It’s a hard truth to accept: You can’t constantly be on vacation, jetting off to far-flung lands all the time. Thankfully, it’s easier than ever to virtually transport yourself through the many streaming services available these days.
To help bridge the gap until your next adventure—or to get the juices flowing if you don’t know where to go next—we pulled together recommendations from our staff for the best movies that had us searching for flights as soon as the credits rolled. Hopefully, they’ll inspire you to travel, too.
“The Darjeeling Limited” (2007)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime ($4), Apple TV ($4), Google Play ($4)
- Genre: Adventure
Set mainly in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, between the cities of Jodhpur and Udaipur, this Wes Anderson flick has all the romanticism of a bygone era of travel—with the opulent train cars, adventures, and misadventures (including acquiring poisonous snakes at a local market, falling in love with train attendants, and joining a sacred Indian funeral). It will make you believe in the transformative and thrilling experience of just moving through a place, taking it in, and letting that movement heal you. Filming occurred mostly in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, between the cities of Jodhpur and Udaipur.
“Aftersun” (2022)
- Watch now: Apple TV ($4), Google Play ($5), Paramount+ (free with Showtime subscription)
- Genre: Drama
Vacation nostalgia cuts deep in this coming-of-age film. Now an adult, Sophie reflects on a holiday she took with her father—a single dad played by Paul Mescal—20 years earlier at a Turkish resort. This film earned Mescal an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, and rightfully so. You’ll never listen to David Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure” the same way after watching him dance to it at the resort on the final night of their trip. If you want to recreate the vacation for yourself, head to the resort town of Ölüdeniz on the southwest coast of Turkey and two nearby hotels that together “played” the resort from the film: Telmessos Neva Hotel and the Turk Hotel.
Film lovers should stop into the Montmartre restaurant, Café des Deux Moulins, where Amélie works as a waitress
Photo by Gilmanshin/Shutterstock
“Amélie” (2001)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime ($4), Apple TV ($5), Google Play ($4)
- Genre: Romance/Comedy
This whimsical comedy about a Parisian waitress, set to an enchanting Yann Tiersen soundtrack, will make you want to move to Montmartre and spend your days skipping stones on the Canal Saint-Martin. As Amélie (Audrey Tautou) makes her way through Paris, nudging her neighbors and family toward their own happiness, she finds love along the way, too. The movie has become such a beloved cult hit that the official Paris tourism office has even put together a guide to iconic filming locations, such as the Café des Deux Moulins where Amélie waits tables and the vintage carousel at the bottom of the steps up to Sacré-Cœur.
>> See more: The 15 Best Movies Set in Paris You Can Stream Right Now
“Seven Wonders of the World” (1956)
- Watch now: Kanopy (free with a public library card or university login)
- Genre: Documentary
Around the World in 80 Days (with David Niven as Phileas Fogg) wasn’t the only great travel movie to debut in 1956: The Cinerama epic Seven Wonders of the World, narrated by Lowell Thomas, took several years to film, with five different directors and crews shooting around 32 countries around the world, including Egypt, Greece, Brazil, and Venezuela. Unseen theatrically since the early 1970s, this digitally remastered version from its original camera negatives is now available on Kanopy, an on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries.
Re-create one of the most iconic scenes in A Real Pain by posing in front of the Warsaw Uprising Monument.
Photo by Cezary Wojtkowski/Shutterstock
“A Real Pain” (2024)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime ($6), Apple TV ($6), Disney+ (free with subscription), Google Play ($6), Hulu (free with subscription)
- Genre: Comedy/Drama
Few recent movies have captured the highs, lows, and shouts of “whoa!” common while traveling with family members as successfully as this buddy road comedy written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Two very different Jewish American cousins—the type A David (Eisenberg) and the free-spirited Benji (Kieran Culkin)—travel to Poland on a group tour to honor their late grandmother. As they take in Holocaust sites and eventually visit their grandmother’s childhood home, they squabble, reminisce, bond, and reflect on their heritage. Along the way, they stop in Warsaw, where Benji gets the group to pose as freedom fighters in front of the Warsaw Uprising Monument; in Lublin, where they visit landmarks like the Grodzka Gate and Old Jewish Cemetery; and at the Majdanek concentration camp, where they’re overwhelmed by the immensity of the suffering that occurred there. It’s not always a lighthearted watch, but A Real Pain perfectly showcases the transformative power of travel.
“Y Tu Mamá También” (2001)
- Watch now: Disney+ (free with subscription), Hulu (free with subscription), Netflix (free with subscription)
- Genre: Drama
Two teen boys (played by Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) convince an older woman (Maribel Verdú) to join them on an impromptu road trip to a mystical Mexican beach. The fictitious Boca del Cielo (“Heaven’s Mouth”) was filmed at Oaxaca’s Bahía de Cacaluta, which is as remote and untouched as the movie suggests. (To access the beach, you either have to hike in or take a boat.) To see more of Mexico through the point of view of writer-director Alfonso Cuarón, watch his 2018 film, Roma, loosely based on his 1970s middle-class upbringing in Mexico City. You can snap photos of the family house from the movie at 22 Tepeji Street.
The Danish-inspired Solvang and the surrounding Santa Ynez Valley provided a picturesque backdrop for Alexander Payne’s ode to oenophiles, Sideways.
Photo by fox_lei/Shutterstock
“Sideways” (2004)
- Watch now: Apple TV ($4), Google Play ($4)
- Genre: Comedy
A wine geek and his philandering friend mix pinot noir and midlife malaise on a road trip through California’s Santa Ynez Valley wine country near Santa Barbara. After this now-classic movie debuted, tourism in the region boomed and pinot producers multiplied. If you go, stay at the Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Resorts Collection, which opened in 2023 in a converted stagecoach stop and tavern. Then plan a road trip of your own using Visit Santa Barbara’s helpful map of filming locations, including Kalyra Winery, Gaviota State Park, and OstrichLand USA.
“Into the Wild” (2007)
- Watch now: Google Play ($4), Paramount+ (free with subscription)
- Genre: Biographical drama
Based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild is about a young man who gave up his worldly possessions to hitchhike across North America and eventually live in Alaska’s wilderness. It’s a great example of how much there is to discover in our own backyards, and it also embodies the AFAR ethos of traveling to learn something new about a place, see a side you never knew about, and test your own boundaries. Fans of the book and movie used to make pilgrimages to the abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail where McCandless sadly died of starvation, but many were unprepared for the journey and had to be rescued themselves. In 2020, the Alaska Army National Guard moved the bus, which is currently being conserved at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks.
Pedro Almodóvar fans can stay in Casa Ramos, one of the modernist buildings featured in his 1999 classic All About My Mother.
Photo by Just dance/Shutterstock
“All About My Mother” (1999)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime ($4), Apple TV ($4), Google Play ($4)
- Genre: Drama
Pedro Almodóvar won his first Oscar for this vibrant portrayal of women in Barcelona, which beautifully captures the attitude of the Catalonian capital. Just try watching it and not immediately booking a flight to go see every Gaudí site and eat as much tortilla española as possible. The city’s whimsical architecture and centuries of rich history can be viewed in scenes shot at the Teatre Tivoli, Sagrada Familia, Palau de la Música, and Cementiri de Montjuïc. To truly immerse yourself in the world of All About My Mother, you can even stay in an Airbnb at the modernist Casa Ramos, which was built in 1906 and features in the film; the two-bedroom apartment available for rent also appeared as Villanelle’s apartment on the TV series Killing Eve.
“The Endless Summer” (1966)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime (free with subscription), Apple TV ($4)
- Genre: Documentary
This 1966 documentary that follows two California surfers on a trip to catch waves around the world will tap into your surfer-girl (or boy) fantasies. What the film does particularly well is show off just how universal the love of tackling the waves is: The movie hopscotches around the world from well-known surf capitals like Hawaii, Tahiti, and Australia to such relatively lesser-known spots as Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. After watching The Endless Summer, one former AFAR editor, Jen Murphy, was so inspired that she signed up for a week-long surf camp in Hawai‘i.
Fans of Roman Holiday must make a pilgrimage to the Mouth of Truth, an ancient Roman marble mask found at the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church.
Courtesy of Matthew TenBruggencate/Unsplash
“Roman Holiday” (1953)
- Watch now: Apple TV ($4), Kanopy (free with a public library card or university login), Paramount+ (free with subscription)
- Genre: Drama
In her major debut U.S. performance, Audrey Hepburn shines as Ann, a sheltered princess who falls for a rakish newspaperman, Joe Bradley, while on a tour of Europe’s capital cities. Drama ensues when Joe (played by Gregory Peck) realizes he can profit financially by becoming close with the princess and enlists his photographer friend to take photos of them to sell to tabloids.
Come for the sparkle between the costars, and stay for the dizzying shots of Rome: Famous scenes were filmed at the Spanish Steps in the Piazza di Spagna, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, Castel Sant’Angelo, and perhaps most iconically, the Mouth of Truth (Bocca della Verità) at the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church, where Joe pretends to have his hand chopped off by the truth-detecting marble mask. Although the film was shot on location, doing so meant a greater expense than anticipated—so the film ended up in black and white instead of color.
>> See more: 12 Movies Set in Rome to Stream Right Now
“Tracks” (2013)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime (free with subscription), Google Play ($2)
- Genre: Biographical drama
Based on the true story of Robyn Davidson’s 1,700-mile camel ride through the Australian desert, Tracks will help you pluck up the courage for any adventure. Davidson, played by Mia Wasikowska, sets a course from Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory, to the Indian Ocean, and along the way meets National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan (Adam Driver), engages with Aboriginal people, and learns sacred customs and ancient traditions. While you may not want to undertake the trip in quite the same way—with four dromedaries and a dog—the Outback setting will certainly draw you in.
Jesse and Céline share a memorable kiss on the 1890s-era Ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad.
Photo by ABB Photo/Shutterstock
“Before Sunrise” (1995)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime ($4), Apple TV ($4), Google Play ($4)
- Genre: Romance
Richard Linklater’s beloved romance is cinematic proof that love can pop up anywhere. In the original film, an American student named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a French student named Céline (Julie Delpy) meet on a train and spend one fateful night wandering around the streets of Vienna until his flight home the next morning. They shop for records at Alt & Neu, stroll through Maria-Theresien-Platz, wander along the banks of the Donaukanal, have coffee and make fake phone calls to their friends back home in Café Sperl, and share a kiss on the Wiener Riesenrad, an 1897 Ferris wheel.
By the final Vienna train station scene, you’ll be rooting for these star-crossed lovers—and will be relieved to know this is part of a trilogy. Before Sunset (2004) follows the pair into the future as they reconnect in Paris, and Before Midnight (2013) traces their family vacation in Greece with their children.
“Lost in Translation” (2003)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime ($4), Apple TV ($4), Google Play ($4)
- Genre: Drama
Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation walks a line between comedy and drama, light and dark. With bustling Tokyo as its backdrop, the film stars Scarlett Johansson as Charlotte, a young wife on location with her photographer husband, and Bill Murray as Bob Harris, a past-his-prime movie star bored in his own marriage. In between Bob’s commitments shooting an ad for Suntory whiskey, the two gallivant around the city, singing karaoke at Karaoke-Kan in Shibuya (ask for rooms 601 or 602 to recreate the scene) and eating shabu-shabu together at Shabuzen.
Made most famous by the film, perhaps, is the sleek, sky-high New York Bar at the Park Hyatt Tokyo; the hotel is currently closed for a renovation and set to reopen in October 2025. Though some of the scenes around Japanese culture are dialed up for comedic effect, the film’s theme of existential ennui will ring true for most.
>> See more: 12 Movies Set in Tokyo to Stream Right Now
Kipu Ranch has been a popular filming location for decades, in such movies as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park.
Photo by RandomHartz/Shutterstock
“The Descendants” (2011)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime ($4), Apple TV ($4), Google Play ($4)
- Genre: Drama
If you’ve only ever been to the Hawaiian islands of O‘ahu or Maui, The Descendants will inspire you to travel deeper—especially to Kaua’i, the Garden Isle. Shots of the island’s raw, jagged cliffs and almost acid-green vegetation are bound to mesmerize. In one memorable scene, the family stands at a high point looking down over their property, a sweeping valley and coastline played in the film by the Kipu Ranch, which you can explore by ATV with Kipu Ranch Adventures. If you go, make time to stop into Tahiti Nui, a legendary spot for live music and mai tais in Hanalei, which is featured in the film.
“The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004)
- Watch now: Amazon Prime ($4), Apple TV ($4), Google Play ($4)
- Genre: Biographical drama
Gael García Bernal plays a young Ernesto “Che” Guevera as he undertakes his history-changing road trip across South America in the 1950s before he became a famous Marxist revolutionary. To ensure authenticity, producers chose to shoot the film in 30 different locations across Argentina (including Patagonia and Nahuel Huapi Lake), Chile (including the Atacama Desert and the Chuquicamata copper mine), and Peru (including Machu Picchu and Cuzco) and employed performers local to each region. This movie will not only spark wanderlust but it will also light a fire under anyone seeking their life’s calling.
Lyndsey Matthews and Nicholas DeRenzo contributed reporting to this article, which originally appeared online in 2015; it was most recently updated on February 17, 2025, to include current information.
