“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Mark Twain
During the craziness that is Covid-19 and the lack of travel opportunities open to us all, thank god for steaming services like Netflix.
If you are missing being able to travel and are in and out of lockdown, here are some movies and shows to watch to keep you entertained and hopefully put a smile on your face.
The Kindness Diaries: Season 1
Witness kindness changing the world. Follow Leon as he shows how the kindness of strangers helps him travel from LA, around the world, and back. Along the way, he transforms the lives of the people he meets by giving away millions to those who show tremendous kindness with life-changing gifts! Watch as those with the least somehow give the most and have their lives changed forever.
Available on Amazon Prime.
The Kindness Diaries: Season 2
Welcome to the adventure of a lifetime: a heartfelt, humor-filled and jeopardy-laced journey around the earth. Follow eternal optimist, passionate adventurer, and former broker Leon Logothetis, as he circumnavigates the globe in a search for kindness. This season he treks from Alaska to Argentina in a vintage yellow VW Bug.
Available on Netflix.
Jack Whitehall: Travels With My Father
Jovial comic Jack Whitehall and his stuffy father, Michael, take unusual and amusing trips to foreign lands in an attempt to strengthen their bond.
Available on Netflix.
Street Food
Street Food is an American documentary created by David Gelb and Brian McGinn, exploring street food around the world. Archival footage is combined with face to face interviews and follows street food chefs and their history, which is intertwined with the big picture of how influential street food is on their native country.
Available on Netflix.
Dark Tourist
From a nuclear lake to a haunted forest, journalist David Farrier visits unusual, and often macabre, tourism spots around the world.
Available on Netflix.
Tales by Light
Behind every powerful image is a powerful story. Uniting exploration, photography and the natural world, Tales By Light follows photographers from Australia and around the world as they push the limits of their craft.
Available on Netflix.
Down to Earth with Zac Efron
Down to Earth with Zac Efron is a documentary series that It stares Zac Afron and Darin Olien, with Olien also acting as executive producer. The documentary revolves around Efron and his travels around the world to France, Peurto Rico, London, Iceland, Costa Rica, Peru and Sardinia and focuses on themes of travel, life experience, nature, green energy and sustainable living practices. Critics describe it as light in tone, but heavy in questionable health advice and pseudoscience.
Available on Netflix.
Expedition Happiness
Expedition Happiness is a travelogue documentary made by a young German couple fulfilling a desire to leave the big city, Berlin, and feed their souls by wandering through natural beauty. They buy an American school bus in North Carolina, convert it to a rolling loft, and set off for Canada, Alaska, the U.S. West Coast, Mexico, and parts south. Visa problems delay them. So does their mountain dog’s intolerance for heat, bus repairs, and terrible roads. In general, despite setbacks and challenges, it appears that these two bring their happiness on the trip with them.
Available on Netflix.
Into the Wild
Graduate Christopher McCandless gave away all his possessions and money to charity and hitchhiked across Northern America to Alaska, where he attempted to live in the wild. This poignant account of his journey is directed by Sean Penn and stars Emile Hirsch in many of the real locations visited by Christopher, aka “Alexander Supertramp”. Feast your eyes on peaceful Lake Tahoe, camping at Beard’s Hollow, kayaking down the Colorado River and run with wild horses … There’s plenty to envy until things take a darker turn.
Available on Sky Cinema, NOW TV and Amazon Prime.
Lion
If you fancy a good cry as well as a virtual trip to India, then Lion is for you. Based on a true story, it tells of a young Indian boy, Saroo (Sunny Pawar) who accidentally boards a train to Kolkata and becomes homeless. After being adopted by an Australian couple, the older Saroo (Dev Patel) searches his memory – and the evolving internet – in an attempt to locate his childhood home and find his family. This is a film with plenty of compassion as well as armchair travel, with locations including Tasmania as well as India.
Available on Amazon.
In Bruges
Guilt-stricken after a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.
Available on HBO Now and Amazon Prime.
Nathan goes to Nashville
Nathan Carter goes on the trip of a lifetime to Nashville, Tennessee, immersing himself in the city’s vibrant music scene and finding out why country music means so much to so many people.
Available on RTÉ Player.
Amelie
“Amélie” is a fanciful comedy about a young woman who discretely orchestrates the lives of the people around her, creating a world exclusively of her own making. Shot in over 80 Parisian locations, acclaimed director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Delicatessen”; “The City of Lost Children”) invokes his incomparable visionary style to capture the exquisite charm and mystery of modern-day Paris through the eyes of a beautiful ingenue.
Available on HBO Now and Amazon Prime.
The Way
Follow in the pilgrims’ footsteps with this touching, meditative drama starring Martin Sheen as a grieving father who decides to walk the ancient spiritual trail after the death of his son (played by Sheen’s son, Emilio Estevez, who also directs). The route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia takes in sensational landscapes as well as a variety of entertaining characters, including James Nesbitt as an Irish travel writer.
Available on Amazon Prime, YouTube/Google Play and Sky Store.
Travel Man: 48 Hours In
British comedian Richard Ayoade and a celebrity guest, usually from the comedy world, spend 48 hours in a popular city to discover the must see tourist attractions.
Available on Amazon Prime and Channel 4.
Vitamin Sea
Following 8 people, all passionate about the ocean, we will learn how the sea is helping them deal with grief, manage mental and physical health concerns, or just giving them a chance to hit the reset button.
Available on RTÉ Player.
Russell Howard & Mum
Join Russell Howard as he embarks on the ‘mother of all journeys’ around the globe with the twinkly eyed smasher that is his mum, Ninette.
Available on NOW TV and Sky Now.
Eat, Pray, Love
Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern woman is supposed to dream of having – a husband, a house, a successful career – yet like so many others, she found herself lost, confused, and searching for what she really wanted in life. Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Gilbert steps out of her comfort zone, risking everything to change her life, embarking on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery. In her travels, she discovers the true pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy, the power of prayer in India, and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of true love in Indonesia.
Available on Netflix.
Wild
Driven to the edge by the loss of her beloved mother (Laura Dern), the dissolution of her marriage and a headlong dive into self-destructive behavior, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) makes a decision to halt her downward spiral and put her life back together again. With no outdoors experience, a heavy backpack and little else to go on but her own will, Cheryl sets out alone to hike the Pacific Crest Trail — one of the country’s longest and toughest through-trails.
Available on Amazon.
Pedal the World
Around the world on a bike – this had been Felix Starck’s dream since he was 16 years old. In the summer of 2013 at the age of 21, he started out from his hometown in the Palatinate region of Germany with a camera and 55 kilograms of baggage. He covered 17,930 kilometers through 20 countries in 365 days. No obstacle could stop Starck – neither pneumonia nor monsoon rain nor roads full of potholes.
Available on Netflix.
The Mindful Traveller 