What to Watch Before You Go: 22 Family Movies Set in Europe

About two weeks before every big trip, our movie nights change. Whatever we were watching gets bumped, and we watch something set wherever we’re going.

The girls used to roll their eyes at it, but then my oldest spent an afternoon at the Acropolis narrating Greek mythology to the rest of us because of a podcast we had listened to on our road trips to visit my parents, and now they ask for it every trip.

This is the first post in my new series. Every post is organized by country, and every movie is picked for one reason…it makes a real place recognizable before you get there. A great movie that doesn’t do that didn’t make the list.

Streaming moves around constantly, so always be sure to check before movie night where to find it.

How do I know if a movie is right for my kids?

Before we watch anything new, I look it up on Common Sense Media. Every time.

It breaks a movie down by what’s in it (language, scary scenes, romance, violence) and what parents and kids say about it. A PG rating can mean almost anything, and two minutes there tells me whether a movie is right for my girls or whether it’s one to save for a couple of years.

So the ages on this list are just suggestions. You know your kids. One 10-year-old will love Hunchback and another will be up at 2am thinking about Frollo. Look it up, then make the call that’s right for your family.

What should kids watch before a trip to Italy?

Luca for the little ones, The Lizzie McGuire Movie for tweens, and Roman Holiday if you have kids who can handle black and white.

Luca (2021) Whole family · Disney+ A Pixar movie about two sea monsters spending a summer in a tiny Italian fishing town. The town is made up, but it’s modeled on the Cinque Terre, and the colors, the gelato, and the Vespa obsession are all real. We didn’t make it to the Cinque Terre, but it’s on our list for next time!

The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003) 8 to 11 Yes, this one. It was filmed in Rome, and it hits the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum. If you watched it at 14, your 10-year-old will love it for completely different reasons than you did. (And you’ll still know the words to the last song.)

Roman Holiday (1953) 12 and up Audrey Hepburn on a Vespa through Rome. It’s slow by modern standards, but there’s a scene at the Mouth of Truth, the old stone face where legend says it bites the hand of a liar, and it’s the single best “that’s from the movie” moment in Rome. When we were on our golf cart tour around Rome and our guide stopped at this statue, my girls immediately recognized it.

What should kids watch before a trip to Paris?

Ratatouille and The Aristocats for everyone, The Hunchback of Notre Dame before you see the cathedral, and Miraculous if you have tweens.

Our family has been to Paris twice now with the girls. Once for our first international trip and once for the Olympics.

Ratatouille (2007) Whole family · Disney+ A rat who wants to be a chef in a Paris restaurant. It’s a love letter to the city, the rooftops, the river, the food. It’s also the easiest way to get a picky eater curious about trying something new in France.

Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, The Movie (2023) 8 to 11 If your kids already watch the show, they know Paris better than you think. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre-Dame, and the rooftops are all over it.

The Aristocats (1970) Whole family · Disney+ A family of very fancy cats gets dumped in the French countryside and has to find their way home to Paris. The rooftops and the jazz scene are pure old Paris, and it’s an easy one for the youngest kids in the house.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) 8 to 11 (darker than most Disney, with a scary villain) · Disney+ The whole movie happens in and around Notre Dame, so your kids will walk up to the real thing already knowing the bell towers and the gargoyles. Notre Dame reopened in December 2024 after the fire, which makes this a better time to see it than any time in the last five years.

Leap! (2016) 5 to 7 and up An orphan girl runs away to Paris to become a ballerina, back when the Eiffel Tower was still half built. Most of it happens at the Paris Opera, the Palais Garnier, which you can tour. For a kid who dances, walking into that grand staircase after this movie is worth the whole trip.

What should kids watch before a trip to Greece?

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants if you’re going to Santorini, Hercules for the little ones, then Mamma Mia and My Life in Ruins once they’re old enough, and the ‘Greeking Out’ podcast in the car.

The podcast is the reason this whole series exists (see the top), and I’d put it ahead of any movie on this list for Greece. Kids who know the myths walk into the Acropolis Museum with something to look for.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) 10 and up This is the movie that got me to Greece. I saw it twenty years ago, watched Lena spend her summer on a whitewashed island with blue domes and the sea underneath, and Santorini went to the top of my list and never left. Those scenes were filmed in Oia. So when we finally landed on Santorini with Tim and the girls and walked those same narrow alleys at sunset, it was twenty years of daydreaming showing up all at once. 

Hercules (1997) Whole family · Disney+ Disney’s version takes plenty of liberties with the actual myths, and your mythology-obsessed kid will happily point out every one of them. That’s half the fun. It gives younger kids the cast of characters (Zeus, Hades, the Muses) before you’re standing in front of their temples.

Mamma Mia! (2008) 10 and up Filmed on the island of Skopelos. We stayed on Santorini, not Skopelos, but the whitewashed houses, blue doors, and steep island stairs looked exactly like the movie. Everywhere we walked in Santorini, my girls were like “this is just like Mamma Mia!”

My Life in Ruins (2009) 10 and up Nia Vardalos plays a tour guide leading a busload of tourists around Greece, and it was filmed at the Acropolis itself (one of the only feature films ever allowed to shoot there). If your kids are going to stand where my oldest stood giving her mythology tour, this is the movie to watch first. It also covers Delphi and Olympia if your trip goes beyond Athens.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) 10 and up This one is set in Chicago, not Greece, so it breaks my own rule for this list. It’s here anyway, because it’s the best crash course in Greek family culture there is with the food, the yiayias, the Windex, the whole extended family showing up for everything. Your kids will spend the trip looking for a dad who thinks every word comes from Greek.

If you want the version that does take place in Greece, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023) sends the whole family to their ancestral village and was filmed on Corfu.

What should kids watch before a trip to Croatia?

Two movies most people don’t know were filmed there.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) 10 and up The sequel is set on a Greek island, but it was filmed on the island of Vis in Croatia. So if you’re doing Greece and Croatia on the same trip like we did, this one covers both. Watch the first one before Greece and this one before Croatia.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) 10 and up · Disney+ The casino city scenes were filmed in Dubrovnik’s Old Town. Walk the Stradun, the main street inside the walls, and your Star Wars kid will know exactly where they are. (The Game of Thrones fans in your house will recognize it too, but that one is not on this list for obvious reasons. Lol) 

What should kids watch before a trip to England and Scotland?

Harry Potter, then Paddington, and Brave.

We did a Harry Potter road trip through Scotland and England, so I can tell you this one pays off more than any other movie series on the list.

The Harry Potter films (2001 to 2011) 8 to 11 for the first few, 10 and up for the later ones Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross. The Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Highlands, where the Hogwarts Express crosses. Alnwick Castle, where they had their first flying lesson. Our favorite part of this trip was visiting the Harry Potter Studio Tour just outside London. Seeing all the movie props and costumes up close was just amazing.

Paddington (2014) Whole family A bear from Peru gets lost in London. It’s funny, it’s warm, and there’s a bronze Paddington statue in Paddington Station that you can sit next to for a photo once you get there.

Brave (2012) Whole family (some scary bear scenes for little ones) · Disney+ Set in the Scottish Highlands, with standing stones, castles, and misty hills. It’s the closest any movie gets to what the drive north looks like.

What should kids watch before a trip to Austria?

The Sound of Music. It’s the only movie on this list that can plan an entire day for you.

It’s also a big part of why we’re heading to Munich in December for the Christmas markets, with a day trip to Salzburg. Salzburg is about an hour and a half from Munich by train, and once that was on the table, there was no way we were skipping it.

The Sound of Music (1965) Whole family · Disney+ It was filmed all over Salzburg, and so many of the locations are still there that the movie works as a walking tour. Kids can dance down the “Do-Re-Mi” steps in the Mirabell Gardens, stand under the walls of Nonnberg Abbey where Maria was a nun, and find the “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” gazebo, which now sits at Hellbrunn Palace. It’s almost three hours long, so we’re splitting it over two movie nights. Fun fact for the kids: the real von Trapps didn’t hike over the mountains…they left by train.

What about the Mary-Kate and Ashley movies?

Yes. All three of their Europe movies belong on this list, and each one fits a country above.

I have identical twin girls, so I’ll admit I had a personal stake in this one. But these movies do exactly what this whole list is for: two sisters land somewhere new, run around the most recognizable places in the city, and get into trouble at every one of them. My girls love all of these movies and even though they are over 20 years old, they still hit!

Passport to Paris (1999) 8 to 11 The Eiffel Tower, the Seine, the cafés. Watch it before Paris and pair it with Ratatouille.

Winning London (2001) 8 to 11 Big Ben, Tower Bridge, double-decker buses. A good warm-up before the Harry Potter sites if London is your first stop.

When in Rome (2002) 8 to 11 Scooters, the Colosseum, and a summer internship in Rome. Pair it with The Lizzie McGuire Movie for an early-2000s Rome double feature. (You’ll be the only one in the room who remembers either of them the first time around.)

Fair warning: these are hard to find on streaming and tend to show up as rentals or used DVDs. Check your local library!

How far before the trip should we start watching?

About two to three weeks out.

Early enough that you’re not cramming five movies into the last weekend, close enough that the details are still fresh when you land. We do one a weekend, and the last one the night before we fly.

Every trip in Travel Keeper comes with a 13-step planning timeline, even on the free version. With Pro, I add my own steps to it, and “movie night” is always one of them, with a reminder set for two weeks out so it doesn’t get lost under the packing and the passport renewals.

And if you’re in that last stretch before an international trip, here’s everything else we do before we go.

Coming next

Asia is next, with Japan, China, Korea, and Singapore. Then North America, Disney, and the rest. Join my email list to be notified when the next posts in the series are ready.