Simon Reeve

"Wow what an honour! I'm glad all the dodgy meals, punctures and strange foreign hotel rooms we endured around the Tropic of Cancer haven't been wasted. Thanks for shortlisting me for the Holiday Extras awards and best of luck to everyone. Happy travels!"

Digging deep into distant, dangerous and barely accessible global locations is a hallmark of Simon Reeve’s travels.

An award-winning presenter, author and adventurer, Simon has travelled through more than 90 countries, many little known and inhospitable. During his travels, he has been arrested for spying by the KGB, tracked by terrorists, electrocuted in a war-zone and protected by stoned Somali mercenaries.

He’s also hunted with Kalahari bushmen, been surrounded by hungry cheetahs, adopted by a tribe of former head-hunters, and abandoned by drivers in an Ebola zone.

It's such enthralling experiences that captivate his audience and reveal far more about a destination than any glossy brochure ever could.

This year’s Tropic of Cancer is his latest series to be aired on BBC2. It sees Simon circumnavigating the globe along the northern border of the earth’s tropics through 18 countries. He said it was an extraordinary opportunity, frightening, uplifting, exhausting, upsetting, challenging and surprising.

It was the third time he had been around the world as part of a BBC documentary, following Equator in 2006 and Tropic of Capricorn in 2008.

Explore was another hit BBC2 series in 2009, blending travel with current affairs. It delved into diverse issues ranging from forced farming to extreme hunger, and ventured from Patagonia to the pampas, Istanbul to Anatolia, Manila to Mindanao and through Africa’s Great Rift Valley.

Away from television, Simon has investigated subjects such as arms dealing, nuclear smuggling, terrorism and organised crime. He studied the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, foundations for his book The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism.