The 25 Best Travel Films to Get You Through the Pandemic

Need some new travel inspired films to watch?

Here we are, nearly a year into the pandemic. Our passports are collecting dust in the corner and there’s still no real safe way to travel. Our one reprieve is that we can watch adventures come to life through films safely from our own homes.

Travel movies will inspire your wanderlust. You won’t be able to help yourself from pinning travel destinations on Pinterest or dreaming up future trip itineraries. Films have that beautiful power to give you hope for once the pandemic is over. It may seem like it will never end, but it will end one day. You will travel and have incredible experiences.

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Inspirational Travel Films With Female Leads

1. Eat Pray Love:

After her marriage falls apart, Elizabeth decides to use her book advance to fund her year-long trip abroad to Italy, India, and finally Bali. She goes through a multitude of experiences towards self-growth and develops meaningful friendships and relationships along the way to finding herself again. Based on a true story. Note* Currently available to stream on Netflix as of 2/26/2021

Rent this movie: $2.99 via Prime Video

Prefer the book?

2. Wild

After the death of her mother, Cheryl goes through a series of struggles from the destruction of her marriage to her substance abuse issues. Deciding to finally confront her problems, she choose to do a solo thru-hike of all 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. Based on a true story.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video

Prefer the book?

3. How Stella Got Her Groove Back

Stella is a successful stockbroker that is in a bit of rut. Her friend Delilah pushes her to join her on a trip to Jamaica for some fun. There Stella meets someone new and a romance ensues. More importantly she goes through a journey to finding herself again.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video.

4. Under the Tuscan Sun

Frances finds out that her husband is having an affair from an author she writes a negative review about. With her life in shambles, her friends sign her up for a tour of Italy. Once there, she discovers and purchases a villa in the countryside of Italy.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video

Prefer the book?

5. The Holiday

Two women across the globe from one another become fed up with their perspective lives. To rediscover themselves, and perhaps find some welcome change, they decide to do a house swap. This is funny and positive travel movie that will make you want to hop on a plane.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video

6. Tracks

Inspired by Robyn Davidson’s real life journey, this film documents her journey across the Australian desert starting from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean which is a 2,000 mile journey.

Rent this movie: 2.99 via Prime Video

Prefer the book?

7. Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Bernadette is a talented former architect that has put her own needs on the back burner for years. Her daughter presents the idea of a family trip to Antarctica which both herself and her husband dismiss. Suddenly, Bernadette disappears and her family pursues solving the mystery of what happened to Bernadette.

Rent this movie: 3.99 via Prime Video

Prefer the book?

Inspirational Travel With Male Leads

8. The Way

An all work and no play father is informed of his son’s passing while hiking the Spain’s Santiago de Compostela. After retrieving his son’s ashes, he choose to do the hike himself in order to understand both himself and his son. Inspired loosely on a true story.

Rent this movie: $2.99 via Prime Video

9. A Walk in the Woods

Bill Bryson is nearing retirement, but wants to push himself to do something before time is up. He is inspired to hike all 2,000+ miles of the Appalachian Trail with his clumsy friend. Based on a true story.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video

Prefer the book?

10. Mile…Mile & a Half

This is a documentary of five friend’s journey hiking the John Muir Trail in California, USA. The trail is 211 miles and their goal is to complete it in 25 days. This film discusses their friendship, determination, and friends made along the way.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video

11. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Walter Mitty is an employee at Life magazine living a monotonous life. To escape the tedium, Walter inhabits a world of exciting fantasies in which he is the hero. He gets a chance to have a real adventure when Life’s new owners send him on a mission to obtain the perfect photo for the final print issue.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video

Drama Adventure Travel Films

12. Rabbit Proof Fence

Three mixed-race girls are torn brutally from their Aboriginal mother and sent over a thousand miles away to a training camp for domestic workers as part of a brutal government policy to integrate them into white society. The girls make the decision to run away and walk all 1000 miles along the rabbit-proof fence back to their home. Warning this is a sad movie, but it is a must watch! Based on a true story.

Rent this movie: $2.99 via Prime Video.

Prefer the book?

13. The Motorcycle Diaries

Based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he, and best friend Alberto Granado, had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video.

Prefer the book?

14. Far and Away

Joseph and his landlord’s daughter Shannon run away from Ireland to America during the 1893 land rush in Oklahoma. There they hope to find their fortune, freedom, and secure their own homestead.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video.

15. Slumdog Millionaire

Jamal an orphan from the slums of Mumbai, is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” The film goes through Jamal’s life and his journey to the present.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video.

16. Shirkers

In the early 1990s Sandi Tan shoots Singapore’s first road movie with her mentor, Georges, who then steals all of the footage. The 16 mm film is recovered 20 years later, sending Tan, who is now a novelist living in Los Angeles, on a personal odyssey in search of Georges’ footprints. Note* currently only available for streaming on Netflix.

Rent this movie: Only available on Netflix.

17. Wildlike

A teenage girl from a difficult home runs away. She meets an older man that is preparing for his thru hike of the Alaskan wilderness. While her original intent was to go to Seattle to find her mother, she finds herself wandering further into Alaska.

Rent this movie: 3.99 SD, 4.99 HD via Prime Video

Comedic Travel Films

18. Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 

Several British retirees make a risky choice to relocate to India. They pay to reside in the Marigold Hotel thinking it will be luxurious. However, upon their arrival to find it is actually run down. Despite this, they discover life and love can begin again when they let go of their pasts and expectations.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video.

Prefer the book?

19. French Kiss

Kate learns that her fiancé has left her for a Parisian woman, she boards a flight to France. There she meats Luc, who unbeknownst to Kate is a con man using her to smuggle a stolen necklace. He follows her to Kate’s hotel where she goes to confront her ex fiancé. Kate and Luc get to know each other and Kate ends up having a decision to make.

Available for Purchase: $9.69 via Prime Video.

20. Summer Rental

Burnt out from work, air traffic controller Jack Chester is forced to take leave and go on vacation. Jack books his family into a beach house but things don’t go quite as planned. This is one of my favorite summer vacation movies!

Available for purchase: $3.99 via Prime Video.

21. The Great Outdoors

When an unannounced, uninvited and unwelcome family of fun-loving misfits converge upon a lakeside resort to join their relatives for a summer of relaxation, but it doesn’t quite go as planned. Love, love this movie.

Available for purchase: $13.99 via Prime Video.

22. City Slickers

Three friends are dealing with a midlife crisis. To escape their lives they decide to join a retreat to do a cattle drive across the Southwestern United States. They meat a rough and tough cowboy named Curly that changes their lives forever. The three men bond and confront their fear of aging. Note* Currently streaming on HBO Max and Hulu.

Available for purchase: $13.99 via Prime Video.

23. Away We Go

With the upcoming due date of their baby, a couple travel across the United States to find the perfect place to settle down. They have a series of misadventures and reconnect with old friends and family.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video.

24. The Bucket List

Billionaire Edward Cole and car mechanic Carter Chambers end up in the same hospital room. The men find they have two things in common: a need to come to terms with who they are and what they have done with their lives, and a desire to complete a list of things they want to see and do before they die. Against their doctor’s advice, the men leave the hospital and set out on the adventure of a lifetime.

Rent this movie: $2.99 via Prime Video.

25. Little Miss Sunshine

The Hoover family are a dysfunctional group that are travelling to California in an old VW bus. They want to support a daughter’s desire to enter the Little Miss Sunshine Contest. . Note* Available for streaming on Hulu.

Rent this movie: $3.99 via Prime Video.

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