Despite his objections, Eugene Levy is a thousand feet or so above the Grand Canyon in a helicopter, with only his debilitating fear of heights to comfort him.

Whereas most people who seek out an aerial tour of one of the world’s great natural wonders would be taking in the sights, Levy hasn’t opened his eyes since the chopper took off — and he’d like to keep it that way.

How the celebrated character actor got here, on  “The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy,” is, like most of his greatest roles, a funny story.

In 2020, Levy closed the book on the tremendous success of “Schitt’s Creek,” the riches-to-rags story he co-created and starred in with his son, Dan Levy. His daughter, Sarah, also had a role. The series ended its six-season run with a record-breaking sweep of the Emmy Awards that year, earning Levy his first-ever acting Emmy.

It was a tremendous high for “Schitt’s Creek” to go out on, but it also meant the gold-plated family affair would be a tough act to follow. Fielding numerous offers for his next act, Levy considered a pivot in a more dramatic direction or at least a classy dramedy.

But he got distracted by a most perplexing pitch: an unscripted Apple TV+ travel show.

Originally titled “Room With a View,” the show would have followed Levy as he traveled the world visiting the swankiest hotels –– a nod to his “Schitt’s Creek” character Johnny Rose, who ended the series as a purveyor of roadside motels.

The wrinkle: the 76-year-old Levy is vocal about how much he dislikes traveling.

“For a second, I got excited,” he tells Variety. “Then everything fell into place. Think about this. You are not a good traveler. You don’t love it. You’re not curious. You don’t have a sense of adventure. You don’t like airports. When this thing came up, I couldn’t have tried harder not to take the job, and I didn’t.”

But Apple was persistent. A call with the streamer and the show’s producers allowed him to plainly state all the reasons why he was turning them down. They just heard his objections a bit differently, and came back with a revised vision –– “The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy,” a travel show in which his aversion to adventure is the hook.

In the series, now streaming on the Apple TV+, Levy jets off to eight locations across the globe on a personal journey to figure out why people could possibly want to pack their lives into suitcases, and venture out into the unknown.

“I had to be out there as myself, which is the first time I have ever done that on a job,” Levy says. “Coming from character comedy — as long as I’m in a character that is so far removed from who I am — that’s when I’m most comfortable. When it gets too close to me, I start to shy away.”

Still, he took the job, even if it wasn’t the classy dramedy he’d pictured for his post “Schitt’s Creek” life.

On his itinerary are stops in Finland, Costa Rica, Venice, Utah, Maldives, South Africa, Lisbon and Tokyo, talking with locals and experiencing culturally specific adventures equipped with his authentic brand of sardonic apprehension to every one of them.

The swanky hotels remain part of the deal, with Levy booked into some of the most luxurious accommodations money can buy. In South Africa, he stays at the Kruger Shalati, a hotel made up of 13 train cars suspended over the Sabie River. In the Maldives, he’s one of the very few guests at the Kudadoo Maldives, a literal private island that caters to your every whim.

But to Levy’s surprise, the most transcendent hotel –– and destination on the whole –– was a lot closer to home. So close in fact, he didn’t even need a passport.

In the series’ fourth episode, he travels to Utah, an area rich with geographic wonders and deep roots to the Navajo Nation.

This is the point at which Levy is talked into the dreaded helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon.

It’s a first impression he only remembers in flashes. It wasn’t until well into the flight that he was able to coax his eyes open long enough to take in the view. “For context, I can’t even look over a balcony in an apartment building,” he says, reflecting on the experience.

In the episode, the pilot eventually lands on top of the Tower Butte, a 5,287-foot sandstone summit where Levy gets his first glimpse at a stark environment he never expected to encounter.

“For a place that is not that far from home, the landscape was about as exotic and strange as anything I have ever seen,” he says.

The most comfort Levy finds in the episode is at Amangiri, a luxury hotel and celebrity-favorite destination in Canyon Point, Utah with rooms that range between $3,000 and $4,000 a night. Usually hesitant in new surroundings, he is utterly amazed at the effort taken to blend the hotel in with the sandy hills around it.

But in time, Levy is forced to venture out into the desert to ride horses and herd sheep, all while being warned the desert gets deceptively cold.

All of his activities on the show are far more adventurous than those that typify his usual vacations (sitting by a pool, sitting on a beach). But by the second day, even Levy can’t deny that he is forging a bond with the land unlike anything else he experienced in making the series.

He walks through the slot canyons, which were formed by millions of years of flowing waterways that have long since dried up. He soon meets Navajo guide Mylo Fowler to go stargazing, where he is encouraged to try and feel the spiritual connection between the stars and the land beneath his feet — a relationship central to Navajo culture.

He had done something similar with a tree therapist in Costa Rica a few episodes prior and he was left unmoved. But Levy admits he found the stars compelling.

“I was definitely picking up on the spirituality,” he says. “Before I left for that trip, would I have ever thought I could get hooked in that regard? No. In Costa Rica, I wasn’t getting it. But I definitely felt it in Utah. Out of the eight locations, I would say it was probably the most inspirational for me.”

He also found that connection with the locals, which he certainly wasn’t expecting.

“I don’t have a gregarious personality,” he admits. “I don’t chit-chat easily, I don’t strike up conversations with people I don’t know readily. I knew I would have to do that with this show and, ironically, the most memorable experiences from this trip were through the people I met.”

After he pulls Levy away from the stars, Mylo brings his guest to meet his family, where he is treated to just a glimpse into the Navajo world, including an understanding of the matriarchal community and a cultural hoop dance performed by Mylo’s nephew.

“They were always here; we weren’t,” Levy says of what he learned from Fowler’s family. “They are the people that history has not been very kind to over the years here. And yet, they are the most delightful people who only have a positive vibe about them, and that was a big eye opener for me.”

Levy closes out the Utah episode a little less weary for the road. On the whole, he came away from the eight-episode travel invention a changed man — to a degree.

“This is pushing me to new limits that I think are making my family quite excited,” he says. “It is opening up several doors for me, and I’m glad it happened now before it’s too late.”

But temper any expectation of Levy becoming the next spokesman for a travel website.

“I still lean toward being a reluctant traveler,” he says. “Let’s just say I had great experiences — and I had experiences I’d prefer to not do again.”

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