The Six Best Travel Series to Binge on Netflix
19 March, 2020
Your
thumb is aching from scrolling through Instagram, you’ve
read that stack of magazines and you’ve worked as much Marie-Kondo
magic on your wardrobe as possible. Perhaps it’s time for a spot of
Netflix? Throw on those joggers and settle in for some
couch-surfing: these are our go-to series when we’ve got itchy
feet.
Stream these travel shows now
Tales by Light
If you want to know what goes into a brilliant travel photo,
watch this series. Follow a handful of photographers from North
America and
Australia on their assignments across the world – including
documenting ancient Aboriginal rock sites outside
Victoria and close-ups with anacondas in Brazil. It’s produced
by National Geographic, so you can expect on-the-money information
and epic vistas.
The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes
By extraordinary, they mean showy. In each episode, hosts Piers
Taylor and Caroline Quentin hone in on one exceptionally grandiose
pad. The analysis offered is probably a little light for
architecture buffs, but the buildings featured are always closely
tied to their destinations and utterly swoon-worthy. There are 12
hours to consume – a day’s content for serious bingers.
Our Planet
This Netflix own-brand take on Planet Earth is produced by Keith
Scholey (the brains behind the seminal BBC program), narrated by
David Attenborough and covers similar ground. The real
difference is the focus on humanity’s environmental impact.
Episodes cover ecological issues with a global scope, be it the
depletion of rainforests or lack of access to clean drinking
water.
Street Food
If your cupboards are looking a little depleted, it might not be
a good idea to watch this show. You’ll work up an appetite in no
time as you dip into these half-hour episodes which each focus on a
different destination – most are in southeast Asia – and its
respective street vendors. Thought snails were exclusively a French
delicacy? The Ho Chi Minh City episode says otherwise.
Dark Tourist
Why are we all so obsessed with sites of death and tragedy? How
can we justify our obsession with the macabre? Do we even need to?
Dark Tourist aims to answer these questions and more. Over the
course of eight, 40-minute episodes, journalist David Farrier
observes the ritual cleaning of a mummified corpse in Indonesia,
visits a voodoo festival in Benin and explores a host of haunted
nuclear sites in the ‘stans. It’s voyeurism at it’s best, one of
those things that leaves you slack-jawed.
Moving Art
Not kinetic art, like an Alexander Calder mobile, but moving art
as in waterfalls and other natural phenomena. It’s the dreamy
camerawork of filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg. He paints an epic
picture of North America in series one – its rust-coloured deserts,
looming forests and wild coasts – while the following two see him
venture further afield.
