7 Ways Movies We Watched As Kids Screwed Up Our Travel Expectations

Unsplash

Ummm Hollywood, we need to talk. Why haven’t we encountered a prince masquerading as a normal human during our travels yet? We’re pretty sure our fave childhood movies promised us easy access to castles in our future.

These movies we watched [on repeat] as kids definitely messed up our expectations of what travel would be like as a grown-up. Here are eight ways our long-held expectations totally don’t match reality.

1. Your family could leave you behind.

According to Home Alone, your fam could just head off for vacay and forget you’re still at the house. But IRL, your travel buddy has your back. It’s not like she can transfer that pricey plane ticket!

2. Quicksand is all around us.

Why were we terrorized by quicksand as if it’s lurking around every corner? The Princess Bride, Jumanji and so many other movies threatened sinking peril, but it’s nowhere to be found on the average tourist track.

3. You will fall madly in love within two days.

Mary-Kate and Ashley fell in love with teen heartthrobs in all of their vacation movies (where were their parents?). And don’t get us started on Titanic. Poor Jack literally died for a woman he met days earlier. We’ll never let go, vacation fling, we’ll never let go.

4. Everyone is secretly royalty – and has access to palaces.

The Prince and Me and The Princess Diaries told us there were average folks wandering around either not knowing they are royal or pretending to be a peasant just to live a normal life. And they always live in the most spectacular castles. Do you know how expensive it is to tour a palace if you aren’t friends with a prince?

5. There’s always a life-altering trip to Paris coming up.

If you take Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada at her word, someone is about to embark on a trip to Paris for some very important reason. And it will change. Your. Life. But really, there aren’t that many jobs that will send you to the City of Lights to make or break your career.

6. Karaoke is applicable to any situation.

Ferris Bueller literally joins and stars in a parade. In Adventures in Babysitting, the kids are essentially the feature act at a jazz club. Nowhere on our travels have we been offered a microphone, outside of a pay-to-play karaoke club.

7. An adventure in the Greek islands is inevitable.

Between The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Mama Mia, it seemed like everyone automatically ended up in Santorini for some reason. And while the islands truly are perfection, most of us won’t happen upon the perfect excuse to jet to Greece. It takes some planning, fam. Sad but true.