Samantha Brown, the superhero of travel, ready with tips, tricks, and her picks...for great destinations around the world. I remember watching her Passport to series along with Best Beaches and Great Hotels when I was younger, and I now that I think about it, that may have been the little travel seed that got planted in my heart so many moons ago. I find her to be down-to-Earth and kind on screen, seeming to make real, genuine connections with people and she has a bit of an infectious personality and warm spirit. While taking the time to research more about her, I only came to admire her more. Her travel philosophy is wonderful and something I hope to aspire to be/do as a traveler, and hopeful travel host myself.
I absolutely love the story of how she landed (pun intended, unintentionally!) the hosting job that would set her whole career in motion. I debated giving you guys some work to do by linking to her website where you can read it for yourselves, but I like you all so I decided against it (you're welcome), plus this just seems like a fun story to have the opportunity to tell! Loving the theatre and stage so much as she was growing up; she graduated with a bachelor degree in fine arts and moved to NYC, as one does, to pursue an acting career. Years were spent waiting tables while performing in small gigs and off Broadway productions without getting that big break she needed. Pretty typical so far right? So then a producer spots her in a commercial, one of her small gigs, and thinks, "I need to recommend this woman for the Travel Channel's new show, Great Vacation Homes." At least, her chance to shine had come. But this is where it gets good. In a twist befitting a soon-to-be travel host, she missed her connecting flight due to a delay on her initial flight! Oh the woes of a traveler, novice or road-weary they can happen to anybody, which Travel Channel understood, thankfully, and set her up with another audition date. This date comes around and she sprints to the gate of her connecting flight, having missed it due to another delay on her first flight. What does she do? Call and have them reschedule again, possibly costing her the part? give up on it anyway? Try to find another flight? NOPE. None of the above. This woman runs onto the tarmac, getting stopped by the dispatcher who refuses to let her board, stating that only the pilot can overturn his decision. Well, she's come this far, so she runs to the nose of them plane, looking up at the pilot arms outstretched and what I imagine was the most distraught and hopeful "PLEASE" of her whole life. I assume it worked, since she has been a gravel host now for 17 years, man what a way to just go for your dream. But can you picture doing something like that nowadays? No way she would have even gotten on to the tarmac, let alone in front of the plane! Crazy how times change.
Taking that zest and applying it to her approach to travel is her specialty, which is clearly shown in the series Samantha Brown's Places to Love" which she been producing and starring in since 2018 on PBS. She thoroughly enjoys focusing on the people and their culture and revels in having the privilege to spend time with them in their everyday lives. This passion is the centerpiece of the aforementioned series, showcasing what she calls the "emotional heart of travel." PBS states that "...each episode viewers will have a well curated list of experiences that focus on not just how to visit a destination, but how to belong to it." And it must be working, Places to Love has earned the nomination for 3 daytime Emmys in the categories of Outstanding Travel/Adventure Program, Outstanding Directing in a Lifestyle Program, and Outstanding Host in a Lifestyle Program; taking home the awards for the first and the last categories.
But she doesn't just excel in these big productions, she also shines in small segments as well. Brown is just so darn charismatic and a joy to listen to and her advice so useful, that I found myself quite enjoying a short video I stumbled onto about how to pack a hard-sided carry on bag. This kind of got me thinking about using hard-sided luggage when I get tired of back-packing it, which before seemed bulky and out of the question. It also has me rethinking my dislike of packing cubes, maybe they're just not right for backpacks but work well for other types of luggage. Appearing in short videos for Disney, appearances on QVC, talk shows,The Price is Right and so on it seems like if people want to talk travel, they talk to Samantha Brown! I mean, she seems so personable and genuine in her shows and in these small segments and I think that's just part of her charm.
I struggle with embracing the mishaps and the uh-oh moments in my everyday life, let alone when I'm on the road, but Samantha Brown just takes it all in stride. Stating that what she loves most about traveling is "feeling like a fish out of water..." eagerly accepting "the challenge of seeing where I fit in and how I can make a connection with people who are completely different than me." Brown also states that she loves how accessible travel is becoming and how content creators from YouTube to Instagram, blogs and traditional TV are showing that you don't need a million kajillion dollars or an abundance of free time to travel. You can make it work on almost any budget with different time frames, depending on where you want to go. So many blogs have lists like "10 things to do on a weekend trip in Spain," "How to Spend your Layover in Seoul," "1 Month in India, "2 weeks in Romania," "How I Backpacked around Thailand for x Amount of Money" etc. The downfall here is when these creators choose to only share the perfect things, she says, posed in the perfect way. But that's the thing, "travel is imperfect, travel is messy"
Sources:
Image from her Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RealSamanthaBrown/
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