the top six travel podcasts to inspire wanderlust

Armchair Explorer

Tracking Mongolia’s rare grizzly bears, tripping on Ayahuasca in the middle of the Amazon, exploring the Silk Road via motorbike: Armchair Explorer is a thrilling foray into the lives of the world’s most daring and adventurous. Each episode, host Aaron Millar interviews travel authors, adventurers, and athletes to gain insight into their adrenaline filled lives and the incredible places that they take them to. The podcast has gained a reputation for its cinematic, documentary-style production that creates a totally immersive experience for its listeners.

women who travel

Condé Nast travel editors Lale Arikoglu and Meredith Carey explore the realities of travelling as a woman in the 21st century in women who travel. Episodes range from the practical, with advice on travel during the pandemic, to the political, such as an episode on “How the ‘Green Book’ Shaped a Generation of Black Travellers’. Australian-Zimbabwean musician Tkay Maidza also features on an episode, where she talks about a childhood spent moving around, her musical influences, and her creative process during lockdown.

abroad in japan

Why are Japan’s UFO sightings on the rise? What is Japan’s least-stressful city? How is mental health handled in Japan? You’ll find the answers into these and more on Abroad in Japan, a podcast that investigates the quirkiest and most unspoken aspects of life in Japan. Its hosts, Chris Broad and Pete Donaldson, are brits that have spent almost a decade living in Japan, and share their experiences on their YouTube channel and podcast that have both gained a cult following.

field recordings

Field Recordings does not follow your traditional podcast format. If you’re after playful banter or a deep dive into a city’s history, then this is not it. Its makers crowd source sound bites from listeners around the world, and each episode provides an immersive look into the soundscape of a very specific location. Each recording is prefaced with a small introduction written by its recorder, a surprisingly poetic ode to the sonic-world it contains: “It’s early morning at a dry riverbed in the Borneo Rainforest. The soundscape is thick and piercing but not too busy. Gentle fog drip creates a subtle drawn-out rhythm…”. I’ve found the recordings particularly soothing to listen to at night – as a sensual bridge between my own world and the outside.

Trekking nepal: your adventure guide

Jason and Anne Dorthe are a Norwegian couple who met while travelling. In 2016, the pair decided to visit Nepal. The 16-part travel podcast is what the couple have coined the “world’s first audio guidary”, a hybrid audio guide and diary that documents their journey trekking across Nepal. From remote Tibetan Monasteries to the bustling Himalayan capital, Jason and Anne detail their trekking experience, delve into the country’s complex history, and question the ethics of travelling to remote locations. it’s a thrilling yet very real account of what it’s like to trek through the himalayas, and a must-listen for anyone considering doing the same.

OChenta Stories

Ochenta Stories is a multilingual podcast that hears from writers, artists, and everyday people from all around the world. Each participant is asked the same question: “what do you want to hear when this pandemic is over?” One woman voices a love letter to her precious bicycle, another is a young Mongolian woman who recounts her experience with contracting covid, whilst a chronic insomniac in Barcelona stands on her balcony and dreams of her city come to life. It’s an intimate look into our multifaceted yet deeply connected lives in a post-covid world.