Travel America

Trae and Corey will take you from the smallest of small towns to major US metropolises (or is it metropoli? We haven't a fartin' clue!). They'll even cross the pond to sip tea in some of them fancy kings-and-castles places that PBS Viewers Like You can't stop yapping about. From Chickamauga to Cheyenne, New York to New Orleans, Seattle to Scotland—no matter where these two wandering jesters go, there's something to roast, something to toast, and something to learn about what ties us together as humans. Even the most outrageous of us.

The great unknown of the Southwest is conquered by a one-armed man and his crew of adventurers, placing the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon on the map of the American continent. It is a journey no human being had ever made before. Dangerous rapids, narrow canyon walls offering no escape, terrifying river waterfalls, capsized boats, near drowning, lost equipment and disillusioned men are dramatically described by John Wesley Powell, leader of this adventurous party.

During its heyday, the Chelsea Hotel in New York City was a home and safe haven for Bohemian artists, poets, and musicians such as Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, and Dee Dee Ramone. This oral history of the famed hotel peers behind the iconic facade and delves into the mayhem, madness, and brilliance that stemmed from the hotel in the 1980s and 1990s.

Home to the giant tortoises that gave them their name, the Galapagos Islands lie one thousand kilometres off the coast of mainland Ecuador. The famous group of islands remained untouched by humanity for thousands of years, being only charted in the seventeenth century. Two hundred years later the stunning wildlife provided Charles Darwin with the perfect place to work on his theory of evolution. Darwin’s book ‘The Origin of the Species’ was partially inspired by his trip to the Galapagos.

In the heart of South America lies the Pantanal, the largest freshwater wetland system in the world. An area the size of France, most of the wetlands lie in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. Often overshadowed by its more glamorous cousin The Amazon, the Pantanal actually has the greatest concentration of wildlife in the Americas. And environmentalists say it is in just as much ecological danger as any of the world’s rainforests.

Imagine more than a million litres of water dropping each second from cliffs up to 80 metres, or 262 feet, high. Such an image may seem like an impossibility, but such is the majesty of South America’s Iguazu Falls. More expansive than both the Niagara Falls in North America and the Victoria Falls in Africa, The Iguazu Falls is a network of more than 275 falls covering many acres.

A centre for indigenous Peruvians and Bolivians and the second largest lake in South America, Lake Titicaca is probably best known for its spiritual significance to the Incas. It is one of the highest navigable lakes in the world standing almost four thousand metres above sea level and the mysteries in its depths still draw thousands each year to the sacred site.

Cider is the quintessential American beverage. Drank by early settlers and founding fathers, it was ubiquitous and pervasive, but following Prohibition when orchards were destroyed and neglected, cider all but disappeared. In The Cider Revival, Jason Wilson chronicles what is happening now, an extraordinary rebirth that is less than a decade old.

When fly-fishing guide Rusty Wilson decides he's tired of listening to others talk about their Bigfoot stories and instead wants his own encounter, a strange series of events leads him into the wilds of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, with an eventual rendezvous in the rugged mountains of Montana.

Visiting Costa Rica on a budget is a dream come true! You can surf at the beautiful sandy beaches, hike amazing trails complete with waterfalls, and eat the best homemade food in the world. With its hospitable people, amazing ecotourism, and something new around every corner, Costa Rica is the perfect journey for the traveler on a budget. In my audiobook, Thrifty Traveler’s Guide to Costa Rica: A Perfect Journey for the Budget Traveler, I will show you how to have the vacation of your dreams while saving a buck or two.

Ever since I cycled down the west coast of Canada and the United States as a means of saving the bus fare on a round-the-world trip, I dreamed of cycling the whole length of that landmass, from the southern tip of South America all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. Returning home to a job I didn’t enjoy, that dream burned at my mind until, as a mature student in 1999, I was given the opportunity to take a year out and decided now was my time.

From blue bells to armadillos, and the San Antonio River Walk to Cadillac Ranch, here's the inside story about the very things that give the state its character. Did you know that Texas has more bird species than any other state? That Texas is the largest producer of oil and gas in the United States and the nation's leader in pickup sales? That Texas has museums and larger-than-life statues that honor native sons and daughters such as Lyndon B. Johnson, Barbara Jordan, Buddy Holly, and J. Frank Dobie?

This beautiful literary collection explores the spectacular natural features of Yosemite through the eyes of some of the most extraordinarily talented writers. In 1851, Lafayette Bunnell chronicled his travels with the Mariposa Battalion, the first non-natives to visit Yosemite Valley. Following in his footsteps, Theodore Roosevelt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Clarence King, Frederick Law Olmsted, Joaquin Miller, and Horace Greeley made their pilgrimages and were moved to recount their observations. Included here as well is the work of John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.

Disillusioned with corporate London life and with no previous experience as a long-distance cyclist, Anna decides to clamber atop a beautiful pink bicycle (named Boudica) and set out on an 11,000-mile journey on her own, through each and every state of the USA. Dodging floods, blizzards and electrical storms, she pedals side by side with mustangs of the Wild West, through towering redwood forests, past the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains and on to the volcanos of Hawaii.

Charles Darwin was just 22 when he went on his first voyage around the world in 1831. Darwin's father at first refused to allow his young son to go on the voyage. Fortunately, his father relented, and Darwin's journal is now considered by many to be the greatest scientific travel narrative ever written.

In recent years, Billy Connolly has had more than his share of challenges - in 2013 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer (he's now been given the all clear); on the same day he was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson's disease. But being a determined 72-year-old, Billy won't let the illness put him off one more exploration of the country he knows and loves so well.

"In mid-July of 1879, John Muir sailed for the first time through the sheer-walled fjords of Alaska's Inside Passage. 'Never before this,' he wrote, 'had I been embosomed in scenery so hopelessly beyond description.' During the previous 15 years, Muir had vanished into the north woods of Canada, walked a thousand miles from Kentucky to the Gulf of Mexico, and nested himself in the granite heart of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Wild nature burned with volcanic intensity in the core of John Muir's soul."

Alaska and Canada are possibly two of the most picturesque places in North America. They are both great places to travel to get away from it all and simply take a breath of fresh air. There are breathtaking landscapes, wilderness, Northern lights, beautiful glaciers, and laid-back cities to visit. For many good reasons, Alaska and Canada are on the top of many travelers’ lists.

In this abridgement of River-Horse, the pre-eminent chronicler of American back roads - who has given us the classics Blue Highways and Prairyerth - recounts his singular voyage through American waters from sea to sea. Along the route, he offers a lyrical and ceaselessly fascinating shipboard perspective on the country and its rivers, lakes, canals, and landscapes.

From the Canadian Rockies to the Panamanian jungle, Motorcycle Therapy rumbles with comic adventure as two men, fleeing failed relationships, test the limits of their motorcycles and their friendship. Join the horn-honking, signal-flashing, wheelie-popping pair as they endure painful bee stings, painful snake bites, and (when they talk to girls) painful humiliation.