If you love movies and you’re heading to Los Angeles, you’ll quickly run into two kinds of tours: studio tours and movie location tours. They sound similar. They’re not. One takes you behind the gates where movies are made. The other takes you out into the real city where scenes were shot.
Here’s an honest breakdown of what each offers, so you can pick the right one, or do both.
What Is a Studio Tour?
A studio tour takes you onto a working studio lot: the soundstages, backlot streets, prop departments and costume archives where film and TV production happens. The big studio tours in the Los Angeles area include:
- Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood in Burbank
- The Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood, a tram ride that’s part of theme-park admission
- Paramount Pictures Studio Tour on Melrose Avenue, on the last major studio lot still in Hollywood itself
- Sony Pictures Studio Tour in Culver City
Studio tours are great at showing how movies get made. You’ll see sets, hear about famous productions on the lot, and, if you’re lucky, spot a show in production. They’re also carefully managed: routes, stops and stories are set by the studio.
What Is a Movie Location Tour?
A movie location tour takes you to the real-world places where scenes were filmed: streets, restaurants, theaters, hotels and landmarks that played themselves, or stood in for somewhere else, on screen.
Instead of a backlot built to look like a city, you’re in the actual city. You’re standing where a famous scene happened, often comparing it to the moment from the film. And because these places are part of everyday Los Angeles, a location tour doubles as a way to see Hollywood itself.
The Key Differences
| Studio tour | Movie location tour | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you go | Inside a working studio lot | Real streets and landmarks around Hollywood |
| What you learn | How movies and TV are produced | Where famous scenes were filmed, and the stories behind them |
| Who guides you | Studio tour guides | Depends on the tour; ideally someone with industry stories |
| Focus | One studio’s productions | Movies from every studio and era |
| Best for | Fans curious about production | Fans who want to connect films to real places |
Which One Should You Choose?
Choose a studio tour if you want to see soundstages and sets, you’re a fan of specific shows or films from one studio, or you’re fascinated by the production process.
Choose a movie location tour if you want to experience Hollywood the city, you love recognizing places from your favorite films, or you want stories that span decades of movies rather than one studio’s catalog.
Do both if you have the time. They don’t overlap: one shows you the factory, the other shows you the world the factory filmed.
Where Film Freak Tours Fits
The Film Freak Movie Locations Tour is a location tour with a twist: your host is Leo Quinones, who has spent more than 35 years in the entertainment business interviewing stars like Jon Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell. It’s a two-hour ride through Hollywood filming locations, with movie clips, trivia and the kind of behind-the-scenes stories you won’t hear on a studio lot.
Studio Tours vs. Location Tours FAQ
Is Universal Studios a studio tour? Universal Studios Hollywood is a theme park that includes a working-studio tram tour, the Studio Tour, as part of admission.
Which studio is actually in Hollywood? Paramount Pictures, on Melrose Avenue, is the last major studio lot located in Hollywood itself.
Can I do a studio tour and a location tour on the same day? Usually, yes. A two-hour location tour fits easily around a studio tour, especially if you plan for LA traffic between them.
Ready to See Where the Movies Were Made?
If you want the real streets and the real stories, book the Film Freak Movie Locations Tour and ride with Leo.
