It was my honor to interview the Travel Goddess, Samantha Brown. I first met her in person at the Travel and Adventure Show in 2016 and in 2023, I was a speaker at the same show!
Find Samantha Brown’s Show, Places To Love, on her website and visit her on Instagram. In 2024, it will be 25 years that she has been sharing her travels. As she says, “girl with the best job in the world.”
Listen or watch our interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or your favorite podcast platform
READ THE TRANSCRIPT BELOW
Lisa Niver:
Good morning. This is Lisa Niver from We Said Go Travel and I am beyond thrilled that today I am with none other than the travel goddess Samantha Brown. Hi, Samantha.
Samantha Brown:
Hey, Lisa. How are you?
Lisa Niver:
Oh, my gosh, I’m so excited to get to talk to you. I have been watching you at the travel show for years, and years and years and I am so excited. I even wore this map in your honor that I got to also speak at the travel show this year. I thought oh, my gosh I’m speaking at the same show as the goddess.
Samantha Brown and Places to Love at The Travel and Adventure Show 2023
Lisa Niver speaking at the Travel and Adventure Show 2023
Samantha Brown:
That’s wonderful. It’s nice to see you again.
Lisa Niver:
Oh, thank you. So, I know that you’ve been such a generous speaker and you have just inspired so many women. I spoke with Alex after the Women’s Travel Fest where you were the keynote speaker. And she was saying how for many people it was their longtime dream come true to be able to be there and hear you speak. That you really inspire so many women to get out on the road.
Samantha Brown and Lisa Niver at Women’s Travel Fest 2023
Samantha Brown:
Yeah, that’s probably what I am most proud of, and most shocked by in my career. I never thought I would be someone who people look up to. And I guess that’s why I do have the best job in the world is that I get told, on almost a daily basis, what my work has meant to someone else and that is phenomenally validating. So, not only do I have this amazing job, but the people that I have been able to be a part of their community in terms of whether they watch me on TV, or now they’re on social media or whatever it is. It’s just something I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be that person and I never take it for granted.
Lisa Niver:
I think that’s so beautiful. And as you said just now, and as it says on your Twitter bio, “girl with the best job in the world,” can you tell people a little bit about how did this happen? When you were little were you drawing on maps? Did you always want to be on TV? How did it happen?
Samantha Brown:
I went to college at Syracuse University for musical theater, and that’s what I wanted to be. I wanted to be an actress and I wanted to move to New York City, and so, at Syracuse I studied acting, singing, and dancing. And when you are in musical theater you are considered a triple threat, because you can do all three. And then I moved to New York City and I wasn’t threatening at all.
In fact, I was really bland compared to the unbelievable talent that is out there. Actually, I saw that you had Pauline Frommer as a guest and she was also in musical theater as well. I remember seeing her at the auditions, I knew she was a lot more successful than I was in theater, but you should ask her about that. So, we share that in common.
So, I just kept auditioning, and I got this strange job on the Travel Channel. I had to audition for it, to be their host for a new show called Great Vacation Homes. And my first reaction was what’s a host? Why am I auditioning for this? But I thought, okay, I’ll just get a reel because I wanted to go to Los Angeles to make it in sitcoms. So, that was my plan and I am so glad it did not work out. The Travel Channel really hit it off, I loved my time there, I had amazing experiences and I had a job I never thought I would have.
Lisa Niver:
That’s so inspiring. Because for a lot of us, when things don’t go how we planned, there’s often a feelings of being a failure or a mistake, but you’re saying it was the best thing.
Samantha Brown:
Absolutely. And it wasn’t like I turned my back on acting and musical theater. Because one of the things you learn in acting is that you never judge your own character. It’s all about understanding what your motivation is, and your motivation is always in another person. Your motivation in acting is always to get more from another person or affect the other person. It’s never you, that makes it too self-centered, so that’s something that you are taught in acting and I absolutely take that little chunk and I bring that with me.
That’s how I kind of got my start as a travel host because, for me, the show was never about me it was always about the other person. How do I get to know them? How do I get to be a part of their culture? What is it? What tactics can I use so this person understands I’m a kind person who they would want to spend time with. That little jewel is my guiding star. Even today, even though the name of my show is Samantha Brown’s Places to Love, the show is not about me.
Lisa Niver:
That’s really great advice for people, for a TV host, or as a human being, or a friend or in line at the DMV that there is something about the interaction about really learning something about someone else.
Samantha Brown:
Yes, it’s always the other person.
Lisa Niver:
That’s really impressive. I’ve heard you speak so many places when you were here in Los Angeles at the Dolby Theater for the Japanese National Tourism Organization or at the travel show and you always share such really useful tips. Can you talk about your ritual when you’re traveling?
Samantha Brown:
If I am in a place for more than three days, which is more than likely if I’m traveling and we’re shooting Places to Love, I will create a ritual. And that means I do one thing, the same thing, the same time every single day. And for me, it’s usually a coffee shop that I’m going to begin my day at. It’s right around the corner from my hotel, but not my hotel, but still a local experience where I can feel the ebb and flow of a location better. And I love that, because it just gives me a break. One thing about traveling, or my pet peeve of travel, is that it requires incessant thinking, right? When you’re traveling it’s always what am I doing next? Do I have the tickets? How are we going to get there? Is it going to rain? When are my flights? My flight leaves in three days. You never stop, and you want your brain to stop.
When you create a ritual, you just become more calm, you’re just more in the moment and that brain stops, and I love that. I love doing that. I’ve talked to people, who say we do that all the time. At the end of the day, we go to the same bar, and have the same drink and get to know the waiter. You create your own community in the short amount of time that you’re there, and it does wonders to really enrich your trip. I think as Americans, and I understand that different countries are watching this right now, but Americans we’re very productive, unfortunately so.
We see vacations as places as a second location to be productive that’s different from our work schedule. We check things off the list. We’ve got to do five different things today because, man, we’re never coming back here. And I get that. I get that pressure we put on ourselves to see and do it all, but this is a reminder every single day just to keep those challenges in check and enjoy life a little bit more.
Lisa Niver:
What you’re saying is so important. Get out of your hotel, see the local culture. Can you tell people a little bit about when you were in Madison, and you were a judge about mustard?
Samantha Brown:
I love mustard, by the way. I love all kinds of mustard, I collect it if I go to places, and in France you have to collect the mustard. There is the Mustard Museum, it’s just outside of Madison, Wisconsin. The man who founded it is an adorable man who loved mustard as much as a lot of us do. He started collecting it and now you can experience mustards from all over the world. Mustard companies from all over the world send him their mustard, so you can experience mustard from Uzbekistan, and then he has from France, to Argentina. Some is spicy, some is more sweet, but every year he has a mustard contest. I got to be a judge and it was wonderful. I like the peppery stuff.
Lisa Niver:
I was in Destin, Florida, and I was a judge at the lionfish competition. Maybe, next year you will be a judge with the lionfish, because we’re helping the planet by eating the lionfish.
Samantha Brown:
And it’s good eating.
Lisa Niver:
I love to eat lionfish.
Samantha Brown:
Lionfish in a taco!! I totally agree, eat the invasive lionfish, definitely.
Lisa Niver:
I agree. I heard you also learned a sport from an Olympian in Madison.
Samantha Brown:
Yes. Becca Hamilton who is on the women’s curling team and she is, I believe, a world champion. They didn’t win the Olympics. That was her brother.
Her brother is a famous male competitor. They’re a duo and so the Madison Curling Club is where they were brought up This is where these two Olympians were reared, but she was fantastic. And I was telling her, I remember when they launched this sport in the Olympics about ten years ago and everyone was thinking what in the world is this sport? But we loved it.
I love the fact that you learn about the people who curl and they’re like insurance adjusters by day and they have this Olympic career on the side. It was so refreshing that they’re just like us. But of course they train a lot and it’s a hard sport, but it’s great. It’s a really fun sport and the way that Midwestern towns and cities really embrace this sport and make it more of a social thing. If you’re in a town that has a curling club go visit it, you’ll have a great time.
Lisa Niver:
I haven’t tried curling, but when I was in Ireland I tried hurling, not the throwing up kind, but the sport kind.
Samantha Brown:
Yes.
Lisa Niver:
I know that when you were in Ireland you tried some unusual things that we haven’t all heard of like blokarting.
Samantha Brown:
I tried hurling as well.
Lisa Niver:
Oh, you did. How did it go?
Samantha Brown:
That’s a very dangerous sport. That’s like a cross between baseball and tennis and you’re whacking a ball.
Lisa Niver:
And lacrosse.
Samantha Brown:
For blokarting, it’s very different and it’s actually not a sport, it’s just a recreation. They have beautiful beaches in Ireland and it’s this wind-powered cart. So, in the same way we all dreamed of having our own little go-karts when we were young, this has a little sail and so you can go sailing across the sand. It’s phenomenal. It feels so great.
I’m actually someone who’s very scared of being on the water, especially in the ocean, but I love the wind on your sails. Who doesn’t love that feeling? It gives you that feeling of being out there maybe windsailing, but you’re on terra firma. I believe it was developed, created in Northern Ireland. If you ever go, absolutely try it out because it’s just fun.
Lisa Niver:
I have to do that. I’m recently back from Ireland. I did falconry at Ashford Castle.
Samantha Brown:
Well, now you can fly like a falcon by blokarting.
Lisa Niver:
I like that idea. I know you travel with a teacup and there was a special tea in Ireland with a twist?
Samantha Brown:
Oh, yes, I did. Where was that? That was Glenarm Castle on the Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland. A beautiful castle, a Downton Abbey thing, and they’ve opened it up. The family still lives there and they’ve opened it up. They have a farm, and a dairy, and beautiful gardens and you can just enjoy. That’s a beautiful place. Actually, I experienced the high tea at a very upscale hotel in Adare, Adare Manor.
Lisa Niver:
They just had a big renovation.
Samantha Brown:
Yes, they did and it is like a six-star hotel. It is through the roof in terms of its luxury and beauty. And very few of us can afford this on a regular basis, but you can, as I always say, date the hotel, so I took it to high tea. It’s in this amazing room that is the second longest room in Ireland, second only to the library in Dublin.
Lisa Niver:
Wow, okay.
Samantha Brown:
They do wonderful cocktails and they put them in teacups so you’re a teetotaler! I had a beautiful botanical gin and tonic with these beautiful pastries. It is one of these epic places for tea. Lisa, I think a lot of people enjoy tea in different places, very high-end, and this would be one of them, absolutely.
Lisa Niver:
I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say date your hotel before, but I love that.
Samantha Brown:
Yeah, just date it. If you can’t afford to stay there, take it on a date.
Lisa Niver:
That’s so funny. One of my favorite things about coming home from Ireland is preclearing at the airport that you come home domestic.
Samantha Brown:
I was just in Canada as well where they have that and there’s nothing better than that. And it’s so funny how it just takes all of the stress out of flying because you land and you’re now domestic. And I love preclearance airports. I think they’re a reason alone to go to a country and enjoy it. All of the airports in Ireland as well as Canada are preclearance airports.
Lisa Niver:
Were you filming something new in Canada or were on family holiday?
Samantha Brown:
I was there shooting an episode in Victoria in British Columbia. A beautiful little city on that gorgeous Vancouver Island. It’s the gateway to Vancouver Island as well as the rest of British Columbia. We were up there exploring its more sustainable methods in terms of what they’re doing to protect the wildlife, First Nations culture as well as great food. It’s just a beautiful place to be.
Lisa Niver:
I know when you travel one of the things you love to do is collect art and there’s beautiful art right behind you. Is that from one of your recent visits?
Samantha Brown:
Yes. Yes, that is Jenny Pickens, the artist, and she’s from Asheville, North Carolina, self-taught and I love her work. I met her as we were shooting an episode there and we focused on this really great shop called the Noir Collective. It is in a neighborhood that used to be considered the Black Wall Street of Asheville with many very successful businesses for Black Americans. It fell on some hard times because of rezoning, but this group of people is trying to bring it back. You can meet a lot of the local artists and see their work. And I love this piece because she’s sewing the world and it’s a woman who’s slowly mending or sewing the world together and it’s got a heart. So, I thought it is like my show Places to Love and she’s beautiful.
Lisa Niver:
That’s beautiful. I also really like when you put your season together that it’s a mix of domestic and international. We have so many great treasures of places to visit here in the United States.
Samantha Brown:
Yeah, I agree, and I always love to explore what I call the B-side cities. So, if you remember records, there’s the A-side and then there’s the B-side. And the A-side is the Rome, and the New York and the Paris. But then there are the B-sides and I think B-side cities just give you just as much as the A-side city, but it’s not as expensive, it’s not as busy, and it just gives you a better experience. So, with the United States that’s what we try to focus on, especially in these days where you’re hearing so much about just too many people being in the same place at the same time.
There’s plenty of room for all of us. We need to divert people to come this way and see this is a great place. So, we’ve done a lot of cities that people would never think of going to. And then when you find out all of the great art that’s there, food that’s there, activities, and you don’t have to spend 400 dollars on a hotel. People are really excited affordable travel.
Lisa Niver:
I think it’s great that you’re sharing all those places with people. And I saw on your social media about Big Sky, Montana. Was that for a recent filming, or we can watch that now, or does that come in the next season?
Samantha Brown:
We filmed that last year. That was a part of season six, so that’s running now. That’s a great place. Montana is a beautiful state no matter what time of year you go. Most people go to Montana in the summer, maybe it’s to get to Yellowstone, but winter, oh, my gosh it’s just magical. Not the cheapest place to go. Big Sky, Montana, is a resort and it’s 300 dollars a day for a lift ticket. But let me tell you as someone who grew up in New Hampshire, grew up skiing, the skiing is phenomenal and worth it. I skied in my jeans in ice-cold weather in New Hampshire and so to be up there out west where it’s just a lovely day, I think it’s an amazing place to be. I love Montana. I’m a big winter fan. I’m one of those rare people, Lisa, who love snow.
Lisa Niver:
I’ve seen a lot of different episodes and recently you were filming somewhere it was definitely not chilly. You were in Israel.
Samantha Brown:
I was, yes. And oh my goodness I still have dreams about it. It took me a week back home to really feel like I was back in the United States, because I just felt smitten. It’s like falling in love where you just can’t get your head out of the clouds. It was phenomenal. Clearly, I don’t have to explain what Jerusalem is and why you would want to go, but what I love about cities is that the whole world can seem like it hates each other, and when you go to a city that’s just not what’s happening. Everyone lives with each other. Cities are seen as these unfriendly dangerous places and a lot of the times it’s the exact opposite. So, it was wonderful discovering that for myself and I would love to go back. It was a trip of a lifetime, truly.
Lisa Niver:
I’m so glad you got to go there. I studied in Israel in high school and I spent a semester in college in Jerusalem.
Samantha Brown:
Oh, my gosh, I’m so envious. What a place. It’s magical, right. I see so many people like you, so it’s so youthful, there’s so many young people there. And it’s just there is an energy there that you just can’t help but get swept up into it. We met some phenomenal people and I’m really excited to share that episode. Because it’s just a special place and it really belongs to the world. I think that’s what people don’t understand is that Jerusalem is a city that belongs to the world.
And I feel that way about New York City, like we’re not really of the United States. I live in New York, I’ve lived here for 37 years, and it’s not the United States, it’s everyone’s and everyone comes here. And I felt the same way about Jerusalem. It’s like this is for everyone. There is no need to take sides. This is a place for everyone.
Lisa Niver:
I agree with you. I always can’t wait to get back again to Israel. I know people are going to want to know where do they see all of these incredible episodes? And when is season seven coming? So, tell us where is the best place to get all the updates?
Samantha Brown:
On my website, and you can follow me on social media. Of course, I’m on Instagram, and Facebook and I’m even on TikTok now. Samanthabrowntravels is my handle for most of those. The show airs in the United States on TV in a place called PBS, which are our public television stations. But you can also stream the episodes free directly from my own website, which is samantha-brown.com. Season seven, which we are working on now, begins in January. So, we still have a lot of shooting to do as well as editing, but it will be launched in January of 2024.
Lisa Niver:
Oh, my goodness that’s so exciting. I really appreciate with your busy production schedule that you took this time to talk to me. I really have been so inspired myself by you. Honestly it was such an honor to speak at the same show as you, the travel goddess, thank you.
Samantha Brown:
Thank you Lisa. And thank you for wearing your map shirt for me. I feel very special.
Lisa Niver:
Thank you so much for sharing your tips and your wisdom. And I know everybody can’t wait to catch up if they haven’t seen all six seasons already, and to see Israel and all the upcoming new cities that you highlight in season seven. Thank you so much.
Samantha Brown:
Lisa, it’s been a pleasure.
Coming next season: ISRAEL
I love these tips to make travel BETTER: PLACES TO LOVE: HOW TO MAKE TRAVEL COUNT
Did you miss our latest “Places to Love” Season 6 episode, where we got to adventure in Madison, WI? Check our episode page to watch and learn more about all the fun we had and the wonderful locals we met!https://t.co/8WDnlGs82i#samanthabrown #placestolove pic.twitter.com/WflICtbLLH
— Samantha Brown (@SamanthaBrown) January 23, 2023
Samantha Brown is a two time Emmy Award winning Television personality and travel expert.
Over the last 20 years, Samantha has traveled around the world visiting over 250 cities in 75 countries and 45 U.S. states creating over 200 hours of engaging and informative television programming along the way.
Samantha started her TV career at the Travel Channel where over 15 years created many iconic travel series, including Great Hotels, Passport to Europe, Great Weekends and Samantha Brown’s Asia.
In 2018, Samantha moved from Travel Channel to PBS and her new show there, “Samantha Brown’s Places to Love” quickly became the highest rated travel program on public television. In 2019 she earned two Emmy awards (Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program and Outstanding Host for a Lifestyle, Children’s or Special Class Program) and has been nominated again every year since.
In Places to Love, she finds the destinations, experiences and most importantly, the people who make you feel like you belong to a place, and not just a consumer passing through.
Samantha’s fun-loving style has made her a revered and engaging television personality whose approach is less expert, less host and more a person you would want to travel with. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and 9 year old twins.
More interviews and talks with Samantha Brown
- Women’s Travel Fest Keynote Speaker 2023
- Samantha Brown in PRINT in the Jewish Journal 2023
- NYC 2023 Launch party for Season 6 of Places to Love
- 2019 interview: Places to Love Season 2
- Japanese National Tourism Organization Key Note Speaker 2018
- Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show 2016: Travel Speaker
- Women’s Travel Fest 2014 Keynote Speaker
I loved Samantha Brown’s talk in 2016 at the Los Angeles Travel Show! You can read my notes in the instagram comments! “Be on a mission to connect with the culture…How do you belong when you travel? Be part of a new story….travel is an investment in your life!!” She ate ants, eyeballs and guinea pigs!!
LISTEN on APPLE PODCAST: MAKE YOUR OWN MAP
Lisa’s book: Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty
