A small white temple-fronted post office with a red door, pink flowers in front and an arcaded building behind — Seaside Post Office on Central Square, 2009. paigeh · CC BY-SA 2.5

Hidden camera 1 · Central Square · Seaside, Florida

The Truman Show

Central Square and its post office: Seahaven’s downtown, and still Seaside’s.

Peter Weir, 1998. Seahaven was Seaside, a real town on Florida’s Gulf coast: the grocer, the post office and the school were real. Only the sky was fake.

A brick-paved Seaside street lined with palms, porches and a slow sign — A Seaside street of picket fences and porches, 2010: the kind of block Truman’s house stands on. Michael E. Arth · CC BY-SA 4.0

Natchez Street · Truman’s house

Somebody is always
watching this street.

Truman’s house is a private home, so here is a Seaside street like his. Five cameras are hidden in the photograph: tap to find them.

0 of 5 cameras found.

Production notes

Central Square · Modica Market · the post office · Ruskin Place

Brought to you by
the real Seaside.

Seahaven sells you something in every scene. Hold a product up to the camera, then cut the advert and see what is really there.

Hold something up to the camera.

0 of 3 adverts cut.

HomeownersCollection

A cottage in Seaside

Seaside

The only rental company that deals in Seaside houses alone: more than 200 private homes, let from an office at 121 Central Square.

Find a cottage

Central Square · out of a clear sky

Something just fell
out of the sky.

Clear skies over Seahaven.

Production notes

Quincy Circle · what the fees built

A white sign reading Seaside, Founded 1981, Welcome, with white houses and towers behind — The Seaside sign on 30A, a short walk from the school, 2010. M.Fitzsimmons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Seaside Neighborhood School

It opened with 36 students, two faculty members and one administrator, in two modular classrooms. Its parent school, SEASIDE SCHOOL, was founded in 1996 and is one of Florida’s oldest public charter schools; the Neighborhood School teaches grades 5 to 8.

The annual half marathon and 5K has raised more than half a million dollars for local education.

A working school: see it from Quincy Circle, or run past it in February’s half marathon.

Production notes

The Gulf, between Seaside and Grayton Beach

Rain on one spot.
Steer it down the beach.

A pink umbrella on white sand, with swimmers in turquoise water beyond — The beach at Seaside, 1991. Michael Gäbler · CC BY 3.0

Forecast for the open sand: rain on one spot only. All the beach and ocean scenes are shot on the empty stretch where the WaterColor Inn now stands.

A pale yellow and white building with a colonnade and a cafe sign under an oak tree — Beach Happy Cafe at WaterColor, 2025. The Bushranger · CC BY-SA 4.0

Truman’s beach, now the WaterColor Inn

The inn has 67 rooms, 60 by the designer David Rockwell and seven family suites, on 1,400 feet of beachfront.

A working beach hotel just west of Seaside. Walk the beach in front of it.

Production notes

Through white porch columns, a tall pointed beach tower stands above the dunes and the blue Gulf — A beach pavilion and tower at Seaside, looking out to the Gulf, 2008. I'll never grow up · CC BY 2.0

The beach towers

Seaside began in 1981 on 80 acres that Robert Davis inherited from his grandfather; Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk designed a town, not a property.

Public beach paths run from 30A down through the towers and pavilions to the Gulf.

Production notes

WaterColor Inn & Resort

The WaterColor Inn

WaterColor

On the stretch of beach where the film’s ocean scenes were shot: 67 rooms, 60 by David Rockwell, on 1,400 feet of beachfront at 34 Goldenrod Circle. Pictured: Beach Happy Cafe.

Check rooms

A wide calm bayou under a pale sky, with low wooded shores on both sides — Tucker Bayou from Eden Gardens State Park, 2008. Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0

Point Washington · Tucker Bayou

The ferry is
not leaving today.

Tucker Bayou at Point Washington, about five miles north of Seaside and next to Eden Gardens State Park, was the Seahaven Island ferry landing, where Truman tries in vain to leave the island.

SEAHAVEN ISLAND FERRYBOARDING

Boarding now, apparently.

Production notes

A long weathered wooden dock running out over brown bayou water, with oaks and lawn on the shore — The dock on Tucker Bayou at Eden Gardens State Park, 2008. Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0

The park’s dock on Tucker Bayou sits at the north end of the Living Shoreline Trail, with benches and picnic tables close by. The park opens from 8am until sunset every day, at 181 Eden Gardens Road, off Highway 395.

The park opens 8am to sunset. Walk the Living Shoreline Trail to the dock.

Florida State Parks

Eden Gardens State Park

Point Washington · Open 8am to sunset, daily

The park on Tucker Bayou, by the Seahaven ferry landing. Walk the Living Shoreline Trail to the dock.

Plan a visit

The edge of Seahaven

Sail into the sky.
See what holds it up.

A huge flat wall painted with pale blue sky and clouds rising behind a car park with a few parked cars — Paramount’s backlot car park with its painted sky backdrop, the tank where the finale was shot, 2012. Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain

Sail towards the horizon

Calm water. Blue sky. Nothing to worry about.

Production notes

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Studio Tour

Hollywood · Premier Tour · 2 hours, daily · $71

The working studio in Hollywood whose B Tank, a car park with a 175-foot sky backing, held the finale.

Book a tour

CAM 1LIVE

Jim Carrey cups a hand to his ear and pulls a face on stage — Jim Carrey in Madrid, December 2008, ten years after the film. Noemi Nuñez · CC BY-SA 2.0

Jim CarreyTruman Burbank

Cut to camera: Jim Carrey, who plays Truman Burbank.

Cast

Closing titles

Good night.
The town stays open.

Seahaven was a real town; only the sky was fake. The town is open to walk round; the sky takes a studio tour ticket.

Where it is now

8 places you can visit: in Seaside, along the Gulf and on the bayou, and one in Hollywood. Truman’s house on Natchez Street is a private home: it is named, not mapped.

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 post office on Central Square: buy a stamp and send a card home from Seahaven.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working grocery on Central Square, across from the amphitheatre. Go in and shop.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open all day: shops, bars, the amphitheatre lawn and the Airstream Row food trucks, across 30A from the beach.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working school: see it from Quincy Circle, or run past it in February’s half marathon.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Public beach paths run from 30A down through the towers and pavilions to the Gulf.

Seaside Post Office on Central Square, 2009. paigeh · CC BY-SA 2.5
Central Square, Seaside
Seaside Post Office
The free-standing post office on Central Square, with the Tupelo Street gazebo just east of it, was an everyday backdrop to Truman’s closely watched routine.
A working post office on Central Square: buy a stamp and send a card home from Seahaven.
Production notes
Arcaded shops on a pedestrian lane in the middle of Seaside, a short walk from Modica Market, 2025. The Bushranger · CC BY-SA 4.0
Central Square, Seaside
Modica Market
Modica Market, the family-owned grocery, was the film’s main island store.
A working grocery on Central Square, across from the amphitheatre. Go in and shop.
Production notes
Central Square, with the flagpole and the post office, 2005. Kennethdegraff · CC BY-SA 2.5
Central Square, Seaside, on Highway 30A
Central Square and Ruskin Place
Seaside’s Central Square served as the downtown of Seahaven.
Open all day: shops, bars, the amphitheatre lawn and the Airstream Row food trucks, across 30A from the beach.
Production notes
The Seaside sign on 30A, 2010. M.Fitzsimmons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quincy Circle, Seaside
Seaside Neighborhood School
Seaside’s homeowners donated their location fees from The Truman Show to pay for the school’s first building, on land given by Robert Davis.
A working school: see it from Quincy Circle, or run past it in February’s half marathon.
Production notes
A beach pavilion and tower at Seaside, looking out to the Gulf, 2008. I'll never grow up · CC BY 2.0
Beach paths off Highway 30A, Seaside
The beach towers
Coleman Tower, one of the beachfront towers that mark the way down to the sand, appears in the background of several scenes; the architect David Coleman designed it.
Public beach paths run from 30A down through the towers and pavilions to the Gulf.
Production notes

Stay

Sleep on Truman’s beach, or in the town.

The inn on the stretch of sand where the ocean scenes were shot, or a Seaside cottage of your own.

WaterColor Inn & Resort

The WaterColor Inn

WaterColor

On the stretch of beach where the film’s ocean scenes were shot: 67 rooms, 60 by David Rockwell, on 1,400 feet of beachfront at 34 Goldenrod Circle. Pictured: Beach Happy Cafe.

Check rooms

HomeownersCollection