Turtle Bay Resort, which spans 1,300 acres and 5 miles of coastline, has become a favorite of Hollywood movies and TV shows.
For more than a century, Hawaii has been the chosen location for countless Hollywood movies and TV shows. It’s where dinosaurs roamed in “Jurassic Park,” wealthy guests checked in to “The White Lotus,” and Indiana Jones ran through the jungle in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

While filming takes place across the Islands, there’s one resort that’s racking up a considerable number of productions on IMDb.

On the north shore of Oahu, Turtle Bay Resort has appeared in more than 150 movies and TV shows — sometimes in a mutated way that only Hollywood knows how to do. The hotel, which opened in 1972, was first featured in 1981 in the second season of the original “Magnum PI.” The episode was called “From Moscow to Maui” and it was shot by the sunset pool bar. 

Since then, it has appeared in many blockbuster films and TV series, including “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Lost,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
The 2008 comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" was filmed at Turtle Bay Resort, and has developed a cult following.
“It’s crazy how many people come here just for ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall,’” Joey Woofter, Turtle Bay Resort’s general manager, told SFGATE. “It has a cult following and everyone talks about coming to stay in that specific bungalow.”

The private ocean club bungalow is where most of the guest room scenes were filmed, and there are 42 of them on the property.

“Jason Segel, the writer, producer and star of it, recently came back to the resort and was just the nicest guy and talked to everyone about it and reminisced about shooting the movie,” Woofter said.
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Fans of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" often request the ocean club bungalow at Turtle Bay Resort.
While some films take place inside the hotel, others take advantage of the resort’s 1,300 acres and 5 miles of untouched coastline, where some of its beaches are often found empty all day. Apparently, the resort’s bays are the favorite among location scouters. 

For about two to three weeks in 2012, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” filmed some of its most memorable scenes at Kawela Bay, which was the setting for the clock arena. “When you look at it, it’s actually Kawela Bay and they just made it a full circle,” said Woofter. 

The kissing scene with Katniss and Peeta, as well as the lightning tree, were filmed at Kawela Bay, too. Other parts were captured at a beach right in front of the hotel, where guests were able to watch from their hotel balconies.
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Kawela Bay had a starring role in "Hunger Games: Catching Fire."
“Kawela Bay is by far the most popular place that we’ve probably shot the most movies and shows,” said Woofter. “We also have a giant banyan tree that has been in several motion pictures and TV shows. It’s really spectacular.”

Between the hotel and Kawela Bay, the giant banyan tree was used as the setting for the mermaid pool scene in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and in “Lost” for the Others’ camp.

“It’s where Locke, one of the characters, would paddle out from the beach to the Others’ island. It was all right there in Kawela Bay,” said Woofter. There’s also an old, rusted school bus, nicknamed by locals as the “Magic School Bus,” in the middle of a mountain bike trail that he believes was put there for the filming of “Lost.”
The large banyan tree at Turtle Bay Resort was used as the backdrop to the Others' camp in "Lost."
The coastal areas of Turtle Bay Resort are open to the public so visitors and guests are welcome to look for the film sites. The resort also has a horseback riding tour that takes guests around various film locations. There’s also an outrigger canoe tour of Kawela Bay.

Woofter said they don’t actively seek out movies and TV shows to film on property, but word-of-mouth (and a tight-knit Hawaii film community) has made the resort a top spot.

In fact, just last week, scouts for two different Disney movies stopped by the resort, he said.

“They all kind of know what Turtle Bay has to offer,” Woofter said. “Filmmakers can get creative and really curate scenes either from Hawaii, to jungles, to pretty much anywhere, all on our property.”
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