Let’s face it, a lot of travel inspiration comes from pop culture. We see far flung locales in high definition and the images imprint themselves in our minds. We want to feel closer to our (pop) cultural touchstones so we go to Twin Peaks, Timberland Lodge, and searching for that perfect wave off Sumatra. These are the movies we can’t help but watch again and again no matter how much of the world we see. They inspire us, they fill us with FOMO, they make us want to hit the road.
Here are our favorites, hit us up with yours!
DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS
My pretentious filmmaker/film-festival-circuit hopper side wants to call on Cédric Klapisch’s coming of age triptych of L’auberge Espagnole, Les Poupées Russes, and Casse-tête Chinois. Any combination of Romain Duris, Kelly Reilly, Audrey Tatou, Cecile de France, and Kevin Bishop deserves love. But those films came out when I was an adult. So, as much as I love them, they aren’t real influences on why I travel in the first place. I have to go back further for that. Back to the Frank Oz masterpiece which I’ve watched at least three times a year since the god-damned 1980s.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a nearly perfect film. It’s structure is studied in film-schools. It’s characters are iconic. It’s quotable. And it’s sooooooo morally corrupt. I used to dream of gallivanting around Europe, sleeping with sexy rich women, living in 5-star hotels, and being a bon vivant for the ages — that is, the perfect amalgam of Lawrence Jameson and Freddy Benson. I’d find my Janet Colgate to be my partner in the victim-less crime of fleecing rich people of their excess money, and we’d travel the world in blimps or something equally childish. All of that aside, what Freddy Benson did teach me is that you don’t need money or a plan to travel, just go and work it out on the road. And that’s a great lesson for any traveler. That, and, “It is better to be truthful and good…than to not.” Plus, come on, that’s an amazing trailer. – Zach Johnston
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INDIANA JONES AND THE…WELL, ANY OF THEM
I’ve actually written before about how the 10-year-old me saw Indiana Jones as the sum of all of my future ambitions. The connection is explained quite neatly in the Temple of Doom trailer: “If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones.”
I wanted to live Indy’s life (without all the archeology) and, to a certain extent, I think I’ve pulled it off. Some of Indy’s jaunts and jags didn’t even make sense, but I loved following them — particularly because every exotic locale was so thoroughly set-designed. The dusty markets always seemed so dusty and the bazaars were so bizarre. These were places that felt wild, but also real.
It’s no wonder that when I started traveling for a living I was all about the tan chinos, monochrome shirts, and destinations well away from the polished mega resorts and refined city centers. For me, the best of travel has always been about sweaty bus stations, bustling markets, and “secret” spots.
PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE
There are movies that capture the noble pursuit of travel, of exploring a new country and culture and of experiencing life with fresh, hungry eyes. And then there are movies that reveal the other side of the coin — that show us the value not just of traveling, but of becoming a traveler. I’m speaking, of course, of Tim Burton’s unquestionable masterwork: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. I’m serious. I’m not joking when I say that, as a child, watching this movie awakened a sense of wanderlust from which I still suffer to this day. Pee Wee travels in search of his famed bicycle — not just from town to town, but from person to person — making connections through earnest curiosity. As travel tips go, there are few more valuable than the lessons taught by Pee Wee Herman. – David Pemberton
HOOK
I’ll start by saying this – I don’t watch a ton of movies so my pool of cinematic travel inspiration is shallow. However, without overthinking it, my gut reaction tells me to be inspired by Hook. Stay with me here. First of all, Hook possesses the obvious allure of jungley, pirate filled adventures in Neverland. And who doesn’t enjoy jungley, pirate filled adventures?
More seriously – even though it’s fictional, Hook’s sentiment is undeniably relevant. Travel is often a dichotomy between grinding and escape. No film demonstrates the value of escape quite like Hook. Peter is caught in the hustle and ultimately winds up in Neverland because he neglects his kids to concentrate on work. Upon disconnecting in Neverland, Peter rediscovers Tink and the Lost Boys and finds his inspiration again.
This is the power of Hook. When we finally escape the grind – whether that be one night in the next state over or a year spent globetrotting – and revel in the company of people who appreciate an imaginary food fight, we retreat to a more whole version of ourselves. Are these assertions too deep to be drawn from a kid’s movie? I don’t care! The premise of Hook, which is almost 25 years old, is prompted by an angrily discarded, overused cell phone. It just shows you how much more we need that escape today.
It also doesn’t hurt that Rufio was a babe. Bangarang! – Abigail Eastwood
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FRENCH KISS
In my mind, there are only two good travel movies in the world. The first is Love Actually, which we have been categorically banned from talking about on Uproxx because, I assume, the missing coma between the “love” and the “actually” is just too much for most grammar nerds to handle. I get that. What I don’t get is why my second-favorite travel movie, French Kiss, doesn’t ever get any love from anyone. Have you seen it? It’s one of the greatest stories ever captured on film, and it’s an excellent travel movie for those of us who actually don’t like to travel that much. I can much more easily relate to a lead character (played by Meg Ryan) who’s afraid of planes but must take one to get her terrible fiancé back than I can to a couple of dudes trying to get sex on the road (come to think of it, though, Losing It is also an excellent travel film; so was Hard Drive. Hmmmm…). And when you add a love story in which Ryan eventually has to choose between her cheating (maybe) ex and a small-time french crook with an embarrassing Pepe Le Pew accent (Kevin Cline), you’ve got a comedic masterpiece that’s la perfection. (That’s “perfection” in French!) -Mark Shrayber
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Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN
Y Tu Mamá También was the first Spanish-language movie I ever watched. I’m not an international film buff or anything like that, but my friend liked this movie, so I gave it a try — and I fell in love with it. The coming-of-age film was set at the turn of the new millennium against the backdrop of a radically changing Mexican government and was directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who would go on to direct my favorite Harry Potter adaptation (The Prisoner of Azkaban) and Gravity, for which he won an Oscar for Best Directing.
Two best friends, Tenoch and Julio, invite a newly-separated, attractive older woman named Luisa on a trip to a place called Boca del Cielo (“Heaven’s Mouth”) — which doesn’t actually exist (We’ve all googled it, often). The views of coastal and rural Mexico as they head toward this invented paradise are enough to make you want to drop everything and travel there right away, but what really makes this my favorite road trip movie is the plot.
Even without an actual final location, the journey of the story is what makes you realize that the effects of travel: meeting new people, discovering yourself, falling in love, growing apart… are all things that can happen right now, no matter where we are. Y Tu Mamá También is at once highly emotional, highly political, and highly inspirational. This film is probably why I can never get Mexico off my mind, a country I’ve visited many times but have never felt like I’ve been able to get to know properly. And it helped me learn one of the most important lessons of travel: always, always soak in as much as you can, because you never know how much time you have left. – Jennifer Martin
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ENDLESS SUMMER II
I’d say the seed was planted with all of the action sports movies I watched growing up — surf movies where they flew to Indo or snowboard movies where they traveled to Russia or Japan. These were kids like me, who excelled in things that I was interested in, and got paid to travel the world for doing it. Other, more narrative heavy films, struck chords that played into that mentality but The Endless Summer II was what did me in the hardest.
Thinking back on it, when I was younger I probably watched that movie once a week for at least a year. It was just fascinating to me that two kids surfed and traveled in the way they did. Pat O’Connell and Robert ‘Wingnut’ Weaver explored and asked questions. That was it. The movie had its goofy cliches and was painfully 90’s, but at the time it was inspiring. They weren’t trying to change the world, but they wanted to surf and meet people. I guess the simplicity of it is what resonated. – Parker Hilton
THE SHINING
I was a Freshman in high school the first time I saw The Shining. At the time, I was making my way through the “American Film Institute’s 100 Most Thrilling American Films,” because I was positive I was going to be a filmmaker, and I knew exactly what kind of filmmaker I was going to be. At age six, my favorite movie was Jaws (#2 on the list), only slightly edging out Alien (#6). My love for horror ran deep.
Seven years later, I was ready to take on Kubrick’s masterpiece, which I’d somehow never seen, possibly due to the fact that I’d heard so much about how terrifying it was supposed to be. I was secretly afraid that I was going to be not-secretly afraid in front of my friends. It kind of goes downhill for you if you hit your bravery peak in kindergarten. In retrospect, I can’t recall why I invited friends, unless it was because I was also secretly afraid to watch The Shining alone. High school is a confusing time.
Anyway, I didn’t scream or pee my pants or freak out. Well, I didn’t freak out, exactly. I spent the entire movie both utterly enthralled and completely disturbed, because when Jack Torrance’s Volkswagen pulled up to the The Overlook, I was certain I had been there. I’d seen it in person, I knew I had. Never mind that I’d never seen the movie before, never mind that I’d never read the book, I had been to the The Overlook. It was an eerie, dizzying feeling, that somehow made Jack’s descent into madness even more powerful. It was like The Overlook recognized me, which, well, you know…shit.
Of course, throughout the movie, I couldn’t stop telling my friends that I was pretty sure I’d been to The Overlook, and by the end they thought I was being a dramatic asshole, until the credits rolled, and I saw that Mount Hood’s Timberline Lodge had been used for the exterior shots. I had been to The Overlook as a kid, but it had been for hot chocolate and ski lessons and a family vacation that, despite including identical girls (I’m a twin), did not end in bloody elevators and hedge mazes. The mystery was solved, but it didn’t ruin the experience or make it less invigorating. Instead, it made me want to visit other places; places I’d read about and seen in movies. Places I’d written about and wanted to write about. I’d connected with The Shining in a way that felt extraordinary, and I wanted to travel so I could do it again.
To that end, I think about revisiting Timberline all the time, now that I’m an adult. I have a novel I’m working on, and honestly, I could use the time, the solitude, and maybe a drink or two. What could go wrong…right? -Ariel Woodruff
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CASINO ROYALE
I have a theory that the most hare-brained excuses for travel are the best ones. Because what, you need a good reason to go somewhere? Travel justifies itself.
On that note, my travel movie, and I’m still not sure this is correct, is Casino Royale. I had to Google that, because all I know is that at some point, I saw an action movie with a scene set in Montenegro, and it got me to thinking about going there. Partly it was because the scene looked cool, and partly because I have a weird fascination with the lesser-known second half of places that are always mentioned in pairs. Tobago in Trinidad and Tobago. Herzegovina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Caicos in Turks and Caicos. Montenegro in Serbia and Montenegro. You get the idea.
Of course, Casino Royale‘s Montenegro scene was actually shot in Loket, in the Czech Republic. But the point is, it got me to thinking about Montenegro, and Googling pictures, and seeing what else was in the area, and by the time I had the idea that I wanted to go there, the “why” of it had long receded from memory.
The eventual trip, in October of 2015, started in Prague, continued with a two-leg plane flight to Split in Croatia, then involved a trip in a rented Opal down the Dalmatian coast to Dubrovnik, through Kotor, Montenegro, then up to Sarajevo in Bosnia, and down back through Mostrar back to Split. Once we were in Split we discovered that the Mereen scenes in Game of Thrones are filmed near there, at the Fortress of Klis.
Ditto Dubrovnik, but with the King’s Landing scenes.
We toured the Walk of Shame steps with a tour guide who had played “Peasant Woman #20,” who’d called Cersei’s body double a slut and hit her with a tomato. And naturally, ended with a picture on the Iron Throne (fun fact: the other one is in Northern Ireland).
With all these Game of Thrones facts, you’d think Game of Thrones would’ve been my travel motivator. But honestly, I didn’t know any of these things until I got to Montenegro. Which is kind of my point: travel is about kismet. What gets you there matters a lot less than that you got there. Just go, something cool will happen. You’ll have a whole knew explanation of “why” after the fact.
Incidentally, Montenegro was preposterously beautiful, even if they didn’t actually shoot the James Bond scene there. – Vince Mancini
