National Lampoon’s Vacation is a 1983 American road comedy directed by Harold Ramis and written by John Hughes. Chevy Chase stars as Clark Griswold, a well-meaning but increasingly unhinged family man who insists on driving his wife Ellen and their children Rusty and Audrey from the Chicago suburbs to the California amusement park Walley World. What begins as an attempt to create the perfect family holiday becomes a catalogue of disasters involving car trouble, wrong turns, awkward relatives, roadside humiliation and Clark’s gradual collapse under the weight of his own expectations. The film became one of the defining American comedies of the 1980s and introduced the Griswold family as one of the great dysfunctional screen families.
The film was shot across several states, which gives the road trip its broad, chaotic American scale. Production began in Boone, Colorado, and moved through locations in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Missouri and California. The journey uses places such as Monument Valley, Flagstaff, Sedona and the Grand Canyon to create the sense of a long and punishing cross-country drive, while St. Louis and southern Colorado add to the feeling that the Griswolds are constantly passing through very different versions of America. Walley World itself was created in California, with Santa Anita Park in Arcadia used for the exterior and parking-lot approach, while Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia supplied the amusement-park interiors and rides. By stitching together deserts, highways, small towns, motels, landmarks and theme-park spaces, the film turns the American family holiday into an endurance test where every stop becomes another comic disaster.
El Tovar Hotel
El Tovar Hotel is best known from National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), where the Griswold family stops at the Grand Canyon during their trip to Walley World.
Hotel Saddleback
Hotel Saddleback is best known from National Lampoon’s Vacation, where is was used for the hotel pool scene with Clark Griswold and the woman in the Ferrari.
Strater Hotel
Strater Hotel is most relevant as a filming location from National Lampoon’s Vacation. The hotel is also connected to Nurse Betty, which filmed in Durango.
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