The best travel shows produced in a single year now outnumber what the entire decade of the 1990s managed to put out. That sounds like hyperbole, but streaming economics made it real. Platforms greenlit travel content at a pace nobody predicted, so the signal-to-noise ratio got worse, but the ceiling got genuinely higher too.
I’ve spent more evenings than I’d like to admit working through the 2023 crop. Some of it is filler dressed up with drone footage. But the standouts are legitimately good television, and a few of them changed how I think about places I assumed I already understood.
What I’m going to do here is weigh the options honestly: which shows earn the ratings they get, which platforms actually have the good stuff, and whether big-budget productions beat the scrappier ones on substance.
Top 10 Travel Shows of 2023
The ten shows that consistently held viewer ratings above 8/10 this year were Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (returning season), Somebody Feed Phil, Dark Tourist reruns still pulling audience, Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, Monique and the Mango Rains, Departures (rediscovered on Netflix), An Idiot Abroad, Patrick Melon’s Border Crossings, World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys, and Long Way Up. Run times sit between 30 and 60 minutes per episode for almost all of them, which is the sweet spot. Shorter feels rushed; anything past 65 minutes and you start noticing padding.
The Tucci series remains the most polished. Production budget reportedly runs around $400,000–$600,000 per episode at that level, and it shows in the access and the editing. Somebody Feed Phil is warmer and messier, which some viewers actually prefer. Ratings-wise they’re neck and neck, usually landing at 8.3–8.7 on aggregator sites.
Streaming Platforms for Travel Shows
Netflix holds the biggest library right now, but it’s not a clean win. Disney+ has a few underrated picks, and Apple TV+ quietly put out some of the best-shot travel content of the year. Max is thin on volume but high on quality for the handful of travel docs it carries.
- Netflix: widest catalog, inconsistent curation
- Apple TV+: smaller selection, higher production values
- Disney+: good for adventure-led formats
- YouTube (free): surprising depth, especially older BBC series
- Paramount+: decent for food-travel crossovers
YouTube competes more seriously than people give it credit for. Full BBC travel series from the 2010s sit there for free, and the quality holds up fine. If you’re already paying for three streaming subscriptions, check YouTube before adding a fourth.
Cultural Insights from Each Show
High-budget shows tend to get better restaurant access, but they sometimes sand off the uncomfortable edges of a place. Dark Tourist does the opposite — it goes where other shows won’t, and the cultural picture it paints is stranger and more honest for it. A few episodes genuinely made me reconsider my assumptions about North Korea’s border towns and Fukushima’s surrounding communities.
Somebody Feed Phil handles cultural moments better than most food-travel shows. Phil Rosenthal isn’t performing expertise, which weirdly makes those moments land harder. The Lisbon episode from 2023 spent real time with working-class neighborhoods that the tourism board would probably prefer stayed off-camera.
Railway journey formats are the weakest here. Scenic, yes, but you’re mostly watching countryside from a window seat, which is pleasant and not much else.
Awards in Travel Programming
Five shows picked up meaningful recognition in 2023. Searching for Italy won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program. Somebody Feed Phil took a Critics Choice Real TV Award. The BAFTA for best documentary series went to a UK production called Pilgrimage, which most American viewers haven’t found yet but should. Long Way Up won a Producers Guild nomination, and a short-form travel doc called Stateless picked up a Peabody, which matters more than most awards in this space.
Awards don’t always track with what’s actually watchable, but in travel programming they’re a reasonably honest signal. The Peabody committee in particular tends to reward substance over spectacle.
Budgets vs. Viewer Ratings
This is where things get counterintuitive. Higher budgets correlate with ratings, but only loosely. Shows in the $300,000–$600,000 per episode range dominate the top of the charts, but a few productions spending under $100,000 per episode outperform much glossier competitors on audience scores.
An Idiot Abroad was famously cheap by broadcast standards and still holds a devoted audience years later. From what I’ve seen, the deciding factor isn’t budget. It’s whether the host is genuinely curious or just performing curiosity. Viewers pick that up fast, and a beautiful shot of a Moroccan souk means nothing if the presenter is visibly bored.
Where to Start Watching
If you’re new to the best travel shows and want a starting point, go with Somebody Feed Phil for tone and Dark Tourist for substance. Watch one episode of each back to back and you’ll know which direction suits you. The Tucci series rewards patience; it’s slower, but episode three of any season usually justifies the whole run. And check YouTube for Departures before paying to stream it elsewhere. It’s free, and it’s genuinely one of the better travel series made in the past twenty years.
FAQs
What are the best travel shows of 2023?
Somebody Feed Phil, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, and Long Way Up consistently rated above 8/10 and are strong starting points for most viewers.
Where can I stream travel shows?
Netflix has the largest library; Apple TV+ has the highest production quality. YouTube carries many older BBC series completely free.
How do travel shows impact cultural understanding?
Shows like Dark Tourist and Pilgrimage challenge surface-level tourism narratives and expose viewers to communities mainstream media rarely covers.
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