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 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!

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.

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.

As the name suggests, this race isn’t for the fainthearted. From barbed wire and electric shocks to freezing waters and fire, only the most hardy (or mad) people should consider taking part. But for Owen and his friends the reason for putting themselves through such an ordeal was very important. Here, Owen explains:

On Sunday 30th January some friends and I took part in the ‘Tough Guy Challenge 2011′ in honour of a great man called Marine Jonathan Crookes. Jonathan was a good friend of mine whom I met at college back in the year 2000. He was known universally as Johnny Flame. Jon joined the Royal Marines Reserve in September 2005 and passed for duty as a Royal Marines Commando in November 2006. He was awarded the Commando Dagger for the best all-round recruit in training. Following this he volunteered for several tours of duty in Afghanistan. In 2010 he was deployed to Sangin District, Helmand Province. During a foot patrol on 16th July 2010 he was tragically killed by a roadside bomb. Jon was 26 years old.

Everyone loved Jon, he truly was one-in-a-million. As testament to this fact, over 1000 people attended his funeral in Halesowen last August.

Jon was the kind of person who literally lived life to the max, always making the most of every day. He worked hard and played even harder. One of the things he had always wanted to do was The Tough Guy Challenge – “The Worlds safest, most dangerous taste of mental and physical pain, fear and endurance” according to the official website. Sadly, he never got the chance.

As his friends, we knew Jon wouldn’t want us to wallow and be sad, and since he was never able to do Tough Guy himself, a group of us thought we’d take it on in Jon’s memory whilst at the same time trying to raise as much money as we could for Help For Heroes.

In true style, all 20 members of ‘Team Flame’ made it to the end of the Tough Guy challenge and their efforts have been rewarded with almost £3,500 being donated to their chosen charity. For Owen, one particular section of the course sticks out in his memory:

Everyone found the course really hard going, but we had a good laugh on the way round. The most memorable part for me was going through the “Torture Chamber” – a pitch black, underground section full of electric wires, wooden posts, smoke, and several hundred competitors screaming and wondering what was going on. On the way through I got an electric shock in the face which jolted my entire body forwards, head-first into a wooden post. I blacked out for a few seconds and hallucinated about a city skyline at night with all the lights on. Then I came round lying on my back wondering what on Earth had just happened. Weird!

Well done to Owen and all of Team Flame for taking part in what is considered to be one of the most physically and mentally demanding courses available in the UK at present – an amazing achievement for a very worthy cause.

If you would like to donate to Team Flame for taking part in the Tough Guy Challenge 2011 please visit their sponsorship page.

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.

Audley were nominated for two of the 13 categories in these awards: Top Website and Top Tour Operator. Having won the Top Website award once before and the Top Tour Operator award twice previously we were all keen to hear how we had done this time around. What makes these awards particularly special to us, is that they are voted for by the public.

To our delight we were crowned winners of the Top Website award and came second in the Top Tour Operator category, so a massive thank you to everyone who voted for us – it’s nice to know all of our hard work is well-received! Here is the write-up from the Wanderlust website for the Audley Travel website: 

It couldn’t get much better for this year’s winning site – you judged Audleytravel.com just 4.2% shy of perfection. And the tailormade tour operator’s site is indeed impressive. Far more than an online brochure, it houses a wealth of destination info, a smart inspiration tool, good photos, expert hints, a lively blog, a well-stocked magazine, recent news and comment within a fast, clean and friendly design. In fact, with tour operators taking all three top website spots, travel specialists are increasingly becoming travel publishers too…

If you would like to find out for yourself what all the fuss is about (if you haven’t already), then take a look at the Audley Travel website.

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).

We’ve sorted through all of the correct entries and randomly selected 10 winners. But before I list these lucky people for the whole world to admire, I thought you might like to know what the correct answers were:

Question 1: In which Middle Eastern country would you find the legendary Chateau Musar winery?
Answer: Lebanon

Question 2: Which city was the first capital of New Zealand?
Answer: Russell

Question 3: On which date to Russians celebrate Christmas?
Answer: 7th January

Question 4: If you are standing at the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town and overlooking the city, in which direction are you facing?
Answer: North East

Question 5: Name the Nova Scotian port where the first Scottish settlers arrived in 1773 on the Hector ship.
Answer: Pictou

Question 6: In many South American countries, the term ‘Asado’ translates as:
Answer: A popular method of cooking meat over a grill or open fire.

Question 7: What is the name given to the rare white bears that can only be found in a small corner of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest around Princess Royal Island?
Answer: Spirit Bear

Question 8: Which Central American country famously has no army?
Answer: Costa Rica

Question 9: Where is the explorer Ernest Shackleton buried?
Answer: Grytviken, South Georgia

Question 10: Which was the only South American team to make the semi-finals of last year’s football World Cup in South Africa?
Answer: Uruguay

Question 11: What is the name of the ‘jungle temple’ in Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex that featured in the 2001 Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie?
Answer: Ta Prohm

Question 12: What is the name of the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia?
Answer: Hkakabo Razi, Burma

So now it’s time to cue the drum roll and raise the curtain – the winners of the Audley 2010 Christmas Quiz are:

• D Sutherland, Welwyn
• I Neary, Sheffield
• J Madeley, Burwell
• O Pound, London
• W Sim, London
• C Dudzinska, St Albans
• M Thomas, Manchester
• R Hirst, Nottingham
• S Sharp, Southampton
• F McDonald, Glasgow

Each lucky winner will receive a bottle of champagne, along with plenty of reason to gloat to friends and family about their rather impressive travel trivia knowledge!

Keep up-to-date with the latest competitions, quizzes and special offers by visiting our website »

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

"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!

The Winelands of South Africa

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.

She said: “What a lovely surprise! We had just come back from holidaying in Maine, USA and I had 300 emails to plough through, and what a shock I got when I saw yours!”.

Each entrant was asked to answer three questions on the subject of winemaking in South Africa. Here are the answers:

Q. What special anniversary of wine making in South Africa was celebrated last year?
A. 350th year

Q. What type of architecture is the Winelands area of South Africa renowned for?
A. Cape Dutch architecture

Q. Which South African Winelands estate has a tradition of opening a bottle of their sparkling wine with a French cavalry sabre?
A. Haute Cabriere

Find out more about holidays in the Winelands region of South Africa.

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The India Tiger Safari with Audley Travel video is a unique glimpse at the amazing wildlife encounters that await visitors in India’s central wildlife parks. The video features footage taken by Harsha Ogale, one of Audley’s Indian Subcontinent specialists, and it was taken during Harsha’s recent trip to the Bandavgarh and Tadoba National Parks in central India.

The clip also includes narration from Harsha, which helps to guide viewers through the video and provide more information on the types of animals that might be spotted and the best ways to plan your wildlife safari of India.

Click the arrow to play the video above, or alternatively visit our Wildlife of India section to find out more about booking a tailor-made trip to India with Audley.

For the last couple of weeks I have been working with the North Africa team to add Lebanon to our website and today I was pleased to be able to finally put it live.

Lebanon will sit next to Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Syria and Tunisia under the North Africa & The Middle East section of the website. The comprehensive information included on the Lebanon section means it’s easy to learn more about travelling to this fascinating destination; a country that we’ve missed having on our site since the new website was launched two months ago.

Find out about some of Lebanon’s highlights, read about some of the places in Lebanon you can visit on a trip with Audley, or discover a number of the experiences and excursions available to travellers.

Alternatively speak to our Lebanon specialists directly, on 01993 838 400.

Our website is a great source of inspiration as much as a guide to all of the countries that Audley offers. I thought it would be interesting to share with you the top 10, most-visited inspirational sections of our site.

If you haven’t yet planned your trip for 2010 (or beyond), some of these sections make a great starting point. But of course nothing beats talking to someone who has actually been there. So if any of these prove inspirational, why not give one of our specialists a call on 01993 838 925 and they can tell you more?

Interactive web guides

1. Inside a Japanese ryokan »
2. Guide to the wildlife of the Indian Subcontinent »
3. Cruising the Nile in style »
4. Whale and dolphin-watching trips »
5. Polar bears – where and when to see them »

Guides by travel theme

1. Responsible Travel »
2. African safari trips »
3. Ultimate luxury »
4. Wildlife Trips »
5. The world’s greatest journeys »

The new Audley Travel Home Page

I was looking at our Home Page yesterday and realised that it was about time we gave it a “lick of paint”. It’s not that there was anything inherently wrong with it, but, as they say, a change is as good as a rest. Plus there are plenty of new sections we have added to the site since we designed it, which needed promoting a bit more heavily to all our visitors.

So yesterday afternoon I got out a big sheet of paper and a pencil and sketched out the new layout. Nick, one of web developers was able to quickly turn that into reality. Not a radical new look – but a freshen up if you like.

See the result of his work on our tailor made holidays website.

We’ll keep an eye on it over the next few weeks to see how it goes, while we are busy working on a much bigger project – more news on that soon!

The old Audley Travel Home Page

A gathering of dervishes, watercolour, Isfahan, c. 1640. From the Ardabil section. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

‘Shah ‘Abbas: The remaking of Iran’ is a brand new feature that I have just added to the Iran section of our website. The feature focuses on an exhibition currently running at the British Museum with the same name. Shah ’Abbas:  The remaking of Iran is the third major exhibition in a series by the British Museum that focuses on great rulers and is running until 14th June 2009.

The feature also includes a page on visiting the British Museum, details of how to book tickets online and travel to Iran through Audley, but most exciting for me is the video content that has been included! A welcome addition to the Audley Travel website I am sure this is the start of lots more, exciting video content to come, so watch this space!

If you are interesting in travelling to Iran please contact one of our Iran Specialists or fill out a Quote Request form online.

To visit the British Museum website click here.

After some thought and much discussion, we have come up with our favourite top 10 websites from the web development team here at Audley, shown below in no particular order.

See if you agree with our choices.

When the first version of Google Earth was released, we were in awe at the ability to ‘fly’ to literally anywhere on the planet from the comfort of your armchair. Now that they have just added the possibility of diving beneath the oceans, plus the surface of Mars and the Moon, there’s never been a better time to download Google Earth. We promise you, you will lose hours… the only better thing is going there!

Sharing your photos is fun. Browsing other people’s photos is a great way to be inspired. Whether to travel or to take better photos.

Our favourite photo sharing website is simple to use and very user-friendly. Set up a free account and upload your photos to share with just your friends or the wider world.

You have probably already experienced virtual tours on the web where you can look around a scene by moving your mouse. But these high quality, full screen images of beautiful places around the world are amazing.

You may need to download Quicktime (it’s free and the site will prompt you if it’s not already installed), but it’s worth it for the sumptuous views. Just don’t move your mouse too much or you may get dizzy.

Many of Steve McCurry’s award-winning images will be instantly familiar. His style generally focuses on the human face and his ability to capture a moment so perfectly makes us all green with envy as we take our snaps on our own travels.

(Requires the Flash plugin – your computer will prompt you if you do not have it installed)

Growing in popularity by the day, this photo blog started by Alan Tyler, a web developer at the Boston Globe, highlights news stories in some of the most amazing, high quality photography seen on the web.

Often beautiful, sometimes shocking, he adds new sets of photos 3 times a week.

Dedicated purely to travel videos, this website is a great way to explore other people’s travel experiences from around the world.

Containing almost 8,000 online videos, some made by travellers themselves, others professionally produced, you can spend hours here exploring destinations you might be considering yourself.

There is plenty of choice when it comes to producing photobooks, but our favourite is Bob Books with their hard back, full photo covers and quality feel. Download the free Bob Books software and in no time at all, you’ll be producing the most beautiful photo books using your own photos and captions. The software comes with built in templates to make it really easy.

These photo books make a great souvenir of your travels or the perfect gift. They also can take a video from your camera or digicam and turn it into a flick book. It’s so retro we love it!

This fascinating website is seeking to chart the migration history of the human species using analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. The results so far are fascinating and if you wish, you can get involved by ordering a home DNA test yourself which will be analysed to reveal your ancestry lines. The data you provide is then anonymously added to the database to assist with the project.

We all love to read about travel, and no other website is as comprehensive for travel reading as the Stanfords website.

Browse by continent, country or city and find guide books, maps and travel literature all of which can be ordered online.

Although this site is no longer updated by the BBC it still contains an amazing amount of content from the highly successful Planet Earth series. If, like us, you loved watching this ground-breaking series, you can watch clips from each episode and explore a virtual earth to discover the wildlife, see behind-the-scenes clips and watch footage from the series.

John Brewer, Audley Director, collects the Wanderlust award for Top Website 2009 from Lyn Hughes, Wanderlust.

This year’s Destinations Show was as exciting as ever, with lots of our regular clients coming to see us at our stand, as well as plenty of new faces who were able to chat with our travel specialists face to face about their travel plans. We were certainly kept busy!

The icing on the cake was when we discovered we had been voted “Top Website 2009” by Wanderlust readers. What makes this award particularly special to us, is that it is voted for by the public.

So thank you so much if you voted for us – it’s a pleasure to know that our hard work on the website is well received. And if you didn’t vote for us, find out what all the fuss is about by visiting our “Top Travel Website 2009“!!

If you are looking for inspiration on where to go on holiday with Audley, we’ve just added a new section to our website with lots of holiday ideas arranged by theme or “holiday type”.

From family holidays to the world’s greatest rail journeys, wildlife trips and safaris. Or perhaps you are looking for a cultural experience or an adventure cruise.

Whatever your interest, our specialists have compiled their recommendations including the best countries to visit for each type of holiday, accommodation suggestions and itinerary ideas.

For more details on any of these holiday types visit our Holiday Ideas section or click a link below:

• Wildlife Holidays
• Safari Holidays
• Culture & History Holidays
• Family Holidays
• Great Journeys
• Railway Journeys
• Adventure Cruising Holidays
• River Cruising Holidays
• Self Drive Holidays
• Walking and Trekking Holidays
• Activity & Adventure Holidays
• Off the Beaten Track Holidays
• Ultimate Luxury Holidays
• Beach and Relaxation Holidays
• Responsible Travel Ideas
• Honeymoon Ideas
• Special Offers

Indian Forts map

India is famous for its fort cities. Jodphur and Jaisalmer are both well known. There are countless smaller forts around North India which you can stay in and experience the world of a bygone era.

We have just launched a special website feature including an interactive map showing the location of some of our specialist’s favourite Indian Forts.

Visit our guide to Indian Fort accommodation to find out more.

It’s about time, but we’ve recently added a site search to the Audley website. One of those things we have been meaning to do for ages and ages, but never quite got round to!

Now it’s really easy to find whatever you want on the site. We love it!

Search our site for tailor made holidays.

Plan your trip with our interactive wildlife map

We’ve just launched a new section on our website all about the wildlife of Indian Subcontinent. It’s amazing what diversity of wildlife there is in this region – it’s not just all about tigers.

While tigers would be the obvious attraction for a lot of people, there is plenty of other wildlife which is also of interest. You can find out all about it using our new interactive map which allows you plan your trip to the region depending on what wildlife you are interested in and when you want to travel.

Simply select a month of travel and the wildlife that interests you and the map will highlight parks and places which offer exceptional viewing opportunities.

Once you’ve identified a park of interest you can click to see the accommodation options including pictures and details.

Try it out for yourself on our website.

After many, many months of work, the new Audley website is up and running. It’s always a bit of an anti-climax when a project you’ve been working on for so long comes to an end.

In the days and hours leading up to the “big day”, colleagues around the Audley office would come up to me and ask if we have some big red button which we press to make it all live! They had visions of the old website dissolving into the great internet abyss, lights dimming and flickering as the new website gradually takes form on the screen.

The truth is much less exciting than that – we edit a number on a screen and…erm, that’s it. Within a few hours the new site is live around the world. End of story!

Of course the anti-climax of it all didn’t stop us from having a little launch party here at the office. Everyone from around the building was invited for a lovely buffet lunch and a game of Nintendo Wii tennis which we beamed onto a large wall with an overhead projector!

As with all websites, there isn’t really an end. Websites are never complete. After a couple of weeks of settling in, fixing the odd bug and improving the way things work, we will start on the next phase of the site.

This is but the start and we have some great ideas lined up to make the site truly unique. Watch this space!

If you are visiting the Destination Travel Show this year, why not pop along and give us your support?

We’re very excited about this new addition to the range of Audley websites. Not only can we update you on the latest news at Audley, including new brochure and destination announcements, offers and special events, but it’s also your chance to join in and share your travel thoughts with us and other Audley clients.Whether you have already travelled or are about to travel with us, we’d love to hear from you. Just look for the comments link at the end of each blog entry. Got a suggestion or comment about our website? Let us know by using the Feedback form.

We hope you enjoy this “behind the scenes” look at Audley and come back regularly to see what’s changed. If you’re feeling technical, you can even subscribe to an RSS feed from this site which will keep you up-to-date automatically. For more details about setting up an RSS feed, click here.

If you want more information about blogging, or perhaps you are thinking of having your own blog for your trip, visit our “Blogging Guide” page.