Globe Trekker (sometimes called Pilot Guides in Australia, Spain and Thailand, and originally broadcast as Lonely Planet) is a British adventure tourism television series produced by Pilot Productions. The British series was inspired by the Lonely Planet travelbooks and began airing in 1994. Globe Trekker is broadcast in over 40 countries across six continents. The programme won over 20 international awards, including six American Cable Ace awards.
Program synopsis Each episode features a host, called a traveller, who travels with a camera crew to a country/major city and experiences the sights, sounds, and culture that the location has to offer. Special episodes feature in-depth looks at beaches, volcanoes, journeys, history, festivals, endangered places and food guides. DVDs of special interest also feature culture, nature and around the world collections.
The show often goes far beyond popular tourist destinations in order to give viewers a more authentic look at local culture. Presenters usually participate in different aspects of regional life, such as attending a traditional wedding or visiting a mining community. They address the viewer directly, acting as tourists-turned-tour guides, but are also filmed interacting with locals and discovering interesting locations in (mostly) unrehearsed sequences. Globe Trekker also sometimes includes brief interviews with backpackers who share tips on independent travel in that particular country or city.
Production details It usually takes 12 to 15 weeks to complete an episode of the show from start to finish, including at least four weeks of research, three weeks of planning and preparation (speaking to tourist boards, making travel arrangements), two to three weeks of actual filming, and three weeks of editing and post-production.
The traveller is often accompanied by five or six members of camera and production crew, who almost never appear on camera. Specifically, the crew consists of a camera operator and a sound technician, plus a producer and a director, who scout locations two weeks before filming. A driver, pilot, or other type of facilitator is often hired locally. A traveller and crew almost never spend more than three nights in one particular area.
Theme music The series is known for its distinctive theme and background music, which consists largely of instrumental downtempo electronic dance compositions containing global folk music elements. Most of the music is written for the show by Ian Ritchie, Michael Conn, Colin Winston-Fletcher, with additional music from Makoto Sakamoto, Nainita Desai & Malcolm Laws, Nomad, Jesper Mattsson, The Insects, The West India Company, Stephen Luscombe, and Pandit Dinesh. Several collection of tracks from the show have been released as albums, including Globe Trekker: Ambient Journeys, Globe Trekker: Earth Journeys (volumes 1 and 2), Globe Trekker: Music From The TV Series (volumes 1 and 2), Globe Trekker: Asian Journeys, Globe Trekker: Latin American Journeys, and Globe Trekker: World Jam.
Presenters Pilot Productions employs several presenters for its variety of programs which include Planet Food, Bazaar, World Cafe, and Treks in a Wild World. This list of presenters is limited to those appearing in Globe Trekker.Hosts pilotguides.com
Jonathan Atherton Danielle Baker Brianna Barnes Estelle Bingham Christina Chang Bobby Chinn KT Comer Bradley Cooper, who hosted a number of episodes in the early 2000s before achieving success as a Hollywood actor Mark Crowdy Zoe D’Amato Andrew Daddo Tyler Florence Neil Gibson Nikki Grosse Zay Harding Katy Haswell Judith Jones Padma Lakshmi, who would go on to host major productions such as Top Chef Megan McCormick Shilpa Mehta Holly Morris Eils Nevitt Zoe Palmer Merrilees Parker Alex Riley Sami Sabiti Justine Shapiro Lavinia Tan Adela Úcar Lucille Whitney Ian Wright Matt Young
Reception In 2020 The Washington Post listed the show, as hosted on the Vudu video streaming service, as one of the best adventure travel television shows.
Episodes
During the course of the series, 248 episodes were produced.
Season 1 (1994) # Title Presented by 1 "Indonesia: The Eastern Islands" Mark Crowdy 2 "Pacific Islands: Fiji, Vanuatu & The Solomon Islands" Ian Wright 3 "Africa: Zimbabwe, Botswana & Namibia" Andrew Daddo 4 "Morocco" Ian Wright 5 "South East Australia" Ian Wright 6 "Ecuador & The Galapagos Islands" Justine Shapiro 7 "Vietnam" Justine Shapiro 8 "Japan: Tokyo to Taiwan" Ian Wright 9 "La Ruta Maya" Justine Shapiro 10 "Alaska" Ian Wright 11 "North East Brazil" Ian Wright 12 "North India: Varanasi to the Himalayas" Andrew Daddo 13 "Jamaica" Ian Wright
Season 2 (1995) # Title Presented by 1 "Israel & The Sinai Desert" Justine Shapiro 2 "East Africa: Tanzania & Zanzibar" Ian Wright 3 "Central Asia" Ian Wright 4 "The American Rockies" Ian Wright 5 "South West China" Justine Shapiro 6 "Chile & Easter Island" Ian Wright 7 "South India" Justine Shapiro 8 "Baja California" Ian Wright 9 "West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso & Mali" Justine Shapiro 10 "Trekking in Uganda and Zaire" Nikki Grosse 11 "Turkey" Justine Shapiro 12 "Corsica, Sardinia & Sicily" Ian Wright 13 "Iceland & Greenland" Ian Wright
Season 3 (1996) # Title Presented by 1 "New York City Guide" Ian Wright 2 "Syria, Jordan & Lebanon" Ian Wright 3 "Argentina" Justine Shapiro 4 "Ethiopia" Ian Wright 5 "South Africa & Lesotho" Justine Shapiro 6 "Cuba & Haiti" Ian Wright 7 "Philippines" Shilpa Mehta 8 "Outback Australia" Ian Wright 9 "Pakistan" Neil Gibson 10 "Peru" Neil Gibson 11 "Northern Spain" Shilpa Mehta 12 "South West USA" Justine Shapiro 13 "Hungary & Romania" Ian Wright
Season 4 (1997) # Title Presented by 1 "North Thailand & Laos" Ian Wright 2 "Central America: Costa Rica & Nicaragua" Neil Gibson 3 "Indonesia: Bali & Sulawesi" Shilpa Mehta 4 "Iran" Ian Wright 5 "Norway" Ian Wright 6 "London City Guide" Jonathan Atherton 7 "Mongolia" Ian Wright 8 "Czech Republic & Southern Poland" Justine Shapiro 9 "Papua New Guinea" Jonathan Atherton 10 "Paris City Guide" Justine Shapiro 11 "Nepal" Ian Wright 12 "Southern Italy" Justine Shapiro 13 "Amsterdam City Guide" Jonathan Atherton
Season 5 (1998) # Title Presented by 1 "Hawaii" Megan McCormick 2 "Finland & The Baltic States" Neil Gibson 3 "West India" Megan McCormick 4 "San Francisco City Guide" Justine Shapiro 5 "New Zealand" Ian Wright 6 "Mexico City Guide" Justine Shapiro 7 "Malaysia & Southern Thailand" Justine Shapiro 8 "Rio de Janeiro City Guide" Ian Wright 9 "Sydney City Guide" Justine Shapiro 10 "Egypt" Megan McCormick 11 "West Africa: Ghana & The Ivory Coast" Megan McCormick 12 "Arctic Canada" Ian Wright 13 "New Orleans City Guide" Justine Shapiro
Season 6 (1999) # Title Presented by 1 "Mainland Greece" Christina Chang 2 "Ireland" Ian Wright 3 "Deep South USA" Ian Wright 4 "Sri Lanka & Maldive Islands" Megan McCormick 5 "Bolivia" Ian Wright 6 "Madagascar" Ian Wright 7 "World Food: Vietnam" Justine Shapiro 8 "Micronesia" Megan McCormick 9 "Cambodia" Ian Wright 10 "Eastern Caribbean" Justine Shapiro 11 "Moscow, St Petersburg and Murmansk" Ian Wright 12 "World History: England" Justine Shapiro 13 "Southern Spain" Christina Chang
Season 7 (2000) # Title Presented by 1 "Queensland and The Great Barrier Reef" Megan McCormick 2 "Georgia & Armenia" Ian Wright 3 "Greek Islands" Megan McCormick 4 "California" Justine Shapiro 5 "Scotland" Megan McCormick 6 "Germany" Justine Shapiro 7 "Central China" Megan McCormick 8 "Venezuela" Ian Wright 9 "Northern Italy" Megan McCormick 10 "Tunisia & Libya" Ian Wright 11 "Tahiti & Samoa" Ian Wright 12 "South West Australia" Estelle Bingham 13 "Portugal and the Azores" Megan McCormick
Season 8 (2001) # Title Presented by 1 "Istanbul City Guide" Estelle Bingham 2 "Beijing City Guide" Megan McCormick 3 "South of France" Christina Chang 4 "Java and Sumatra" Megan McCormick 5 "Kenya" Estelle Bingham 6 "Vienna City Guide" Ian Wright 7 "New England, USA" Megan McCormick 8 "Ultimate Indo China" Multiple Travelers 9 "Rome City Guide" Estelle Bingham 10 "South Korea" Ian Wright 11 "Ultimate Australia" Multiple Travelers 12 "Asian Cities: Calcutta, Shanghai & Bangkok" Multiple Travelers 13 "Southern Mexico" Ian Wright
Season 9 (2002) # Title Presented by 1 "Arab Gulf States" Megan McCormick 2 "Northern France" Justine Shapiro 3 "Tuscany" Ian Wright 4 "London 2" Jonathan Atherton, Megan McCormick 5 "Morocco 2" Ian Wright, Megan McCormick 6 "Washington DC City Guide" Justine Shapiro 7 "Great Festivals 2" Multiple Travelers 8 "Ultimate France" Multiple Travelers 9 "Ultimate Italy" Multiple Travelers 10 "Marrakech and Dubai City Guides" Megan McCormick 11 "Hong Kong & Taiwan" Megan McCormick 12 "World History Middle East" Multiple Travelers 13 "New York 2" Ian Wright, Megan McCormick
Season 10 (2003) # Title Presented by 1 "Tokyo City Guide" Ian Wright 2 "Mozambique" Ian Wright 3 "Cameroon" Zay Harding 4 "South East China" Zay Harding 5 "Ultimate Caribbean" Multiple Travelers 6 "South Africa 2" Justine Shapiro, Sami Sabiti 7 "Belgium and Luxembourg" Katy Haswell 8 "Ultimate Mexico" Multiple Travelers 9 "Pacific North West USA" Sami Sabiti 10 "Florida and the Bahamas" Lavinia Tan 11 "Ultimate China" Multiple Travelers 12 "Ultimate India" Multiple Travelers 13 "Western Canada" Zay Harding
Season 11 (2004) # Title Presented by 1 "England and Wales" Ian Wright 2 "Midwest USA" Justine Shapiro 3 "Venice City Guide" Justine Shapiro 4 "South East USA" Megan McCormick 5 "Civil War Special" Megan McCormick, Justine Shapiro 6 "Malaysia: Penang, Malacca & Borneo" Ian Wright 7 "Indian Ocean Islands" Ian Wright 8 "New Zealand 2" Ian Wright, Zay Harding 9 "Chinatown Special" Multiple Travelers 10 "Beirut City Guide" Multiple Travelers 11 "Ultimate UK" Multiple Travelers 12 "Great Festivals 3" Multiple Travelers 13 "The Good and Bad Food Guide 2" Multiple Travelers
Season 12 (2005) # Title Presented by 1 "Sweden and Denmark" Megan McCormick 2 "Spanish Islands" Alex Riley 3 "Las Vegas City Guide" Ian Wright 4 "Galleons, Pirates and Treasure Special" Megan McCormick 5 "Colombia and Panama" Megan McCormick 6 "Trekking the Turks and Caicos Islands and Walking the Milford Track" Ian Wright, Zay Harding 7 "Ice Trekking the Alps" Zay Harding 8 "Paris City Guide 2" Adela Ucar, Justine Shapiro 9 "Cyprus and Crete" KT Comer, Adela Ucar 10 "Great Journeys: Road Warriors" Multiple Travelers 11 "Globe Shopper 2" Multiple Travelers 12 "Great Journeys 2: Planes, Trains and Automobiles" Multiple Travelers 13 "Eco Trekker Special: Great Natural Wonders" Multiple Travelers
Season 13 (2006) # Title Presented by 1 "Los Angeles" Megan McCormick 2 "Zambia & Malawi" Holly Morris 3 "Honduras & El Salvador" Brianna Barnes 4 "Senegal & Cape Verde" Zoe Palmer 5 "Utah & Colorado" Holly Morris 6 "The Caribbean Islands" Zoe Palmer 7 "World War II in Europe" Multiple Travelers 8 "Germany 2" Megan McCormick, Justine Shapiro 9 "Slovenia & Croatia" Bradley Cooper 10 "Volcanoes: Rings of Fire" Multiple Travelers 11 "Transatlantic Slave Trade" Multiple Travelers 12 "Planet of the Apes Special" Multiple Travelers 13 "Trekking the Pacific: The Cook Islands & Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea" Zoe Palmer, Matt Young
Season 14 (2007) # Title Presented by 1 "Holy Lands: Jerusalem & The West Bank" Zay Harding 2 "Holy Lands 2: Israel" Zay Harding 3 "Barcelona City Guide" Megan McCormick 4 "Madrid City Guide" Adela Úcar 5 "Turkey 2" Adela Úcar 6 "Syria" Holly Morris 7 "Antarctica" Zay Harding 8 "The South Atlantic" Zay Harding 9 "Nigeria" Adela Úcar 10 "Ukraine" Holly Morris 11 "The Netherlands" Brianna Barnes 12 "Amsterdam 2" Brianna Barnes 13 "Endangered Places" Multiple Travelers
Season 15 (2008)