Television series

Globe Trekker

Name: Globe Trekker
Genre: Documentary, Travel
Released: 1994
Cast: Megan McCormick, Zay Harding, Ian Wright, Justine Shapiro, Neil Gibson

Light-hearted
Dip in and out

Globe Trekker sends presenters to the world's less obvious corners with shoestring budgets and genuine curiosity. Shot in handheld video, it feels like watching a brilliant friend's travel diary unfold—intimate, unscripted, occasionally chaotic. Perfect for armchair wanderers who want authenticity over polish, and for anyone hungry to see how ordinary people actually live beyond the resort.

If you liked this

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown2013

Bourdain combines travel with cultural immersion and personal storytelling, visiting complicated places with genuine respect. The show asks why people live as they do, not just what they eat.

But Bourdain's narration can feel self-important, and later seasons lean harder on his philosophy than on discovery itself.

Dark Tourist2018

New Zealand journalist David Farrier travels to places most tourists avoid—nuclear disaster sites, prisons, death tourism hotspots. It's Globe Trekker's darker cousin: curious, ethical, genuinely unsettling.

But The morbid subject matter won't appeal to everyone, and some episodes feel exploitative despite good intentions.

The Kindness Diaries2017

Leon Logothetis travels the world with no money, relying entirely on strangers' generosity. It captures Globe Trekker's faith in human connection and its willingness to be vulnerable in unfamiliar places.

But The relentless optimism feels saccharine, and the format sometimes slides into manipulation rather than genuine encounter.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Globe Trekker

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Departures2008

Both show travel as a form of self-discovery rather than collection. Globe Trekker's presenters learn about the world; this film learns about one man, slowly, through the world.

A documentary following a Japanese cello player and musician who, after losing his job, embarks on a year-long journey through Eastern Europe and beyond. It's an interior journey disguised as travel—less 'look what I found' and more 'how do I understand my life'.

But The pacing is slow and meditative; impatient viewers will struggle with its refusal to deliver revelations or constant incident. It's a mood, not a checklist.

Expedition Happiness2017

A couple renovate a bus and drive from Alaska to Argentina, filming the journey themselves. The DIY production and emphasis on process over destination echoes Globe Trekker's documentary honesty.

But It's fundamentally about two privileged people on an extended holiday; the self-indulgence can grate after ninety minutes.

Long Way Round2004

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman motorcycle around the world over three weeks. It's travel as physical ordeal and real problem-solving, with the road itself as much a character as the places they visit.

But Expensive adventure travel funded by a major production—worlds away from Globe Trekker's shoestring ethos, and occasionally too matey.

A Perfect Planet2021

David Attenborough-narrated series on how five natural systems shape life on Earth. It swaps Globe Trekker's human-centred curiosity for geological and ecological wonder, visiting landscapes that shaped cultures.

But It's nature documentary, not travel documentary; if you're watching for encounters with people, this focuses on forces larger than us.

Planet Earth III2023

Latest iteration of the landmark nature series, spanning deserts, oceans, and cities with unprecedented filming. If you loved Globe Trekker's sense of 'how do people live here?', this asks it of wildlife.

But It's accessible but shallow in places; profound visuals sometimes substitute for genuine insight about human impact.

The Death of Stalin2017

Globe Trekker asks 'how do people live here?'. This film answers the question for a place and time: through power, compromise, and absurdity. Same curiosity, inverted scale.

Armando Iannucci's black-and-white comedy about Soviet bureaucracy in 1953 Moscow is set in one city over a few days—anti-travel, anti-tourism, purely political. But it's obsessed with the same thing: how ordinary systems shape ordinary lives.

But It's a satire of Soviet politics, dense with references and dark comedy; if you want straightforward narrative or sentimentality, you'll hit a wall.

Nostalgia for the Light2010

Globe Trekker finds stories in places. This finds a place where history, grief, and science converge. Both believe that *where you are* matters profoundly to *who you are*—but this one digs down instead of moving on.

Chilean director Patricio Guzmán's essay-documentary set in the Atacama Desert, where astronomers study the cosmos while women search for bones of the disappeared. It's not a travel film; it's a meditation on how geography holds memory.

But It's genuinely experimental—part essay, part poetry, part archive. There's no narrative arc. If you need plot or conventional structure, stop now.