While the search for the next Bond drags on, there's a better way to kill time: visiting the places where 60-plus years of films were actually shot. The franchise has criss-crossed the globe since Dr No landed in Jamaica in 1962, and many of its most famous backdrops double as genuinely great holiday destinations.

Start in Mexico City, where Spectre opened with a sprawling Day of the Dead parade — so spectacular that the city launched a real one in November 2016 after the film came out. Beyond the movie tie-in, the capital packs in more than 150 museums, lucha libre wrestling and a straightforward day trip to the pyramids of Teotihuacán.

Istanbul is a three-time Bond location, appearing in From Russia With Love, The World Is Not Enough and Skyfall, whose motorbike chase tumbled across the rooftops. The Grand Bazaar, Basilica Cistern and Hagia Sophia all featured, and the city's hammams and Byzantine monuments make it easy to build a full trip around them.

In Italy, Matera provided the opening sequence of No Time To Die, with an Aston Martin tearing through the ancient sassi — cave dwellings carved into limestone that make it one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited settlements, and its 2019 European Capital of Culture status confirmed its shift onto the mainstream travel map.

Morocco's Tangier has twice hosted Bond, in The Living Daylights and Spectre, fitting for a city with a real-life reputation as a spy haven. These days it's more about cafe culture, Art Deco cinemas and beaches. Cairo appeared way back in The Spy Who Loved Me, with the Gayer Anderson Museum, Al Muizz Street and Ibn Tulun Mosque all on screen — and tours now marketed directly at fans.

Closer to home, the Scottish Highlands are arguably the franchise's most driving-friendly location: the A82 through Glencoe and Glen Etive, past the peaks of Buachaille Etive Mor and Beag, is the route Bond takes to Skyfall Lodge. Eilean Donan Castle stood in for MI6 in The World Is Not Enough.

For the full origin story, head to Jamaica. Ian Fleming wrote the novels at Goldeneye, now a luxury resort, and the island featured in Dr No, Live and Let Die and No Time To Die — for which a beach hut retirement home was built at Port Antonio.

The most immersive stop of all might be Switzerland's Schilthorn, the nearly 3,000-metre Bernese Alps peak that played Blofeld's lair in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Its revolving Piz Gloria restaurant leans fully into the role, serving fondue alongside a permanent cast walk of fame, reached by cable car.

Whether you're plotting a single road trip or a multi-continent Bond pilgrimage, these locations reward set-jetters with proper destinations in their own right — no martini order required.