Traveling This Year? Read, Watch and Listen to These First

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average amount of paid vacation days a full-time employee in the US receives after five years of service is approximately 12 days. By contrast, countries in the European Union are required by law to give employees at least four working weeks of paid vacation. Our point? If you live in the US, good luck trying to check off all the destinations on our yearly adventure list. But to compensate for the bleak outlook of the US’s PTO, our media channels produce an endless stream of magazines, shows, films and podcasts to quench your thirst for travel and adventure. Whether a resource for your next journey or a source of vicarious globetrotting, here are 16 of our favorites.

Magazines

---

Exploring Through Print

---

Condé Nast Traveler

Since it was founded in 1987, Condé Nast Traveler has won numerous National Magazine Awards and has solidified itself as one of the leading voices of luxury travel. Their yearly Reader’s Choice awards and various essays and guides have become a go-to for travelers around the globe.

Boat Magazine

Rather than trying to cover as much ground as they can, the staff at Boat Magazine fixates on one city for each of their print editions. The team puts down stakes and works with locals to get honest, thoughtful and novel stories. Some of the issues so far have covered Detroit, Kyoto, Reykjavik and most recently Tel Aviv.

Afar

Afar has only been around since 2009, but it’s already become a leading voice in experiential travel journalism. How did they do it? Ace storytelling with innovative page layout and breathtaking photographs.

Sidetracked

Sidetracked is a magazine that skips the resorts and restaurants in favor of adventuring to far off land and doing unexpected things, like dogsledding in Greenland or high-lining in the cloud forests of Mexico. Each issue is ripe with stunning imagery and personal essays.

Holiday

Holiday was one of the earliest magazines to dabble in experiential travel when it launched in 1946, but then it went defunct in 1977. In 2014, Parisian art studio Atelier Franck Durand relaunched Holiday with more of a focus on fashion, but the magazine’s ethos is still rooted in sending writers to report on various places from their own perspectives.

The Collective Quarterly

Like Boat Magazine, The Collective Quarterly journeys to one different location per issue. While there, the crew covers the offbeat people and places that give the region its unique character.

Gear Patrol Magazine

For our first foray into print, our staff travelled around the US — into New York City, the Pacific Northwest, Lake Superior and Wyoming — and the world — Chile, Norway and Canada — to bring you original reporting, helpful travel guides and all the gear to make your next trip happen in style.

The Best Travel Guidebooks for Every Journey

Travel Guidebooks are generally predictable and bland — here instead are eight that instead offer up more exciting and nuanced adventures. Read the Guide

TV Shows and Films

---

Watch Where You’re Going

---

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Big-ticket cable travel shows run the risk of showing a watered-down or inaccurately rosy view of a place, but Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown seeks to tell lesser-known stories and find obscure attractions in cities and regions across the globe, warts and all.

Long Way Round

Actor Ewan McGregor and TV personality Charley Boorman embark on a 19,000-mile motorcycle journey from London to New York City by way of Europe, Asia, Canada and eventually the US, stopping to see the sights along the way.

Departures

Two friends, Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach, decided to become nomads for a year and traverse the globe. What ensues is 48 hours of fantastic cinematography and a show that portrays the emotional highs and lows of adventure travel.

An Idiot Abroad

Comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant surprise their friend — closed-minded English radio producer Karl Pilkington — with a trip around the world. While many travel shows like to take themselves seriously, An Idiot Abroad is full of hilarious moments and insights about leaving one’s comfort zone.

180 Degrees South

After discovering footage of Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins’ 1968 journey from California to Patagonia, Jeff Johnson loosely recreates the journey by traveling by ship from Mexico to Patagonia, exploring the west coast of Chile along the way.

Encounters at the End of the World

Werner Herzog ventures to the vast, beautiful and enigmatic continent that is Antarctica to interview the people who live and work there.

Podcasts

---

Listen Up

---

Extra Pack of Peanuts

Frequent and far-off travel shouldn’t have to cost thousands, at least according to the people behind Extra Pack of Peanuts, one of the highest-rated travel podcasts on iTunes that shows listeners all the tricks of cheap travel.

Zero to Travel

Host Jason Moore both gives listeners actionable travel advice as well as interviews with various inspiring travelers, explorers and nomads.

Amateur Traveler

Chris Christensen was recognized as “The Best Independent Travel Journalist” in 2014 by Travel + Liesure for his work on Amateur Traveler, a detailed resource of hundreds of destinations for those new to globetrotting.

Related Topics