Viajes Tuareg Blog

The date of departure is approaching to Madagascar And so we move on to the next stage of our competition. #MadagascarConTuareg and sadly we have to say goodbye to some of the finalists.

In the third challenge to choose the female blogger who would join the Madagascar expedition, we asked all the entrants to show just how essential travel is to them. This stage in the contest to select the winner was therefore called Travelling Passion. In many ways they have expressed this in their publications.

If you're thinking of a trip to the United States you should know about some important changes to the requirements for obtaining an entry visa to the United States. Perhaps the most significant concerns people who have recently travelled (from 2011 onwards) to the countries of Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan or Syria will no longer be eligible for the visa waiver programme known as Visa Waiver Program.

We continue with the competition #MadagascarConTuareg in which we will select an intrepid female blogger to go on an incredible trip to Madagascar with Viajes Tuareg and support of Turkish Airlines. After the first stage, the contestants explain on their blogs how the prospect of a trip to Africa’s largest island makes them feel. Their accounts are full of information about Madagascar, but above all they brim with emotion and unfulfilled curiosity. Their eagerness to discover the Great Red Island and enjoy unforgettable experiences there is clear.

We want to join the celebration of the Women's Day with a simple tribute through photographs of women from all over the world. Working women, women who preserve traditions and rituals, women who care for their families, beautiful women, women who manage the household finances, daring women, women who travel… This tribute is for all of them.

In matriarchal societies men are very happy. This is what the interview headline says: Anna Boyé published by the Catalan newspaper Ara a few days ago. Anna has been studying and analysing this type of society around the world for some time and speaks from experience.

It is time to announce the 10 finalists chosen by the jury of the competition #MadagascarConTuareg has selected. First, though, all the participants deserve credit for sharing animal images, the task in the first of our challenges. The competition hashtag on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram has suddenly filled with dogs, horses, lemurs, butterflies, flamingos, gorillas and all kinds of creatures.

Entries closed on Monday, 22 February. Since the competition was announced, more than 30 people, many of them travel bloggers, have signed up to take part. We thank them all for giving us their time and talent on social media.

Recently we presented a selection of travel photographs made among all those received in our contest. Now comes the turn of the videos, and we want to present the three finalist pieces of the Viajes Tuareg Photography and Video Competition.

The videos cover three exciting trips to three beautiful countries: Thailand, Russia and Tanzania. Watch the three shortlisted entries, tell us what you think, vote and take part. Your opinion can help us decide who will win the prize of 1,500 euros!

Our photo contest Our travels continue, and we are ready to announce an initial selection of images going through to the next round: 100 great photographs taken in every corner of the planet.

We have to thank all participants. We've received over 800 photos! So we were not exaggerating when we said this initial selection was very difficult, both because of the number of entries and their quality.

We have an extensive list of fantastic Trips planned for Easter. Follow the link to explore our suggestions. You will find routes with a clear emphasis on active, trips rich in culture, history, outdoor activities or unspoilt nature.

We are travelling to Madagascar and looking for someone to share the day-to-day journey on social media. Would you like to be our travelling reporter?

We invite you to participate in #MadagascarConTuareg, a competition organised by Viajes Tuareg and Turkish Airlines in which the winner will travel to Africa's great Red Island for 13 days to discover the country's wonders first-hand and share their experiences.

What the trip to Madagascar will be like

Madagascar is a huge island separated from Africa by the Mozambique Channel. Its highlights include its wildlife and landscapes, the famous baobabs and an endless list of species found nowhere else. It is a dream destination for any traveller who loves nature and adventure.

The Madagascar trip the winner will enjoy lasts 13 days. On 29 April, we will fly with the airline Turkish Airlines from Barcelona to the capital Antananarivo.

The impossibility of covering Madagascar in a single trip leads us to focus on the following highlights of the destination:

• The Andasibe–Mantadia nature reserve, home to lemurs and an exceptionally rich and distinctive flora.
• We will visit the Tsingy de Bemaraha, one of the country’s most distinctive landscapes, and go trekking during the most active part of our trip.
• Visit to the capital, the colonial city of Antsirabé and canoeing through the gorges of the Manambolo and Tsiribihina rivers from Morondava.

Greenland is the northernmost country in the world, located on the American continent between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, facing the Canadian coast on one side and the north-west of Europe on the other. Kalaallit Nunaat (the country's native name) is the largest island in the world, excluding the island continent of Australia, with a total area of 2,415,100 km². Just over 83% of Greenland is covered in ice, making it the world's second-largest ice reserve after Antarctica.

Greenland is one of the last remaining unspoilt and remote destinations on the planet.

Next week you will be able to find us in FITUR , the International Tourism Fair held in Madrid every year. Half the team heads to Madrid together to meet suppliers, customers, professional contacts and any friends who would like to stop by and say hello.

Today we speak to our colleague Ana, who will explain details of her recent trip to Peru. She visited the country on a scouting trip to discover new locations and returned thoroughly pleased with the experience. In the interview below, we ask her about her impressions, and she reveals details of the trip and some of its distinctive features.

A trip to Ethiopia to discover the exceptional vitality of Ethiopians on the occasion of the celebration of their most outstanding religious festivities.
The Timkat celebrations in Ethiopia reveal the spirituality and emotion of the people of Gondar, reaching their climax at the bathing pools during the re-enactment of Jesus’ baptism.

The recent trip to Japan taken by our colleague Àlex, one of his many visits to the Land of the Rising Sun, he brought back some impressive photographs of the Naruto whirlpools, where Japan’s Inland Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.

This curious natural phenomenon is common and regular in the Naruto Strait. Why does this happen? What causes the whirlpools?

Unfortunately, it is no longer possible simply to spin a globe on its stand and, with your eyes closed, rest your index finger on it until it stops to decide our next destination. Wars, social conflicts of all kinds, disasters, dictators and dangers have driven chance away. The days of travelling with our eyes closed are over, if that was ever possible. Looking closely, there have always been places best avoided and threats facing travellers, in every era.

If you follow us often here in the Viajes Tuareg blog, or on our page Viajes Tuareg website you will already know that we regularly award 200 euros for some of the feedback our customers leave us. If you didn’t, here is how we reward these reviews of Viajes Tuareg in more detail, and explain how the feedback prize draw works.

The time has come to announce the winner of the twelfth prize draw for feedback collected through our Satisfaction survey after completing a trip. 

We've talked about Viajes Tuareg Photography and Video Competition on other occasions: like proud parents, we always find a good excuse to bring it up in conversation. This time we want to show you some of the photographs arriving in our inbox to encourage you to take part. You probably already know how to submit your entries, the requirements and the competition rules. So let’s enjoy some of the images that, after an initial selection, we will present to the jury for the 2015 competition.

Last week we had the pleasure of attending the presentation of the International Tourism Communication Awards #PICOT2015 in Madrid. There we meet representatives, colleagues and personalities who lead the world of tourism and travel in Spain. Viajes Tuareg could not miss the event, especially its first edition.

Our partner in Viajes Tuareg Joan Bartomeu has just returned from his trip to Sri Lanka and brings us fresh photographs of this beautiful Asian destination.

On his trip, he visited important temples and palaces listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, saw Asian elephants in their natural habitat in national parks, and ended his journey with a well-deserved rest on the secluded, idyllic beaches of the south coast.

We have asked Joan to answer the questions we normally ask our customers after a trip. And we've added some more that don't appear in the satisfaction questionnaire usual. We are keen to hear his thoughts on the trip and find out more.