It was late 2006. While most of us were still watching the Travel Channel to see Samantha Brown check into a mid-range Hyatt, a grainy, chaotic DVD series called the vice guide to travel was quietly dismantling every trope of the genre. It wasn't about the best cocktails in Tuscany. Instead, it featured Shane Smith, Vice’s co-founder, sweatily navigating the border of North Korea or wandering through the world's largest illegal arms market in Pakistan.
It was dangerous. It was often ethically murky. Honestly, it was a total vibe shift that changed how a generation looked at the map.
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Back then, the internet was different. YouTube was a toddler. We weren't saturated with "raw" content yet. So, when these guys showed up in places like Liberia or the radioactive ruins of Chernobyl, it felt like someone had finally ripped the blindfold off. They weren't "tourists." They were something else entirely. Maybe slightly reckless journalists? Or just guys with a camera and a death wish? Whatever it was, the vice guide to travel became a blueprint for the kind of gonzo, immersive storytelling that defined the 2010s.
What Made the Original Vice Guide to Travel So Different?
If you look back at those early episodes now, the production value is, frankly, terrible. The audio peaks constantly. The framing is shaky. But that was exactly the point. In an era of over-sanitized media, the lack of polish was a badge of authenticity. While Lonely Planet was telling you which hostel had the cleanest sheets, Vice was showing you how to bribe a border guard in a country that technically didn't exist.
They leaned into the "dark" side of the world.
The segments weren't just about locations; they were about subcultures and political fringes. Take the Gun Markets of Pakistan episode. You have Shane Smith standing in Darra Adam Khel, a town where the primary industry is manufacturing illegal replicas of AK-47s. There’s no host in a safari vest explaining the historical context of the Khyber Pass in a calm, BBC voice. It’s just chaos, the smell of gunpowder, and the palpable tension of being somewhere you aren't supposed to be.
The North Korea "Heist"
Probably the most famous entry in the vice guide to travel history is the North Korea trip. At the time, getting footage out of the DPRK was nearly impossible. The Vice crew went in on a business visa, pretending to be interested in trade, and filmed the entire eerie, empty spectacle of Pyongyang.
They showed the "Mass Games"—a terrifyingly synchronized display of thousands of people—and the bizarre, empty restaurants where the waitresses seemed like they were performing in a play. It wasn't "balanced" journalism. It was a subjective, terrified, and fascinated look at a hermit kingdom. People watched it because it felt like a heist movie, not a documentary.
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Why We Stopped Traveling Like That (And Why We Miss It)
Eventually, the brand grew. Vice went from a scrappy Canadian magazine to a multi-billion dollar media empire, and with that growth came a shift in tone. The "Guide to Travel" evolved into HBO’s Vice and eventually Vice News Tonight. The stakes got higher. The "gonzo" element started to feel a bit like a gimmick to some critics, who argued that the hosts were often putting themselves at the center of the story rather than the people living in those conflict zones.
There’s a valid critique there. Sometimes, the vice guide to travel felt a bit like "disaster tourism."
But you can't deny the impact. It paved the way for creators like Anthony Bourdain to get even more experimental with No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Bourdain himself often credited Vice for pushing the boundaries of what travel television could be. He saw that people were tired of the "hidden gems" and wanted to see the "ugly truth."
The Legacy of the "Vibe"
Today, we see the DNA of the vice guide to travel everywhere on YouTube.
- Independent creators like Bald and Bankrupt or Indigo Traveller basically use the same playbook.
- They go to "no-go" zones.
- They talk directly to the camera with minimal editing.
- They focus on the gritty, the weird, and the forgotten.
The difference is that now, everyone has a 4K camera in their pocket. Back in 2006, seeing a guy get drunk with North Korean minders was a legitimate cultural event.
Navigating the World Post-Vice
If you're looking for the vice guide to travel today, you’re mostly looking at an archive of a specific moment in time. The world has changed. Many of the places they visited are either more accessible now or, tragically, in much worse shape. Traveling to Syria or Yemen in 2026 isn't just "edgy"—it's often impossible or requires a level of security that negates the "scrappy" feel of the original series.
However, the ethos remains. People still want to see what’s behind the curtain.
We’ve moved into an era of "Extreme Accountability." In the original series, Shane Smith could get away with a lot of "cowboy" behavior. Today’s travelers are expected to have more cultural nuance. You can’t just roll into a slum in Monrovia and treat it like a movie set. The audience is smarter now. They want the grit, but they also want the context.
Is "Vice-Style" Travel Still Possible?
Sorta. But it’s more expensive and complicated. The days of just showing up and winging it in a war zone are mostly over unless you want to end up as a headline yourself.
What the vice guide to travel really taught us wasn't that we should all go to North Korea. It was that travel should be uncomfortable. If you aren't a little bit nervous, are you even traveling? If you aren't seeing the parts of a city that the tourism board wants to hide, are you actually seeing the city?
How to Apply the Vice Philosophy Without Dying
You don't need to find an illegal arms market to capture the spirit of that old-school Vice energy. It’s more about a mindset. It’s about rejecting the curated, Instagrammable version of a destination and looking for the friction.
- Stop using "Top 10" lists. If a place is on a TikTok "must-see" list, it’s already been sterilized. Go three blocks in the opposite direction.
- Talk to people who aren't in the service industry. Don't just talk to your waiter or your tour guide. Talk to the guy fixing the street or the grandmother sitting on her porch.
- Accept the "Bad" Days. The vice guide to travel was full of missed connections, bad food, and sketchy hotel rooms. Those are usually the best stories. If everything goes perfectly, you didn't have an adventure; you had a vacation.
- Research the "Why," not just the "Where." Understand the political tension of a region before you arrive. It makes the mundane details feel significant.
The Ethics of the Gaze
We have to talk about the elephant in the room. The vice guide to travel was often accused of "poverty porn." There is a very thin line between documenting a struggle and exploiting it for views. As a traveler in 2026, you have to be hyper-aware of this. Taking a selfie in a trash heap isn't "edgy"—it's gross.
Real "Vice-style" travel is about being a witness, not a protagonist. It’s about showing the world as it is, even when it’s ugly, without making yourself the hero of the story.
Actionable Steps for the Modern Adventurer
If you want to experience the world with the same raw intensity that the original vice guide to travel captured, you need to change your toolkit.
Research via Niche Forums, Not Blogs
Skip the glossy travel sites. Look at Reddit threads for expats living in the city. Read local news outlets (use a browser translator). Find out what people are actually complaining about in that city. That’s where the "real" story is.
Follow the Conflict (Safely)
Use tools like the CFR Global Conflict Tracker or the State Department’s travel advisories. Not to avoid places entirely, but to understand the risks. There’s a difference between a "Level 3" warning due to petty crime and a "Level 4" due to active civil war.
Document the Mundane
The best parts of the Vice guides weren't always the explosions. They were the shots of a weird grocery store shelf or a bizarre local TV show playing in a bar. Capture the textures. The peeling paint. The way the light hits a dusty bus station.
Go Solo (Sometimes)
Group travel is a filter. It buffers you from the environment. When you are alone, you are forced to interact with the world around you. You become more vulnerable, which is exactly when the most interesting things happen.
The vice guide to travel might be a product of the mid-2000s, but the desire for "truth" in travel is permanent. We are tired of the filters. We are tired of the staged joy. Sometimes, we just want to see the world with its shirt off, sweating and yelling, just like Shane Smith in a Pakistani gun market.
Go find the friction. Just remember to bring your passport and a healthy dose of skepticism.