The Best Travel Shows You Can Stream Right Now
Most of us can't be on the road 365 days a year, but that doesn't mean we have to stop exploring. With some of the best travel shows streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, we have the world at our fingertips, with episodes that take us from markets in Mexico to hawker stalls in Singapore to the farthest reaches of the Arctic, back home to BBQ joints in Charleston. Whether you'd rather follow the late Anthony Bourdain, Sir David Attenborough, David Chang, Samin Nosrat, Samantha Brown, Ewan McGregor, or the Fab Five along the way is up to you. Here, find some of our favorite travel shows available to stream right now (fictional and not), involving journeys by land, air, and sea—and lots and lots of eating.
This gallery was last published in March 2020. It has been updated with new information. All products featured in this story are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Everett CollectionTaste the Nation
With international travel largely on hold, there's no better time to explore our own backyard—which is exactly what host Padma Lakshmi did on her new Hulu show Taste the Nation. The show's first season, released in June, follows the Top Chef host and author as she quite literally tastes the nation, stopping at restaurants around the U.S. 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)
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 Planet Earth now: $3 per episode, $25 per season; amazon.com
Watch Planet Earth II now: $3 per episode, $20 per season; amazon.com
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)
Courtesy NetflixSalt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Be sure to watch this show on a full stomach, or you'll be pausing to bake focaccia or cook tahdig along with affable host and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat cookbook author Samin Nosrat. In the four-part show, Nosrat travels the world, making stops in Mexico, Japan, Italy, and her home in California, to discover the properties of each of the show's title elements. There's cheese. There's olive oil. There's miso. There are tortillas. There's salsa. And just like that we're hungry again. (FYI, she's as delightful in person as she is on screen—and joined us for a Women Who Travel podcast episode soon after the show premiered.)
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
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Courtesy Channel 4Travel Man
If you're familiar with Anthony Bourdian's The Layover, then the premise of British comedian Richard Ayoade's Travel Man will seem quite familiar. The goofy show follows the comic and primarily English celebrity friends as they galavant around cities like Helsinki, Miami, and Hong Kong over the course of 48 hours. If you're a Great British Bake Off fan, start with Ayoade's trip to Paris with original GBBO host Mel Giedroyc or the season two episode featuring current host Noel Fielding in Copenhagen. Other familiar faces include Paul Rudd in Helsinki and Bridesmaids' Chris O'Dowd in Vienna.
Watch now: Free with a Hulu subscription (sign up for Hulu 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 fourth season, out October 30, takes Rosenthal from Rio de Janeiro to the Mississippi Delta and the islands of Hawaii to eat even more delicious grub.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
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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.)
NetflixConnected
Technically, Netflix's original show Connected is a science show, but that doesn't mean it isn't filled with travel. Plus, host Latif Nasser told us earlier this year that the show was built in the footsteps of Bourdain's Parts Unknown and No Reservations (with a dash of Bill Nye thrown inn). The show speaks to how the world is interconnected—like how Delaware's birds can offer clues about the Gulf's hurricane season or how sand from the Sahara impacts the Amazon. Throughout, you'll follow Nasser as he hopscotches around the world to speak with scientists to find out more.
Watch now: Free with a Netflix subscription (sign up for Netflix here)
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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)
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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)
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National Geographic/Ernesto BenavidesGordon Ramsay: Uncharted
Gordon Ramsey is involved, so of course this cooking and travel show is extreme. In the National Geographic–produced series, the Hell's Kitchen chef goes out of his element—and out of the kitchen—to learn cooking tips and tricks from locals in unusual locales, culminating in a cook-off of sorts to show off what he's picked up. Here, he heads to Peru's Sacred Valley to learn high altitude cooking, cooks seal with a Tlingit elder in Alaska, and learns about Berber food culture in Morocco.
Watch now: Free with a Disney+ subscription (sign up for Disney+ 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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)