People who like to go out with a camper, car or maybe even a boat are often not fervent film fanatics. For many of us it feels very restrictive now that all travel and road trips are discouraged. It is a bit of a search for things that can provide distraction or sometimes even fill your day. Well, fortunately, quite a few films have been made about traveling or sometimes in the broader sense of covering a certain distance with a certain motivation. They even have their own genre, namely 'Road movies'. A good road movie consists of a number of aspects. First of all, it must be about traveling, in whatever sense of the word. Covering a certain distance, with a certain goal. In addition, they often contain very beautiful images of the countries through which the characters move. Finally, the core of every road movie is the evolution that the character goes through. All this together regularly makes for a beautiful film, which inspires you to plan your next trip. Read here some excellent choices to enjoy at home.

1. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

This film is not primarily about travel. The story begins when Olive, who seems to be the only normal member of the dysfunctional Hoover family, is told that she has been invited to participate in the Little Miss Sunshine contest. The Hoover family also consists of a strict father, a son who refuses to speak and a mother who lets others walk all over her. Their grandfather, who was thrown out of the nursing home because of his drug use, and their uncle Frank also live with them. The latter is not allowed to stay alone, because of a recent suicide attempt. There is only one problem: In order to get Olivia into the contest, they have to cross the entire country (USA). No one can stay home alone, so they all hit the road in an old van. From here on, the film takes a moving turn, where we can see how the entire family makes the journey. The journey, and not the destination, confronts the family members with each other and themselves and thus influences the entire group.
The film itself has little to do with travel, but it quickly gets the travel bug going. The proverb 'The journey is more important than the destination' is more true here than ever.

2. The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

The Motorcycle Diaries tells the travel story of the young revolutionary fighter ‘Che Guevara’. We follow him on his journey by motorcycle through South America. It is on this journey that the future freedom fighter finds his inspiration for his socialist ideology, through the various encounters with people who suffer under the corrupt system. Apart from the fact that ‘Che Guevara’ is a character that appeals to the imagination, this film is a beautiful travel film where you are constantly confronted with beautiful images of the region through which our two main characters travel from city to city by motorcycle. It won’t be long before you feel like planning your next trip again.

3. The secret life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Walter Mitty is a shy employee of a large (travel) magazine. While the magazine is full of beautiful travel photos, taken by adventurous photographers, Walter has an invisible but important function. In the basement of the office buildings he is responsible for developing and storing the negatives of the photos. His existence is as invisible as his function, but in his head he experiences many surrealistic adventures, in the form of daydreams.
When the last, most important negative gets lost, Walter sets out to find its photographer and thus the negative. What starts out as something small soon takes him to Greenland. The shy man who never set foot outside his home or workplace suddenly finds himself involved in an adventure that takes him from Greenland by boat to Iceland, where he then continues his journey to Afghanistan. There his journey ends in a rather banal anticlimax. He comes to the realization that here too it is not the destination, but the journey that counts. Without realizing it, his surrealistic daydreams have turned into reality. The travel story is full of beautiful images of the nature and environment of the various countries he visits, which immediately makes you want to follow in the footsteps of the man.

4. Into the wild (2007)

A film that, despite its dark plot, can still make you want to travel. This road movie through and through tells the true story of Chris McCandless. Chris is a student who graduates with great distinction from university. The next step is to continue his studies at the renowned Harvard University. His parents are extremely proud and can't wait for him to start his studies, but Chris himself thinks completely differently about it. He is thoroughly fed up with the materialism and the drive for achievement in society and decides to drop everything to set off on his own. The final destination is Alaska. Here he wants to live completely self-sufficiently outside of society. He changes his name so that he can't be traced and travels across the country. Along the way he meets some interesting people, but he doesn't settle anywhere permanently. He eventually ends up in Alaska, where he converts an old wreck of a bus into his new home. Although the film has a dark and depressing plot, the journey itself is wonderful to follow. As a viewer you are taken into the nature and culture of the regions he crosses.

5. Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014)

Did you like ‘The secret life of Walter Mitty’? Then this one is also for you. Hector is a burned-out psychologist, who comes to the conclusion that he cannot offer any of his patients a better and happier existence. He starts to question his own life and marriage. The man who held on to his habits is suddenly no longer certain of anything in his life. He decides to set out on a large-scale search for the meaning of ‘happiness’. What starts as a trip to China quickly becomes a trip around the world. The beautiful travel images make even a real homebody daydream about traveling and wandering around. Here it is not so much the environment of the countries where he is, but rather the cultures and the people he meets. This is also highly recommended if you want to be taken on an unforgettable journey from your armchair.