This pandemic has thwarted all our travel plans for 2020. Ticket and hotel bookings has been cancelled. Our excited itching travelling feet are staying put in the comforts of our home. The most exciting travel adventure happening in our day would probably an occasional trip outside of our house to check if the plants we occasionally water is growing. Most days are spent at home watching a lot of Netflix. So to appease that wanderlust looming inside of us and inspire us hopefully for our next year’s travel adventure, we have Netflix to turn to. Here are 5 Netflix shows / movies to pacify our travelling pangs:

1. EMILY IN PARIS – Paris, France

This Netflix show will make you wish to be assigned to work in Paris for a year even if the Parisians are stereotypically portrayed there to be very cold and snobbish. The backdrop of the show, highlighting the beautiful Paris in all its glory from its iconic Eiffel Tower, the River Seine and Pont Alexandre III Bridge (where the sexist perfume ad was filmed) are as breathtaking as a secondary characters to Lily Collin’s Emily. The cafe scenes make you want to have your own cup of coffee and eating your chocolate croissant. The shooting location of the street-side restaurants are found in the picturesque square in Latin Quarter, just a few steps from the Pantheon. It is just nice to fantasize that you are having a nice lunch of baguette at Jardin du Palais Royal and finding a new expat friend like Mindy to be your meilleur ami in your Paris adventure. The show also featured Musee des Arts Forains, a private museum for special events where you can take a ride in a 120-year old wooden merry-go-round; Cafe de Flore, nabbed as ‘the coolest cafe in all Paris’ according to a French man Emily met one night and also known one of the oldest coffee house in the city; and seeing a glimpse of the glamorous steps of Palais Garnier, a venue for ballets & concerts.

Ahhh, Paree, can’t wait to visit you someday, drink coffee at the street-side cafes and eat all the chocolate croissants to my hearts desire….

2. CRASH LANDING ON YOU – Switzerland

Crash Landing On You was the first kdrama that got me into the kdrama fever – a story of love against all odds. It was just beautifully made – the story, the characters, the cinematography, everything. Though most of the story was situated either in South Korea or North Korea, there were parts of the show that was filmed in Switzerland. Despite Switzerland’s brief cameo in this series, you can’t help but wanted to be transported into the tranquil and romantic landscape of the Swiss. Who cannot forget the landing stage where Captain Ri play his own composition with his piano in front of Lake Brienz? There was the Sigriswil Panoramic Bridge where Captain Ri asked scared Seri to take the photo of him and his fiancé, a great place to take photos of the Bernese Alps. If you are into adrenaline rush, you would want to try paragliding in First Flieger in Grindelwald where the couple reunited in Switzerland. But if you are more into shopping, you can check out the Schwiezer Heimatwerk, a chain of souvenir shops in Zurich where Seri and Seo Dan went to buy chocolates. Of course, the scene of the picnic in Lake Lungern surrounded by lush greenery & clear blue lake like Captain Ri and Seri had seems to nudge me to go to refrigerator and make myself my own tuna sandwich with a glass of iced tea.

3. FALLING INN LOVE – New Zealand

If we have series of bad things happening in our life, we couldn’t help but want to escape, right? That it is what Christina Millan’s character in this romcom movie, Falling Inn To You. After a break-up and losing her job in San Francisco, she claimed an inn in New Zealand (?!!) she won from a spontaneous entered Internet contest. With nothing to lose, she flew to the Land of the Long White Cloud to check out her inn, which was nothing but a rundown old thing. (It, later, became her passion project to fix it with a help of a handsome New Zealander and turn it into a lovely Bed and Breakfast.) But apart from the broken-down inn, everything was idyllic and charming. Most of the film as shot in the North island of New Zealand. The lovely village and one of the Bed & Breakfast featured in the film was filmed in Thames. There is, of course, the lovely scene having picnic and a swim at Bethells Beach (Te Henga) with new Kiwi friend. Sometimes, we just want to rediscover ourselves as we get lost in a new country, reinventing ourselves, discovering a pet project and letting things unfold as we journey on.

4. EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF THE FIRE SAGA – Husevik, Iceland

Best thing to bring during your travels is our humour. We need to have good laugh when we travel because usually things don’t go the way we plan it. This movie gives me lots of hearty belly laughs, good music and an yearning to go to Iceland to visit elves & create my own homemade music video. I am not a big fan of Will Ferrell’s weird type of comedy but Rachel McAdams has an amazing ability of creating magnetic chemistry with almost everyone (if not all) she is paired with. The movie was just a perfect tourism campaign for Husavik, Iceland. Check out the song they made for Husavik. I love it! It is spine-tingling. Husavik is known to be the country’s whale watching capital. There you will find the Skogafoss , one of the magnificent Icelandic waterfalls where the singing duo made of their home-made music videos. The Husavik harbour looks colourful and interesting panorama to photograph. Though if I were to travel in Iceland, Husavik may not be the main place where I want to go to but the movie gave me a peek of Iceland, tickling an interest in me to see more of it. The film gave me more of a curiosity towards Iceland than the raved Filipino movie (also available in Netflix), Through Night & Day, a bittersweet story of engaged couple travelling around Iceland which made them reexamine their whole relationship. The Eurovision movie didn’t only feature Iceland but also some film locations were in Scotland, Israel and England.

5. THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS – Barcelona, Spain

Nothing feels more like you are really travelling when you hear the people around you speaking a foreign language. So brush up on your Espanol and check out the Spanish film, The Laws of Thermodynamics featuring the lovely Berta Vasquez. The story is about a physicist played by Vito Sanz show how his relationship with Elena played by Berta Vazquez will end up in a disaster because it was determined by the laws of physics. The film was shot in different parts of Barcelona, showing off the various streets of Cuitat Vella like Paseo Picasso & Merce Square. Some of the scenes were located at University of Barcelona, Mossèn Verdaguer Gardens, Carles I Park, Ciutadella Park, Horta Labyrinth Park and Somorrostro Beach.

Hmmm, Barcelona, you are so muy hermosa. Hasta la vista!

I hope these films made you travel safely in some way in the comforts of your own home and give you some tips where to go to when travel bans will be lifted. Hopefully we can go back to days when we can leisurely plan our escapades without any fear of health risks. If you have other movies / shows to recommend for our home-travel, pls do share…