Movies, more than any other medium, can transport us to places we’ve never been. And while visiting fantastical settings dreamt up by visionary filmmakers is uniquely immersive, there’s something even more thrilling about seeing a place you can actually visit once the credits roll. Here are six movies that will inspire you to travel.
Baraka (1992)
More of a cinematic tapestry than a conventional documentary, Ron Fricke’s nonfiction classic features no narrative or even narration to guide the way. What it does have is 97 minutes of arresting imagery filmed in 24 countries, a partial list of which includes Nepal, Japan, the Vatican, Egypt, Brazil, Australia, the United States, Tanzania, and Cambodia. The only continent Fricke and his team didn’t visit during the 14-month production period was Antarctica. It’s a singular viewing experience, though it will leave you with an impossible question to answer: Which of the 152 filming locations should you visit first?
The Before Trilogy (1995–2013)
Richard Linklater’s three romantic dramas, the latter two of which he co-wrote with stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, aren’t exactly travelogues. But they are dreamy showcases for the three European locales where they take place: Vienna in Before Sunrise, Paris in Before Sunset, and Greece’s Peloponnese coast in Before Midnight.
Consisting of little more than a daylong conversation between the two leads as they meet, fall in love, and promise to meet again in six months, the first film in particular is among the most romantic ever made — much of which is owed to the backdrop of Austria’s gorgeous capital city.
The Endless Summer (1966)
A lot of movies make people want to travel. The Endless Summer made countless people actually do it. Surfers caught waves in heretofore unknown breaks like South Africa’s Cape St. Francis thanks to Bruce Brown’s watershed documentary, which introduced surf culture (including its music) to the wider world. As relaxed as it is riveting, The Endless Summer won’t just inspire you to visit places like Tahiti and New Zealand — it’ll make you want to bring a surfboard, too.
Lost in Translation (2003)
“If I had to eat only in one city for the rest of my life,” Anthony Bourdain wrote years before his untimely passing, “Tokyo would be it.” Sofia Coppola’s endlessly whimsical romantic drama isn’t about food, but it will make you want to visit the world’s most populous city just as much as Bourdain’s endorsement does.
Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray play the leads, two lost souls who meet by chance at the Park Hyatt Tokyo and spend a few bittersweet days wandering the city together. You’ll probably want your trip to be less melancholy, but anyone would be lucky to have as memorable an experience in Tokyo as they do.
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
If attending an Indian wedding isn’t already on your bucket list, it will be after watching Mira Nair’s romantic melodrama. The soundtrack will get stuck in your head, the visuals will entrance you, and the setting will inspire you to set a price alert for flights to New Delhi. The story is modern, but the traditions date back centuries, providing a unique insight into a family — and a culture — at a crossroads.
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Walter Salles is top of mind among moviegoers the world over after winning the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film with 2024’s I’m Still Here, the first Brazilian film to do so. It was a worthy win, but far from Salles’ first movie that deserved to be similarly honored.
When The Motorcycle Diaries failed to receive a nomination in the same category due to the Academy’s byzantine rules, it set off a wave of deserved controversy. This adaptation of Che Guevara’s memoir of the same name is a classic all the same, with Gael García Bernal playing the future revolutionary as a young man traveling across South America with a friend. Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela are visited during the 8,700-mile journey, and the movie proved so successful that it inspired tourist trails across several of its featured locations.
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