List of Travel Shows on Paramount+ to Watch

There are days when you just want to stare in front of your TV and not do anything at all. You could be sick and can’t find the strength to do anything, much less get out of the house. Here are travel shows to watch on Paramount+ or the Smithsonian Channel. This post can hopefully save you time from scrolling mindlessly and looking for the next escape, even if you’re in your home.

Looking for other travel shows to watch on other streaming channels? Here’s a list:

• Six Best Travel Shows on Amazon Prime (2021)
• 9 Best Travel Shows and Movies on HBO Max
• 11 Best Travel Youtube Channels

If reading is more your thing than watching TV shows, here’s a list of what to read:

• 7 Best Personal Finance Books To Read
• How to Read More Books In A Year
• 9 Best Travel Books to Fuel Your Wanderlust
• Best Books To Help Improve Your Life
• Get out and do something this new year

13 Travel Shows on Paramount+ or the Smithsonian Channel

Read more in the post below for more information on what each show is all about. The Aerial series all feature the same thing: videos of a certain destination taken by drone or helicopter from the air. The Mighty series have different focus areas, but it doesn’t mean that they’re all the same! 

1. Aerial America
2. Aerial Africa
3. Aerial Argentina
4. Aerial Great Britain
5. Aerial Ireland 
6. Mighty Cruise Ships 
7. Mighty Ships 
8. Mighty Trains 
9. Mighty Planes 
10. Sacred Sites
11. Searching for Secrets
12. Inside Hampton Court Palace
13. Inside the Tower of London 

What is Aerial America, Aerial Argentina, Aerial Great Britain, or Aerial Ireland About? 

If you want to see a different perspective of a state, or a country altogether, watch the Aerial series on the Smithsonian Channel. The series is also streaming on Paramount+, so you don’t need to have YouTube TV or the Smithsonian Channel to watch these amazing series. 

Out of all the Aerial shows, Aerial America is the original and first one produced by the channel. The show has amazing cinematography taken from the air, be it by drone or helicopter. There are some episodes that focus solely on some cities as well, but they reuse some footage from the state episode so it can get repetitive. 

Aerial Argentina, Aerial Great Britain, Aerial Africa, and Aerial Ireland are all about their respective countries. While they are not as comprehensive as the Aerial America series, you can still get a chance to travel without leaving the comfort of your home by watching these TV shows. If you watched Aerial Britain, you’ll find out that Scotland will have one episode from the series. It is a small country, but it has definitely more to offer than what is shown in the TV show. 

Every Aerial series has its own unique number of episodes. Argentina only has 2, Great Britain has 2 seasons but around 4 episodes each, while Ireland has only 1 episode in the entire series. Aerial Africa has 6 episodes, which for a continent that big, is not that many. It does NOT cover a majority of the African countries on the continent. Expect the shows to only have the greatest hits of the continent. 

Here are some of our travel posts about the UK and Ireland:

• Where to Go in Dublin Ireland
• Our First Impressions of Ireland
• Ireland’s Ancient East Itinerary
• Expat Journey Through the UK and the USA

How long are the episodes of Aerial America? (travel show on Paramount)

The episodes range from 45 minutes to an hour, depending if you have ads playing in the middle or not. The Aerial America series can definitely set you back more than 50+ hours trying to binge-watch the whole series. Add the other TV shows and it’s definitely 70+ hours that you can spend trying to finish the whole series. 

What is the show Mighty Cruise Ships about? 

Love cruising? Want to know what happens behind the scenes of a cruise ship from an employee’s point of view? This is the show for you. Aside from showing new ships from various cruise lines, the show also interviews employees in a cruise line and they talk about what they do. How does a cruise line manage to turn around rooms in a few hours? How does the ship get all its supplies? All of these get answered!

This show is very binge-able, and every episode is around 45 minutes to an hour, depending if your plan has ads or not. With YouTube TV, you can record these shows and just fast forward to the ads that you don’t want to watch anymore. 

What are the busiest times for employees during a cruise? 

Turnaround day! Everybody in the show says how tough it is to have people leave their rooms at a certain time and prepare it in time for the next people to board. For the cruise directors’ entertainment staff, it is sea days, where there are more activities than usual to keep guests happy and engaged. 

Seriously, Mighty Cruise Ships is an amazing show. I know some cruise lines offer small behind-the-scenes tours per sailing for an additional fee, but with this show, you can see the kitchen, crew quarters, and I-95 areas for the price of your subscription! For Virgin Voyages, the behind-the-scenes tour costs $200 per person, while for Carnival, it is around $100 per person (or less), but no photos are allowed at any time. 

What is the show Mighty Ships about? 

Mighty Ships and Mighty Cruise Ships are almost the same, but Mighty Ships focus more on any other ship that’s not a cruise ship. It could be a warship, a hospital ship, a cargo ship, icebreakers, and more. These are actual working ships that are used in a commercial or defense capacity. Unlike Mighty Cruise Ships, which have no actual passengers, the Mighty Ships show gives a more in-depth look at a working ship, where crewmembers are susceptible to more dangers such as piracy at sea, or actual battle. 

There are some cruise ships peppered into the Mighty Ships series, so those are always a plus, and sometimes they even take you to the design process when a ship is being built in a dry dock. There are more episodes and seasons in the Mighty Ships franchise, and each episode is around 45 minutes to an hour long. 

What is the show Mighty Trains About? 

Trains are underrated here in the US, but anywhere else in the world, they are a travel experience by themselves. The show focuses on some of the most scenic, memorable, or luxurious trains all over the world and there is an actual host that guides you through these trains. Unlike the other Mighty series, Mighty Trains’ host is there on the ground, interviewing the employees and even showing you the cabins or seats that he takes. 

From Europe to Australia/New Zealand, South America, North America, and Africa, the host goes everywhere. And it’s not even all luxury, he even sits in a regular seat on a really long train from Serbia to Montenegro because it was a very scenic train. 

If you love trains or just want to see what else you can add to your bucket list in terms of unique travel experiences, then watch Mighty Trains. It will definitely give you more things to want to experience as you journey from destination to destination. 

What is the show Mighty Planes about? 

Like ships and trains, not all planes are created equal, and this show focuses on airplanes. From fighter jets to commercial planes, cargo planes, and even the exhibition ones, the show covers them all. While Mighty Planes looks the most dated of the bunch, it is still entertaining after all. Some of these planes can’t even take you to a new destination, but learning about their inner workings and the behind-the-scenes is absolutely amazing. 

What is the show Sacred Sites about? 

Some historic sites are also sacred, and this show gives a factual view of these sites. What we see as ruins now were actual working cities before, like Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan in Mexico or Machu Picchu in Peru. 

Every episode focuses on 1 site, with episodes ranging between 45 minutes to an hour. These are also documentary-style shows, which all present facts and the actual history of the place. For example, if you watched the Nazi Secrets episode, it will show multiple sites, but it circles back to one in particular, the Externsteine. The stories are really compelling, and even show obscure places one may not have heard of if it wasn’t for this show!  

Travel Shows to Watch on Paramount+ or the Smithsonian Channel 

There are not a lot of travel shows to watch on Paramount+, but what you can watch are mostly documentaries. If you are a fan of documentaries and love the travel aspect and adding certain experiences to your bucket list, then these shows are definitely for you. 

The more shows that I get to watch, the more that I can get to update the shows on the list, so please check back every now and again to see an updated list. If you have any other shows you know of that I may have missed in this post, please feel free to leave the show name in the comments below and I’ll definitely check them out in my free time. 

Note that because of time constraints, I may not have been able to watch every single episode of every single show that I’ve mentioned here, so have fun binge-watching the series I’ve mentioned if you have the time and resources to spare!