where was the shining set

The main setting of The Shining (1980 film) is the fictional Overlook Hotel, which is located in the Colorado Rockies in the story, but the movie was actually filmed across several real-world locations.

Core setting vs. filming locations

• In Stephen King’s story and in the film’s dialogue, the Overlook Hotel is set in the remote mountains of Colorado, cut off by winter snow.

• For the movie, the exterior of the Overlook Hotel was shot at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon, which is now strongly associated with the film in popular culture.

• Most interior hotel scenes were built and filmed on soundstages at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, England, where Kubrick could redesign the hotel layout for maximum unease.

Other key locations used

• The iconic opening drive to the hotel, with the yellow VW Beetle winding through mountains, was filmed along Going-to-the-Sun Road and around Saint Mary Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana.

• The Torrance family’s Boulder apartment exterior was shot at an actual apartment complex in Boulder, Colorado, grounding the story in the state where the hotel is supposed to be.

Quick forum-style takeaway

If you’re asking “where was The Shining set,” story-wise it’s a haunted hotel in the Colorado Rockies, but if you’re planning a real-life trip, you’d be heading to Timberline Lodge in Oregon for the Overlook exterior vibe, Glacier National Park in Montana for the opening road shots, and Elstree Studios in England (not open to the public) for the interiors.

TL;DR: Story setting = a remote Colorado mountain hotel; main recognizable filming sites = Timberline Lodge (Oregon), Glacier National Park (Montana), and studio interiors at Elstree in England.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.