The ubiquitous smartphone: fast becoming the ideal companion when abroad

Today, there are literally thousands of travel apps (or applications) on the market for smartphones. I’ve picked my top 10, some of which are free to download.

Have a look and see if you agree?

If you have a favourite travel app which isn’t on this list, send it to us via the comments field!

1. Postagram Travel App

Take a photo with your smartphone and with the click of a button, Postagram will mail a physical postcard, along with a 140-character message of your choosing, anywhere in the world. It currently costs the equivalent of 99 US cents per postcard.

2. Off Exploring

There’s no need to lug a heavy laptop around anymore. With the Off Exploring app on your smartphone you can add your locations and photographs. You even get your own free web address so that friends and family can not only see what you’re up to, they can leave comments as well.

3. Google Translate

Often the most daunting aspect for many people when abroad is the language barrier. However, with Goggle’s Translate app things are now a whole lot easier. Type or speak into your phone and let it instantly translate into 17 languages. You’ll need to speak clearly though!  

4. GeoTipper
Tipping can be a bit of a minefield when abroad, sometimes leading to embarrassing situations. Geo Tipper works by giving you recommendations on how much you should add to your bill. It currently covers 42 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

5. Photosynth

Reviewing your photos often comes with a tinge of disappointment and the reason is often because you’re only seeing a part of what your eyes originally saw. With Photosynth, however, you can stitch together your photos to create real panoramic images. You can even send 360-degree views to friends and family while you’re abroad. 

6. TuneIn Radio

It’s comforting to take some old favourites with when travelling. With the TuneIn Radio app you can now take with you your favourite radio stations, music artists, sports and many more. It currently offers over 50,000 stations for you to choose from.

 7. Google Sky Map

Some locations in the world are perfect for the Google Sky Map app; if you’re in the middle of the Outback or Atacama Desert, simply point your phone at the night sky and it will show the planets and constellations.

8. Currency Exchange

We all need to know how much our money is worth when abroad. With the Currency Exchange app you can make sure you haven been short-changed, or are getting the best rate. This app is always up-to-date as well as it tracks currency changes around the world in real time.

9. Weather Pro

If you’re British, chances are you’ll be obsessed by the weather, so you’ll definitely want this app. It features seven-day forecasts and reports for over two million locations around the world, which includes Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

10. Trailhead

If your holidays are activity based then the Trailhead app could be for you. It finds walking/hiking trails and bike routes in your location, based on your GPS coordinates. It also tracks your route, distance, speed and elevation in real-time. You can then download this data onto a map to see exactly where you’ve been.

Classic car, Cuba

An iconic feature of Cuban roads, the classic cars of Cuba may become a symbol of the past.

Cubans will soon be able to buy and sell cars, ending the ban on trading cars bought after the 1959 revolution. President Raul Castro has decided to relax rules on Cuban car ownership, meaning locals can now buy or sell used vehicles freely for the first time in half a century. The new regulations also mean that Cubans can now own more than one used vehicle and will no longer lose their car if they emigrate.

It is thought that the move, along with new laws permitting home sales, are part of an effort to boost Cuba’s struggling economy, improving the private sector by moving hundreds of thousands of workers off the public payroll.

There are still some tight restrictions in place though, with the right to buy a new car limited to Cubans who earn some foreign currency, such as doctors, artists and musicians.

So will the much-loved, battered Chevrolets and Buicks disappear from the narrow streets and alleyways of Cuba? Probably not for a while, which will please tourists and photographers around the world.

If you would like to visit Cuba and wish to discuss your plans with a specialist you can phone our Cuba team on 01993 838 685 or visit the Cuba section of our website.

Puma with an armadillo in its mouth

Excellent footage of puma, armadillo and skunks has been captured by motion camera traps at El Remanso Lodge in Costa Rica.

The cameras were installed by a Wildcat Conservation Programme run by the Yaguará Project, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation which promotes bio-diversity conservation in Costa Rica and Panama to preserve and enhance  the environment, ecosystems, habitats and endangered species.

Located on the Corcovado and Osa Peninsula, El Remanso Lodge offers many wildlife excursions, from early morning bird watching to late night tours of the forest, and the lodge is run in an eco-friendly manner, with the owners having worked with Greenpeace in the past.

Click on the images below to make them larger or view further images from the lodge on Facebook.

If you would like to stay at El Remanso Lodge or wish to talk to our specialists about a holiday to Costa Rica phone 01993 838 665 or visit the Costa Rica section of our website.

Audley Food Festival 2011

Friday 23rd September 2011 was the date of the first ever Audley Food Festival and, as with anything food related at Audley, the event was tipped to be a merry affair!

With each department given the task of cooking food from their region of the world and decorating their stands accordingly, the pressure was on to outshine the rest. More importantly, the event was being attended by Masterchef runner-up (and brother to Ben Whitaker, one of Audley’s India specialists) Tom Whitaker, whose job it was to taste test all of the food on offer before choosing a winning department.

For those of us who do not cover a specific area of the world, we were able to pick another country or region not covered by our programmes. The Ticketing department chose to represent Italy, while the Upper West Wing, which consists of e-Commerce, Marketing, I.T, Finance, HR, Commercial, Operations and Journey Desk, went with a USA theme, or more specifically, the TV programme, ‘The West Wing’.

With a fine spread on offer, the tasting began and not surprisingly it didn’t take long for the rest of the company to follow suit, tucking into such delights as Hoth’s Khmer curry and a tasty North African tagine.

After Ticketing and Upper West Wing were crowned the overall winners by Tom, it was time for the Masterchef contestant to give a select few employees a lesson in butchery and knife skills before the two winning teams went head-to-head with a Ready, Steady, Cook style omelette making competition. After some more taste testing by Tom, who was faced with some very dodgy-looking omelettes, the Ticketing department finally walked away with the prestigious title of ‘Winning Stand’.

The evening’s festivities continued with a bake sale and more food and drink before the sun went down.

Many thanks to Tom for popping along to teach us a thing or two about cooking, as well as judging some appealing (and not so appealing!) dishes! A big pat on the back also to Audley’s social committee for arranging such a successful social event, I certainly hope we will get to indulge again next year!

The McCurdie family celebrate Christmas Day in the Masai Mara, Kenya

“Our visit to Malacca was an intriguing end to our visit to Malaysia, a country where numerous traditions, religions, cultures and cuisines meet and blend harmoniously.”
Nigel Wright, Malaysia

“Our heads and hearts are full of the images, sights, sounds, and smells, but perhaps the most lingering image of all is the one of the Cambodian people.”
Valerie and Raymond Gatward, Cambodia

“To have spent the time with the wonderfully friendly people of the Governor’s Camp among the enchanting wildlife of the Masai Mara made it an experience we shall treasure forever.”
Dr Ian McCurdie, Masai Mara in Kenya

These are just some of the comments we have received and which you can read in full in our Client Stories section of the Audley Magazine.

How to send us your Audley travel stories
It’s easy, if you’ve been on a trip with us simply click on this link and upload your text and photos. If you do you’ll also have a chance to win a £50 Bobbooks’ photobook voucher.

The volcano in question is Marum, which is in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t forget to look at our 10 Volcanoes Worth Seeing magazine article. These are all volcanoes which you can see as part of an Audley tailor-made trip.

Message of thanks from the children

A husband and wife who recently returned from a tailor made trip to Nicaragua have received a special message of thanks from a group of local school children whom they visited during their travels.

John and Gill Farrington, who travelled with Audley to the Central American country earlier this year, made a donation following their visit to the school in Granada. This money was used to help build a much-needed toilet block for the children and to improve the on-site sanitation facilities.

This is the latest in a series of donations that the couple have made to projects in developing countries. During recent correspondence, they told me that they are always amazed by the improvements they see and the warm thanks they receive from the local people, and that it’s just a small way of saying ‘thank you’ for all the many kindnesses they have received whilst holidaying abroad.

During their recent trip with Audley, Mr and Mrs Farrington also got involved with a British team of volunteers from Hereford, who are helping farmers in the Nicaraguan highlands to grow new vegetables alongside their staple crop of coffee beans. This project aims to improve people’s diet and bring more income into the farms and the surrounding community.

To find out more about Nicaragua or to create your own tailor made trip to Central America with Audley, call one of our specialists on 01993 838 680 or visit our website at www.audleytravel.com/central-america.

Red-eyed tree frog, Monteverde Cloudforest

This morning I went along to another of our weekly client seminars, which this week was on ‘Discovering Costa Rica’. Although we are currently very busy in the e-Commerce department working on a new version of the website, I am really interested in Costa Rica having recently built a feature on Wildlife of Costa Rica, so went along to find out more!

In the seminar we discovered where Costa Rica is in Central America, why you should travel there, what you can see and do, how to travel around the country once you’re there, when are the best times of the year to visit and what other countries are good to combine with a trip to Costa Rica. There was a lot to cover!

Ziplining in Monteverde

Nick and Paula, two of our Costa Rica specialists, introduced us to some of the highlights of the country, including of course the amazing and diverse wildlife you can see (over 850 varieties of birds and over 450 mammals!); plus the stunning scenery, with cloudforests, rainforests, beaches and volcanoes; activities such as ziplining, rafting, trekking, horse riding and birdwatching; great responsible travel policies; wonderful lodges and hotels, as well as friendly people and delicious food.

Judging by the number of people at the seminar Costa Rica is a popular choice for a trip, with the current added incentive of a special offer, saving 20%, which I will be adding to the website shortly.

If you would like to find out more about a tailor-made trip to Costa Rica please contact one of our dedicated Costa Rica specialists on 01993 838 665  or online.

Meeting sponsored child

After eight years, and many exchanges of letters and drawings, there came an opportunity to meet. And for one Audley traveller it was an opportunity too good to miss; an opportunity that crossed cultures and brought people together. An opportunity that now will always be recalled as a ‘cherished day’.

Mrs Sheena Walker-Roberts has been sponsoring a girl in Guatemala through international children’s charity Plan since 2001.  Guatemala is a beautiful country with a vibrant ethnic Mayan culture.  However, it is still recovering from the throes of a long civil war and discrimination against the indigenous population is rife.  Plan has been working to tackle the inequality and poverty faced by Guatemala’s poor since 1979, and when Sheena decided to holiday there with Audley she seized the opportunity to find out just what that work entailed. What followed is a remarkable and emotional journey into a rural and isolated community and an extraordinary coming together of cultures and people.

The journey begins at the Plan office in the region of Zacapa, approximately 120km from Guatemala City, where Sheena joined Plan staff for the drive to the community where her sponsored child, Leydin, lives. ‘Our drive took about an hour, along rough terrain and deep gorges,’ explained Sheena. ‘Plan staff told us the communities in this area are often cut off for days by floods and they are unable to reach them, but the hard-working farming communities know how to survive. It was amazing to see the chickens, turkeys and pigs roaming freely and rearing their young among the dense farmland’.

Sheena already knew something about the local community through the annual updates from Plan and the letters she receives from her sponsored child, Leydin.  Through these she has a window on the community’s development projects which are funded through pooled sponsorship contributions.  But to see these projects for real brought them to life, and for Sheena the most exciting moment was to finally meet Leydin in the flesh.

“We finally arrived at Leydin’s family home and I was feeling excitedly apprehensive about meeting this little girl, now an adult, who had been writing to me and sending me drawings and paintings over the last eight years.
‘We all made our way by foot along a very muddy water-eroded track and I stood looking at a rickety old wooden gate, wondering if I could hold back my tears. The first property belonged to Leydin’s grandmother who held out her hands to greet us. As I looked past this house and a little way down another pathway, I saw Leydin. She looked exactly as the last photograph and I felt a lump in my throat. We didn’t need introductions. I recognised some of the family from the photographs I had received over the years and I was soon sitting with them all, chatting in a relaxed atmosphere.”

Before sitting down for a meal, Sheena was taken to visit the community school and health centre.  ‘The small concrete block-built health centre was very basic, but a huge asset for the community. Once every month, a doctor and nurse arrive to treat the under fives and pregnant women, giving advice as well as medication. After a further drive, we arrived at the school, meeting senior children and their teacher. Again, the school was very basic, but strongly built with a new roof, which Plan was pleased to show us. All the children looked happy and smart in their school uniforms, and we were amused to see horses and chickens on the school playing field. We were told they keep it grazed!’

It was then back to the community for a meal, after which it was time for goodbyes. ‘They were so hospitable, and both Leydin and myself were a little tearful. I told her we would be back to visit in a few years, and to stay happy and healthy. Her mama was so grateful to us for coming to visit and wished us good health and a safe journey.

“A visit like this makes people come together and helps us understand a different culture. It was an unforgettable experience.”

Audley have just started a scheme in Costa Rica to support an indigenous community called “Boruca” located in the county of Buenos Aires in the Puntarenas Province. Around 50 women from the community make hand-woven items such as bags which we buy from them. The money goes directly back into the community and pays for the production and transportation of the items from their village to Buenos Aires city and onwards by bus. The women share the remainder of the money between them.

Upon arrival in Costa Rica Audley clients will receive one of the handmade items from the community along with a bit of background information about them.