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For some reason, Samantha Brown, one of TV’s best-known travelers, frequently forgets to pack a toothbrush.

Not that big of deal really. It’s pretty easy for Brown to purchase a new toothbrush when she reaches her latest destination, and forgetting that basic provision may just free-up valuable memory space. “One time I remembered to bring a toothbrush I forgot like 10 other things,” Brown says with a laugh.

For the last 15 years, Brown has hosted an array of Travel Channel shows, including “Great Hotels,” “Girl Meets Hawaii,” “Passport to Europe,” “Passport to Latin America,” “Green Getaways,” “Passport to China” and “Great Weekends.”

Brown’s latest show, “Places to Love,” debuted earlier this month on PBS. The weekly, half-hour program airs 2 p.m. Sundays locally through March. For the Feb. 4 episode, Brown visits Alabama, with a trip to Huntsville. “Places to Love” season one's 13 episodes also spotlight Houston; Switzerland’s Bern Region; Brooklyn, New York; Shanghai, China; Vancouver; Texas Hill Country; Big Sur and Monterey, Calif.; Xi’an, China; Donegal and Northwest Ireland; Orange County, Calif., Montreal and an “Oregon RV trip."

On a recent afternoon, Brown called in for an interview from her Brooklyn office. Over the phone, she's as irrepressibly pleasant as she is onscreen - sort of like an inverse Anthony Bourdain.

By Matt Wake | mwake@al.com

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Samantha, why did you decide to highlight Huntsville on an episode of “Places to Love”?

What really sealed the deal was I spoke at the big TBEX conference (a 2017 event for travel content creators) there. I was like OK, what’s there to do here? Because I was going to come from pretty far away, I live in Brooklyn, to come to Huntsville, Alabama, I’d never been to the state of Alabama at all, amazingly, and so I just started doing a little research about what do you do while you’re there, because I’m going to try and have fun and meet people and it could be in the show. And so, it was as I started to get to know the town and what was going on there, it became what I thought just an up-and-coming destination that everyone wants to know about. So you’re always as a traveler looking for the next, you know, Asheville, North Carolina, the next Austin, Texas and I thought Huntsville hit the mark.

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Lots of people who are interested in travel watch you on TV. But what shows do you watch when you watch TV?

I love comedies. I only watch comedies because I just want to laugh, so one of my favorite shows is “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” I love “Black-ish.” I love “Modern Family.” They’re all really good shows.

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Where all did you visit in Huntsville while shooting here for “Places to Love” last year? Or at least as much as you can tell us before the episode airs. I’ve seen some stuff online about you visiting the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and Tangled String Studios at Lowe Mill.

Well I can tell you everyplace we went to. So we also did G’s Country Kitchen soul food. And we went to Burritt on the Mountain. What makes this very different from any other travel show that I do is we get to know the effort behind the experiences that travelers can have. At Miss G’s for instance we met Maurice and Greta who own Miss G’s and have owned it for 20 years, and we understand what they did to create a restaurant that totally resonates in a town that has more PhDs than almost any other place in the United States, as well as a community center and everyone can come into this one place and enjoy it the same way.

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When we went to Burritt on the Mountain, I wanted to concentrate on the amazing volunteer effort that this place is known for, over 800 volunteers. I don’t just visit places and say, “Hey this is your experience.” We meet the people who make this experience happen, whether they own it, whether they’re creators, whether their volunteer effort makes it possible. So when we went to the Space & Rocket Center we meet Alex McCool who is part of the propulsion team that put the Saturn V on the moon and we also understand that he’s a volunteer docent, that this man who’s a national treasure is also someone who you can have access to when you travel.

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And we shot at Straight to Ale, this place they turned a junior high school into a bar, which is awesome. [Laughs] But we featured the Free the Hops movement at Huntsville, Alabama and the people who are trying to change the laws so people can have a good beer and the craft beer movement which had been slow-growing in the state of Alabama because of these laws. I always describe ("Places to Love") as a look at that local movement that everybody wants to be a part of when they travel. That authentic movement of meeting locals and going where they go.

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What’s a soul-food item or two you really enjoyed at G’s?

Oh gosh, fried chicken. I’d never had fried chicken like that and I remember Maurice was very busy, he was going table to table and there was something going on in the back, and the fried chicken was sitting right in front of me and Greta’s right across from me and I’m waiting for Maurice to sit down. And I’m just like, “Please Maurice, please hurry” because all I wanted to do was eat this chicken but we had to wait because I wanted the first bite to be on camera. I was born in Dallas, Texas but I grew up in New Hampshire so Alabama is so far what I know. Yet you can talk to people there and eat their food and feel like you’ve gone there your whole life, and that’s why I love soul food restaurants in general and especially Miss G’s and this idea that no matter who you are when you walk through that door you’re still greeted with that, “Hi, honey. What can I get you, sweetheart?” and it just makes you feel like you belong there.

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What factors led to the selection of other destinations besides Huntsville you visit for “Places to Love” season one?

Well the number one reason is budget. What do we have money to do? But I would say number two and ultimately the most important way we pick a destination is we want to show a cross-section of destinations around the globe and give the viewer an idea of what’s possible and also highlight the fact that travel does not have to be bucket-list big to count. There are places that are going to be once in those lifetime trips like maybe Donegal, Ireland or Xi’an China, but then there are the places like Huntsville, Alabama, like Houston, like Brooklyn, like California that you can plan within a year if not a month and that is what’s so important to me is that people just travel. That this doesn’t just seem like travel is for other people, travel is for people with money, who are privileged with time and that this was something accessible to everybody.

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Did you bring any mementos from Alabama back home?

You know I got my kids something … I went to that wonderful general store downtown (Harrison Brothers Hardware), and what did I get them? I think I got rocks, I know that probably sounds terrible. [Laughs] But they collect rocks and so I try to pick up them things that from destinations. Oh, and I took home two stuffed animals, astronauts.

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What’s the biggest air travel faux-pas you see?

I think one of the worst things you can do no matter where you are in the world on a plane is take off your shoes and socks and have your bare feet. I cannot tell you how many times I have looked down at my armrest and I've seen two feet there because the person behind me is using my armrest as their footrest. [Laughs] And I actually have that picture someone, on my Twitter feed, my Instagram feed. And you'll see people take off their shoes. And I did see someone cut their toenails. There's no reason. I've seen people in their socks walk into the bathroom and come back out. That bathroom floor is so dirty with things you don't even want to know about and they've shuffled in just wearing their socks and then they're putting their feet up … So a lot of it's about how people treat their feet when they travel.

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The longest flight you’ve ever been on and how’d you pass your time?

I think it is the longest one in the world, the flight from New York to Singapore. What is that, 18 hours?

Good gosh.

Well, luckily I was flying Singapore Air, which it’s like you enter a spa for 18 hours and you have your own loveseat and it’s wonderful. You actually don’t want the plane flight to end. But sometimes when a network isn’t paying for your $7,000 ticket I think the best way is to if you can wait to the very last moment to board so you’re standing and walking, so whenever I’m in airports and about to do a long-haul flight I just keep stranding and walking and so when I get to that seat I’m so worn out. It doesn’t matter that it’s not comfortable I enjoy sitting down and being there. And so it’s a combination of just wearing myself out physically and then every treating myself like I treated my once-toddler children where every 20 minutes I’m going to do something that keeps me busy, whether it’s something on my Kindle or downloading shows on my iPad or maybe the in-flight television, just keep a roster of things that keep you busy.

Your Twitter bio describes you as the “girl with the best job in the world.” What’s the second best job in the world?

Oh, being a mom.

More: samantha-brown.com