Archive for the ‘Explore’ Category
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Looking at my regular dose of the Travel Daily ( an interesting little travel industry focused enewsletter) I noticed their lead article on over 50s Saga cruises:
Under the Single Equality Act, companies are banned from discriminating on the grounds of age in the provision of goods and services.
This means that companies cannot specify that a holiday is only available for over 50s or I guess for 18-30s only. I wonder how many other companies will be impacted by this government legislation?
Personally I think it makes tours far more interesting to have a good mix of people from all ages, backgrounds and even countries. Its been one of the minor highlights of my Explore experiences having people from Australia, Canada, the US and from 6 years to 70 years (depending on the type of tour of course)!
However, I would be very interested to know what you think?
Posted in Customers, Explore | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Cameron Alexander (nee Parker), the Managing Editor of Easy living Magazine, headed out to Nepal on our Everest Tea House Trek. Alastair caught up with him her recently for this podcast. You can also read more in June’s Easy Living Magazine page 157!
Cameron Parker - Everest Tea House Trek [7:37m]:
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Update: I’ve had an email from Anna, who is booked to go on our Other Side of Everest tour – she would love to have someone to talk to about the tour – so if anyone who has been on this or any other walking and trekking tour in and around Everest and Nepal wouldn’t mind swapping emails with her then, let me know by leaving a comment or sending us an email at talktome [at] exploreblogs.co.uk (replace the at with an @).
Tags: Everest, interview, Nepal, podcast, small groups, Tea, Tea House, trekking, walking, worldwide
Posted in Customers, Explore, Podcasts | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Just seen that we are a finalist in the Travelmole Best Tour Operator website, which is very exciting! Last year we won the Best Responsible Tourism website so I’m hopeful we might do well!
On the subject of awards I should also congratulate the Adventure Company & Netizen for their recent win for Best use of Technology on a Travel website at the Travolution awards . They have obviously been spending a lot of time on the web as they have two new website live now as well!
Can’t wait until the Explore one goes live!
Also should mention our good friends at Select World Travel who also got nominated for a Travolution award in Best use of Social Media for their blog site. They are a travel agent based in Malvern who sell our tours and have a blog well worth reading.
Apparently the Virgin Responsible Travel Awards are also upon us too and you can nominate travel companies here. We have been short listed for the last three years for an award as RT is a key part of our ethos.
Its obviously awards season!
Posted in Articles, Explore | 3 Comments »
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
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]:
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Tags: Across the Roof of the World, Amar Grover, Asia, China, interview, Journalist, Northern Asia, podcast, Tibet, travel
Posted in Explore, Explorers, Podcasts | 1 Comment »
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
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:
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Tags: Charity, Corporate Social Responsibility, Fundraising, Responsible Tourism, Sky diving
Posted in Explore, Explorers, Friends | No Comments »
Friday, April 20th, 2007
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.
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Posted in Explore, Friends | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
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.
Tags: Bedouin, camels, Flickr, Jordan, local guides, Photos, tours
Posted in Blogs, Customers, Explore, Photographs | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
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!
Posted in Blogs, Customers, Explore | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
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]:
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Posted in Ashley Toft, Explore, Explorers, Podcasts | 5 Comments »
Friday, April 13th, 2007
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.
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Posted in Customers, Explore | 1 Comment »
