Nicholas Sparks Filming Locations: The Notebook

The Notebook is set in North Carolina and was shot almost entirely in South Carolina. That single fact is why so many trips built around it go wrong: people drive to Wilmington or to the Outer Banks looking for the plantation house and the swan lake, and both of them are more than three hundred miles further south, within an hour's drive of Charleston.

This file lists the eleven locations that appear on screen, in the order the film uses them, with an address, what the camera used the place for, whether it still stands and the month it was last checked. Where a location is private, that is stated, not glossed. The wider Carolina coast, including the four other Nicholas Sparks adaptations, is covered in its own file.

The Notebook filming locations at a glance

Boone Hall Plantation, Mount Pleasant

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Cypress Gardens, Moncks Corner

Charleston: the campus, the street and the cinema

Edisto Island and the ruined house

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Driving the locations in one route

The efficient order is Charleston first, then Mount Pleasant, then Moncks Corner, then Edisto on a separate day. Charleston to Mount Pleasant is fifteen minutes over the Ravenel Bridge; Mount Pleasant to Moncks Corner is another forty. Edisto is ninety minutes south-west of the city on roads that do not reward hurrying.

If you are combining this with the rest of the Carolina coast, note that Wilmington and Southport are a four-hour drive north and belong to a different set of productions: see the Southport file for that half. The full American index is in the master list.

What has changed since the film

Three of the eleven locations have moved status since the production. The American Theater has been converted, the Edisto house has decayed further, and Cypress Gardens closed for two years after flood damage and reopened with a rebuilt boardwalk. Boone Hall and the Cistern Yard are unchanged in any way a visitor would notice.

That is the reason each entry here carries a month rather than a claim to be current. A file that says when it was checked can be judged; one that says it is up to date cannot.

Why South Carolina stood in for North Carolina

The production needed a low-country landscape with intact antebellum architecture, a blackwater swamp and a walkable historic town within an hour of each other. Charleston has all three inside a forty-mile radius; coastal North Carolina does not, and its equivalent locations are spread over two hundred miles.

Add a state film incentive and a working crew base, and the substitution follows. It is the same logic that puts an American high school in British Columbia; a setting is a story decision and a location is a production one, and they agree far less often than audiences assume.

Charleston as a base

Every location in this file except Edisto is within an hour of the Charleston peninsula, which makes the city the obvious base. It is also expensive in season and parking on the peninsula is metered, enforced and difficult.

Two practical alternatives: Mount Pleasant across the Ravenel Bridge, which is fifteen minutes from downtown and puts you next to Boone Hall; and Summerville inland, which is cheaper again and is twenty minutes from Cypress Gardens.

The wider low country

Season and timing

Spring, late March into May, is the low country at its best: azaleas at the plantations, temperatures in the low twenties, and the swamp water high. Summer is very hot and very humid, and it is hurricane season from August. Autumn is pleasant and the light is lower.

Cypress Gardens closes after heavy rain, sometimes for weeks, because the swamp floods over the boat channels. Calling before driving out is the single most useful piece of planning in this file.

What the film changed

Two things worth knowing before comparing what you see with what you remember. The Boone Hall house on screen is a 1936 rebuild, not an eighteenth-century house; the avenue of oaks in front of it is the genuinely old element. And the swans on the lake at Cypress Gardens were brought in for the shoot; the resident birds are herons and egrets, and the water is stained dark by tannin rather than graded that way in post.

Neither is a criticism of the film. Both are the kind of thing a location file exists to say before somebody drives four hours expecting otherwise.

Frequently asked questions

Where was The Notebook filmed?

Almost entirely in South Carolina, despite the story being set in North Carolina. The principal locations are Boone Hall Plantation at Mount Pleasant, Cypress Gardens at Moncks Corner, the College of Charleston, the town of Edisto Island and the streets of downtown Charleston. Only a small part of the production worked further north.

Can you visit the house from The Notebook?

The Windsor plantation house is Boone Hall at Mount Pleasant, which is open daily with an admission charge, and the avenue of oaks is the shot most visitors come for. The derelict house Noah restores was a private property dressed for the film and is not open; it is on private land and is not visible from a public road.

Is the lake with the swans real?

Yes. The rowing scene was shot on the blackwater lake at Cypress Gardens, Moncks Corner, and the garden hires flat-bottomed boats on the same water. The swans were brought in for the shoot and are not resident, so the birds you see will be different.

How long does it take to visit every Notebook location?

Two full days is realistic. Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Moncks Corner are within an hour of each other, but Edisto Island is another hour and a half south-west and the ferry-free coastal roads are slow. Boone Hall and Cypress Gardens each take half a day if you want the water and the avenue in good light.