Recommending “The Best of” anything is a bold claim, especially when travel shows are a dime a dozen. But National Geographic has always been bold. They’ve been publishing their “Best of the World” guide for over a decade, so they know something about curating epic travel experiences. This year, they’ve got Antoni Porowski of Queer Eye fame checking out the best dining, hotels, and activities in Mexico City, Paris, New York, and London.
To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed by the line-up when I saw it. Paris, New York, and London are meccas for every travel show going — they’ve hogged the spotlight for decades, if not centuries. What could Nat Geo possibly unearth that hasn’t already been picked over by every listicle and Insta influencer to boot? So it wasn’t a surprise that the episode I enjoyed most was Mexico City.
Even for Antoni, Mexico City was a first, and each place he visited felt like a genuine discovery. And what a city. Over fifty minutes we go from El Nido de Quetzalcóatl — a serpent-shaped architectural marvel you can actually stay in — to the Arena México, to watch an artform of a different kind: female lucha libre fighters going at it in the ring. Along the way we hear how young Mexicans are reshaping their city and country, breaking away from the tired perception of Mexico as the land of Narcos and nachos.
Something I loved about Antoni’s other travel show, No Taste Like Home, is his interest in immigrant stories. As he reminds us in just about every episode, he’s the child of Polish immigrants, and on that show, he took celebrities like Awkwafina and Henry Golding on journeys to trace how their family histories are bound up with food, memory and migration.
He carries that same interest into Best of the World. Nearly every restaurant, bar, and bakery he visits is run by immigrants, from The Tamil Crown in London serving roti and roast, to the Taiwanese-born bartenders of NYC’s Double Chicken Please. Antoni spotlights how immigrants enrich the places they come to call home, and their stories of remaking themselves somewhere new are universal and quietly stirring.
The other thing that sets the show apart is Antoni himself. Think of the mainstays of the genre: Joanna Lumley, Michael Portillo, Eugene Levy, Griff Rhys Jones. Spritely though they all are, their average age is pushing seventy-plus, and no matter how many times Joanna Lumley declares everything “absolutely fabulous,” watching can feel a little like your grandparents recommending holiday spots.
Antoni is much younger, and a good deal fitter, than the average travel host, which lets the show be more adventurous. He joins a cycling club and power-pedals through Montmartre, then goes open-water swimming in the icy waters of London’s Canary Wharf. And no matter how much Griff or Michael Portillo might secretly fancy it, no producer alive would let either get body-slammed by a luchadora at the Arena México. Antoni does, though, he’s got health insurance.
Ultimately, Best of the World is no stretch the best travel show ever made, but it’s a pleasant escape for a few hours. Antoni is an affable host, genuinely curious and open-hearted about connecting with the people he meets.
If Nat Geo renews it, I hope they ditch the well-worn North America–Europe circuit. The Mexico City episode is the proof: the further off the beaten path, the better the show gets. The world’s a big place, and most of its best cities are still waiting their turn in the spotlight.
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