Archive for the ‘Explorers’ Category
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
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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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Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
Jo Baldwin, an Explore tour leader, talked to Alastair at the Destinations travel show, in London, about tour leading in India. Jo describes herself as a one woman Indian tourist board and her enthusiasm certainly shines through. You might also have seen Jo at one of our recent Evening of Adventures where she was presenting with Kate who we featured previously (have a read here).
Kate Plummer (left) and Jo Baldwin (right).
Jo Baldwin on Tour leading and Kerala [3:49m]:
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Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
Well, I’m not the only one in the office to have visited India recently. My colleague, Chris Stephens who is our Photo guru (or more correctly Image Executive) travelled to Kerala on one of Explore’s cycling trips: Backwaters of Kerala at the tail end of 2006. If you take a look in our 2007 Cycling brochure you will find some of Chris’ photos. I’ve also found a few others which illustrate the interview are well, even if I do say so myself.
Cycling near Mancombu
Fish and Chips?
Picking the tea leaves
A working elephant
Happy listening and if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, do leave a comment! Hopefully we’ll have another interview with Chris soon about photography and being an image executive.
Chris Stephens talks about the Backroads of Kerala:
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Posted in Explore, Explorers, Photographs, Podcasts | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 12th, 2007
I’ve recently returned from Rajasthan after being on a training trip on one of Explore’s “In Style” trips: Rajasthan – Land of the Maharajahs. To say it was an amazing experience is not to do it justice at all, and I am still coming to terms with how different my universe seems having been to the World’s largest democracy. It was timely too, given the celebrations this year marking India’s 60th year in 2007.
Whilst there, my tour leader was Ramesh Koul, who looked after us very well. He kindly agreed to be interviewed in the gardens of Udaipur’s City Palace, whilst drinking some Masala Chai (that’s spicy ginger tea). I’m afraid there’s a bit of background noise but then as Ramesh commented several times, “if it isn’t noisy, it isn’t the real India.”
I’ll have some more posts and podcasts on India this week, so if you have anything to tell us about India just leave a comment!
Interview with Ramesh Koul, Tour leader, India [5:20m]:
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Friday, March 2nd, 2007
Romilly is another one of our heroes in the office, who work very hard to help you, when you are making a booking. She sits in our Reservations department, and could be one of the people you talk to if you ring up (it depends where you want to book for though, as our Reservations department are organised into area teams). Although, usually she works on getting people who book quite late, onto our tours. Have a listen, and post a comment if you like!
Interview with Romilly Turl [2:30m]:
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Tags: interview, podcast, small groups
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Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Apparently Kilimanjaro comes from “Kilima Njaro” in Swahili, meaning “shining mountain”. Uhuru (the peak) is the Swahili word for freedom. It’s these kind of fascinating things you find out when writing about the amazing travel destinations we go to. It’s also stunning just looking at the pictures, but hearing from someone who has been, is inspiring.
Ingrid Waterfield, in another podcast from Destinations, talks about her experience on the mountain that is Kili. Ingrid is probably a bit biased about Explore as she is Sandy Beatty’s partner – our African Ops manager. (You can listen to Sandy’s take on Africa here). Nevertheless take a listen and imagine trekking up the shining mountain.
Elephants in the Shadow of Kilimanjaro
Interview with Ingrid Waterfield on Kili [3:05m]:
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Tags: Africa, interview, Kilimanjaro, podcast, Sandy Beatty, small groups, Tanzania, trekking, walking
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Saturday, February 24th, 2007
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.
Interview with Kate PLummer - Explore Tour leader [3:08m]:
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Tags: adventure, Africa, Gorilla Safari, Gorillas, interview, Mountain Gorillas, podcast, tour leaders, tours, Uganda
Posted in Explore, Explorers, Podcasts | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
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]:
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Tags: behind the scenes, Brazil, customer service, customer support, Egypt, India, interview, Kerala, Lebanon, Perks, podcast, Syria, Thailand, worldwide
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Thursday, February 15th, 2007
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]:
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