MYSTIC FALLS, VA (The Vampire Diaries: on location)

Hello! Welcome back to Ken we go now? I am so excited to share with you guys about my latest spontaneous trip to the filming location of The Vampire Diaries!!

I traveled to meet family in North Carolina, and on the way home it was exactly 29 minutes extra (still on the route) to stop by Covington, GA.

This is usually how my life goes.

I love being spontaneous, so when a coworker of mine suggested the idea I ran with it and thank the Lord I’m in a relationship with a man who is willing to put up with my antics! He had also never seen The Vampire Diaries, but he did get a good Mystic Grill burger out of it – more on that later. 🙂

I highly recommend if you’re as close as I am to take the day trip. There are tours offered to take you inside the Lockwood Mansion, but I forewent the $55 fee to take one (plus, we arrived at night time) and googled all the addresses I had time for. Here’s a list of the places I saw and some pictures for reference. The addresses can be located below the images, so you can take the trip, too! Comment below what you would want to see if you went! Happy travels!

The first thing you see when arriving in downtown Covington is the famous clock tower. Elena and Damon sat here, Elena jumped off of it in one episode as well, and we parked right in front of it to head to Mystic Grill! *fangirling*

The outside of the restaurant was used during filming, but all of the inside scenes were filmed on a soundstage, so it looks vastly different. Actually, the restaurant didn’t become a real restaurant until 2014. A cool fact our waitress told us was that one of the sequels had just finished filming in town (Legacies), and the owners of the restaurant can be seen in one of the episodes!

Here is a picture of the inside ground level, facing the front doors. The feel was so rustic and even though it wasn’t used in the actual filming, it still gave off the right TVD vibes any tourist could expect. We LOVED it, and decided to sit on the rooftop.

Up the staircase, you will find probably 20 or more cast members headshots and signatures on framed menus. It was really exciting to see my favorite cast members faces and autographs. Most of them (if not all) had been back to eat at the restaurant since it opened. Our waitress also told us that that week Alaric Saltzman ( played by actor Matthew Davis) stopped by for a bite (pun definitely intended) during the wrap-up of the new season of Legacies. A video of the whole wall can be found on my Instagram travel highlight @kenelizabethc!!

Here’s a cute little sitting area just up the stairs, as well.

Even the bathroom was cute, and not at all like the bathroom where Elena drank from Damon and became sired to him. *shrugs*

The rooftop overlooked the square and provided the perfect fall breeze. There were two levels to this, too and a bar nearby. Definitely could see this space being rented out for a special event or engagement/dinner party.

We had a really good view of the clock tower. 🙂 My only regret is that I was talking too much with our waitress that I didn’t get a picture of our food! I got the Mystic Salad, and he got The Clocktower burger. They make all of their ingredients fresh, if that helps!

Then we headed down the stairs – after stopping at Stefan’s “star” of course – to this awesome tourist attraction. Directly across from it is the Mystic Grill gift shop, but like I said we arrived at night, so all the shops were closed. In fact, twenty more minutes and the kitchen would have been closed before we had the chance to eat! But the staff was so nice and light hearted to serve us anyway!

If you head around the square and continue straight, you run right into the Lockwood Mansion. It was night-time, so this is the best look I got on my iPhone, and without creeping up to the gate at 9 something at night.

The last stop was just around the corner (literally) from the Lockwood’s. It was more of a drive-by because people live here! This is the Gilbert’s house if you don’t recognize it, and one of the last things you see after the whole series ends. The inside scenes were filmed on a soundstage, but the front porch scenes were filmed here, as well as the other outside scenes. Damon kissed Elena on the front porch and compelled her to forget it happened RIGHT THERE.

I hope you enjoyed Mystic Falls! I will be making a return trip to try the tour, but I’ve decided this means I should re-stream TVD. Let me know in the comments your number 1 place you want to see!

~xo