Globe Trekker (sometimes called Pilot Guides in Australia and Thailand, and originally broadcast as Lonely Planet) is a British adventure tourism television series produced by Pilot Productions. The English 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 beach, ape, nature, road trip, Chinatown, trekking, sacred place, slave trade, pirate, volcano, war, journey, history, festival, endangered place 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.
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 Judith Jones
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
Season 1 (1994)
Season 2 (1995)
Season 3 (1996)
Season 4 (1997)
Season 5 (1998)
Season 6 (1999)
Season 7 (2000)
Season 8 (2001)
Season 9 (2002)
Season 10 (2003)
Season 11 (2004)
Season 12 (2005)
Season 13 (2006)
Season 14 (2007)
Season 15 (2008)
Season 16 (2009)
Round The World
Season 17 (2010)