Kate Plummer, one of our wonderful tour leaders, who has also been presenting at our Evenings of Adventure, talks about leading tours in Africa, particularly to Uganda. The trips Kate has been leading have also been to see the Mountain Gorillas and she talks about what an amazing experience meeting the apes actually is, and how emotional it can be.
You can catch Kate at any of our remaining Evenings of Adventure (see our website). Well worth a look, as the presentations are really rather good.
Bryan Tomalin is certainly one of Explore’s best customers. He’s travelled no less than 38 times and has more trips booked for 2007 (and yes that’s trips!). He even talks about being on a tour led by Derek Moore, one of the founders of Explore, who is now an Associate Director of the company (not the Managing Director, Alastair!) and the current Chairman of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO).
Bryan talks about his love of Explore and the type of trips offered and about some of his future plans. And also sings the praises of our website at www.explore.co.uk
All I can say is, Bryan is defintely an Explore enthusiast! Thanks for your support, Bryan!
We believe in looking after people who talk to us, book our tours and keep coming back. And I believe we do it rather than merely talking about it.
One of many key people in the company that do the hard work is Charlotte Laughlin, who works as a Customer Support consultant, looking after you after you have booked. In this podcast she talks about how the department works and some of the benefits of working for Explore!
Interview with Charlotte Laughlin, Explore Customer Support Consultant [2:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadA lot of people who popped by at Destinations, and who talk to us throughout the year, are people (of all ages) who are thinking about travelling to somewhere new, and wondering whether to opt for independent travel or head off with a tour operator.
Alastair interviews a couple, Rachel and Paul Stevens, who have previously travelled independently, and now want someone to do the hard work for them, because they have limited time to organise it themselves. A good reason to opt for an adventure tour operator that only runs tours with small groups but can do all (or most) of the organising for you.
Personally I would also like to head to Peru and Machu Picchu, or even Choquequirao…
Continuing our Destinations podcasts, our Operations Manager for Africa, Sandy Beattie, talks passionately about the wonders of Africa, as well as giving some advice to first time travellers and those more experienced. Also covered in his interview is aspects of eco-and responsible tourism and he also offers some views on emerging destinations and by emerging we mean places where very few outsiders have been (that’s our Beyond tours by the way).
Personally I think Sandy would rather be on an expedition than in the office! If you don’t want to go to Africa after listening to this I’ll be very surprised. I know I do.
Now, this Livingstone bloke, what did he do?
Interview with Sandy Beatty - Operations Manager, Africa [5:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadExplore exhibited at the Destinations travel show at Earl’s Court recently, and on the 3rd February Alastair recorded some interviews with customers, some people just visiting the stand and some Explore staff. We’ll try and get a few of these up over the next few weeks. And you can also see us at the Destinations show in Birmingham between 2 and 4 March, apparently we’ll be at stand AA18.
Anyway, to kick off this series of interviews, I decided it would be good to hear from some of our most experienced customers. Much more experienced than I at Explore trips!
Stuart and Annette Attfield have travelled 18 times (no that’s not a typo!) with Explore. They give you their views on what its like, what the Explore style is like and out tour leaders (phew!)
Enjoy.
Bernice Davison, a journalist, went on our Winter Belarus and Ukraine Tour last year. She wrote this up for The Telegraph, in a piece called The Remains of the Day, which focuses on the visit to Chernobyl and Pripyat.
The podcast here though, talks about the whole itinerary as an incredible experience.
Paul Bonsfield, Explore’s Marketing Communications Manager, talks about his experiences on the island of Madeira on Explore’s Levada Trails tour.
In case you don’t know Explore Worldwide Ltd is the UK’s leading Adventure Travel operator, operating tours around the world. We work by taking small groups (up to 24 maximum) on journey or itinerary based holidays, usually moving around an area within or across countries.
You can of course find out more on our website at www.explore.co.uk.
We also offer Adventure holidays for Families (they’re fantastic!), cycling holidays, walking and trekking holidays and specialist history tours not to mention short breaks and adventures beyond the beaten track.
Of course you could opt for two weeks on a beach but then that’s not really an adventure, is it?
Welcome to this, Explore’s first blogging site where we hope to tell you a little more about Adventure travel.
Our key aim is to let you get under the bonnet a little about how we go about our business as a tour operator and we’ll also include some podcasts – audios and even videos which show you what its like on our tours.
You can find out a little more about each author on the right hand side (together with all their posts) and we have also categorised posts into broad areas and also in case you need more info we also have some tags about what each individual post is about.
Phew! Hope that’s clear.
We also provide a blog roll, which links to people who we find have something interesting to say about Adventure travel.
Anything else not clear – leave me a comment and we’ll try and answer in a future comment.
And the name – well its simple and has a double meaning in terms of its where our blogs are and we are blogging. (Okay its not that clever but we’re trying!).
