selfie-snapping Thronees.

Others at Skógafoss that morning were there because of Justin Bieber’s 2015 “I’ll Show You” music video. Most were content walking on the same black gravel Bieber did at the bottom of the falls, while an ambitious few climbed the 370 steps to where the singer is seen sitting parallel to the top of the falls. One of the biggest waterfalls in the country with a width of 49 feet and a drop of 200 feet, Skógafoss is an easy 45-minute drive from Hotel Rangá. Answering the three questions every Belieber has right now: 1) Yes, he stayed there for the shoot; 2) Yes, he is said to have been a perfect paying guest; 3) Room 10.

Just beyond these falls, which also were featured in the 2013 movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” is what many in the Icelandic tourism trade believe is responsible for the dramatic upsurge of foreign visitors over the past decade. The April 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano “put Iceland on the map,” according to Pálsson. On the downside, the enormous ash cloud that resulted from the blast grounded 107,000 flights and 10 million air passengers over eight days. Economies even outside Iceland took a hit.

Plusses, besides no deaths, included unprecedented exposure for the remote island nation of a mere 340,000 at the time (it’s added just 40,000 since) and the dawn of “volcano tourism.” A new audience spawned from Mother Nature’s internationally covered show coupled with a favorable exchange rate due to Iceland’s economic collapse of two years earlier. It also doesn’t hurt when media point out that scenes for two “Star Wars” movies — “The Force Awakens” and “Rogue One” — were shot next to the news making glacier-topped volcano.

Volcano tourism still thrives in Iceland, and, for the moment, that’s thanks to Mount Hekla, the country’s most active volcano among the 30 or so not dormant, and there are more than 100 of those on the island. Visible, yet supposedly a safe distance from Hotel Rangá and other points on the south side, Hekla has erupted more than 20 times since 874 AD. Locals with and without geology degrees point to recent history — 1947, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 — when declaring that Hekla is due for a heckuva eruption.

A mere 17 miles from where Hekla will eventually blow again lies Landmannalaugar, a mecca for hikers in the heart of the Southern Highlands. For the 2013 movie “Thor: The Dark World,” this striking spot within the Fjallabak Nature Reserve doubled as the black sand landscape of Svartalfheim. Marvel Comics super fans and Norse mythology scholars know this land as one of the Nine Worlds and home of the Dark Elves. For the rest of us, the place is just plain gorgeous.

Other productions have also capitalized on Iceland’s unique rugged landscape dotted with hot springs, sulfur beds, geysers, lava fields, canyons and waterfalls. These include two James Bond films (1985’s “A View to a Kill” and 2002’s “Die Another Day”) along with “Tomb Raider” (2003), “Batman Begins” (2005), “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (2008), “The Tree of Life” (2011), “Prometheus” (2012), “Oblivion” (2013), “Interstellar” (2014), “Noah” (2014), “Captain America” (2016) and “Fast & Furious 8” (2017).

Two American-made science fiction movies — “Good Morning, Midnight,” directed by and starring George Clooney, and “Ghost Draft” with Chris Pratt — are set to begin production in the southern part of Vatnajökull National Park, a favorite location due in part to the beauty of the glaciers, easy access to them and a film commission that’s loosened its restriction on drones used in national parks.