Quick example: We went to England last year. A lot of what we did were tourist attractions (and you'll note in my post above that I said touristy is fine). But we also took some time out to do a few things not necessarily on the tourist agenda. One of them was a day-trip to Dorking, a little town an hour's train ride outside London that's not exactly on everyone's itinerary. And that turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip as we caught some glimpses of life in a real town, not just the Starbuckses and GAPs around Picadilly Circus (which we also visited). Did that little day trip require us to rough it? Did it require us to be daredevils? Absolutely not. All we had to do was look away from the typical tourist itinerary for a little while.

Example 2: When we visited China three years ago, about half the trip was spent with a big group tour that did all the typical touristy things, which, again, was fine and pretty interesting. However, we also had a nice experience one night when we left the hotel and walked around downtown Hangzhou for a couple hours. We didn't venture down any dark alleys or seedy establishments, just walking down the street with a few hundred thousand other people. We rummaged through the English section of a Chinese bookstore and got a kick out of some of the titles there. We got an even bigger laugh when we went into an underground bazaar with a bunch of stalls, and the "foreigner in the vicinity" alarm went off as the vendors all immediately started shouting good-naturedly to my wife, who is American, trying to get her to buy their stuff. Again, nothing requiring daredevil or putting one's self at risk; just veering a little bit off the beaten path.

And on the subject of travel shows catering to unseasoned travelers, I'm streaming Rick Steves' Europe on Hulu right now, and it struck me how much more informative and helpful that show is than Samantha's Europe series. Imagine that: A show where the host actually gives you tips on how to save a few bucks and a bit of history lesson instead of going, "Check out the $500-a-night room I'm staying in." What Samantha is catering to, more accurately, is RICH, unseasoned travelers.

You're right that the Travel Channel has become very food-focused, which is not necessarily a good thing, even though I'd argue that trying the local cuisine is definitely a big part of traveling. I enjoy Bourdain's show not so much because he chows down or because of his personality, but because he actually makes an effort to show more than a passing glimpse at local life in between the scenes of him eating and cursing.

Finally, you said, "Seems to me Samantha Brown is practicing good safety for herself by not putting herself into harms way." What harm is there, exactly, in trying a dish prepared by one of the top chefs in one of the best restaurants in the country? What harm is there in coming across a spider a good 20 feet away from you? What harm is there in walking through a local street market and seeing meat that hasn't been processed into unrecognizable packages? Sure, tourists should be careful. I won't be camping alone in a jaguar-infested wilderness either. But when I'm staying in a novelty hotel? With a chaperon, not to mention an entire camera crew, right there with me? The more likely harm is to the jaguar than to me in that case.