The Best Travel Shows and Documentaries on Netflix Right Now

If your belly is last full from thebottomless pit of solid food pornyou’ve been blindly bingeing on like a lounge - bound Caligula all these years , it may be prison term to shift your appetite to a subject that at least gets you out of the house . Even if you ca n’t trip as much as you ’d wish to , you’re able to still pretend like you ’ve been to as many place asthis guywithout having to leave the snug comfortableness of your microwave cheese - stain La - Z - Boy . Just provoke up Netflix and forth you go .

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Documentary ( 106 min)The story may be based around four young Texas cowboys ( literal real - life cowpoke , not frat swell in Tony Romo jerseys ) and their journey devolve on wild mustang 3,000 mi from the Mexican to Canadian molding , but the real virtuoso here is the great American West . Gorgeous scene seize on film is everywhere you look as the crew tantalise through some of the wildest places in the West include the Grand Canyon , Yellowstone , and immense unresolved spaces few have dared travel . The tarradiddle of ego - uncovering and friendship among the cowboys may not be as captivating as the vistas , but it will inspire you to assay out wild topographic point as the film look for to spread awareness of the quandary of angry horse live in captivity .

Antarctica: A Year on Ice

Documentary ( 92 min)Unlike your distinctive Antarctica doc about penguin and glacier , this film explore what it ’s like to live and cultivate on remote south-polar research place while last extreme cold and four month of total darkness . interview with real workers in Antarctica ’s Ross Island region reveal insights such as " never throw your pissing bottle with your body of water bottle " and how rent freeze to your look when you ’re standing on top of a slew for a group photo in temperature of -80 degrees . The humanizing Commerce Department reveals what it ’s like to take a different path in life and how the small bread and butter quarters force intimate and intense family relationship . fillip : an outside dance company view and amazing sunsets that bet like the sky is on fervidness .

K2: Siren of the Himalayas

Documentary ( 75 min)Mount Everest may get all the attention but , according to this doc focusing on a radical of climbers attempting to go up the mankind ’s secondly - highest peak , K2 is more difficult , steep , has bad weather condition , and , due to its location in politically fickle Pakistan , comes with its own unequalled set of challenges just beat to the mess . From dodging boulders the size of cars on the way to the village of Skardu to imposing vistas of K2 from the cornerstone refugee camp at Askole interlard with diachronic black - and - white footage , it ’s a reminder that while the visor moments in life are deserving pursuing , we should n’t chase them at the disbursement of all the other moments . As this film teaches us , there are " lessons check in every rope mount . "

Isolated

Documentary ( 85 min)When the travel of a crew of young surfboarder sheik ( and a beautiful surfer dudette ) who abrade the globe in search of unexplored areas for surf take them to Indonesia ’s removed West Papua region , they discover a declining native culture and human rights abuses at the hand of a US - owned mine . The overweight here and now make out with the steady erosion of one of the world ’s oldest cultivation interspersed with footage of angry militant separationist are balanced out with more than enough gentle surf porn and abstemious consequence such as the Westerners teaching local village nipper how to breaker , soundtracked by punk rock . The villagers want the world to translate their battle and , walk the manner of walking , main case Travis Potter goes on a media tour upon his return to the States , seeking to make upon the momentum of Norway lately disinvesting from the mine .

They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain

Documentary ( 84 min)North Korea ’s feat are well known ( seeThe Interview , Dennis Rodman , et al . ) , but one of the world ’s other super - tightlipped government in Myanmar ( otherwise get it on as Burma ) gets far less attention . And that ’s the way the country ’s rule military junta like it . This film explores how , unlike in North Korea , there is no cultus of personality in Burma – which allows the faceless regime to exert its clasp on power in a more taxonomic and endemic fashion . ( In its defense , the film posits there is no material mode for people to make money in the poor country other than joining the armed forces , who sense they are protecting their citizen from outsiders . ) But what really makes this film stand out is how it spends the majority of its time interact with the lovable local people – taking Buddhistic pilgrim’s journey with them , learning about the clay they put on their look to keep cool , and filming them smiling in pretty much every scene despite lacking basic self-command and basic rights like free expression . The the great unwashed of Burma are the rightful stars of this doc .

Desert Runners

Documentary ( 99 min)Yeah , marathons are sturdy . The Iron Man : a little tough . But that ’s nothing equate to running 1,000 km through four of the globe ’s most grueling deserts … all in the same year . This picture espouse a group of non - professional runners as they essay this " ultramarathon " while search what get us ( and what happens ) when we push our bodies to the physical and emotional boundary . Personal struggles like one man dispense with the late death of his married woman and another gentleman’s gentleman ’s effort to take aim his judgement declare oneself sixth sense into what motivates average hoi polloi to do extraordinary thing – pair off with plenty of sounds of parched earthly concern crunching under feet and sight of the strangely beautiful hellscapes of the Chilean , Chinese , Egyptian , and Antarctic comeupance they doggedly sail along the way .

MILE … MILE & A HALF ( house trailer 1)fromThe Muir ProjectonVimeo .

Mile… Mile & a Half

Documentary ( 87 min)This low - impact doc stars a group of artists as they seek to hike and capture the beauty of the 201 - geographical mile John Muir Trail , which bulge in the Yosemite Valley of Northern California and ends on the pinnacle of Mount Whitney . It ’s get funny character , stunning nature , and plenty of scenes of swell playing uke and marimba around the campfire . Along the way , some fail to complete the trek while new supporter ( like a solo Japanese traveler ) join the group , constitute womb-to-tomb friendly relationship in the operation . The film reminds us that " you do n’t need to go to Mount Everest to find risky venture , you could find it in your own backyard " as experiences like these are " what makes life amazing . " But the affair you remember most from traveling , according to this Commerce , is the hoi polloi .

180 South

Documentary ( 87 min)If you search to travel to determine something new and hopefully become a better person along the room , this film is for you . It tells the history of latterly deceased North Face Colorado - founder Doug Tompkins who , along with his wife , purchase over 2 million acres of wilderness to be ready apart for conservation in the beautiful Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina by retrace the epic 1968 journeying that first inspired Tompkins . Interspersed with sensational mountain aspect and experience - safe shots of kayak among seal , Tompkins recounts how he was " tired of make crap people did n’t postulate " and " labour consumerism , " so he adjudicate to dedicate his lifespan to something big . preservation is intelligibly the theme here and , allot to the doc , the solution is in all of us .

Departures

Documentary TV Series ( three seasons , first two on Netflix)The assumption : regular Canadian 20 - something booster Scott and Justin settle to go the universe for a year , along with cinematographer Andre ( who seldom appears on projection screen ) . The show run from 2008 - 2010 over three seasons ( the first two of which are useable on Netflix ) and follows their journeys drinking with villagers in Mongolia , entering the Muay Thai boxing ring in Thailand , pig hunting in the Cook Islands , and deal with deep feelings of closing off while on a trip to the ultra - remote Ascension Island in the midsection of the South Atlantic . The show may get a small too bro - y at times for some , but offers a nice way to hold up vicariously through a couple of dudes who in reality took a year off ( and then some ) and traveled the world like they said they would . Unlike some people who ( ahem ) just sing about it .

An Idiot Abroad

Documentary TV Series ( three seasons)Instead of the typical travel show about ego - exploration and divulge deep import in living , this show subsist solely for Ricky Gervais ’ own twisted amusement . Rather than the cool - guy cable host who can get along with all culture a la Anthony Bourdain , the show is centered around the international travels of a British blighter who has absolutely no involvement in the humankind outside his borders . Producers Gervais and Stephen Merchant commit a largely unwilling Karl Pilkington on international travels to the Seven Wonders of the World , only to have the unimpressed Pilkington bitch about how un - grand they are ( i.e. , complaining about trash on a visit to the Pyramids of Egypt ) . The show reaches a Modern level of absurdness in its third and net season , when Pilkington team up up with Warwick Davis ( who authentically enjoys travelling and gets along with others ) in the ultimate rummy - couple pairing that has them dancing in Bollywood film , attending weird costume parties in Venice , and catching the sunrise over Varanasi ( with , course , Pilkington bitch the whole time ) .

Long Way Round/Long Way Down

Documentary TV Series ( one time of year each)Who knew Ewan McGregor was such a badass?Long Way Roundchronicles the journeys of the pretty - boy Scottish actor alongside friend Charley Boorman as they tease 19,000 mil on motorcycle from London to New York City – the long way , i.e , through Asia . They ’re also bring together by cameraman Claudio and a support team in offroad vehicle ( neither of which appear ofttimes on screen ) , and the series is about friendship , exploration , and what happens when you drop four month traveling with the same person every day ( remarkably , there are few fights between McGregor and Boorman ) . But there are plenty of accidents , bike crack-up , and beautiful moments captured via helmet cams as the distich crosspiece many section of Earth where there are no road , while helping raise awareness for UNICEF in the process . If you want more , check off out the sequel seriesLong Way Down , where the pair bike through 18 res publica , from Scotland to South Africa .

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Documentary TV series ( five seasons)There ’s a reason this show has won three Emmys and is the highest - rated show on CNN . ( OK two , because anything beats Wolf Blitzer.)Parts Unknownis simply one of the best shows on television , with Netflix serving up a five - season , 40 - sequence slating of binge - desirable delight that takes the host into off - the - beat - way of life locales in places like Iran , Beirut , Cuba , and up the Congo River , Heart of shadow - style . While there ’s much to like , including the show ’s legendary cinematography plus Bourdain ’s well - established food knowledge and effortless interaction with topical anaesthetic , the series really shines when it ’s exploring less - exotic American locales like Detroit , New Jersey , the Mississippi Delta , and , in perhaps the best instalment Bourdain has ever made , the legion getting personal about share with diacetylmorphine addiction in a visit to his native Massachusetts . ( Not that it is n’t fun to keep an eye on Bourdain hanging with Bill Murray in Charleston , which , of class , it is . ) Bourdain fans can also Netflix both time of year of underrated seriesThe Layoverfor maximum Bourdain bingeing .

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