Where Was 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Filmed? All About the Real Locations Behind Cousins Beach
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Though Cousins Beach is fictional, you can visit the filming locations for The Summer I Turned Pretty in real life
Amazon Prime Video
If The Summer I Turned Pretty gives you the travel bug just as much as it does butterflies in your stomach, you'll be happy to hear you can visit many of the locations in real life.
The Amazon Prime Video series, based on Jenny Han's novels of the same name, follows a young girl named Belly who spends the summer with her family friends every year at Cousins Beach.
Though Cousins Beach is fictional, the series was filmed in the equally scenic Wilmington, North Carolina, and its surrounding beaches, Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Wrightsville Beach.
Often referred to as the "Hollywood East" or "Wilmywood," Wilmington has been the filming location for countless shows and movies over the years, including teen dramas such as Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill and blockbuster hits like Iron Man 3, the fifth Scream and several Nicholas Sparks adaptations.
PEOPLE visited the coast with Visit NC, where we learned all the hidden secrets and details about the filming locations behind the hit Amazon Prime Video series. We even got the scoop on some of the filming locations for the upcoming second season from location manager Lindsay Fort.
Ahead of the season 2 premiere in July, here are several The Summer I Turned Pretty filming locations you can visit in real life.
Related: <strong>'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Season 2: Everything to Know</strong>
Russell's Gas & Groceries
In the first episode, Belly visits a nearby gas station as the family grabs snacks and drinks before arriving at the Fisher family home.
The gas station is located in Wilmington. It was also featured in the Netflix film, Along for the Ride, based on Sarah Dessen's novel of the same name.
Fun fact: both Dessen and Han went to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill!
Cousins Beach
In the book, Cousins Beach was written to be in the Cape Cod area, but for the show, the beach was filmed all around Wilmington and its surrounding beaches, including Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Wrightsville Beach.
Interestingly enough though, the scene where the "Entering Cousins Beach" sign (pictured above) is shown is not in Wilmington, but instead in the nearby town of Southport. More specifically, it's near the Wilmington Cape Fear Pilots Association's old lookout tower. Southport was used for countless films and shows, including Safe Haven, Under the Dome and I Know What You Did Last Summer.
For the filming of the beach and bonfire scenes, the show shot at various locations at Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Fort Fisher. Most of the night beach shots were at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, while the path Belly and Jeremiah take from the summer house to the beach in season 1 (pictured above) was filmed at Wrightsville Beach. "That's the one with the seashells hanging in it," Fort noted. "It has that really pretty romantic vibe that they run down that path."
In episode 3 of season 1, Belly and Taylor take a walk along the beach near the pier. This particular scene was filmed near the Crystal Pier at the south end of Wrightsville Beach. Fort told PEOPLE that the iconic scene where Belly and Conrad kiss in the season 1 finale was also filmed at Wrightsville Beach.
In episode 5 from season 1, Belly and Cam are seen cycling on the sidewalk right along the beach. This is near the Fort Fisher State Historic Site. The exact scene is right near the 1921 Fort Fisher Monument, outside of the parking lot. The location also doubled as Coronado Beach for Netflix's Florida Man.
Season 2 was filmed at many of the same beaches as season 1, including the iconic snow scene with Belly and Conrad featured in the trailer. That scene in particular was filmed at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area as Wrightsville Beach had specific restrictions about the fake snow.
"They have a lot of rules there as far as what you can put on the beach so we had to move that to Fort Fisher to be able to make it snow," Fort revealed. "Of course, that was filmed in the middle of summer, so we had to make it look dead. Because it's snowing so we had to make it wintertime."
The Fisher family's beach house
The gorgeous beach house belonging to the Fisher family is located at Porters Neck Plantation, a private, gated golf course community in Wilmington. The home was the filming location for many exterior shots on the show, including when Belly arrives at the house and when the family hosts a backyard party for the Fourth of July. However, many of the interior shots, including that enviable kitchen, were filmed on sound stages at Screen Gems Studio in Wilmington.
The real home boasts five bedrooms and six bathrooms, an infinity swimming pool, a private dock, a pier and a 33-foot boat slip. As the home is a private residence, fans cannot visit it.
When selecting the iconic Fisher home, Fort told PEOPLE they had several stipulations, including making sure it had a pool, was on the water and adhered to "the romantic Cape Cod vibe."
"It had to have that cedar shake on it because [Jenny Han] wanted that Cape Cod Northeast look," Fort explained. Additionally, Fort said they had to remove several palm trees from the summer house and add a "bunch of hydrangeas" as they are Laurel's favorite flower.
The country club
The country club on the show, where Belly's other crush, Jeremiah, and her brother, Steven, work (and Belly attends many events ahead of the debutante ball), filmed many of its exterior shots at Cape Fear Country Club.
Though some interior shots were filmed there as well, the actual debutante ball was filmed inside St. Mary Catholic School located in Wilmington.
Founded in 1896, Cape Fear Country Club is the oldest private club in North Carolina and features an 18-hole golf course. The country club was also used in the TNT series Good Behavior and Fox's Our Kind of People. Since the country club is members only, they don't encourage visitors, however, you can catch a quick glimpse of it as you drive by.
Fun fact: the Cape Fear Country Club is right next door to the filming location for Dan Scott's house on One Tree Hill.
Whale of a Tale Bookshop
In episode 2 of season 1, Laurel has a book party at Whale of a Tale Bookshop. Many of the exterior shots took place at Papercut Books, located in downtown Wilmington.
The small independent bookstore specializes in "new and lightly used books as well as collectible vintage books," per their website. Yes, you can also buy a copy of The Summer I Turned Pretty there.
The boutique
In the first season's second episode, the boutique where Belly goes dress shopping with her mother, Laurel, and Susannah, actually used two different locations.
The exterior shots were filmed at Blush Haus of Beauté, known to locals as Pipton. It is located at Lumina Station, a shopping mall in Wilmington. The mall includes numerous shops and restaurants, including Brasserie Du Soleil, which was featured in the Nicholas Sparks film The Choice.
Local dress shop Camille's of Wilmington, which sells everything from wedding gowns to formal dresses, served as the setting for the interior shots.
Related: <strong>11 Famous TV Show Locations You Can Visit in Real Life</strong>
The marina
In episode 3 of season 1, Belly's crush, Conrad, teaches author Cleveland Castillo a thing or two about sailing for his next novel. These scenes were filmed at the Cape Fear Marina near the Hilton Drawbridge in Wilmington. However, as it's a gated marina, it is limited to residential and recreational boat use and not easily accessible to visitors.
The bus station
In episode 3 of season 1, Belly and Jeremiah head to the bus station to pick up her best friend Taylor. The scene was filmed at Padgett Station in Wilmington, which is easily accessible to visit and snap a quick photo.
The Fat Pelican
In episode 5 of season 1, Laurel and Susannah decide to stop at a local bar called The Fat Pelican. While the series makes it seem like the bar is located on the beach, the real Fat Pelican is located just outside the boardwalk in Carolina Beach.
The bar, which was voted the No. 1 dive bar in North Carolina and made the top 25 list of dive bars in the U.S., per their website, was also the location for Kygo's "Hot Stuff" music video, a remix of Donna Summer's song of the same name. Interestingly enough, the music video featured two actors from another NC-set series, Outer Banks' Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes.
The volleyball court
In episode 6 of season 1, Belly and the rest of the debutantes host a volleyball tournament to raise money for charity. The volleyball court was filmed at Capt'n Bill's Backyard Grill & Volleyball Facility in Wilmington, which features 10 different courts and offers leagues for all levels.
Fort noted that they chose the facility because the actual beach would have been too hard to control with the wind. "Mother Nature is not always on our side, so Capt'n Bill's was just the perfect spot to make it look like we were on the beach," she said. "So you'll notice a bunch of banners hanging up in the background. That's just to cover the movie theater just so we can make it look like it was on the beach."
Belly's prom location
Amazon
Belly and Conrad's prom scene in season 2 filmed at Porters Neck Country Club in Wilmington.
The boardwalk
Amazon Prime Video
In season 2, Belly, Conrad Jeremiah and the gang head to the boardwalk as they play a number of games in a friendly competition. For this episode, the show actually used two different locations: the Carolina Beach Boardwalk for the exterior shots and Jungle Rapids Family Fun Park for many of the interior shots as well as the go-kart scene featured in the trailer.
Fort told PEOPLE this was one of the most difficult scenes to film in season 2 as they dealt with unruly weather. "The weather was not on our side. It was very difficult," Fort explained.
She added that they also had to deal with crowd control as a lot of fans flocked to the set hoping to get a glimpse of filming. "It was so crazy," she said. "We did have to implement having set security on season 2 because everybody is super excited to be a part of it. We didn't want it leaked either because it's such an iconic scene that we were excited for everybody to see."
Brown University
Erika Doss/Prime Video
Season 2 includes several scenes at Brown University, but they were actually filmed locally at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. "It just had that feel that Jenny was looking for," Fort told PEOPLE.
Fort added that they actually considered filming a scene at Han's alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but "with COVID and timing, it just didn't work out."
Hell's Kitchen
Amazon Prime Video
Hell's Kitchen confirmed to PEOPLE that the bar was used as a filming location for season 2 of the show. Located in downtown Wilmington, Hell's Kitchen has a long history with N.C. filming as it was used as the bar where Joey and Eddie worked in season 6 of Dawson's Creek.
"Hell's Kitchen has a strong connection to the film industry," the bar's owner Eric Laut tells PEOPLE. "Originally a film stage for Dawson's Creek, Hell's Kitchen has hosted many film sets, from One Tree Hill to Florida Man, Electric Love and more recently The Summer I Turned Pretty."
Laut added, "In The Summer I Turned Pretty, the artists and production staff transformed the stage at Hell's Kitchen into a lounge. It was amazing to see the transformation. The location crew, production staff and the artists were so talented and it was such a great experience to be on set and watch the magic of the film industry unfold."
Rooster & The Crow
Rooster & The Crow was another filming location for season 2, co-owner Zach Harmon confirmed to PEOPLE. Located in Wilmington, the restaurant was created by two best friends, Harmon and Allen Carpenter, and offers southern food and unique drinks.
"We get to see filming all throughout Wilmington, but it was even more special to have our place be a part of this show and its amazing cast and crew," Harmon tells PEOPLE. "We hope the film industry stays strong here because we'll gladly be a part of this amazing experience again."
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