“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
Guess where I am in this picture!
Yes, in Hobbiton, yes, it's fake, it's not even quite the version of the LotR movies because after the filming of those movies, this area of a sheep farm was returned to it's natural state, but still, tourists came, wanting to see the area and when Hobbiton was rebuilt for the Hobbit movies, it was made to last so there'd be something to actually look at (and make money with). Yes, there are lots of tourists being led on an exactly timed guided tour of the grounds, yes, it is ridiculously expensive, no, one can not actually look inside Bag End, rumor has it that Peter Jackson had it deconstructed and plan to retire in it wherever it may have been re-constructed, but despite all this, I had a truly magical day at Hobbiton and it all felt very, very real. Part of that is probably due to Peter Jackson being quite obssessive about the smallest detail, so he had trees planted and Hobbit holes built that are just seen for a tenth of a second in the movies but had to be perfect anyway and these details are what makes the place so magical to me.
There are actually different sizes of Hobbit holes, so was to make the actors standing in front of them seem large like humans or small like Hobbits and dwarves.
Supposedly, these big trees are partially what made this land the first choice for the movie set.
