A lot of travel movies out there are nice to watch, sometimes they have a plot, sometime they don’t, other times they have the required beautiful scenery, other times we have to wonder how exactly a movie that could have been shot in a backlot could really be called a travel movie.
But it is truly the movies that have only travelling as a subplot to the main story that we realise how much that they taught us about travelling. Points that come across the movie sideswiping us with the message, that’s when it truly sticks.
Herein are the best movies that truly teach us about travelling and what to always remember when making that leap.

Never give up. This message is slammed repeatedly into the minds of viewers as they watch The Goonies, a classic 1985 film about a group of kids trying to find an old pirate treasure. This whole story is over a period of 24 hours as they fight to find the treasure before developers tear down their houses the very next day.

Here they teach us to never give up, because at the very minute that we are posed to stop working towards our goals is when everything that you ever wanted to happen, is just about to happen.

In the movie it is demonstrated strongly as right in the middle they are given an out, a way to stop looking for that treasure and stop following their dreams and settle for living in the real world. All of them seem ready to stop and give up their dreams of treasure and adventure until the main character steps in and reminds them to never give up.

Always been prepared. This one should be the traveller’s motto. Data, one of the main characters had a backpack on for the entire movie, he had carted that thing everywhere even before they started on the adventure. And just like a good traveller, every time they were in a bind he pulled it out and managed to get them past that little hurdle.
So take after Data and always keep at least few thing with you at all times, you never know when they could come in handy. Though keep in mind, do not bring everything you own just incase, it’s not a good way to go and most of the time you don’t even use half the stuff you brought.

You Don’t Need A Lot To Travel. The Goonies only had a couple of candy bars, their bikes, a map (and a dodgy one at that) and a bag of marbles. They had nothing and they still managed to have this excellent travel adventure and found a fantastical treasure at the end of it as well.

The Future’s Not Written In Stone. In Back to the Future, another classic 1985 film, this message is pointed out to the viewer subtly as we watch Marty, the main character run around.
In this movie Marty finds himself accidentally send back to 1950s and the story follows him as he tries that get back to 1985 recounting his many mishaps.

During the course of the adventure there are many moments that the future changes because of something Marty does, as it reinforces the fact that you can change the future.
Choices Make You. At any moment you can change where you are going like Marty did. How you act, what you do every day, your thoughts, what you choose not to do every day, who you listen to or don’t listen to. All these choices mould your future, but are you choosing them or just letting them happen to you?

What do you want? A boring job in the real world or travelling the world? A dream, where you wish you could do interesting things, or a life actually doing everything you have always wanted?
It’s all about choices and how some of the best things for you can happen when you least suspect it. Marty didn’t know he was going to go back in time and accidentally fix things. But in the end it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. You just have to keep looking for the things that you want in life and jump on those opportunities and find your way to a new place.

Remember to watch out for those Chirpys. In National Treasure a recent blockbuster, Ben the main character is chasing the Templar Treasure, a treasure so great that it was deemed too much, for even a king.
But in chasing that treasure it wasn’t smooth sailing, all Ben’s life as it pointed out, he had been hounded by Chirpys that keep telling him that he can’t do it, the treasure wasn’t real and he was only wasting his life chasing after fairy tales. These comments even came from his own father. But Ben didn’t listen to them and in the end he found the treasure, despite those Chirpys.

Be nice to others and they will be nice to you. This should be the travellers own little motto, it doesn’t matter how well travelled you are, or how self-reliant, at some point you are going to need help in your travels. Either because something quite bad has happened, something catastrophic has happen or you just need directions to the nearest bus station.
Enchanted, a new classic Disney tale, points this out to everyone quite nicely. Giselle was nice to everyone and while it may have gotten her some strange looks while in the hustle and bustle of New York she didn’t let it bring her down. And in the end sure enough her nice nature and pleasant demeanour made it possible for her to end up all right in the end.

Anything’s possible. In Peter Pan, regardless of the different version’s they could always fly. But it was only after they thought happy thoughts that they could make something as impossible as flying possible.
So are you thinking happy thoughts? Do you believe that you can travel the world? It doesn’t have to be taken as sarcastically as it has become, just think of the best things that can happen while you are travelling.
If you let it play around in your mind long enough it will go back to the subconscious brain and then the brain will do anything in its power to make it possible. The sub conscious brain doesn’t know the difference between a lie or not and if you think that you are going to go travelling and you tell your brain you are going to, it will believe you. Then because the brain doesn’t like to lie, it will do everything it can to make sure that becomes a reality.

Travel Doesn’t Have To Cost The World. The Simpsons Movie, points out something so true that it can’t be ignored. In The Simpsons Movie through Homer’s own idiocy they had to leave Springfield and live life on the run. They had no money and pretty much everyone was after them. But by using their own ingenuity (and Homer’s less than brilliant skills) they managed to make it to Alaska.
The Simpsons the series is also a very good look at how travel doesn’t have to cost a fortune. How many times have we heard Marge say that they can’t afford it and yet they still have been to some beautiful places. Australia, Japan, London, Brazil and various places across America are the first places that jump to mind.

There are a lot more movies out there that show the benefits and how to travel, too many to name here. But the important thing is to remember that travel doesn’t have to be left for just movies. Go out and watch the movies mentioned here, have a laugh and then start planning how you too can get out and travel the world.
All you have to do is start reaching for that goal, the thing to remember about travelling the world and being the best person you can be is that there is likely to be no competition for you to succeed.
It may seem as though a lot of people are reaching for the same thing as you but that’s not true, a lot of people are trying to reach for you, to drag you down to their level so you just like them can never achieve your goals.

Don’t let them win.

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Being an utterly boring traveller takes a lot of skill, not only do you have to go out into the world and see all there is to see, you have to tell everyone about it, but without ever managing to inspire other people to get out into the world themselves. It’s a very fine line to tread, you have to talk about these amazing places, but you have to sap the energy out of people listening. So instead of them joining in on a great conversation about your travels around the world, they simply want to get away from you as fast as possible.

Utterly Boring Travellers or UBT’s are terrible people, I don’t think they intentionally strive to be UBT’s as most people simply fall into this revered profession. Honestly in some ways UBT’s are almost as bad as Chirpys, Chirpys don’t want you to go in the first place but UBT’s make you never want to go to the places they talked ever. Especially if you have never been to the place they are talking about as you can get the impression that if this is all that the UBT can talk about there really must be nothing there, so you go to lengths to avoid it.

Now while it was mentioned that most people simply fall into the profession of UBT, you don’t have to leave everything so much to chance. If you want to get to being a successful UBT that much faster there are ways to do that. So how to you stop the process of becoming a great traveller and instead revert back to being an UBT?

First thing you have to of course is start travelling. But make sure that before you go that you start telling everyone you know in nauseating detail. Inlude information about what time you are going, what kind of plane is taking you there, what you will do if the car breaks down and you can’t make it to the airport, and definitely don’t foget to mention what number your plane seat is. Don’t just tell people this information ocne though, make sure to tell them again, and again, and again.

Once you have done that to death, start travelling. You don’t have a lot of stories left so don’t inflict them on the locals just yet, wait until you get home. Or if that won’t happen for awhile start with your fellow travellers if you don’t speak the language.

Make sure to go to these incredible far of places after that, but the key to being a UBT is not to left other people start talking. You always have to be the one talking, you always have to be the one sharing the stories. Make sure to talk about every single aspect of your day, including what you ate for breakfast and what time you got to each site. But remember don’t be clear on every single aspect, make sure that you constantly have to start your story over again and again because you can’t remember what exactly you ate for breakfast. This tactic works best if there are two UBT’s travelling together and they can tag team the people around you but it can work if it’s just you as well.

Remember to talk aout your day but the key here is to never mention how the must see landmarks are. If you go to Paris for example never talk about how great the Eiffel Tower, or if you do, talk about in such bland terms that your audiences feels as though they are listening to grass growing.

Never ever forge to drop names, repeatedly. It’s best if they are famous people, but it can work with people that no one has ever heard of. In fact if no one has ever heard of them it does work better, because if they are listening enough to ask who that is you can then go on a ten minute spiel about who they are, how you met them and where they used to live. Nothing screams UBT like name dropping.

Start every story with “When I Was In … [insert country name]” refuse to talk about anything else and do not listen to the groans that surround you as your friends, if you have any, moan about hearing another story about that country that could only be boring when you talk about it.

Tell everyone how things sure have changed since you were here last. This piece of advice is usually for the older travellers who want to make the leap into being an UBT, but it can work for anyone who has been to a place a number of times. Though it doesn’t have to be so, you can simply make it up.

Complain about everything. Everyone knows that you can only be truly be a UBT if you complain about everything. Never mind the fact that you are doing what thousands of people would give their left arm to do, what matters is that this piece of cheese isn’t the same as home.

Constantly ask questions. While this may not be a UBT trait officially, but if you ask questions solely to find a way to work your incredibly boring travel story into the conversation then it can become a UBT trait. You are not an truly an UBT if you don’t work at least one of your travel stories into every conversation you ever had.

Tell the same story over and over again. And again, and again, and again. If the people silly enough to be standing around you haven’t heard the same story three different times then you are simply not on your way to being an UBT.

In the end to be an UBT the key thing that you have do is keep talking. It doesn’t matter if you are having eyes rolled at you, it doesn’t matter if people try to polite you stop talking, it doesn’t matter if they have heard the same story over and over again, to be an utterly boring traveller you have to keep talking.

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