travel man vienna

Joe Lycett shows us how to get the most out of some of the world's most popular mini-breaks

Richard goes to Vienna with comedian Chris O'Dowd to sample the sausages, cakes, wines and spirits. The pair also take a hot-rod tour, visit a fairground, the Freud museum and the city sewers.

Jessica Fostekew and Joe enjoy volcanic vino and cactus croquettes on their Canarian caper

Adam Buxton and Joe explore Czech sights, eat sausages from skulls and hop into a beer spa

Desiree Burch joins Joe in Rovaniemi for aurorae-gazing and sleigh-riding shenanigans

Alan Davies and Joe traverse around Trieste and shoot the breeze at the Wind Museum

Joe and Asim Chaudhry visit an underwater museum and a world-famous skatepark

Joe and Roisin Conaty enjoy a culinary horse-carriage tour and a spot of musical cycling

Joe and comedian Mawaan Rizwan spend two days sightseeing, swimming and swigging stout

Sarah Millican joins Joe for hot air ballooning, cepelini dumplings and gira in Vilnius

96 Hours in Rio

Joe and Stephen Mangan visit Christ the Redeemer and cook Christmas dinner Brazilian-style

Joe and Katherine Parkinson sample local beers and explore Antwerp's subterranean tunnels

Joe and Mo Gilligan get hands-on with halloumi and sample a 24-carat gold ice lolly

Aisling Bea joins Joe for some Croatian cooking, paddleboarding and a visit to Froggyland

The Basque Country

Joe and James Acaster bask in Bilbao's art, kalimotxos and foodie capital San Sebastián

96 Hours in Iceland

New host Joe Lycett is off on his debut voyage to Iceland with comedian Bill Bailey

Richard and Ellie Taylor team up for a two-day meander rich in art, history and ham

Richard and Joe Wilkinson whizz round the historic Polish city, with art nouveau and vodka

Richard and Lou Sanders have a blast in Bergen, Norway

A Game of Thrones tour and a trip to a cursed island with Stephen Merchant

Richard Ayoade and Bob Mortimer go for a spin round cosmopolitan Hamburg

Richard and Alice Levine - DJ, broadcaster & podcaster - do Estonia's capital in 48 hours

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Visit the travel man webpage for detail on all locations and activities featured in the show travel man website, people also watched, comedian bill bailey explores the vast, epic, extraordinarily beautiful state of western australia on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure down under bill bailey's australian adventure, comedians eddie kadi and guz khan immerse themselves in the exclusive millionaires' playground of ghana's capital, accra, exploring its rich culture and lavishly luxe lifestyle my super-rich holiday, tv royalty ricky tomlinson and sue johnston explore the nostalgic and the new on a very special road trip across the country, to the places that shaped their lives ricky, sue and a trip or two, after a lifetime exploring the uk's countryside, matt baker crosses the atlantic to experience rural life in the usa matt baker's travels in the country: usa, eighty-seven-year-old adventurer tim slessor sets out to recreate his own 1955 record-breaking drive from london to singapore - in the same badly behaved old land rover. what could possibly go wrong the last overland, a look at the great british holidaymaker abroad - at the largest all-inclusive resort on spain's costa del sol the secret life of the holiday resort, the greek island of zante is the most searched-for destination by young brits. here are the stories of the holidaymakers and workers who made it to zante for summer 2021. party island: summer in zante, hajj - the great pilgrimage to mecca - is a journey that every muslim, with the means to, must make before they die. this series examines what this means to a variety of believers. the hajj: the greatest trip on earth.

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Travel Man: 48 Hours in...

British comedian Richard Ayoade and a celebrity guest, usually from the comedy world, spend 48 hours in a popular city to discover the must see tourist attractions. British comedian Richard Ayoade and a celebrity guest, usually from the comedy world, spend 48 hours in a popular city to discover the must see tourist attractions. British comedian Richard Ayoade and a celebrity guest, usually from the comedy world, spend 48 hours in a popular city to discover the must see tourist attractions.

• Richard Ayoade
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• 31 User reviews
• 1 nomination total

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“Travel Man,” Richard Ayoade’s Travel Show for People Who Hate Travel

By Sarah Larson

There are many kinds of travel shows—just as there are many kinds of travellers—and many ways in which they can intrigue or repel us. This summer, I watched quite a few, as I was taking an uncharacteristically ambitious trip and wanted a sense of what I was in for. I set my DVR to auto-record shows about Copenhagen, the Faroe Islands, Tuscany, and France, and then marvelled at the breadth of its harvest. There was “ The Wine Show ,” in which the actors Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys bopped around Tuscany, sampling vintages and rolling a wine barrel up a hill; the peppily question-and-answer-filled “ Curious Traveler ,” with Christine van Blokland, punctuated with “Huh?” and “Ah!” sound effects; “ Parts Unknown ,” Anthony Bourdain ’s singular cultural reconnaissance via food; and the ubiquitous Rick Steves , bringing his bountiful tips and deflatingly Stevesian sensibility to every corner of Europe. All of this was informative but alienating: these travellers were nothing like me, and I wouldn’t travel like them. It was hard to imagine myself in their shoes. Then I discovered “Travel Man.”

“ Travel Man: 48 Hours in . . . ” is a British series in which the comedian, writer, actor, and director Richard Ayoade spends forty-eight hours in a city, accompanied by various friends—“some of the most available and affordable names in light ent,” as he puts it—and tells us about what to do there. “Mini-breaks are a swirling nebula of nonsense!” he says at the top of “ Copenhagen ,” during a brisk montage of him in Venice, Copenhagen, Vienna, and Moscow. “How can anyone go somewhere new and be expected to enjoy themselves without a decade to decompress?” Exactly , I thought. This is the show for me. Ayoade is perhaps best known from the beloved British sitcom “ The IT Crowd ,” in which he and Chris O’Dowd co-starred as I.T. guys, and for his films “ Submarine ” (2010) and “ The Double ” (2013), which he wrote and directed. “Travel Man” began in 2015, as a spinoff of a show called “ Gadget Man ,” which Ayoade had taken over, as host, from Stephen Fry . He’s far more ubiquitous in the U.K. than he is in the States, but he seems due for an American embiggening .

On “Travel Man,” Ayoade is fun to look at (snappy suits, thick-framed glasses, expression of amused diffidence) and fun to listen to. (Of a monastery turned hotel in Naples, he says, “As well as modish guff, like a rooftop pool and a spa, it retains attractive old shiz, like staircases dug into the hillside.”) His persona is warmly amused, broadly skeptical, and gently astringent—i.e., British. He’s not a joiner. His intros conclude with him saying, in that episode’s particular city and with that episode’s particular guest, “We’re here, but should we have come?” It’s a refreshing tone for a travel series—somewhere between jumping in with both feet and looking askance at everything on earth, including the notion of fun on a weekend getaway. Where Rick Steves adopts an attitude of agreeable derring-do—in Siena, while wearing a Drago contrada neckerchief at a Drago contrada feast before the inter- contrada horse race, Steves says, “Even if I don’t fully understand what’s happening, the excitement is contagious and the wine is delightful!”—Ayoade does things like approach a toboggan on a snowy Norwegian hillside while muttering, “Generally, anything that requires a helmet, I avoid.” He makes it known that he’s happiest in bookstores, not in pre-vomit scenarios or places where lots of people are screaming, and then dutifully boards a hundred-year-old wooden roller coaster in Tivoli Gardens, looking apprehensive.

“Travel Man” is helpful, too. Ayoade gives practical information up top, such as the city’s population, the annual number of tourists, and historic cultural distinctions—which include, for Copenhagen, “Hans Christian Andersen, Sandi Toksvig , Lego, the pedal bin, and my old adversary, the pH scale.” Little price tags pop up onscreen to indicate how many pounds things cost—flights, hotels, food, handy gear. Whether it’s relevant to you or not, the practical information helps create a vivid impression. Ayoade and his guest tend to stay in hotels that are unusual and fancier than I can afford, but pleasing to vicariously enjoy. “The luxury Belvedere suite offers a well-wide view of Vienna, as well as a display hammock,” Ayoade says, entering his hotel room. “But I have no time for display hammocks!” He bats aside the hammock as he breezes past it. “Unpacking squanders time and is a bourgeois indulgence,” he says, briskly hanging up his clothes rack-cum-duffel bag (“£90 approx”). He sometimes claims the fancier lodgings for himself, part of an amusing recurring tactic of being discourteous to his companion. (His comic rudeness can remind me of Jemaine on “ Flight of the Conchords ,” if Jemaine were not such a dim bulb.) In Vienna, Ayoade has “arranged something bespoke,” outside, for Chris O’Dowd: an Airstream trailer from 1952. (“I know how much you like to be near a major highway,” he says.) In Marrakech, when Stephen Mangan, trying to navigate them out of an alley, says, “My map says that way, but my heart says that way,” Ayoade, beaming, replies, “Let’s go with the map, rather than your rotten heart.”

Having a companion join in, besides providing “the illusion of bonhomie,” as Ayoade says, is a smart way to offset the slightly embarrassing explanatory nature of a travel show—there’s less of a false intimacy between viewer and host. Instead, we see Ayoade and friend in action together, bombing around town via bicycle, funicular, hot rod, tank taxi, horse-drawn carriage, camel, Vespa, or tuk-tuk (“Lisbon’s steep slopin’ need not ruin your scopin’,” he says). The show’s editing of their adventures is energetic, occasionally near-Eisensteinian; it feels efficient and encourages the notion, however accurate, that travel is bracing and jolly. Ayoade and friend combine visiting attractions that we would expect, like the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (“It calls for a brief pause in glibness”), with the less expected: golfing in Tenerife, a doll hospital in Lisbon , a cave tour in Slovenia. The show’s most famous scene is undoubtedly its hair-raising trip to a Vienna snow-globe museum —I’ll let you discover it for yourself—but that episode features an equally funny scene at the Sigmund Freud Museum, during a conversation involving Darth Vader’s helmet.

“Travel Man” is not necessarily best enjoyed in a binge. (There are nine short seasons and three Christmas specials.) Too much at once can highlight the effort involved in its stars’ banter, and you occasionally worry that Ayoade’s companion won’t be quite as fun as he is, a worry that is sometimes justified. But enjoyed responsibly, the potent, savory series provides what you most seek from a travel show: a sense of a place and an idea of how you might find yourself in it. It combines TV’s particular efficiency in revealing the sights and sounds of a destination with the sense of what an amiable neurotic might experience there. At this point in my year, having long since returned from my adventures in Europe, I am mere months into the decade I’ll need to decompress from even one fjord. Part of that process involves recreational “Travel Man,” where Ayoade adventures so I don’t have to. “This is the sexiest place on the planet,” a Miami skipper tells him proudly, on a boat tour. “People come here to have a good time and let loose and have fun.”

“Sounds like hell,” Ayoade says.

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Travel Man: 48 Hours in...

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Richard goes to Vienna with comedian Chris O'Dowd to sample the sausages, cakes, wines and spirits. The pair also take a hot-rod tour, visit a fairground, the Freud museum and the city sewers.

What places were visited?

City airport train - cat.

Top Things to Do

Top Museums

Naschmarkt Guide

Austrian Foods to Try

Best Restaurants

Nightlife in Vienna

Best Places to Taste Wine

Best Time to Visit

Weather & Climate

Public Transportation

Airport Guide

48-Hour Itinerary

48 Hours in Vienna: The Ultimate Itinerary

TripSavvy / Christopher Larson 

Vienna is one of Europe's most alluring capitals. It's a mid-sized city that punches well above its weight, boasting superb architecture, fine local cuisine and wine , arts and nightlife scenes that are both enviable—not to mention a remarkable quality of life. Smaller and more manageable than many European capitals, Vienna can be fully enjoyed in as little as 48 hours.

Keep reading for our suggested two-day itinerary, and experience the best of the Austrian capital with stops at Hofburg Palace, Naschmarkt, and Secession Haus. Note that this is a flexible, self-guided itinerary that can easily be adapted to suit your budget, personal tastes, and local weather conditions.

Day 1: Morning

TripSavvy / Ursula Schmitz

10 a.m.: After arriving at Vienna International Airport or a local train station, head to your hotel and settle in. We recommend a hotel that's within or close to the city center so you spend less time getting from one major attraction to the next. Even if your hotel doesn't allow for early check-in, most will happily let you drop your bags off at reception and head out to enjoy your morning. Leave them behind if possible—and begin your adventure in the Austrian capital right away.

Your first stop is the Hofburg Palace , a vast, sumptuous reminder of the powerful Imperial family that once ruled a large part of the world from Vienna. Today, it's a seat of democratic government in Austria.

You could easily spend a whole day exploring the Hofburg's 2,600 rooms,19 lavish courtyards, and three major collections; but you'll only have a few hours today, so you'll need to work your way through the palaces in a more selective fashion.

We recommend purchasing the "Sisi ticket" —which give you full access to the Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum (focused on the legendary Empress Elisabeth), and the Silver Collection—and focus your visit around key highlights. You can also  download free audio guides for use on your phone in advance of your visit.

Day 1: Afternoon

TripSavvy / Christopher Larson

1 p.m.: It's time for lunch, and we recommend you reserve your appetite for a proper Viennese-style feast that includes coffee and dessert at the end. There are many great restaurants in the city center , but we especially recommend booking a table (several days in advance if possible) at one of two places for your first day.

Café Central , a mythical Vienna coffeehouse and restaurant frequented by famous denizens from Sigmund Freud to Leon Trotsky, is a must-see if you want to get a taste of the city's old-world cafe culture. Settle in for a plate of wiener schnitzel, Austrian-style goulash, or a hearty salad, then try a wiener melange (a foamy, creamy coffee similar to a cappuccino) paired with a slice of apfelstrudel (apple strudel) or cake for dessert.

If you prefer something a bit more contemporary—and full of sun on a nice day—head over to the Palmenhaus Brasserie. This picturesque restaurant is housed in the city's historic botanical hothouse, nestled at the edge of the Burggarten gardens. High ceilings, large tables, abundant light, leafy plants, and a menu that blends Austrian and Mediterranean style cuisine make for a memorable lunch.

2:30 p.m.: After lunch, walk or take the tram to Stephansplatz and marvel at the Gothic-style St. Stephens Cathedral . The cathedral began construction in the 12th century and boasts the tallest tower in the capital. Admire its delicately colored, chevroned rooftop tiles, which can be seen from afar on a clear day. If you have the energy and ability, climb 324 stairs to the top and enjoy fantastic panoramic views over the city.

4:30 p.m.: From here, head over to the Secession Haus to admire a multi-paneled, enigmatic mural from Austrian painter Gustav Klimt entitled "Beethoven Frieze". Before you enter the curiously beautiful building, take note of its distinctive architecture, whose facade is decorated with gold lettering, foliate patterns, and a golden dome that many liken to an ornate egg.

It was here that the work of Klimt and other members of the so-called "Secession" movement in fine art was first displayed. The building itself, which also hosts interesting temporary exhibits, is emblematic of one of Austria's golden ages in art and design.

( Note: The Secession Haus closes at 6 p.m. and is open Tuesday to Sunday. If arriving on a Monday, you can always move this activity to the following day.)

Day 1: Evening

 Don Smith / Getty Images

7 p.m.: Have dinner at a typical Austrian table or a more contemporary restaurant. In the mid-range, we recommend Lugeck , a stylish yet relaxed bistro owned by the Figlmuller restaurant group. The menu offers a wide choice of Austrian-style and fusion dishes, as well as a long, painstakingly chosen wine and beer list. Try a glass of Austrian white wine, asking the friendly staff for suggestions if you'd like a bit of guidance.

Alternatively, to go all out and taste Austrian cuisine at its most creative and delicious, head over to the Stadtpark district and book a table at Steirereck . This is a Michelin-star restaurant that's widely credited with boldly reinventing typical Austrian cuisine. Try to get a table overlooking the park and the water for some spectacular vantages.

9 p.m.: After dinner, we recommend a leisurely stroll through the old city center (Innerestadt). Make sure to dress warmly to protect against the cold if you're visiting in the late fall or winter. Particularly arresting at night, the historic center features a number of architectural styles, from Baroque to neoclassical and Art-Nouveau. Some beautiful buildings and places to visit on a self-guided walking tour of Old Vienna, including the State Opera (Staatsoper), City Hall (Rathaus), the MuseumsQuartier (Museums District) with its enormous outdoor terrace, and the Anchor Clock (Ankeruhr), a colorful mechanical clock that was created in 1913.

Afterward, if you're interested in a nightcap and have the required energy, grab a glass of wine or cocktail at one of the city's best bars and nightspots. We especially recommend leaving the tourist-heavy historic center and checking out bars in the adjoining 7th district . The neighborhood known locally as "Neubau" is full of arty, intimate places for a drink or live music.

Day 2: Morning

8:30 a.m.: Your day starts off on an early but delicious note with breakfast at the Naschmarkt, a permanent market filled with bustling, colorful stalls. While some say it's gotten a tad too touristy in recent years, you'll still find plenty of locals noshing on large breakfasts (accompanied by Viennese coffee, of course) and stocking up on fresh produce, spices, and other goods. For good breakfast choices, try Market or Neni am Naschmarkt . For more options, see Nasckmarkt's full list of vendors.

10 a.m.: Take subway line U4 (U-Bahn) from the Karlsplatz station to Schonbrunn, then walk 15 minutes to the palace (following the signs). You can also take a tram from the U-Bahn station to the palace (line 60 or 10) if you don't wish to walk.

Schönbrunn Palace is another of Vienna's remarkable Imperial-era residences, and once served as the summer home of the powerful Hapsburg family. It was initially built as a hunting lodge, at the end of the 17th century. In the 18th century, Empress Maria Theresa expanded it to make it the family's permanent summer residence.

If you want to see the palace's 40 most impressive rooms—including the Imperial Apartments, Staterooms, and banquet halls—we recommend taking the Grand Tour of the palace . It only takes about an hour but offers an excellent overview of Austrian imperial history, not to mention intriguing details on daily life during the Empire's powerful rule.

Just make sure to also reserve adequate time for the lush green spaces surrounding the palace. A stroll through its immense gardens , recently named as a Unesco World Heritage Site, offers just as much joy and adventure as touring the historic palace. Reserve plenty of time to explore the elegant parterres, groves, statuary, maze, orangery, and onsite vineyard—a historic winemaking plot that still produces small amounts of white wine and sells the bottles in an annual charity auction.

Day 2: Afternoon

1 p.m.: We suggest a light lunch or snack at one of the many cafes and eateries at the Schonbrunn Palace. Wherever you eat, make sure to leave room for scrumptious afternoon tea, coffee and typical Viennese chocolate cake!

3 p.m.: Catch the tram and subway back to the city center, getting off at Karlsplatz once again. Walk five minutes to the Hotel and Café Sacher, where you can enjoy a slice of the aforementioned, legendary Viennese cake, coupled with a hot drink (reservations are strongly recommended during peak season).

The Sachertorte is an emblematic local dessert with a surprisingly controversial history. The dessert is a rich chocolate sponge cake thinly layered with apricot jam, and topped with a firm, cold chocolate icing. Sacher claims to have created the original cake in 1832, contending that competitor Demel's similar dessert is a mere copy. The Demel version features only one layer of apricot jam, rather than two—something it claims is an improvement on the Sachertorte.

Locals often enjoy arguing over which version is better. If time (and appetites) allow, we encourage you to visit both Sacher and Demel, claiming your own stake in this longstanding, wholly amusing "cake war."

5 p.m.: If you've tried both cakes in one afternoon, you'll need a digestive walk about now. We recommend a stroll through the Mariahilf district, with the shop-lined Mariahilfestrasse its central artery. Make sure to explore the winding cobblestoned streets off the major thoroughfare. Here, you'll stumble upon well-preserved neo-Renaissance churches, street art and murals, and residential buildings featuring ornate Art Nouveau-style design elements, as well as independent galleries, cafes, bookshops, and bars.

Day 2: Evening

7 p.m.: You'll probably want a lighter dinner tonight, having indulged in afternoon tea and cake. Make your way over to The View Restaurant and Bar . It's perched right on the Danube and offers spectacular views over the water and city beyond. The menu offers a large variety of salads, soups, seafood, and other light fare, and is also noted for its excellent list of Austrian and international wines. Reservations are recommended in high tourist season.

Alternatively, if you wish to skip sit-down dinner and instead board an evening cruise on the Danube, you can board a three-hour sightseeing tour of the city's waterways and locks . This cruise departs at 7 p.m. from the Wien boat station at the Schwedenplatz subway and tram stop and travels through the city center and past the impressive Reichsbrücke bridge. You can book in advance online or purchase a ticket before boarding. The boat has an onboard restaurant where you can purchase drinks, snacks or full meals.

9 p.m.: If you haven't opted to take the night cruise (and especially if you're visiting late spring to late summer), consider a walk on the Danube near Schwedenplatz, where you'll find numerous waterside bars, cafés, and pop-up beaches.

Try after-dinner drinks at Motto am Fluss, an enormous, boat-like restaurant with picture windows moored at Schwedenplatz, and popular for its 1950s Venetian-style decor. The sprawling terrace is idyllic, and packed with people, on a warm summer's day. In the summer, make sure to explore the Danube's pop-up beaches . The Strandbar Hermann is especially popular, with its sandy canal-side seating, late-night food menu, and cool cocktails.

20 Top Things to Do in Vienna, Austria

The Top 10 Austrian Foods to Try in Vienna

Vienna Guide: Planning Your Trip

Getting Around Vienna: Guide to Public Transportation

Vienna's Naschmarkt Market: The Complete Guide

The Top 10 Museums in Vienna, Austria

The 10 Best Places to Taste Wine in Vienna, Austria

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Den of Geek

Travel Man’s Best Episodes: feat. Bob Mortimer at the E Numbers Museum and the Happiest Richard Ayoade Has Ever Been

They went, but should they have gone!? Travel Man is back with brand new episodes!

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Since 2015, there’s been no need to go on a minibreak to a cultural European destination. Richard Ayoade and Joe Lycett have gone for us. They’ve waited at airport security lines displaying their miniature toothpaste tube in a clear plastic bag. They’ve bought mystery crisps from railway vending machines. They’ve been to the museums, tried the local delicacies and gone on the sightseeing tours, so that we could stay luxuriously put.

Indeed, for a good chunk of 2020, staying put was the only option, which is when Travel Man: 48 Hours In… really came into its own. During lockdown, you could spin the globe, choose a location, load up All4 (as it was then known), and have a packed weekend there from the comfort of your sofa. All the experience of short haul travel with none of the having-to-mime-migraine-symptoms-to-a-Hungarian-pharmacist. Bliss!

Now Travel Man: 48 Hours In… is back with four new Joe Lycett-fronted episodes starting on Friday March 22 at 8.30 p.m. on Channel 4 and Channel 4.com. Joe’s guests this time around are comedians Alan Davies, Desiree Burch, Adam Buxton and Jessica Fostekew. While Davies, Burch and Fostekew are all Travel Man first-timers, this is a repeat visit for Adam Buxton, who also went with Richard Ayoade to Lisbon back in 2016.

Respectively, the new travel guests are being taken to Italy’s Trieste, Finland’s Rovaniemi, Czechia’s Prague, and the Canary Island of Lanzarote. Expect a visit to the wind museum, scenes of eating sausages out of skulls, volcanic wine and some sleigh-riding (not necessarily in that order).

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To celebrate the show’s return, let’s salute some of its most entertaining trips from previous series.

10. Hamburg with Bob Mortimer

Adding “…with Bob Mortimer ” to anything makes it better. (Try it. The One Show… With Bob Mortimer. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire… With Bob Mortimer. Year 10 Parents’ Evening… With Bob Mortimer.) That’s definitely the case on this 48-hour stint in Hamburg, the high point of which has to be the visit to the German Food Additives Museum. It starts off niche, and just gets more niche from there as Mortimer encourages Ayoade to ingest out-of-date E numbers. A solid best-of list entry.

9. Amsterdam with Joe Lycett

Here’s the point at which Travel Man ’s producers must have scribbled down the note ‘ Joe Lycett – new host if Richard leaves?’ The two have more in common than you may think – they’re both sardonic clothes horses who run on irony – but while Ayoade’s persona leaves little room to express genuine delight, Lycett is a joy machine. We see it here when he’s confronted by a Dutch street organ that plays Wham. Immediately, he starts to jig, hands held aloft screaming “I feel so alive!”, while Ayoade nods along barely perceptibly. A strong audition for the main part.

8. Moscow with Greg Davies

Worthy of celebration solely for the local outfit Greg Davies wears at the traditional steam bath: a kind of toga worn with – as the Taskmaster describes it – a hat that makes him look like a sinister children’s character. Add to the outfit the ‘being whipped by two men using birch branches’ treatment that Davies volunteers to undergo, and we are entertained. See also: space food.

7. Split with Aisling Bea

This is Aisling Bea’s second time as a guest on the show and both are good fun, but this pips the other because it features what is officially the most adorable Travel Man sequence of all time: Bea and Joe Lycett walking extremely sweet rescue dogs from a local animal shelter along a dedicated dog beach. As Lycett puts it, “it’s the cutest day I’ve ever had and that’s saying a lot.” If a tiny puppy stand-up paddle-boarding doesn’t do it for you, then there’s also strudel-rolling, a fish cookery class, and a museum of frog taxidermy that genuinely makes you worry for humanity. Clearly mates who get on, these two are great company.

6. Copenhagen with Noel Fielding

The happiest Goth on Earth in the happiest place on Earth? That’s what you get with Noel Fielding in the Danish capital. The Mighty Boosh star giggles his way through open sandwiches, bakery windows, a beer museum and a tiny rollercoaster. They both love the fairground, and both appear to provoke genuine antipathy from their cycling tour leader Mike the Bike (he doesn’t like trouble), who makes every effort to ditch them mid-tour. The chemistry is good, the mood is… as relaxed as Richard Ayoade appears to get (key quote from Fielding: “I thought this was going to be a holiday, not one of your weird, anally retentive fright-fests.”) And they’ll always have Galoppen.

5. Berlin with Roisin Conaty

In which: they travel in a jazz lift, very much almost die on the road in what was voted the World’s Worst Car of 1975, improvise a blues jam session, and go to a bowling alley. Not a bowling alley but a kegelbahen, where Richard Ayoade appears to reveal genuine anger and a surprisingly intense competitive streak (plus a serviceable Daniel Day Lewis impersonation) when he refuses to leave until he gets a strike.

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Comedian, writer and actor Roisin Conaty makes an excellent audience for Ayoade’s patter, awkward Kula Shaker jokes, and the break’s Cold War theme in general. He’s great, she’s great, and it just works.

4. Hong Kong with Jon Hamm

An extended-length Christmas special, this is a joy of an hour. Watch as the former star of Mad Men and the former host of The Crystal Maze take a ludicrously short journey in a Rolls Royce, have their portraits ripped out of paper by an artist named “Uncle Man”, and get a foot massage – or, as Ayoade describes it, “an onslaught of unparalleled brutality”. (Squirming and grimacing under the touch of his masseur and telling him to stay the heck away is as aggressive as you’ll see the man). The best bit? When they get measured for dandy bespoke suits with which they are clearly – and rightly – overjoyed.

3. Ibiza with Jessica Knappett

Companionable banter is all very well, but sometimes it’s fun to witness a clash of personalities so extreme you wonder if it’ll end in violence. And that clash isn’t just Ayoade (sardonic, reserved) vs Knappett (wahey-the-lads! ‘BEEFA), but Ayoade vs Ibiza itself. Put simply, the party island/hippy hangout is his nightmare, and this episode features genuine appeals to camera for rescue. From what? From a gong bath, a surfing machine, the hotel where Wham’s Club Tropicana video was filmed, and from a hotel manager who insists on taking them to a place “where membership is a smiling face.” Despite Knappett’s appeals for Ayoade to have an open mind and go with the flow, his mind remains resolutely closed and stressed, and it’s quite a lot of fun to watch.

2. Miami with Rhod Gilbert

There’s no personality clash here. Ayoade and Gilbert are like two complementary grape varieties blended into the same refreshingly dry wine. It’s a wine that you’d think would be too acerbic for Miami’s brand of relaxed Cuban cool, but you’d be wrong. Humidity aside, they both have a great time on the Florida coast. They eat crab meat lollipops that cause Ayoade to break out in a spontaneous smile, and which Gilbert describes as the most amazing meal he’s ever had in his life. They wear crab bibs, are rubbish at beach yoga, nervous of alligators, live it up at a domino game and sip drink thick, sweet coffee and freshly squeezed juice you feel like you can taste. A beautiful combination.

1. Vienna with Chris O’Dowd

The best Travel Man episodes are the ones where chemistry between host and guest really chimes, and here, it’s unimprovable. This trip to Vienna with his The IT Crowd co-star Chris O’Dowd is the happiest Richard Ayoade has ever looked on screen – possibly the happiest he’s ever been in life? Perhaps that’s down to the relief of not having been the one to have accidentally smashed a snow globe in Vienna’s national snow globe museum (O’Dowd is now banned from Austria). Or perhaps he’s just relaxed, having fun and enjoying making his pal laugh over partially fermented grape juice and cheesy sausage. They eat apple strudel, drive hotrods, explore the sewers and ride a Ferris wheel as part of a locations tour for The Third Man , and generally have a lovely, lovely time.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Dublin with Mawaan Rizwan who is cute as a button and really did not enjoy wild swimming.

Milan with Morgana Robinson whose superior pasta-making skills leave Ayoade humiliated.

Iceland with Bill Bailey for boiling eggs in a geyser, the Icelandic punk jam and the hot tub hats.

Stockholm with Sally Phillips for Ayoade’s obvious discomfort and Phillips’ obvious joy at the ABBA museum.

Porto with Nish Kumar for Nish’s excitement about his religious wax buttocks.

Dubrovnik with Stephen Merchant for them going on the Game of Thrones locations tour without having seen Game of Thrones .

Travel Man: 48 Hours In… airs on Fridays at 8.30pm on Channel 4. All episodes are available to stream in the UK on Channel4.com . Series one to seven are available to stream on Plex and Prime Video in the US.

Louisa Mellor | @Louisa_Mellor

Louisa Mellor is the Den of Geek UK TV Editor. She has written about TV, film and books for Den of Geek since 2010, and for…

Travel Man: SerieS 7

Episode one .

Richard Ayoade returns, delivering the definitive guide to a minibreak in Switzerland's largest city. Joining him for fondue, hot chocolate, Dada and footie is Frank Skinner. HOTEL: 

​The Widder Hotel  https://www.widderhotel.com/en/home/ FOOD AND DRINK: 

Rivella - widely available. Fondue at Raclette Stube:  https://www.raclette-stube.ch/ Muesli & Hot Chocolate at Café Schober:  http://www.conditorei-cafe-schober.ch/pages/kondit_rest/konditorei_restaurant.html ACTIVITIES:

Grossmünster Church:  https://www.grossmuenster.ch/en/   FIFA Museum:  http://www.fifamuseum.com/   Cabaret Voltaire:  http://www.cabaretvoltaire.ch/en/   Heureka Machine:  https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/attractions/heureka-jean-tinguely   Stoos-Schwyz Funicular:  https://stoos-muotatal.ch/en/   Swiss Army Knife Valley Center:  https://www.swissknifevalley.ch/en   Chaise Longue: University of Zurich (Atrium of the main building) Ramistrasse 71   Retro Pedalo on the Lake:  http://www.bootsvermietung-zuerich.ch/

ExcluSive Deleted SceneS

EpiSode Two 

Richard and comic actor Jessica Knappett tour the White Isle of the Med - taking in some alfresco art, deluxe cocktails, an exclusive supper club and a hippy gong bath. HOTEL:  ​Pikes Ibiza  https://pikesibiza.com/ FOOD AND DRINK:  Social Dining experience at The Ibiza Food Studio – La Finca http://ibzfoodstudio.weebly.com/ Flao and Café ​Caleta at Sa Caleta –   http://www.restaurantesacaleta.com/es/index.php ACTIVITIES: Land Art installation '‘Time and Space’  Address: 07829 Sant Josep de sa Talaia, Balearic Islands, Spain 2CV Hire from Ducks United http://ibiza.ducksunited.com/ Hierbas Workshop http://www.drinkworkshop.com/hierbas-workshop/ Gong Bath http://www.kosmasolarius.com/gong-master Flowrider https://www.surfloungeibiza.com/enflowrider  

EpiSode Three 

Richard and Eddie Izzard take in lovely Ljubljana; local tapas and orange wine; and make a trip to the stunningly beautiful Lake Bled. HOTEL:  Vander Urbani Resort  http://vanderhotel.com/ FOOD AND DRINK:  TaBar Restaurant  http://www.tabar.si/ Mlekomat – Milk Vending Machine  ​ http://www.mlekomat.com/en/ ACTIVITIES: Water Fountain Tour http://www.vo-ka.si/en/drinking-water-fountaines Kavalir  https://www.visitljubljana.com/en/visitors/explore-the-region/traffic-and-transport/kavalir-getting-around-the-city-centre-by-electric-car/ Straza Bled Toboggan  https://www.straza-bled.si/en/Summer/Introduction/Summer-tobogganing Bled Island  http://www.blejskiotok.si/?___store=botok_en&___from_store=default Bled Cake at Park Hotel https://www.sava-hotels-resorts.com/en/sava-hoteli-bled/gastronomy/the-park-cafe Ljubljana Castle / Funicular   https://www.ljubljanskigrad.si/en/castle-experiences/  

Travel Man: SerieS 9

Episode four.

Richard and comedian Morgana Robinson tour a sweltering Milan, taking in paintings, a musical pasta-making lesson, and a drink in the smallest bar in the world. HOTEL:  Atellani Apartments  http://www.atellaniapartments.com/en FOOD AND DRINK:  Luini’s Panzerottis http://www.luini.it/   Il Cucinista Cooking School https://www.facebook.com/ilcucinista/ ACTIVITIES: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele http://www.turismo.milano.it/wps/portal/tur/en/arteecultura/architetturaemonumenti/monumenti/Galleria_Vittorio_Emanuele_II   Back Door 43 https://www.facebook.com/BackDoor43-357242831139149/   U Barba (cafe bar with bocce court) https://www.ubarba.it/en/ Torre Branca Tower http://www.museobranca.it/torre-branca-2/   Alberto Garutti’s Egg https://www.albertogarutti.it/en/opera/questopera-e-dedicata-a-chi-passando-di-qui-pensera-alle-voci-e-ai-suoni-della-citta/   Vintage Delirium http://vintagedelirium.it/   Canal Boat Cruise http://www.neiade.com/en/visite-guidate/?action=tribe_list&tribe_paged=1&tribe_event_display=list&tribe-bar-search=Navigli

• Coffee House

The Third Man fan’s guide to Vienna

An orson welles pilgrimage.

• 16 April 2024, 4:59am
• From Spectator Life

Jonathan Ray

The greatest movie ever made celebrates its 75th anniversary this year and I’ll be watching it – for the umpteenth time – with appropriately fine fizz at hand. Sorry, what? Oh, come on, I’m talking about  The Third Man . There’s no finer film. I thought everyone knew that.

You know, written by Graham Greene, directed by Carol Reed and set in a battered, broken, postwar Vienna. It stars Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins and Orson Welles as Harry Lime and there’s sterling support from Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee and Wilfrid Hyde-White, whose comic cameo almost steals the show. Vienna is the real star of course, shot in brooding black and white at unsettling angles by Robert Krasker (who won an Oscar for his efforts), and you’ll recognise Anton Karas’s haunting  ding de ding de ding de-ding dum dum dum  zither music if nothing else.

I never knew the old Vienna before the war with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm

The Third Man  is part thriller, part romance, part mystery, part comedy and wholly brilliant. If you haven’t seen it, please do. And if you have seen it, please see it again for it reveals something new with each viewing as, indeed, does Vienna itself, a famously inscrutable city.

I never knew the old Vienna before the war with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm… (Sorry, couldn’t help myself, that’s the film’s first line.) Nope, I don’t go that far back but I do know it a bit, having stayed there often with my bonkers, beloved late godmother, Sarah Gainham, once of this magazine and author of a much-lauded Vienna-set novel:  Night Falls on the City .

Prompted by TTM ’s anniversary, I went back the other day and stayed at Hotel Die Josefine, a deliciously eccentric boutique hotel on Esterhazygasse, blessed with a fabulous roaring twenties-style basement cocktail bar – Barfly’s. I barely made a dent in its list of 400 cocktails, 500 rums and over 1,200 whiskies, but knew in a trice that it was my kind of place. I couldn’t stop smiling.

My first stop was the Prater with its giant Ferris wheel (once the world’s tallest), upon which Martins and Lime ride and where Lime delivers Welles’s famously improvised lines about Switzerland and cuckoo clocks. I did one gentle circuit on the wheel, hummed a bit of Karas and bought myself a disgustingly tasty  käsekrainer  at Bitzinger’s Würstelstand before heading off to meet Gerhard Strassgschwandtner, founder and proprietor of The Third Man Museum near the Naschmarkt.

It’s a bit homespun, the museum, but for  Third Man  obsessives like me, utterly absorbing. There are over 3,000 original items on display, including shooting scripts, cameras, props, costumes and clapper boards, Karas’s original zither and uniforms, posters and literature from the Four Power occupation of Vienna. It’s gripping stuff.

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Few Viennese have seen – let alone heard of –  The Third Man , but the delightful Gerhard knows it inside out and has developed a walking tour, complete with invaluable paperback guide, that takes in all its major locations. I begged him to show me just a couple and saw the manhole through which Lime scrambles down into the sewers; Lime’s apartment at 5 Josefplatz and – most thrilling of all – the doorway in which we first glimpse Lime in the shadows, the cat toying with his shoelaces. I felt childishly excited.

So excited, in fact, that I had to ground myself with some fine Viennese beer and so made straight for the Gösser Bierklinik in Steindlgasse. This is as trad a Viennese restaurant as you will find (in business since 1566) and something of a place of pilgrimage for me. I first went with my godmother when I was ten and go back whenever in town. The menu of Wiener schnitzel, sauerkraut, duck and red cabbage, liver and onions, never changes and nor does its dusty décor. There’s a cannonball embedded in the wall (supposedly from the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683) and a model dragon whose mouth opens and eyes flash when you pull its tail. It delights me to do this as much at 64 as it did at 10.

I also like to discover new Vienna and did so via cocktails at Das Loft, a trendy bar on the top floor of a swanky hotel with gorgeous views of the city; the Leopold Museum (the Belvedere ain’t the only place that boasts fine Klimts) and C.O.P. – Collection of Produce – a stunning modern restaurant where I had one of the most enjoyable meals of my life, dining on fire-roasted bone marrow on charred bread; burned beetroots, pickled chicory and labneh; egg yolk raviolo, Jerusalem artichoke cream and sage butter and dry-aged ribeye washed down with 2012 Sonntag geschlossen Grüner Veltliner (I had no idea GV could age so well) and 2022 Markowitsch Pinot Noir.

‘A person doesn’t change just because you find out more,’ says Lime’s abandoned lover, Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli). Well, nor does a city. Vienna remains as beguiling as ever.

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