Armchair travel. Review on Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet has to be one of the best travel shows around at the moment. This multi award winning TV series has been running for about 6 years now and with 4 series under its belt it has covered the four corners of the Earth. With 80 destinations covered so far their shows will take you from Iran to Iceland, New Zealand to Russia. Each show gives you an insight into the people and countryside.

The show is produced by Pilot Productions along with the highly successful Pilot Guides and Treks in a Wild World. All shows are extremely well produced, informative and entertaining TV.

The secret to success must surely lie in the hands of the presenters of Lonely Planet. There are 7 presenters and they each do a great job in some extremely trying circumstances to bring to us the best and worst aspects of travelling overseas.

THE PRESENTERS

IAN WRIGHT….English

This guy is fantastic; his interaction with the people of all cultures, all languages, races and creeds is admirable. He finds himself in all sorts of sticky situations, mainly to do with food. He is the guy you can rely on to accept the offering of sheep’s eyeballs with respect even though his every instinct is to flee. He takes you on some great adventures with good humour and a sense of adventure.

JUSTINE SHAPIRO…South African born, living in the USA

Justine took a bit of getting used to but she is a firm favourite of mine now. She is a bit stand offish when offered live bugs to eat etc but she generally braces herself for the task at hand and gives everything a go. There is a classic shot of Justine on a nude beach, the camera work and timing of strategically placed surfboards and deckchairs as she interviews people is well done.

MEAGAN McCORMICK …American

Meagan has a sweet personality and cajoles people to open up to her. She handles language barriers with ease but sometimes gets a bit over excited and a bit pushy.

JONATHON ATHERTON… Australian

Jonathon is your typical smiling and laughing Aussie. He hasn’t done any really ‘out there ‘ locations that I’m aware of. He generally sticks to the city guides at this stage. I’ve seen his London & Amsterdam guides which are okay but not as good as the other presenters..

The other 3 presenters are Shilpa Mehta (English) Neil Gibson (Scotsman) and Christina Chang (Taiwanese living in the USA) I haven’t really seen enough of these 3 presenters yet.

The presenters job of Lonely Planet must be one of the hardest travel shows to do. No luxury accommodations for these guys, they stay in cheap backpackers hostels and eat at street vendors stalls. This way you get a real feel for the place instead of the ‘tourist travel guide’ format of most travel shows. On Lonely Planet you will find the presenters staying with the tribesmen on the Mongolian steppes, not in 5 star hotels.

I give a 10/10 rating for this show; the editing, camera work, music, presenters and destinations all make each episode an adventure.