Rick Steves And Samantha Brown Have Hot Competition With This Celebrity Host's Hip New Show On Traveling Solo

One of the best ways to find travel inspo is by watching a travel show — something about watching a real-life person interacting with the people and things in the world around them brings foreign places to life in a way that pictures and books can't quite capture. And while publicly broadcast shows like Rick Steves' catalogue and Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" make travel both educational and accessible to everyday Americans, a new show on the Roku Channel has just arrived with a fresh perspective that many consider even more enticing.

Hot off the premiere of its first season, "Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross" watches the star of ABC's "Black-ish" set her own course for adventure with style, wit, and a level of personal insight other hosts just can't contend with. The first three episodes, which aired on Friday, July 25, 2025, follow Ross's indulgent adventures through Morocco, Mexico, and Spain, where she brings her viewers inside the world of luxury accommodations, self-care rituals on the road, and what it's like flying with four checked bags.

While Rick Steves can show you how to find a memorable local meal and Samantha Brown will teach you how to travel on a shoestring budget, Ross's show is all about celebrating her fashion, independence, and empowerment as a solo woman of color. In "Solo Traveling's" first episode, shot in Marrakesh, Ross reveals her own elaborate packing ritual as therapy (as the daughter of certified fashionista Diana Ross, it's hard to pack light), discusses the advantages and tribulations of being one's own fashion photographer on the road, and brings a bold sense of curiosity and joie de vivre to each new location she encounters.

Focusing on Ross's own love of living alone and by her own standards, throughout the show, she teases the many ways solo travel can boost mental health by ruminating on her own journey, starting with a trip to the Pink Sands Resort in the Bahamas at age 25. Her style is personal, sometimes even confessional, while filmed on her own iPhone. It's a rare insight into the A-list lifestyle, and a noticeable sidestep to the traditional travel show format of a polished presenter delivering a scripted monologue to the camera while walking through scenery they're not even interacting with.

From the beginning to the end of each 30-minute episode, Ross is loud and proud, bringing her signature, infectious laugh to nearly every interaction, along with an openness and respect for foreign cultures and a willingness to be taught. To Ross, travel is not an escape but a means toward empowerment. "I took my first solo trip when I was 24 or 25 and something clicked," she confesses in the show's intro segment: "I am responsible for my own happiness." The ongoing search for that same self-satisfaction serves as a throughline for Ross's stay in each colorful new setting.

The show aims not to offer practical travel advice, a la Steves or Brown, but to unveil the joys of traveling on one's own terms in a way that's relatable, especially to the underserved segments of women and people of color. The show's narrative reveals how Ross's carefully tended inner world allows her to connect outward. Paired with an impeccable wardrobe and opportunities to show off self-care routines using products from her own Pattern Beauty brand, it's a fresh look at travel tailored to today's modern social-media-savvy audiences.