Beach hopping

Bridget Marquardt is on a quest to discover the most beautiful beaches in the world

October 02, 2009 08:50 pm | Updated 08:50 pm IST

REFRESHINGLY HONEST Bridget Marquardt

REFRESHINGLY HONEST Bridget Marquardt

“I haven’t done much travelling in my life at all — if you’re seeing these places for the first time, so am I,” says Bridget Marquardt, without any discomfiture. And, she’s the host of Discovery Travel & Living’s new show, ‘Beach Watch’. “So I decided not to pretend. I’m not this know-it-all host walking around claiming to know everything. I want the viewers to learn about the places and their stories from the locals themselves.”

Criss-crossing the globe

Perhaps, that’s what makes this refreshingly honest television host so endearing. Venturing outside the Playboy Mansion to discover the most marvellous beaches in the world, Bridget Marquardt criss-crosses the globe — to places such as Australia, Croatia, Jamaica and Barbados. During her rigorous seven-month shooting schedule, she would visit more than 70 beaches, sample the cuisine, learn the language, experiment with the local apparel, and try her hand at the local sports.

Bridget earned her Master’s Degree in Communications from California, but life led her to the world of modelling, and to no less than Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Mansion. “But I’ve always wanted to host my own show,” she says. “And imagine being offered a chance to travel to the most spectacular beaches in the world, as part of work!”

The seven months would see her do everything from diving with sharks in Hawaii, to cuddling Koalas in Australia. “In fact, there were a lot of things I had to do that were dangerous, but I turned nothing down,” she asserts.

“But there’s one thing I can’t stress enough; having travelled so much, I know how polluted most of these places have become. Everywhere we went, locals would tell us how different it was, just a few years ago. For instance, most of Morocco’s shorefronts are completely swamped in plastic.”

She hopes that just seeing the immense beauty of these places will make people want to do something about it.

And yes, India’s beaches are very much on her list of places to visit. “I will make it there for the second season,” she promises.

The twelve-part series ‘Beach Watch’ premiered on Discovery Travel & Living on October 1 at 10 p.m.

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