Travel Programs/Hosts/Documentary/DVD

I love all of Michael Palin's travel documentaries; "Pole to Pole" is my favorite. I also have old VHS copies of the 1994-98 PBS/BBC "Great Railway Journeys" series. A more contemporary series would be the one done about 2 years ago by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman: "Long Way Round" which documents their round the world motorcycle journey; and they actually rode right by my house!!! Didn't know it until I watched it on TV :) They are currently filming another journey going from north to south called "Long Way Down". But my guilty pleasure would be "The Amazing Race" on CBS.

My "Guilty Pleasure" would definately be "Amazing Race" also. We used to watch recorded episodes each week in one of my Travel & Tourism classes at College. The Prof would use it as a learning tool and give us a quiz on it at the end of each program. We all loved it. No one was late for class that day!

Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown and Passport to Latin America with Samantha Brown. She has got to be my fave travel host so far.

Anthony Bourdain's: No Reservations on the Travel Channel. He's a guy from Brooklyn, accent and all, who was the head chef in NYC's Les Halles. He visited places from all over the world. He is very opinionated w/an edgy sense of humor. He makes fun of the locals, the food, and mostly himself as he tries to fit into the local culture. When he finds something exceptional; ie. food, customs, etc, he raves about it poetically. Because of him, I want to visit Seattle and Japan(Mishima also influenced me for Japan)!

Have you seen "Three Sheets" with Zane Lamprey? This guy travels all over the world checking out drinking customs. He did shows from Venice, Japan, Taipei, Croatia, Champagne, Wales, Kentucky and Oktoberfest at Munich. Hilarious yet informative.

That reminds me, Comedy Central's Insomniac with Dave Atell was also a good travel show. Although most of his shows were from US cities he did venture across the border a few times:Toronto, Montreal, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Berlin. There was another short run travel show from CC called Gerhard Reinke's Wanderlust. It's premise was a mock German TV travel show complete with the host wearing sandals with white socks:) But they did shoot in some very exotic locales like the Amazon, and the Peruvian Andes. They still rerun it from time to time.

I love Anthony Bourdain's, too. He so reminds me of my late husband!

PBS occassionally shows a program called "Visions of (Bavaria, Southern Italy, the Rhine, Englands, etc)". It consists of little more than swooping aerial shots with pretty music and a small amount of narration. Not as informative as Rick, but useful for a few good travel nuggets. I probably would not have known about the Bodensee without seeing "Visions of Bavaria".

I grew up in the 80's and enjoyed a Canadian Production out of Montreal called "Travel Travel" on CBC with Don McGowan.

I'm not sure if he's still working in the Industry or enjoying retirement travelling the globe. His show used to be on repeats up until a couple years back that I can recall... Or at least I haven't seen it lately. Would love to see it on again.

I like Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe & I love Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. Passport gives more of a taste of a place but Reservations really gets into the people & culture of a place. Plus, I like it when a host isn't afraid to share what it is he is really thinking or believes (some of them can come across as 1 dimensional :P). I also enjoy Globe Trekker. I love watching the Amazing Race (I'd love to be a contestant!). "Three Sheets" sounds interesting. Is it on DVD?

I also like Sam Brown's shows...However plan on spending lots of dough for her recommendations!! They're fun to watch, but way out of my budget (& not always realistic as to something YOU would be able to do)!

Since noone mentioned Rudy Maxa's shows, I guess I will! :) His shows are "Europe to the Max" & "Smart Travels" on PBS & DVD. He's more of a "foodie" than Rick Steves, so you get to see the local foods/culture a little more in his shows. In that way I like him better.

Rudy maxxa's shows are a great go-together with Ricks. As mentioned, he is a foodie/wine, but it doesn't dominate the shows

Agree with the posters about Samantha Brown and Anthony Bourdain. Also, love "The Amazing Race." Also, there's a guy on the travel channel, can't remember the name of the show, who travels the world eating very local, but at times very weird, food. I know his last name is Zimmern.