TV host Samantha Brown shares top travel tips and trends ahead of 7th season of 'Places to Love'

05.01.2024 - 14:27 / thepointsguy.com / Samantha Brown

During her time as host of "Samantha Brown's Places to Love," Emmy-winning travel host Samantha Brown has sampled cheese and chocolate in Vienna, visited a turtle hospital in the Florida Keys and played rugby in Auckland, New Zealand, with a professional women's rugby team.

These adventures represent only a handful of Brown's experiences in the 74 countries (and counting) she has visited over the past 20 years. Out now on PBS, the Season Seven premiere of Brown's show finds her in Darwin, Australia, where she receives a traditional Indigneous Australian welcome and visits the Mindil Beach Sunset Market for local eats and entertainment.

Through it all, Brown has remained steadfastly committed to highlighting the people who make a destination what it is while honoring their land, culture and traditions.

TPG spoke with Brown to learn more about the upcoming season of her show and to gather tips that can make our own travels more responsible and rewarding.

"When you think of sustainability, there is always a lot of time and space given to nature and animals, but there is also this human storytelling component to it," Brown told TPG. "Sustainability is such a huge term, and we try to define it in the series in its entire scope because sustainability can mean protecting the water, the mountain air and the animals, but we rarely talk about the sustainability of human beings and their stories."

When visiting new destinations for the show, Brown and her team demonstrate sustainable — or responsible — tourism by carefully choosing the right people to tell each story and considering how those people benefit from tourism.

"Our tourism dollars can make a huge change in places, for better or worse, so we always strive to do it for the better," she said.

Related: Where to go in 2024: The 16 best places to travel

For example, Brown and her family visited Juneau, Alaska, in Season Six. They learned about dog sledding from a third-generation musher and 2023 Iditarod champion, and they gained insight into the native Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of southeast Alaska at Sealaska Heritage. By focusing on the people who have been a part of that land for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years and patronizing businesses owned by those same people, Brown can present an authentic experience that benefits viewers looking for travel inspiration and the local community.

"We pride ourselves with this show that we don't do anything that a normal traveler can't experience," Brown said. "We've already done the work for you so that you can have the same wonderful experiences that you see on the show."

Even if you aren't visiting one of the many destinations featured in "Samantha Brown's Places to Love," you can still