Guests on the steps of the Lotte New York Palace

The Lotte New York Palace stands in for the hotel where Serena and Lily van der Woodsen live in Gossip Girl. The gated courtyard in front of it, off Madison Avenue at 50th Street, is the part fans recognise: cars pull in through the arches and the steps behind them lead up to the entrance.

The building behind the courtyard is the Villard Houses, a set of 1880s brownstone mansions the hotel was built around, which is why the frontage looks unlike anything else on the block. St Patrick's Cathedral is directly across the street, so both appear on the same stop.

The courtyard is open to the public and free to walk into, and photographs from the steps are allowed. We stop here on the Midtown part of our tours.