10 BEST ONLINE TRAVEL SHOWS
Now is the perfect opportunity to discover a new favourite program to feed your wanderlust while sidelined at home, Jay Gentile writes.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN: PARTS UNKNOWN
Long regarded as the travel show against which all other travel shows are judged, Anthony Bourdain changed the game in food-focused television the minute his award-winning show debuted on CNN in 2013. While many have tried, no one has been able to uncover the soul of a place and its people quite like the late chef and author.
With effortless cool and respectful curiosity, Bourdain used food to open up discovery of a place and its people. While his oft-imitated masterwork Parts Unknown is no longer streaming on Netflix, it is available for purchase on several platforms, including YouTube and iTunes.
BALD AND BANKRUPT
This entertaining YouTube series follows British traveller Benjamin Rich as he explores little-visited destinations. Mostly focused in former Soviet states like Moldova and Belarus while also including travels from India to Africa, Rich (often under the screen moniker Bald) shows no fear as he explores some of the world’s most dangerous neighbourhoods just looking to make friends and get a better understanding of the local people.
He is also unafraid to decry government corruption, get boozy with the locals or ride questionable modes of transport. He showcases a side of the world few ever see, packaged with a playful sense of humour and irreverent charisma that makes his show close to irresistible.
INDIGO TRAVELLER
If you want to learn about the world beyond the headlines, turn to this YouTube channel from New Zealand’s Nick Fisher. The affable Kiwi showcases the humanity and beauty behind destinations that most would never think to visit, from Iraq and Afghanistan to North Korea and Iran. You will come away with an entirely new perspective on these destinations after watching Fisher interview friendly locals, film beautiful landscapes, and showcase a daily slice of normal life in these countries.
Some of Fisher’s adventures include getting banned from filming in Venezuela, spending “one day as a tourist in Somalia” and hitchhiking across Ethiopia.
UNPLANNED AMERICA
Sometimes the best way to see a place is through the eyes of a foreigner. Such is the case with the Aussie trio of Nick, Parv and Gonzo, who explore unique aspects of American culture you certainly won’t find in the guidebooks throughout their four-season Amazon Prime travelogue.
Their eye-opening, hipster-approved tour of the American underground includes stops at an off-the-grid community in New Mexico, a strange encounter with a “cannabis shaman” in Colorado, and visits with militia groups to learn about the Second Amendment. They also spend time on Chicago’s South Side at a rap video shoot, explore why Portland is the strip-club capital of the U.S., and throw their own street parade in New Orleans.
WORD TRAVELS: THE
TRUTH BEHIND THE BYLINE
Although it is listed on Amazon as World Travels, the correct name of the show is Word Travels. The world of travel writing is explored and demystified in this Amazon Prime series starring Vancouver travel journalist Robin Esrock and Julia Dimon. Filmed in 36 countries spanning six continents over the course of three seasons, the series follows the seasoned pros as they search for stories with unique angles they can sell to their editors.
This includes profiling the Indigenous female wrestlers of Bolivia, exploring one of the world’s oldest circuses in Latvia and swimming in the crater of a chocolate mud volcano in Colombia. In addition to providing the viewer with interesting information on the destinations, they also offer behind-the-scenes details on how they file their stories and navigate ethical issues like promoting tourism in lesser-developed regions.
SOMEBODY FEED PHIL
“I’m exactly like Anthony Bourdain if he was afraid of everything,” Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal says he told Netflix when pitching his food travel series, Somebody Feed Phil.
Indeed, Rosenthal proves the anti-Bourdain in this nerdy but lovable travelogue full of dorky outfits and flaccid dad jokes that plays out in low-impact fashion over two six-episode seasons.
Exploring well-known locales like Venice and New Orleans sprinkled in with a few more eccentric offerings like Cape
Town and Tel Aviv, Rosenthal’s show lacks the sharp point of view or journalistic insights of Parts Unknown but makes up for it with an infectious optimism and earnest desire for human connection.
JACK WHITEHALL:
TRAVELS WITH MY FATHER
In a classic odd couple pairing, 31-year-old British comic Jack Whitehall and his prim and proper 79-year-old father tour Southeast Asia and eastern Europe over the course of three seasons in this Netflix original series.
Taking advantage of a “gap year” for season 1, they tour Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, with the fun-loving Jack eager to partake in playful activities like parkour while his father, Michael, lusts after fancier accommodations than the ones Jack books.
They both seek to deepen their relationship through travel and teach other things along the way, with Jack getting his father to loosen up at times (they even get matching tattoos at one point).
The recently released two-episode third season has them wandering the United States from L.A. to Vegas, with stops along the way for acting lessons and naked yoga.
DARK TOURIST
If your vacation itinerary involves trips to creepy abandoned cities and barren nuclear testing grounds, Netflix series Dark Tourist may be your cup of tea. New Zealand journalist David Farrier explores the budding enterprise of “dark tourism” in this wholly unique eight-episode docuseries, which has him touring the sites of Jeffrey Dahmer’s murders in Milwaukee, hanging out with death cults in Mexico City, and exploring the slums of South Africa among other activities.
The show succeeds mainly in its ability to shed light on untold stories and settings like a “suicide forest” in Japan (where more than 100 bodies were found in 2013) and an “extreme” haunted house in Kentucky (where visitors are voluntarily tortured).
TALES BY LIGHT
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this Australian docuseries might end up being longer than the Bible. Through the course of three six-episode seasons on Netflix, this National Geographic series (produced with Canon) depicts the journeys of acclaimed photographers as they travel to remote destinations to tell the story behind the image.
In its quest “to capture disappearing worlds” while providing imagery that could help save endangered species and cultures from Utah to Ethiopia, the series takes the viewer along for the ride as the photographers chronicle ancient death rituals in India and Indigenous clans in Papua New Guinea in between efforts to photograph elusive snow leopards in the Himalayas and human-friendly sharks in the Bahamas. With different experts in the fields of nature photography, adventure sports photography and underwater photography, this show will put your travel selfies to shame.
BREAKFAST, LUNCH & DINNER
In a style that comes off as something akin to a mash-up of Parts Unknown and Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, this Netflix original series finds celebrity chef David Chang hitting the road with a rotating cast of celebrities as they seek to explore the food and culture of various destinations across North America, Africa and Asia over the course of four foodpacked episodes.
That means watching Chang getting stoned with Seth Rogen as they stuff their faces in Vancouver, exploring Marrakesh with Chrissy Teigen, uncovering great food in a L.A. bowling alley with Lena Waithe, and wandering Phnom Penh with Kate McKinnon. While you might not walk away with the most comprehensive understanding of each destination, the show is compelling and entertaining.