Travel movies to get you pumped up for your trip

We get it. You’re addicted to Netflix. Check out these travel movies!

THE LANGUAGE BUFF

L’auberge Espagnole, Les Poupées Russes, Casse-Tête Chinois

These are, without a doubt, my favorite travel and language movies of all time. They follow Xavier, a French student, who does a year abroad in Barcelona and lives in an apartment with other students from England, Russia, Italy, Germany, and Spain. They show exactly what we have always tried to promote here: getting out of your comfort zone, exploring cities, meeting tons of crazy and interesting people, and actually living life. These movies go to show that the more you travel, the more eventful your life tends to be!

Paris, je t’aime

If you’re a hopeless romantic/slightly obsessed with anything-French, you’ll love Paris, Je t’aime. It’s one movie broken down into 20 7-minute love stories that last about 7 minutes each, which makes this movie the perfect choice for all of us in the Snapchat generation who basically have ADD.

Spanglish

A Mexican single mother moves to Los Angeles and finds a job as a housekeeper for a super rich American family. It’s the perfect movie for those people who love to say things like “I shouldn’t have to press 1 to speak English” in America, because after it, you’ll be soooo Team Flo (played by Paz Vega).

2 Days in Paris, 2 Days in New York

If ever you’ve had a foreign boyfriend or girlfriend, this one’s for you. Watch it with a French person and they’ll be like, “Uh yeah! That’s how we do it in France!” Watch it with an American person and they’ll be like “WTF is goin’ on? Is this how French people are?” Whether you’re in a relationship with a Frenchie or American or not, this movie is bound to point out all the French-American cultural clashes…that those of us in international relationships deal with daily.

ROM-COMS

Wanderlust

A Manhattan couple (rom-com veterans Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston) decide they’re fed up with their corporate jobs and stressful Manhattan life after a harsh economic downturn, to ultimately leave New York for Atlanta. But eh! Not so fast. Sh*t happens and before they know it, they’re at Elysium, a hippie, vegan commune, which is completely way-out there from their previous Manhattan life.

Eat Pray Love

Talk about wishing you were the bo$$ b*tch in this movie?? The movie starts off with a traumatizing heart break that causes Julia Roberts, playing an average American woman, to drop everything about normal life and pack her sh*t up to go on a world tour and find herself. She learns Italian, makes foreign friends, and falls in deep, deep love with spirituality, and a sexy man who poses as a Brazilian (he was totally a phony, don’t let the muscles fool you). I promise, you will be booking your next ticket abroad the minute you finish watching this movie.

Sex and The City, 2

Sex and the City, the series, has a very special place in my (Jo) heart. Ok, I admit that the only reason I wanted to move to NYC was because I wanted to mirror these women’s very independent, sexy, and sassy way of life, ya caught me. In terms of inspiring adventure though, 2nd movie takes all that sass overseas. These four women show the beauty of traveling as close friends who are progressive Western women, in the conservative East. Just standby for Samantha’s condoms fall all over the floor in the middle of a market in Abu Dhabi.

Under the Tuscan Sun

I (Jo) watched this movie when I was 12, and it made me 1) aware that getting married kind of sucks sometimes, and 2) realize that I want to spend at least a year of my life in Italy. The plot follows a writer from San Fran who, after being cheated on and divorced by her husband, takes a gay bus tour in Italy with her lesbian best friends, and ends up impulsively buying a villa in the middle of Tuscany. Anything with gay, Italy, and life-change is a must-see.

Serendipity

The only other movie that will get you this excited about visiting New York City is Home Alone, but Macaulay just didn’t make the cut with this blog, sorry boo; you’ll be in our holiday traveling movies blog. Serendipity is one of my (Jo) favorite flicks because it shows the big “ahaa moment” that traveling tattoos in your mind: you end up where you end up for a reason. Fall in love with the possibility of serendipity.

Vicky Christina Barcelona

Two American twenty-something best friends decide to spend the summer in Barcelona. The two have different outlooks on love, one who prefers a traditional and committed approach (and who is engaged), while the other is more of a spontaneous, whatever-happens-happens kind of girl. Turns out, they meet a sexy, scruffy man who not only falls in love with these two Americans (awkward?), but who is also still in love with his ex (hopeless romantic, much?). You can just imagine the amount of love, tension, and cheating that goes on in this movie. Not to mention that everyone in this movie is hotter than hot.

Take Me Home

Any movie that involves a cross-country road trip is a movie for me. And this one does it in an illegal taxi cab. With two New Yorkers. Unhappy with their lives. C’mon this is bound to be a classic feel-good, rom-com.

MOTIVATIONAL

Yes man!

Ok, if ever you’re feeling like your life is going nowhere, like you’re just getting bored, or just unhappy, please watch Yes man. Jim Carrey acts in this comedy as a man who feels overall blah with his life after a recent divorce and thus vows to literally say yes to any opportunity that presents itself because he meets a leader of a movement who tells him his life will change in doing so.

The Terminal

I know we all had that secret dreamed of getting stuck in a mall overnight, but how would you feel about getting stuck in an airport terminal for months? This movie follows the story of an Eastern European man, turned bada$$, who gets stuck in JFK after his country breaks out in war. He couldn’t enter the United States, but he also couldn’t be deported. He ends up setting up his home in the terminal lounge and makes friends with vendors, pushes suitcase carts to make quarters just to buy food, and somehow manages to communicate despite not speaking a damn word of English. He’s our kind of guy.

Up

First of all, let’s clear up the fact that this is not just a children’s movie. This is a movie that everyone, at any age, should be required to watch. The premise shows an old man who’s in love with adventure, let his whole life go by without actually adventuring. He bought a house, tried to have kids with his beloved wife, didn’t work out, and next thing you know, he’s snapping, cracking, and popping his back as an 80 year old man home all alone. Despite the age, he takes off with his youngin’ boy scout stalker to prove that “adventure is out there.”

By Damon Dominique