Articles August 5, 2026

Pack Your Bags: 11 Classic Sitcoms With Must-Watch Vacation Episodes

From Modern Family in Australia to The Brady Brunch in Hawaii, these TV travel episodes prove getting away often made for unforgettable comedy.

By Frank DeCaro

Friends in London, Blossom in Paris, The Beverly Hillbillies in Silver Dollar City — give a sitcom enough time, and it'll eventually ship the cast off to somewhere glamorous.

“Audiences love seeing their favorite people in different environments,” explains Lloyd Schwartz, an associate producer on The Brady Bunch when that classic show headed to Oahu in 1972. “For the network, it becomes a special episode that draws more of an audience. And for the cast, it’s great fun, like a family vacation.”

The most popular TV destinations over the years have included Hawaii (The Jeffersons, Mama’s Family and Cougar Town followed the Bradys there), New Orleans (Designing Women, Gimme a Break, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), Walt Disney World (The Golden Girls, Full House, The Middle, black-ish), London (30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Paris (The Facts of Life, The Nanny, Sex and the City).

But smaller burgs have also starred. Taxi drove to Atlantic City, Bewitched broomed to Salem, Saved by the Bell decamped to Palm Springs and The Office memorably made its way to Niagara Falls for a wet-and-wonderful wedding.

Here are some of the most memorable travel episodes. Most are really, well, trippy.

I Love Lucy, “The Camping Trip” (CBS, 1953)

Photo Credit: *Courtesy of Everett Collection*

She can stomp grapes in Italy, cruise to Cuba and steal John Wayne’s cement footprints in Hollywood, but Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) doesn’t need to go that far to wreak havoc on vacation. On a weekend camping trip, she bags a duck with one shot. But Ricky (Desi Arnaz) suspects fowl play: “Not only did you kill the duck, you knocked his feathers off, and you cleaned it, too,” he says. If only the local butcher hadn’t been so thorough.

The Munsters, “Herman’s Happy Valley” (CBS, 1965)

When the weekend property he buys via an ad in a jiu-jitsu magazine turns out to be a decrepit ghost town, hornswoggled Herman (Fred Gwynne) and his ghoulish relations do what any family of Transylvanian-American weirdos would do: They fall in love with the place! As wife Lily (Yvonne De Carlo) says, “It’s so hard to find a good vacation spot since they closed down Devil’s Island.”

The Brady Bunch, “Hawaii Bound” / “Pass the Tabu” / “The Tiki Caves” (ABC, 1972)

The blended brood heads to the 50th state and soon discovers a cursed tiki that brings all sorts of bad luck. Greg (Barry Williams) wipes out surfing, Peter (Christopher Knight) is terrorized by a tarantula, Bobby (Mike Lookinland) is almost hit by Hawaiian hotel décor and Alice (Ann B. Davis) throws her back out doing the hula! Worst of all, the boys are held captive in a cave by a campy archaeologist (Vincent Price). And you wonder why “aloha” also means “goodbye”?

Laverne & Shirley, “Not Quite South of the Border” (ABC, 1980)

Milwaukee brewery workers Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) can’t afford a trip to Mexico, or even New Mexico, so they settle for Near Mexico. But at a budget resort called Raoul’s by the Bay, the indoor swimming pool is a plastic tub in the lobby, their roommate has “Raoul’s Revenge” and their chamber is missing a key feature. “It’s got no wall,” Laverne says. The airy aerie becomes a privacy problem and a meteorological misadventure when a tropical storm blows through.

The Jeffersons, “Death Smiles on a Dry Cleaner” (CBS, 1982)

George (Sherman Hemsley) and Louise (Isabel Sanford) set sail on a Caribbean mystery cruise for a two-part high-seas whodunit with a whodat? of guest stars including Bernard Fox (Bewitched), Russell Johnson (Gilligan’s Island) and Edie McClurg (Small Wonder) as detective novelists. Weezy calls her husband “Sherlock Stooge” until he figures out that the oversized duchess is actually the ship’s captain (Barrie Ingham) in murderess drag!

Roseanne, “Vegas” / “Vegas, Vegas” (ABC, 1991)

Dan (John Goodman) and Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) trade the lows of Lanford for the lights of Las Vegas when Arnie (Tom Arnold) and Nancy (Sandra Bernhard) decide to get married. When the fighting foursome go to a “Legends in Concert” show, the women think they’re heckling a Wayne Newton impersonator but, instead, it’s the real deal making a cameo appearance. Off screen, another Vegas icon gets even worse treatment: “I just threw up on Paul Anka,” Roseanne confesses.

Absolutely Fabulous, “France” (BBC, 1992)

Photo Credit: *BBC Enterprises/Photofest*

Can two London fashionistas enjoy a week in the French countryside without overindulging? Of course not. “You can’t go to France and not drink,” mag slag Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) tells her bestie Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders). “The air alone is 15% proof.” The two ultra-urbanites are so out of their element they can’t even feed themselves until practical daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha) shows up with provisions. “Rosemary’s Baby has arrived with food,” an ungrateful Pats says. “I hate France,” Eddie gripes. Things start looking up when they get fall-down drunk at a wine tasting.

Everybody Loves Raymond, “Italy” (CBS, 2000)

Meddlesome matriarch Marie (Doris Roberts) has saved for 45 years to take the entire Barone famiglia to Italy. But favorite son Ray (Ray Romano) has one problem with the old country: “It’s all kind of old.” He and wife Debra (Patricia Heaton) squabble — “Don’t fight here; it’s the Coliseum,” Marie counsels — while Robert (Brad Garrett) falls for a gorgeous waitress (Alex Meneses) they call “Gelato Lollobrigida.” At the end of this two-parter, the trip takes a last-minute turn for the burrata when Ray is wowed by the local pizza.

The Big Bang Theory, “The Bakersfield Expedition” (CBS, 2013)

On a weekend road trip to a comic-book convention in Bakersfield, the Big Bang boys detour to a famous filming location — the otherworldly Vasquez Rocks. While they’re taking space selfies in deluxe Star Trek: The Next Generation costumes, their car is stolen, and they’re forced to hitchhike while dressed as Data, Worf, Picard and a Borg drone. “Well, I say that’s the last time we ever go outside,” says a defeated Sheldon (Jim Parsons), while Raj (Kunal Nayyar) asks, “Did we at least rent the car from Enterprise?”

Modern Family, “Australia” (ABC, 2014)

Photo Credit: *ABC/Courtesy of Everett Collection*

Husband Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) and the Pritchett Pack fly to Sydney to celebrate his conception in Australia. He wants to be “Crocodile Dunphy,” but the local fauna blocks his ancestral dream. “How did you get punched by a kangaroo?” wife Claire (Julie Bowen) asks. “Really hard in the face,” he answers. Meanwhile, Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) ditch the family to party with old roommate Fergus (Rhys Darby), an Australian TV personality who promises Hugh Jackman but delivers jack.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “The Gang Goes to Ireland” / “The Gang’s Still in Ireland” / “Dee Sinks in a Bog” / “The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain” (FX, 2021)

The cracked ne’er-do-wells of Paddy’s Pub bring their mayhem to Ireland in a four-part story that sees Dee (Kaitlin Olson) repeatedly hit by speeding cars, Mac (Rob Mac) in the seminary with a pervy priest, Dennis (Glenn Howerton) possessed by a haunted castle and Charlie (Charlie Day) reunited with his long-lost father (Colm Meaney). Meanwhile, Frank (Danny DeVito) is shredding documents to protect — wait for it — Jeffrey Epstein. “We are America, sweetheart,” he tells a local, “and we carry our country with us wherever we go!”

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, issue #7, 2026, under the title, "Tripping Out."