50 Years Of James Bond's Favorite Hotels (PHOTOS)

With everyone celebrating the diamond anniversary of the Bond film franchise -- and the premiere of Skyfall on November 9 -- one aspect of the films remains overlooked.

For all his dashing and murderous talents, Bond also had a knack for staying in fantastic hotels.

As a recent Vanity Fair article pointed out, the first Bond films were specifically designed to fetishize travel, displaying the wonders of the world to the first generation that could conceivably catch a commercial flight to Europe, to Miami, to India. (Never mind that those tickets cost the equivalent of tens of thousands of today's dollars.)

These real hotels -- sometimes standing in for fictional lodgings -- played host to Bond's exploits, whether leisure, romantic or, occasionally, violent. They are nothing less than major characters in the 50-year saga of Bond.