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Happy New Year...!

With memories of Christmas, turkeys and New Year festivities fading, many of us start to reflect on the last twelve months and what it’s meant for us. Another year is now behind us and it’s been a busy one at Undiscovered Destinations. More people have travelled with us than ever before, and increasingly to ever more challenging destinations in the search for something new, authentic and exciting. We’ve run our first group tours to Chad and Iraqi Kurdistan, witnessed the vibrant carnivals of Guinea-Bissau and explored the jungles of Guyana. And we’ve sent our first traveller to the new state of South Sudan, just two days after it became independent. This year has seen more of you asking for those multi-country trips that we really specialise in, connecting numerous different countries together and allowing you to see the highlights of a region within a short space of time – we’ve even arranged a short stay in Equatorial Guinea as part of a West and Central Africa trip – not the easiest of countries to run a trip to by any means!

But enough about what has already happened. We’ve been working hard through the autumn months to come up with a whole new set of adventures for 2012 and beyond, and we can’t wait to tell you about them.

Both alphabetically and geographically it’s perhaps fitting that we start with Algeria, the largest country in Africa. Our new trip here – Algeria – Africa’s Giant – explores the incredible diversity of a land that has long been considered off limits to travellers. Starting in the capital Algiers we spend time exploring the cities of the Mediterranean coast including Oran with its almost Spanish ambience, the religious heritage of Tlemcen and of course Algiers itself, with its atmospheric casbah and profusion of old French colonial architecture. We visit stunning Roman ruins at Tipasa before making our way to the oasis towns of the Sahara, flanked by massive dunes and full of mud brick buildings and winding streets where little has changed for centuries. We then move on to the UNESCO listed Mzab Valley before venturing into the deep desert at Tamanrasset, making a foray into the renowned Hoggar Mountains to see their amazing landscapes and meet the Tuareg inhabitants. This is a must for anyone with an in interest in Africa – read the full details here.

Further south we have a new offering in Burundi, a short one week trip encompassing the highlights of this tiny but beautiful country. In Bujumbura we explore local suburbs guided by some of the women who live there, giving us a unique insight into urban Africa. We take boats into the wetlands of Rusizi National Park to search for hippo and sitatunga, and cruise on the mighty Lake Tanganyika, the longest lake in the world. With numerous opportunities to stop at local villages, see cottage industries and meet local people this is a fascinating tour to a country which few know much about. Burundi is home to the southernmost source of the Nile, the location of which proved a puzzle to geographers for centuries, and we visit this along with the spot which lays claim to being the meeting place between Stanley and Livingstone. And no visit here would be complete without seeing the Burundian Royal Drummers – a cultural performance par excellence. Join us on a journey into an undiscovered highlight of Africa.

We’ve also been developing an incredibly exciting trip to the Central African Republic and Cameroon, one which is a real contender for our most pioneering yet. From Bangui we take jungle roads into the Dzanga Sangha Reserve, and base ourselves here for a few days to track lowland gorillas, watch forest elephants and other animals gather at the bais and travel by dugout canoes through swamps and rivers in search of wildlife. From here we cross the land border with Cameroon and hike into the forest to spend the night with a group of Ba’Aka pygmies, privileged to learn from the first inhabitants of the rainforest – an incredible experience. Further south we visit the Pongo Songo Chimpanzee Sanctuary for a close encounter with these mighty apes, and camp at Lake Ossa with its manatees. And after such an adventure we end up on the beach at Kribi where you can unwind for a couple of days before the flight home. This won’t be an easy trip, and is definitely not for first time visitors to the continent, but offers an experience like no other. Read the full details of this trip here.

Moving on from Africa we head to the Caucasus and Azerbaijan, with a one week trip there. One of the most unusual countries on the Eurasian landmass, Azerbaijan is a curious mixture of the ancient and modern, with oil wealth giving rise to a capital where skyscrapers can be seen from medieval fortresses, and donkeys battle with luxury 4wd vehicles for dominance on the streets. We explore Baku with its historic centre and grand architecture, and visit the Absheron Peninsula, home to flaming mountains, fire temples and the distinctly odd mud volcanoes of Gobustan. Outside of Baku, the old town of Sheki is a real pleasure to explore, with a beautiful old palace, a number of caravanserais and an ambience very different to the capital. Explore historic churches and mausoleums, and the unique ‘bottle house’ of improbably named Ganja, before taking boats out on the Caspian Sea, the largest body of inland water in the world. And for those of you really interested in the unusual, we have an extension to the enclave of Nakhchivan, only accessible by air. Azerbaijan is brimming with history, is fiercely modern, and is unlike anywhere else you will have visited. You can see the full itinerary here.

Across the Caspian and then just a bit further, we venture into the very heart of Asia with a new tour to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – Along the Pamir Highway. From Dushanbe we quickly leave the modern world behind as we take a route through some of the highest mountains in the world, over high passes and through remote lands with views to make you gasp. With little in the way of formal accommodation out here we spend many nights as guests of local communities, allowing us a glimpse of life in such a far flung corner of our planet. We visit ancient fortresses dating back to times when this was an important trading route as part of the Silk Road, and venture into the Tajik side of the Wakhan Valley, with Afghanistan visible across the river. Crossing into Kyrgyzstan we stop at ancient Osh, hike in the Ala Archa canyon and visit Issyk Kul, the largest lake in Central Asia. This is a journey of epic landscapes - there are few more visually impressive, or ethnically intriguing parts of our world.

Staying in Asia but with a decidedly more tropical flavour, we’ve launched a new tour to Borneo, visiting both Sabah and Sarawak to focus on both the wildlife and people of the world’s third largest island. As well as visiting the orang-utan sanctuary at Sepilok we spend a couple of nights by the Kinabatangan River for a more ‘authentic’ wildlife encounter, hoping to spot proboscis monkeys, crocodiles, wild orang-utan and perhaps even pygmy elephant. We then head to the Gomantong Caves, enormous caverns home to a nightly exodus of thousands of bats, and walk the trails of Kinabalu National Park in the shadow of South East Asia’s highest peak. In Sarawak we explore the UNESCO listed Mulu National Park, with limestone pinnacles, a canopy walkway and the 107km Clearwater Cave, as well as visiting a settlement of Penan people, hunter gatherers who have lived in the forest for millennia. With a night in a longhouse we then end up on Borneo’s gorgeous coastline, with time to relax or hike in the rainforest. Borneo is a beautiful land where nature is at its finest, where large tracts are still unexplored and new species are regularly found – truly a paradise on earth. Check out the full details here.

Our final trip (for the moment!) is in Venezuela, a country of immense possibilities and better known for its socialist rhetoric than tourist potential. With elegant colonial cities, the scenery of the Andes and superb wildlife, we thought it was about time to add this part of South America to our list, joining the dots between our trips in Colombia and Guyana. We have time to explore Merida, set amongst the mountains and with charming architecture, visit Andean villages and hike to a glacial lagoon, before continuing to the Llanos, Venezuela’s answer to the Pantanal and with wildlife ranging from jaguar and ocelot to anteater and alligators. In Canaima National Park we visit the majestic Angle Falls – the highest in the world – by taking a flight over them for superlative views. In the Orinoco Delta we explore waterways with local guides who teach us about the ways of the jungle, and then head to Coro with its graceful buildings and towering sand dunes – a contrast from everything we have seen already. Venezuela won’t fail to impress, surprise, delight and we are proud to offer a trip to this often forgotten corner of Latin America.

As well as new trips, we’ve also been making some changes to our existing ones. Our Eritrea Discovery tour has now reduced in price to just £849 per person – probably our best value trip, while our Rainforest Discovery trip in the Central African Republic has dropped from £4999 to £3499 with the inclusion of the charming Sangha Lodge in Dzanga Sangha Reserve. We’ve listened to what you said and removed the camping from our trip to Burkina Faso, making this a hotel only tour, and our Djibouti and the Danakil Depression trip now starts in Djibouti rather than Ethiopia to avoid the increasingly painful visa issues. In Europe, we’ve combined Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania in our Hidden Europe tour, and Moldova is now being offered as a group tour rather than simply an extension.

But of course there are casualties. With the ongoing problems in some parts of the Middle East, we are sadly no longer offering Yemen or Syria, although we will be keeping a close eye on events in the region with a view to getting back there as soon as it’s safe to do so. And the recent events in Timbuktu involving the kidnap of western tourists have meant that we’ve temporarily suspended our ‘Ancient Empires and Tribal Traditions’ tour in Mali, although we are still visiting the south of Mali as combinations with Guinea, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.

2011 has seen a surge of interest in Burma following the abandonment of the ‘tourism boycott’, and we’ve seen increasing numbers of you wanting to visit. Throughout our history we have always felt that there is an intrinsic difference between responsible, small group travel and mass tourism, and have been offering trips there for a number of years now. With the country now ‘back on the map’ it surely can’t be long before its unique character feels the influence of large numbers of tourists, and so now is the time to visit. Let our long experience in this wonderful country help you plan your ideal trip. Check out our offerings in Burma here, and do get in touch if this isn’t quite what you’re looking for and we can design an itinerary to suit you.

As we enter 2012, we’ve never had quite so many guaranteed group departures, including trips in Sudan, Guinea, Eritrea, Ukraine, Cameroon, Guyana, Madagascar and many more. Have a look at our full selection on our Guaranteed Departures page.

After a very busy show in 2011 we’ll be returning to the Destinations Travel Show from 2-5 February in Earl’s Court, London. If you fancy coming along to pick up a copy of our brochure, have a chat about future plans or just to say hi, we have a limited number of free tickets available, so let us know.

That’s all for now. From all of us at Undiscovered Destinations, a very happy new year and happy travels in the year ahead.