Trip Flip- Travel Channel

Trip Flip is a travel show where host Bert Kreischer enlists unsuspecting folks to join him on a free mystery vacation. The show is thirty minutes long and is currently seen Sundays on the Travel Channel.

The Setup- There isn't much past that first sentence. Basically some lucky schlubs get a free trip just for being impulsive. The first two minutes always feature Kreischer wandering around some random city screaming about how he wants to give away a vacation and being turned away again and again. Luckily ofcourse someone (usually an attractive couple) says yes. He tels them where they are going, they hug each other, and then everyone jumps for joy. The show picks one city and hits the hot spots.
 The rest of the show they are treated to first class accommodations and unusual if not once in a lifetime experiences in said location. The Seattle episode has Bert taking the couple on the roof of the Space Needle, not the observation deck, the actual roof.
There is lots of hugging, crying tears of joy, and wows dished out every week.

What I love about it- Kreischer is a lovable oaf of a guy whose high pitched squeals of glee and playful exuberance carry the show. Once the host of the inspid Bert the Conqueror, also on Travel Channel, he reappears here in a format well suited to his antics. Some of the things these folks get to do are so cool you stir on the couch in a jealous rage. It's only thirty minutes of frivolity and it's a fine diversion while you wait for the pizza.


What I hate about it- The destinations and experiences vary so much that they help and hurt the show. One week someone gets to swim the Great Barrier Reef the next week they get Salsa lessons in a crummy looking LA restaurant. It seems to my conspiracy tuned mind that fat, ugly, and old people say no to Bert and young attractive people say yes. There is a very contrived feeling to the selection process.  Bowling with the guy from Mike and Molly was one of the "Once in a lifetime" perks the couple in the LA episode got. I can think of oh maybe ten thousand things to do in LA that are better than that. Rule of thumb, if the destination sounds lame good chance the episode will be too.

7 out of 10 Couch Potatoes. I'd go to a gas station in Buffalo with Bert. He seems like a fun guy to vacation with. If they hit some cooler cities like London, Rome, or Hong Kong instead of Austin and LA you may want to come along every week too.