In the almost eight years since BTS (방탄소년단) officially debuted into the K-pop music scene, they’ve garnered a staggeringly large fandom (collectively called ‘ARMY’) and have propelled themselves into international superstardom.
There are a multitude of reasons that ARMYs stan BTS, but one reason that resonates with us all is pretty simple: it’s their personalities.
You might scratch your head and wonder, “how could you possibly know anything about their personalities when you’ve never met them in real life??” Well, we’ve got their overwhelming amount of digital content to thank for that!
Alongside almost weekly videos on the official BTS YouTube channel, they produce their own reality and variety shows!
While there are so many BTS TV shows that we could talk about, we’re going to focus on one franchise in particular in this article: Bon Voyage.
Bon Voyage is BTS’ travel series with each season filmed in a new location. The episodes chronicle the members’ adventures through various cities and the activities that their team has laid out for them.
Of course, being the absolutely chaotic group that they are, their trips are never without a large dose of mishaps accompanied by cheeky antics left and right.
It’s during programs like Bon Voyage (and their extremely popular variety show Run BTS!) where they’re at their most comfortable, allowing fans to get a glimpse of their true personalities – not to mention witness the truly genuine love and respect between the members themselves.
Each season shows how they grow from clueless tourists to experienced travelers, and it’s a truly heartwarming experience to watch.
With that being said, let’s take a look at the most memorable moments from the four seasons of BTS’ Bon Voyage!
Bon Voyage Season 1: BTS in Northern Europe
In 2016, BTS witnessed the beautiful scenery and culture of Norway, Sweden, and Finland over a 10-day trip.
Because this was their first trip with no work involved, they had to handle everything themselves (barring the itinerary itself) without any help from staff or managers.
Needless to say, the mishaps never stopped and it was a chaotic learning experience for them all – especially for V, who had to fly in on his own due to scheduling conflicts!
Here are our top 4 iconic moments:
Jimin losing his luggage almost immediately
As soon as they alighted from the airport bus on the way to their hostel, Jimin walked off to admire the scenery and completely forgot to get his suitcase from the bus storage. 10 minutes later he finally remembered but of course, the bus had already left.
RM, ever the leader, helped to call the consulate and airport bus company but vehemently insisted Jimin go alone to wait for the right bus and pick up his missing suitcase.
Poor Jimin – but the funniest part was him lamenting over his underwear being in the luggage and Jungkook saying, “you can just wash your underwear at night.”
V’s infamous prank camera debacle
Like his best friend before him, V had forgotten his bag – with his money and passport in it – at a restaurant during one of their side trips in Norway. Unbeknownst to him, the camera crew had hidden it as a prank.
With the other members in on the joke, they began discussing what his options were and even had RM pretend to call the embassy. Eventually, it spiraled into an explosive argument between V and Jin, with V exclaiming he’ll just go home and walking off… only to return minutes later with his bag in hand!
As it turned out, he had caught on to their prank halfway through and to get his revenge, double-crossed the members by pretending to storm off. Peak acting from both V and Jin in that scene!
A prank comes true: RM loses his passport
Truly living up to his reputation, RM somehow manages to actually lose his passport in Sweden.
For a while, it looked like there was still hope as he got travel documents from the Korean embassy. Later on, however, as they were enjoying their cruise to Finland, he and the members were informed that those documents would not be honored at the border and that he’d need to fly back to Korea.
It was pretty devastating because they all looked so bummed out that they wouldn’t be able to finish the trip as a complete group.
ARMYs joke that this was “The ‘Lost’ Season” because of how many times the members lost something – because Jimin, V, and RM weren’t the only ones (and RM lost his backpack once, too!).
J-Hope lost their cable car tickets, SUGA thought he lost his iPad, and they all lost track of Jungkook for a few minutes when he disappeared to take photos.
Oh, what did Jin lose? His patience – because everyone kept losing things.
Sauna time!
I was hesitant to include any moments without RM, but their experience at the traditional Finnish sauna was just too funny.
What started as a relaxing session in the sauna room turned into friendly competitions to determine who would have to go into the freezing cold lake.
We all know how utterly hilarious their games can get and this did not disappoint – not to mention the screams of agony from the losers as they waded into the water!
Bon Voyage Season 2: BTS in Hawaii
In between the America and Asia legs of their Wings tour in 2017, BTS was able to take a short 9-day holiday in Hawaii! Thankfully, they didn’t lose a lot of things this time around.
The focus of this Bon Voyage season was “friendship” so they often spent time separately in order to “build up” their friendship: V and SUGA, RM and J-Hope, and Jin with Jungkook and Jimin.
However, these top 3 favorite moments from Hawaii are, of course, when all of them are together!
The chaos at Queen’s Marketplace
Would it surprise anyone to learn that it was Jungkook at the helm of this chaos at the outdoor shopping mall. He decided to give every member a “solo performance”, following them around with a camera and blasting a song from his portable speakers.
The best part was when he tried to pull this off on SUGA, who was chilling with his iced coffee and absolutely did not want any part of it.
Despite the multiple cameras being waved around in his face (as Jungkook was now flanked by J-Hope, V, Jimin, and Jin), SUGA didn’t even budge. What a mood!
In the Behind Cut for this episode, we’re also treated to the gem of Jimin jokingly putting money into Jungkook’s hat as he sat singing on a bench – only for Jungkook to snatch it up and run away with it at top speed.
“What’s your name?” “Pornesian Parrapio.”
The boys took a trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center and the whole experience was full of fun memories.
Among these were the hula dance exhibition by V, J-Hope, and Jimin, Jungkook randomly screaming at the top of his lungs, and V accidentally spilling juice all over Jungkook and turning it into a life lesson with the “that’s just the way it is” line despite Jungkook’s death glare.
The part that has me wheezing, however, is when they went around and changed their names.
J-Hope became J-Dope, Jin became Bread Genie, Jungkook was Justin Seagull, Jimin became J-Move, SUGA became Yeon Kimin, and the most iconic of them all: RM’s Porrrrrnesian Parrrrrapio. The confused shock on Jin’s face was *chef’s kiss*.
The friendship cruise
Make sure you have an entire box of tissues available nearby because I guarantee you’ll be sobbing.
The boys were asked to write letters to another member that they would be reading out loud on the end-of-trip cruise. When that time came, we were treated to one of the most heartwarming interactions between them as all of the letters were overflowing with memories, expressions of love, and overwhelming gratitude for being a friend and inspiration.
One particularly tear-jerking moment was when V read his letter for Jimin, who we all know to be his dearest friend in the group.
V mentioned how grateful he was to always be on the “receiving end” of Jimin’s care and how he was thankful to be able to debut with a friend who understands him “though [he is] lacking”.
Jimin responded that he was lucky to have a friend like V, which caused V (and all of us watching) to burst into uncontrollable sobbing.
Bon Voyage Season 3: BTS in Malta
The boys head back to Europe for Bon Voyage season 3 – but this time on the Southern end to the beautiful island country of Malta!
They stay in the capital city of Valletta and like in Hawaii, go on various “friendship” trips in pairs and groups (that changed up every day), giving them the chance to get to know each other better and perhaps have more serious, heart-to-heart conversations.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane with the BTS boys in Malta!
Reunited once more!
This short but sweet interaction between the members is enough to make your heart flutter with joy.
Due to personal reasons, V was a few days late to the trip and unfortunately, SUGA had to leave mid-trip as well – which meant they would have barely a day together as a complete group. When V finally arrives, you can see the pure joy in his signature boxy smile when he sees the others at their meeting place.
Jungkook is the first to spot him coming and as soon as he exclaims “Taehyung is here!”, the others immediately crane their necks and whip their heads around to find him. They exchange various greetings, with J-Hope even giving him a hug and quick kiss on the head.
They missed each other so much, and that was only a few days apart!
Jungkook and V debut as buskers
On Jungkook and SUGA’s friendship night, SUGA decided to hit the hay early, leaving Jungkook with a flippant “do what you want”. Jungkook took the words to heart and sought permission from a small group of buskers to join them for one song (Adam Levine’s Lost Stars).
Upon hearing that their Golden Maknae was going to busk, Jin and J-Hope ran to show their support. A few nights later, V gathered the courage to give his own short performance on the streets of Valletta, this time to Maroon 5’s Sunday Morning.
Though the two BTS vocalists seemed nervous with their impromptu performance, they were absolutely captivating.
The sky-high dinner
BTS dressed up nicely on the last night, expecting a special dinner – but their production crew had another trick up their sleeve.
The members were visibly nervous when they alighted from the car in front of what seemed like an empty construction lot… only to realize that their special dinner would be taking place on a platform some 40 meters in the air.
After getting over the initial shock and fear, they did end up enjoying themselves. They took turns reading letters they had written to themselves prior, and it was yet another tear-jerking session for the viewers as they each talked about their hardships and questioned their happiness (made even more heartbreaking when you realize later on that this was the time that they were considering disbanding!).
In the end, Jimin asked that they applaud their leader RM who Jimin said when they suffered, RM suffered more.
Bon Voyage Season 4: BTS in New Zealand
In the latest season – and the last one before COVID-19 hit – the boys head to New Zealand, yet another gorgeous destination that many of them had on their travel bucket list.
This is the trip where we, the fans, really got to see how much the boys had grown.
They used to constantly struggle to stay within their assigned budget but now, they were taking turns to pay for meals and pit-stop shopping trips for everyone; they were driving everywhere on their own. And thankfully, they were no longer losing their suitcases, passports, gadgets, or themselves.
Still, it was comforting to see them enjoy the little things and marvel at the beauty of the New Zealand scenery. They may have grown up, but they still haven’t lost that playful nature we all know and love them for.
No one gets left behind – except J-Hope
On their second day, the boys were just driving through the countryside to get to their next destination at Lake Tekapo. BTS are known for pulling mischievous pranks and it was at a gas station that J-Hope was on the receiving end of one.
After shopping for outdoor essentials, J-Hope went back to return something he bought by accident and the other members decided to jokingly leave him behind.
When J-Hope realized what was happening, he looked genuinely affronted and constantly exclaimed his disbelief that they would do such a thing.
Meanwhile, the other members were cracking up, discussing how long they would wait and who would drive back to pick up their stranded member. Poor Hobi!
The day J-Hope, Jin, and V found their courage on the swings!
One major stop on their itinerary was Nevis Swing & Catapult, an outdoor sports company that allows you to, well, swing and catapult over a beautiful valley.
It was just Jin, RM, and of course Jungkook on board at first but after some convincing, J-Hope and finally, V decided to give it a try as well.
Jimin and SUGA adamantly refused, with SUGA saying there was only a 0.1% chance he would ever do it and even announced to the viewers that the time has come when BTS has finally gone insane. To everyone’s surprise, J-Hope and Jin (known to be amongst the group’s cowards) volunteered to go first, followed by RM and V, and finally, daredevil Jungkook (who went the extra mile by doing it upside down).
V seemed to have found his courage while swinging through the air because he volunteered to do the catapult with Jungkook as well! You only live once, right?
Bangtan Snowman + ARMY
They took a helicopter tour in Hawaii and now, they’re taking one over New Zealand. When the choppers landed on the pristine snowy mountaintops, the excitement on all the members’ faces was contagious – especially Jimin’s, who absolutely loves snow!
SUGA immediately grabbed a taste of the untouched snow while Jungkook set about building a giant snowball. While the 95s (V and Jimin) focused on writing “ARMY” in the snow with their footprints, the other members turned Jungkook’s snowball into a snowman’s body. Jin built his head and to round off the look, RM contributed his beanie, J-Hope gave his scarf, and Yoongi gave his sunglasses.
Their unadulterated joy at playing in the snow is a moment that we ARMYs often like to look back on.
Their final dinner
It’s always the last special event of the season that stands out and this was no exception. The members enjoyed home-cooked feast care of V, Jimin, and J-Hope and took a trip down memory lane with their earlier songs.
One memorable scene is them jamming to “A Typical Trainee’s Christmas” from their pre-debut days and when Jungkook was still a sub-rapper – the shock and embarrassment on his face when his rap verse came on and the members burst into laughter at hearing his young voice!
They ended the night with another round of their favorite game UNO and it may have been their most chaotic, most extra UNO round yet. A free dinner was at stake, after all, and Jimin and V were so confident that they even bet three free dinners for the members if they lost!
Luckily for them, SUGA was the last man standing and now owes them all a free meal.
All four seasons of BTS’ Bon Voyage series is filled with a healthy dose of both side-splitting and heartwarming moments. It’s through shows like these that we are able to see a more personal and genuine side of BTS that allows us to love them beyond their visuals, music, and talent.
Bon Voyage is available for purchase on the official VLive BTS page.