Holiday News and Offers

Our November enewsletter brings you the latest news from Nepal as it re-opens for tourism. We also share some of our favourite views from the Himalayan Kingdom including the stunning panorama from Gokyo Ri and breakfast in style in the Annapurnas. There's an update on the work being done to support porters by the charity CAN plus details of the winner of our October Photo Competition.

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A local event for all you Gloucestershire folk - on Saturday 27th November our MD, Steve Berry, will be joining a panel of adventurers at the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival.

Steve will be recounting some of his yeti hunting exploits and reading from his travel memoir Straight Up: Himalayan Tales of the Unexpected.

Tickets are limited and can be booked online for £5.

Nepal, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka and lots of other destinations are finally open for travel again. In our October enews we take a look at favourite destinations we can't wait to revisit, and celebrate September's winning photo competition image, Roy Stout's take on 'Local Life'. Check out his fabulous photo, and find out how to enter this month's photo competition.

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Over the course of thirty five years MD, Steve Berry, has travelled to Bhutan over 20 times. As a result he has made friends with people from all walks of life across the kingdom making him the perfect film 'fixer' and Bhutan expert for various productions, from the BBC's Last Man Standing to Michael Palin's Himalaya series. Most recently Steve assisted in the making of The Age of Nature for an episode profiling Bhutan as the only carbon negative country in the world. Sadly the stability of Bhutan's pristine environment is threatened by neighbouring countries and their actions are causing the Himalayan snows and glaciers to melt at an alarming rate.

You can watch the Bhutan episode of the Age of Nature on Wednesday 20th October on BBC4, and also on BBC iPlayer.

Overseas travel has certainly become much easier in the last few months but understanding where you can actually go still isn't all that easy. To help you make that long overdue holiday a reality we've created our good to go destination list - places which welcome fully vaccinated British travellers, are approved by the FCDO and don't require quarantine on return.

Travel regulations are constantly changing though, so for the very latest information, and for advice on the tests required to travel, do give us a call on 01453 844400.

Mountain Kingdoms has been a member of the British Bhutan Society since its foundation in 1992 and this year our MD, Steve Berry, was invited to present a film about eastern Bhutan after the Society's AGM in September. You can watch Steve's film, 'A Journey Through Eastern Bhutan', here.

The film was very well received and was followed by a lively Q&A session during which the Society's President, Sir Simon Bowes Lyon, shared anecdotes of trekking in the very remote regions of northern Bhutan in the 1960s.

The society now numbers some 500+ members and continues with its aims of promoting knowledge of the Kingdom of Bhutan and encouraging links and good relations between the people of Bhutan and the UK. To find out more about the work of the Society visit: www.bhutansociety.org

A major announcement sees America re-opening to vaccinated UK visitors from the start of November leading to a surge of interest in holidays across the pond. If you want to take the trip of a lifetime to America, we offer two immersive small group walking holidays that explore the spectacular scenery and wildlife of America's premier national parks including the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone - take a look here for full details.

The Wilderness Lectures are a much-loved Bristol tradition spanning some 34 years. After a year out in 2020 they made a welcome return this month with one of the best lectures ever delivered by Helen Sharman, CMG, OBE, HonFRSC Britain's first astronaut. Helen enthralled a sell-out audience with stories, anecdotes and fascinating details of the time she spent training and aboard the Russian space station back in 1991. Helen is pictured here with our MD, Steve Berry, one of the three founders of Wilderness Lectures.

The next lecture takes place on December 9th and will be given by world famous climber, Peter Habeler. Some tickets should be available on the door. For further information visit Wilderness Lectures

With the world opening up apace, there are now lots of opportunities to travel over the coming months. From Turkey to Morocco, Italy to Oman, and Finland to France, there's a world of exciting adventures just waiting for you. Find out more in our latest enews.

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Whilst the rest of us were enjoying a relaxing bank holiday, our Operations Manager, Niki Morgan, was running the Severn Bridge 10K race that crosses the old Severn Bridge between England and Wales. Not only did she complete the race but she claimed the top spot as the first female out of 500 runners. A fantastic achievement.