Samantha Brown of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love
Thomas Bloxham
As the long nights of winter set in, it’s time for a taste of armchair travel inspiration courtesy of PBS. If you’re looking for a few ideas on where to travel in 2026, check out the new episodes from two of the network’s most popular series.
Samantha Brown’s Places to Love
Samantha Brown, host of PBS’s two-time Emmy Award-winning series, Samantha Brown’s Places to Love, returns with the show’s ninth season on January 9, 2026. Her intelligent, upbeat, and endlessly curious personality has made her one of the most recognizable and trusted PBS travel stars.
“This season feels especially personal,” Brown said in a press statement. “We explored communities shaped by resilience, creativity, and tradition, from cliff dwellings in Arizona to centuries-old libraries in Italy, to artisans reinventing Zurich’s design heritage. Every stop along this season’s journey reminded me why travel matters now more than ever.”
“Finishing Route 66 during its centennial is one of the great honors of my career,” Brown said. “This road isn’t just a line on the map – it’s a living story written by dreamers, creators, and small towns that refuse to fade into the background.”
Brown begins season nine in New Mexico, where she continues her ongoing road trip along Route 66. It’s an episode that visits classic car museums, exploring Indigenous history and neon motel culture. Subsequent episodes include Arizona, where she visits fossilized forests and cliff dwellings along the so-called Mother Road. The Route 66 episodes conclude in California, where she finds classic motels and vintage gas stations and winds up at the highway’s official terminus in Santa Monica.
“Finishing Route 66 during its centennial is one of the great honors of my career,” Brown said. “This road isn’t just a line on the map – it’s a living story written by dreamers, creators, and small towns that refuse to fade into the background. ”
In other episodes this season, Brown ventures to Zurich, Switzerland, where she explores Old Town’s guild history and samples classics at the vegetarian restaurant Hiltl. Other episodes are set in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Tampa, Florida. A two-part episode is focused on the Italian cities of Bologna and Modena. There’s an Art and Artisans Special, which includes learning about the Swiss artist Giacometti in Zurich, touring an art gallery housed in a WWII bunker in Berlin, and visiting Indigenous Australian artisans during her visit to Darwin, Australia. A Food Special includes bean-to-bar chocolate in Costa Rica, Berlin’s currywurst, and North Carolina’s tomato pie.
Mickela Mallozzi with Māori in an epside from Season 8 of Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi
Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi
Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi
Dance and travel are the unusual prism through which Mickela Mallozzi explores the world and shares it with her viewers in the series Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi.
“This season is the most heartfelt tribute yet to the power of connection through the universal languages of dance and music.”
Mallozzi, a professional dancer and musician, is both the host and executive producer of the series, which has won four Emmy Awards. Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi delves into the cultural roots of music and dance and just returned to national public television and PBS member stations with Season 8 on December 1, 2025.
“This season is the most heartfelt tribute yet to the power of connection through the universal languages of dance and music,” Mallozzi said in a press statement. “What moved me most was not only being introduced to these incredible traditions, but being welcomed into the communities themselves. From Taiwan to New Zealand to Cuba, the resilience, joy, and cultural pride I experienced firsthand were overwhelming. And through all of this, I am constantly reminded of how more alike we are than we are different.”
Among the highlights of Season 8 are three episodes set in Taiwan. In Taiwan: Past & Present, Mallozzi dances with the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, visits night markets, and collaborates with the indigenous Bulareyaung Dance Company. In Indigenous Taiwan, Mallozzi joins the Amis and Tsou tribes in their oral traditions, music, and food. She also has an episode in Tainan City, Taiwan, where she discovers the island’s oldest city through food, drumming, and cultural traditions. She also heads to New Zealand for two episodes. In Māori in Aotearoa, she learns the te reo Māori language, music, and haka traditions with the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei iwi (tribe) in Auckland. The Matariki in Aotearoa episode celebrates the Māori New Year, reflecting on the past, present, and future through song and dance. Lastly, she visits Havana, Cuba, exploring the city’s diverse culture, from Afro-Cuban spirituality and salsa to Cuba’s little-known Chinese heritage.
This season also marks the beginning of a new partnership with Intrepid Travel, joining as a sponsor and official travel partner for Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi. Bare Feet Tours will allow fans to travel with Mallozzi and follow in her footsteps on immersive cultural journeys around the globe.
Check local listings for time and channel. Viewers can also start streaming the series weekly on their PBS station’s Passport App and on PBS.org.
