The Best Travel Shows Streaming in 2025

The best travel shows transport you to places you may never visit while revealing the cultures, foods, and human connections that make travel meaningful. Streaming platforms have assembled an impressive library of travel content that ranges from culinary adventures to cultural deep dives to pure visual escapism. These shows deliver genuine wanderlust.

How We Selected: We analyzed options using full-season viewing, critical analysis, and production quality assessment. Evaluation criteria included pacing consistency, acting performances, thematic depth, narrative quality. None of our selections were paid placements or sponsored content.

Parts Unknown (Max)

Anthony Bourdain’s groundbreaking series remains the gold standard for travel television. Bourdain traveled to destinations from Iran to Antarctica, using food as a vehicle for understanding culture, politics, and the human condition. His writing was literary, his curiosity genuine, and his refusal to talk down to either his subjects or his audience made every episode feel like a conversation with the most interesting person at the dinner table. Twelve seasons cover nearly every corner of the world, and each episode rewards rewatching. The show’s emotional depth extends beyond travel into genuine journalism and storytelling.

Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix)

Phil Rosenthal, creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, brings boundless enthusiasm and genuine warmth to a food-travel format that prioritizes joy above all else. Where Bourdain explored the world with intellectual curiosity and occasional darkness, Rosenthal approaches every destination with the wide-eyed delight of someone who cannot believe his luck. His interactions with locals are genuinely sweet, his phone calls with his parents are hilarious, and the food he discovers always looks incredible. The show proves that sincerity and enthusiasm are underrated qualities in travel television.

The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals (Netflix)

This lighter travel series follows hosts exploring extraordinary properties around the world, from treehouses to underwater hotels to castles. The show works as aspirational entertainment and practical inspiration, showing accommodations that range from outrageously expensive to surprisingly affordable. While less culturally substantive than food-focused travel shows, it provides pure visual escapism that feeds the daydream of planning the perfect trip.

Race Across the World (BBC / Various)

This British competition series challenges teams to travel between two distant locations without flying, using only a limited budget. The format creates natural drama as teams navigate public transportation, language barriers, and unexpected complications. The show captures the real experience of budget travel, with its mixture of frustration, discovery, and the connections formed with strangers along the way. The lack of air travel forces participants into ground-level encounters with the places they pass through.

Down to Earth with Zac Efron (Netflix)

Zac Efron travels with wellness expert Darin Olien to explore sustainable living practices around the world. The show visits communities practicing innovative approaches to food, energy, water, and housing. Efron is a surprisingly engaging and humble host, genuinely interested in learning from the experts he meets rather than performing tourism. The environmental focus gives the travel format purpose beyond pure entertainment.

Street Food (Netflix)

From the same production team behind Chef’s Table, Street Food profiles vendors and markets across Asia and Latin America, telling the personal stories behind the dishes that feed millions of people daily. Each episode focuses on a different city and vendor, revealing how street food traditions connect to family heritage, economic survival, and cultural identity. The production values match any prestige food show, and the human stories behind humble food stalls are consistently moving.

Dark Tourist (Netflix)

David Farrier visits destinations associated with death, disaster, and the macabre, from nuclear tourism in Fukushima to narco tourism in Colombia to haunted locations across the Americas. The show explores why people are drawn to dark and dangerous destinations, and Farrier’s deadpan New Zealand humor provides a counterbalance to the frequently unsettling subject matter. It is the rare travel show that goes where others deliberately do not.

Departures (Amazon Prime Video)

Two Canadian friends travel the world for three seasons of this visually stunning series that combines adventure travel with genuine emotional storytelling. The cinematography is exceptional for a travel show, with sweeping landscape shots and intimate character moments that rival narrative filmmaking. The hosts’ friendship provides an emotional throughline that makes the show feel more personal than typical travel content.

Building Your Travel Watchlist

For food-focused cultural exploration, Parts Unknown and Somebody Feed Phil are essential. For pure escapism and aspirational daydreaming, The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals delivers. For the reality of budget travel, Race Across the World is unmatched. And for travel with purpose, Down to Earth and Street Food show how the journey can be about more than the destination.

For more recommendations, check out our guides to the best cooking shows streaming and the best documentaries streaming in 2025.