From the bustling streets of São Paulo to the tranquil shores of Vancouver Island, Ernest White II’s journey is more than travel—it celebrates global connections. His travel and lifestyle series FLY BROTHER with Ernest White II has returned to public television for Season 3 and is streaming globally on PBS.
The new season returns to its international focus on friendship, connection, and shared experiences that make the “whole world our tribe.” This season, travel with Ernest to Delhi, Tofino, Brisbane, Saint Croix, Montréal, the Faroe Islands, Jaipur, Québec City, New Zealand‘s South Island by Rail, and Saint Thomas, as he connects with friends old and new for unique, exciting adventures around the globe.
“Way back in 2016, a college buddy of mine reached out and said he was a co-owner of a startup cable channel and wanted to commission me to do a travel series. He couldn’t pay me, he said, but he could teach me about advertising, and it would be a non-exclusive agreement. I immediately rejected the idea: ‘Television? How very dare you! I write lichrachure!’ I said in my very best Received Pronunciation,” White chuckled. “Eight years on and nearly four seasons later, here we are!”
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For those who haven’t caught the series but want to jump right in, White notes, “The episode in Northern Namibia from Season One is one of our best. Amazing storytellers, beautiful landscapes, culture, traditions, history…it’s all there!”
Ernest’s wanderlust kicked in early—around age four or five—when a family elder showed him Africa on a globe and told him that it was across the ocean from his home state of Florida.
“That was probably the earliest inkling of the travel bug showing up in my life,” White shared, “There was also the preacher’s wife at my church who gave me a book called Free Stuff For Kids, which had the names of all the national, state, and local travel bureaus from which you could order posters and maps and pamphlets, and I would call the airline 800 numbers listed in the phone book and order timetables back in the Before Times.
“I’ve always been drawn to geography and history and all the 20th century printed media centering travel, and that’s what really got me into a traveling mood early on. I didn’t take my first plane trip until I was 13, and that was on a puddle jumper from Fort Lauderdale to Freeport!”
From flipping through airline timetables as a child in Florida, his lifelong obsession with geography finally landed him in Vancouver, where he’s found peace in its balance of nature and community.
“I moved to Canada in 2020 while there was great socio-political uncertainty in the US because of the opportunities, peace, and nature I found here.” White said, “It’s still quite close to everywhere I need to be in the US, but I have an amazing community here in Vancouver and love it more every day.”
What does he recommend doing in his adopted city?
“Hike or bike around Stanley Park (even in the rain), caffeinate at Delany’s on Denman, watch the seaplanes take off at Coal Harbour, grab some food and people-watch along Commercial Drive or in Mount Pleasant, grab some take-out sushi from Yamato and have a sundown picnic at Sunset Beach.”
He mentioned checking the times and scratching it altogether if it rained. White likes Vancouver so much that when asked if he could live anywhere in the world, he said, “somewhere on the west coast of Vancouver Island.”
White has mentioned South Africa, São Paulo, and San Francisco are three of his favorite destinations. When asked about these three destinations he noted, “They’re each so unique, but there’s also a resonance that I experience when I’m there. In South Africa, naturally you have the bustle and jolt of Joburg, but it’s the languorous seaside vibes of both Cape Town and Durban that lull me into a beautiful sense of comfort and home.”
“São Paulo remains, for me, one of the most exhilarating cities on earth: it’s full of busy, friendly people with something fun and interesting happening all the time, and just enough grit to feel adventurous and a bit naughty; São Paulo is one of the great loves of my life.
“San Francisco is, in my opinion, the most beautiful city in the United States,” he added. “I don’t care how the media spins it, there is nothing like turning a random corner and seeing a spectacular view of downtown or the bay, or even the ocean when you’re out in the Richmond or Sunset, which were my old stomping grounds. The magical forest of the Presidio is where I first fell in love with nature. If you let it be, San Francisco is a very special place.”
White prefers to pack light for trips, and “never check a bag unless I absolutely have to. This is more about the very little patience that I possess and less about not trusting that my bag will arrive. Packing more than one pair of shoes is the hardest part for me, generally.”
Since White is a savvy and adventurous traveler, we asked him for some out of the box experiences for when on the road, and he mentioned, “I really believe in finding parks, green spaces, and other places to go for a long walk or hike, even if I’m in the middle of a big city. I know it may sound low-key and not all that adventurous, but there really is something spectacular about enjoying nature wherever you can find it. As far as adventurous places go, however: Mongolia, the Faroe Islands, Tajikistan, and Upper Egypt (which means southern Egypt) offer awesome adventures certainly without the crowds.”
Does our well-seasoned traveler have a travel ritual? “I try to catch the sunset at least once wherever I am, and I enjoy a good museum and a good park to walk in.”
For White, travel is more than just a journey—it’s a way of life. His message is simple: the world is vast, but the connections we create can make it feel like home. Sign up for their monthly newsletter on his website to learn more about White’s adventures.
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