You’ve seen the carpet. You’ve seen the twin girls in the hallway and the blood pouring out of the elevator. If you’re a horror fan, you’ve probably wondered where is the hotel from The Shining movie and if you can actually go there to experience the dread for yourself.
The answer is complicated.
It’s not just one place. Stanley Kubrick, the director who was famously obsessive about every single frame of his films, didn't just pick a resort and start filming. Instead, the "Overlook Hotel" is a Frankenstein’s monster of architecture. It’s a mix of a real mountain lodge in Oregon, a historic hotel in Colorado, and massive soundstages in England.
If you go looking for the Overlook, you’re going to find bits and pieces of it scattered across the globe.
The Timberline Lodge: The face of the Overlook
When you see those sweeping aerial shots at the beginning of the film—the ones where the Torrance family’s yellow Volkswagen Beetle looks like a tiny speck against the massive mountain landscape—you’re looking at the Timberline Lodge.
It’s sitting right on the side of Mount Hood in Oregon.
Kubrick used the exterior of the Timberline for all the wide shots of the hotel. It’s a gorgeous, rugged piece of "Parkitecture" built during the Great Depression. Honestly, it looks exactly like the kind of place where you’d lose your mind during a blizzard.
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But here’s the thing: once you step through the front doors of the Timberline, the illusion breaks. The interior of the Timberline Lodge looks nothing like the inside of the hotel in the movie. The lobby, the grand staircase, and the Colorado Lounge where Jack types his "all work and no play" manifesto? None of that is in Oregon.
There is one very famous bit of trivia regarding the Timberline. In Stephen King’s original novel, the scary room is Room 217. However, the management at the Timberline Lodge supposedly got nervous. They thought that if people saw a "cursed" room in a movie, they wouldn’t want to stay in it. They asked Kubrick to change the number to a room that didn't exist at the lodge. That’s how we got Room 237.
Funny enough, the plan backfired completely. Room 217 at the Timberline is now the most requested room in the entire building. People want the spooks.
The Stanley Hotel: Where the nightmare started
You can't talk about where is the hotel from The Shining movie without talking about the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. This is where things get confusing for casual fans.
The Stanley is the actual inspiration for the story. Stephen King and his wife Tabitha stayed there in 1974. They were the only guests in the entire hotel because it was about to close for the winter. King had a nightmare that night about his young son being chased through the corridors by a fire hose. He woke up, lit a cigarette, and by the time he finished it, he had the bones of the novel in his head.
So, is it in the movie? No.
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Kubrick didn't film a single frame at the Stanley Hotel. He thought it didn't look "menacing" enough. The Stanley is a bright, white, Georgian-style building that looks more like a wedding venue than a haunted house.
However, if you watched the 1997 television miniseries version of The Shining—the one Stephen King actually liked because it stayed true to his book—that was filmed at the Stanley. If you visit today, they lean into the horror vibes hard. They have a hedge maze (which wasn't in the original landscape), they run ghost tours, and they play the Kubrick movie on a loop on the guest room TVs. It's a weird meta-experience where the inspiration for the book is now pretending to be the hotel from a movie it wasn't even in.
The Ahwahnee: The secret blueprint
If the Timberline is the "face" and the Stanley is the "soul," then The Ahwahnee in Yosemite National Park is the "skeleton."
Kubrick’s set designers didn't just make up the interior of the Overlook. They went to The Ahwahnee and took meticulous notes. If you walk into the Great Lounge of The Ahwahnee today, your brain will scream that you’ve been there before.
The massive floor-to-ceiling windows, the dark wood beams, and the general layout of the lobby were almost perfectly recreated on a soundstage in London. Even the red elevator doors were inspired by the ones found in this California lodge. It’s uncanny. You’re standing in a beautiful, high-end hotel in Yosemite, but you’re waiting for a tricycle to come around the corner.
Why you can’t visit the "Real" Overlook
The most disappointing part for many fans is realizing that the bulk of the movie was filmed at EMI Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, England.
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The Colorado Lounge, the Gold Room, the boiler room, and the famous hedge maze were all sets. They were built on a massive scale. The "exterior" of the hotel used for the snowy climax was actually a giant facade built on the studio backlot, covered in tons of salt and crushed glass to simulate snow.
In 1979, during production, a massive fire broke out at Elstree Studios. It destroyed several of the sets, including the one for the Overlook’s interiors. There’s a famous photo of Stanley Kubrick laughing in front of the charred remains of the set. He was probably just relieved they had finished most of the filming, but it adds another layer of "cursed" history to the project.
Mapping the Overlook: A travel itinerary
If you actually want to see where is the hotel from The Shining movie, you need to plan a multi-state road trip. Most people can't do it all in one go, but if you're dedicated, here is how you see the pieces.
- The Timberline Lodge (Oregon): Go here for the "exterior" vibes. Stand in the parking lot and look up at the mountain. It feels isolated and massive.
- The Stanley Hotel (Colorado): Go here for the "King" history. This is the birthplace of the story. It feels more like a haunted museum than a movie set.
- The Ahwahnee (California): Go here to see the "look." This is the closest you will get to standing inside the actual rooms you saw on screen.
Spotting the inconsistencies
When you really dig into the architecture of the film, you start to notice that the Overlook is physically impossible. This wasn't a mistake. Kubrick and his production designer, Roy Walker, purposely built sets that didn't make sense.
There are doors that lead to nowhere. There are windows in rooms that should be in the middle of the building. In the office where Jack meets the manager, Mr. Ullman, there is a window behind the desk showing bright daylight, even though the hallway we just walked through proves that office should be windowless.
This "impossible" architecture is part of why the movie is so unsettling. Your brain is trying to map the space, but it can't. The Overlook is a labyrinth that refuses to be solved.
Actionable steps for your "Shining" pilgrimage
If you’re serious about visiting these locations, don't just show up and expect a horror theme park. These are functioning, high-end resorts.
- Book Room 217 at the Stanley: You have to book months (sometimes a year) in advance. It’s the "Stephen King Suite."
- Visit the Timberline in Winter: If you want the true Jack Torrance experience, go when the snow is ten feet high. The lodge is a premier ski destination, so it’ll be busy, but the atmosphere is unmatched.
- Check the Ahwahnee’s Schedule: Since it’s in Yosemite, getting a reservation is tough. You might just want to go for lunch in the Great Lounge to soak in the architecture.
- Look for the carpet: You can buy officially licensed rugs and socks with the "Hicks Lattice" pattern (the orange and brown hexagons) at almost all of these gift shops. It’s the universal signal for The Shining fans.
The Overlook isn't a single building you can enter. It's a feeling created by splicing together pieces of American architecture and British studio craft. You can visit the parts, but the whole exists only on film. If you go to the Timberline, you’ll see the mountain. If you go to the Stanley, you’ll see the history. But if you want the Overlook, you’ll have to keep your eyes on the screen.