Movies that qualify as travel documentaries

Cafe Society
1

What are some movies set in a specific location on Earth, that were also filmed on location and can basically double as something from the Travel Channel? You get a film and get to see some interesting parts of the world? It doesn’t even have to be a movie you enjoyed, just as long as it was set and filmed in a real place? Also doesn’t have to be an impressive landmark, just a real place.

Y Tu Mamá También I have been lead to believe is very accurate on its depiction of Mexico, including details like slang. Also Mexico City has some amazing supermarkets :eek:

This movie is set and filmed in the amazing Chunking Gardens “building city” in Hong Kong.

2

Windjammer

I know it’s not really what you were after, but I saw it as a kid, maybe when I was five or six, and boy was I disappointed. My dad had built it up as some amazing cinematic spectacle (‘better than Cinerama’) and to this day I feel cheated. Little kids don’t do well during two plus hours of a travelogue.

Sorry, but you asked.

3

The Lord of the Rings movie series has been repeatedly been accused of being an ad for the New Zealand board of tourism.

4

I guess both Endless Summer movies would qualify.

5

Trade Winds, 1938, is literally director Tay Garnett’s vacation movies from a world cruise. He came back to the studio, shot scenes with stars Fredric March and Joan Bennett, and stuck them in front of his real film of Saigon, Tokyo, Bombay and Shanghai. Dialogue by Dorothy Parker! Mark your calendar for 9:30 p.m. July 10.

6

Aguirre: The Wrath of God. :smiley:

7

Woody Allen movies make New York, London, Paris and Rome look really nice.

8

The Year of Living Dangerously has a spectacular sequence where they travel into the mountainous interior of Indonesia.

9

Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited made me want to visit India.

10

The Straight Story was filmed near my house and is a great portrayal of the land and the people that live here. And I’ll grudgingly accept that much of Fargo hits close to home.

11

I stayed there for a week and a half a few years ago, I’ll have to check this out.

12

The Way

13

Everything you needed to know about the tourist sights on Oahu was covered by a two-parter of the Brady Bunch.

14

Not to mention Elvis’s movie Blue Hawaii.

15

Tarsem Singh’s The Fall (youtube link to trailer; scenery kicks in around 0:22 – edit: uh, the trailer kind of gives away the whole movie, so if you want to see the film, put the trailer on mute)

Filming locations:
[QUOTE=wikipedia]

*Valkenberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
  • Deadvlei from the Sossusvlei dune in Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia[4]
    *The labyrinth Jantar Mantar in Jaipur
  • Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, India
    *Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic
    *Butterfly reef, Fiji
    *Sumatra Island
  • Andaman Islands of India
  • Pangong Tso in Ladakh, India
  • Buland Darwaza in the palace complex of Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh, India
  • Agra[5]
  • Magnetic Hill in Ladakh, India
    *Moonscape near Lamayuru Monastery in Ladakh, India
  • Bali
    *Chand Baori, a large stepwell in Abhaneri village in the Indian state of Rajasthan
    *Jodhpur, the Blue City in Rajastan
    *Umaid Bhawan Palace Lobby, Jodhpur, Rajastan
    *Taj Mahal, India
    *Jardín Botánico de Buenos Aires, Argentina
    *Capitoline Hill, Colosseum, Roma, Italy
  • Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli, Italy
    *Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
    *First Statue of Liberty at Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, France[3]

[/quote]

16

This is a weird one, but a really good Chicago movie is The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. High Fidelity also.

17

Fitzcarraldoperhaps? You can go see an Opera!

18

I highly recommend both Herzog films already mentioned.

Zero Dark Thirty really made me want to visit the Middle East. The nice parts. In winter.

19

European Vacation with Chevy Chase as your tour guide through London, Rome, and Germany. It’s a wonderful travel documentary with various mishaps along the way :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Sort of an example, the music video for Phil Collins’ “Take Me Home” was filmed at various monuments in London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Stockholm, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, San Francisco, and Hollywood. The video was actually shot on the cheap during his 1985 world tour.