10 Movies Every Female Traveler Should Watch

Discover 10 of the best travel movies for women and female travelers, featuring destinations like Tokyo, Seoul, Istanbul, Oaxaca, Paris, Rome and Athens. From solo travel and female independence to local culture, meaningful connection and unforgettable cities, these films will inspire your next trip — and help you see the world differently.

By Lucy S

10 Movies Every Female Traveler Should Watch

Sometimes a movie does more than tell a good story, sometimes it transports you to a new place, and makes you dream of traveling there.

Our favorite type of movie, makes us look up flights, and makes us dream of the new destination to go to.

The right film can make you curious about a neighborhood you've never heard of, imagine yourself wandering the streets of Tokyo after dark, or suddenly decide that this is finally the year you make it to Istanbul.

But some of the best movies that inspire travel aren't traditional "travel movies" at all.

They are stories about women navigating unfamiliar places, connecting with strangers, questioning what home means, discovering independence, and experiencing cities beyond the postcard version.

So instead of another list filled with the same predictable travel films, we went a little further, we looked for movies who took us around the world, made us wonder what it would be like to be there.

These are 10 movies every female traveler should watch if she travels for culture, human connection and the feeling of experiencing somewhere completely different.

And yes: every destination on this list is somewhere you can connect with a verified local woman Greeter guide through Greether.

1. Hideous Kinky — Marrakech, Morocco

You'll love it if: you're drawn to unconventional women, unfamiliar cultures and stories about leaving the expected path behind.

Set in 1970s Morocco, Hideous Kinky follows a young British mother who leaves England with her two daughters to build a very different life in Marrakech.

The movie isn't interested in presenting Morocco simply as a beautiful backdrop. Instead, Marrakech becomes part of the family's experience of reinvention: unpredictable, colorful, complicated and completely removed from the life they knew before.

It's a story about what happens when travel stops being a vacation and begins changing the way you think about the life you're supposed to live.

For travelers heading to Marrakech, it also captures something that glossy destination photography rarely does: the feeling of being surrounded by a culture you don't fully understand yet and slowly finding your place within it.

2. Microhabitat — Seoul, South Korea

You'll love it if: you want to see Seoul beyond K-pop, beauty stores and the city's most photographed neighborhoods.

Microhabitat follows Miso, a fiercely independent woman living in Seoul who decides to give up her apartment rather than sacrifice the few pleasures she considers essential to her life.

She begins moving between the homes of former friends, giving us an intimate view of different lives unfolding across Seoul.

And that's exactly why this movie belongs on a female travel watchlist.

Instead of showing us a polished tourist version of the city, Microhabitat takes us into apartments, workplaces, friendships and the compromises people make simply to exist in an expensive metropolis.

It's funny, unconventional and deeply human — and it makes Seoul feel like a place inhabited by real people rather than a collection of attractions.

3. Kedi — Istanbul, Türkiye

You'll love it if: you believe the best way to understand a city is through the people — and apparently the cats — who call it home.

Yes, Kedi is technically about cats.

But it is also one of the most unexpectedly intimate portraits of Istanbul you can watch.

The documentary follows several of the city's free-roaming cats while introducing us to the residents who feed them, care for them and coexist with them.

Through those relationships, Istanbul unfolds organically: its rooftops, waterfront, markets, tiny streets and everyday rhythms.

There is something wonderfully Greether about that perspective. The destination isn't presented through monuments. You understand it through its community.

Watch it and you may find yourself wanting to experience Istanbul slowly — walking neighborhoods, taking the ferry, talking to people and noticing all the tiny details that make a city feel alive.

4. Tokyo Fiancée — Tokyo, Japan

You'll love it if: you've ever dreamed about living abroad rather than simply visiting.

In Tokyo Fiancée, Amélie returns to Japan, where she spent part of her childhood, hoping to reconnect with a country she has idealized from afar.

She begins teaching French to a young Japanese student, Rinri, and their relationship introduces her to a Tokyo she couldn't have discovered simply by following a guidebook.

That's what makes the film especially interesting for travelers.

It explores the gap between imagining a culture and actually living within it — including all the awkwardness, excitement and culture shock in between.

Tokyo becomes somewhere Amélie has to rediscover rather than simply admire.

For anyone who has ever arrived somewhere and thought, Could I actually live here?, this one is for you.

5. Hope, Soledad — Oaxaca, Mexico

You'll love it if: you love intimate stories about women, meaningful encounters with strangers and journeys that become about much more than the destination.

This is one of the lesser-known films on our list — and one of the most aligned with the way we think about travel at Greether.

Hope, Soledad brings together two women during a pilgrimage to Juquila in Oaxaca, Mexico.

They come from different worlds, but their shared journey creates space for connection, reflection and understanding.

The film draws from documentary traditions to portray Indigenous communities and the landscapes and traditions surrounding the pilgrimage.

Rather than treating Oaxaca as scenery, it allows the people and communities along the journey to shape the story.

It's a beautiful reminder that some of the most meaningful travel experiences begin with someone you hadn't planned on meeting.

6. Cléo from 5 to 7 — Paris, France

You'll love it if: you'd rather spend an afternoon wandering Paris than rushing between landmarks.

Agnès Varda's French New Wave classic follows singer Cléo as she moves through Paris while waiting for potentially life-changing medical results.

We follow her through cafés, streets, taxis, shops and parks — watching both Paris and Cléo herself shift as the afternoon unfolds.

What makes Cléo from 5 to 7 such a fascinating travel film is how ordinary the city feels.

Paris isn't presented as a fantasy. It's somewhere people wait, worry, work, flirt, walk and unexpectedly connect.

Nearly six decades later, the movie remains one of cinema's great examples of simply moving through a city and allowing it to affect you.

7. Been So Long — London, England

You'll love it if: you want your London with neighborhood energy, music, nightlife and actual local life.

Forget royal palaces for a moment.

Been So Long takes us into Camden, following single mother Simone as an unexpected encounter begins disrupting the carefully controlled life she has created for herself.

The film is colorful, musical and rooted in multicultural London. Locations include Camden Market, Regent's Canal and Primrose Hill.

It's precisely the kind of movie that can make you want to explore one neighborhood deeply instead of racing across an entire city checking attractions off a list.

London becomes vibrant, romantic and deeply connected to the people inhabiting it.

8. Millennium Mambo — Taipei, Taiwan

You'll love it if: night markets, neon lights and wandering a city at 2 a.m. sound better than sightseeing tours.

Few movies make a city feel quite like Millennium Mambo makes Taipei feel.

The film follows Vicky, a young woman looking back on her life at the beginning of the millennium, particularly her relationships and the nightlife surrounding her.

The Taipei of Millennium Mambo is dreamy, hypnotic and neon-soaked.

Rather than showing travelers the city they are "supposed" to visit, it captures a particular youth culture and moment in Taipei's history.

It feels like remembering a night out years later — fragmented, beautiful and slightly surreal.

9. The Goddess of Fortune — Rome, Italy

You'll love it if: you want to experience the real Rome beyond fountains, ruins and perfect plates of pasta.

Rome has appeared in countless films, but sometimes the most interesting way to experience a famous destination is through stories that aren't primarily about tourism.

The Goddess of Fortune is centered on relationships, family and the bonds people create with one another.

That makes Rome feel less like an open-air museum and more like somewhere people are actually building lives.

For travelers, it's a useful reminder: iconic destinations become infinitely more interesting once you begin looking beyond the icons.

Go for the Colosseum. Stay curious about the people living around it.

10. The Two Faces of January — Athens & Crete, Greece

You'll love it if: you're obsessed with Mediterranean summers, vintage glamour and beautiful destinations with a darker edge.

Set in the early 1960s, The Two Faces of January begins when an American couple traveling through Greece meets a young guide at the Acropolis in Athens.

What begins glamorously quickly becomes a psychological thriller involving deception, jealousy and a very complicated escape through Greece.

The story moves from Athens to Crete, including the ruins of Knossos, before eventually continuing beyond Greece.

It isn't exactly the vacation we'd recommend recreating.

The setting, however? Absolutely.

Sun-bleached architecture, ancient ruins, old hotels, ferries and Mediterranean landscapes make the film almost impossible to watch without wanting to look up flights to Athens.

Travel for More Than the Pretty Views

The movies we remember aren't always the ones with the most beautiful destinations.

They're often the ones that show us what it might feel like to actually be there.

To wander.

To feel slightly lost.

To meet someone unexpected.

To see a familiar destination from another woman's perspective.

That's the kind of travel we believe in at Greether.

Greether is the go-to global resource for female travelers, connecting women with verified local Greeters in 130+ countries so they can travel safer and more confidently.

And there are local Greeters in every destination featured on this list.

So when a movie inspires the trip, you already know someone there.

Which movie did we miss?

Tell us @greet.her — because we're already thinking about Part 2.

Editorial note: Greether is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of the films, studios, distributors, or streaming platforms mentioned in this article. Film details and location information were sourced from official film pages, production companies, film institutions, and other publicly available sources. Recommendations and commentary are our own.

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