%%
%% Image and caption selected per Image Pickin thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17089517200.99977500
%% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
%%
[[quoteright:350:[[Series/DoctorWho https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/parisiandoctor.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:If it [[LongRunner runs long enough]], a day will come when they shoot on Mars just for the free trip.]]
%%
->''"We put a big map of the world on a wall, Douglas stuck a pin in everywhere he fancied going, I stuck a pin in where all the endangered animals were, and we made a journey out of every place that had two pins."''
-->-- '''Mark Carwardine''', co-writer of Creator/DouglasAdams' ''Last Chance To See''

Something's a hit, the production gets either more freedom or [[MoneyDearBoy more money]], and they decide for the next entry to make up an excuse to go to a vacation spot.

This is heavily subjective, but if an actor signs onto a production that was already being shot in a vacation spot, that's a different trope (so, Creator/BruceCampbell signing up for ''Film/{{Congo}}'' doesn't count, even though he admitted he did it just because they needed him for a few days, and the studio would pay for him to tour the rest of the time). More than one director has joked about using location scouting as a justification for taking vacations to exotic places.

Also see SequelGoesForeign, VacationEpisode, AwesomeDearBoy.

Please note cases where actors have openly stated it, and cases that are based on speculation.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* An InUniverse example in ''Anime/MegaManNtWarrior'': During a world tour arc, Miyu and Sal are back at home talking with their boss Masa on the phone, trying to convince him that he could use their help on his current mission... in an expy of Hawaii. While they're talking on the speakerphone, they're also packing beach gear.
* Aka Akasaka took a two week trip to India to study for [[VacationEpisode chapter 161]] of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar''. It's even referred to as the greatest "''research''" expense in the series' history.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
In [[ComicBook/XMen Uncanny X-Men]] # 200, Magneto goes on trial before a special tribunal of the international court of justice, charged with crimes against humanity. To do research on this issue, writer Chris Claremont and penciller John Romita jr. went to Paris. And yes, the international court of justice is in The Hague, but presumably the X-Men creators would rather go to Paris, so Claremont made up an excuse for why this specific tribunal took place there.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TheGiantSpiderInvasion'': A number of the people participating in the film were originally from Wisconsin and used their free time while making the film to visit family still living in the state.
* Creator/RogerMoore only agreed to do ''Film/BoatTrip'' so he could get a free cruise vacation.
* Some Film/JamesBond films, unsurprisingly considering many of them take place in exotic locations. Several cast and crew went on to say they loved filming in such locations with the very caring producer Creator/AlbertRBroccoli.
** Martine Beswick (Paula) said she greatly enjoyed being paid to get a nice suntan on the set of ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', which was filmed in UsefulNotes/{{the Bahamas}}.
** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'': Several of the French models who played Hugo Drax's MasterRace girls said they enjoyed being in UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}} in interviews.
* ''[[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's Twelve]]'': Nearly everyone involved has admitted they just wanted to get paid to party at Creator/GeorgeClooney's Italian villa. Creator/BradPitt said he thought it was funny that Creator/CatherineZetaJones [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously thought they were making a movie]].
* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace: TheMovie'': Not admitted, but c'mon, they have a bigger budget, and suddenly decide to head on vacation.
* The Creator/DisneyChannel movie ''Jumping Ship''. What other reason could there be for the sequel to a modern-day western to be about people getting shipwrecked?
* A lot of Creator/MaryKateAndAshleyOlsen's later films are this as most of them take place in foreign countries and one even has an ending gag with the two throwing a dart at a map of the world to see which country their next film would take place in.
* ''[[Series/LizzieMcGuire The Lizzie McGuire Movie]]'' took off for Rome. (Creator/{{Disney}} seems to do this a lot.)
* In the commentary track for ''Film/DeepBlueSea'', both director Creator/RennyHarlin and Creator/SamuelLJackson admit that the only reason Jackson agreed to be in the movie was that he got to golf between his takes.
* In Music/TheBeatles movie ''Film/{{Help}},'' the lads felt like hanging out on the beach and going skiing, so these were written into the script.
* Creator/RayHarryhausen set the film ''Film/TwentyMillionMilesToEarth'' in Rome for this very reason.
* In behind-the-scenes interviews for ''Film/TheMalayChroniclesBloodlines'', Australian actor Gavin Stenhouse and Chinese actress Jing Lu-si (they played a Roman Prince and a Han Dynasty Princess, respectively) cited this trope as to why they're willing to spend six months making a movie in Malaysia. Gavin even expressed how much he enjoyed the ''durian'' fruit during his stay in said country.
* Creator/MichaelCaine has admitted to doing this a couple of times:
** He agreed to do ''Film/JawsTheRevenge'' because they were shooting it in the Caribbean (that and the [[MoneyDearBoy money]], which paid for his mother's house.[[note]]He would later famously say, "I have never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!"[[/note]]). As it turned out, Caine couldn't leave the shoot to attend the Oscars, where he won Best Supporting Actor for ''Film/HannahAndHerSisters''.
** One if the reasons he agreed to do ''Film/DirtyRottenScoundrels'' was that it was set in the French Riviera, not far from where his friend Creator/RogerMoore had a villa at the time.
* One could speculate that this was a reason to film ''Film/{{Jumper}}''. What makes this even funnier is an interview with the cast and crew talking on and on about flying all over the world to do scenes that might be a minute long.
* Possibly the reason Creator/PeterOToole agreed to do ''Film/ClubParadise''. Heck, the entire movie for everyone in it, and that includes its star, Creator/RobinWilliams.
* A large number of Creator/AdamSandler's films, particularly ''Film/JustGoWithIt'' and ''Film/JackAndJill'' are highly suspect to this, given the extravagant locations (Hawaii, a Royal Caribbean cruise) and the fact that the vacations themselves have little to do with the main plot and have flimsy explanations for their relevance. In fact, some such as WebVideo/RedLetterMedia have speculated that the vacations were also a chance for extra advertising revenue. Sandler himself would later admit that he was choosing movies based on where he wanted to go on vacation rather than [[CreatorsApathy any interest in the script]] on ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive''.
** Hilariously, he mentioned at one point that he learned this from Creator/PaulThomasAnderson, who typically makes much more high-brow films than Sandler.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' was actually filmed in New Zealand because it was the location that the producers thought looked most appropriate for Middle-Earth (i.e. not ''just'' because people wanted to take a vacation)--and of course, let's not forget that the [[Creator/PeterJackson director]] was a Kiwi--but many of the cast members have talked about how it was the reason they accepted roles in the trilogy. Despite the difficult conditions of many of the locations (in many cases the crew had to either construct roads or fly in via helicopter) the DVD extras are full of the cast talking about how much fun they had and how much they loved New Zealand.
* After many years just in his beloved [[BigApplesauce New York City]], come the 21st century Creator/WoodyAllen started to make a lot of movies in Europe. London earned four, and then there's [[Film/VickyCristinaBarcelona Spain]], [[Film/MidnightInParis France]], and [[Film/ToRomeWithLove Italy]].
* In a case "vacation" means "working near my summer home", ''Film/AGoodYear'' was born out of Creator/RidleyScott's desire of a movie set near his house in Provence.
* Inverted for ''Film/NightOfTheLepus'', where Creator/JanetLeigh took the role because it was near her home and meant less time away from her family.
* The only reason Creator/ChristopherPlummer took a role in the Italian low-budget B-movie ''Film/{{Starcrash}}''? He really, ''really'' liked going to Rome. Really.
-->"Give me Rome any day. I'll do porno in Rome, as long as I can get to Rome. Getting to Rome was the greatest thing that happened in that for me. I think it was only about three days in Rome on that one. It was all shot at once."
* Creator/AvaGardner starred in ''Film/{{Mogambo}}'' for three reasons--Creator/ClarkGable, Creator/JohnFord, and a free trip to Africa. She also agreed to appear in ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'' so she could spend the summer in Los Angeles.
* Creator/OliverReed's main motivation for taking the part of Proximo in ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' was because he fancied a "free trip to London to see a couple of shows". He ended up [[OffTheWagon getting talked into a drinking contest]] and then [[DiedDuringProduction died of a heart attack before shooting was complete]].
* Creator/BruceCampbell was out of running for the lead in ''Film/{{Congo}}'', but he was instead offered what he called the "the small, dead-in-five-minutes" role of the main character's doomed fiance. He happily took the role anyway because it meant a few days of work on set amid several weeks of awesome tropical vacation on the studio's dime.
* Creator/JamesEarlJones said he signed on for ''[[Literature/KingSolomonsMines Allan Quatermain & The Lost City of Gold]]'' largely for the opportunity to spend a few weeks on location in Africa (along with MoneyDearBoy).
* Creator/BusterKeaton, although he had visited Canada often, felt that he had not seen enough of it. So when Creator/NationalFilmBoardOfCanada offered him the chance to see a lot of Canada by rail in the short ''Film/TheRailrodder'' he jumped at the job, which also had the benefit of indulging Creator/BusterKeaton in his RailEnthusiast tendencies.
* The 2021 Irish film ''Spears'' has segments taking place in Florence, London and Berlin. When scripting these portions, the cities were chosen partly based off how fun they'd be to visit. Rebecca Rose Flynn even celebrated her birthday while filming in Berlin, and took advantage of the chance to go out on the town.
* You now know why Creator/ChristopherLee was in ''Film/PoliceAcademy: Mission To Moscow''. In addition to his owing the producer, he also liked the idea of a paid holiday in Moscow.
* Creator/RianJohnson wrote ''Film/GlassOnion'' during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he "wanted to be on a beach vacation more than anything." He would later direct the film on location at a Greek villa. Creator/JanelleMonae already wanted to work with Johnson but the script and plans to film in Greece sealed the deal.
* Creator/DavidThewlis accepted ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'' because it was a well-paid trip to Australia, working with Marlon Brando.
* ''Film/CarryOnNurse'': Creator/WilfridHydeWhite, living in America at the time, agreed to play the Colonel without reading the script and getting paid to return to England so allowing him to attend the Grand National Horse race. A picture of a horse is seen on the bedside locker cupboard next to him during scenes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Episodes of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' were filmed on location in London, in Mexico, and on a cruise ship.
* Many of the guest stars did ''Series/TheLoveBoat'' so they could go on the cruise that was inevitably taken for location shots. It’s widely suspected that this was the whole point of making the show.
* Similar to ''The Love Boat'', Germany's popular cruise ship soap opera "Das Traumschiff" is filmed aboard an actual cruise ship (e.g., from 1999-2015, this was MS ''Deutschland'', but as that ship was aging it was replaced by MS ''Amadea'' in 2015). According to Harald Schmidt (who did a nine-episode stint in 2008), cruising the Caribbean while shooting a few hours a day is everyone's main motivation to sign up for the show—and again, knowing this is probably the reason the network makes it.
* In one episode of ''Series/TopGear'', Clarkson is supposed to do a relatively cheap review of the BMW X6. Instead, he ends up flying to the Swiss Alps, Hong Kong, and Australia, ostensibly to test various features. One imagines he did far more than the two minutes of filming that show up in the "review".
* In the early '70s, Film/TheThreeStooges filmed a pilot called ''Kooks' Tour''. It was essentially a TravelogueShow, narrated by Moe, and intercut with skits of the Stooges' antics in that episode's setting. It was shelved prematurely [[RealLifeWritesThePlot due to Larry's declining health]].
* By his own admission, ''Series/DoctorWho'' producer Creator/JohnNathanTurner started setting stories in exotic locations purely because they had the budget to go there for location shoots.
** The first example, dating from his days as main production assistant rather than producer, was when he realized they had the budget to shoot [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath "City of Death"]] in Paris--and, in fact, it would be cheaper to actually shoot it there rather than do it in a studio--so long as they used a skeleton crew and rejiggered the script for a modern-day setting. Creator/DouglasAdams did this in the space of a weekend despite his famous RidiculousProcrastinator personality, knowing that to do so meant he could go to Paris and get apocalyptically drunk.
** When he took over as producer, Nathan-Turner tried to include overseas filming in at least one serial per season: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity "Arc of Infinity"]] was partially set in Amsterdam, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire "Planet of Fire"]] was a crew holiday in Lanzarote (as itself and an alien planet), and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors "The Two Doctors"]] had to switch from New Orleans to Seville when funding for the former fell through.
*** Problems with overseas shooting in Seville[[note]]Nathan-Turner was informed during production of "The Two Doctors" that one of the scenes filmed in Spain had been ruined by a scratch on the negative after the two actors involved in the scene had returned to England, and they had to be flown back out again at significant expense, only for it to later turn out that the reported scratch was virtually invisible and the original footage was perfectly fine. This led to Nathan-Turner either being ordered not to film outside the UK again by BBC executives or deciding not to--reports vary--although it ended up being academic as the budget was cut for later seasons and they could no longer afford overseas shoots.[[/note]] for the last of these meant that overseas filming was subsequently abandoned, and ''Doctor Who'' would not shoot outside the UK again for the remainder of the Classic era.
*** Nathan-Turner and his partner did later take a vacation in Singapore on the pretext of reconnoitering for an unmade story for the scrubbed original Season 23 (the one with the working title [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fever_and_How_to_Cure_It "Yellow Fever and How to Cure It"]] by Creator/RobertHolmes). Whether any of that story would have actually been taped overseas was never resolved, as the program was put on hiatus and the Season 23 eventually broadcast was restructured around the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet "Trial of a Time Lord"]] concept.
*** Another story for the original season 23, [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoTLSS1E1TheNightmareFair "The Nightmare Fair"]], was to have been set and recorded on location in the seaside resort of Blackpool, with the rides and attractions there worked into the story. (When it became clear that that Season 23 would not be made, the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks the previous story]], where the Doctor told Peri he was taking her to Blackpool, was notoriously edited with great clumsiness to have him say "I'll take you to B--".)
** According to various cast and crew members the only reason Anton Diffring accepted his role in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E3SilverNemesis Silver Nemesis]]" is so he could watch Wimbledon.
* Inverted by ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', where the Rangers went on vacation in Australia because (in RealLife) the production went there to film ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie''.
** This is how producers enticed a handful of series alums, including Mighty Morphin's Creator/JasonDavidFrank, to come to New Zealand to film brief cameos in the ''Series/PowerRangersSuperMegaforce'' finale. The production flew them all first class to Auckland, New Zealand for a few days.
** While it's not been offered as a reason he picked up the phone, Creator/JohnnyYongBosch spent a month in New Zealand on Disney's dime waiting to do ADR for his two-episode appearance in ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive''.
* Natalie Schafer, who played Lovey Howell on ''Series/GilligansIsland'', didn't think the show would take off, but the pilot was filmed on location in Hawaii, so she considered it a working vacation.
* The show ''Series/DeathInParadise'' is like this due to its setting. Many actors have made appearances merely because it gives them a chance to visit the Caribbean (series 3 guest star Tristan Gemmill described it as "winning the lottery for actors"). Joe Absolom said that he actually ended up going broke while shooting an episode because he brought along his family to enjoy a tropical getaway. He says he doesn't mind because he had a great time. Though averted by Ben Miller who (despite enjoying working on the show) suffered because his character Richard Poole wore wool suits despite the heat and humidity. He departed the show because he wanted to be with his family but his wife couldn't stand the tropical climate.
* ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}'' only had one American appear on the show during its original run, a boy named Brennan Pilcher who appeared in the Tummy Tales segment in "Brennan's Moonwalk". He stated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVpBNf80fk in his upload of the segment]] that he was enrolling at TASIS (The American School in Switzerland--presumably the [=UK=] branch) where the crew just so happened to be filming.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Parodied by Music/TheLonelyIsland in their song "Japan", clearly written as a list of expensive places and activities they want to do while in the titular country, so if their label wanted to make a video for the song, it would have to send them there.
* Music/PaulMcCartney intended this when he decided to record the Music/{{Wings|Band}} album ''Music/BandOnTheRun'' at a studio in Lagos, Nigeria. This backfired ''spectacularly'': upon their arrival, they discovered the studio was decrepit, with some pieces of equipment not functional. If that wasn't enough, one night Paul and wife Linda got robbed at knifepoint of all their valuables--including some songbooks and demo tapes--and Paul fainted during one recording session due to heatstroke. All of this took place amid general nationwide political tension in the country.
** Played more straight four years later when Wings recorded part of ''London Town'' on a yacht anchored in the Virgin Islands.
* The music video for Music/PhilCollins' "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRY1NG1P_kw Take Me Home]]" was filmed during the No Jacket Required world tour, where he hobnobs around famous city landmarks around the world - in particular, UsefulNotes/{{London}}, UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}, UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}} Stockholm]], UsefulNotes/{{Moscow}}, UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}}, Memphis, UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, and [[UsefulNotes/StLouis St Louis]]. Collins revisited the concept in 2002 with "''Can't Stop Loving You''", this time with places 'off the beaten track'.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Kinoko Nasu admitted in an interview that he set the Summer 2018 event of ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' in Hawaii because he was hoping that Aniplex would fund his writing team a vacation to Hawaii ''ostensibly'' for research purposes. Ironically, after he went to visit Mauna Kea in the middle of a blizzard on the first day, he got a fever and was not allowed to leave the hotel for health reasons for the entire trip.
* ''VideoGame/IdolManager'' has this happen in-story and gives the player the opportunity to point it out. One of the possible endings is tied to the recurring female journalist. One of the steps of her storyline is wanting to do a story about the PlayerCharacter's group going on a World Tour, but only if it "just happens" to stop at three specific locations she dreams of visiting. One of the possible responses is to have the PlayerCharacter point out that the journalist sounds like she's trying to get a free vacation, which she will confirm. Actually going on a World Tour with the right route is necessary to continue that storyline.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Kitty in ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'' signed up for the titular race with her sister because she wanted to travel around the world (and take lots of selfies while doing so).
* Peggy in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' repeatedly tries to wrangle free trips out of the town newspaper editor by coming up with human-interest pieces on various vacation hotspots. She finally succeeds at this when she offers to write a story on Cotton agreeing to go to Japan to apologize to a war widow.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* Creator/DouglasAdams' ''Last Chance To See,'' a radio broadcast and book about endangered wildlife, was set in places he wanted to visit. At one point Adams describes the Chinese authorities apparently seeing their visit as an official conservation event, with the result that he "tried desperately to think of some way of looking intelligent and not letting on that I was merely a science fiction comedy novelist on holiday."
* There's a car ad where an exec proposes having a car commercial take place in various vacation spots such as Maui. Everyone else on the board quickly realizes that this is what he's trying for.
* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' has evoked this trope to take a couple of shots at movies [[RuleOfFunny for laughs]] with no actual care for whether or not it's actually true. He claims that the opening of ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'' was done merely because the stars wanted to go skydiving on the film's dime and it explains why [[SpecialEffectsFailure they couldn't afford better special effects]], and remarks that the ending of ''Film/DunstonChecksIn'' only takes place in Bali because "[he thinks] the crew ''really'' wanted to vacation in Bali!" He also referenced this for ''Film/{{North}}'', wondering if the director was just simply yelling "cut" and "action" while lying down in a hammock during a part in the film that takes place in Hawaii.
* College basketball has several popular tournaments in the early part of the season (November and December) that take place in locations like Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands. A lot of college Bowl games at the end of football season (December through early January) are also at locations like this.
* Medical conferences and symposiums are notorious for taking place in scenic tropical locations during the winter months.
* It's a longstanding tradition for business conferences to take place in resorts or otherwise scenic locations.
[[/folder]]
----