Where Was Outer Banks Season 5 Filmed? Inside the Final Season’s Locations

Outer Banks may carry the name of North Carolina’s famous barrier islands, but its final season once again builds Kildare Island somewhere else. Season 5 was filmed primarily around Charleston and South Carolina’s Lowcountry, the production home that has defined the Netflix series since its beginning. The final run also traveled much farther from the Carolinas, with a major European shoot in Dubrovnik and other parts of coastal Croatia. Those Adriatic locations are especially important because Season 5 continues the Pogues’ pursuit of Chandler Groff toward Portugal after the events in Morocco.

Charleston returned as the home of Outer Banks

Production on the fifth season officially got underway in June 2025 in the Charleston area. Netflix’s announcement was accompanied by photographs of Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, Drew Starkey and Carlacia Grant together on marshland outside Charleston. Drew Starkey later confirmed that he had spent the summer filming the final season in the South Carolina city before the production prepared to travel overseas.

Charleston has effectively been Outer Banks’ screen home for most of the series. Although fictional Kildare Island is supposed to be in North Carolina, Netflix’s official location guide notes that the production has primarily used Charleston and its surrounding coastal communities to create the show’s version of the OBX. Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant has been especially recognizable for waterfront scenes throughout earlier seasons. The final season’s return to the Lowcountry therefore preserves the visual identity audiences already associate with John B and the Pogues.

Why doesn’t Outer Banks primarily film in the real Outer Banks?

Kildare Island itself is fictional, which gives the production considerable freedom when assembling its geography. The show has long combined marshes, docks, homes, beaches and historic streets from different places rather than trying to reproduce one real North Carolina island exactly. Netflix identifies Charleston as the principal filming area behind Kildare, while production designer Daniel Novotny has previously discussed building the fictional environment by combining locations around the Carolinas.

Some of the show’s best-known South Carolina locations include Shem Creek, Mount Pleasant and other parts of the Lowcountry. Local Charleston reporting noted ahead of Season 5 that the production was returning to the region where familiar Outer Banks sets and backdrops had been used for years. That continuity is useful in the final season because the story eventually brings the Pogues back toward a Kildare that no longer feels welcoming to them.

Dubrovnik became Season 5’s major international location

The biggest addition to the Season 5 production map is Dubrovnik, Croatia. Filming moved there in fall 2025, with cast members working openly around the historic city and its coastline. The Dubrovnik Times reported that production was shooting across the city’s streets and waterfront areas, while What’s on Netflix documented members of the main cast around Rector’s Palace and other public locations.

Dubrovnik has a distinctive combination of limestone streets, fortified walls, harbors and open Adriatic water, giving the final Outer Banks adventure an environment very different from Charleston without abandoning the show’s coastal character. Production spent several weeks in the region with local company Embassy Films involved in the Dubrovnik portion. Residents were also recruited as extras for selected scenes.

Does Dubrovnik stand in for Lisbon?

At least some of the Croatian filming appears to represent Lisbon, Portugal. What’s on Netflix reported during production that Dubrovnik was being used as a stand-in for Lisbon, which makes sense within the story established at the end of Season 4. Rafe tells the Pogues that Groff is heading toward Portugal, and Netflix’s preview of Season 5 confirms that Groff intends to sell the Blue Crown to a buyer there.

The production choice is easier to understand once the locations are compared visually. Dubrovnik can provide dense historic streets, stone plazas, Mediterranean waterfronts and harbors within a compact filming area. First-look material for Season 5 also places the Pogues in a European setting before their eventual return to the OBX. Until the full season is released, individual Croatian sites should be matched to specific fictional scenes cautiously rather than assuming every Dubrovnik shot represents Lisbon.

Which Croatian locations were used?

Several recognizable Dubrovnik locations were documented during filming. Production was seen around the Old Town, Rector’s Palace and Danče Beach, while a Dubrovnik-based licensed guide who followed the shoot documented additional work on Stradun, the Old Port, sections of the city walls, Luža Square, Sponza Palace, the Jesuit Staircase and the Franciscan Monastery. The same local account also identifies Lokrum Island, Cavtat, Lapad Marina and Mount Srđ among the wider locations used by the production.

The coastal locations are particularly suited to Outer Banks. Danče Beach offers exposed rock and open water, while the Old Port and Gruž area provide the boats and waterfront access that have always been central to the series. Local observers also documented filming involving boats, stunt work and action sequences around the historic city. Those reports give Season 5 one of the most geographically varied production footprints in the show’s run.

Season 5 eventually came back to South Carolina

The European shoot did not replace Charleston. Starkey said while production was underway that the team expected to travel to Europe and then return to Charleston to complete the season, and subsequent production reporting described South Carolina as the main base for Season 5. That pattern mirrors the way Outer Banks has traditionally worked: the Lowcountry supplies Kildare and the characters’ home environment, while international units expand the treasure hunt once the Pogues leave home.

For the final season, that movement has an added narrative purpose. The story begins in the aftermath of Morocco, continues the hunt toward Portugal and eventually brings the surviving Pogues back to an Outer Banks where the Kooks are trying to push them out. Charleston and Dubrovnik therefore are not simply attractive production backdrops. Together, they trace the final season’s larger journey from the Pogues’ increasingly hostile home to one last international treasure hunt.

Also Read: Outer Banks Recap: Everything That Happened in Seasons 1-4