Venezuela Youth Orchestras

For those of you who missed it, we highly recommend watching the following programme. Broadcast on BBC1 on Monday 17 November, it is available to watch on BBC iplayer this week or to download for future viewing.

Presented by Alan Yentob the programme, entitled “Imagine”, profiles the incredible youth orchestras of Venezuela and the way they provide hope to hundreds of thousands of children stuck in poverty with no future. Described as unashamed social engineering, the result is outstanding, with the main Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra performing worldwide to rapturous audiences.
 
They have one performance date at the South Bank in London on 18 April 2009 but this has already sold out. A DVD is available to buy entitled “Dudamel – the promise of music” (2008).
 
Please contact Rebecca Profit, Venezuela specialist, on 01993 838 614 if you wish to visit the country and arrange to hear one of the orchestras in action.

Darwin at the Natural History Museum

Pinnacle rock, Galapagos Islands

2009 marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin as well as the 150th anniversary of his “Origin of the Species”; his revolutionary theories that changed our understanding of the world as we see it today.

Many Galapagos boat operators are marking this special occasion with special lectures and more in depth conversation of his work in the Galapagos.

To learn more about the great man, the Natural History Museum is running a Darwin Exhibition between 14th November 2008 and 19th April 2009 displaying incredible, revealing and rare exhibits, some on display for the first time.

More information can be found at www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/darwin/index.html.

New Southeast Asia brochure launched!

There has been a buzz of excitement around the office this week with the launch of the new Southeast Asia brochure being the main topic of conversation. With the company’s roots lying in this area of the world (our very first tour took place in Vietnam in 1996) it’s always exciting to be able to highlight all of our new discoveries in this region as well as presenting some old favourites in a new way!

With the Southeast Asia team spending the last 12 months researching the area, there’s a lot to see in the new brochure. Discoveries include eco-lodges such as the Kingfisher Ecolodge in Champasak and La Folie Lodge in Don Daeng, cruises including Komodo Private Boats in Indonesia and the R/V Orient Pandaw in Borneo, as well as HaGiang in Vietnam and Isaan in Thailand amongst the new places to explore.

To order a new Southeast Asia brochure click here »

To view the brochure online click here »

Audley voted “Top Thailand Tour Operator 2008″

Collecting Audley’s Friends of Thailand 2008 Award

We were thrilled to win the “Friends of Thailand” Award for Top Tour Operator 2008. These were the seventh Thailand Tourism Awards and the ceremony was held in Bangkok on 27th September 2008. Our Regional Manager for Thailand, Kate Dicks, went to collect the award. Continue reading »

Fundraising tops £10,000 – our Burma school opens!

Audley raises £10,000 to help open new school in Burma

A very big thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets and purchased photographs from our online exhibition. We managed to raise over £10,000 towards the school building in Burma, well over our £8,000 target, which means that as well as building the school itself we were able to buy school furniture and some stationery. Continue reading »