Best Travel Documentaries

With the coronavirus spreading, most of the travel destinations are closed at the moment. So, convert this time into an opportunity and view the best travel documentaries to get yourself ready to travel again after this pendemic ends.

1

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

Peter Coyote
Ken Burns
2009

Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska - “The National Parks: America's Best Idea” is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.

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8.6 IMDB
2

Home

Glenn Close, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Jacques Gamblin
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
2009

With aerial footage from 54 countries, HOME is a depiction of how the Earth's problems are all interlinked.

8.6 IMDB
3

Baraka

Ron Fricke
1992

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

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8.6 IMDB
4

The Salt of the Earth

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders, Hugo Barbier
Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
2014

During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history ; international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes : a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Sebastião's Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wim Wenders, a photographer himself.

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8.5 IMDB
5

Tales by Light

Jonathan Scott
Abraham Joffe
2015

Behind every powerful image is a powerful story. Uniting exploration, photography and the natural world, Tales By Light follows photographers from Australia and around the world as they push the limits of their craft.

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8.3 IMDB
6

The Kindness Diaries

Leon Logothetis
2017

Leon is counting solely on the kindness of strangers for food, shelter and fuel, he travels around the world on a vintage motorcycle looking for the good in humanity.

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8.1 IMDB
7

The Dawn Wall

Tommy Caldwell, John Branch, Kevin Jorgeson
Josh Lowell, Peter Mortimer
2018

In the middle of Yosemite National Park towers El Capitan, a huge block of granite whose smoothest side, the Dawn Wall, is said to be the most difficult rock climb in the world. Tommy Caldwell didn’t see inhospitable terrain, but rather a puzzle almost a kilometer tall. In The Dawn Wall, we follow him and Kevin Jorgeson in their historic ascent to the summit.

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8.1 IMDB
8

Street Food

2019

Embark on a global cultural journey into street food and discover the stories of the people who create the flavorful dishes.

8 IMDB
9

Sahara with Michael Palin

Michael Palin
Roger Mills, John-Paul Davidson
2002

In this four-part BBC documentary, former Monty Python funnyman and renowned globe-trotter Michael Palin sets off from Gibraltar to travel across the Sahara, his witty humor downplaying the hardships he faces along the arduous journey. He travels to Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and beyond, across some of the harshest terrain on the planet.

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8 IMDB
10

Faces Places

Agnès Varda, JR
Agnès Varda, JR
2017

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

7.9 IMDB
11

A Map For Saturday

Brook Silva-Braga
2007

On a trip around the world, every day feels like Saturday. A Map For Saturday reveals a world of long-term, solo travel through the stories of trekkers in 20 countries on four continents. The documentary finds backpackers helping neglected Thai tsunami victims. It explains why Nepal's guesthouses are empty and Brazil's stoplights are ignored. But at it's core, A Map For Saturday tracks the emotional arc of extreme long-term travelers; teenagers and senior citizens who wondered, "What would it be like to travel the world?" Then did it.

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7.8 IMDB
12

Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father

Jack Whitehall, Michael Whitehall
2017

Comic Jack Whitehall invites his stodgy, unadventurous father to travel with him to odd locations and events in an attempt to strengthen their bond.

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7.7 IMDB
13

Encounters at the End of the World

Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog
2007

Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger go to Antarctica to meet people who live and work there, and to capture footage of the continent's unique locations. Herzog's voiceover narration explains that his film will not be a typical Antarctica film about "fluffy penguins", but will explore the dreams of the people and the landscape.

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7.7 IMDB
14

Life in a Day

Cindy Baer, Moica, Caryn Waechter
Kevin Macdonald, Zillah Bowes
2011

A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1687247

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7.7 IMDB
15

Antarctica: A Year on Ice

Andrew Velman, Christine Powell
Anthony Powell
2013

Filling the giant screen with stunning time-lapse vistas of Antarctica, and detailing year-round life at McMurdo and Scott Base, Anthony Powell’s documentary is a potent hymn to the icy continent and the heavens above.

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7.6 IMDB
16

March of the Penguins

Morgan Freeman, Charles Berling, Romane Bohringer
Luc Jacquet
2005

Every year, thousands of Antarctica's emperor penguins make an astonishing journey to breed their young. They walk, marching day and night in single file 70 miles into the darkest, driest and coldest continent on Earth. Morgan Freeman narrates this amazing, true-life tale touched with humour and alive with thrills. Breathtaking photography captures the transcendent beauty and staggering drama of devoted parent penguins who, in the fierce polar winter, take turns guarding their egg and trekking to the ocean in search of food. Predators hunt them, storms lash them. But the safety of their adorable chicks makes it all worthwhile. So follow the leader ... to adventure!!

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7.5 IMDB
17

Losing Sight of Shore

Sarah Moshman
2017

Four brave women set out to row across the Pacific Ocean from America to Australia.

7.4 IMDB
18

Tawai: A Voice from the Forest

Bruce Parry, Jerome Lewis, Iain Mcgilchrist
Bruce Parry, Mark Ellam
2017

Explorer Bruce Parry visits nomadic tribes in Borneo and the Amazon in hope to better understand humanity's changing relationship with the world around us.

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7.3 IMDB