The Lightning Thief: From Long Island to Olympus

Percy is a twelve-year-old boy in New York City with dyslexia and ADHD, and his class trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art is where the ordinary world cracks. In a Greek and Roman gallery, the math teacher Mrs. Dodds turns into a Fury and attacks him; Mr. Brunner throws him a ballpoint pen that becomes a bronze sword. The museum is real — founded in 1870, the largest art museum in the Americas — and its Greek and Roman collection holds more than 17,000 objects.

Visitor guidance: The Met is at 1000 Fifth Avenue on Museum Mile; check opening hours before a visit.

After school ends, Sally takes Percy to Montauk, the beach town where she met his father, and they stay in a rented house for the weekend. A storm, a satyr named Grover and a Minotaur turn the trip into a flight: Sally drives Percy toward Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods on Long Island. The camp is invented and has no address; Montauk is real, a fishing town at the eastern end of Long Island, with Montauk Point Light at its tip.

Location precision: Camp Half-Blood is invented and the rented beach house is unnamed; the pin marks Montauk Point, at the eastern end of the hamlet where the weekend begins.

Visitor guidance: Montauk Point Light stands at the eastern tip of Long Island; the camp itself is fictional.

On the train west, the trio stops in St. Louis. Annabeth wants to see the Gateway Arch, so they take an elevator to the top. On the observation deck a woman's Chihuahua turns out to be the Chimera, and the woman reveals herself as Echidna. Percy dives 600 feet into the Mississippi, survives, and meets a Nereid who tells him to go to Santa Monica. The Arch is 630 feet of stainless steel, the world's tallest arch, with a tram to the top.

Visitor guidance: The Arch stands in St. Louis; the tram to the top opened in 1967.

Seven days before the solstice the trio reaches Denver, where Ares is waiting at the diner. The war god sends them to Waterland, a run-down water park, to recover his shield from the Tunnel of Love — a trap built by Hephaestus to humiliate Ares and Aphrodite. Percy and Annabeth escape the ride and return the shield; Ares repays them with a ride west in a truck full of wild animals. Denver is real, just east of the Rocky Mountains; the diner and water park are not.

Location precision: The diner and Waterland are invented and unnamed; the pin marks central Denver, where the trio arrives by train.

Visitor guidance: Denver sits just east of the Front Range; the book's diner and water park are invented.

On the last leg of the truck ride, the trio stops in Las Vegas and finds the Lotus Hotel and Casino, a lobby full of games and unlimited casino credit. The place does not let go: guests lose track of time, and Percy meets a guest who is sure it is 1977. When they finally leave, five days have vanished and only one day remains before the solstice. The casino is invented; the pin marks the Las Vegas Strip, the real casino corridor that stands in for it.

Location precision: The Lotus Hotel and Casino is invented; the pin marks the Las Vegas Strip, the casino corridor the book's Vegas stop stands in for.

Visitor guidance: The Strip runs along Las Vegas Boulevard; the Lotus Hotel itself is invented.

At sunset the trio reaches Santa Monica. Percy wades into the sea, meets the water spirit who spoke to him in the Mississippi, and receives three pearls that can carry them out of the Underworld. Later they surface in Santa Monica Bay and Percy duels Ares on the beach. The pier itself is real: the Municipal Pier opened in 1909, and Pacific Park's solar-panelled Ferris wheel now turns over the water.

Visitor guidance: The pier is at the foot of Colorado Avenue; Pacific Park and the Ferris wheel are on it.

In West Hollywood the trio hunts for a recording studio that appears on no map: DOA Recording Studios, its name in gold letters on black marble. Behind the lobby is the entrance to the Underworld, where Charon ferries them across and Cerberus guards the gate. The studio is invented; the pin marks the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, the district where Percy, Annabeth and Grover search for it.

Location precision: The DOA Recording Studios is invented; the pin marks the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, the district where the trio searches for it.

Visitor guidance: Sunset Strip is in West Hollywood; the studio itself is invented.

Percy flies back to New York and walks into the Empire State Building, where the front desk sends him up to the 600th floor — Mount Olympus, complete with a grand palace and throne room. He returns the master bolt to Zeus and meets Poseidon. The tower is real: 102 stories, opened in 1931, with observatories on the 86th and 102nd floors. The 600th floor belongs to the gods; the real decks are the closest you can get.

Visitor guidance: The Empire State Building is at 350 Fifth Avenue; the 86th- and 102nd-floor observatories are open to visitors.