Planes, Trains and Automobiles Locations

Locations Manager(s): Robbie Goldstein, Billy Higgins

Planes, Trains and Automobiles Filming Locations:

Road trip movie that it is, Planes Trains & Automobiles was filmed across the country from New York to California.

The airport scene in the beginning of the movie was shot in Lambert Airport in St.Louis. [Thanks to MK]

The motel where they stay in Illinois is in Braidwood, IL off of I-55 about an hour and a half south of Chicago. [Thanks to alschra]

The Braidwood Inn was the real name of the motel at the time where they stayed but is now called the Sun Motel located at 140 S. Hickory St in Braidwood, Illinois. [Thanks to "Mountain Mike" Johansen]

The filming of the motel scene where John Candy backs the car into the motel room is filmed on Rte 41 & Milwaukee Ave in Gurnee IL, about 40 mins outside Chicago, the name of the motel is "El Rancho". [Thanks to Ruthanne]

Woodstock Illinois was used as the location for the scene with the Town Square. It is the same location as used for Groundhog Day. I know this because my father was a window washer in Woodstock at the time and got to meet some of the cast for both movies. [Thanks to Marcy Schmitke]

The scene where John Candy and Steve Martin are driving on the freeway and accuse another motorist of "drinking", then realize THEY are going the wrong way was filmed on California Highway 14, west of the Antelope Valley near a town called Aqua Dulce. The artificial snow stayed on the side of the freeway for weeks after that scene was shot. [Thanks to Terri]

Many of the cast and crew, along with multiple equipment trailers and camera buses, stayed at the Sheraton East Hotel in Cheektowaga, New York (just outside Buffalo) for over a month while filming parts of the movie. They came to Buffalo because they needed some snowy roads, etc for their filming. However, there was an early melt that year and they were forced to truck snow from local malls (and a K-Mart parking lot across the street from the hotel) to their filming scene on route 219 just south of Buffalo. This is where some of the snowy freeway scenes were filmed. [Thanks to Kevin O]

The scene of the town square and courthouse after the car is confiscated looks to be filmed in Woodstock Il where Groundhog Day was also filmed.

There is also a quick scene with a mound in the background (the scene is near the Braidwood Inn scene) and it looks to us like it is located on route 55 in Illinois, a few miles north of the motel on the west side of rt 55. [Thanks to Bridget] An anonymous contributor kindly updated to say: Sure looks like that scene with the mound
in the background outside the Braidwood Motel is shot near Oconomowoc, WI across I-94 from what was Olympia Ski Hill Resort. [Thanks to Anonymous]

The scene where they were pulled over by the police. They were pulled over by a Wisconsin state trooper. I would think some of the movie was shot in Wisconsin? [Thanks to Dennis Blacharczyk]

In the movie, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," scenes in the town square with the Amish buggy and the train depot were filmed in South Dayton, NY, which is located about 50 miles south of Buffalo. [Thanks to Patricia Morrow]

The night scene where they drove the wrong way was actually filmed on highway 198 at Lemoore Ca., outside of the Naval Air Station Lemoore. We lived on the base at that time and drove through the patch they had put fake snow down on. We watched them filming it from the gate. The day driving scene was not filmed there, just the night. [Thanks to Kathy W]

In the scene featuring the crazy independent cab, behind it you can see a white building that is the stop light intersection of West Main Street (Route 84) and River Street (State Route 528) in the village section of Madison, Ohio. [Thanks to garyOH43]

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