Ten Movies That Make Me Want to Travel

This list is for Amy Schmeichel.

10. The Sure ThingMy favorite road-trip movie. Not glamorous (see above picture) but it really captures traveling while young, and with no money.

9. MunichWhile this doesn't make me want to assassinate Islamic terrorists, it does make me want to go to Europe.

8. An American Werewolf in LondonBackpacking on the moors followed by a few weeks in London with Jenny Agutter. A perfect vacation except for those damned werewolves.

7. The Wings of the DoveThe London stuff is good, but I'm picking this for the parts that take place in Venice.

6. The Parent TrapThe beginning makes me want to go to camp. The middle parts make me want to go to London and to a vineyard in Northern California. The end makes me want to go to San Francisco. And the interiors, like in all Nancy Meyers' films, are as great as the exteriors.

5. North by NorthwestOne day I'll take the Twentieth Century Limited to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Something makes me think it won't quite live up to this movie.

4. In BrugesTravel as purgatory. After seeing this film (several times) I know that before I die I will have to go to Bruges and drink the gay beer.

3. CharadeBest Paris movie ever. Sorry, French New Wave.

2. ThunderballBond in the Caribbean is my favorite kind of Bond. This film makes me want to instantly be in Nassau in the Bahamas. Aquamarine water. White sand. The Junkanoo festival. 1960s babes in bikinis, plus Connery, of course, in very short shorts. I might have to buy a Blu-Ray player just to re-watch this.

1. I Know Where I'm Going and Local Hero

Two of my all time favorite movies and they each make me want to go to the same place--the Western Hebrides in Scotland. And they are both about the magic of travel. Every year the Brattle Theater here in Cambridge has a lottery and if you win you get to pick two movies to be a double feature. These would be my picks.