When it comes to travel videos I like to watch on YouTube, I may be a little strange in that I never really like those travel videos that sensationalize and overdramatize places in a way that makes them feel too unreal and inauthentic.
I don't wanna name names, but the truth about travel is that not all trips you are going to take are going to be "life-changing" experiences as they seem in these videos.
Overly enthusiastic personalities that we often see in travel videos with clickbaity titles may be enjoyable when you are only starting out, but after a while, you will realize just how far from the truth it really was.
We all know that these people are not THAT happy all the time. I mean, all the dramatic gestures and, my god, all those fake smiles, get really tiring after a while. I don't know, maybe I am getting old or I am just jaded as hell.
That said, thanks to the power of the Internet, there is always interesting content for everyone. Within this post, you will find a complete list of the 10 best travel YouTube channels that I think you should subscribe to if you prefer watching travel channels that feel more grounded, yet fun to watch. You might end up learning a thing or two from them.
On this list, you will find a variety of travel vloggers and creators in all kinds of niches, from landscape photography to street food. What you won't find here are those travel channels that overdramatize, as I described earlier. Without further ado, let's take a look at the first travel channel you should subscribe to on the list:
1. Currently Hannah
Photos by Currently Hannah
Currently Hannah is presently (get it? 😅) one of my new favorite travel channels at the moment, and I only discovered the channel in early 2021, thanks to the all-powerful YouTube algorithm.
Hannah, an Australian travel vlogger currently living and working in Japan, regularly uploads videos about Japan and her experiences traveling the country. Her videos range from a fun road trip video with friends to an almost therapeutic solo hiking video that often takes you to some of the most uncharted hiking trails in the Japanese Alps.
And if you have been to Japan before, you know that there is a ton of content to be made there, from all the beautiful places to see, to the more bizarre things that you can only experience in Japan.
Photos by Currently Hannah
One of my favorite travel videos from her channel is the "I Rented a Camper Van To Roadtrip Around Mt Fuji - Shizuoka, Japan" video that follows a group of friends traveling around Mt. Fuji and Shizuoka Prefecture in a campervan.
That road trip video reminded me so much of my time road-tripping around Mt. Aso and Kumamoto back in the days with a group of friends. It brought back so many great memories! If you are looking for a travel channel that focuses on solo hiking and the experience of traveling in Japan, you are going to love Currently Hannah.
2. Thomas Heaton
Photos by Thomas Heaton
Thomas Heaton is another one of my favorite travel/photography YouTube Channels that I highly recommend you subscribe to, especially if you are into photography or if you are looking to learn how to take epic landscape photographs while traveling.
Thomas Heaton is an awesome landscape photographer who really enjoys the art of traveling to remote places, camping out in the wilderness, and capturing that one perfect picture of a mountain or a landscape at the perfect time. And he is amazing at it.
You can really feel just how much he loves his craft from watching his videos as he slowly travels around the world from one place to another, waiting for the right moment to capture the money shot, all the while telling us his process that we can learn from to improve ourselves, which is something you don't get very often in a travel video.
Photos by Thomas Heaton
One of my favorite series of travel videos from Thomas Heaton is a series of videos he made during this photography workshop in Nepal called Hiking & Photography in Nepal | Everest Basecamp & Gokyo Trek. He tackled the Everest Base Camp trail looking for places to take photos of the mighty Himalayan mountains, which reminded me of my time doing the same in 2018.
This series was both nostalgic and surprisingly emotional for me to watch, and you can really see just how tough the terrains are up there. If you enjoy watching people hiking and camping in remote places and want to learn a bit more about landscape photography, you won't regret subscribing to Thomas's channel.
3. Hey Nadine
Photos by Hey Nadine
Hey Nadine was probably one of the first travel vloggers to whom I ever subscribed, way back in 2013 when I was starting out as a traveler. I am not going to lie, her travel videos really played a role in inspiring me to travel the world solo, and I couldn't thank her enough.
I consider Hey Nadine to be the OG travel vlogger of YouTube, as she has been making all kinds of travel videos since 2011. I remember watching her "LOST in the OUTBACK // Uluru, Australia" video while researching places to visit in Australia way back in 2014. As a result of her video, I ended up traveling to Uluru.
Nadine truly channels her energy and enthusiasm towards this beautiful world of ours through her travel videos that are both entertaining and informative. The video highlights not only how awesome the place she visited is, but also her personality, which feels more grounded and authentic than other travel vlogs out there.
If you enjoy the format of typical travel vlogs on YouTube but without sensationalization and overdramatization like other mainstream travel videos, you will love Hey Nadine's videos.
4. HONEST GUIDE
Photos by HONEST GUIDE
HONEST GUIDE is another one of my favorite travel channels, run by Janek and Honza, who are Prague-based journalists. They created the channel to highlight the true hidden gems of Prague that only locals know about.
The best part of HONEST GUIDE is that, even though they highlight the beauty of Prague in a way that other travel channels don't, they also expose the underbelly of their beloved city by going after all kinds of scams that one may encounter when traveling there.
One of my favorite videos of them is when they went after a prominent currency exchange shop located right in the middle of the city square where tourists often congregated. This shop often ripped tourists off with their outrageous exchange rate.
Janek and Honza saw this and went after them, creating all kinds of videos and stunts to warn tourists not to exchange with them for 5 straight years until they eventually closed their door.
Now, that is one hell of an effective way to clean up your beloved city that the governments do not even have the guts to do. I wish there were more Janek and Honza in other tourist cities in Europe and elsewhere.
If you are looking for a travel channel that highlights both the good and the bad of Prague and other places in the Czech Republic, HONEST GUIDE is one of the best YouTube channels to subscribe to.
5. Allison Anderson
Photos by Allison Anderson
Allison Anderson is another YouTube creator I recently discovered who focuses on travel, adventure, and photography. Allison is an American traveler, and she often travels around the country solo while filming the world as she experiences it, for us to enjoy.
One of my favorite videos of hers is called "My Solo Trip to Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming", which takes us to the beautiful state of Wyoming and shows us the sheer beauty that Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park have to offer.
The video consists of beautiful sceneries that you can come to expect from her, but what I like most about her videos is her calm and well-informed narrative that feels almost as if we were traveling with her, experiencing the unmatched beauty of American national parks.
If you are looking for a YouTube creator who puts out great US-related travel content on a regular basis, you are going to love what Allison Anderson and her channel have to offer.
6. Mark Wiens
Photos by Mark Wiens
Mark Wiens is a popular travel channel, like the rest on this list, except for one thing: the reason he actually travels. Food is the sole reason why Mark travels, and with his channel, you are going to take a culinary journey around the world with him as he goes from one place to another, trying all kinds of delicious and mouth-watering food.
Think Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape, but more personal and with less swearing 😂. His videos will take you to all kinds of places, from the streets of countries like Thailand to high-end restaurants in Tokyo.
If you love to travel and enjoy eating different kinds of food while traveling around the world, you are going to love Mark Wein and his awesome travel food channel. There is no other Youtube creator who enjoys food the way Mark Wein does, and my god, this man can eat!
7. Mitchellkphotos
Photos by Mitchellkphotos
Mitchellkphotos or Mitchell Kanashkevich is an award-winning travel photographer who lives off his awesome jeep and travels around the world, capturing the intimate moments of the locals and the places in a way no other travel channels can replicate.
First and foremost, he is already an awesome travel photographer in his own right, but what makes him one of the best ones out there is his ability to insert himself into local communities around the world. This allows him to observe and capture moments to which not many have access.
His YouTube channel is a mix of travel videos and travel photography tutorials that allow you to both enjoy the scenery he is experiencing as well as learn a thing or two about travel photography.
He is like Thomas Heaton, whom I recommended earlier, but more focused on a narrower scope of travel photography rather than landscape photography. If you want to learn how award-winning travel photographers capture their journeys, I highly recommend subscribing to Mitchellkphotos.
8. Pierre T Lambert
Photos by Pierre T Lambert
Pierre T Lambert is a French travel photographer who focuses on street photography and capturing candid moments of people from around the world. He is extremely enthusiastic about travel and photography, but not in an annoying way like other mainstream channels.
You can really see that he enjoys hitting the road and taking photos of the local people. His recent travel video in Tanzania combines photography with travel perfectly as he goes around a village taking photos of locals. It shows how he operates as a street photographer in a strange land and how to handle awkward situations when you want to take photos of strangers.
Pierre's channel is leaning towards the photography side of YouTube rather than being a regular travel channel. However, since he is never in the same place in his videos and always uses street photography to interact with locals in a unique way, I believe he deserves a spot on this list.
9. Vagabrothers
Photos by Vagabrothers
Vagabrothers is another popular travel channel on YouTube that perfectly combines vlogging and documentary-style storytelling into high-quality travel videos that shed light on interesting stories of the places they visit.
Like this video about Tallinn, Estonia, where they went on a rooftop adventure with a chimney sweeper and explored the beautiful old town of Tallinn from rooftops. It's this kind of video that sheds light on how much work went into maintaining the beauty of European old towns that everyone loves.
If you are looking for a travel channel to binge-watch while you are at home, Vagabrothers has a ton of videos you can watch from all seven continents, so be sure to subscribe to them.
10. Syifa Adriana
Photos by Syifa Adriana
Last but not least, and the only Southeast Asian travel vlogger I follow, Syifa Adriana is an Indonesian-born travel vlogger who left her home country in 2016 in pursuit of a life as a long-term world traveler. She went on all kinds of incredible adventures, from riding a moped through Serbia solo.
She is an inspiration to all of us Southeast Asians who are not as fortunate as those born in first-world countries with strong passports. Having a Southeast Asian passport (except Singapore, of course) almost made it impossible for us to pursue a long-term travel lifestyle like other first-world travelers...almost.
Syifa is living proof that even if you have a weak passport, you can still travel and create awesome content for the world to enjoy while providing a unique perspective to the travel vlogging world in a way that non-Southeast Asian travel vloggers can't.
There are simply no better Southeast Asian travel vloggers out there than her, and if you are looking for a great travel YouTube channel with a unique take on the world, you can't go wrong with Syifa Adriana and her amazing travel channel.
P.S. I also have a YouTube Channel in case you want to check it out. Although, keep your expectations low as mine is not as great as any of these travel vloggers', but I aspire to be one day 🤣.
Further Reading for Inspiration
Looking for more articles to help inspire you to travel more? Here are a collection of articles you might like:
- Hiking to the Everest Base Camp is one of the most memorable epic moments of my life. Here's a long-read piece about my experiences hiking the Everest Base Camp: On My Way To Everest Base Camp.
- Traveling in Europe can be cheap, really cheap. These are the 12 Cheap European Countries to Visit.
- Ever wondered what it is like to travel the world on a third-world passport? Check out: Traveling The World On A Third World Passport.
- Here's why I always celebrate turning a year older with a hike: Climbing Kilimanjaro On My 33rd Birthday.
- Are you currently planning a trip around the world and looking for cheap countries to visit? Here are the 13 Cheapest Countries To Visit in the World.
- Looking for the most beautiful travel blogs to follow? Here are the 24 Most Beautiful Travel Blogs to Follow.
- For adventurers and backpackers out there, here are the 10 Best Adventure and Backpacking Blogs You Should Follow.
- I truly believe we need more Asian representatives in the English-speaking travel blogging industry, especially for blogs about Asia. Here are the Top 10 Kick-Ass Asian Travel Bloggers To Follow.
- Did you know that you can travel without leaving your couch? Here are the 8 Great Travel Books You Should Read.
- For the best travel videos to inspire you to travel even further, here are the 20 Most Creative Travel Videos of All Time.
- The best way to improve your photography skills is to learn from the best. Here are the 10 Best Photography YouTube Channels to Follow.
- A photo is worth a thousand words. Here are the 25 Most Beautiful Travel Photos I Ever Took From Around The World.
- Ever wondered what it's like to be a travel blogger during COVID-19? Check out: Being A Travel Blogger During COVID-19 - What Is It Like?
- Looking for off-the-beaten-path destinations to visit this year? Check out: 8 Best Off-The-Beaten-Path Destination to Visit.
- Can't travel internationally for the time being? How about traveling in your own country? Here are the 7 Reasons Why You Should Travel in Your Own Country.
- To find the most inspirational travel quotes and captions to accompany your photos on Instagram, check out 34 Short and Unique Traveller Quotes for Instagram.
- We often hear bad stories about locals from travelers, but what about the other way around? Here are some of the Notorious Stories Of Terrible Backpackers.
- If you lost your bag while you were traveling, here is how to deal with the situation: My Bag Was Stolen In Germany.
- Have you ever felt that you do not belong in a place you were born in? Read this: Where Is Home? - My Quest In Search Of Where I Belong.
- People often preach about how important it is to live in the moment, but sometimes, that may not be such a good idea. Here is The Problem With Living In The Moment.
- Want to embark on your first solo trip but not sure where to go? As a long-time solo traveler, here are my favorite places based on real experiences: 10 Incredible Travel Destinations for Solo Travelers.
- Solo traveling is not for everyone, and even though I love it to death, it is not always flowers and sunshine for solo travelers. Here are the 10 Things I Hate Most When Traveling Solo.
- Travel friends come and go, but that may not be such a bad thing. Here is why you should embrace your travel friends: A Life Of Brief Encounters.
- Hiking is life. Here's why: One Year Of Incredible Discomfort - 10 Things I've Learned From Climbing Mountains.
- Here's why having no plan is the best plan: Magical Things Happen When You Have Nothing To Do - The Art Of Doing Nothing.
- Is life getting you down? Here's why you can't always blame life for everything: Life Doesn't Suck. We Just Suck At Living It.
- Want to know why I chose to travel alone? Read this: We Travel Alone, NOT To Be Alone.
- For a meaningful solo trip, you need to share it with someone. Here is why Happiness Is Only Real When Shared.
- Traveling is no longer for the rich. Here is why: "People Think I'm Rich".
- The Himalayan Mountain is one hell of a teacher. Here are the 7 Life Lessons The Himalayas Taught Me.
- Want to travel alone but scared that you might get bored out of your mind? Here is How to Enjoy Yourself and Have Fun While Traveling Alone.
- Want to start traveling solo, also? Here is What It's Like to Travel Alone.
- Here is a simple story on how I started traveling: F*ck It, I'll Do This Alone.
- For more inspiring articles like this, visit my Inspiration page.
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