Favourite Travel Documentaries

t1mm

I've been watching a lot of travel related TV and documentaries recently and I thought it'd be a good idea to post a topic here so that everyone can share their favourites. In no particular order:

Doin' It Baja (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5H_7I3Ovag)
Doin' It Baja chronicles the 2200 mile motorcycle trip taken by Arto Saari, Heath Kirchart, Keegan Sauder, and Patrick O"Dell from San Diego to the tip of Baja California, Mexico.

The Motorcycle Diaries (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318462/)
The dramatization of a motorcycle road trip Che Guevara went on in his youth that showed him his life's calling.

The Long Way Round (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnudTnKEiY0)
Long Way Round (LWR) is a documentary television series documenting the 19,000 miles (31,000 km) journey of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from London to New York on motorcycles. They travelled eastwards through Europe and Asia, flew to Alaska and continued by road from there to New York.

Post your own favourites here

mikedragon32

If you want to see how travel used to be done, see if you can get hold of Whicker's World. Fantastic programme in which Alan Whicker would travel on some of the most luxurious forms of transport and do a travelogue along with interviews with fellow travellers as well as meeting with people from the destinations to which he travelled, including dictators and the disenfranchised.

Well worth a look to see how the other half lived!

Pablo Sanchez

Always liked any of the Michael Palin docs. I liked the fact that they allways travelled overland where possible, and also the British fish out of water thing, dealing with the locals while keeping a almost imperial British distance from the 'subjects' was priceless.

Tombo2000

Pablo Sanchez wrote: »

Always liked any of the Michael Palin docs. I liked the fact that they allways travelled overland where possible, and also the British fish out of water thing, dealing with the locals while keeping a almost imperial British distance from the 'subjects' was priceless.

Plus one to Michael Palin.

The great thing about him is that he mingles so well no matter where he is, he always makes the locals laugh.

Having said that, I much preferred his first few series, when it was just him and cameraman and one other. He really ended up in some isolated places.

By the time the later series came around he seemed to be travelling with a small army of BBC heads, and so it was much more scripted and not much getting off the beaten track.

Thought Hector for TG4 was good, back in the day, when he was in South America. In fairness to TG4 they;ve done some great travel shows.

Also saw that chef Gordon Ramsey doing a travel show from India, where he got onboard an Indian train and cooked with the rail chefs; that was very good.....(thing being that food on the indian trains is actually not bad, though produced for half nothing).

t1mm

Cheers for the replies lads - keep 'em coming!

Uncle_moe

'No Reservations' with Anthony Bourdain is a great show. It's about food and travel and usually entertaining

Pablo Sanchez

BBC had a good series, Jonathan Dimbleby: Russia....he is like a less amusing Michael Palin.

Not a strict travel documentary but Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends are also good.

mikedragon32

Uncle_moe wrote: »

'No Reservations' with Anthony Bourdain is a great show. It's about food and travel and usually entertaining

I've read most of his books, never seen his TV shows. Very entertaining to read.

Badgermonkey

Jesus, Charley Boorman drives me insane.

The guy must have some mighty incriminating evidence on commissioning editors in the UK.

– Charley on riding a motorbike through Sulawesi: "Here I am on a motorbike, and it's beautiful, beautiful countryside, just stunning."

– Charley on boatbuilding: "Beautiful, I like it, that's amazing."

– Charley on a Toyota Land Cruiser: "Beautiful, just beautiful."

– Charley on riding a motorbike through Sulawesi, part 2: "It's beautiful, just riding along the coastline, up and down the mountains, and all sorts of different places. It's – very, very, very beautiful here."

– Charley on the view: "Look at that, incredible, it's just so beautiful here."

– Charley on the weather: "The weather's just so beautiful here."

– Charley on riding a motorbike through Sulawesi, part 3: "We'll just ride and ride and ride, and it's going to be beautiful."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/oct/19/charley-boorman-bear-grylls-ferrell

I really enjoyed Dan Cruikshank's 'Around the World in 80 Treasures' and Tim Mackintosh-Smith's travelogue following in the footsteps of 14th Century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battutah, who covered 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents in a 30-year odyssey.

Aoife Ní Chonchúir on TG4 has done some interesting stuff in the USA, which nicely counterbalances Hectors transcontinental buffoonery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VPkEBPwhqc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eSocOG2-Is

t1mm

Cheers for the input Badgerymonkey! I'd have to agree, after watching TLWR, you'd do well to catch a sentence of Boorman's without the word "stunning", "beautiful" or "amazing" in it in fairness.

I've just watched this documentary ("A Map for Saturday") about backpacking, and thought it was quite good, should definitely provide some inspiration for people to go it alone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-TpSCDv04g&feature=related


Let me know what you think