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Travel television is the closest thing to a free plane ticket. At its best, it doesn't just show you a place, it makes you feel the heat of the market, the bite of street food, the rhythm of a foreign city. But not all travel channels earn that ticket. The good ones, like the Travel Channel in the US or Russia's RTG TV, invest in on-the-ground hosts who eat the weird stuff, get lost, and tell stories without a polished script. The bad ones are essentially travel agency ads, glossy helicopter shots over beaches, voiceovers reading Wikipedia, and zero cultural friction. What you want is a show like Bizarre Foods, where Andrew Zimmern treats local cuisine with genuine curiosity, or the older BBC series where Michael Palin just wanders through borders by train. Those formats understand that travel TV is about discovery, not luxury. Live streaming makes it even better: you can catch a sunrise over Angkor Wat on a Cambodian channel at 5 AM your time, or follow a cooking class in Tuscany on Italia 1's lifestyle block. The best travel channels feel like they're run by travelers, not marketing departments. So skip the hotel promos and find the hosts who sweat, laugh, and occasionally get lost. That’s real travel TV.