Chinese New Year

Celebrating Chinese New Year with fireworks

Today is the start of the main Chinese festival, the Chinese New Year - also known as the Spring Festival. The Chinese calendar is made up of a cycle of twelve years, with each year representing a different animal. This year marks the start of the year of the Dragon, the only mythical creature in the Chinese calendar, and is looked upon as one of the luckiest of all the animals.

As the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, New Year’s Day can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February in the Gregorian calendar. Festivities begin with the new moon and last for 15 days, ending on the date of the full moon with the Lantern festival.

New Year customs and traditions vary widely throughout China and around the world, but one of the overriding themes is to remember the family and wish everyone peace and prosperity in the coming year. 

Take a look at other festivals and holiday ideas for January  

To book a tailor-made trip to China, call one of our specialists on 01993 838 220 or contact us online.

New Audley North Africa & the Middle East brochure

The Sphinx at Giza, Egypt

Our new North Africa & the Middle East brochure, which replaces the North Africa & Arabia brochure, is now available. Written by our North African and Middle East specialists it features a selection of popular itineraries, along with information on the best places to visit, favourite accommodation options and practical advice on planning a trip to this region.

Also featured are travel guides for cruises on the Nile in Egypt, Jordan’s beautiful nature reserves and archaeological sites in Tunisia, as well as information on walking in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains, camping at the heart of the desert dunes in Morocco, Jordan and Oman and diving on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

For the new 2012 brochure we have also discovered a range of new hotels and excursions, and for the first time we also feature Jerusalem, and showcase self drive holidays in Oman.

Take a look at the brochure:

• View the online version (you will need Adobe Flash Player). 
• If you would like to download any of our brochures as a PDF, view online versions of them, or request a free physical copy, simply go to our brochures page.

To book a tailor-made trip to North Africa & the Middle East, call one of our specialists on 01993 838 400 or contact us online.

View Uluru/Ayers Rock from a new perspective

Uluru/Ayers Rock in the heart of Australia’s Red Centre

In the heart of Australia’s Red Centre lies the rock formation of Uluru/Ayers Rock, on the sacred lands of the Anangu people.

If you’re planning a trip to Australia, you might want to add a hot air balloon ride to see this iconic landmark in a whole new light. With support and assistance of the Uluru family, the traditional owners of the land, ‘Outback Ballooning’ will be offering this new experience in March of this year.

The balloon flights will depart at dawn over the natural desert and bush land of the Patji region, and last around 30 minutes. Flights will take place between 10 and 25 km to the south of Uluru/Ayers Rock and not enter the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park, but will still offer the traveller new and unique views of this incredible landmark and its surrounding landscape at sunrise.

Visit the Outlook Ballooning website to find out more.

To book a tailor-made trip to Australia, call one of our specialists on 01993 838 810 or contact us online.

Air New Zealand reveals its new all black aircraft

Air New Zealand reveals its new all black aircraft

To celebrate their love of rugby and long-time sponsorship of the ‘All Blacks’ rugby team, Air New Zealand have produced the world’s largest commercial aircraft to be painted completely black.

The Boeing 777-300ER, which also incorporates the ‘All Blacks’ silver fern insignia, was revealed on the 16th December and was led out of its hanger by New Zealand World Champion rugby players, Kieran Read and Andy Ellis.

The paintwork took just over a week to complete (two days longer than it normally takes to paint a 777), with 14 painters working in shifts 24 hours a day, and 700 litres of chrome free paint were used.

View a time lapse video of the aircraft being painted on YouTube.

Remember to watch the skies in 2012, when this incredible looking plane will be flying into Heathrow, London.

To book a tailor-made trip to New Zealand, call one of our New Zealand specialists on 01993 838 820 or contact us online.

Ashmolean Museum opens new Ancient Egypt galleries

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford recently opened the doors to its new galleries of Ancient Egypt and Nubia. Its old Egyptian galleries have been redesigned and extended with state of the art facilities. This means that more than double the number of mummies and coffins are now on display, along with many of its other artifacts that have been in storage for decades.

The galleries have been designed to take visitors on a chronological tour covering more than 5000 years of human life on the Nile valley, from prehistory to the 7th century AD.

As well as the mummies and coffins on display, you will also be able to see the museums other iconic objects, such as  the wall painting depicting Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s daughters, the Shrine of Taharqa from the temple at Kawa; and the enormous limestone statues of the fertility god Min which date to 3300 BC.

Visit the Ashmolean Museum website to find out more about its new galleries and when to visit.

To book a tailor-made trip to Egypt, call one of our Egypt specialists on 01993 838 410 or contact us online.

New trekking route in New Zealand

The starting point for the new trekking route in New Zealand, Cape Reinga

If you’re looking for inspiration to pull on your hiking boots and head out into the wide open spaces, this may be of interest to you. This month, New Zealand will be opening a new trail, Te Araroa – meaning ‘long pathway’ in the Maori language, which will run the full length of the country.

With the help of hundreds of volunteers, linking up existing routes and building new ones the new trail has taken over a decade to complete, and winds its way through New Zealand’s incredibly diverse landscape of mountains, volcanoes, lakes, valleys, and cities.

Running 3,000km from Cape Reinga in the north, to Bluff in the south, it will be one of the longest walking trails in the world. There are 300 stages along the route to choose from, varying in length from several days to a few hours. The full trek is estimated to take around four months to complete.

Visit the Te Araroa website to find out more about this new walking route in New Zealand.

To book a tailor-made trip to New Zealand, call one of our New Zealand specialists on 01993 838 820 or contact us online.