Fifth Avenue · Sunday 2 October 1960 · just after dawn
Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly · 1961
A woman in a black dress eats a Danish outside a shop that has not opened yet. The shop is real, the avenue is real, and so was the deadline. Come and have breakfast.
The first shot of the film
Filming began here just after dawn on Sunday 2 October 1960, with Audrey Hepburn at the window, Danish and coffee in hand. The shot had to be finished by 7.30am, when Nikita Khrushchev was due on Fifth Avenue. Finish breakfast before he gets here.
Danish · 6 of 6 left
Coffee · 4 of 4 left
The camera is rolling. Khrushchev is due at 7.30.
The deadline is real; the steps on this page are ours.
727 Fifth Avenue
Press a floor. The lit buttons are the ones in our story.
Floor 1
The building first opened in 1940. After its first full renovation it reopened in April 2023 as The Landmark: ten floors, with museum and exhibition spaces on the eighth and ninth. Inside, Holly shows Paul the store; the Tiffany Diamond can be glimpsed in a display case.
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
Paul takes Holly to the library, shows her the card catalogue and signs the library’s copy of his book, Nine Lives, to a librarian’s horror. The library’s exterior is one of the film’s Manhattan locations. Here is our own catalogue: one card for every place in this World. Pull a drawer.
The drawers are shut.
The building opened in 1911, and admission is free.
Free to enter. Free one-hour building tours: tickets go on sale online at 10am each Sunday for the week after; meet at the Visitor Center information desk.
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street · Free
A free one-hour building tour of the library where Paul signs his book. Tickets go on sale at 10am each Sunday for the week after.
Get ticketsA day doing things they’ve never done
1.1 km north of Tiffany’s as the crow flies
The Mall in Central Park was one of the film’s locations. The Naumburg Bandshell, at the north end of the Mall, appears in the film. The bandshell was built in 1923, paid for by Elkan Naumburg, and is the only Neoclassical building in the park. The Mall is a straight promenade lined with American elms, laid out by Olmsted and Vaux.
Open with the park. There are no restrooms at the bandshell, and some Concert Ground benches and paths are closed for construction.
From 59th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues · Daily · adults $45
A two-hour walk through Central Park film locations, including the Mall seen in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
See the tourEast 71st Street
A front door on East 71st Street. Somebody lives here.
The Seagram Building is among the film’s New York locations. Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson designed it, with Kahn & Jacobs. It went up in 1956–58 behind a granite and marble plaza on Park Avenue. Its exterior and interior are designated landmarks.
An office tower; the plaza on Park Avenue is open to walk across and sit in.
3.8 km downtown from Tiffany’s
The New York Women’s House of Detention was one of the film’s Manhattan locations. The 11-storey prison replaced an older jail in 1931; community campaigning in the 1960s brought it down. A community garden took its place, and its first flowers bloomed in spring 1975.
Free. Open 1 April to 30 October, Tuesday to Sunday 10am–6pm; closed Mondays.
Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles · 3,943 km from Fifth Avenue
After eight days in New York the cast and crew went back to Los Angeles to film on the Paramount lot. Production wrapped on 3 February 1961. Holly’s couch on the set was a bathtub sawn in half.
0 of 9 cats found
Knock on a window. Cat is in one of them.
A working studio, visitable by guided tour only. The Studio Tour runs daily, two hours, $71.
Melrose Avenue, Hollywood · Daily · $71
Two hours round the lot where the film’s interiors were shot: the New York backlot, the Bronson Gate and the soundstages.
See the tour
Mancini and Mercer
After a preview, one of the producers wanted the song gone.
Susie Chisholm’s statue of Mercer returned to Ellis Square in October 2023 after repairs for vandalism.
A public square in Savannah’s Historic District, open at all hours.
In order of appearance
Audrey HepburnHolly GolightlyGeorge PeppardPaul Varjak
George Peppardat Schiphol, 1964
Audrey Hepburn1961
With Patricia Neal and Buddy Ebsen. Directed by Blake Edwards. Music by Henry Mancini.
From the novella by
Truman Capote rented the basement apartment here for ten years in the 1950s and 1960s, and wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s here. The house dates from 1839. It sold for $12 million in 2012, then the biggest house sale in Brooklyn’s history.
Capote later called the film “the most miscast film I’ve ever seen”.
A private home. It is not open, and it is not on our map.
Blake Edwards directed the film, from Truman Capote’s 1958 novella; Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal and Buddy Ebsen star, and Henry Mancini won the Academy Award for the music.
Capote named his heroine Holiday Golightly, shortened to Holly.
George Peppard plays the writer Paul Varjak.
8 places you can visit. Holly’s brownstone and Capote’s house on Willow Street are private homes, named here and not mapped. The Paramount lot is a working studio, open by tour only.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working store, free to walk in. In 2023 it opened Monday to Saturday 10am–8pm and Sunday 11am–7pm; check before you go.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Free to enter. Free one-hour building tours: tickets go on sale online at 10am each Sunday for the week after; meet at the Visitor Center information desk.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An office tower; the plaza on Park Avenue is open to walk across and sit in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working theatre. Box office and tour desk on Sixth Avenue at 50th Street; no tours were listed for October 2026, so check the tour page.
727 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street
Filming began here just after dawn on Sunday 2 October 1960, with Audrey Hepburn at the window, Danish and coffee in hand.
A working store, free to walk in. In 2023 it opened Monday to Saturday 10am–8pm and Sunday 11am–7pm; check before you go.
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
The library’s exterior is one of the film’s Manhattan locations.
Free to enter. Free one-hour building tours: tickets go on sale online at 10am each Sunday for the week after; meet at the Visitor Center information desk.
375 Park Avenue at 52nd Street
The Seagram Building is among the film’s New York locations.
An office tower; the plaza on Park Avenue is open to walk across and sit in.
1260 Sixth Avenue at 50th Street
The film’s world premiere was here on 5 October 1961.
A working theatre. Box office and tour desk on Sixth Avenue at 50th Street; no tours were listed for October 2026, so check the tour page.
Stay
Two hotels up the avenue from Tiffany’s. Neither is in the film; both put the window a short walk away at first light.
768 Fifth Avenue
Not a filming location: the hotel up Fifth Avenue from Tiffany’s, on Central Park South, open since 1 October 1907. Tea in the Palm Court.
Check rooms2 East 61st Street
Not a filming location: a hotel on Fifth Avenue at 61st Street, open since 1930, between Tiffany’s and the Upper East Side.
Check roomsGo there
The café upstairs at Tiffany’s, a free library tour, Central Park on foot, the Paramount lot and Radio City.
727 Fifth Avenue, 6th floor · Book on Resy
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, inside the store: the café on the sixth floor of The Landmark. Tables go on Resy 30 days ahead; some are kept for walk-ins in the morning.
How to bookFifth Avenue at 42nd Street · Free
A free one-hour building tour of the library where Paul signs his book. Tickets go on sale at 10am each Sunday for the week after.
Get ticketsFrom 59th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues · Daily · adults $45
A two-hour walk through Central Park film locations, including the Mall seen in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
See the tourMelrose Avenue, Hollywood · Daily · $71
Two hours round the lot where the film’s interiors were shot: the New York backlot, the Bronson Gate and the soundstages.
See the tourSixth Avenue at 50th Street · Adults $44–46 online
An hour inside the hall where the film had its world premiere: the Grand Foyer, the Roxy Suite and the Great Stage. No tours were listed for October 2026.
Check datesManhattan
Live marketplace results for New York movie-location walks and bus tours. Check each itinerary for the places you want.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Radio City’s holiday run, in the room that saw the film first.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Two original posters from our own store, Capote’s novella, the making-of, and Mancini on vinyl and CD.
An original 1961 US one-sheet, 27 × 41 in, art by Robert McGinnis. Previously folded, very good condition.
In stock
View posterAn original Japanese B2 from 1969, 19.7 × 27.8 in, rolled, mint condition.
In stock
View posterTruman Capote
The 1958 novella, with three stories, in the Vintage edition.
Find the bookSam Wasson
Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the dawn of the modern woman: the making of the film.
Find the bookHenry Mancini · 7-inch single, RCA Victor 47-7916, 1961
Mancini’s own single of the song, from September 1961.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyHenry Mancini · CD, RCA, 1988
The score that won Mancini his Oscar, reissued on CD by RCA.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 12 of 12 Moments
727 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street
Holly eats her breakfast at Tiffany’s window at dawn: the first day of filming, Sunday 2 October 1960.
Holly takes Paul inside Tiffany’s, where the Tiffany Diamond can be glimpsed in a display case.
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
Paul shows Holly the card catalogue and signs his own book in the library.
375 Park Avenue at 52nd Street
The Seagram Building is one of the film’s New York locations.
1260 Sixth Avenue at 50th Street
The world premiere, 5 October 1961.
Central Park, mid-park at 71st Street
The Mall and its bandshell appear in the film.
Greenwich Avenue at West 10th Street
The production filmed at the Women’s House of Detention in Greenwich Village.
East 71st Street, Upper East Side
Holly’s building, seen in the street scenes.
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Truman Capote wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s in a basement apartment on Willow Street.
Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Holly’s apartment and her party were filmed on a set; the couch was half a bathtub.
Cat, the cat with no name, was played by at least nine cats.
Ellis Square, Savannah, Georgia
A producer wanted “Moon River” cut; Hepburn refused, and the song stayed and won the Oscar.
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