TV host Samantha Brown shares high journey ideas and developments forward of seventh season of ‘Locations to Love’
Throughout her time as host of “Samantha Brown’s Locations to Love,” Emmy-winning journey host Samantha Brown has sampled cheese and chocolate in Vienna, visited a turtle hospital within the Florida Keys and performed rugby in Auckland, New Zealand, with an expert girls’s rugby workforce.
These adventures characterize solely a handful of Brown’s experiences within the 74 international locations (and counting) she has visited over the previous 20 years. Out now on PBS, the Season Seven premiere of Brown’s present finds her in Darwin, Australia, the place she receives a conventional Indigneous Australian welcome and visits the Mindil Seaside Sundown Marketplace for native eats and leisure.
By means of all of it, Brown has remained steadfastly dedicated to highlighting the individuals who make a vacation spot what it’s whereas honoring their land, tradition and traditions.
TPG spoke with Brown to be taught extra in regards to the upcoming season of her present and to collect ideas that may make our personal travels extra accountable and rewarding.
The pattern towards sustainable tourism
“Once you consider sustainability, there’s at all times loads of time and area given to nature and animals, however there’s additionally this human storytelling element to it,” Brown informed TPG. “Sustainability is such an enormous time period, and we attempt to outline it within the sequence in its complete scope as a result of sustainability can imply defending the water, the mountain air and the animals, however we not often discuss in regards to the sustainability of human beings and their tales.”
When visiting new locations for the present, Brown and her workforce reveal sustainable — or accountable — tourism by rigorously selecting the best folks to inform every story and contemplating how these folks profit from tourism.
“Our tourism {dollars} could make an enormous change in locations, for higher or worse, so we at all times attempt to do it for the higher,” she mentioned.
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For instance, Brown and her household visited Juneau, Alaska, in Season Six. They realized about canine sledding from a third-generation musher and 2023 Iditarod champion, they usually gained perception into the native Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of southeast Alaska at Sealaska Heritage. By specializing in the individuals who have been part of that land for tons of, typically 1000’s, of years and patronizing companies owned by those self same folks, Brown can current an genuine expertise that advantages viewers on the lookout for journey inspiration and the local people.
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“We delight ourselves with this present that we do not do something {that a} regular traveler cannot expertise,” Brown mentioned. “We have already finished the be just right for you so as to have the identical great experiences that you simply see on the present.”
Even for those who aren’t visiting one of many many locations featured in “Samantha Brown’s Locations to Love,” you’ll be able to nonetheless incorporate these sustainable tourism practices into your individual travels. How? By being conscious of your bodily and cultural footprint if you go to a spot and in search of out experiences that can help you join with a spot and its folks on a private stage.
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This might be so simple as “going the place the locals go,” based on Brown. “Inhabiting their areas whereas additionally recognizing that these are their areas can naturally convey you into extra sustainable journey practices,” she added.
Tourism can — and may — assist the folks sharing their tradition and traditions with you. Discovering companies and actions that honor this tenet will take some work in your half forward of your journey, however planning could be a part of the enjoyable.
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Journey is about connection
For Brown, journey is absolutely in regards to the folks.
“Journey is that this stunning factor that provides us the chance to attach with different human beings and perceive each other,” she mentioned.
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This notion goes hand in hand with in search of out genuine, various experiences, and it is one thing all of us can do once we journey. Somewhat than sticking to a jam-packed itinerary the place you hop from museum to museum (or spend all day posing for photographs in entrance of Instagram-famous sizzling spots), depart room in your schedule for exploration, discovery and, finally, connection.
Once you go to a neighborhood enterprise, museum or attraction, strike up a dialog with the proprietor, a tour information or a neighborhood resident. Not solely can they steer you towards the most effective cup of espresso on the town, however they will additionally enable you achieve a deeper understanding of the realm’s historical past and traditions.
“In journey, we naturally open ourselves as much as different folks way more than we do in our day by day lives,” Brown mentioned. “We now have extra alternatives for these nice interactions with folks.”
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Enriching journey experiences on a funds
Brown can also be a agency believer that journey is for everyone.
“For those who make it about folks, you do not have to spend some huge cash to have these experiences,” she mentioned.
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The best approach to journey on a funds is by wanting inside your individual residence state. You will not want costly aircraft tickets as a result of every part is driveable.
“I traveled loads when my youngsters had been infants, and we simply stored it easy by visiting locations that had been a few hours from our residence,” Brown mentioned.
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She recommends contemplating your house as a “hub” and the potential locations one to 2 hours from your house because the “spokes.” Your spokes often is the mountains, a lake, a cute small city or a nationwide park.
“Even for those who do not go far, it is a contemporary begin,” she mentioned.
For those who select an reasonably priced lodge and free or cheap experiences, you’ll be able to preserve the funds manageable. For instance, nationwide parks usually provide free ranger-led packages that educate you extra in regards to the native natural world and historical past of the realm you are visiting.
Do you have to resolve to go to a brand new city, analysis the city’s historical past earlier than your arrival. You could discover it has a singular historical past that you may be taught extra about throughout your go to.
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Backside line
“We journey as a result of we wish to belong,” Brown mentioned. By means of her present, Brown encourages vacationers to “get away from pondering of themselves as a shopper and extra of only a particular person wanting to speak with the world and see themselves in it.” This fashion, we will have these extra significant, enriching journey experiences.
In case you are on the lookout for some travel-planning inspiration, you’ll be able to watch the primary episode of the seventh season of “Samantha Brown’s Locations to Love” now on PBS. New episodes — which can embody visits to Canada, Israel, New Hampshire and Oregon, amongst different locations — are launched weekly.
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