If you didn’t get to take a fabulous European vacation this summer (because some of us have bills to pay), you can get the next best thing by watching The Map That Leads to You streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
This new romance movie, which began streaming today, stars Outer Banks‘s Madelyn Cline and Riverdale‘s KJ Apa as two young people who fall in love as they wander around Europe. Cline takes the lead as Heather Mulgrew, a recent college graduate on vacation with her friends before she’s set to start a boring banking job in New York City. Heather is a notorious, Type-A planner, but all of that changes when she meets a charming stranger, Jack (Apa), who encourages her to embrace her spontaneous side. Heather and Jack fall into a whirlwind romance as Jack attempts to see all the sites recorded in his great-grandfather’s travel journal.
Based on the novel of the same name by J.P. Monninger, The Map That Leads You movie is directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström, with a screenplay written by Les Bohema and Vera Herbert. The characters in this movie travel all over Europe, but what about the cast and crew? Read on to learn about The Map That Leads to You filming locations.
The Map That Leads to You movie was filmed on location all over Europe, but the majority was filmed in Spain, in Barcelona and the surrounding area in the summer of 2024. Interiors were filmed at the Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya studio in Terrassa, which is a smaller city just to the north of Barcelona. (Fun fact: That’s the same studio where they filmed Season 5 of The Crown.)
If you’ve ever visited Barcelona off the northeast coast of Spain, you’ll probably recognize some of the iconic landmarks where The Map That Leads to You filmed, like the Sagrada Familia, a breathtaking church that has been under construction for over 100 years, following the ambitious vision of deceased architect Antoni Gaudí.
In a 2024 interview with People, Cline said she was having a “hot, Brat summer” in Barcelona, eating lots of favorite local dishes like paella, Iberian ham, and cheese. “We’re saying yes to all the new experiences and manifesting and taking advantage of absolutely everything that comes our way,” Cline said. “That’s the vibe this summer.”
Other filming locations, according to the film’s IMDB page, include Porto, Portugal; Lisbon, Portugal; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Venice, Italy.
According to supporting lead Madison Thompson, who plays Heather’s friend Amy, even before the cast started filming, they were encouraged to explore Europe to get to know each other.
“I think during the first week of, not even like official filming yet, [we were told to] go travel Europe and basically just get video of yourself get to know each other,” Thompson said in an interview with Brit+Co. “So we went to Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris all within 3 days, and I think we went to a club in Amsterdam, and it was the best night ever.”
In other words, working on this movie sounds like an absolute blast. What other job would pay for you to party in Europe?