Set around Thanksgiving, Planes Trains, and Automobiles uses the travel rush in the days leading up to the holiday as a more-than-worthy comedic masterpiece. Steve Martin plays Neal Page, who faces a series of travel nightmares on his trip from New York City to Chicago. After his flight is canceled due to bad weather, Page ends up sharing his trip home with salesman Del Griffith, played by the late, great John Candy. The actors’ chemistry is hard to deny… especially when they’re sleeping in the same bed together on the road. – W.L.
In this film, adventure writer Kathleen Turner learns that her sister is being held prisoner by evil art dealers in Colombia. Once her sister mails Turner a map leading to a valuable treasure, she must leave her safety net of New York City to make her way to the jungles of Colombia. Turner teams up with soldier of fortune Michael Douglas in this adventure packed drama.
Richard (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) finds himself tramping from one Thai hostel to the next, desperately searching for something meaningful. A tip from a fellow traveler in Bangkok sends him on a journey to a hard-to-reach island, described as the ultimate paradise—white sands, clear water, and only a handful of other travelers who’ve sworn to keep its location a secret. But, of course, paradise isn’t exactly what it seems—and the same goes for real life too, as fans have since trashed the filming location, Maya Beach, forcing its closure. – Megan Spurrell
Two carefree Americans embark on an overseas vacation that soon becomes a nightmare in this powerful drama. Alice (Claire Danes) is a headstrong teenager who wants to do something different to celebrate her high school graduation, so she persuades her more reserved best friend Darlene (Kate Beckinsale) to join her on a trip to Bangkok. While enjoying sun and scenery, Alice and Darlene meet Nick Parks, a charming Australian who shows them the sights and then suggests that they join him on a side trip to Hong Kong, but they soon discover that Nick’s interest hasn’t been exactly friendly: he has hidden a large amount of heroin in their luggage and is using them as drug runners without their knowledge. – Mark Deming
Lost in Translation chronicles the budding friendship of two Americans in Tokyo (played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson), shot in typically beautiful Sofia Coppola fashion. From the upmarket Park Hyatt hotel to the neon-filled karaoke bars and streets, the movie is like a tourism ad for Tokyo. But more importantly, it’s a melancholy portrayal of loneliness—even in a city filled with millions of people. – C.M.
Based on the non-fiction book – A Long Way Home, this biographical film is poignant and gripping and tells the true story of Saroo (played by Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire). At five years old, Saroo gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of miles across India, away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive alone in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. 25 years later, armed with only a handful of memories and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home. – Wild Junket
Vacation was the world’s introduction to the Griswold family, led by accident-prone dad-in-chief Clark (Chevy Chase). The film spoofs the tried-and-true American tradition of the family road trip, taking the Griswold car through at least two real-life national parks—Death Valley and Grand Canyon—on their way to the fictional amusement park, Walley World. Add in an unforgettable cameo from Christie Brinkley and a hit theme song in “Holiday Road,” and you have a movie every vacationer should watch once in their lifetime. – W.L.
Based on the Stephen King short story – The Body, this film takes place in Castle Rock, OR, over Labor Day weekend, 1959. A group of friends set out in search of a dead body that one of the boys overhears his brother talking about. The foursome consists of intellectual Gordie (Wil Wheaton), born leader Chris (River Phoenix), emotionally disturbed Teddy (Corey Feldman), and chubby hanger-on Vern (Jerry O’Connell). The boys’ adventures en route to the elusive body are colored by the personal pressures brought to bear on all of them by the adult world. Richard Dreyfuss, playing the grown-up Gordie, narrates the film, while Kiefer Sutherland dominates every scene he’s in as a brutish high-school bully. – Hal Erickson
Steven Spielberg’s stylish caper tells the real-life story of Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio), a teenage con artist who manages to avoid the feds while pulling off elaborate schemes. Abagnale famously impersonated a Pan Am pilot, and the film plays this up with plenty of vintage air travel eye candy. – A.P.
The allure of California’s fantastic Vineyards is well known (and documented), but wine culture still has a sniff of exclusivity. That’s what makes Sideways, whose main character is actually a middle-aged slob, so relatable and hilarious. Aside from telling a great story with great characters, the movie also happens to showcase some of the most beautiful vineyards and tasting rooms in Santa Barbara. Have a glass while you watch, just not merlot. – C.M.
Into the Wild tells the remarkable story of a young man’s solo adventure in Alaska. In 1992, he left his well-to-do family, hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. – Wild Junket
An exploration of human survival and the ability of fate to alter even the tidiest of lives with one major event, Cast Away tells the story of Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), a Federal Express engineer who devotes most of his life to his career. His girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) is often neglected by his dedication to work, and his compulsive personality suggests a conflicted man. But on Christmas Eve, Chuck proposes marriage to Kelly right before embarking on a large assignment. On the assignment, a plane crash strands Chuck on a remote island, and his fast-paced life is slowed to a crawl. Chuck must now learn to endure the emotional and physical stress of his new life, unsure of when he may return to the civilization he knew before. – Jason Clark
Accustomed to a simple life in the Australian Outback, a legendary crocodile hunter has trouble adjusting to his new surroundings when an American journalist brings him to New York City. This Australian comedy delivers exactly what one would expect: plenty of fish-out-of-water gags about the hunter’s reactions to the absurdity of modern urban life. Though he initially seems rather naive, Paul Hogan’s “Crocodile” Dundee soon demonstrates that his natural ways are rather quite well-suited to city life, proving himself equally adept at defeating muggers and charming members of high society. – Judd Blaise
The Bucket List is a comedy drama that follows two men on a no-holds-barred adventure as they reach the end of their lives. The movie shows that it is never too late to live life to its fullest. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play the two unlikely friends, who head off on a round-the-world journey to check off their bucket lists. They go skydiving, fly over the North Pole, marvel at the Taj Mahal, ride motorcycles on the Great Wall of China, go on safari in Tanzania, and climb to the top of the Giza pyramids. – Wild Junket
Walter Mitty is the visual embodiment of “wanderlust,” following a daydreaming, work-laden Life magazine employee (played by Ben Stiller) as he embarks on a journey his own imagination couldn’t have conjured. Looking for one lost, cover-worthy photo slide from renowned photojournalist Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn), Mitty heads from the streets of Manhattan to Greenland to Iceland and even to the Himalayas. It’s a stunning, fantastical movie that’ll get even an armchair traveler up to the passport office. – M.C.
Thelma & Louise reinvented the concept of the buddy movie by putting two women on the road, escaping good-for-nothing men and setting off on an adventure of their own making. Ultimately, Thelma and Louise don’t get their happy ending, but this movie helped pave the way for countless other women to hit the road on their own. – Lilit Marcus
This is where it all began for Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Gael García Bernal), whose road trip across Latin America with his pal Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) opened Che’s eyes to political injustice. Director Walter Salles filmed their travels through major landmarks in South America, as per Che’s memoir, from the Andes mountain range to Machu Picchu and even a leper colony in San Pablo. – J.M.
Written and directed by Alec Berg, Eurotrip is a teen comedy that follows mainstream teenager Scott, who forms an online friendship with German student Mieke in order to get a passing grade in his high school German class. When he finds out Mieke is a buxom blonde girl, he travels to meet her with his pals Cooper, Jenny, and Jamie. The group of randy teens head to Berlin by way of London, Paris, and Amsterdam. – Andrea LeVasseur
Up might have been rendered as a digital “cartoon” in the vein of Toy Story, but it’s anything but a kid’s film. A heart-wrenching tale of love and loss, the film follows Carl (voiced to crotchety perfection by Ed Asner) and his young friend, Russell, as they travel to South America together in Carl’s house-turned-airship (we’ll leave it up to your imagination). Up is one of those rare travel films that makes you realize that you’re just floating on like everybody else is on this giant, blue orb called Earth, with nothing holding you down except maybe a little gravity. – W.L.
Last Stop for Paul is about two buddies who set out on a low-budget trip that will take them around the world in this independent comedy drama. Charlie and Cliff are two close friends who work together selling bathroom supplies. Charlie loves to travel and spends as much time as he can seeing the world on the cheap; Cliff, however, gets nervous about the prospect of going far away from home, and while he often promises to tag along with Charlie, he never does it. However, when Charlie proposes that they go to Thailand for the annual Full Moon Party, Cliff agrees, the only catch is Cliff wants to take the ashes of his dead friend Paul so he can sprinkle them around the world. As they go from country to country they meet a wide variety of crazy people and have insane adventures.
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