The Best Travel Shows You Can Stream Right Now
Curiosity for new travelers often starts at home. We want to travel because of the books we read, people we talk to, and shows we watch. The best travel shows teach us about the world we live in and get us excited about our next adventures, but still make us feel like we get to experience that destination with each new episode.
Travel shows also lean on a wide range of hosts that really help to guide the audience from one destination to the next, some of our favorite shows are hosted by Shay Mitchell, Eugene Levy, Gordon Ramsay, and of course the late Anthony Bourdain. Most of the best travel shows can be found on Netflix, Hulu, and Max, and features a wide range of excursions, from watching the northern lights in Iceland, trekking through the rainforest in Sumatra, hopping onto fishing boats in Louisiana, and seeing sumo wrestling in Japan.
Below, find some of our favorite travel shows that you should stream now, or at least add to your watchlist to watch at a later time. Maybe on a plane to a new destination.
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
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©Apple TV/Courtesy Everett CollectionThe Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy is back with season two of The Reluctant Traveler. The first season of the series followed the actor as he steps out of his comfort zone to explore the world’s most popular destinations: Costa Rica, Finland, Japan, the Maldives, and more. In season two, Levy embarks on a grand tour of Europe, traveling from the north of the continent to the very south, with stops off the beaten path in Spain, Sweden, Scotland, Germany, and France. Along the way, he stumbles into local gems, uncovers his family tree, and attempts to broaden his palate while experiencing the continent’s most unique destinations along the way.
Watch now: Free with an Apple TV+ subscription (sign up for Apple TV+ here)
Warner BrosThirst With Shay Mitchell
Shay Mitchell, the actor, Béis founder, and a star of our Women Who Travel Power List, travels the world one sip at a time in her new show, Thirst. In the first three episodes, we see Mitchell travel to Peru, Colombia, and Argentina, where she tries the latest drink trends: espresso beer, flaming cocktails, and sour mixtures. In each episode, she also dives into the agricultural history of the location to better understand how the local libations have been perfected over thousands of years.
Watch now: Free with a Max subscription (sign up for Max here)
HULUSearching For Soul Food
The term soul food means so much to so many people across the globe. Chef Alisa Reynolds starts the series in Mississippi to understand the connection between the slavery and the traditional dishes that are staples in American comfort food. In later episodes, Reynolds visits Jamaica, Italy, South Africa, and Peru. Along the way, she connects the dots between soul food’s African roots to other Indigenous cultures and the way customs traveled across the globe, due in part to the slave trade. Food history is a large part of the show but Reynolds also taps into the cultural, agricultural, and political significance of ingredients and dishes.
Watch now: Free with a Hulu subscription (sign up for Hulu here)
NetflixLive to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones
Bestselling author and researcher Dan Buettner has spent much of his career conducting research on Blue Zones: communities with large numbers of people that live to be age 100 or more. Throughout the series, Buettner explores Blue Zones in Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria, Greece; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California. Buettner sits down with the centenarians in these communities to discuss their diets, day-to-day lives, relationships, and lessons they’ve learned.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
DisneyGordon Ramsey: Uncharted
We finally get to see Gordon Ramsay outside the kitchen. On Uncharted, we see Ramsay connect with Indigenous peoples across the world to learn about their culture through—you guessed it—food, teaming up with chefs from the community to make a feast for everyone while using native and endemic ingredients from the area. We also see Ramsey trek through the rainforest of Sumatra, capture rattlesnakes, and hunt for eels with his bare hands. It’s quite a treat to see the renowned chef as a beginner for once.
Watch now: Free with a Hulu subscription (sign up for Hulu here)
NetflixThe World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals
When planning a trip, sometimes the hardest decision to make is where to stay. So many factors go into picking the right accommodation and the choices are endless. A travel trio composed of hosts Jo Franco, Megan Batoon, and Luis D. Ortiz embark on the task of showcasing their favorite rental properties across the world. Franco has a passion for travel and picks the most unique rentals she can find; Bantoon is an avid DIY-er and finds the best budget options; Ortiz has a background in New York real estate and has an eye for luxury rentals that travelers will want. The three work together to create a curated roster of rentals that travelers can actually book after each episode.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
Everett CollectionTaste the Nation
It’s always a good idea to explore our own backyard—which is exactly what host Padma Lakshmi does on her Hulu show Taste the Nation. The show's first season follows the host and author as she quite literally tastes the nation, stopping at restaurants around the United States to sample the foods of a variety of Indigenous and immigrant groups. Expect to see some familiar faces, like comedian Ali Wong and spearfisher Kimi Werner, along the way.
Watch now: Free with a Hulu subscription (sign up for Hulu here)
Michael Tran/GettyNever Say Never With Jeff Jenkins
Travel journalist Jeff Jenkins lives by the philosophy that “life truly happens at the end of your comfort zone.” We see this as he tests his mental and physical limits as he does sumo wrestling in Japan, swims with whale sharks in Mexico, and treks up the more-than-2,000 miles of the Adirondack Mountains. Throughout this global odyssey, Jenkins connects with locals in every destination, from immersing himself in Maori culture to catching king crabs with multi-generational fishermen—learning more about the world around him and himself each step of the way.
Watch now: Free with a Hulu subscription (sign up for Hulu here), Disney+ subscription (sign up for Disney+ here), and Apple TV+ subscription (sign up for Apple TV+ here)
Courtesy BBC AmericaPlanet Earth and Planet Earth II
We had to wait 10 years between the debut of Planet Earth, a groundbreaking natural history show narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and its sequel Planet Earth II, but it was worth it. The first season, which focus on a specific biome and the flora and fauna that live there in each episode, spotlights smooth coated otters in Southeast Asia, Tibetan foxes, critically endangered Ethiopian ibex, and blue whales, among so many others. Our two favorite episodes, though, come from part II. In the sixth episode, the high-def cameras turn to cities to show how leopards in Mumbai, monkeys in Jodhpur, and catfish in southern France live alongside humans. And in what may be the most heart-racing episode of nature television, the islands episode of Planet Earth II follows a lone iguana racing against time—and a horde of snakes.
Watch now: Free with a Discovery+ subscription (sign up for Discovery+ here)
Long Way Up
Believe it or not, actor Ewan McGregor has been in the travel show business for some 16 years. It all started with Long Way Round, a 2004 series that followed McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman on a motorcycle journey from London through Europe, Asia—and then after a flight to Alaska—Canada, and the U.S. all the way to New York City. The show was followed by 2007's Long Way Down, which took the duo from Scotland to South Africa, on motorcycles once again. Now, they've turned their bikes (electric this time) towards South and Central America, with the latest iteration following the duo some 13,000 miles from Ushuaia, Argentina, on the continent's southernmost tip, to L.A. As usual, hijinks, pitfalls, and stunning scenery are all on view. Neither of the earlier shows are available to stream in the U.S. currently (though you can find them on Apple TV+ in the U.K.), but Long Way Up is an Apple TV+ original and on view for all.
Watch now: Free with an Apple TV+ subscription (sign up for Apple TV+ here)
NetflixSomebody Feed Phil
This Netflix original follows host Phil Rosenthal, the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, as he eats his way through cities like Bangkok, Lisbon, Mexico City, New Orleans, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, and Dublin. The hyper-positive show was called "impossibly optimistic," by former Traveler editor Paul Brady, who spoke with Rosenthal before the first season's premiere in 2018. The seventh season, takes Rosenthal from Mumbai to Kyoto to Iceland to eat even more delicious grub.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
Courtesy CNNParts Unknown
You simply cannot have a list of the best travel shows and not feature the late Anthony Bourdain. In fact, he's on our list more than once. In Parts Unknown, the chef and travel personality circled the world many times over, in search of music, culture, humor, history, and—of course—really good food. Over 12 seasons (the last aired posthumously), Bourdain visited the indigenous Andes with Eric Ripert, the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Mississippi Delta, and, most famously, Hanoi with then-president Barack Obama. (That's season eight, episode two, if you want to jump right to it.)
Watch now: Free with an Apple TV+ subscription (sign up for Apple TV here)
Ehrin Macksey / Courtesy NetflixStreet Food
Made by the same folks behind Chef's Table (spoiler: it's also on this list), this show moves away from formal restaurant kitchens and onto the streets, for a guide to some of the world's best curbside meals and snacks. The show's first season is all about Asia, traveling to nine different countries to meet the people behind the food, like Jay Fai from Bangkok's Raan Jay Fai, a Michelin-starred street stall serving up tom yum soup, and Truoc (pictured left), who serves a variety of snail dishes in Ho Chi Minh City. The second season, which hit Netflix in July, zeroes in on Latin America, with stops at Doña Vale's in Oaxaca for memelas and Las Chicas de las Tres food stall in Buenos Aires, run by chef Pato Rodriguez.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
National Geographic/Blakeway ProductionsLost Cities With Albert Lin
In this National Geographic–produced show, explorer and scientist Albert Lin tracks down some of the world's most famous lost cities. We're talking buried Knights Templar caves in Israel, El Dorado in the jungles of Colombia, and ancient, forgotten island cities in Micronesia. Along the way, he speaks with archaeologists, historians, and other experts to discover the origins of the legends and, in turn, the reality of those places today.
Watch now: Free with a Disney+ subscription (sign up for Disney+ here)
Courtesy of NetflixUgly Delicious
The second season of the David Chang–hosted Netflix series debuted in March 2020, taking viewers from Istanbul (pictured), to Tokyo, to Sydney, to… Outback Steakhouse? Along the way, he tackles balancing parenthood with restaurant life, cooks with Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi, rubs elbows with comedians like Nick Kroll and Aziz Ansari, and gets a lesson in not calling all Indian food curries from Traveler contributor Priya Krishna. (If you want more Chang, try your hand at a recipe from his Momofuku cookbook, or watch Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, also on Netlfix, where he joins one famous friend on a food tour of a city, like Chrissy Teigen in Marrakech.)
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
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EverettGaycation
Produced by Vice, this show is about the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. In it, actor Elliot Page and their film director friend Ian Daniel travel to learn about what it's like to be LGBTQ+ around the world. They meet with two-spirit Native Americans, head to ballroom scenes in New York City, and visit the gay bars of Tokyo to dive deep into the vibrant gay and queer culture. But the duo also spends time in Rio de Janeiro, Jamaica, and Ukraine, speaking with LGBTQ+ locals to learn about the discrimination and threats they face just by existing. Expect tears, both happy and sad.
Watch now: Free with a Hulu subscription (sign up for Hulu here)
Courtesy NetflixCarmen Sandiego
Many of us got our first lesson in geography from this trench coat–wearing master thief, and today's kids can too, thanks to the Netflix reboot of this animated series. This high-flying, Robin Hood–style caper takes kids (and parents) with Sandiego as she jet sets between Rio de Janeiro, Matsumoto in Japan, Amsterdam, Mumbai, and more. There are three seasons available and plenty of educational value here for mapheads—plus pretty stellar animation. This year, an interactive choose-you-own-adventure style show, called Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal, came to Netflix and provides endless entertainment as Sandiego fights off the Villains International League of Evil (V.I.L.E.), with your (kid's) help.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
Sophie Lanfear / Courtesy NetflixOur Planet
If Planet Earth and Planet Earth II weren't enough Attenborough for your liking, get your fix on Netflix, thanks to Our Planet. This docuseries, made by the creators of Planet Earth in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund and narrated by Attenborough, is almost a mix of the two, taking armchair travelers from the North American grasslands and the Everglades to the Arctic tundra and deepest parts of our oceans. Once you're done with the nine 50-minute episodes, switch over to Our Planet: Behind the Scenes to see how the 600-person crew filmed the series.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
GettyNo Reservations
If you want even more Bourdain, Hulu has you covered with No Reservations and The Layover, two of his travel shows that preceded Parts Unknown. In No Reservations, Bourdain takes us to both familiar—Maine, Prague, the Philippines—and unfamiliar—Kurdistan, Mozambique, and deep into the Amazon—corners and kitchens of our world, introducing us to new foods, cultures, and personalities over nine seasons. The Layover takes that same premise, but shortens the time line drastically, knocking down Bourdain's time to explore to just 24 to 48 hours. Both are must-sees—it's Bourdain after all.
Watch now: Free with a Hulu subscription (sign up for Hulu here)
Courtesy of NETFLIXChef's Table: BBQ
While you can watch some of world’s most extraordinary chefs (like Dominque Crenn; Peruvian Virgilio Martínez, the owner of Lima's Central restaurant; and Swede Magnus Nilsson) as they create impossibly complicated dishes in the original Chef's Table, we've become partial to its latest iteration, which is all about barbecue. The Netflix original docuseries follows pitmasters like Tootsie Tomanetz—the 85-year-old spitfire pictured above who minds the brisket and sausage at Snow's, outside of Austin—and Rodney Scott, known for his Low Country–style pulled pork and ribs. But the show doesn't stick to the American South. You'll head to Rosalia Chay Chuc's Yucatán home and visit the grills of Lennox Hastie in Sydney, too.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
Courtesy NetflixTravels with My Father
The first season of this Netflix original, which came out in 2017, follows British stand-up comedian Jack Whitehall and his father, Michael, across Southeast Asia, tracking the duo as they finish the gap year Jack never got to complete, just a few years late (eight, to be exact). It's everything you'd expect: a Thai full moon party and, of course, a trip to Cambodia's Angkor Wat, but the moments in between are what make the show really worth watching. Now, in the three seasons that have followed, the father-son pair have road tripped through Transylvania, visited Chernobyl, and gotten into drag with Sydney queens. Needless to say, it's a romp.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
Courtesy NetflixMidnight Diner: Tokyo Stories
Set in a tiny Tokyo diner that's only open from midnight to 7 a.m., the fictional show follows the Midnight Diner's owner and clientele as they share their trials and joys, all while eating whatever the owner, called Master, dishes up. In the diner, pork miso soup is the go-to, but Master will cook visitors anything they order, as long as he's got the goods to make it. Episodes are a little over 20 minutes long, so it's the most bingeable of the bunch. Watch with subtitles and don't—seriously, don't—watch while hungry.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
Christopher Smith / Courtesy NetflixQueer Eye
Get your international fix by watching Antoni, Karamo, Jonathan, Tan, and Bobby makeover the wardrobes and lives of everyday “heroes” in Yass, Australia, and Tokyo in their Queer Eye specials. That said, we're partial to the U.S.-based seasons, where the Fab Five hits up Atlanta, Kansas City, and, most recently, Philadelphia to give new life to regular folks. Whether they're making over the sisters behind Jones Bar-B-Q in Kansas City or the small town mayor of Clarkston, Georgia, we're on board. Have tissues on hand, as you're all but guaranteed to shed a tear (who are we kidding, you'll sob).
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
Courtesy Samantha BrownPlaces to Love
For many years, Samantha Brown was the only female host on travel TV, period. And while some, albeit small, growth has been made in this regard (Nosrat and Kellee Edwards are among the new faces), Brown is still one of the few women on the go on our screens. While she made her start on the Travel Channel with Passport to Europe, Passport to Latin America, and Passport to China, you should really be checking out her latest show, Places to Love. Now in its third season, the show sees Brown discovering off-the-beaten-path spots in some of the world's most loved destinations as far-flung as Seoul and Auckland, and right in our backyard, like Phoenix and Dallas.
Watch Places to Love now: Free on PBS
Watch Passport to Europe now: $2 per episode, $35 per season; amazon.com
Courtesy Disney+The World According to Jeff Goldblum
Ok, so this isn't as much of a travel show as it is a “what is Jeff Goldblum curious about” show—but it doesn't mean they don't travel all over the U.S. With each episode focusing on the actor's ceaseless interest in the minutiae of one specific thing (like tattoos, or pools, or RVs, or ice cream—it really runs the gamut). Over the course of the show, Goldblum visits Hawaii, Las Vegas, NASA’s neutral buoyancy lab in Houston, and so much more. If you love Goldblum, you'll probably love this show.
Watch now: Free with a Disney+ subscription (sign up for Disney+ here)
