27 of the Best Movies About Family Vacations

Are you at home and missing travel or looking for inspiration to plan your next family trip? Then grab a bowl of popcorn and hit the road vicariously by watching a movie about a family vacation!

These 27 movies about family vacations include films that can be enjoyed by everyone as well as those that are best for families with older kids and teens and involve everything from camping trips, road trips, cruises, European vacations and more.

There are a couple of serious movies but most are comedies about trips that go so incredibly wrong that any of your travel mishaps will look minor in comparison! I have included a few that stretch the definition of “family” a bit but they’re still fun vacation movies.

I have noted whether the movie is available on Amazon Prime, Netflix or Disney+ and if it’s available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video or iTunes/Apple TV. They might be available on other subscription services as well.

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Family-Friendly Movies About Family Vacations

These mostly G rated movies about family vacations are fun for the entire family.

The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)

Rated PG, 1h 35m

In this movie which served as the finale for the Disney Channel series, Lizzie McGuire (Hilary Duff) and her friends graduate middle school and travel to Italy on a class trip. While in Rome, Lizzie is mistaken for Isabella, Italy’s biggest pop diva, and falls for Paolo who is Isabella’s singing partner and former boyfriend. It’s not exactly a family vacation but it’s a fun travel movie with kids featuring great scenery in Rome!

Available to watch on Disney+ and to rent/buy on Prime Video or iTunes.

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Cars 2 (2011)

Rated G, 1h 46 m

In this sequel to the original Pixar Cars movie, Lightning McQueen and best friend Mater head out on the road from Radiator Springs to compete in the World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car and Mater gets caught up in international espionage. Their adventures take the pair to Tokyo, London, Paris and a fictional Italian city called Porto Corsa.

Available to watch on Disney+ and to rent/buy on Prime Video or iTunes.

A Goofy Movie (1995)

Rated G, 1h 20m

Lovable Goofy bonds with his teenage son, Max, on a hilarious cross-country road trip in this Disney animated film. En route to their fishing destination they find themselves up to their ears in misadventure. The trip is Max’s worst nightmare but before it’s over he just might discover that his dad is not so bad.

Available to watch on Disney+, to rent on Prime Video and to rent/buy on iTunes.

Cheaper By The Dozen 2 (2005)

Rated PG, 1h 34m

Feeling the family is breaking apart as the children grow up and move away, Tom (Steve Martin) persuades the entire family to take one last family vacation together at Lake Winnetka in this hilarious sequel to Cheaper By The Dozen. 

Their dream vacation, however, turns into an outrageous competition with the overachieving family of Tom’s long-time rival played by Eugene Levy. If you haven’t seen the original movie then you might want to watch it first to familiarize yourself with the members of the Baker family.

Available to watch on Disney+ and to rent/buy on Prime Video or iTunes.

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Diary of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (2017)

Rated PG, 1h 32m

The Heffley family road trip to Meemaw’s 90th birthday party takes a wild detour thanks to Greg’s newest scheme to attend a video gaming convention. Based on a best-selling book series.

Available to watch on Disney+ and to rent/buy on Prime Video or iTunes.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)

Rated PG, 1h 37m

It’s summer vacation and Dracula needs a break from the hotel business so he and his family embark on a luxury cruise ship vacation. When Dracula meets Ericka, the charming but mysterious captain of the monster cruise ship, it’s love at first sight but Ericka has a dangerous secret.

Available to watch on Netflix and to rent/buy on Prime Video or iTunes.

Up (2009)

Rated PG, 1h 36m

Carl Fredericksen is a widower and retired balloon salesman who has dreamed all his life of visiting Paradise Falls in South America. Facing eviction to a retirement home and determined to make his dream come true, Carl ties thousands of balloons to his house and takes to the skies. But there’s one small complication – a Wilderness Explorer named Russell is an unexpected stowaway!

This Pixar film was the first animated feature to open the Cannes Film Festival and garnered a Best Picture Oscar nomination.

Available to watch on Disney+ and to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Rated PG, 2h

In this sequel, Kevin McAllister manages to get left behind once again when his family leaves on vacation. This time they are headed to Florida and he winds up on a flight to New York City by himself.

It’s not truly a family vacation, however, Kevin does check into a nice hotel (using his father’s credit card) and see some of the sights while trying to foil the intentions of the burglars from the first movie who have been released from prison and are planning to rob the city’s biggest toy store on Christmas Eve.

Available to watch on Disney+ and to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

College Road Trip (2008)

Rated G, 1h 24m

Raven-Symone plays an ambitious high school student who is looking forward to a girls-only road trip around the country to find the perfect college. The dream trip soon turns into a wacky nightmare, however, when her overprotective father, played by Martin Lawrence, decides that he’s escorting her.

Available to watch Disney+ and to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

Movies About Family Vacations Suitable for Older Kids/Teens/Adults

These movies about family vacations have more mature themes and are suitable for older viewers.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Rated PG (13+ with content advisories), 2h

In this Woody Allen film, Owen Wilson plays a screenwriter who is on a trip to Paris with his fiancée’s family and finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920’s every day at midnight. I first watched this film just before our family trip to Paris and loved seeing the Parisian locations that we were looking forward to visiting especially the gardens at the Musée Rodin.

Available to watch on Amazon Prime and to rent/buy on iTunes.

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The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Rated 7+ Older Kids by Amazon, 1h 16m

This Alfred Hitchcock thriller stars James Stewart and Doris Day as two American tourists whose son is kidnapped while in Morocco and taken to England after they accidentally stumble on an assassination plot. The McKennas’ lives hang in the balance as they race to save their son with a chilling showdown in London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Available on Amazon Prime (with a STARZ subscription) and to rent/buy on iTunes.

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Dirty Dancing (1987)

Rated PG-13 for mature themes and sexuality, 1 h 40m

While vacationing with her family at a resort in the Catskills in New York state in 1963, innocent Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman falls in love with the resort’s dance instructor, Johnny Castle. A classic coming of age movie from the ’80s with great music and choreography.

Available to watch on Netflix and to rent/buy on Prime Video or iTunes

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962)

Rated G, 1h 56m

James Stewart and Maureen O’Hara star in this comedy about a family vacation that doesn’t go according to plan. Mrs. Hobbs convinces her husband to escape their hectic city life by booking a seaside vacation with their children and grandchildren. One disaster after another befalls the family and Mr. Hobbs might need a vacation to recover from his vacation!

Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

Rated either 14A or 18+, 1h 38m

This classic goofball comedy starring Chevy Chase was the first in the National Lampoon Vacation film series. The all-American Griswold family have planned an all-American summer vacation – a road trip across the country from their home in suburban Chicago to a theme park in California – but EVERYTHING goes wrong along the way!

Available to watch on Amazon Prime with STARZ subscription and to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

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National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985)

Rated PG and 16+, 1h, 33m

The Griswold family is back and they have won an all-expenses paid vacation tour in Europe in this sequel to National Lampoon’s Vacation. What could possibly go wrong? London, Paris, Germany and Rome will never be the same!

Available to watch on Amazon Prime with a STARZ subscription and to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation (1997)

Rated PG, 1h 34m

The Griswold family hits the road again – this time to the land of slot machines and show girls – Las Vegas.

Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

Vacation (2015)

Rated 14A or 18+, 1h 38m

The Griswold children have grown up and now the next generation is hitting the road for some family vacation bonding. A grown-up Rusty Griswold surprises his wife and kids with a cross-country trip to the theme park that he visited with his family in the first film.

Available to rent/buy on Prime Video or iTunes.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Rated 14A or R, 1h 42m

When 7 year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) gets an opportunity to compete in a beauty pageant in California, her entire quirky family hops in an unreliable Volkswagen bus to travel there from New Mexico.

The film was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and won Best Original Screenplay. Alan Arkin also won for Best Supporting Actor and Breslin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Available to watch on Disney+ and Amazon Prime with a STARZ subscription. Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

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We’re the Millers (2013)

Rated 14A and 16+, 1h 50m

A small-time pot dealer needs to smuggle a shipment from Mexico to pay off a large debt to his supplier so he rounds up a fake family as a cover, rents an RV and hits the road for a 4th of July weekend south of the border. What could possibly go wrong?

Available to watch on Netflix and on Amazon Prime with a STARZ subscription. Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

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RV (2006)

Rated PG, 1h 38m

Workaholic Bob Munro, played by Robin Williams, convinces his family to cancel their Hawaiian vacation and spend some quality time together on a cross-country RV trip to the Rocky Mountains instead. Unbeknownst to the family, Bob’s true motive for the trip is attending a business meeting in Colorado but along the way he learns the true meaning of family.

Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

The Great Outdoors (1988)

Rated PG, 1h 30m

John Candy and Dan Aykroyd star in this film about a family whose relaxing stay at a lakeside cabin is disrupted when the annoying in-laws crash the vacation.

Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

Captain Ron (1992)

Rated 14A, 1h 40 m

In this 1990’s comedy, a stressed out executive played by Martin Short learns that he has inherited a yacht once owned by Clark Gable and travels to the Caribbean with his family to retrieve it. Captain Ron, a local sailor with both a questionable past and navigation skills, is hired to sail the family and the yacht back to Miami and the trip is anything but smooth sailing.

Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Rated 14A, 1h 31m

In this comedy-drama directed by Wes Anderson, three estranged American brothers reunite a year after their father’s funeral for a spiritual journey across India on a luxury train.

Available to watch on Amazon Prime with a STARZ subscription. Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

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What About Bob? (1991)

Rated PG, 1h 31m

Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss star in this film about an irritating patient who follows his psychotherapist who has left on a month-long vacation with his family at a lake in New Hampshire.

Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

Like Father (2018)

Rated Mature, 1h 40m

Kristen Bell plays a workaholic advertising executive who is left at the altar and ends up going on her Caribbean honeymoon cruise with her estranged father played by Kelsey Grammar.

Available to watch on Netflix.

Lost in America (1985)

Rated PG, 1h 31m

A satirical road comedy film starring Albert Brooks alongside Julie Hagerty as a married couple who decide to leave corporate America behind and travel across the country in a Winnebago.

Available to rent/buy on iTunes.

Johnson Family Vacation (2004)

Rated PG-13, 1h 37m

Nate Johnson (played by Cedric the Entertainer) sets out with three unruly kids and an unhappy wife on a cross-country road trip from California to Missouri for the family’s annual reunion.

Available to watch on Disney+ and on Amazon Prime with a STARZ subscription. Available to rent/buy on Prime Video and iTunes.

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Do you have a favourite movie about family vacations? Let us know in the comments below.