Samantha Brown

Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown - Episode 28: Amsterdam, The Netherlands/Holland
$9.99
Samantha Brown covers areas and sites not always mentioned by others like Rudy Maxa and Rick Steve's and the Globetrekker series. We watch all of them. She shows hotels and gives good traveling advice for tourists. We like to pretend we are visting there with her and always have a great time.

Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown - Episode 14: Barcelona, Spain
$9.99
It is a nice general documentory of Barcelona, but I can not relay on it to plan my future visit to the spain city. Too much effort is placed to make the dvd interesting , but not detail data on tourist attractions are provided.

Passport to Europe: Seven Fabulous Cities
$14.99
I thought this might be interesting to see, seven cities in Europe. I was extremely disappointed. The superficial approach that the author takes is utterly boring.
Her comment, "Barcelona is my favorite city, this is the third time I've been here..." Blah, I've been there once and have a better appreciation of Barcelona than she does. Barceloneta is a wonderful corner of the city, it's narrow streets and small cafes and restaurants are to be experienced and explored. She plops down in one of the fancy restaurants on the waterfront completely without character or interest.
Her statement about Gaudi's thankfully unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, was even further off the mark. Once visited you understand why the poor man jumped in front of a bus so he wouldn't have to complete this hideous work. There was no way to finish it. Most people in Barcelona, if she would have asked, would have told her the same thing.
Rick Steves may be a bit dorky, but he's nice in his own way, he gives the viewer a small peak of what it might be like to live in the places he visits.
Samantha Brown makes you feel like you are in a bad movie like "If this is Thursday it must be Belgium". It was and I wish I could have gotten off sooner.
Don't view this, don't buy this, don't throw your money away on this DVD. It was a total waste of time. Save your money, go to Europe, experience it for yourselves.

Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown - Episode 1: Rome, Italy
$9.99
This DVD is a great overview of Roma. It is ideal for a first time visitor as it covers the highlights. The other reviewer seemed to think it was not good for the first time visitor, but I'm not sure how it could be more general. Also, it is a 24 minute television program that doesn't claim to be geared to the budget traveler, so I just wanted to refute the other reviewers comments as it is exactly what it claims to be...an informative travel dvd.