One thing I’ve realized from finally having the time to catch up on my media queue is how much of the joy of travel comes from anticipating it, the sweet spot between the moment you find out about a place and decide to start planning a visitand your actual departure—all the dreaming that happens in between. While we collectively retreat and wait out this homestay, these are the travel films, books, podcasts, and other immersions that we’re turning to for inspiration and escape.
Watch
Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison went to Nepal in 2018 to attempt thefirst ski descent of the Lhotse Couloir, and their journey is stunningly captured in the short documentaryLhotse. Want to headdeep into the caves of Haiti from the comfort of your couch? Check out , a 2019 Banff Film Festival finalist, where you’ll follow speleologist Olivier Testa, who’s been spelunking thecountry’s caves since 2009. Because the Banff Film Festival tour has been suspended this year, organizers aremaking some of the best shorts available to .
For a film about friendship in the mountains, check out the 2019 Telluride Mountainfilm selection, in which snowboarders Shin Biyajima and Travis Rice explore the steeps of the Japanese Alps. In Camel Finds Water,a favorite of last year’s outdoor-film-festival circuit, surfer Trevor Gordon restores an old boat, then sails it on a maiden voyage from Santa Barbara, California, to British Columbia in search of waves. And if you haven’t seen professional skier Chris Benchetler’s mind-bending tribute to the Grateful Dead, called, which came out last year from Teton Gravity Research, it’s worth a watch, too—whether you’re a Dead fan or just a surf or ski enthusiast.
Read
You can’t read coronavirus news all day and night. May we suggest a good adventure travel book instead? Frank Wolf’s is a collection of stellar travel journalism, ranging from learningabout Viking history while on a canoe trip across Scandinavia to a river expedition in Laos and Cambodia alongside Russian whitewater kayakers. ϳԹr and biologist Caroline Van Hemert’s award-winning , which chronicles her 4,000-mile, six-month-long expedition from the Pacific rainforest to the Arctic coast, just came out in paperback. And don’t miss Darcy Gaechter’s , an account of her harrowing kayaking journey along the Amazon River from source to sea, which was published onMarch 3.
If you’ve decided to postpone your thru-hike until next year, check out , Sarah Kaizar’s love letter to the AT. , by adventure photographer Corey Rich, is a photo book with captivating backstories, like how Rich got the shot offamous climberTommy Caldwellon a portaledge between climbs at El Capitan. And if you want to be convinced that you may be better off staying home, shoulddo the trick; thiscollection of our favorite tales of misadventures featuresWells Tower’s hilarious account of a father-son trip to Greenland gone wrong and Henry Shukman’s bizarre tour of Chernobyl, where he encountered a still radioactive wasteland that had turned into a sanctuary of genetically mutated animals.
Listen
There are heaps of good podcasts out there (including, of course, theϳԹ Podcast), but to hear about the endeavorsof some of the biggest names in the outdoor industry, check outREI’s, withhost Shelby Stanger, who interviews folks like snowboarder and Protect Our Winters founder Jeremy Jones and Hike It Baby founder Shanti Hodges; the, from Mike Powell, a veteran of the ski industry, who speaks to big-name athletesin action sports; and where hosts Jonathan Ronzio and Emily Holland talk to adventure entrepreneurs, filmmakers, athletes, and more.
As the national parks , tune into , recordings from eight parks created by the National Park Service’sNatural Sounds and Night Skies division. For a travel throwback, is a free collection of radio hours that captures what the travel guru does best—sparking fun conversation with experts and callers that goes beyond the surface of places around the world. And if you’re feeling a bit disconnected and taking a lot of long walks, download, hosted by Julia Bainbridge.Whiletechnically about loneliness, the podcast isjust as much aboutsolitude and how certain thoughts and feelings take on a different—and often more heightened—effect when you’re by yourself. Start with the episode on , who chose to live alone in a tent in central Maine for 27 years.
Learn
Why not use this time to hone some outdoor skills, consider a new career path, or save up for a future travel? Photographer Chris Burkard leads a on how to take better adventurephotos. If you’ve long dreamed of a potential profession in the adventure travel industry, Colorado State University offers an (from $749) that covers everything from how tour operators work with public-land agencies to natural-resources management.Or, to plan for an upcomingtrip, consider on how to save money and see the world.
Immerse
Take a digital hike with help from, ranging from Acadia to Zion to Denali. Or check out from the Conservation Fund; staffers hiked through over a dozen protected destinations—like Lewis and Clark National Historical Park in Oregon and DuPont State Recreational Forest in North Carolina—and used Google Maps video technology to capture their wanderings. Then there’s , an outfitter that leads photography tours in Sweden’s Abisko National Park, which recently launched a series of virtual tours of the northern lights.
If you’d rather join others on their journeys, there are a number of documentaries available on YouTube that allow viewers to follow along on long-distance treks, like , which chronicles the adventures of three Marine Corps vets as they hike along the 96-mileWest Highland Way in Scotland. Or accompany professional mountain biker Sam Seward, photographer Dan Milner, and H+I ϳԹs CEO Euan Wilsonas they through the soaring Himalayan peaks of Bhutan.
For fans of livestreams, the options are endless, fromYouTube series of thru-hikes andnature cams that bring the outdoors to you in real time to this soothing from the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California to at the Seattle Aquarium.
Connect
Finally, here are some folks who offer a sense of armchair wanderlust on their social-media channelsin the best way: ultramarathoner , climber, guide and mountaineer, skier, hiker , photographer, runner and activist, snowboarder, filmmaker , and, if you’ve got kids, traveling families like the and the.