Holiday News and Offers

Want to know which holidays are test-free for UK travellers? Find out in our February enewsletter, along with the latest on the destinations which have recently reopened, a Moroccan holiday round-up, the low down on our new Trans Bhutan Trail trek and the superb overall winner of our 2021 photo competition.

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We are delighted to have launched a brand new trekking holiday which features the best sections of the Trans Bhutan Trail in the west of Bhutan, together with the key cultural sights of the Thunder Dragon Kingdom.

The Trans Bhutan Trail has been created over the last four years re-establishing a centuries old footpath that was once the only highway linking the villages, fortresses and sacred sites of Bhutan. Having fallen into disuse with the emergence of a modern highway, the Bhutan Canada Foundation, working together with the Bhutanese people, have rebuilt bridges, cleared paths and built thousands of steps, resulting in the 250 miles long Trans Bhutan Trail.

We've carefully selected the sections of the trail in the more accessible west of the country that avoid the steepest most challenging climbs yet still offer good walking through traditional, scenic landscapes with lots of cultural interest. Accommodation is a mix of hotels and camping and there's even a festival included on our autumn departure.

See Trans Bhutan Trail - Western Highlights for full trip information including dates, prices and a detailed itinerary.

We’ve added an extra departure of our very popular Silk Road to Samarkand tour this April. With limited availability on many of our other departure dates this year, we wanted to give as many of you as possible the chance to experience this fabulous 15-day tour. It spends time in the ancient Silk Road cities of Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand famed for their magnificent architecture and rich cultural heritage.

For all dates, prices and detailed itinerary visit our Silk Road to Samarkand tour.

Popular destinations, conscious travel, iconic sights, in style travel or bucket list adventures - what will be the driving forces behind your travel choices in the coming year? Based on a combination of 'hot' holidays, current booking trends, and a peer in the old Mountain Kingdoms crystal ball, these are our January enews predictions for 2022's travel trends. There's also news of our 2021 Photo Competition winner.

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We had a superb shortlist of monthly winners from which to select our travel photo of the year, but after much deliberation and debate our winner was this stunning festival image taken in Ladakh by Chris Martin. We all just loved the colour, movement and energy of the dancers, as well as the technical achievement in capturing that moment. Chris has told us how he did it...

'I was travelling with my American photo friend and we had hired a 4x4 in Leh to drive us to spend a couple of nights in Lamayuru. We were up at first light to walk up to the Monastery. We were lucky to be the only foreigners on site amongst a small group of local villagers. Suddenly out of a doorway in the courtyard came monks dressed in amazing finery. They then started to dance in total silence. The only sound was the swooshing of their garments ! It was quite eerie ! The dance went on for around ten minutes in which time I managed to acquire some interesting pictures.'

Many congratulations to Chris, his prize is £250 towards a Mountain Kingdoms holiday. We look forward to seeing what brilliant images he captures on his future travels.

Winner of the Earthshot prize, Costa Rica plays a starring role in David Attenborough’s new, ground-breaking natural history series due to its extraordinary bio-diversity and conservation credentials. Watch Green Planet on BBC1 on Sunday evenings to see some of the country’s amazing plants and creatures.

If you’d like to discover Costa Rica for yourself there is availability on both of this year’s departures of our Gentle Walking & Wildlife Costa Rica small group holiday.

Our final winner for 2022 is Chris Holland with this superb photo of Ama Dablam in the Everest region of Nepal. Not only has Chris captured the beauty of this magnificent mountain but the stupa in the foreground (with its slightly cheeky expression) adds real interest and character as well as a sense of symmetry and scale between the man made and natural worlds. Many congratulations to Chris who wins our last Water-to-Go bottle of the year.

Christmas has come and gone, and we do hope that yours was a merry one. You can see us in our Christmas hats in our December newsletter, along with a jaunt up Kilimanjaro, some spring holiday inspiration, a tribute to our departed friend Kev Reynolds, and a triumphant winning entry for our November photo competition. Happy New Year, and in the words of the late Kev Reynolds, let's make 2022 the year to live the moment and live it well.

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If you're still searching for that perfect Christmas gift, then look no further then this poetry anthology by Peter Gibbs. Aside from being a wonderful poet, Peter is also a journalist and longstanding friend of Mountain Kingdoms.

His poems are inspired by his hometown of Clevedon in North Somerset as well as his extensive travels around the world including Europe, the American Rockies and the Himalaya. ..'The multi-faceted themes of love and life, time and travel, sorrow and happiness, nature and spirituality are distilled here into a delightfully-varied series of inspirational and nuanced poems, many with illustrations.'

Let the Good Rhymes Roll: A Poetry Anthology can be purchased in from Amazon in paperback or Kindle fomats.

It was with great sadness that we recently heard that our dear friend, Kev Reynolds, passed away aged 78.

Kev led treks for Mountain Kingdoms to Bhutan and the Indian Himalaya, and he also held a series of presentation evenings for us in which he shared his passion for the great mountains of the world with a rapt audience. Nepal was one of his favourite trekking destinations, especially Manaslu which he regarded as the ‘most beautiful walk in the world’.

Many of you though will ‘know’ Kev through the numerous Cicerone guidebooks he wrote over a span of 40 years including classic trekking guides to the Pyrenees, Alps and Himalaya. He also wrote walking guides to his beloved home region of Kent and Sussex, and had a collection of poems published in 2020 which he wrote as an antidote to the Covid lockdown.

Kev inspired many people through his writing and lived a wonderfully fulfilling life doing the things he loved the most. He was also the kindest, warmest, most generous man you could ever wish to know and a devoted family man. Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Min and their two daughters, Claudia and Ilsa.