Where Was Breaking Bad Filmed? 10 Locations and How to Visit

Breaking Bad was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Almost every street, house and storefront you see is a real place in the city. The desert scenes were shot on the To’hajiilee reservation west of town, and the interiors, including the superlab, were sets at Albuquerque Studios.

The show was never meant to be there. The early scripts set it in Riverside, California. Then Sony pointed creator Vince Gilligan to New Mexico’s film rebate, and the city became the show’s co-star for five seasons and 62 episodes.

This guide counts down the 10 most famous Breaking Bad filming locations. It also covers the Walter White house sale, why the show moved to New Mexico, and how to visit it all.

#	Location	Scene	Address	Can you visit?
10	Crossroads Motel	Wendy’s motel, Jesse’s alibi	1001 Central Ave NE	Street only. Closed and for sale
9	Java Joe’s	Tuco’s headquarters	906 Park Ave SW	Yes. It’s a cafe
8	Saul Goodman’s office	Saul’s strip mall office	9800 Montgomery Blvd NE	Parking lot only
7	The Dog House Drive-In	Jesse’s hangout on Route 66	1216 Central Ave SW	Yes. Cash only
6	The industrial laundry	The superlab’s front	1617 Candelaria Rd NE	Street only
5	To’hajiilee	The first cook and the shootout	West of Albuquerque	Tribal land. Go with a tour
4	Jesse Pinkman’s house	Jesse’s home	322 16th St SW	Street only. Private home
3	The A1A Car Wash	Walt’s job, then his front	9516 Snow Heights Cir NE	Yes. Buy a wash
2	Los Pollos Hermanos	Gus Fring’s restaurant	4257 Isleta Blvd SW	Yes. It’s Twisters
1	Walter White’s house	The White family home	3828 Piermont Dr NE	Street only. Private home

The 10 Breaking Bad Filming Locations

The countdown runs from a closed motel on Route 66 to the most famous house in TV.

10) The Crossroads Motel

This shabby Route 66 motel was where the show went when it wanted to feel seedy.

The Crossroads was a working motel all through the show’s run. In Season 1, Hank takes Walt Jr. to the motel and confronts Wendy, a sex worker, to scare him off meth. Wendy works out of it for the rest of the series, and Jesse later uses the motel as an alibi.

Its run ended in 2025. The motel closed in mid-2025, and a fire that July damaged its east side. The Albuquerque Journal reported in October 2025 that it was on the market for $3 million. It was still standing at last report, so take your photo from the sidewalk and keep moving.

9) Java Joe’s

Tuco Salamanca’s headquarters is a downtown coffee house you can walk into.

This is the scene where Walt shaves his head and becomes Heisenberg. He walks into Tuco’s office with a bag of “meth” that’s really fulminated mercury, throws a crystal and blows the windows out. KRQE’s location guide puts Tuco’s headquarters at 906 Park Ave SW.

The building is home to Java Joe’s, a breakfast and coffee spot that still trades. It’s the easiest stop on this list. You can sit, order a coffee and picture Heisenberg walking in.

8) Saul Goodman’s Office

“Better call Saul!” led to a strip mall in the Northeast Heights.

Saul’s office was the perfect home for a lawyer who advertised on bus benches. The crew dressed a real strip mall unit with Saul’s name in the windows. Wikivoyage’s Breaking Bad tour still lists 9800 Montgomery Blvd NE.

Don’t expect to see Saul’s name. The unit has changed hands, and the props went back on the truck years ago. Fans still pull into the lot for a photo. Be polite to the businesses there now.

7) The Dog House Drive-In

The Dog House is a 1940s-style hot dog stand on Route 66 with a neon dachshund sign.

The Dog House shows up again and again as Jesse’s hangout. You’ll know it by the neon sign of a dachshund in a bun. It sits on Central Avenue, the old Route 66, just west of downtown.

It still sells chili dogs today, so this is a stop where you can eat. Go at dusk, when the neon comes on. It’s a short drive from Old Town and Jesse’s house, so you can see all three in one go.

6) The Industrial Laundry

Gus Fring’s superlab hid under a real industrial laundry off Candelaria Road, near I-25.

In the show, Walt and Jesse walk through a busy laundry to a hidden door that leads down to the lab. The outside shots were a real laundry on Candelaria Road. “Lavandería Brillante” was the show’s name for it, not the business’s.

The superlab never existed under any laundry. Vice, visiting Albuquerque Studios, described a set of fabricated steel with a built-in stairwell and glass-bottom tanks. Today the building is a working industrial site, so view it from the street and don’t block the trucks.

5) To’hajiilee

The desert where Walt cooked his first batch, and where it all came crashing down, is on Navajo land west of Albuquerque.

The pilot opens with Walt in his underwear in the desert, waving a gun at sirens. Gilligan’s team shot many of the show’s desert scenes on the To’hajiilee reservation, and the story names it too. Walt buries his barrels of cash there, and in Season 5 Hank tricks him into leading the DEA right to them.

No source pins down the exact spots, and this is the Navajo Nation’s land, not a public park. The Navajo Times reported that residents were fine with the shoot. The local Cañoncito gas store even made it on screen. If you want to see it, Breaking Bad RV Tours runs a desert trip out this way.

4) Jesse Pinkman’s House

Jesse’s house is a big 1920s home near Old Town that appeared in 21 episodes.

During the early seasons, the house belonged to teacher Christine Brennan. People reported she was paid $500 for each day the crew needed access and $2,000 for each day of filming. Early on, the crew shot inside the real house. After she sold it, the interiors moved to a stage.

It went on the market in July 2015 for $1.6 million, Today.com reported. Who owns it now isn’t public. Please don’t knock, and don’t stand in the yard. Take your photo from across the street.

3) The A1A Car Wash

Walt’s humiliating second job became the business he launders his money through.

In Season 1, Walt scrubs tires here to make ends meet. Later, Skyler pushes to buy it as a front for his drug money. By Season 4, the Whites own it, and Skyler runs the books.

It was the Octopus Car Wash when the show filmed. Now it’s a Mister Car Wash, and Visit Albuquerque still lists it on its Breaking Bad map. This is one location where you can do what Walt did. Pull in, pay for a wash and say hi to Bogdan in your head.

2) Los Pollos Hermanos (Twisters)

Gus Fring’s fried chicken chain is a real fast food restaurant in the South Valley called Twisters.

Twisters stood in for Los Pollos Hermanos in Breaking Bad, then again in Better Call Saul. The crew put up the Pollos sign for each shoot. Inside, the restaurant keeps a Pollos logo and memorabilia for the fans who come through.

“Los Pollos Hermanos” gets about 33,000 searches a month in the US. Most of those people would love to eat there. You can’t buy Gus’s chicken, but you can buy a burrito in his booth. If you’re taking photos, buy some food.

1) Walter White’s House

The most famous house in TV is a single-storey ranch house on a quiet street in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights.

The Padilla family bought the house in 1973. In 2006, a Sony scout asked Fran Padilla about using it for the pilot. The crew used the inside for prep and equipment, but the interiors were a set at Albuquerque Studios. Line producer Stewart Lyons told Vice they built that set five times.

The house shows up in more than half the episodes. Its best-known moment is in Season 3, “Caballo sin Nombre,” when Walt throws a whole pizza onto the roof. “One take. One take, right there,” Bryan Cranston said on The Rich Eisen Show. Fans have tried to copy it ever since, which is part of why the house now sits behind a fence. More on that below.

The Breaking Bad House Today

308 Negra Arroyo Lane is not a real address. The real Breaking Bad house is 3828 Piermont Dr NE, Albuquerque, and in February 2026 it sold for $1.3 million.

Here’s how it went:

• January 2025: The family listed it for about $4 million.
• December 2025: They pulled it after little interest.
• 3 February 2026: It came back at $400,000, closer to what similar houses are worth.
• 9 February 2026: About 20 offers later, it went under contract.
• 25 February 2026: It closed at $1.3 million, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Streamer Adin Ross said on his own stream that he’s the buyer. The agent confirmed the price but not the name. Ross says he wants to turn it into a one-to-one copy of the show house, with a pizza on the roof and an RV out front. We found no reports of permits or an opening date.

Why sell at all? Living in it got hard. Fran Padilla told NPR in 2015 that fans kept throwing pizzas on the roof. Gilligan asked fans to stop that same year. In 2017 the family put up a six-foot wrought-iron fence. Local reports put the traffic at about 300 cars a day.

So, if you visit:

• Stay on the sidewalk across the street.
• Don’t throw anything. Really.
• Don’t fall for “rent the Breaking Bad house” offers. Fake rental listings have sent fans to the door.

Why Was Breaking Bad Filmed in Albuquerque?

Money first, then the light.

The early scripts set Breaking Bad in Riverside, California. Sony Pictures Television, which made the show, suggested New Mexico. “We’ll get a 25 percent rebate on monies spent within the state,” Gilligan recalled being told, in a 2013 interview with Vulture.

At first the plan was to shoot in New Mexico and call it California. That didn’t last. The Sandia Mountains kept getting into eastward shots, Wikipedia notes. So Gilligan moved the story to Albuquerque, and the city became part of the show.

Here’s how it came together:

• The pilot: Shot 6 to 21 March 2007. It aired on AMC on 20 January 2008.
• Season 1: Cut from nine episodes to seven by the 2007 to 2008 writers’ strike.
• The studio: Interiors were built at Albuquerque Studios in Mesa del Sol, which opened in 2007. Breaking Bad was its second production. Netflix announced it was buying the studio in 2018.
• On location: Even with a studio, the DGA reported that 6 or 7 of each episode’s 8 shooting days were on location.
• The money: Mayor Richard Berry estimated in 2014 that the show brought almost $70 million into the city. That’s his estimate, not a study.

The look matters too. Breaking Bad was shot mostly on 35mm film. Gilligan and cinematographer Michael Slovis wanted the extra-wide CinemaScope frame, but Sony and AMC said no. Slovis used polarizers and warm tobacco, coral and straw filters to deepen the desert sky. FotoKem colorist Tom Sartori finished the look in the grade. He called New Mexico “really the ultimate character.”

How to Visit the Breaking Bad Locations

You can see the main Breaking Bad filming locations in Albuquerque in one day, by tour or on your own.

Take a tour. Breaking Bad RV Tours is the best known. It leaves from the Breaking Bad Store in Old Town:

• RV tour: $95 plus tax, about 3.5 hours, Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It needs at least 6 tickets to run.
• Private SUV tour: $95 plus tax per person, daily, for 2 or more guests.
• Desert tour to To’hajiilee: $125 plus tax, about 3 hours, on the first and last Tuesday of each month, except October.

Check the tour’s website for current dates before you book. Visit Albuquerque also lists Breaking Bad Luigi’s Tours, and it has a free self-guided map of both shows on its website.

Go on your own. A simple route:

1. Old Town. Start at the Breaking Bad Store, 2049 S Plaza St NW. It has a free mini-museum with props and a Pollos counter for photos. Then walk to The Candy Lady, 424 San Felipe St NW. It made the blue candy “meth” for the show and still sells it.
2. Route 66. Head east on Central to Jesse’s house, the Dog House and Java Joe’s downtown. The Crossroads Motel is further east, at Oak St.
3. The Walt and Jesse statues. Bronze statues of the two, by sculptor Trevor Grove, stand inside the Albuquerque Convention Center downtown. They were unveiled on 29 July 2022. Check the convention center’s hours or events calendar before you go.
4. The Northeast Heights. Drive out to the car wash, Saul’s office and, last of all, the White house.
5. The South Valley. Finish with lunch at Twisters.

Remember that the houses are private homes with people living in them. Stay on the street, keep your voice down and don’t block driveways.

More Breaking Bad Locations

The countdown covers the big ones. These are worth a look if you have time. All but the two restaurants are private, so view them from the street.

Location	Scene	Address
Hank and Marie’s house	The Schraders’ home, Hank’s minerals and his recovery	4901 Cumbre Del Sur Ct NE
Gus Fring’s house	Walt’s dinner with Gus	1213 Jefferson St NE
Casa Tranquila	Hector’s nursing home and the bell bomb	8820 Horizon Blvd NE
Jesse and Jane’s duplex	Jesse rents from Jane in Season 2	323 Terrace St SE
Loyola’s Family Restaurant	Mike’s diner meetings	4500 Central Ave SE
Grove Cafe and Market	Lydia’s tea meetings in Season 5	600 Central Ave SE

FAQs About Where Breaking Bad Was Filmed

The Final Cut on Where Breaking Bad Was Filmed

So where was Breaking Bad filmed? In Albuquerque, New Mexico, from a ranch house in the Northeast Heights to a burger stand in the South Valley, with the desert scenes on the To’hajiilee reservation. Most of it is still there. A few spots, like the Crossroads Motel and Saul’s office, are fading.

A tax rebate brought the show to New Mexico. The city’s light, streets and desert are why it stuck.

Which Breaking Bad location would you visit first?

For more, see how Walter White changes in our guide to the character arc, read about Better Call Saul in what is a prequel, check out where Outer Banks was filmed for another TV road trip, or browse all our film locations.