How movies and TV shows can make you travel better

April 22, 2019

Editor’s note: This article was published before the coronavirus pandemic, and may not reflect the current situation on the ground.

Some travel the world in search of our natural wonders. Others, for food and culture. And then you have the movie buffs, who travel for the spots made famous by Hollywood heroes. Jo Stewart is one of those (and damn proud of it).

“Which hotel are you staying at while you’re in Los Angeles?”

For a split-second, I consider telling a white lie and namedropping one of LA’s cool hotels. You know the ones—hip places dripping with street cred like The Roosevelt or Chateau Marmont. Instead, I give the more complicated (and truthful) answer: I’m staying at a hotel in Burbank called the Safari Inn.

A throwback to the golden age of motor travel, the low-rise Safari Inn has been a Burbank landmark since 1955. Its kitsch neon sign stands out in a sea of nondescript office buildings and generic strip malls. Ever since irreverent crime flick True Romance was filmed here in the early ‘90s, I’ve always wanted to bed down at the Safari Inn. A trip 20-plus years in the making, it’s a miracle the small hotel was still in business.

Unlike most new hotels in LA, you don’t park in a behemoth underground car park or throw your keys into the hand of a valet attendant. At the Safari Inn, I park right outside my room, just like they did in the 1950s. On the same street, there’s a McDonald’s, donut shop and a time-capsule diner called the Tallyrand that serves pot roasts, meatloaf sandwiches and roast turkey dinners (add 75 cents if you want all white meat).

The retro appeal of the Safari Inn has seen it feature in many movies, TV series and music videos, but none have had quite as much impact as True Romance. A cult hit thanks to magnetic performances from Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, and a whip-smart screenplay penned by Quentin Tarantino, it’s made the Safari Inn a destination in itself.

Many (like me) check in then spend their days on the deck overlooking the pool that’s wedged between the car park and the street. Lazing on a plastic deck chair, I stare at the vintage neon sign framed by palm trees while high-fiving the teenager inside me for finally making it happen. Others travel to the inn for ‘True Romance Fest’, an annual celebration of the film that’s been running for five years.

Top Notch Hamburgers, a 1970s-era burger joint where '90s coming-of-age classic Dazed and Confused was filmed. — ‘Dazed and Confused’, ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Thelma and Louise’—writer Jo Stewart’s favorite flicks have helped her discover parts of the world she may never have visited otherwise. Photos: Jo Stewart

On the outskirts of LA is The Old Place, an old-timey hangout featured in Twin Peaks. — ‘Dazed and Confused’, ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Thelma and Louise’—writer Jo Stewart’s favorite flicks have helped her discover parts of the world she may never have visited otherwise. Photos: Jo Stewart

My time at the Safari Inn is one my happiest travel memories, but this isn’t the first time a movie has inspired me to hit the road.

Like many other Twin Peaks fanatics, I’ve driven to the outskirts of LA to eat at The Old Place, an old-timey hangout featured in the cult TV series. In Austin, I drove to Top Notch Hamburgers, a 1970s-era burger joint where ‘90s coming-of-age classic Dazed and Confused was filmed. More recently, Utah’s Arches National Park ended up on my itinerary because Thelma and Louise was filmed there.

Before the internet allowed us to look up anything, anytime, films and TV (along with the Encyclopaedia Britannica) were our windows to other worlds. The internet hasn’t stopped millions of film lovers traveling the globe to capture a slice of movie magic.

I’ve traveled to northern California to visit Mission San Juan Bautista, the place where Madeleine plunged to her death not once but twice in Vertigo (hey, it’s Hitchcock we’re talking about). Standing at the bottom of the mission’s belltower, I’m transported back to suburban Sydney where I first watched the movie as a child, my little mind blown to smithereens by the movie’s twists, turns and freaky dream sequences. I’ve since watched Vertigo more than 20 times and it still amazes me.

Mission San Juan Bautista in Northern California, the place where Madeleine plunged to her death not once but twice in Hitchcock's Vertigo. — Top: Mission San Juan Bautista in Northern California, the spot where Madeleine plunged to her death (twice) in Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’; Bottom: Driving through the desolate landscapes as seen in ‘No Country for Old Men’. Top: Don DeBold; Bottom: Natalie Rhea Riggs

The desolate, cactus-studded landscapes featured in No Country for Old Men inspired the writer to drive around West Texas. — Top: Mission San Juan Bautista in Northern California, the spot where Madeleine plunged to her death (twice) in Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’; Bottom: Driving through the desolate landscapes as seen in ‘No Country for Old Men’. Top: Don DeBold; Bottom: Natalie Rhea Riggs

The desolate, cactus-studded landscapes featured in No Country for Old Men inspired me to drive around West Texas. While not exactly a feel-good movie, the cinematography burrowed its way into my psyche, leaving me with a yearning to drive those same roads (without encountering the film’s captive bolt pistol-wielding killer).

There’s a theme here. Fangirling over places others wouldn’t look at twice are a big part of why I travel. And I’m not alone in this.

Before the internet allowed us to look up anything, anytime, films and TV (along with the Encyclopaedia Britannica) were our windows to other worlds. Watch Fields of Dreams and you’re transported from your living room to the cornfields of Iowa. Put on Into the Wild and you’re immediately in Alaskan tundra. The internet may have given us a quick visual on far-flung places, but that hasn’t stopped millions of film lovers traveling the globe to capture a slice of movie magic.

The Dark Hedges, Ballymoney, Northern Island has become a tourist drawcard after featuring in Games of Thrones. — The Dark Hedges in Ballymoney, Northern Island has become a major tourist attraction after featuring in HBO’s Games of Thrones. Photo: Nick Kane

In the last few years, key Game of Thrones set locations such as Iceland and Croatia have received a boost in visitors, with many fans making the trip to see King’s Landing and Winterfell for themselves. Not to be outdone, Northern Ireland will soon lay claim to having the world’s only Game of Thrones studio tour, slated to open in Bainbridge’s Linen Mill Studios in 2020.

Movies are time machines, capable of evoking poignant personal memories and deep feelings we haven’t felt in a long time. By visiting film locations, I’m not just tipping my hat to the past, but to my past.

Meanwhile, New Zealand has been giving the world a masterclass on how to excel in many things, including how to take a star turn in a hit series of films and transform it into gold. Since the release of Sir Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, millions of travelers from all over the world have made the pilgrimage to New Zealand, aka Middle Earth.

For pop culture fans, the thrill of standing where a movie you’ve seen 50 times was filmed is incomparable. It’s a borderline religious experience. Our own personal Camino—and the movie doesn’t even need to be particularly ‘good’ in the eyes of critics. So why travel for it? Because it’s about so much more than just the movie.

Since the release of Sir Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, travelers from all over the world have made the pilgrimage to New Zealand (aka Middle Earth). — Perhaps the best example of movie-fueled tourism is New Zealand, the mind-bending backdrop for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings franchise. In 2017 alone, more than half a million visitors passed through the gates of the Hobbiton set in Matamata. Photo: Sagittarius Voyage

Some movies allow us to revel in childhood nostalgia because they are intertwined with our own memories of Sunday afternoons with our grandparents, Friday nights with our brothers and sisters, or mid-week cinema outings with our friends. Movies we watched (and re-watched) as angst-ridden teens shaped our formative years. The characters, phrases and soundtracks stay with us well into adulthood when mortgages, student loans, and other inescapable by-products of the grind start catching up with us.

Movies are time machines, capable of evoking poignant personal memories and deep feelings we haven’t felt in a long time. By visiting film locations, I’m not just tipping my hat to the past, but to my past.

Of course, movies aren’t a guaranteed tourism generator: Not everyone is going to book a trip to Florida because they liked Magic Mike. I’ve met plenty of people who would never dream of flying 14 hours, then driving 16 hours to stay at the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining, like I did last year.

What can I say? You either get it, or you don’t.

[Roll credits]

Jo Stewart

Jo Stewart is an Australian travel writer who lives in Melbourne, but spends an inordinate amount of time at airports. She has visited all seven continents and is comfortable mixing it up at both ends—and everywhere in between—of the travel spectrum.

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