There comes a time in everyone’s life when the place of wanderlust is taken by something else – a feeling that you need a “home base” where you want to spend an increasingly long time as the years pass. It has happened to many, including Matthew Karsten, AKA “Expert Vagabond”, who has been a digital nomad for more than half a decade before deciding it was time to establish a home and a family in his home country. But it’s OK – changing one’s priorities is part of life as a whole. But before it happens to you, make sure you see and experience as many things as possible – after all, what is the use of having a family if you have no great stories to tell your grandkids?
So, let us take a look at some “bucket list” destinations that you might not have seen to date but should. This time, locations featured in movies.
The Monte Carlo Casino, Monaco
The Monte Carlo Casino is one of the 4 mind-blowing casino destinations from around the world that should be on the list of every movie lover visiting Europe. Among others, the casino on top of Monaco was featured in numerous James Bond movies, including Never Say Never Again and GoldenEye, and has served as an inspiration for author Ian Fleming in describing the Royale-Les-Eaux in his first Bond novel, Casino Royale. Besides, it was the filming location for the 2004 movie “Ocean’s Twelve”.
Monaco is a well-known tourist destination with a pretty high “celebrities per square mile”, so make sure to see the whole city-state while you’re there.
Al-Khazneh, Jordan
Remember the massive temple carved in stone that hid the Holy Grail in Stephen Spielberg’s 1989 adventure flick “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”? Well, this impressive feat of engineering is real – it is a stone temple known as Al-Khazneh in Jordan, a small country between Israel and Saudi Arabia. And this impressive facade is not the only thing to see there, either – the Arab Nabatean Kingdom city of Petra is a whole complex of ancient buildings carved out of stone.
If you’re not a fan of 1980s adventure movies, you might have seen the same location featured in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).
Tikal, Guatemala
Tikal is the ruin of an ancient Mayan city rediscovered by the Spanish settlers of South America in the 17th century. Despite it was known to scholars for almost a century, no major expedition was led to the ruins of Tikal until the 1950s when a small airstrip was built next to them. In the decades to come, major expeditions were led to the ruins, with over 200 monuments recovered to date. Today, Tikal is a major tourist destination surrounded by its own national park.
Few outsiders know that it was also a filming location – George Lucas used it to film the Yavin scenes in “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope”.
