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 knowledgeable ladies’s rugby workforce.
These adventures signify 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 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 study extra concerning the upcoming season of her present and to assemble ideas that may make our personal travels extra accountable and rewarding.
The pattern towards sustainable tourism
“If you consider sustainability, there’s all the time numerous time and area given to nature and animals, however there’s additionally this human storytelling part to it,” Brown informed TPG. “Sustainability is such an enormous time period, and we attempt to outline it within the collection 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 concerning 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 all the time try 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 discovered about canine sledding from a third-generation musher and 2023 Iditarod champion, and so they 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, generally hundreds, of years and patronizing companies owned by those self same folks, Brown can current an genuine expertise that advantages viewers in search of 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 achieved the be just right for you so that you could have the identical great experiences that you just see on the present.”
Even when you aren’t visiting one of many many locations featured in “Samantha Brown’s Locations to Love,” you may nonetheless incorporate these sustainable tourism practices into your personal travels. How? By being aware of your bodily and cultural footprint if you go to a spot and looking for out experiences that permit you to 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,” in response to Brown. “Inhabiting their areas whereas additionally recognizing that these are their areas can naturally carry you into extra sustainable journey practices,” she added.
Tourism can — and may — help 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 de facto concerning the folks.
“Journey is that this lovely 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 looking for out genuine, numerous experiences, and it is one thing all of us can do after we journey. Slightly than sticking to a jam-packed itinerary the place you hop from museum to museum (or spend all day posing for pictures in entrance of Instagram-famous sizzling spots), depart room in your schedule for exploration, discovery and, finally, connection.
If you go to an area enterprise, museum or attraction, strike up a dialog with the proprietor, a tour information or an area resident. Not solely can they steer you towards one of the best cup of espresso on the town, however they’ll additionally enable you achieve a deeper understanding of the world’s historical past and traditions.
“In journey, we naturally open ourselves as much as different folks rather more than we do in our day by day lives,” Brown mentioned. “We’ve got extra alternatives for these nice interactions with folks.”
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Enriching journey experiences on a finances
Brown can be a agency believer that journey is for everyone.
“When you make it about folks, you do not have to spend some huge cash to have these experiences,” she mentioned.
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The simplest approach to journey on a finances is by trying inside your personal dwelling state. You will not want costly aircraft tickets as a result of all the pieces is driveable.
“I traveled loads when my children had been infants, and we simply stored it easy by visiting locations that had been a few hours from our dwelling,” Brown mentioned.
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She recommends contemplating your own home as a “hub” and the potential locations one to 2 hours from your own home because the “spokes.” Your spokes stands out as the mountains, a lake, a cute small city or a nationwide park.
“Even when you do not go far, it is a recent begin,” she mentioned.
When you select an reasonably priced lodge and free or cheap experiences, you may preserve the finances manageable. For instance, nationwide parks typically provide free ranger-led applications that train you extra concerning the native natural world and historical past of the world 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 might discover it has a singular historical past you can study extra about throughout your go to.
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Backside line
“We journey as a result of we need to belong,” Brown mentioned. By her present, Brown encourages vacationers to “get away from pondering of themselves as a client and extra of only a individual wanting to speak with the world and see themselves in it.” This manner, we will have these extra significant, enriching journey experiences.
If you’re in search of some travel-planning inspiration, you may watch the primary episode of the seventh season of “Samantha Brown’s Locations to Love” now on PBS. New episodes — which is able to embrace visits to Canada, Israel, New Hampshire and Oregon, amongst different locations — are launched weekly.
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