Whether we’re doing work from home or going out and about for work, I think most of us can agree that we’re getting more time at home than we’re used to with things being closed. But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing!
After all, there are plenty of at-home adventures to be had. I’ve written about some here. And it isn’t all that impossible to fuel our wanderlust from the safety of our homes. Even more, we can dream and dream and plan without leaving our couches.
So without further ado, here is a list of my favorite movies to inspire travel.
Travel Movies set in England/Scotland/Ireland
- Leap Year. Leap Year is one of my favorite movies. It features Amy Adams who follows her boyfriend to Dublin, hoping to propose on Leap Year day, which is an Irish custom. Due to bad weather, she ends up in Dingle and falls in love with another man on the way to Dublin.
- Little Women
- The Secret Garden
- Tristan & Isolde
- Pride and Prejudice
- Wild Child. American teen Poppy is sent to boarding school after her last-straw actions upset her father. In England, Poppy hatches a plan to get expelled in order to return home, but in doing so, she realizes the friends she’s made along the way might be the reason she finally feels like she belongs.
- The Harry Potter Series
- What a Girl Wants. American teenager from NYC, Daphne learns that her father is from a wealthy British family who is running for Parliament. Wanting to meet her father, she flies to England, and finds he didn’t know she existed.
- Winning London. Winning London is a Mary Kate and Ashley classic.
- Mary Queen of Scots
- Stone of Destiny. Stone of Destiny is about an artifact taken from Scotland which was used to coronate royalty in Scotland as part of their tradition. Kept at Westminster Abbey, a few college students hatch a plan to steal it back for their country. This movie is based on true events and is an absolutely wonderful story that needed to be told.
Movies set in Italy
- Pompeii. Pompeii is a fictionalized account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the town of Pompeii, Italy. There is forbidden love in the movie and who doesn’t love history and romance?
- When in Rome (2010)
- Roman Holiday
- Letters to Juliet. Letters to Juliet is one of my favorite movies. On her pre-honeymoon with her fiancee, Sophie meets with the “Juliets” of Verona, a group of women who respond to the letters left by people who write Juliet Capulet from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Finding a fifty year old letter, she writes back the woman who had left her love fifty years earlier. The woman comes back, accompanied with her grandson and they trek through the beautiful sites of Italy to see if she can find her Lorenzo.
- Under the Tuscan Sun
- The Lizzie McGuire Movie
- Eat, Pray, Love
Travel Movies set in Africa
- Holiday in the Wild. Holiday in the Wild is a movie about a NYC socialite who booked a trip for her and her husband to Africa for a second honeymoon. Right before the trip, he decides they should divorce and she goes to Africa on her own. While on a tour with a local and finding an elephant that was trapped by poachers, the New Yorker puts her veterinarian training to use and finds herself drawn to an elephant refugee camp where she nurses elephants back to health, finding passion in the work she does and in herself again.
- Blended.
Travel-Inspiring Movies set in Greece
- Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- Mamma Mia
- Mamma Mia 2
Movies set in New Zealand
- Falling Inn Love. Falling Inn Love is a newer Netflix movie about a woman who wins an inn in New Zealand. She finds the inn in disrepair and hoping to restore the inn and sell it finds friendship and romance in this beautiful country.
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
- The Hobbit Series
Movies set in Switzerland/ Austria
- The Sound of Music. The Sound of Music is about a nun whose abbey places her as governess for Captain Von Trapp. She brings music into the household and thaws the rigid nature of the Captain. The movie is loosely based on a real family and true events and is a beautiful movie and story about a family in Austria.
- Heidi (1937)
Movies set in France
- Sabrina
- Ever After
- Charade
- Funny Face
- Monte Carlo
- The Man in the Iron Mask
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I could not resist adding this Disney classic.
- Passport to Paris. Passport to Paris is a Mary Kate and Ashley movie I watched over and over again growing up.
Travel Movies set in the United States
- Just Go With It
- Enchanted
- Fame
- Annie
- Kate & Leopold
- How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- Something Borrowed
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Bride Wars
- Confessions of a Shopaholic
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s
- Brooklyn
- New York Minute
I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of these movies! Do you have any travel movies you love or recommend?
And if you like these, you can check out my list of 12 TV shows to watch to inspire travel!
Stay safe!
XO