Hot on the heels of Sir David Attenborough’s latest travel documentary, Wild Isles, adventure travel company Explore Worldwide has undertaken a study to reveal the beloved presenter’s incredible travel history.
The study required researchers to watch hours and hours of Attenborough’s documentaries, dating back to 1955, to record all the locations he is seen presenting from. The data has been vizualised in an interactive map, allowing people to easily understand and appreciate the enormous travel achievements of one of the greatest documentarists and wildlife advocates of our time.
The new map even allows users to enter their own unique list of places they have traveled to around the world, to see how their own travel history measures up against Sir David Attenborough’s.
The study logged locations from 43 different shows, including early Zoo Quest episodes from the fifties, the epic 1979 series Life on Earth and 2020’s The Green Planet.
The research reveals that the places Attenborough is seen presenting from the most are California and the island of Borneo. With Attenborough’s most-visited countries being USA (57 appearances), Australia (37 appearances) and the UK (29 appearances).
According to the study, Attenborough has presented from 333 locations during his TV career, in 83 different countries including Lake Fuxian in China, Cape Royds in Antarctica, Pentecost Island in Vanuatu and Meru National Park in Kenya.
Born in May 1926, David Attenborough was 30 years old when his first nature documentary Zoo Quest to Guiana aired. Now aged 96, Attenborough has been sharing with viewers at home the planet’s incredible animals, plant life, oceans and natural habitats for over 65 years, becoming an advocate for wildlife conservation and awareness of the devastating impacts of climate change.
With such an astonishing travel career under his belt, it’s hard to imagine whether Attenborough has any travel regrets. However, according to a new survey from Explore the majority of people aged 70 or over do have ‘travel regrets’, with 62% saying there is somewhere in the world they regret never having visited.
Some of the countries mentioned frequently in the over 70s travel regrets include Australia, New Zealand, USA, Japan, and Canada.
When looking at specific travel experiences, one in three people over 70 say they regret never seeing the Northern Lights, making it the travel experience most people regret never doing.
Other missed experiences most regretted among this age group include seeing the Great Pyramids of Giza, visiting Machu Pichu and African safaris.
Travel regrets of the over 70s
| Travel Experience | % of Over 70s Who Regret Never Doing This |
| Seeing the Northern Lights | 39% |
| Visiting the Maldives | 19% |
| Seeing the Great Pyramids of Giza | 19% |
| Visiting Machu Picchu | 19% |
| Seeing Niagara Falls | 19% |
| Visiting the Taj Mahal | 18% |
| Walking the Great Wall of China | 17% |
| Seeing the Petra ruins in Jordan | 13% |
| An African safari | 13% |
| Driving a Californian road trip | 11% |
For the full survey findings and to learn more about David Attenborough’s travels see www.explore.co.uk/how-david-attenborough-are-you
