Make Holidays Greener Week

Make Holidays Greener Week 2011

This week the sustainable tourism charity, the Travel Foundation, has launched their ’Make Holidays Greener Week’ campaign, and here at Audley we are keen to get involved.

Make Holidays Greener Week is all about making small changes whilst you are on holiday that will benefit local people and help protect the environment in your favourite holiday destinations. Whether you know this type of holiday as responsible travel, an eco holiday, or sustainable tourism, it all refers to the same thing: a holiday that helps protect the environment, protects wildlife and habitats, lets families that live in holiday destinations earn a fair living, preserves local cultures and traditions and recognises that water and energy should be used carefully.

If you already have your holiday planned for this year why not get involved? Here are three simple things you can do to make your holiday greener:

1. Buy locally: By buying locally made souvenirs, or eating and drinking in locally owned bars and restaurants you are contributing to the local economy.
2. Remove all packaging before you travel: By removing the packaging from items you take on holiday you are helping to reduce pressures on local sanitation services and landfill. Many countries are currently unable to cope with high levels of waste and do not have recycling services as we do in the UK.
3. Turn off lights and air conditioning: decreasing energy consumption wherever possible will reduce the pressures placed on local supply and help ensure you have power when you need it.

Responsible Travel is an integral part of any trip organised by Audley and we endeavour to make a positive impact on the destinations we cover, whether this is by using quality local guides, characterful and locally owned accommodation or simply by offering our clients the opportunity to carbon offset their air travel. Visit our Responsible Travel section to find out more about responsible travel through Audley or take a look at some of our responsible travel itineraries here.

Alternatively, if you would like to learn more about Make Holidays Greener Week, visit the Make Holidays Greener website, where you can enter a competition to win a trip to Thailand.

Audley launches new website!

Audley launches its new website

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were launching our previous website (in fact, it was the beginning of 2010!) but in the web world things move quickly. Never ones to rest on our laurels, the web team here at Audley has been hard at work planning an even bigger and better Audley Travel website!

How could we possibly improve on a website that has already won nine awards, I hear you cry?! Well, by listening to our clients and colleagues as well as a lot of time and effort spent brainstorming, we have come up with what we believe is a wonderful improvement.

Key things to note on the new site are its easier navigation, even more destination information, additional images and maps and an upgraded ‘Inspiration‘ section where you can download desktop wallpapers for your computer, discover ‘Travel Ideas by Month’ as well as ’Ask the Experts’ travel-related questions and receive in-depth answers to your queries.

We hope you like the new website as much as we do and we are keen to hear your feedback. Use the red feedback button on the left-hand side of every page on the Audley Travel website and let us know your thoughts?

We look forward to hearing from you!

Today marks Shackleton’s 137th birthday

Shackleton's ship the Endurance became stuck in an ice floe during an ill-fated expedition to Antarctica

Today marks the 137th anniversary of the birth of one of history’s most famous polar explorers.

Ernest Shackleton was born in County Kildare, Ireland on 15h February 1874. After spending his formative years as an officer on a number of expedition vessels visiting Antarctica, he eventually became captain of the Endurance and led a group of sailors on his own expedition to reach the South Pole.

He became immortalised for his heroic leadership and courageous endeavour following the landing of his ship on an ice floe. Despite the harsh weather and limited supplies, Shackleton and his men managed to survive and escape in lifeboats after almost 500 days stuck in the frozen ice of the Weddell Sea.

After returning to the polar regions on a number of successful expeditions, Shackleton died from a heart attack at the age of 47 and was buried in Grytviken, South Georgia.

You can find out more about the life of Ernest Shackleton and many other famous explorers past and present in our guide to Polar Explorers & Exploration. If you’re interested in visiting the polar regions for yourself then click to find out more about booking a tailor-made trip to Antarctica and the Arctic.

Audley’s very own ‘Tough Guy’

Owen during the Tough Guy Challenge 2011

Throughout the week Owen Wattley works as one of the Web Developers here at Audley, but during the bitterly cold weekend of 29th January 2010 he donned a blue swimming cap and quite a bit of neoprene to become a ‘tough guy’, as he and 19 of his friends took part in the assault course of the same name. Continue reading »

Audley triumphs at the Wanderlust Travel Awards 2011

The Wanderlust Awards 2011

This week the Destinations Show is being held at Earls Court in London.  Full to the brim with inspiration, the exhibition features expert advice from travel specialists, talks by celebrity speakers and exclusive offers, as well as hosting the Wanderlust Travel Awards, which Audley’s Head of Marketing, Jim Millward attended yesterday. Continue reading »

Winners of the Christmas Quiz announced

Audley announces the winners of last year's Christmas Quiz

We’d like to say a big thank you to all of you who entered our Christmas Quiz in December last year.

The questions were tough and the competition even tougher – we received thousands of entries over the course of the Christmas period, many of which had all of the answers correct (there were 12 multi-choice questions in total). Continue reading »

Audley get “Website of the Week” from the Daily Mail

Audley appear on the Daily Mail

Our website seems to be doing very well lately and now even the Daily Mail has jumped on the bandwagon and awarded us with their “Website of the Week”.

Read the Daily Mail article

Audley shortlisted for The Good Web Guide Awards 2010

"The Good Web Guide Awards 2010" People's Choice

Waking up to grey and dreary skies is never fun, but the mood of  our e-Commerce team improved significantly this morning when we heard the news that we have been shortlisted for “The Good Web Guide Awards 2010″!

In order to win this fabulous award, we need to get as many people as possible to vote for us via “The People’s vote” and we are asking for your help in making this happen. All you need to do is visit http://www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk/votefor/audleytravel.com and your vote for Audley will be counted. Only one vote per household is allowed.

Every vote counts so visit the The Good Web Guide’s website now and help us to win this brilliant award!

Wine competition winner announced

We’re pleased to announce that the winner of our South Africa Winelands competition is Mrs Quayle of Bury St Edmunds.

Mrs Quayle, who was picked at random from a list of several thousand other entrants, answered all three questions correctly and has won a case of hand selected South African wines worth £100. Continue reading »

Audley wins Best Website Award 2010

Loic Robertson, eCommerce Manager at Audley collects the "Best Tour Operator Website" at the 2010 Travolution Awards from Jeremy Vine and Travolution.

Last night our e-Commerce Manager, Loic Robertson, attended the annual Travolution Awards in London, held at Battersea Power Station, where he accepted the top award in the “Best Tour Operator Website 2010” category.

These awards are amongst the UK travel industry’s highest accolade for innovation and excellence online and are judged by a panel of proven business leaders and online experts.

To cap a great night for Loic, the award was presented to him by the BBC personality Jeremy Vine who hosted the night.

Well done to all of the Audley online team for such an amazing achievement.