> Travel documentaries that do more than show pretty places — the films to watch before a trip to India, Egypt, the Mediterranean and beyond. *Source : https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-travel-documentaries/* --- [Home](https://indianpointfilm.com/) › [Where to Watch](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/) # The Best Travel Documentaries to Watch Before You Go Travel documentaries that do more than show pretty places — the films to watch before a trip to India, Egypt, the Mediterranean and beyond. By Indian Point Film Editorial 25 February 2022 3 min read ![A travel map and passport](https://indianpointfilm.com/images/covers/travel-documentaries.webp) A good travel documentary does the opposite of a travel ad. Instead of flattening a place into a postcard, it slows down, listens, and lets a country be complicated. The films below are the ones I’d press on anyone planning a trip — not because they work as brochures, but because they change how you’ll see a place once you’re standing in it. I’ve grouped them loosely by region, with a note on where each tends to stream. Availability shifts constantly, so when in doubt check [JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/) for your country. ## Films that travel anywhere Some documentaries aren’t about a single destination so much as the act of looking at the world. - **Baraka** (Ron Fricke, 1992) and its successor **Samsara** (2011) — no narration, no plot, just 70mm images of people and places across dozens of countries. The closest thing to meditation you can put on a screen. - **The Salt of the Earth** (Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, 2014) — a portrait of photographer Sebastião Salgado that doubles as a tour of the planet’s extremes. - **Encounters at the End of the World** (Werner Herzog, 2007) — Antarctica as only Herzog would frame it. If you like his sensibility, our [ranking of Werner Herzog’s documentaries](https://indianpointfilm.com/documentaries/werner-herzog-documentaries-ranked/) goes deeper. ## The Himalayas and India India rewards the patient documentary. Films like **All That Breathes** (Shaunak Sen) sit with Delhi’s air and its wildlife rescuers; **Writing with Fire** follows a newspaper run by Dalit women; and for the mountains, **14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible** turns the Himalayas into pure adrenaline. Watch a few and the urge to actually go becomes hard to ignore — when it does, [hotels4travelers](https://hotels4travelers.com/) is a sensible place to start comparing where to stay near the places these films are set. If you want to go deeper on the country through cinema first, see our guide to the [best documentaries about India](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-about-india/). ## Egypt and the Nile Egypt is one of the most filmed places on earth, and the documentary tradition there is enormous — from Pharaonic excavations like Netflix’s **Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb** (2020) to films about the modern country. They’re the ideal primer before walking into a temple you’ve only ever seen on a screen. For the practical half of the trip — tickets, cruises, when to go — our sister magazine [EgyptInterActive](https://egyptinteractive.com/) covers it in detail. ## The Mediterranean and the French Riviera The south of France has been a character in cinema since the movies began, and it still anchors the calendar every May at Cannes. Documentaries set along the coast trade on that light — the same light painters chased for a century. If a film sends you reaching for a map of the Côte d’Azur, [The South of France](https://the-south-of-france.com/) is our go-to guide for that stretch of coast. For the festival side of the Riviera, see our [map of the documentary festival circuit](https://indianpointfilm.com/festivals-funding/documentary-film-festival-circuit/). ## How to actually watch them A few habits make the difference between a watchlist you mean to get to and one you finish: Habit Why it helps Pick one film per destination A single great doc beats a marathon you won’t finish Watch a week or two before you go Close enough to remember, far enough to plan around Check streaming the day you watch Rights move between platforms constantly Note the locations The best films double as an itinerary Travel documentaries aren’t a substitute for going. They’re the opposite — the surest way I know to turn a vague “someday” into a booked flight. Start with one region above, and let the film do the convincing. Affiliate link · Streaming #### The Best Travel Documentaries to Watch Before You Go Find where every documentary is streaming and start watching in a couple of clicks. [Find it on JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movies?genres=doc) Some links on Indian Point Film are affiliate links: if you buy or subscribe through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes our recommendations. ## Keep reading [![Streaming a documentary at home](https://indianpointfilm.com/images/covers/best-docs-netflix.webp)](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-on-netflix/) Where to Watch ### [The 25 Best Documentaries on Netflix Right Now](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-on-netflix/) A working list of the Netflix documentaries I keep coming back to and pressing on friends. 2 Feb 2022 [![The ghats of Varanasi on the Ganges](https://indianpointfilm.com/images/covers/india-documentaries.webp)](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-about-india/) Where to Watch ### [The Best Documentaries About India](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-about-india/) The films that capture India's contradictions — from Varanasi's ghats to the textile factories of Gujarat. 9 Dec 2021 [![A film projector in a dark room](https://indianpointfilm.com/images/covers/best-docs-mubi.webp)](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-on-mubi/) Where to Watch ### [The Best Documentaries on MUBI Worth Your Subscription](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-on-mubi/) MUBI's small, rotating slate is the opposite of Netflix — and for nonfiction, that's a feature. 9 Nov 2021