Location, location, location: California, a real-life movie set

Coin-operated binoculars offering views of the Golden Gate bridge and San Francisco Bay. The iconic red bridge has featured in close to 40 movies, including Vertigo, Dirty Harry and A View to a Kill. Photograph: Glowimages/Corbis

Seagulls circle close to Alcatraz, known as “the rock”. The island's notorious maximum-security prison closed in 1963, less than a year after three inmates managed to escape – as portrayed in the film Escape from Alcatraz. Whether the three men actually made it across the choppy waters of San Francisco Bay to freedom remains a mystery. Photograph: Mark Oatney/Getty

The 250-year-old Lone Cypress sits perched atop a rock close to 17-Mile Drive, a scenic stretch of road that hugs the Pacific coastline in Monterey. In the film Vertigo, Madeleine and Scottie kiss at Cypress Point amid a backdrop of crashing waves. However, the lone tree seen in the film was a prop brought specially to the location. Photograph: Dreamtours/photolibrary.com

Gliding above the grapes in Napa Valley, California's most famous wine-growing region and setting for the film Bottle Shock starring Alan Rickman. Other notable areas include Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara, where unlikely friends Miles and Jack head for their bachelor-party road trip in Sideways. Photograph: George Rose/Getty Images

Lombard Street, San Francisco: a driver's dream or nightmare. The hair-raising hairpins snake steeply downhill in the block between Hyde and Leavenworth streets in Russian Hill. The district's steep streets were used to great effect in Bullitt's thrilling car chase scene, which saw Steve McQueen eschew stunt drivers. Photograph: Scott Stulberg/Corbis

Avalon harbour, Catalina Island, with Catalina casino in the background. Despite the name, it is not actually a casino at all; the building contains a theatre, ballroom and museum. Situated 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, the island was a popular 1930s getaway for Hollywood stars such as Clark Gable, and has featured in many films including The Glass Bottom Boat and Chinatown. Photograph: Corbis

The Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood, the observatory – a popular tourist attraction in its own right – gives an amazing view of the Los Angeles basin, from downtown LA in the east to the Pacific ocean in the west. It featured in two major sequences of the James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause; a bust of Dean was subsequently placed in the grounds of the observatory. Photograph: Vitto Sciosia/photolibrary.com

Dozens of hanging lanterns light up a street in Chinatown, Los Angeles. Located in Downtown, it is the second Chinatown to be constructed in LA – the original was founded in the late 19th century but demolished to accommodate Union Station. Not surprisingly, Chinatown features heavily in the 1974 Academy Award-winning film of the same name, in which Jack Nicholson's character hears the immortal line: “Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.” Photograph: Gary Conner/photolibrary Photograph: Gary Conner/photolibrary.com

There's nothing quite like a giant sequoia tree to bring you down to size. You too can marvel at the world's largest trees, which are native to California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, at the Sequoia National Park. The state's many redwood forests were used to dramatic effect as backdrops in Return of the Jedi, Outbreak and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty

Waves crashing on to craggy rocks, twisted cypress trees and the sun plopping into the Pacific ocean. You'll feel like you've stumbled into the dramatic climax of a Hollywood movie on 17-Mile Drive. The chances are you might well do as this pretty stretch of the Monterey coast has starred in many movies. Go for the romantic clinch, we say, and grab the camera to capture your own moment on screen. Photograph: Anno Pieterse/Gallerystock

An idyllic scene in Salinas valley, Monterey county, the birthplace of writer John Steinbeck and the setting for his novel and subsequent film East of Eden. Today the fertile valley is a far cry from the one depicted in his Depression-era novels with visitors touring the many vineyards and tasting rooms to stock up on top-end chardonnay and pinot noir. Photograph: photolibrary.com

San Diego has all the natural assets needed to attract location scouts – city, surf and sunshine. Top Gun was filmed in California's second largest city and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was set there (although filming took place in LA). As Burgundy would say: “You stay classy, San Diego.” Photograph: James Leighton/Gallerystock