No smartphones, no scripts: Raw experience becomes new trend in travel variety shows

From left, Choi Woo-shik, Jung Yu-mi and Park Seo-jun walk through heavy snow in Daegu while looking for a place to stay in tvN’s “Unplanned Trip: Limited Edition.” Courtesy of tvN

By Hankookilbo

• Published May 16, 2026 12:10 AM KST

No advance planning, no phones, and just enough money to get by — just celebrities left clueless about where they are headed, where they will sleep and how they will travel the next day. The rules make traveling painfully difficult, but they also allow genuine experiences to come through on screen.

“Unplanned Trip: Limited Edition” is producer Na Yung-suk’s latest return to the unscripted comedy format, almost a decade after the original “Unplanned Trip” series set in Peru, Laos, Iceland and Africa between 2014 and 2016.

The show premiered on May 3 on tvN, opening with the series’ long-standing tradition of “kidnapping” celebrities. Jung Yu-mi, Park Seo-jun and Choi Woo-shik, while livestreaming on YouTube, are suddenly forced into an impromptu domestic trip and a set of rules: Their phones are confiscated, each person receives a daily budget of 100,000 won ($67) and they must travel to a different city every day.

Throughout the trip, the celebrities face one unforeseen event after another. After spending half their daily budget, the three take the train to Daegu, only to find themselves struggling through the heaviest snowfall in 25 years, their clothes soaked as they wander the streets looking for a place to spend the night.

The seemingly dire moments deliver unexpected bursts of laughter., such as when Choi desperately searches for new underwear at a convenience store with only 4,000 won left in their purse.

The trip is not all suffering, either. Moments like stumbling on a "pungmul" farmer's band playing traditional instruments in an alley and the warmth of an old neighborhood restaurant all soften the exhaustion of unplanned travel and bring a sense of enjoyment and adventure.

It's not the only series to use the format. Earlier this year, the YouTube variety show “Punghyanggo 2” became a hit by sending cast members on a trip with no reservations and no fixed plan. Its first episode drew 11 million views.

The show follows Yoo Jae-suk, Lee Sung-min, Jee Seok-jin and Yang Se-chan on a trip through Austria and Hungary. Their phones are not confiscated, but most apps are off-limits, except for the camera and basic phone functions. With only guidebooks and paper maps in hand, the four are left to lose their way in unfamiliar cities, asking locals for help as they stumble through small crises and find the joy of travel.

The show was met with praise from viewers, with comments flooding in about the vicarious pleasure of watching a “real” trip — messy, mistake-filled and unmistakably human.

Lee Sung-min’s unexpected charm generated buzz. Usually associated with weighty roles in dramas and films, Lee showed a more down-to-earth side as he threw himself into problems and solved them without hesitation.

His unexpected show of kindness, such as offering his in-flight steak to the production crew, was a bonus adding to the show’s appeal.

Part of the appeal of this format, critics say, comes from viewers’ fatigue with travel variety shows that feel too neatly arranged, too scripted and too free of surprise.

“A trip that follows a set course and script feels artificial and no longer offers anything new,” said Ha Jae-keun, a pop culture critic.

“What matters more in today’s travel shows is not the destination itself, but the raw fun born from accidents and chance, the kind of realism viewers can project themselves into and the storytelling that emerges from encounters with locals.”

This article from the Hankookilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.