If winter has you hibernating, travel TV may prove to be ideal entertainment. We’ve winnowed down the field of this popular concept in reality programming to offer some of our fave travel shows to watch—from the classic that started it all through some women-centric winners to, for comic relief, perhaps the most idiotic show ever to air in prime time (okay, maybe Jersey Shore beats it by a nose). Settle in, sofa sojourners, and stream away!
NextTribe takes small groups of women ages 45+ on fun, immersive journeys across the country and around the globe. Learn where we’re off to next here.
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
(CNN, stream on MAX)
The late, great celebrity chef pretty much created food-travel TV with his first show, A Cook’s Tour, in 2002. But Parts Unknown (2013-2018) really set the gold standard, netting 12 Primetime 12 Emmy Awards. Bourdain captivated viewers with up-close-and-personal tastes of fascinating cultures and their cuisines. Top-rated episodes include sampling of dizi, fesenjan, and tahdig in Iran and a visit with renowned chef/restaurateur Daniel Boulud in his hometown of Lyon, France. For anyone new to travel shows, the binge-worthy Bourdain—with his authenticity, curiosity, empathy, and wit—is a great place to start!
Let’s Take It Outside
Forget fisherman! Floridian Misty Wells is a female fishing enthusiast who jazzes us up about the great outdoors with wet and wild adventures. (How wild? Well, a highlight of Season 1 took us swimming with 16-foot hammerhead sharks off the Bimini Coast!) By Season 2, Misty was exploring as far north as Niagara Falls and as tropically lush as Costa Rica. Now in Season 3, Let’s Take It Outside not only showcases beautiful locales, it offers some top-notch fishing tips. Oh, and in her spare time, Misty takes kids in foster care on fishing expeditions—nearly 4,000 so far—through A Reel Future. Talk about the catch of the day!
Below Deck Mediterranean
(Bravo; stream on Peacock)
Ever wonder what it’s like to work—or luxuriate!—aboard a 150-foot yacht? Co-executive produced by Courteney Cox, the Below Deck franchise lets us live vicariously through the eyes of both crew and fancy-pants passengers, who set out on a different vessel to a new location every season. The Mediterranean version, now in its ninth season, boasts captain Sandy Yawn (one of the few females in the yachting biz to hold the title) at the helm, navigating assorted shenanigans and challenges in the azure waters around Athens, Greece. Aye, aye! Of the travel shows to watch, this one is a gossipy good time.
Men in Kilts
(Starz; stream on Prime Video)
NextTribe’s 2024 Scotland trip was so awesome, we’ve got another slated for 2025, and while of course it’s women only, we wouldn’t mind running into hunky Highlanders Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish. The two actors, best known to American audiences for their roles as (sigh) Jamie and Dougal in Outlander, hosted this adventure series for two seasons, the first in their home country and the second in New Zealand. The duo’s lively banter and extreme sportsmanship earned the show a 100% Tomatometer (critics) and a 97% Popcornmeter (viewers) rating on Rotten Tomatoes. A third season isn’t in production yet, but the lads have let it be known that they’re more than a wee bit interested in doing it in the USA.
If you love Outlander, don’t miss Men in Kilts, as the hunky actors who play Jamie and Dougal take you on their travels.
Samantha Brown’s Places to Love
(PBS)
We gotta love this self-described “airport geek” and “travel goddess” who has touched down in more than 250 cities in 62 countries since her career in travel programing began. She landed her eponymously titled gig seven years ago, and there’s just no stopping her. Peruse the variety of destinations on Places to Love’s lineup and you’re bound to say: “Ooh, I wanna go there!” a whole lot. This season, she’s exploring America (road-tripping on Route 66, smelling the roses in Portland, Oregon), Jerusalem, and Australia. Refreshingly, Samantha helps us get to know people as well as places, particularly how folks are working to better their communities. Yep, it’s public television—you might just learn something!
Somebody Feed Phil
(Netflix)
He’s a funnyman, an everyman, and perhaps above all a hungry man! Philip Rosenthal, formerly a television behind-the-scenester (he created Everybody Loves Raymond), has become one of the most engaging food-travel fellas to hit the small screen. Whether chowing down on wild boar choripan in Argentina, slurping soba in Kyoto, or experiencing the “best burger ever” in, of all destinations, Dubai, Phil is engaging explorer who makes us want to have seconds.
Watch Philip Rosenthal slurp soba in Kyoto and chow down on wild boar in Argentina in Somebody Feed Phil.
Salt Fat Acid Heat
(Netflix)
Okay, we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but how could we not gobble up this show based on its title alone? Knowing full well that salt, fat, acid, and heat are the four keys to incredible cuisine, chef, cookbook author, and James Beard Award winner Samin Nosrat checks out how different cultures employ these basics—deliciously. The way-too-limited series (only one four-episode season) scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. It doesn’t just tempt your tastebuds, it makes you want to hang out with Nosrat in the kitchen and cook at her side. As critic Doreen St. Felix put it in The New Yorker: “The enthusiasm with which the Netflix show has been received has to do with Nosrat’s uncommon earnestness on camera. It is disarming, and then relieving, to watch someone pledge to her life’s work such unmitigated love.”
Read more: Woman Eat World: Travel Tips From Around the World
An Idiot Abroad
(Sky One; stream on Prime Video)
Now for the last of our travel shows to watch. Not that this is a criticism, but most travel shows are pretty earnest in their appreciation for the locales they explore. For a full 180, consider Karl Pilkington, the absolute, unabashed idiot of this British series. Karl sojourns to some of the most incredible places on the planet, and while he is a professional actor and TV presenter, he plays stupid to perfection. His unimpressed commentary (at, among other sites, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China) is so unbelievably awful you’d think it was written by his real-life pal Ricky Gervais (of The Office fame). It’s described by its creators as “unscripted,” however, as well as a “comedy,” and it ran for three jaw-dropping seasons. Note: American audiences may wish to watch with subtitles to grasp every idiotic utterance delivered in Karl’s Manchurian accent.
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