Samantha Brown travels about 230 days a year for her various Discovery network programmes such as Great Hotels, Great Weekends and Passport to Europe. Although the idea of seeing the world and staying in nice chateaus might be everyone’s dream, the reality is it’s still a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Before hosting travel shows, your were a budding actress?
I went to school for musical theatre in New York. I love theatre. It’s a hard job and a difficult career but very rewarding. I see a lot of what I learned in school in the job I have right now. As an actor, you’re always trying to understand who you are. Same with travel. The two are not so dissimilar.
So, did you travel much?
I did very little travel before. I grew up in New Hampshire, a small state near New England. Travel for us was going to Pennsylvania to see relatives and maybe Canada to do something international.
You filmed your first Samantha Brown’s Asia last year. On your blog, you said the experience felt like “your travel muscles have gone soft”. What did you mean by that?
When you’re used to doing stuff in Maine or Philadelphia, then suddenly you’re in Cambodia, it’s like, “oh my goodness”. You can’t just send an e-mail, you can’t just pick up your phone. You realise you have to be a lot more on the ball. Another part of it is walking into a restaurant and knowing I can’t speak English. In Europe, I can pick up a few words but in Vietnam, I butchered Vietnamese so badly people would just look at me and pity me. I would stick to gesticulation. I’m a winner at charades.
You always look like you’re having fun.
“It’s very important to me that people feel like they are travelling with me and we were discovering a place together, that I am not a travel expert but their friend and that’s why people watch me.
So what are your travel essentials and tips?
“No matter where I go, whether it’s Europe, Latin America or Asia, I bring a jar of peanut butter with me. It’s my survival food. If I’m really hungry and I just need to eat and don’t feel I have enough brain cells to speak another language or try to figure out a menu, peanut butter is what I do. I also carry these pink rubber balls but you can substitute tennis balls. After a very long flight or when you’re tired, you put them down on the floor, put your back on it, push up with your knees and roll. It works all your kinks out. I also always carry earplugs. I almost missed a plane once buying earplugs. It was a flight to Orlando, Florida, home of Walt Disney and 95 percent of the plane are screaming, excited kids. It’s that important.
So, what does Samantha Brown do on her holidays - stay home?
Yep. When I’m home, I’m home. In Brooklyn, New York. I don’t leave. I order in Chinese.
Are there any places in the world you still haven’t seen?
Plenty of places still. India is the next number one place I’ve never been to. I’ve never been to Africa or Russia. There are places I haven’t been in America. I’ve never even been to Oregon.”
