If you’ve been following my blog for a while you know that my go-to travel host is chef Anthony Bourdain. I like the way he traveled – looking for experiences and not being a traditional tourist. I travel much like he does.

I mentioned Rick Steves a few posts back. I do think he’s a good host and has great travel advice for budget travel and for your first trip to another country. For me, he was a good starting point to go to Europe but many tips can be used anywhere.

I also like Stanley Tucci as a foodie traveler quite a bit as well; his “Searching for Italy” series was really good and was watched by a lot of people. It was not renewed for some reason, but he has another travel show that is supposed to be similar coming out soon. I am looking forward to that series too.

Samantha Brown is okay but not really my style of travel. She is a good host if that’s your style of travel. She does go to some interesting places and her latest series “Samantha Brown’s Places to Love”. One episode on New Hampshire that made me want to go there and gave me ideas for my Final Three Adventure when I can get to Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire to finish bagging my last three of the 50 states.

Other than a few regional shows on local travel, I don’t watch many other travel hosts. There was promise and I was looking forward to it – a new local travel show on PBS just started airing. However, I don’t really like it.

It’s too bad because it’s a great concept; it’s just the execution of it lacks. I am not very keen on the hosts – it’s mainly due to the phoniness of their excitement over things that are, well, just not exciting and amateurish. It is a new show so I am hoping the bumps get smoother and it gets better.

I just caught a new travel show by travel host Joseph Rosendo. It’s called “Joseph Rosendo’s Steppin’ Out”.

Just so happens this episode was in Ireland, boating from Northern Ireland to the southern part of Republic of Ireland.

Joseph Rosendo has had another series on PBS called “Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope”. I started watching it after I discovered it by chance. This show is pretty good and he goes deep in the places he visits.

He tends to get up close and personal with the places he visits. He’s up dancing and singing with tribes, he gets hands on with things like cooking and operating a boat. He’s a likable, friendly and curious guy trying to learn and educate his viewers.

I found his new series is very similar to his previous one, but I have only seen the one episode. However, I think he goes a little deeper in this new series. He closed out this episode saying he wants to inspire people to “not check off the boxes” on tourist sites.

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So there’s a few travel program recommendations to check out. Thanks for reading my blog.

Shawn