Have you seen a location on TV or in a movie that made you want to travel to that place? If so where did you go and what did you see?
The movie Bridge Over The River Kwai is a classic and we were thrilled to visit Kanchanaburi, Thailand in 2007.
Years ago when I watched, Fun in Acapulco starring Elvis Presley I knew I had to go see those cliff divers. We made it there in 2000.
The Eiffel Tower and the Empire State building have been in hundreds of movies. Which have been your favorites? Which one drove you to go see these iconic structures?
One of my favorite movies of all times is Silence of the Lambs (ok, that says a bit about me) When in Italy we went to the pharmacia where the colognes are mixed in the sequel or prequel.
It is silly but it is fun to walk into a location you've seen in a movie that you enjoyed.
Reply to this Seeing Petra in the concluding scenes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was my main motivator for visiting that site. I wasn't aware of Petra until seeing it in the movie.
The Last Emperor provided an extra impetus for visiting the Forbidden City in Beijing, though I would have gone there without watching the movie. However, seeing the movie did increase my enjoyment of the place.
Reply to this The Mummy and the Egyptian sites and of course Hallelujah Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province inspired by Avatar ;-)
Reply to this The Lord of the rings films inspired me to travel to NZ (which really is as beautiful as you expect it to be!)
I blogged about one of the hikes I did here 😊
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[Edited: 2011 Jul 12 08:48 - Jabe:6222 - No URL drops on forums, please.]
Reply to this I was never very interested in traveling to Spain until I saw On the Road Again, a 13 episode 1 month long road trip around Spain with such famous people as Mario Batalli and Gwen Paltrow. They went to famous cities and ate so much good looking food that I have a small seed growing to make that my next European trip.
Just thinking about all the food they ate makes me wanna forget the graduate school deposit I just sent to Japan and hop a flight over.
Reply to this "Under the Tuscan Sun" inspired me to visit Cortona in 2010, and the wonderful time I spend in Positano in 1995. "Twilight" inspired me to visit Montepulciano (where it was actually filmed) and Volterra (where it was supposedly set) that same year as the Cortona visit. "Letters to Juliet" and "Eat, Pray, Love" remind me of the wonderful time I had in Verona, Tuscany, and Rome, as did "Roman Holiday," and "Three Coins in the Fountain." "Eat, Pray, Love" also inspired me to visit Bali, which I have never seen...but not to look for love or recover from a divorce...I'm happily married thank you! It didn't inspire me to visit India. I bought "The Tourist" DVD so that I could revisit Venice over and over again. There are just so many movies with the setting in Italy that how can anyone not want to visit.
And then of course, there is the ultimate location movie "The Sound of Music" which led me two year later in 1968 to visit Salzburg, although at the end of the movie I always comment that they couldn't have escaped over the mountains near Salzburg into Switzerland. During the eighteen years we lived in Europe we visited Salzburg many more times.
When I order movies from Blockbuster or Netflix I usually search for those whcih empasize the exotic locations.
Reply to this Ah, Bob, I'd forgotten about visiting Cortona. Yes, it was wonderful and yes inspired by Under the Tuscan Sun.... we visited all of the towns you mentioned. One is as wonderful as the next.
Reply to this As you can probably tell, romantic comedies, otherwise known as chick flicks are a favorite genre of mine. I also like movies like the Bourne series, also with great international settings.
Reply to this Michael Palin has been an inspiration for me. Not technically Hollywood, though, are his BBC programmes. 30 years ago his first hour long show was a train trip to the Kyle of Lochalsh in Scotland. I made the effort to get there 22 years ago on a trip. On all his trips, he tries always to travel by surface transport, something I really strive to achieve on my recent trips of the past eight years. Traveling overland shows the gradual changes that emerge; border crossings are actual boundaries; physical boundaries such as mountains and rivers and seas become real hurdles; local cultures and their customs transform and become either more intense or less intense depending on the direction of travel.
Reply to this "The tourist" was funny. The movie was pretty crap, but featuring two hotels where we stay few months before, the Danieli and Gritti, but what was funny was it was full of "locations" mistakes.
"Hangover 2", now that's something. We saw the movie at 1pm while in our home town...in Bangkok....laugh a lot, wow...and the worst, a lot of these can happen in Bangkok. Now for info, you cannot go by speedboat from Bangkok to Krabi, except witha stop in Singapore! As they say, Man, that's a stupid movie! The worst, we heard the local gov paid for the moive to be in Thailand, what a shame to picture Bangkok in such a way...
And back to my teenager years, "Pretty Woman", I was 12...
Reply to this When watching "The Tourist" I had to point out all the location mistakes as we watched. The worst was catching the boat from the airport with it being just across from St. Marks Square. But even the movies that were supposed to haver taken place in Cortona and Volterra were filmed elswhere. At least it's hard to fake being in Rome or Positano. I guess I'll have to see Hangover 2...although I doubt it will inspire me.
Reply to this P-A, being Belgian how did you like to movie "In Brugges?" We lived in Overijse, southwest suburb of Brussels for 11 years, and I enjoyed the movie, although it was a little dark for my normal taste. I saw it just because it was set in Brugges.
Reply to this Ok, Hangover 2 and Tourist were clearly not of any quality...
Sorry, haven't seen In Brugges....
I remember the filming of the movie about Graham Green in Saigon, don't remember the exact titles, an american in...
The movie is suppose to take place at the Continental Hotel, but they couldn't do it....so the re-do the Caravelle, which is just across the street "into" the Continental...was fun to see the filming as I was actally living there at the time.
Also saw two "fakes" us tanks in front of the former US consulate in Saigon few days before it was demolished to make place for the new buidling, must have been back around 1997, that was a sight.
Bob and Linda, I'm belgian, but have actually never been an official resident of Belgium, grew up in Luxembourg, and fifteen years counting now in Asia, and writing this from...Tulum, it's a small world!
Reply to this Forgot to mention another one. When I was in Kigali, I visited at the Hotel des Mille Collines that was the basis for the movie, Hotel Rwanda, even though the movie wasn't filmed there. I was going to Rwanda anyway to see the gorillas, but ate something by the poolside in order to be able to visit the place in some depth. My visit here was totally inspired by seeing the film.
Reply to this Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil made us want to go to Savannah, Georgia. On our trip we learned it is as charming and quirky as it was presented in the movie.
They offer a Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil tour that was entertaining.
[Edited: 2011 Jul 13 03:45 - D MJ Binkley:42569 ]
Reply to this i think hollywood has shaped a lot of my understanding of the world, culture, and perceptions in general. I'm still not sure if I like that or not, but to the point - I think it has definitely influenced my travels. Seeing some of these places and cultures in movies interested me in lifelong endeavors and even careers. I wrote a blog about seeing the sights from the Bourne Identity in Paris
Following Jason Bourne I think those movies influenced me to find a career in international relations and motivated me to learn languages, which I found out I was pretty good at. I've always been interested in China because I'm part Chinese but maybe watching the movie "the Amazing Panda Adventure" as a kid had subliminal effects!
Reply to this Films have definitely inspired me to travel to new places I would not have necessarily considered before.
Perhaps the biggest were the combination of 'The Last Samuri' and 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. I has always thought about Japan in terms of the madness of Tokyo rather than the temples, history and culture of much of the rest of the country. Inspired by the beauty of these films I backpacked in Japan in 2009 and it remains my favourite country so far!
Braveheart and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves both made me very much wish to travel around Scotland and visit parts of Northern England. We have all seen so many films and television programmes set in New York that the whole city has become like a a mirage of scenes and characters, though I remember being particularly excited about finding what I thought might be the 'Friends' apartment block.
Of the countries I am still inspired by but haven't been to yet - Lord of the Rings for New Zealand and House of Flying Daggers/Crouching Tiger for China. There are lots of films set in the Pacific Northwest that make me very much want to travel there: The Legend of the Falls for Montana, the Twilight films (whatever you think about the content/quality, the setting is very well shot), even 10 Things I Hate About You, set in Seattle.
The first and most subconsiously significant was seeing Pocohontas at age 7. It was at that point that I first started dreaming about exploring the American wildnesses - something I still obsess over now!
Nothing from Africa, South America or the Middle East at the moment. If anyone has some inspiring films from there then I shall certainly look out for them!
Reply to this I've had a life long dream of going to see Victoria falls because when I was a young girl I used to watch the Tarzan movies on Sunday morning. I have not made it there yet but look forward to it.
Reply to this Westie, I agree that "The Last Samurai" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" inspired me to visit Japan, and I really want to go back for more time there, especially to Kyoto and the countryside, where old Japan and its traditions still can be found. As for Africa, try "Out of Africa." It WILL inspire you to visit Kenya.
Shane: I visited Uganda and have wanted to visit Rwanda. I purposely avoided seeing "Hotel Rwanda" so that it wouldn't put me off visiting there. I saw the "Killing Fields" and it put me off wanting to return to Cambodia (I visited there as a child) on recent trips to Asia in 2007 and 2009. When I do return to Cambodia I will not visit S21 or the real killing fields. I just am not inspired to visit places where there has been so much inhumanity to man. I can take places where war has happened, but downright torture and cruelty, I can't.
Perhaps this question should also ask the reverse question: "Have any Hollywood movies put you off from visiting a country?"
Reply to this In response to: Msg #140330
I have never had a movie put me off visiting a place. Even though The Last King of Scotland and Midnight Express paint poor portraits of Uganda and Scotland respectively, it didn't dissuade me in the slightest.
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