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The very best travel documentary shows on television, ranked from best to worst. This list of the greatest travel documentary shows also includes pictures from the shows when available. Popular travel documentary TV shows have been a staple of television for years, so there's often debate about what the most entertaining travel documentary show of all time is. Don't let your favorite travel documentary television programs in history get to the bottom of the list- be sure to vote them up so they have the chance to reach the top spot. The list of travel documentary television shows below includes information like the program's cast, creator and premiere date when available.
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Our Favorite Travel Documentaries and Where to Watch Them
By CNT Editors
All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
While we love the dramas, comedies, and rom-coms that recount epic journeys and bring beloved destinations to life, there’s something especially transportive about documentaries. But when it comes to travel films, it’s clear: the truth is often as wild and wonderful as fiction. Luckily, it seems that the golden age of documentaries is upon us (and it’s certainly the time of the docuseries , at the very least)—thanks to the rosters available on Netflix, HBO, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. Want to be inspired and watch some travel documentaries yourself? Here are a few of our favorite films that you can watch online right now that take you from the Mongolia steppe to Japan's Ise Bay.
All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Kedi (2016)
I am a self-proclaimed cat person—and Kedi lets me indulge in that even more. Many animal documentaries (ahem, Tiger King ) regard their subjects as accessories to human drama, while others talk about them via voiceover so scientifically that it sounds as if they’re inanimate objects. Not so, here. Kedi follows seven specific stray cats through the streets of Istanbul from their points of view, letting the cats stand as the film’s characters. The audience gets an up close and personal look at the secret lives of these cats: their interactions with humans and other animals; the mileage and route each covers through the ancient city; and the ordeals they overcome daily. —Alex Erdekian, assistant editor, City Guides
Watch now: Rent from $1, amazon.com
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
I was so excited to watch this movie, and specifically made sure I had reservations at a sushi restaurant afterward because I knew I'd be craving it after 90 minutes of watching it on screen. I love the attention to detail that Jiro showcases throughout the film, and how it shows just how technical a beautiful sushi omakase can be. I still think of the film whenever I eat tamago—sweet Japanese cooked egg that often ends an omakase—given how hard it was for the apprentice to master that specific dish. I've still never visited the original restaurant, but I'd love to try and get in on my next trip to Tokyo . — Stephanie Wu, articles director
Watch now: Free with Netflix subscription, netflix.com
Amazona (2016)
I discovered Amazona on a flight to Colombia , which is apt, given that it takes place in the lush Colombian Amazon. The travel documentary follows the filmmaker Clare Weiskopf, whose mother Val Weiskopf left her and her siblings behind and moved to the Amazon when they were still children. Weiskopf, now pregnant, confronts her mother about the choices she made and tries to come to terms with what motherhood will look like for her given her own unusual upbringing. The documentary, while centered on a unique experience, is still relatable to anyone who's thought about leaving it all behind and living off the grid—and then factored in the loved ones worth staying, or moving, home for. — Megan Spurrell, associate editor
Watch now: Rent from $4, amazon.com
Jessica Puckett
Anna Borges
Karthika Gupta
Maiden (2018)
This incredible film follows the first all-female crew competing in the late '80s in the Whitbread Round the World Race—an absolutely insane yachting competition that lasts nine months and sails from Southampton, England, to Uruguay, New Zealand, Australia, around and up to Florida , and then back to the U.K. This movie tracks the yacht's skipper and team’s mastermind, Tracy Edwards, and mixes incredible archival footage of the race with modern day interviews with the underestimated crew and their doubters. Get ready for your heart to swell a few sizes. — Meredith Carey, associate editor
Watch now: Buy from $7, amazon.com
Endless Summer (1966)
It's hard to tell whether this travel documentary on this type of list feels obligatory or cliche. I put it in the former bucket; I can't think of any other documentary that I saw as a young kid, I must have been just six or seven, that could have possibly stayed in my mind the way Endless Summer has. The 1960s journey across the globe by two California surfers to locate and popularize new swells brought them to places off the mass travel radar at the time, including Ghana, Nigeria, and New Zealand. This past summer, I surfed one of the beaches featured in Dakar (well, attempted to surf, I fall squarely in the “aspirational surfer” category). Sequels have been made, but the appeal of that first release—when surfing was used as travel currency, an exploratory lens, and bond between cultures—remains. —Erin Florio, travel news director
Lorena, La De Pies Ligeros (2019)
This 28-minute documentary is unexpected, gorgeous, and quick, just like the athlete it features: ultra-marathon runner Lorena Ramírez. Ramírez hails from the Rarámuri indigenous community in northwestern Mexico , a group that has been known for their excellence in long distance running. But watching her go from her daily life—where she lives in the remote countryside and where the women in her family aren’t able to attend school—to urban marathons where she powers past other athletes in a handwoven skirt and sandals, is absolutely moving. The entire film is a peek inside a Mexican community most travelers wouldn't otherwise be exposed to. — M.S.
The Eagle Huntress (2016)
This tale of a 13-year-old Kazakh girl named Aisholpan who trains to become the first female eagle hunter in her family's 12-generation history is nothing short of inspiring. The story is set in Mongolia’s stunning landscape, unfolding among snowy mountains, pink ombre horizons, and dry, grassy steppes. But it’s Aisholpan’s spirit and charisma that really make the film. The Eagle Huntress was so impactful that it prompted increased tourism to Mongolia, specifically for The Golden Eagle Festival, which is shown on screen. —A.E.
Virunga (2014)
A stunning mix of investigative journalism and nature documentary in one of the most extraordinary places in the world, this film cuts to the heart of the global conservation crisis. It's about the fight to protect the world's last mountain gorillas and the stunning biodiversity of Virunga National Park from the complex swirl of politics and economics in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which encroaches on their habitat through war, poaching, and the threat of oil exploration. It's heartbreakingly beautiful and just plain heartbreaking. — Jesse Ashlock, U.S. editor
Fishpeople (2017)
As the Traveler team can attest, I've become obsessed with the idea of spearfishing, largely thanks to women like Kimi Werner and the Jeju and Ama divers (of Korean and Japan respectively). I have such a deep love of both eating and preparing seafood, so the natural next step is to catch it myself, right? I watched this documentary on a flight to Hawaii this winter, and it further stoked the fire. It highlights a handful of people around the world, including Werner, who spend their lives in the sea . And trust me, you don't have to crave picking up your own spear to enjoy the beautiful ocean shots and the wise words from its sea-enamored cast. — M.S.
Watch now: Rent from $3, youtube.com
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30 Best Travel Documentaries & Series To Watch
- by Jonny Duncan
- October 20, 2023 December 7, 2023
We all need a bit of travel inspiration and these are some of the best travel documentaries that will give you some wanderlust, and understanding, of the regions of the world involved.
These are my favourite travel documentaries and series that have inspired my travels.
Disclaimer: I own none of the images in this post, they are used under fair-usage terms to discuss the travel documentaries.
Himalaya With Michael Palin (2004)
Michael Palin is my all-time favourite travel presenter, writer, and hell, just an awesome person in general and his travel documentaries are some of the best you can watch.
His sense of humour, interest in the places he visits, how he interacts with the local people, and the way he presents himself is what makes this travel journey one of the best.
Add to that epic Himalayan scenery and adventure and you have the perfect combination for the best travel documentary.
You can watch it here as well as some of his other travel documentaries.
The Endless Summer (1966)
Surfs up! And also lots of fun, fun, fun, in the sun.
Set in the mid-sixties it follows two surfers from California as they travel around the world, including countries like South Africa, Australia, and Ghana, in search of the ‘perfect wave’.
It’s very laid back to watch and entertaining and a good insight into surfer travels in the sixties.
I would love to hit up some of the waves they found! If you want one of the best travel documentaries based around surfing and beaches then watch this.
Watch it online here .
Encounters at the End of the World (2009)
Want some cold weather viewing, beautiful scenery in the vast expanse of Antarctica, and some fun with scientists? This is it.
Filmmaker Werner Herzog tackles this perfectly, exploring the desolate and vast wilderness of Antarctica around the US base of McMurdo Station, and the people who live and work there.
This will make you want to go to a remote and cold place.
Watch it here .
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013 – 2018)
Anthony Bourdain was one of my travel heroes. He died in 2018. His style of reporting and meeting the people he visits around the world and coming together around a common theme worldwide, food, brought a personal approach to the travel genre.
Parts Unknown is one of the best travel documentaries to watch for food.
The other series with Anthony Bourdain exploring world cuisine, such as No Reservations is also worth watching.
See it on Netflix here .
Under An Arctic Sky (2017)
This is a short travel documentary coming in at only 40 minutes, but worth the watch for sure.
I had been recommended this by a fellow travel blogger and was glad about it.
It’s beautifully shot in Iceland in winter, following a group of surfers looking for (as usual) the perfect waves.
But a storm comes through during this time and they have to outrun it.
The first time surfers have been filmed under the Northern Lights.
This has made me want to return to Iceland again to explore more of the country in the Arctic darkness.
See what it’s like surfing under the Northern Lights !
Sahara With Michael Palin (2002)
Yes, another Michael Palin travel documentary. I can’t help it his journeys are just so good.
This time he’s out exploring the Sahara Desert, getting into remote adventures with tribal nomads, and so much more.
This will inspire you for a desert adventure.
Watch the epic Sahara journey here .
180° South (2010)
180° South follows Jeff Johnson, an adventurer who travels across South America to Patagonia to visit the places that Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins had visited in 1968, two people who had inspired him.
Easily one of the best travel documentaries about South America to see.
Chasing Coral (2017)
Chasing Coral is a documentary for anyone interested in the ocean and, given the title, especially coral reefs.
It follows scientists and divers who explore the coral areas to see why they are disappearing and to explain it all to you. A good conservationist documentary as well as one for travel to these beautiful parts of the world.
Billy Connolly’s World Tour of Australia (1996)
Billy Connolly is one of the great all-time stand-up comedians.
He also travels a lot and his ‘world tour’ series has taken him to lots of different countries around the world, with Australia being the best.
It’s a combination of him exploring Australia and what is there, with a great sense of humour for everything, as well as some short clips of his stand-up performances in each area he visits with views and opinions about his experience in Australia.
A must-see travel documentary for anyone interested in Australia with a very amusing outlook on travel there.
It ain’t cheap but if you’re a Billy Connolly fan, or want to give a gift to someone who is, this is the Billy Connolly box set of all his world tours.
Dark Tourist (2018)
For some people (myself included) there’s a strange and weird fascination with some of the ‘darker’ tourist spots to visit and dark tourism has become more popular.
From nuclear disaster zone tours to death-worshipping cults, this travel documentary covers them all.
It can be disturbing given the tragedy behind some of the events, but it is history, and it is part of humanity.
To escape the ‘normal’ tourist spots this will give you an idea of an alternative travel experience.
Right or wrong it is fascinating.
See it on Netflix .
Given (2016)
This is such a unique and refreshing take on a travel documentary as it’s narrated by a six-year-old boy.
It follows a family from Kauai (part of Hawaii) on a journey through 15 countries around the world.
This a really good insight into family travel and the life-teaching experiences travel can have on young children.
Watch their website for the documentary.
Stephen Fry In America (2009)
Stephen Fry is one of my favourite comedians and in this travel series, he travels across the U.S. in search of what makes America.
Just like Billy Connolly and Michael Palin, there is lots of humour involved.
It gives a great insight into American culture.
This is one of the best travel documentaries to watch if planning a trip to the United States.
Watch here .
The Eagle Huntress (2016)
One of those interested in Central Asia travel, this documentary is about a 13-year-old Kazakh girl called Aisholopan who wants to be an eagle hunter, the first female in her family for twelve generations to do it.
Beautiful scenery and an inspiring story make this a spellbinding travel documentary to watch.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2010)
Have an interest in sushi and Japanese food? Then this is the ultimate travel documentary for you.
It follows an 85-year-old sushi master called Jiro Ono and how he makes some of the best sushi in the world and tries to teach his son the way and the family business.
It’s one of the best documentaries about Japan to watch.
Baraka (1992)
Out of all the travel documentaries, this is one of the older ones but it has aged well. It’s also one of the most beautiful travel documentaries to watch.
The tagline is “A world beyond worlds”, and after watching it you will see why.
There is no narrative, just epic films from all over the world showing natural environments, cities and everything else.
Personally, I remember watching this in the 90s and being inspired to see the places it showed.
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga is another Werner Herzog travel documentary that is absolutely brilliant if you have an interest in cold places and Siberia in particular.
It follows the people in a remote village in the Siberian Taiga region and shows the repeated way of life in how they deal with living in a harsh cold environment. It includes footage of some of the native Ket people as well.
Tawai: A Voice From The Forest (2017)
Out of all the travel documentaries, this is one of the best ones taking a look at indigenous people around the world.
Adventurer Bruce Parry explores the forests of the Amazon and Borneo, as well as the Isle of Skye in Scotland where he looks at the ways the native people get on with the nature around them.
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019)
Nomad is yet again another one with Werner Herzog and this time it’s a much more personal one.
His good friend Bruce Chatwin, who was a well-known travel writer, died of AIDS in 1989 he left Werner his rucksack as a parting gift. Thirty Years after his death Werner heads out to explore places inspired by his friend’s travel life.
Maidentrip (2013)
Maidentrip will make you want to get a yacht and go on an adventure around the world! It’s about a 14-year-old sailor who leaves home for a 2-year journey around the world alone to become the youngest person to ever achieve such a task.
This is one of the best travel documentaries not just about yachting and boats but also about the determination of the human spirit to achieve something great.
Travel Man (2015 Onwards)
Travel Man is a great travel documentary series where each episode host Richard Ayoade visits a new city with a different celebrity to explore what the city has to offer in the way of tourist attractions and other things.
Lots of fun to watch and one of the best recent travel documentaries to see.
Fishpeople (2017)
Fishpeople is a group of stories about various individuals who have dedicated their lives to the sea. It includes a long-distance swimmer, surfers, and many more.
This is one to watch if you have an interest in anything related to life with the ocean.
Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands (2013 – 2016)
If you love Scotland or really want to go there then this is the ultimate Scottish travel series for you. The presenter is Paul Murton and he explores all around the Scottish Isles.
He also has other shows such as the Grand Tour of Scotland and Grand Tour of Scotlands Lochs. He really gets into the culture of Scotland.
Backpackingman note: I am of Scottish ancestry with my great-grandfather being a proper Scotsman from Aberdeen and I have visited Scotland a few times now and can highly recommend this series.
Rick Steves’ Europe (2000 – Onwards)
Rick Steves’ Europe is one of the longest-running travel documentary series out there, if not the longest.
Given the title of the show, it follows Rick as he travels around Europe showing everything the place has to offer. The series from 2018 focuses on Scotland so goes nicely with the Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands mentioned above.
Desert Runners (2013)
Desert Runners is the ultimate documentary about people who run in some of the harshest environments and in this case the desert.
But the twist to this story is that it explores a group of people who join the hardest ultra-marathon race series on the planet and none of them are professional runners.
Watch this one if you have an interest in deserts and running.
Down To Earth (2020)
Down To Earth is a travel documentary series on Netflix that follows actor Zac Efron to different parts of the world where he looks at the sustainability efforts of each destination.
For example, in Iceland, he learns about the efforts to use the natural energy of Earth for power.
Magical Andes (2020 – Onwards)
Magical Andes a travel documentary series is set in South America and takes a look at the Andes Mountain range, from the mountains themselves to the deserts, forests, and everything else that surrounds them
Highly recommended if you’ve ever wanted to visit South America and in particular the Andes region.
Expedition Happiness (2017)
Expedition Happiness follows a couple who get an old school bus and then drive throughout North America with their dog.
The couple is so lovely it’s worth watching just to see them and their life.
Free Solo (2018)
Free Solo follows Alex Honnold, a professional rock climber, as he attempts to be the first person to free solo climb El Capitan’s rock face.
It’s set in Yosemite National Park and is thrilling to watch not just for the action but also for the scenery. Watch this documentary if you are interested in mountain travel and rock climbing as a sport.
The Dawn Wall (2017)
Following on from Free Solo, The Dawn Wall is also set in Yosemite National Park, and this time follows Tommy Caldwell, a free climber, who tried to climb the Dawn Wall of El Capitan.
As with Free Solo, watch this one for mountains.
Mountain (2017)
The Mountain is one of the best travel documentaries about mountains and is breathtaking to watch.
It explores mountains around the world and tells at the same time the history between humans and mountains.
Notable Mention: BBC Planet Earth 1+2 (2006 + 2016)
The BBC Planet Earth series is absolutely beautifully filmed and epic to watch.
In each episode, they explore different parts of the planet, such as deserts, mountains, oceans, forests, etc.
There are also other travel documentaries by the BBC, like The Blue Planet, Frozen Planet, and a lot more. Each one shows a different side of our planet.
These will get you wanting to get out and see the world!
The Best Travel Documentaries
And that’s the list of the best travel documentaries that will hopefully give you some inspiration for your own travels.
Interested in more travel-related movies? Check out 10 movies to watch before travelling to Japan .
You can find some of the older travel documentaries on places like YouTube. In fact, YouTube is a great place to find new and old travel documentaries in general.
And for some travel reading 20 books to read set in the Arctic and Antarctic .
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Hi Jonny, this is Christian from Germany I pic you up from Zagreb 2008 and we travel to Germany by car. Later I visit you in Amsterdam. My speciality is Africa. Like to contact you again cause I cannot find you anymore on Couchsurfing. May I ask for your PM adress? see you Christian
Dark Tourist is the best part of this post ..
Oh, It’s too good. I like this blog very much I also bookmark this.
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AT HOME , STAYCATION · May 6, 2020 Last Updated on March 12, 2024
12 OF THE BEST TRAVEL DOCUMENTARIES
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Wondering how you can travel from home without stepping outside your front door? Then look no further than this list of the best travel documentaries and TV shows that will whisk you from your armchair to another country!
1) The Long Way Round
Two men taking motorcycles from London on a journey east all the way around the world might not sound that appealing but trust me, this is one of the best travel series I have ever seen!
Long time friends Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman spend several months planning this epic journey around the world. The Long Way Round journey begins in London and ends in New York – the longest route around the world – and takes you through Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia right round to Alaska and more.
A film crew follows them but is always around a day behind and generally only meets them at border crossings, so you see the real good, bad and ugly of travel by motorbike through some harsh but beautiful landscapes.
2) The Long Way Down
Not satisfied with their journey around the world, Ewan and Charlie return for another motorcycle adventure taking the Long Way Down , starting from the tip of Scotland John O’Groats to the southernmost point in Africa, Cape Agulhas.
The 15,000-mile bike adventure is an even harder challenge than the previous with extreme temperatures and harsh climate to deal with. But as with the Long Way Round, McGregor and Boorman are hilarious and honest making this series an absolute must watch!
3) The Kindness Diaries
In this series, we follow Leon Logothetis as he travels the world on the kindness of strangers. In the first series, Leon travels from LA through the US, Europe and Asia – hitting countries including Italy, Croatia, Greece , Turkey , India , Cambodia , Thailand and Vietnam , travelling by vintage motorbike with no money in his pockets. Leon relies on the kindness of strangers to give him food and a place to stay each night.
The Kindness Diaries Series 2 repeats the same idea, but instead Leon travels from Alaska, through the US down into South America in a vintage VW Beetle.
This show demonstrates the kind hearts of strangers as Leon meets hundreds of people who help him and have also dedicated their lives to helping others.
4) Street Food
Available on Netflix, this 9 part documentary takes you to a different street market in Asia in each 30-minute episode. If you like to travel for food, then this series is for you!
Discover the delicacies on offer in Bangkok, Osaka, Delhi, Yogyakarta, Chiayi, Seoul , Ho Chi Minh City , Singapore and Cebu. Each episode comes with a story of the people who make the food, including a Bangkok chef who has a Michelin-star after spending decades making crab omelets and the obsession with chicken rice of the hawkers of Singapore.
5) Anything By David Attenborough
But seriously, any documentary by David Attenborough is worth watching and he has created several that are country and destination-specific, including ones in The Galapagos , Africa and Tasmania.
I personally loved watching Galapagos before my trip to the islands to get to learn about the history and emergence of these islands off the coast of Ecuador.
Once you have made your way through the destination-specific documentaries you can watch Attenborough’s more general documentaries, including Big Pacific , Seven Worlds One Planet , and Wild North .
6) Around The Next Bend
This 12 part documentary follows two young adventurers as they go on a 2,500 km rafting expedition along the famous Ganges river in India.
Around The Next Bend shows you the colourful, beautiful and often challenging side of India. The two expeditions raft past the Taj Mahal, through Varanasi, through Nepal and into Bangladesh.
7) March of The Penguins
Who doesn’t want to spend an hour or two watching penguins making their way through Antarctica to the dulcet tones of narrator Morgan Freeman?
March of the Penguins is a classic docu-movie set in Antarctica , following the emperor penguins as they go on a quest to find the perfect mate and to start a family.
8) Figure It Out: On The Hayduke Trail
This series documents a thru-hike on one of America’s most challenging routes, The Hayduke Trail . The journey is 800 miles through Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.
If you enjoy hiking or magnificent scenery then you will love following this trail as each episode takes you to a new part of the route, covering places such as Arches National Park, Moab, Escalante, The Wave, the Grand Canyon, Zion and Colorado City.
The documentary also explores how we can use the lessons that are learned whilst out in the wilderness to improve our day to day lives.
9) Salt Of The Earth
Salt Of The Earth is an Oscar-nominated 2014 documentary about the life and work of Brazilian photo-journalist Sebastião Salgado. Salgado spent 40 years documenting groups of people in remote corners of South America, Africa and Central Europe.
The documentary sees Salgado talk about the stories behind the photographs and whilst sometimes difficult to watch it is a fascinating look into some areas of the world we may not ever explore ourselves.
10) Free Solo
Free Solo is the story of solo climber Alex Hannold climbing 3,200 ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park with no ropes. Winner of the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary, this is a heart pounding story of one man’s obsession to do what has never been done before.
The documentary will keep you on the edge of your seat, with amazing footage and heart stopping moments as you watch Alex’s attempt to climb El Capitan completely solo, sans ropes and all.
11) Expedition Happiness
Follow the journey of Felix Starck and his girlfriend Mogli as they adventure through North America in a refurbished school bus.
Starck is famous for the documentary Pedal The World, where he goes on an 18,000-kilometer journey by bicycle through 22 countries. Arguably Pedal The World is the better of the two documentaries, with Expedition Happiness a nice idea and an easy watch, but a little light on culture or interesting activities.
12) Anthony Bourdain: A Cooks Tour
In this series, famous food writer and presenter Anthony Bourdain travels the world indulging his passion for trying local cuisines. Along the way, Bourdain meets several eccentric characters bringing life to this docu-series.
Discover foods from the Caribbean, New Orleans, Brazil, Minneapolis, New York , Hanoi , Singapore, Melbourne and more in series 1 of A Cooks Tour .
Other Recommended Travel Documentaries
- Around The World For Free Alex Boylan circumnavigated the world without a penny in his pockets!
- Mother India Compelling documentary showing the lives of 25 orphans in India living along the railway
- Unbounded A team of twenty-something travellers hike the Greater Patagonian Trail
- DIY Destinations Budget Travel Show Discover the best budget travel destinations around the world
- Rick Steves Europe In the 7 seasons of this series, Rick Steves guides you through Europe showcasing his favourite spots and some off the beaten path destinations
I hope that this article has given you some ideas for how to travel through documentaries. If you have any other favourite travel documentaries or series not included please leave these in the comments below.
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Read More Stay Home Travel Ideas
- 10 Ways To Have A Staycation At Home
- 25 Of The Best Travel Movies
- 10 Novels To Inspire Your Wanderlust
- 16 Travel Themed Cocktails To Enjoy At Ho me
We Are Travel Girls Founder Becky van Dijk of BeckyvanDijk.com Connect with Becky Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | YouTube
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James Cala says
April 20, 2021 at 5:55 am
Amazing list, I love the combination of food & travel as well!
One suggestion is a new travel docu one of my travel buds showed me. It’s on youtube: Same same but different – a documentary about backpacking. Really loved it, beautiful story and depicts for me amazing the backpack culture.
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The best travel documentaries to stream right now
By Condé Nast Traveller and Antonia Quirke
There are films that make you want to travel . But that’s easy. Just point a camera at an April meadow or a Sicilian back street and most of us salivate. And then there are films that make you feel like you have actually, physically travelled to a place. That leave you suffused with the sensations of its air and sounds. As though the camera lens has been your own eyes, noting details of light against brick, hills stepping inland, fruit and cigarettes on a table, springs gushing out of rocks, courtyards hanging with people and flowers, shirts on a line across a high, unstable balcony. So much that it can begin to feel spooky: you muddle the movie’s memories with your own.
Passing Stromboli on a boat one summer I thought, ‘Been there.’ I hadn’t. I’d just seen the movie, and more recently Ingrid Bergman’s own cine-film footage of the shoot (see below.) But still, I got off, and walked around. And it was true. I had been there already. The mesmerising, almost drugging déjà vu! Here are some more of the best travel documentary films that have that very singular effect.
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
Be immersed in the wonders of nature with this uplifting Netflix original, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 2021 Academy Awards. Directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, it follows the unexpected friendship between filmmaker Craig Foster and a wild octopus in a South African kelp forest. After swimming in the remote location near Cape Town and discovering this curious marine animal, Foster decided to visit the same spot every day to learn and understand more about the creature and subsequently form a strong bond with it.
In one hour and 25 minutes of beautiful imagery and filmography, this documentary leaves you feeling sentimental about human connections, our extraordinary interactions with other life – and intrigued about what else lies below the ocean’s surface… By Cordelia Aspinall
'My Octopus Teacher' is available to stream on Netflix now
Cher and the Loneliest Elephant documentary (2021)
Watch the trailer below
Released in the USA on Thursday 22 April to mark Earth Day 2021 , this heart-warming wildlife documentary follows singer Cher’s mission to rescue a captive elephant named Kaavan. Kaavan, a Sri-Lankan born elephant, was sent as a gift to the daughter of the president of Pakistan and ended up, confined, in Islamabad Zoo. After a global petition via Change.org and Twitter received more than 400,000 signatures, a five-year fight for his freedom began, with none other than global pop superstar Cher stepping in after she spotted the campaign online. Having been confined for more than 35 years (the duration of its life) and given the title ‘the loneliest elephant in the world’, the five-tonne animal was relocated across Asia to a 30,000-acre Cambodian wildlife sanctuary.
With teary moments and incredible footage of the massive process involved in the transportation of Kaavan to Cambodia, this is a moving story focusing on the unsettling trauma the elephant was forced to experience, yet it has an uplifting end. Not only does the film with Cher’s narration walk you through this elephant’s long struggle of neglect and maltreatment, it also shines a light on the cruelty that so many animals around the world endure every day. It is a moving yet educational documentary hooked on a powerful true story. Cher co-founded the animal rights organisation Free the Wild as a result and even released the song 'Walls' inspired by her experience. By Cordelia Aspinall
'Cher and the Loneliest Elephant' is available on Smithsonian Channel from Wednesday 19 May 2021
MAN ON WIRE (2008)
‘I remember the vastness of New York . The altitude! It was all so alive!’ Was a city ever so breathtakingly captured as in this celebrated account of the mist-swagged August morning in 1974 when French wire-walker Philippe Petit illegally rigged a cable between the twin towers of the World Trade Center and made eight entirely improbable crossings in 45 minutes. Dressed all in black, his slender figure carrying its long balancing pole occasionally kneels on the thin wire (he even lies down – how your stomach heaves!), saluting the dazzling morning, and his own skill and chutzpah, as the startled pedestrians on the streets far below gaze up weeping and gasping while steam filters up through cracks in the pavement in that quintessential NYC way. Even though the crossings themselves are all in fact captured only in stills taken at the time by Petit’s assistants and friends you somehow remember the whole marvellous incident in moving images. It’s the city itself that’s doing that to you: its inherent dynamism, its irrepressible atmosphere of perpetual motion.
CNT Editors
Cass Farrar
Sophie Heawood
Sophie Prideaux
We see Manhattan photographed here from so high above (much as we see it in the 1933 King Kong ), the Hudson spreading like glitter – like nitrate itself – in any black-and-white images. And the colour of apricot in colour stills, under blue swags of cloud and summer sky. ‘Everyone was spellbound by the watching of it,’ exhales a policeman dispatched to arrest Petit, who was ultimately charged with trespass and disorderly conduct. But the city embraced him.
Stream on Amazon , Google Play and YouTube
FREE SOLO (2018)
An immense, waning moon stares into a canyon’s abyss of sharp stones. A fierce river below spurts along the valley, wild grasses on the banks rolling in the wind like feathers or fur. All this the free-climber Alex Honnold sees – or does he? Fixed like Spider-Man to the side of a cliff, climber’s white chalk clinging to the back of his blistered hands, as the evening flushes rose right across Yosemite National Park. A film that follows Honnold in 2017 preparing to climb the infamous El Capitan – ‘3,200 feet of sheer vertical granite… the centre of the rock-climbing universe’ – without ropes. You sweat in sickly fear for his safety while also completely revelling in the fresh air every frame seems to blow your way, the bright warmth of sun on boulder, the absurd beauty of distant trees, the sight of a rainbow slicing through the foaming heart of a waterfall. You emerge healthier and freer somehow, just for having watched it. Your own limbs spasm as though you walked all day. Despite it being a compelling story of self-induced terror (what drives the angel-faced Honnold remains a mystery), you remember more the awesome sights, the very visceral sensation of movement.
Stream on All4
SEASPIRACY (2021)
Not one for the faint of heart, this 90-minute Netflix documentary has been hitting audiences hard in quite a few ways. It’s from the team behind C owspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (another in-depth spotlight, this time on the impact of agriculture on our planet), and you can expect to see similar themes, upsetting footage and quite controversial interviews with figures in the global fishing industry. The film, directed and narrated by British filmmaker Ali Tabrizi, sets out to explore the damaging effects of mass-scale commercial fishing on marine life and the levels of pollution in waters around the world. Expect to learn about the importance of dolphins, sharks and whales for our oceans ’ ecosystems, that sustainably sourced seafood might not be all that it seems, and that, ultimately, we should all be reducing our fish consumption. You might very well be off fish by the end, but it’s also worth reading around some more: there are some conflicting views about the film and whether the scientific points it makes are factually out of context. Katharine Sohn
Seaspiracy is available to stream on Netflix now
Chasing Coral (2017)
You may not be able to travel to see the Great Barrier Reef , the subject of this Netflix documentary, for much longer if we don't do something about climate change and ocean warming. The film uses hi-tech camera equipment and time lapses to show the deterioration of the coral as it turns from 'colourful, vibrant ecosystems into barren, lifeless wastelands,' writes Condé Nast Traveler US 's Sebastian Modak. You'll feel truly gutted once the movie's over, but it will have you planning a trip to Australia , and other areas with endangered natural wonders, within minutes of the rolling credits.
Stream Chasing Coral on Netflix
THE WHALEBONE BOX (2020)
Here’s a treat. Andrew Kotting – our most quietly influential experimental filmmaker – released a film online that sweeps us up on a pilgrimage to return a box made of whalebone to a far beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris, whence the whale bones originally came. So, we cram in a car with Kotting and the psychogeographer Iain Sinclair and rumble north (filming mostly on a camera-phone) all overseen by Kotting’s daughter Eden, who wears a pagan crown of ivy and seems to be conjuring the whole mysterious and somehow healing road trip in a fever-dream. It’s a perfect evocation of that desire to travel. To move, to be en route, to feel twinges of uneasy excitement, to spin out illusionary ideas of a distant location. The place names whirl by: Ardlui, Mallaig. (At one point we suddenly find ourselves in a Templar castle in the Pyrenees.) Inside the car there’s that super-seductive sense of a gang travelling light, seeing what happens and who they might meet along the jagged coastline. ‘There are places you go, to access time,’ Kotting tells us, as the startling white sand of Harris glows in its near-sinister, beckoning way, under racing skies full of clouds like shredded curtains, and sudden glimmers of wet, green Hebridean sunlight.
Streamed exclusively on MUBI
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1999)
A phenomenon as much as a movie, the spectacular success of the Buena Vista Social Club album and film had a limitless impact on the Cuban tourist industry. Some 20 years later, the music you hear on street corners in that city is more likely to be the music of pre-revolutionary Cuba defined in the film, by a cadre of musicians (some in their 70s and 80s) who had long fallen out of favour, only to be made world famous in their dotage.
I especially love when the camera sways out onto the streets of Havana, filming fast and in natural light the life there: the men working on immense old cars observed by stray dogs the colour of a sweet cold beer; the breeze off the sea playing against shirts; children rolling wooden toys before them; the unloading of mountains of bananas; residents of stuccoed tenements easing vast, scratched and defunct Fifties American fridges out of doors past murals of Che, as though demonstrating the very sickness of capitalism that Guevera railed against. Guitarist Compay Segundo recalling how, aged five, he would light his grandmother’s cigars in Santiago. Or baritone crooner Ibrahim Ferrer showing us the wooden carving he has always kept of Lazarus, and the little bowls of honey, rum and perfume he would offer to it, for good luck – which finally came to him after years of penury and shoe-shining in Havana after the film was released. Every frame takes you to that city, that climate. The smoky smell of the pavements as the sun grows stronger.
Stream on Google Play and YouTube
THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS (2008)
‘The North Sea and the sand is the start for me…’ says Agnès Varda, esteemed filmmaker of the Nouvelle Vague and photographer of genius, who aged 80 in this autobiographical collage of personal memory and feeling, takes us to the beaches that shaped her childhood, her marriage, her art and beyond. ‘Time passes, except on the beaches, which are timeless…’ she reasons, remembering with fondness Belgian sands at La Panne and Middelkerke. And especially the port city of Sète in France ’s southern region of Occitanie, where she speaks of seeing fishermen in the 1940s living in rough tents on the dunes, canvas walls slung with storm lamps and old pans. Noirmoutier, the French island in the Bay of Biscay, she recalls her husband Jacques Demy particularly loving, and she films it here in tribute and with such freshness it’s since become a destination for fans of the movie. ‘What is cinema?’ Varda asks, ‘It is LIGHT coming from somewhere…’ We see her sailing up the Seine in a wooden boat, right under the Ponts des Arts, the craft itself painted the sun-flashing yellow of the Provençal sunflowers that Varda always seemed to feature in her movies. I had the good fortune to interview Varda when she was 90, just months before she died, and I took a bunch of sunflowers as a gift – she received them with a yelp of happiness, saying they reminded her of French summers, her wise eyes warm as landing lights.
GRIZZLY MAN (2005)
‘Sometimes images themselves develop their own mysterious stardom…’ narrates German director Werner Herzog, over this his most heart-rending film. Part ‘kind warrior’ part ‘samurai’ the conservationist-activist Timothy Treadwell lived for 13 summers with wild Kodiak bears in remote areas of the Alaskan peninsula, shooting 100 hours of footage of those bears in their natural habitat. Styling himself as a Prince Valiant, his eventual death-by-Kodiak was shockingly violent, and Herzog shapes Treadwell’s sad, strange story as a tribute to ‘wild, primordial nature’ where his subject was truly at home. As you watch, you’re convinced you too can feel the fresh air on your own skin, the nip of mosquitoes, the pelter of rain. The long evenings spent alone, the vast plateau of mountains, the tide flats, the tumbled jags of glaciers, the sensation of Treadwell’s hands calloused like leather, the yelp of light in the mornings, the changing Alaskan sky.
In one scene, little slim foxes (called Ghost and Spirit) wake him by pressing their noses and paws against the walls of his tent, and he runs with them across a flower-studded meadow, delirious with the surprising gift of such companionship and freedom that would make any child’s heart explode. To be friends with the animals! ‘He captures such glorious improvised moments the likes of which studio directors with their union crews could never dream of,’ says Herzog, with patent admiration, himself an absolute master of putting not just nature, but the profound euphoria of travel on film. Think of those moments in Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre, when the hero walks the High Tatra mountains of northern Slovakia, or the Partnach Gorge in the Reintal valley in southern Germany . Rhapsodic.
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI (2011)
Even though this documentary is almost entirely set inside a 10-seater Tokyo restaurant with no view, its location somehow comes to feel as though the whole history of Japan might be contained within its temple-like walls. Jiro Ono (now 94) is Japan’s most famous sushi master. He left home aged nine to become an apprentice, opening his own restaurant in the 1960s that now has a three-Michelin-star rating, which means (says one food critic) ‘It’s worth visiting that country just to visit the restaurant.’ Jiro is modest and stern, and we glimpse snatches of his past – anecdotes about his harsh infancy or an alluring black-and-white photograph of his father formally seated in 1927 wearing a sheeny kimono, an image with unforgettable resonance and romance, that seems to far, far predate the Taisho era.
Inside the restaurant – a capsule of absorption, firmly sealed in its own private weather – every day proceeds without alteration. The rice is steamed and hand-fanned, the halibut and squid and eel finely sliced and pressed together. ‘Press the sushi like you’re pressing a little chick,’ Jiro advises. ‘The world has turned outside, but he has remained the same,’ someone says, as the camera occasionally takes us outside to the brooding, energetic Tokyo streets, where it always seems to be raining and the crowds hurry. Down to the fish market full of tottering porters and barrow-pushers rhythmically going to and fro, where the best tuna trader drags frowningly on his hand-cupped cigarette, his hair slicked like Elvis, dreaming of the days when the fish were fat as pianos.
Stream on Amazon , and Netflix (US)
THE EPIC OF EVEREST (1924)
Not just one of the most important travel films ever made, but a precious artefact. A time capsule, a relic. If the third attempt to ascend Everest culminated in the sad deaths of the determined English climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, the moving image of their expedition (shot by Captain John Noel with a hand-cranked camera sometimes using high-powered telescopic lenses) has thankfully survived. Some of the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet are here, and several frames have been tinted in the original reds and purples of the first screenings in 1924, thanks to meticulous restoration by the BFI.
Every second is a marvel, the images profound. Mallory and Irvine facing the climb of their lives in modest tweed jackets. Tibetan babies in stone villages, their skin slathered in yak butter, lying out happily in the sun. A Tibetan gentleman showing his glimmering ear to the camera, dangling its pendant earring of gold and aquamarine. A baby donkey born during the long march west, expected to walk 25 miles on its first day of life, collapsed in the mud (‘How tired and sleepy he is!’). Ancient castles and monasteries stud the mountains, hermit lamas dwelling in cliff-built cells predicting doom for the mission, climbers snow-blind and in states of collapse or trudging past ice-caves and picking off stalactites, as though they were great jags of lickable sugar on a fairy palace.
The mountain itself – Tibet’s Goddess Mother of the World – seems to physically pulsate with (as a title card tells us) ‘lofty solitude. Grand, solemn and unutterably lonely.’ And then the image of Mallory and Irvine ascending up, and up, and up, only to disappear, eternally out of sight. ‘We may think of ourselves and nature,’ warns the original text on screen, with what feels like definitive prescience. ‘We spring from nature. In life, we defy her.’
Stream on BFI Player
JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY (1959)
Perhaps the ultimate concert film, made during the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival on Rhode Island, headlined by (among others) Thelonious Monk and Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan and Chuck Berry. How many times you wish yourself into the frame! To be among that happy, confident, peanut-crunching crowd. Because the camera has such a lovely, casual eye, it’s like a friend describing little moments and scenes, interested, curious, relaxed.
We see Monk take the stage with his bamboo-rimmed dark glasses. Sal Salvador on guitar with a buzz cut, eyes closed in bliss. Anita O’Day singing Tea for Two in a black hat fringed in white feathers, snapping her fingers as she sings, her gloves immaculate. The crowd sways and giggles and sighs, a jewel-box of capri pants and Breton tops. Strappy yellow sundresses and cat-eyed shades, baked shoulders and freckled clavicles draped with hipster cardigans. Well-fed babies are passed down rows to be greeted with kisses by mothers waving choc-ices. Beyond, the water of Narragansett Bay is a sparkling blur dotted with pretty racing boats called Nomad and Pixie. ‘The weather out here is summery, with a smoky haze on the horizon,’ someone thrills over a tannoy, as the camera picks out brown, sandalled feet dangling from a crow’s nests during a race.
Sometimes it feels like everything is reflected in the glistering water of the movie; all of the USA’s post-war reach and ambition. It has the optimism of a Cadillac. The ‘Dionysian potential of American life,’ as John Updike put it; that ‘carnival under the dome of heaven, every fair day.’ To me, this film captures precisely that gorgeous, lost moment in time and place, when Ted Hughes was gazing at his new and glamorous wife, Sylvia Plath, recalled in the poem 18 Rugby Street, ‘So this is America, I marvelled. Beautiful, beautiful America !’
60th-anniversary edition available on DVD
INGRID BERGMAN: IN HER OWN WORDS (2015)
‘I don’t want any roots. I want to be free.’ Ingrid Bergman’s will to travel came from deep within her. Sweden , California , Italy , France, London – she was able to up and move, reinvent herself, leaving lovers and children behind, documenting it all with a cine-camera – and her own footage occupies the majority of this powerfully alluring film. ‘I wanted desperately to get out in the world,’ she said, in letters to friends. ‘It’s as if a bird of passage is living with me.’
And so we follow her through the various stages of her life, with different husbands, and all her pretty infants blowing about like bright petals across the terraces of various villas and hotels (Hotel Raphael in Paris was her favourite). She’s here, driving around Rome in a white convertible, laughing at the paparazzi. Or clambouring with fishermen about the Aeolian island of Stromboli, sweeping shining hair from out of her tear-filled eyes. Or knitting topless in the powerful sunlight, all broad shoulders and witty expression. Diving into a pool in Hollywood, using a magnum of Champagne as a life buoy. And best: her robust, salty skin tanned the colour of rosewood against an unglamorous raincoat on the isolated, harshly granite island of Dannholmen off the Swedish west coast, where she joined the local sailing school, and where her ashes were scattered after she died. ‘I love your island,’ she’d said to her third husband, seeing his modest wooden house in 1958, with its rusted anchor sitting sentinel off the grey and merciless rocks. ‘Good,’ he’d nodded. ‘Let’s get married, then.’
Stream on Amazon
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (2018)
Chef and food writer Samin Nosrat’s four-part series focuses on the four ingredients she thinks makes food delicious. In Italy she explores fat, in Japan she finds salt, in Mexico it’s acid and in the USA there’s heat. Her smile and spontaneous dancing are irresistible viewing, not to mention the sizzling close-ups of her adventurous, elemental cooking. Meredith Carey
Stream Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix
Chef’s Table Pastry (2018)
This is a four-episode-only spin-off from the Emmy award-winning Chef’s Table. The show kicks off with Christina Tosi and her New York Milk Bar empire, an instant hit into the series. Also on the menu: Jordi Roca, Will Goldfarb and Corrado Assenza. Mesmerising and delicious – don't think about watching without sweet snacks to hand. MC
Stream Chef's Table Pastry on Netflix
Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories (2016)
Set in a tiny Tokyo diner that's only open from midnight to 7am, 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 more than 20 minutes long, so it's the most bingeable of the bunch. Watch with subtitles and don't - seriously, don't - watch while hungry. MC
Stream Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories on Netflix
Travels with My Father (2017)
Follow stand-up comedian Jack Whitehall and his father, Michael, in this six-episode Netflix original across Southeast Asia . The series tracks the duo as they finish the gap year Jack never got to complete, just a few years late (eight, to be exact). MC
Stream Travels with My Father on Netflix
Stephen Fry in America (2012)
In this six-part mini-series, Stephen Fry drives around all 50 US states in a London cab. Football games at the University of Alabama and lobster fishing in Maine are on the menu. Expect a lot of laughs and a surprise appearance from Morgan Freeman. MC
Stream Stephen Fry in America on Netflix
Chef's Table (2015)
If you've ever raised an eyebrow at food as art, set aside some time to watch this Netflix original docu-series. Each 50-minute episode profiles one of the world’s most extraordinary chefs (such as Peruvian Virgilio Martínez, pictured, the owner of Lima's Central restaurant, and Swede Magnus Nilsson) as they create impossibly complicated dishes. MC
Stream Chef's Table on Netflix
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15 Travel Documentaries to Fuel your Wanderlust
Last updated on April 6th, 2023 at 09:35 pm
If there are travel documentaries being broadcast on British TV, we can guarantee we’ll be ready with remote control in hand. When we’re back home in London , we spend hours on the sofa, fuelling our wanderlust by watching others travelling the world.
For us, watching travel documentaries helps fill those gaps between trips. For an hour or so we’re transported somewhere far away from the normality of home. We reminisce of faraway places we’ve been to if filming locations are in countries we’ve already visited. Or we get excited and inspired if filmed in countries we are yet to discover. Both are just as enjoyable.
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Along with cookery shows and reality TV, there are so many travel documentaries to choose from. Via terrestrial TV, Sky, Netflix, Amazon or other online sites, they’ll be a documentary to satisfy anyone’s wanderlust.
We’ve picked 15 of our favourite travel documentaries from the more thoughtful travel subjects to less serious and humorous ways of seeing the world. Viewing access to these shows changes regularly so we’d suggest entering the title into Google to find which viewing platforms are currently available at the time of reading this post.
Regular guys Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach are bored. So what do they do? Take a road trip, of course. Departures follows them and their cameraman, Andre Dupuis, as they journey to countries all over the world. We love the non-premium feel of this show. It’s just three nice Canadian guys filming themselves travelling the world. They make an effort to visit hard to get to places and interact with locals wherever they go. This brings experiences that not all travellers get to do. Departures make the top of our travel documentaries list.
Walking the Nile & Walking the Himalayas
Levison James Wood is a British Army officer and explorer. He’s best known for his extended walking expeditions in Africa and Asia. Over the course of nine months from 2013-2014, he undertook the first ever expedition to walk the entire length of the river Nile .
In 2015 he walked the length of the Himalayas. Both adventures were commissioned into four-part travel documentaries for Channel 4 in the UK. His journeys bring amazing landscapes, local interaction, massive highs and some disastrous lows.
Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer with Simon Reeve
Simon Reeve makes two “round the world” trips following the tropic of Capricorn in the Southern hemisphere and the tropic of Cancer in the Northern hemisphere . These two travel documentaries include visits to one or more countries, in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean, Arabia and Hawaii. Simon explores daily life for locals, tourists and wildlife, as well as the history, culture and politics which all prove quite varied.
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
New Lives in the Wild is a television series on UK’s Channel 5 hosted by adventurer Ben Fogle . The series is about meeting people who live in some of the most remote locations on earth. More often than not, these are western families or individuals who have had enough of the big city rat race. They’ve escaped to remote parts of the world to set up new lives in the wild.
Examples are the Alaskan wilderness, a Polynesian Island and the Arizonian desert. These are courageous and inspirational people who Ben stays with for a few days to learn how they live so remotely.
World’s Most Dangerous Roads
World’s Most Dangerous Roads is a British BBC TV series first aired in 2011. Two celebrities per episode are filmed as they journey by a 4×4 vehicle along roads considered among the world’s most dangerous. Episodes include the Death Road in Bolivia and the Ho Chi Minh trail in Vietnam . Many of the chosen celebrities are comedians so some humour is added to what otherwise is a fascinating and educational watch.
Long Way Round
In 2004, Ewan McGregor , Charley Boorman and cameraman Claudio von Planta, travelled from London to New York City on a motorbike. In the process, they created some awesome travel documentaries. The journey visited thirteen countries, starting in the UK, then passing through France, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Canada, and the USA, ending in New York City for a cumulative distance of 18,887 miles (30,396 km).
They take the time to visit a variety of sights and landmarks while travelling, including the Church of Bones in the Czech Republic, the Mask of Sorrow monument in Magadan, Russia, and Mount Rushmore in the USA. They, of course, encounter many hurdles along the way. It wouldn’t be a great adventure without them.
Top Gear: Road Trip Specials
This one’s a bit of a wild card as Top Gear does not usually fall in the travel documentaries category. However, we love the Top Gear road trip specials. Why? Because they take place in some incredible world locations. Typical Top Gear antics include driving around Africa trying to find the source of the Nile, going off road from Bolivia to Chile and getting across the length of Vietnam on two wheels with a budget of just $1000. We know a lot of what happens is scripted but we still can’t help but enjoy these adventurous episodes.
An Idiot Abroad
An Idiot Abroad is a British travel documentary / road trip comedy television series broadcast on Sky 1. It’s created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and starring Karl Pilkington . The ongoing theme is that Pilkington has no interest in global travel, so Merchant and Gervais make him travel to the Seven Wonders of the World while they stay in the UK and monitor his progress.
Most of each episode focuses on Pilkington’s humorous reactions to cultural differences and idiosyncrasies in the countries he visits. He also gets set hilarious tasks, often not related to why he believed he was there. The silliest of our travel documentaries but well worth a watch.
Asian Provocateur
Comedian Romesh Ranganathan is sent by his mother on a ramshackle odyssey around his parents’ homeland of Sri Lanka in an attempt to connect him with his roots. Romesh is the kind of guy who likes his home comforts and finds friendliness uncomfortable so Sri Lanka is not his ideal place to visit. As he quotes, ‘I was a bumbling Englishman in a Sri Lankan disguise’, so you can imagine the funny situations he gets himself into.
Our Guy in India
Motorbike racer Guy Martin buys a Royal Enfield motorbike at a Delhi market, gets a traditional Hindu blessing and sets off on a 1000-mile motorbike trip. Guy explores a rarely-seen side of modern India as he heads to one of the world’s maddest bike races. He travels through various parts of the country coming across all kinds of interesting people and sights on the way. Does he win the race at the end? You’ll have to watch to find out.
The Mekong River with Sue Perkins
TV presenter Sue Perkins embarks on a life-changing, 3,000-mile journey up the Mekong , South East Asia’s greatest river, exploring lives and landscapes on the point of dramatic change. It’s a really interesting watch, learning how 1000s of people live on and around one of the world’s great rivers. There’s plenty of smiles and tears as Sue listens to the locals stories and changing way of lives.
The Secret Caribbean with Trevor McDonald
The newsreader and journalist, Sir Trevor McDonald embarks upon a stunning and epic journey across the Caribbean. From the Bahamas in the North to his birthplace Trinidad in the south, uncovering the sun-kissed islands along the way.
In this three part series, Sir Trevor visits The Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Barbados, Grenada and Trinidad. It’s an unforgettable expedition as he experiences the huge contrasts in cultures and lifestyles these islands have to offer.
Travel Man 48 hours
If you’re looking for more laughs with your travel documentaries then Travel Man is the British documentary series for you. It features presenter Richard Ayoade , travelling to a different location each episode with a celebrity guest. Ayoade takes a ruthless approach to getting the maximum from each city break. Cramming as much as he possibly can in 48 fast and funny hours. His unique presenting style has us laughing through every episode.
Charley Boorman by Any Means
By Any Means , also known as Ireland to Sydney by Any Means , is a television series following Long Way Round star Charley Boorman . Travelling from Wicklow , Ireland, to Sydney , New South Wales, Australia, it features him completing the journey using 112 modes of transport and only travelling by plane when absolutely necessary. A real epic adventure!
Joanna Lumley’s Trans-Siberian Adventure
Joanna Lumley embarks on the world’s greatest train journey for this three-part documentary series. Travelling from East to West, she departs from Hong Kong across 5,777 miles of both Asia and Europe. Joanna travels through seven time zones, taking in an immense panorama of vistas and cultures, people and places, before her final arrival in Moscow.
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New 'Shock Docs' Series of Two-Hour Specials Explores America's True Horror Stories
We're officially kicking off spooky season on Labor Day with the premiere of Devil's Road: The True Story of Ed and Lorraine Warren .
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Travel Channel journeys back to the most infamous horror cases our country has ever known, taking a fresh look at true and terrifying tales of paranormal encounters with a new umbrella series titled Shock Docs , scheduled to air throughout the fall. The announcement was made today at Travel Channel’s “Wonder Women: Superstars of Paranormal” panel during San Diego Comic-Con’s virtual Comic-Con@Home. Kicking off the spooky season on Labor Day, Monday, September 7 at 9|8c is the history of the nation’s first modern-day paranormal investigators, Devil’s Road: The True Story of Ed and Lorraine Warren . Over the course of their 50-year career, Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated thousands of hauntings. They documented some of the most famous cases ever recorded, including the Amityville Horror house, the real-life Rhode Island home behind The Conjuring films and the Bridgeport Poltergeist. Ed, a demonologist, and Lorraine, a clairvoyant, were an unassuming couple who devoted their lives to battling demonic forces inhabiting families or homes.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Warrens made numerous appearances on television talking about their cases and spreading the word about the paranormal and preternatural worlds that exist all around us. Their life’s mission: to prove the existence of good and evil; God and the devil. Along the way, they pioneered many techniques still used in the field today, including audio and visual recording devices, advanced electromagnetic devices and even produced their own television show. This two-hour special features interviews with their daughter and son-in-law, Judy and Tony Spera, who share never-before-broadcast audio of Ed conducting interviews for the Bridgeport, Connecticut, poltergeist case, and rare video of the Warrens helping a young woman coming under demonic possession. Tony also has granted the production access to his catalog of footage from his television series, Seekers of the Supernatural . It includes many hours of Ed and Lorraine discussing their work with Tony.
“Travel Channel fans have an insatiable appetite for the classic cases that even the paranormal investigators revere,” said Matthew Butler, general manager, Travel Channel. “In these ‘shockumentaries,’ we start at the beginning and explore why these places and cases remain the most famous – and the most haunted – in the country.”
Each installment of Travel Channel’s Shock Docs goes to the heart of a true American horror story – and a peek into history. We travel across the country to uncover the best-documented paranormal encounters – tales recorded on video and audio that capture the raw terror of an encounter with evil. Additional Shock Docs on the slate for later this fall will delve into the true-life hauntings of the Amityville Horror House and The Exorcism of Roland Doe .
Join the conversation on social using the hashtags #ShockDocs and #DevilsRoad. Keep up-to-date with the latest news from Travel Channel on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .
Lorraine Warren, One of America’s Most Prominent Paranormal Investigators, Dies at 92
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Why are michael palin documentaries not on the bbc anymore, the monty python star has been making travel documentaries for decades.
Michael Palin will soon be returning with a new travel documentary series, Michael Palin in Nigeria , which continues his partnership with ITN and Channel 5 .
The Monty Python star found a second wave in his career when he began fronting travel documentaries, but the comedian's work in the field first began with the BBC . Palin embarked on his first foray into travel writing and documentary filmmaking with the 1989 series Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin, but since then things have changed.
Some viewers may be wondering why Palin swapped the BBC for Channel 5, here is everything that we know about the move.
Palin first began making travel documentaries in 1989, and his work with the BBC saw him collaborating on a number of programmes until 2012. This included his journey from the North to the South Pole in Pole to Pole with Michael Palin, and retracing the footsteps of writer Ernest Hemingway across the US, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean for Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure.
Read More: Michael Palin still talks to his late wife
All in all, Palin fronted eight programmes with the BBC and his collaboration with the channel came to an end with the 2012 series Brazil with Michael Palin.
His time with the BBC had its ups and downs, in 2009 Palin said he felt "very let down" by the BBC's response to his 2007 documentary New Europe. The programme was censured by the BBC Trust, who concluded Palin had oversimplified the conflict of the Balkan wars in the 1990s after a complaint was made by a viewer.
Speaking at a lunch for the Royal Television Society years after the programme was released, the Guardian reported Palin as saying: "The complaint was upheld. That, I believe, brings the BBC into disrepute. I think it was a stupid decision. I felt very, very angry and very let down."
New Europe was followed up by his aforementioned 2012 series about Brazil. While he didn't make anymore travelogue type shows for the channel, Palin did return to the BBC to front the show Travels Of A Lifetime in which he looked back at the documentaries he had made over the years.
In 2021, Palin spoke plainly about the BBC's future when he spoke to Jeremy Paxman on his podcast The Lock In , saying: "I am worried about the BBC because I believe the BBC to be one of the most important institutions in the country. An institution, having travelled the world, it is usually admired wherever I go — but I can see times are changing."
The actor took a break from making travel documentaries after Brazil with Michael Palin, returning in 2018 with his new collaborative partners ITN for the series Michael Palin in North Korea which aired on Channel 5. The show saw him film with a crew in North Korea during the April 2018 inter-Korean summit, it was the first time viewers were able to see so much of the country on camera.
When the series was first commissioned, Guy Davies, Channel 5 Factual Commissioning Editor, said: "Michael Palin is the best travel presenter of his generation, and for him to make his first series for Channel 5 with such a timely and extraordinary journey is thrilling. His natural curiosity and sensitivity make him the ideal person to visit and discover North Korea, and meet the people who have been hidden from the world for so long."
The series was a huge critical success, and he soon followed it up with the 2022 series Michael Palin: Into Iraq which drew in 2.5million viewers and won a prestigious AIB award. Channel 5 and ITN was keen to continue their collaboration with Palin, and why not after the success of their two earlier programmes.
Palin's new series will see him visit Nigeria, where he will explore the history and culture of the country, and its growing impact as a world leader. The documentary will see him visit the Islamic North and go on a road trip across the country with an armed guard.
Speaking about the programme, Palin shared: "Nigeria has the biggest economy, and the biggest population in Africa. The potential of the country is enormous, but so are its problems. Visiting the country for the first time, I saw these problems at first hand, but also caught a whiff of the excitement and energy of the place.
"Sometimes inspiring, sometimes a perplexing challenge, my journey through this rich, raucous mix of a country hardly gave me time to draw breath. I came home exhausted but exhilarated. And, as in the best of journeys, feeling I know a lot more about the world."
Michael Palin in Nigeria airs on Channel 5 at 9pm on Tuesday, 16 April.
Watch the trailer for Michael Palin in Nigeria:
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Linbergh: Mysteries at the Museum. Lincoln Assassination: Mysteries at the Museum. Loch Ness Monster: New Evidence. Loch Ness Monster: The Search for the Truth. Lonely Planet: Odyssey with Graham Hughes. Lost Amazon: Project Z. Lost Gold. Lost Secrets. Lost in the Wild.
Travel Channel Uncut takes the "bloopers" from the shows listed above and makes them into an episode/special of this series. Aired occasionally and previously ... Destination Fear, documentary filmmaker Dakota Laden and his crew travel across the country in an RV to spend nights in haunted locations. The crew takes a new approach to the ...
Total Runtime 5d 2h 15m (163 episodes) Country United States. Genres Documentary. Travel Channel's brand begins with a bold, singular idea connecting people to the power and joy of human journeys that inspire, surprise and entertain. It's a place for consumers to experience great storytelling, shared human connections, and engaging talent that ...
The rise of "shock docs" has given paranormal enthusiasts the chance to take a deep dive into some of their favorite stories. We've put together a list of the top ten shock docs available on discovery+ that will satiate even the most avid preternatural audience.
The list of travel documentary television shows below includes information like the program's cast, creator and premiere date when available. ... Amazing Vacation Homes is a documentary-styled homestead and travel series on the Travel Channel that debuted in October 2004. The first two seasons of the show were hosted by Tom Jourden. In 2006 ...
Robber's Bride, The Night Disco Exploded, Escape By Sea. Episode 609. Host Don Wildman examines an old Concord stagecoach that destroyed the dreams of a legendary lonely heart, a collection of melted vinyl records that sparked the decline of a cultural phenomenon, and ship model that represents a thrilling tale of bravery, perseverance, and a ...
Advanced search. 1. Expedition Unknown. An archeologist travels around the world looking for unknown and missing artifacts from throughout time. 2. Ghost Adventures. Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley investigate the scariest, most notorious, haunted places in the world. 3. An Idiot Abroad.
Here's a complete list of Travel Channel's library of TV shows currently available to stream. Filter by Reelgood score, popularity, release date and more.
Discover all the online movies and TV shows that are currently streaming on Travel Channel right here. JustWatch is a streaming search engine that allows you to search and browse through different providers, including Travel Channel. Search, filter and compare prices to find the best place to buy or rent movies and TV shows. All.
Lorena, La De Pies Ligeros (2019) This 28-minute documentary is unexpected, gorgeous, and quick, just like the athlete it features: ultra-marathon runner Lorena Ramírez. Ramírez hails from the ...
The BBC Planet Earth series is absolutely beautifully filmed and epic to watch. In each episode, they explore different parts of the planet, such as deserts, mountains, oceans, forests, etc. There are also other travel documentaries by the BBC, like The Blue Planet, Frozen Planet, and a lot more. Each one shows a different side of our planet.
10) Free Solo. 11) Expedition Happiness. 12) Anthony Bourdain: A Cooks Tour. Other Recommended Travel Documentaries. Read More Stay Home Travel Ideas. Author. Pin For Later. 1) The Long Way Round. Two men taking motorcycles from London on a journey east all the way around the world might not sound that appealing but trust me, this is one of the ...
Cher and the Loneliest Elephant documentary (2021) Watch the trailer below. Released in the USA on Thursday 22 April to mark Earth Day 2021, this heart-warming wildlife documentary follows singer Cher's mission to rescue a captive elephant named Kaavan. Kaavan, a Sri-Lankan born elephant, was sent as a gift to the daughter of the president of ...
Beautiful sweeping scenery, never-before-seen holiday destinations and insider sneak-peeks into countries you'll be dying to visit. Tracks is the perfect home for anyone who loves to travel and ...
Collection of ghost and cryptid documentaries from the 90s and early 2000's that aired on the Travel Channel. Thank the archivers. ⚠️ Some videos are very lo...
Pages in category "Travel Channel original programming" The following 83 pages are in this category, out of 83 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. 0-9. 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (TV series) A. Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America; Airport 24/7: Miami; Alaskan Killer Bigfoot;
Departures make the top of our travel documentaries list. Walking the Nile & Walking the Himalayas. Levison James Wood is a British Army officer and explorer. He's best known for his extended walking expeditions in Africa and Asia. ... New Lives in the Wild is a television series on UK's Channel 5 hosted by adventurer Ben Fogle. The series ...
Simplify your next trip with some of our favorite travel hacks. DIY No-Sew Scarf With Secret Pocket 01:18. How to Hide Money in Plain Sight 01:00. 4 Jewelry Packing Hacks 01:33. Camping Hacks ... Don't miss Travel Channel in your favorite social media feeds. Facebook; TikTok; Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; More From Travel. Sweepstakes; Travel's ...
Welcome to our YouTube playlist featuring the best travel documentaries. In this collection of several videos, you will discover the world's most fascinating...
This is a list of documentary channels, ... Al Jazeera Documentary Channel: 2007: Qatar: Arabic: Documentary films: Al Jazeera has been criticized for being state media owned by Qatar and assailed as anti-Semitic, anti-American bias. ... Travel Channel: 1987: USA: English: Traveling, how-to travel, hotel and cities touring ...
Travel Channel journeys back to the most infamous horror cases our country has ever known, taking a fresh look at true and terrifying tales of paranormal encounters with a new umbrella series titled Shock Docs, scheduled to air throughout the fall.The announcement was made today at Travel Channel's "Wonder Women: Superstars of Paranormal" panel during San Diego Comic-Con's virtual ...
Michael Palin will soon be returning with a new travel documentary series, Michael Palin in Nigeria, which continues his partnership with ITN and Channel 5.. The Monty Python star found a second wave in his career when he began fronting travel documentaries, but the comedian's work in the field first began with the BBC.Palin embarked on his first foray into travel writing and documentary ...
Danny Dyer explores modern masculinity, men's mental health and male identity. Episode 2. Danny meets stay-at-home dads, psychologists, Jungian retreaters and a sex therapist, as he looks at what ...