Explore Blogs

Amar Grover is a travel writer and photographer who has travelled widely in China, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East & North Africa. Recent trips with Explore have included Tibet and China. He writes mainly for the Financial Times, GEOGRAPHICAL Magazine and the Independent on Sunday.

Alastair interviewed him recently about his trip with Explore on our Across the Roof of the World tour, in China and Tibet. Obviously a stunning journey across a wonderful area, which Amar discusses in detail. A fascinating interview.

 

 Amar Grover Interview [6:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5523)

Explore spend a lot of time looking at Responsible Tourism and supporting charities in the UK and around the world. The ethos and practice of the company is also for individuals here, at Nelson House, to do something as well. Usually there is someone raising money for charity and this month has been no exception.

Some people that impressed me (because I can’t stand heights) however, were my colleagues who jumped out of an aeroplane to raise money for the Mufinidi Orphange in Tanzania.

Debbie and Michelle

Our Commerical Assistant in Marketing, Michelle takes up the story:

(more…)

Just spotted an article by Erlend Clouston on the Guardian Unlimited travel section about Bosnian tourism, particularly walking and trekking holidays there. Now, we don’t have any tours there yet, but having read the article, it seems like it’s somewhere we should. And the reason why is outlined in the article:

Tim Clancy says: “Tourism is one of the few levels where they sit together and are good buddies … It’s not perfect, but it explains why there’s a lot of momentum in this business.”

Tourism, managed responsibly, brings lots of benefits to communities. It’s not something I had ever really appreciated properly before working at Explore.

One of the wonderful people I have met on Explore trips is Anne Fairlie. She works for our Canadian agents, Trek escapes and regularly goes on an Explore trip (at least once a year). She recently went to Laos, on our Spirit of Laos tour, and has written up an account of the trip. This happens to be my favourite bit as its show what a difference a ‘responsible’ tour leader can make, on a very micro level:

Our Explore tour leader had been working in Lao for about 5 months. She would take pictures of the people she met in the villages, get them printed on her days’ off in Bangkok, and then hand out the pictures the next time she passed through. What a treat this was for the villagers as in one of two instances, someone had died, and she was able to provide a picture of the person for their loved one to treasure.

Anne also took some pictures at one of the SOS orphanages in Laos, where Explore tours generally visit.

I’ve replicated Anne’s report below in full.

(more…)

Knowing our people in reservations, I can honestly say that they do try very hard to put customers first and be as friendly as possible. After all, what’s the point of going on a wonderful holiday if you don’t have fun from the out-set?

I’m very pleased to see that one of our sister companies, Keycamp are also getting acknowledged for having ’service with a smile’.

Diane Coleman on the Travel Weekly blog comments:

Like Keycamp for instance… I’m sure they have a smile on their face.

Fantastic! Its always nice to get a pat on the back from another professional in the industry and even better from a customer.

And while I’m looking at links on technorati…

Megan talks about her absolutely fantastic trip to Jordan. She also has some great shots of the tour up on flickr - the photo sets marked Jordan (obviously).

Megan also commented that she had a fantastic local guide called Hazem, who “…added so much to the holiday”.

Local guides always seem to make a lot of difference to people on our tours whether they are the tour leader or local guides in specific places, it can make all the difference between get to know the place or just seeing it.

Kate Smurthwaite announces that she had a “pretty amazing weekend away” on one of our Short breaks: Lapland Ice Adventure. Sounds like it was a very active trip - glad you enjoyed it Kate!

Update: Kate has put her photos online! (See Comments)

Our new short breaks programme gets launched in May so watch out for that. Quite a few new tours which look at least amazing, but can’t talk about them yet - wait for the ides of May!

Ashley on Kili

I’m proud to present our first podcast with Explore’s MD, Ashley Toft. Ashley discusses one of Explore’s most popular destinations of the moment: Central Asia. He also talks about the types of tours there and why he thinks it’s so popular.

Ashley: Managing Director

We hope you enjoy!

By the way, Ashley also came up with the name for his podcast - “Ashley Toft chews the cud”. Now if you can think up a better name, I’m willing to put together an Explore goody bag for the best idea that Ashley chooses. So leave a comment, with your idea and, next podcast, we’ll select a winner!

 

 Ashley Toft chews the cud April 07 [8:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2479)

Cathy Hillman, who is booked on our Cradle of Voodoo tour to West Africa, dropped me an email yesterday asking for some advice. Whilst we have our experts here at Explore, I thought it would be also good to get anyone who has been to West Africa to offer their advice. Here are the questions from Cathy (slightly edited by me) however any suggestions would be most appreciated.

We had a FANTASTIC trip to Mali in Oct 05 (best holiday ever) and been desperate to get back to West Africa since then.

I’m really interested in helpful - practical - suggestions of things to take:

• what was the best sort of Mosquito Net (am thinking about taking one of the Pop-Up ones but no idea if it is suitable because of the variety of accommodation we have).
• should I try and find a map over here, or buy it there?
• Is there access to both drinking water and ordinary water for showering or is it another case of a cup in a washing up bowl?
• Was there much to buy - not just souvenirs but things to eat?
• Is there much free time?
• Should I change a little money as we go along or change it all at the airport?
• When we went to Mali I took a little “bubble set” which went down a treat with all the children as they had never seen bubbles before and took the pressure off them following us for money. Is this a good idea?

You can leave your comments by going here.

(more…)