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

The New Zealand Sea Lion (formerly known as Hooker’s Sea Lion) has only recently returned to breed on the mainland after an absence of 200 years.

The New Zealand Sea Lion Trust was formed to support research on, and public education about, this native treasure that has chosen to return to New Zealand’s mainland shores.

The charity has just completed a schools’ education programme in association with the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre at Otago University, and is hoping to have a sea lion education road show in 2009.

In the meantime research into the movement, foraging behaviour and diet of these unique, charismatic marine mammals continues. Much of this work is undertaken on a voluntary basis by two scientists on the board of trustees, Shaun McConkey and Simon Childerhouse, assisted by a team of enthusiastic undergraduate scientists and volunteers.

An overview of the Trust, its goals and current projects, can be found on the Sealion Turst website.

Today is a big day at Audley HQ! Our christmas tree has arrived and much fun was had adding the decorations.   I’m the first one to moan when the shops put up their decorations in September! But with the weather feeling so cold, it really is beginning to feel a little more christmassy. Even the swans on the river outside the office paddled down to see what the activity was all about.

I’m just looking forward to a few mincepies and a glass or two of mulled wine once it’s all finished!

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.

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 National 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.

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 Ecolodgein Champasak and La Folie Lodgein 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 »

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.

The awards were given out by the tourist board to companies and individuals, who are working to promote the image of Thailand in their home country. The winners were chosen based on having an ethical code of conduct in business, and having a role in the promotion of environmental and/or cultural preservation.

We have worked hard to promote Thailand as more than just a Bangkok and beach destination, and this award is a great step along the way to achieving this. The Thailand team are very proud to have received this recognition, and the timing is perfect as a lot of our new Thailand product is showcased in our new Southeast Asia brochure.

Request a copy of the Southeast Asia brochure »

Audley’s Thailand team with the Award

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.

Building work started as soon as the first money was donated, so the school was completed ready for the new term. There was a grand opening ceremony on 23rd October, and children, parents and teachers enjoyed a simple lunch of “monhinga” (a local favourite food made with thin, soft rice noodles in a fish based broth) after the ceremony with invited guests from the Township Education Office.

The opening ceremony

There is still a lot of floodwater in the vicinity of the school, and one thing we have looked into is better irrigation for the land in the area. But, this is proving very difficult as the whole area is wet land. There is also a tidal creek at the back of the school which floods during the rainy season. The village and the school cover a very large area and it will cost a lot for irrigation and drainage, so as an intermediate solution we have a plan to build better flood defences.

We also still need to repair the lane (from the school to the main road), but the Paya Ngotto (North) Primary School is now fully open, and we are looking forward to going out to visit next time we have a member of staff in Yangon.

Classes under way again

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients, family and friends for supporting our Burma appeal and for helping to make it such a success.

As with any good trek it started with lunch under an acacia tree. We then set off over the desert towards the mountains in the distance. The heat was punishing, but in two and a half hours we had reached our first night’s camp. Green and red tents were spread out along the edge of a steep drop down to the wadi (dried river bed) below. A large black bedouine tent formed the centre of the camp and we were greeted with a big kettle of tea.

The second day started early and we left camp by 7am in the morning, climbing up the side of the mountain to the col at the top. The path rose steeply and before we knew it we were able to look back over the expanse that we had crossed the day before. We reached the top around 11am, and ate an early lunch looking down over a very different landscape on the other side of that first range.

Over the next few days we walked our way slowly towards Petra. It seemed as though every few hours the scenery changed, and when we stopped for lunch each day it was in very different surroundings from the day before. We reached Little Petra on the fourth day of walking, and were almost surprised to see people after not seeing anyone else in the mountains apart from goat herders. The following day brought us to Petra itself, but from the furthest point of the site, at the Monestery. This huge structure was our first taste of the achient city, and it was only as we walked past the Royal tombs and Byzantine and Roman temples to the Treasury that we realised the scale of the site.

Our final day was spent exploring Petra again and a highlight for me was drinking tea at the foot of the Treasury, watchin the sunlight slowly move across the surface of the rock.

The trek was to raise money for two charities, Friends of Conservation and the Al-Hussein Society

Well, it’s taken a while but we have finally added the honeymoon feature to the website!

Designed to offer a wide range of honeymoon suggestions, the feature includes ideas by budget, type and season, as well as information on our top 10 honeymoon destinations. It also includes a section on the Honeymoon Gift Service to explain how this works.

Visit our Honeymoon section for lots of Honeymoon Ideas.

We have just released two excellent offers for Green Season in Tanzania and Zanzibar, or Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, with savings of us to £600 per person. Running from December until mid-March in Tanzania and between mid-November and April in Botswana, Green Season is a spectacular time in Africa when everything is bursting with life and colour, and wildlife viewing is spectacular.

Dates of travel for Botswana are between 1st December 2008 and 31st March 2009, and between 1st January 2009 and 31st March 2009 for Tanzania.

Click here to view full details of these amazing offers.

We have just released a special offer on a relaxing Indian cruise on the Brahmaputra River in December 2008.

An excellent way to explore northeast India with the opportunity to visit the Kaziranga National Park, the cruise will take place aboard The Sukapha, a 38 metre long passenger boat.

This offer includes up to a 20% saving on the usual price of this trip.

Click here for full details of this excellent offer.

On Saturday 11th October 2008 Audley’s E-commerce manager, Loic Robertson, joined other travel industry faces in Fez, Morocco, for the Guardian and the Observer Travel Awards 2008. After coming runner up in the Best Tour Operator category last year (and winners the year before), hopes were high that this year we would return to the top spot - and we weren’t disappointed!

Having decided to split the Best Tour Operator category into Best Small Tour Operator and Best Large Tour Operator we were delighted to discover we had been awarded Best Small Tour Operator 2008.

Suffice to say everyone at Audley is thrilled with the award and we all hope to have the same success next year!

The trek is raising money for two charities: Friends of Conservation and the Al-Husein society fo the Habilitation/Rehabilitation of the Physically Challenged. Friends of Conservation is a charity that Audley have been working with for many years, and we offset all our staff flights through the charity. FOC is a conservation charity working internationally. We are particularly working with them currently on a bio-gas project in the Masai Mara. This project will create methane cooking gas from manure and water to eliminate the need for local women to collect firewood from the surrounding area, in a region where predators are plentiful.

The other charity is the Al-Husseine Society. This Jordanian charity work with physically handicapped children and adults. Their work includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy, othotics and they also have an early intervention programme with enables them to work with young children to prevent their disabilities from worsening.

]]> http://www.audleyblog.com/2008/10/17/trekking-to-petra-for-charity/feed/ http://www.audleyblog.com/2008/10/09/audley-supports-costa-rica-community-project/ http://www.audleyblog.com/2008/10/09/audley-supports-costa-rica-community-project/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:02:39 +0000 Emma Skelton http://www.audleyblog.com/?p=208

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 form 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.

On Monday 29th September, Audley launched its new updated North Africa and Arabia brochure.

A launch party was held at our New Mill offices, a 17th-century converted wool mill on the outskirts of Witney, and was attended by staff from all departments.

The North Africa and Arabia team baked various cakes and biscuits, which were then sold to staff, along with raffle tickets. In the end they raised £500 which went towards their charity of choice, the Hannan School in Morocco. 

• deliberately low numbers, usually about 16, as this makes for a far more personal experience
• the use of more characterful accommodation whenever possible
• maintaining the tranquillity of the places we visit
• our unwavering commitment to Responsible Travel
• the ability to speak directly with the specialist who has planned the tour.

View our Classic Libya tour.

View our Passage Through Persia tour.

Find out more about our Responsible Travel activities.

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.

If you would like to help with our fundraising efforts please purchase a ticket for entry into our prize draw. There are some fabulous prizes to win all kindly donated by some of our suppliers and the families and friends of Audley staff. The prize draw takes place on the 15th October 2008.

Prize draw tickets can be purchased by downloading the Order Form or calling 01993 838 105.

The full list of prizes available are as follows:

• The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company has kindly donated a 10-night Irrawaddy cruise for two aboard the Pandaw IV worth approximately £4,000. An additional two nights at The Strand Hotel is also included in this prize. (Please be aware that flights, transfers and visas are not included.)
• One week in a gite in France’s Burgundy region (sleeps two, flights not included)
• One week in a cottage in Northumberland (sleeps four)
• A weekend in a cottage in Monmouthshire, Wales (sleeps four)
• A day trip for two on the British Pullman or Northern Belle train, including brunch, an excursion at the chosen destination and a table d’hote dinner with champagne and wine (kindly donated by Orient Express)
• Commissioned watercolour painting of your home or a landscape by Mr W Harvey
• Two mounted Burma prints by Mrs M Fewkes
• A half case of fine wine from Majestic Wine
• A year’s subscription to Wanderlust magazine
• Insight travel guides
• Insight World Travel Encyclopedias
• Unframed print of your choice from the online exhibition

As part of our fund-raising efforts to support the children of the primary school at Paya Ngoto (North) Village which was completely destroyed by cyclone Nargis, we have launched the Burma Gallery - an online photography exhibition where you can purchase professional quality prints with the money raised going towards the £8,000 target needed to help rebuild the school.The forty images in this unique collection have all been taken by Audley staff on their travels around the world and all are of professional quality. You can view the collection at www.audleytravel.com/burmagallery, order your favourites and make payment online.

Thank you to all our clients that have already contributed to our fund, your support is much appreciated and we will of course keep you updated on our progress.

Following our initial fundraising efforts for the victims of cyclone Nargis, it has always been our intention to source a project that Audley could directly support that would provide long-term gain for a community.

Whilst it has proved considerably more difficult than we had initially thought to find a suitable project (our first attempt unfortunately fell through to another donor), we are now moving ahead at a pace with the rebuilding of a primary school at Paya Ngoto (North) Village.
It is situated a short distance from the town of Twante, which is reached either by road or a two-hour ferry journey from Rangoon. Paya Ngoto is a small village and the community is extremely poor. The school was virtually destroyed by the cyclone and the 55 pupils aged between five and eight are currently being taught in a temporary bamboo building. We hope to increase student capacity to nearly 70 children. Rebuilding the school will take between three and four months.

Rebuilding the school

We have sourced this project with the help of our local agent in Burma who will now oversee the rebuilding of the school in conjunction with a school committee. By using their resources we can be sure that the funds we raise will go to those who need it most: local contractors, a local workforce and above all the children and families of a local community.

The children of Paya-Ngoto

We need to raise £8,000 to rebuild the main schoolhouse and adjacent toilet block. A local contractor has already started work rebuilding the main schoolhouse and the children are so excited to see their new school taking shape.

If we are able to exceed our initial target of £8,000 we can build a more robust pathway which leads from the main road to the school. We would also like to provide new furniture for the school, playground facilities and a supply of stationary for all of the students.

New plans for the school

Ultimately we want to forge a long term relationship with this small village in Burma. The proximity of the school to Rangoon will enable our Burma specialists and clients to visit it on future trips and take stationary supplies with them. Our group tour to Burma in November 2009 will include a visit in the itinerary.

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 incouding pictures and details.

Try it out for yourself on our website.

We’ve even got the co-ordinates for the tree, so you can see it on Google maps or if you’ve got Google Earth (or access to any other satellite imagery!) you can check up on the Audley tree - it’s at South 34.55084; East 19.41599. Happy tree watching!