Top 5 Movie-Related Travel Destinations

Or, better still, top 5 movies with beautiful scenery that will (really!) spark your desire to travel. I love movies a lot, almost as much as I love travelling. Especially well-conceived movies with beautiful scenery, and movies based on travel.

Movies are wonderful because they tell a story. Romantic ones make us smile, comedies make us laugh, and both can often lead us to shed more than one tear. Movies based on travel and adventure can make us wince, scream out loud and experience places and situations where we’ve never had a chance to go. Above all, movies with beautiful scenery and great photography allow us to escape, and inspire us to travel around the world, explore, discover new scenarios and different cultures.

So, what’s the second-best thing we can all do right now, while we wait for the world to get through the pandemic? Watch movies that take us far from our daily toils. Movies that motivate us to pack and start traveling again as soon as we can!

Movies with beautiful scenery, and movies based on travel and adventure, hearten us, give us new ideas and trigger our wanderlust.
Ready to daydream? Travel-addicts and movie-lovers read on for a list of 5 timeless favorites which will certainly encourage your inner travel bug!

Lord of the Rings - New Zealand

A dazzling world-celebrated trilogy of movies based on adventure and travel, with beautiful scenery, entirely filmed in New Zealand. Truth be told, the North and South Island’s supernatural landscapes are probably what made these three movies so captivating and bewitching. Actual filming was held in over 150 different locations on both the Islands, all superb spots you can actually visit traveling to New Zealand. Join the Hobbit, and meet the epic creatures of Middle Earth. Travel from the emerald green sweeping hills of Matamata in the North Island, i.e. Hobbiton, to Queenstown’s snow-capped tops, and the mythical Dimrill Dale!

Under The Tuscan Sun - Tuscany, Italy

Among all movies set in Italy this 2003 romantic comedy is one of the most evocative. Based on a memoir by the same name, it tells the story of a writer who travels to Tuscany, buys a rundown villa and, eventually, ends up… living happy ever after. The Cinderella-like fairytale ending and gorgeous Tuscan locations where it was filmed make it a heart-warming, gratifying movie with beautiful scenery. Starting from the villa itself, splendid countryside and delightful town of Cortona, which embody postcard-perfect Tuscan charm. An iconic movie set in Italy filmed in breathtaking locations one can easily explore during a Tuscan vacation.

Before Sunrise - Vienna, Austria

A romantic cult oldie (1995) which can be truly inspiring for old-word-Europe travel fans. Starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, the movie spins off on a train to Vienna where the two meet. Scenes and intriguing conversation roll on as they spend the whole night roaming through the city’s enchanting streets. Views of the Danube, picturesque trams and a ride on the ferris wheel showcase Vienna’s singular allure and magic atmosphere. A must for couples planning a dreamy Austrian vacation.

Fitzcarraldo - Amazon Jungle (Peru and Brazil)

An unforgettable epic adventure movie written and directed by award-winning director Werner Herzog. Starring an extraordinary Klaus Kinski it recounts, and magnificently paints out, the jungle journey of an opera-loving lunatic Irishman determined to navigate the Pachitea river in a huge steamboat and transport it across a mountain to another river. Locations used for the film include astounding Manaus, in Brazil, Iquitos and Pongo de Mainique in Peru, and a stunning isthmus between the Urubamba and the Camisea rivers, also in Peru.

Out Of Africa - Africa

A glorious love story featuring Meryl Streep and ever-fascinating Robert Redford, immersed in the timeless vistas of the Maasai Mara, Shaba National Game Reserve and shores of the Mara river. Filmed in Kenya’s most renowned national parks, this 1985 academy award-winning film tells the story of Karen Blixen, a famed Danish author who travelled to Africa in the 1900s with her fiance, and then fell in love with another man. Needless to say, the breathtaking photography makes you want to pack right now, set off and lose yourself beneath the African sunsets, among gazelles, zebras, hyenas, jackals, oryx, Masai lions and African leopards. One of the most emotional movies with beautiful scenery ever.