Hotel Palácio Estoril, Portugal

Hotel Palácio Estoril, Portugal is not only Bond's hotel in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but Ian Fleming himself stayed here during the Second World War and it might have given him inspiration for his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.

In the movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), James Bond (played by George Lazenby) stays at the Hotel Palácio Estoril.

007 arrives with his olive green Aston Martin DBS and parks next to Contessa Teresa's red Mercury Cougar XR7. We see the porter take Bond's Gucci luggage out of the boot of the car.

Bond enters the lobby of this luxury hotel and says to the owner: "Everything seems up to the Palácio's usual high standards."

Entering his very luxurious suite ("The best", according to the hotel manager), Bond says: "This'll do. This'll do me nicely". The scene in the lobby was filmed at the hotel, but the actual suite was filmed in Pinewood Studios.

In the movie it is said that Bond stays at room 516 and Contessa Teresa de Vincenzo (Diana Rigg) stays in room 423.

The front of the hotel looks quite different today. The swimming pool, which can be seen when Bond enters the hotel for the first time and later at night with the reflection of the Casino sign, is still in the same location.

Bond can be spotted taking his golf clubs to the hotel. He probably played at the Estoril Golf Course, less than 5 minutes drive (around 2 km) from the hotel.

The famous Casino of Estoril, one of the largest casino's in Europe, is another nearby location visited by Bond.

Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, stayed at the hotel himself during a Second World War mission in May, 1941. Fleming was shadowing another spy, Dusko Popov, sometimes referred to as 'the real James Bond'. It is said that Fleming got inspiration for James Bond and his first novel Casino Royale from Popov, the hotel and the adjacent casino. In 2016, a book "Into the Lion's Mouth" was published about Popov and Fleming, written by Larry Loftis.