Top 10 movie-inspired travel destinations

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How does one usually choose their travel destination? Well, budget and time are certainly an issue, and some people like to sit down in front of a map and just pick the unlikeliest place. Or maybe you see a documentary about a place and you decide to visit it. But let’s face it, when it comes to TV, it’s movies that we watch most of the time.

And if you really, but really like a movie, it’s only normal to want to go visit the filming site, or to go to the place where the action takes place (even if it was filmed in a studio). So I don’t know about others, but movie inspired travel destinations sound like a pretty fun idea to me. Therefore, here’s my top 10 movie inspired travel destinations list.

1. Mumbai, India

Slumdog Millionaire has won quite a few awards in 2008, and while the image of Mumbai that the film presents us is completey different from the image that travel agencies usually try to sell, I think that it makes a very interesting destination. Not much luxury, of course, but perfect for a backpacker trip. And I hear that slum tours are becoming quite popular lately…

2. Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto in the award winning Memoirs of a Geisha certainly doesn’t exist anymore (you definitely won’t find any geishas daintily walking through the city’s Gion district), but the geisha tradition hasn’t entirely disappeared yet, and you can still spend an evening in the company of these educated, beautiful women and admiring the arts of traditional dance and singing.

3. Salzburg, Austria

The Sound of Music has been the favorite childhood movie of many, and while the Von Trapp family have moved to America ages ago, the Salzburg in the movie and the Salzburg of today look almost the same. The hills might not be alive with the sound of music, though.

4. Morocco

Prince of Persia is the most recent blockbuster filmed in 2010, and while the intrigue is supposed to take place in ancient Persia, the producers of the film managed to do a great job in recreating the historic atmosphere (with some creative license, of course). And some of us still remember Lawrence of Arabia, from 1962, also filmed in Morocco.

5. New Orleans, US

There’s several famous movies which were either filmed or set in New Orleans, and the most recent addition is Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. Jazz, creole cuisine and lovely people are one side of New Orleans seen in the animated movie, but there’s a also grittier side to the cit, as see in The Big Easy (1986).

6. Bahamas

The Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed mostly in Bahamas, and even if the film is set in an imaginary 18th century, you can recognize some of the places in the  movie. Port Royal and Ile de la Tortue (the movie’s Tortuga island, the pirate den), look completely different, but oh well.

7. Wales, United Kingdom

There have been countless ilms about Robin Hood, and the most recent one, from 2010, was filmed in Pembrokeshire, Wales. But the real HSerwood forest can also be visited, as well as Nottingham Castle – no movies were filmed there, but they are the real thing, after all.

8. Montmartre, Paris

The fabulous destiny of Amélie Poulain  (from the French movie Amélie, 2001 ) unfurls entirely in the charming Paris neighborhood of Montmartre. Follow in the footsteps of the movie’s heroine, and then have some café au lait at the cafe she worked at.

9. Scotland, United Kingdom

Braveheart might seem a bit cheesy nowadays, but it was a big hit when it appeared, and nobody can deny that the filming locations are absolutely awesome (if a bit speckled with gore in the movie). The highlands of Lock Leven and Loch Glencoe are an amazing sights, even if you didn’t like the movie.

10. Montenegro

The action of the 2006 Bond movie, Casino Royale, is set entirely in Montenegro, and despite the fact that most of the movie’s action takes place inside the casino, any die-hard Bond fan will enjoy the experience.

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