Sep-2014
10 great travel movies that take you on a trip
We always want to get into the travel mood. You can get there by reading a travel book, talking to friends and sharing travel stories, or you can watch a great travel movie. Especially now that the days are getting shorter in my home country (the Netherlands) I am getting ready for some cozy travel movie Sundays. Here’s a list of movies I love to watch whenever I need some travel energy.
1. Eat Pray Love
Takes you to: the United States, Italy, India and Bali.
Already as a classic to me, but most of all it’s my favorite. Julia Roberts has the role of a travel journalist, who goes to Italy to regain her taste in food, to India to find god and to Indonesia to find true love. Her life get’s changed in many ways, but her passion for traveling makes her take the right decisions.
2. Into the wild
Takes you to: Alaska in the United States.
A young man freshly graduated from college gets sick of the society and doesn’t look forward to the business future that lays ahead of him. He decided to start a new life in the wild. He takes of with his old car and leaves his family without any notice. Once he reaches Alaska he decides to live there, but things over there seem easier than they really are. Whenever I watch this movie – and I do often – I gives me the feeling that I can experience how it must have been to be him and I still want to go find The Magic Bus. I get emotional every time I watch it.
3. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Takes you to: Catalunya in Spain.
When a couple of years ago I moved to a little village near Barcelona called Calella, I fell in love with this movie. Two American girls spend some time in Barcelona and they fall in love with a Catalan guy who of course plays a true Latin role and gets both the girls. They romance through the entire city and also some other parts of Spain get highlighted.
4. Cocktail
Takes you to: Jamaica and in New York in the United States.
Tom Cruise plays the roll of young mister Flanagan who moves to Jamaica to work in a cocktail bar. He gets a girlfriend who comes to Jamaica for her holidays and then he decides to move back with her to the States.
5. The Blue Lagoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-ujVnpBZNQ
Takes you to: an island in the middle of nowhere…
Two young kids get stranded on a island after the ship they were on explodes. They learn how to fish, hunt and build on the island and create their own home with lots of hormones and no idea of what’s going on when they get a baby. I love this movie because it shows the purity of live.
6. Dances with Wolves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ICbZVs9TU
Takes you to: South Dakota and Wyoming in the United States.
An American Western movie where the American Civil War and the existence of the Indian Tribes play a big part. Kevin Costner plays First Lieutenant and gets in good contact with the Indians after he tries to help out a very special lady that lives with one of the Indian Tribes. In the meanwhile a wolf shows up each day at his home and he gets closer and closer to this mysterious creature. I did not know this movie until I reached South Dakota myself in 2009 and saw where this amazing movie was shot.
7. Rio
Takes you to: Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Minnesota in the United States.
Don’t you just love an animated movie that’s also suitable for grownups? Rio is a movie about a nerdy Blue Macaw who leaves Minnesota for Rio de Janeiro. What I love about this animated film is that the landscapes are so beautifully displayed, from the city of Minnesota to the tropical parts of Brazil. It’s a romantic story where lots of traveling is involved.
8. The White Masai
Takes you to: Nairobi, Mombasa and the Masai Mara in Kenya and to Germany.
A couple goes to Kenya for their holiday and the woman decides to not return home on the day they are supposed to go back to Germany. She starts looking for the man she saw during her trip and starts a new life with the Masai. I watched this movie when I moved the Kenya and another good movie with a story that takes place in Kenya is ‘Out of Africa’.
9. Y tu mamá también
Takes you to: Mexico-City and Huatulco in Mexico.
I stayed for a couple of months in Huatulco in 2012, on the coast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. That’s where I learned about this movie as I went to the same beaches that get displayed. The movie shows a very sexy trip from Mexico City to the prettiest beaches in Oaxaca, where three people take a road trip nobody nowadays would do so easily.
10. Wild
Takes you to: the Pacific Crest Trail in the United States.
After losing her husband she decides to hike thousands of miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, all by herself. An emotional movie that shows lots of terrors and pleasures of a young woman hiking with absolutely no experience at all, but with pure persistence. The movie will be available in December 2014 and I can’t wait to see it and hike the Pacific Crest Trail myself too.
Which travel movies are your favorites?
About Renate Rigters
Ever since I left my home country I felt at home at any other place I went to. I enjoy getting to know more cultures by talking to strangers and hearing their philosophy about life. Speaking with gestures when you can not find a shared language, finding places only the locals go to and learn about their customs and values. Hanging out with local people makes me happy. The experience of every new place is a step out of your comfort zone where I like to wander around until it feels like a second home.
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Into the Wild! And I loved the book ‘Wild’ 🙂
The book gives more details 😉 I wonder how you like the movie afterwards 😀
The secret life of Walter Mitty 🙂
ooooh awesome! I just watched the trailer. How did I not know this movie?! Thanks Sandra!
Y tu mama tambien… its a great movie. I think i will add to.that list “lost in traslation”… 🙂
I’ll make a new bucket list of movies I want to see and add Lost in Translation to it. Looks great! Thanks Clau! 🙂