Roll out the red carpet for these Oscars-inspired travel destinations

And the nominees for countries we most want to travel to after being featured in a film are …

The 98th Academy Awards will broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on 16 March 2026. And while the world will be glued to everything from red carpet arrivals to who won what, the 2026 Oscars are making us reflect on all the great travel movies of all time. The scene-stealing movies that have won or been nominated for Oscars (or Golden Raspberries) over the years all have at least one thing in common: they are films that inspire wanderlust. From Castaway to Lost in Translation, to the 2025 Best Animated Feature Film, Flow, here are some of the top films to inspire your next holiday destination.

Flow, 2024

If Flow were to arrive on the red carpet in the signature colours from the movie, it would be all crayon-greens and dragon-green seas. The stunning movie made waves when it took out the 2025 Best Animated Film for its wordless cat parable about climate change. But the shifting landscapes featured in the animated film will also put Latvia in the spotlight as a destination worth exploring. Expect a star turn from Gauga National Park and its soaring sandstone cliffs, stunning forests and historical landmarks.

Dune: Part Two, 2024

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE: PART TWO, — Dune: Part Two won the Oscar for Best Sound in 2025. (Image: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)

Dune: Part Two has enough holiday hotspots to inspire a golden gap year. The moonscapes of Wadi Rum, in Jordan, the Old Town in Budapest, the desert sands around Abu Dhabi and a cemetery outside Asolo, in Italy, all deserve nominations for Best Stunt Double in the sequel to the first instalment of the Denis Villeneuve film released in 2021. Dune: Part Two won the Oscar for Best Sound in 2025. The destination-based movie is set to inspire travellers to explore the Oscar-winning film’s locations.

A Complete Unknown, 2024

A Complete Unknown in Oscars — The Chelsea Hotel is a storied hotel for rock and roll stars. (Image: James Mangold/Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.)

New York shines as bright as the monochromatic buttery-yellow Givenchy suit worn by star Timothée Chalamet at the 2025 Oscars. While not all of the scenes for the Bob Dylan biopic were shot in New York City, we expect a surge of visitors will now be booking a night at room 211 at The Chelsea Hotel, where the troubadour lived between 1961 and 1964. Set-jetters can also follow in the footsteps of the bohemian folk singer (played by Chalamet) around Hoboken, which the set designers converted into a mini Manhattan. Chalamet was nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role category.

The Brutalist, 2024

Brutalist buildings in Oscar-winning film — Brutalist architecture takes centre stage in this period drama. (Image: Universal Pictures)

The structure of Adrian Brody’s cheekbones is as compelling as the film sequences shot in VistaVision for The Brutalist. The film took out the statuette for Best Cinematography at the 2025 Oscars, giving architecture boffins a hit list of Brutalist buildings to admire in New York City. Although most of the scenes are set in the US, there are cameos by Venice and Carrara in Italy as well as Budapest and Tóalmás, Hungary. Brody also won Best Actor for the film about a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the US.

Barbie, 2023

Stuff your packing cells with Day-Glo hot-pink accessories and take off to Los Angeles. It’s a fact that the city that has doubled as a film set since forever can do with some love after the devastating bushfires. While much of Barbie was filmed at a studio in Hertfordshire, southeast England, the Greta Gerwig movie also presents a sun-drenched postcard from LA. Go rollerblading along its iconic Ocean Front Walk in Venice Beach and visit the 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City, where Ken has the revelation that the real world is patriarchal. Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 96th Academy Awards.

No Time to Die, 2021

The sepia-toned city of Matera has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993. But it wasn’t until Daniel Craig’s last hurrah as Agent 007 in the film No Time to Die that Matera became a ping on the radar as a lesser-known place to travel to in Italy. The underground city was carved into the limestone hills in Basilicata, and we’re all for wandering around the steep cobblestone streets and subterranean architecture, ticking off each location that made a cameo in the film. Can’t afford the airfare? Pass the popcorn. The town named the European Capital of Culture in 2019 should win Best Supporting Role for featuring Puglia so prominently. The film won Best Original Song in 2022.

Lord of the Rings, 2001-2003

Hobbiton in the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings — No visit to New Zealand is complete without a tour of the awe-inspiring Hobbiton. (Image: Andres Iga/Unsplash)

Fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy identified New Zealand as a dream destination after The Hobbit trilogy was filmed by James Cameron was released. Hobbiton has become somewhat of a theme park for the blockbuster series and has led to a huge spike in tourism to the lush rolling hills around the town of Matamata near Rotorua. It’s as close as Man and Men can get to Middle-earth, and set tours here are still a thing, some two decades after the last film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, was released. The trilogy won 178 Academy Awards and was akin to a love letter to New Zealand.

Weekly travel news, experiences
insider tips, offers, and more.

Lost in Translation, 2003

The film Lost in Translation was influenced by director Sofia Coppola’s experiences in Japan in the 1990s. More than two decades later, the atmospheric and dimly lit lobby of the Park Hyatt Tokyo attracts film buffs drawn to making sense of that feeling of being a foreigner in this neon-lit megacity. While the film is essentially a film about jetlag, it’s also about searching for meaning in a world in which you don’t necessarily feel you belong. Sophia Coppola won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay at the 2004 Oscars.

The Beach, 2000

There’s been a surge in visitor interest in Thailand since Season 3 of The White Lotus dropped. But the backpacker thriller, The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a young American tourist travelling through Thailand, also made Maya Bay and Koh Phi Phi such popular destinations for backpackers in tie-dyed tees that visitor numbers were capped to try and mitigate damage to the environment. The film was not nominated for an Oscar. But DiCaprio did win the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. Our suggestion: pick up a copy of the cult novel and head to one of Australia’s secret beaches instead.

Cast Away, 2000

Rewind to the year 2000, when Tom Hanks was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his work on Cast Away. His straggly beard almost stole the show and could have won an Oscar for Best Supporting Role. But we’re not in pursuit of the hirsute here. We’re about packing our bags and heading to the remote islands of Fiji to try and channel some of those barefoot castaway vibes (minus the starvation and Survivor vibes) on Castaway Island. BYO volleyball. It’s just one of the many Fijian resorts Aussies need to know about.

Wellbeing means different things to different travellers. Here’s how to pick a hotel that gets it right for you.

The best wellness holidays aren’t necessarily spent wrapped in a spa robe. Sometimes they’re found around a dinner table in Cambodia, on a hiking trail in New Zealand or after finally beating jet lag on the other side of the world. The hotel you choose is what makes them happen.

1. Easy access to good food

meals from Novotel Bangkok Sukhumvit 20 — Taste delicious meals at Novotel Bangkok Sukhumvit 20.

One of the quickest ways to derail healthy habits on holiday is to spend half of it working out where to eat instead of digging into the culture around you. Thankfully, Novotel has done much of the hard work already, with chefs building menus that lean into the flavours, ingredients and traditions of each destination.

In Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Korkor soup – often dubbed ‘Cambodian ratatouille’ – sits alongside raw blue crab dressed with lime and chilli, best enjoyed with views across the Gulf of Thailand.

In the lovingly chaotic city of Bangkok, the presence of food cranks up the sociability. At Novotel Bangkok Sukhumvit 20, you can settle in with mango sticky rice and stranger-turned-friends beside the pool at Sky on 20 rooftop bar, or bring them along to tackle river prawns and stir-fried crab with holy basil at the buzzing Crab Paradise Dinner Buffet.

Then Novotel Dubai Al Barsha welcomes you with a laidback twist on the level of indulgence the Middle Eastern city is best known for up on Deck Se7en. Looking towards Burj Al Arab, the rooftop lounge has everything from Mediterranean-style dishes like seabass ceviche to Italian prosecco sundowners.

At the other end of the scale, in the hills that surround the Novotel Bali Ubud Resort, calm comes from nature. At Siralada restaurant, Balinese traditions shape the menu while thunder rumbles over the surrounding jungle – proving the setting is as nourishing as the food itself.

While at Novotel Nha Trang, chef Kieu Thi My Hanh and her team showcase Vietnam’s knack for balancing freshness, texture and fragrant herbs. Pho remains a favourite, while seafood salad with pomelo and mango brings those flavours together in one bright dish.

It’s all an approach backed by partnerships with expert food creators such as Alfie Steiner, whose plant-forward recipes prove healthy food should never taste plain.

2. Better sleep options

Novotel Bali Ubud Resort room — Sleep deeply with Novotel.

There are few travel experiences more disappointing than arriving in a new country, determined to seize the day, only to fall asleep fully clothed by 3pm.

For Australian travellers, jet lag is often an unavoidable part of the journey. That’s one reason Novotel runs sleep-focused initiatives that help guests adjust quickly without compromising on health. We’re talking partnerships with Sydney-based sleep specialist Olivia Arezzolo, known for her advice on everything from better sleep habits to beating jet lag, alongside features like pillow menus, in-room yoga content and tailored sleep guidance.

The sooner you’re operating on local time, the sooner you can get back to more pressing matters – like deciding which spa treatment to book.

3. More ways to move

woman hiking around queenstown new zealand — Stay at Novotel Queenstown Lakeside and explore local hiking trails. (Credit: GettyI mages/ naruedom)

Every place in the world has its own way of getting you moving: whether that’s hiking up ice-bitten mountains before a sauna or gentle stretching by the pool before a facial. From fitness centres to spas, Novotel recognises that wellbeing rarely looks the same.

At Novotel Queenstown Lakeside, activity is inescapable. Here, hiking trails, ski fields, bungee jumps, and white-water rafting have made the region famous. The hotel’s location on the shores of Lake Wakatipu means less time spent organising yourself and more time out there experiencing them. To top it all off, you can book a private hot tub for the evening before heading back into the wilderness tomorrow.

Bali, of course, takes a softer approach. At Novotel Bali Ubud Resort or Novotel Bali Nusa Dua, movement is less about conquering a mountain and more about a dance class between the tropical gardens and lagoon pools. Afterwards, the spa takes over, with traditional treatments like a Lulur body scrub: a combination of rice, turmeric, sandalwood, ginger and jasmine that’ll soothe muscles already relaxed by the Balinese heat.

4. Better connections

Kids will love a stay at Novotel Sharm El Sheikh.

One of the best things about travel is that it gives your family stories you’ll be telling for years. Novotel helps create them with activities that bring everyone together, whether that’s trying something new, learning a local skill, or simply spending more time together.

Go for a distinctly Thai twist at Novotel Phuket Vintage Park, where many of the family activities draw on local culture. Kids can try everything from beginner Thai boxing and language lessons to umbrella painting and – a pastime beloved by children the world over – pool foam parties. Everyone is welcome to join in, whether that’s getting splashed, covered in paint, or simply watching their children discover a new side of Thailand during the dedicated Family & Kids Day.

A different adventure awaits at Novotel Sharm El Sheikh. Kids could be perfectly content with discos, drawing classes and new holiday friends, but the Red Sea has other ideas. Sitting on the edge of Naama Bay, days here might involve snorkelling colourful reefs, taking a boat trip to Ras Mohammed National Park or heading into the desert by quad bike or camel for a Bedouin-style dinner beneath the stars.

5. Location is everything

Surin Beach, Choeng Thale, Thalang District, Phuket, Thaiföld — Explore Phuket’s gorgeous beaches. (Credit: Bence Biczo)

Everyone’s idea of wellness looks a little different. With more than 600 hotels across 65 countries, Novotel gives guests the freedom to choose the destination that suits them best. Whether that’s a beachside escape in Phuket, an alpine expedition in Queenstown or a city break in Bangkok, there’s a good chance a Novotel isn’t far away.

All that’s left? Choosing your version of wellbeing.

Discover stays to inspire your everyday at novotel.accor.com.