There are two types of people in this world: the ones who casually watch TV… and the ones who finish a season and immediately Google flights.

I am very much the second.

Some shows don’t just entertain you; they transport you. They make cities feel electric, romantic, and cinematic. Suddenly your small errands feel painfully unaesthetic, and you’re convinced your life would dramatically improve if only you were walking through cobblestone streets or hailing a yellow cab in heels.

Here are the shows that genuinely made me want to pack a suitcase.

Shows That Made Me Want to Move Abroad

Normal People — Ireland Energy

There is something about Ireland on screen that feels almost painfully romantic.

The grey skies. The soft lighting. The coastal towns exude a quiet intensity. Watching Marianne and Connell exist against the backdrop of Sligo’s windswept landscapes made Ireland feel like a place where emotions are louder and everything means more.

The scenes at Trinity College Dublin? Elite academic fantasy.
The countryside shots? Main-character-with-a-journal energy.

What the show does brilliantly is make stillness feel cinematic. Long walks. Rain-soaked conversations. The silence is both heavy and beautiful.

It romanticises introspection. It makes you believe you could reinvent yourself simply by moving somewhere quieter and moodier.

Reality check?
Ireland isn’t permanently bathed in soft-focus heartbreak lighting. It rains. A lot. It’s cold. Rent in Dublin is a serious matter. However, the emotional allure of that landscape is undeniable. Completely real.

Some places just hold space for you differently — and TV has a way of amplifying that magic.

Gossip Girl — NYC Glam

If Ireland represented introspective longing, then Gossip Girl embodied pure chaotic confidence.

This show didn’t just sell New York City—it sold a fantasy version of it. The Upper East Side wasn’t just a neighbourhood; it was a lifestyle brand. Suddenly brunch wasn’t brunch unless it involved sunglasses, secrets, and skyline views.

The city sparkled. Even the drama felt expensive.

Watching it made you believe:

• You’d wake up stylish.
• You’d casually attend galas.
• You’d fall in love dramatically on rooftops.

New York on screen feels like adrenaline. It’s fast, loud, and ambitious. It makes you think reinvention is just a subway ride away.

Reality check?
NYC is crowded. It’s expensive. It smells occasionally questionable in the summer. Not every apartment overlooks Central Park. But the energy? That’s real.

Television heightens it, but the city does carry that “anything can happen” pulse. And sometimes that’s all you need to want to go.

Sex and the City — Iconic City Life

Before influencers. Before TikTok “day in my life ”.
There was Carrie walking through Manhattan, narrating her feelings.

This show didn’t just romanticise New York it romanticised adulthood in a city.

Friendship brunches. Late-night taxis. Writing in cafés. Writing about dating disasters took on a poetic quality. It made urban life feel like a series of stylish chapters.

What’s powerful about Sex and the City is how it framed the city as a character. Manhattan wasn’t just a backdrop; it was part of the love story. The chaos, the ambition, the constant motion – it all fed into this idea that living in a big city makes you more alive.

Reality check?
Most people cannot afford Carrie’s apartment on a columnist salary. Dating in any city can be brutal. And no one looks editorial-ready 24/7.

But the show tapped into something universal: the desire to feel significant in a big place.

Why Certain Cities Feel More Romantic on Screen

Television uses lighting, music, and framing to elevate everyday life.

A grey sky becomes poetic.
A café becomes cinematic.
A subway ride becomes symbolic.

When we watch a show, we’re not just seeing a location we’re seeing it through emotion. The city becomes tied to a love story, a breakup, and a reinvention arc. We don’t crave the geography as much as we crave the feeling attached to it.

That’s powerful.

How TV Glamorizes Travel

TV edits out the mundane:

• The visa paperwork.
• The awkward loneliness.
• The budget stress.
• The laundry.

What we see instead:

• Golden-hour walks.
• Beautifully timed romance.
• The apartments boast remarkably bright lighting.
• The outfits are flawless, never wrinkling in the suitcase.

It creates an aesthetic highlight reel.

And honestly? We buy it.

But Here’s the Thing About Reality

Even when the glamorisation fades, the desire underneath it can still be valid.

Maybe you don’t move to Dublin and have a poetic love story.
Maybe New York doesn’t have rooftop parties every weekend.
Maybe adulthood isn’t narrated in voiceover.

But travel, and even just the idea of it, shifts something inside you.

Sometimes a show doesn’t make you want a city.
It makes you want change.

And maybe that’s the real reason we start browsing flights at midnight after finishing a season.

Because somewhere between the skyline shots and the moody coastal scenes, we see a version of ourselves that feels braver, softer, and more alive.

And we want to meet her.