Lately when I want to chill out, or to have pleasant background material, I’ve been watching some HGTV shows that focus on house hunting and little slices of life in beautiful places. Caribbean life, Mediterranean life, Hawaii life, etc. I’m not especially interested in house hunting shows, but it’s fun to daydream about having a nice house in a beautiful place. They’re also totally devoid of the fake drama you see on some of the other HGTV shows, and show a little bit of the life/culture/activities of the places too. Pleasant watching.
So I figured there must be travel shows that would scratch that daydreaming fantasy itch. Showing me beautiful vacation spots, the different sorts of activities you can do when you travel, etc, right? I figured hey - I bet that’s the bread and butter of the travel channel. No, it turns out the travel channel suffered as much decay as the history channel. It’s almost all ghost hunters/paranormal bullshit. I was actually kind of shocked.
Hulu recommended to me that I might like a show from the travel channel called Honeymoon Hunters. I watched it. And yeah, that’s exactly the sort of thing I’d like to see. The premise was that couples would choose between 3 different honeymoon vacation packages, all costing $5000. One was a jungle resort in Costa Rica, another was 3 nights in a swanky hotel penthouse in Miami, another renting out a house for a week on St. John. I could dig a vacation fantasy show like that. So, of course, it was a one episode series, a pilot that never got picked up. Why the hell would you even bother to put that on Hulu? Just to annoy people who would’ve liked it. Bah.
So that’s kind of what I’m looking for. Travel/vacation fantasy. I’m willing to try shows that are more serious/less fluff, that do a deeper dig into the culture or history of an area, but mostly I just want something light and pleasant to watch which might actually lead to a future vacation because I was so enamored by it. I know there are a lot of travel/food combination shows, and I’m open to them, but I’d prefer there be a good balance between the travel elements and the other stuff. I’m not that interested in what would be primarily a cooking show. I definitely tend to prefer things that focus on natural beauty over cities, but I’ll be open minded.
I’ve got all the streaming services and I’m pretty good at digging up old stuff one way or the other, so feel free to mention anything currently available on tv, streaming, or even stuff from the past that’s not on anymore. Edit: I forgot to mention that youtube/internet based shows are fine too as long as they fit the bill and they’re good.