European Vacation (1985)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
The Griswold family embarks on a chaotic all-expense-paid trip across Europe after winning a game show.
The story
Sometime after their trip to Wally World, the Griswold family competes in a game show and win an all-expense-paid trip to Europe. They first stay in a sordid London hotel. While in their English rental car, Clark's tendency to drive on the wrong side of the road causes frequent accidents. Later, Clark drives the family around the busy Lambeth Bridge roundabout for hours, unable to maneuver out of the chaotic traffic. At Stonehenge, he accidentally backs the car into an ancient stone monolith, toppling all but one of the stones like dominoes.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After winning an all-expense-paid trip to Europe on a game show, the Griswold family faces a series of mishaps. In England, Clark struggles with driving on the wrong side of the road, causing accidents and getting stuck in a roundabout. At Stonehenge, he topples several monoliths. In Paris, the family's camcorder is stolen, and Clark is mocked for his poor French. While in a West German village, they mistakenly intrude on a couple's home and Clark causes a street brawl during a folk dance. In Rome, they rent a car from thieves who keep the manager in the trunk; later, Ellen discovers private images from the stolen camcorder are being used in a porn billboard. The thief kidnaps Ellen, but Clark chases him down and has him arrested. On the flight home, Clark falls into the cockpit and causes the plane to drop altitude, knocking over the Statue of Liberty's torch.
- First release year
- 1985
- Runtime (minutes)
- 94
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Amy Heckerling
- Writers
- Robert Klane · screenplay; John Hughes · story
- Cast and characters
- Chevy Chase · Clark Griswold; Beverly D'Angelo · Ellen Griswold; Dana Hill · Audrey Griswold; Jason Lively · Russell "Rusty" Griswold; Victor Lanoux · The Thief; Eric Idle · The Bike Rider
- Genres
- adventure; comedy
- Themes
- family dynamics; travel mishaps; cultural misunderstandings
- Tone and mood
- comedic; chaotic
- Premise and plot tags
- sequel; road trip; comedy
- Source material / true-story basis
- Characters by John Hughes
- Franchise connections
- National Lampoon's Vacation
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a financial success, grossing $49.3 million against a $17 million budget.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 37% · review count: 30 critics; Metacritic · score: 47 · scale: 100 · review count: 10 critics
- Production trivia
- Scenes supposedly taking place in West Germany were actually shot in a German-speaking part of Italy (Brixen).; John Hughes declined to write the sequel but received nominal credit for the use of characters and ideas.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…