The difficult thing to settle upon for this trip is the side trips after the "tour" part of my vacation is complete. Since I'm not sure how much I'll get to Africa after this trip, I'd like to pack as many countries in as I can. The problem with this is that I've got far too many destinations in mind. It doesn't help that I was a stamp collector as a child and have wanted to visit a lot of the places for which I had stamps. Some them are pretty "exotic" or at least they were to an 11 year old who never thought in his lifetime that he'd get to see these places. Some of the places on the list are:
Windhoek, Namibia (German Southwest Africa in my collection)
Gaborone, Botswana (Rhodesia)
Maputo, Mozambique
Antanarivo, Madagascar (Malagasy Republic)
Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe (Northern and Southern Rhodesia)
Zanzibar, Tanzania (Tanganyika)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Mauritius
Seychelles
The thing is that there's absolutely no way that I can visit all these in an extra week in Africa. It's just not possible since the travel infrastructure doesn't exist for me to be able to do all this.
I've asked some friends that have been to Africa for advice (the few number that qualify) and have had some interesting input. I've also done a lot of reading online and in guidebooks though it's been difficult in the guidebook department. I like using Lonely Planet guides, not for their budget accomodations but for general information and walking tours. Because the Africa guidebook covers the entire continent, there aren't a lot of details on any one country. I've spent lots of hours (and lost track of time several times) trying to research information. I was lucky that I decided to take advantage of the nice weather this past weekend to drive around and wound up at the Barnes & Noble in Milford, CT where I reviewed a number of guidebooks that were more specialized than the Africa guidebook I've got. Unfortunately, I didn't buy any as I really don't want to have to carry around five or six separate guidebooks which may cover a city or two. I may purchase chapters but not the whole book.
I also originally thought of getting a Star Alliance Africa Pass to do all the travel since I could take advantage of South African Airways and Ethiopian Airlines networks to do all my travel. I tossed that aside when I looked at the price of fares. Fortunately, I do have enough frequent flier miles on United that I can use on those airlines to book the flights. However, using frequent flier miles also limits me on my itineraries to destinations where seats are available.
With that all being said, here's how the additional time looks so far. Changes could come if I get another bug up my butt to add places.
9/5-6 Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe... I'll find a way to book a tour that allows me to see the falls from both countries.
9/10-11 Windhoek, Namibia... Flight gets in late from Johannesburg
9/11-13 Gaborone, Botswana... Okay, so I'm a fan of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books and this is my chance to see where the books are set
9/13-15 Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar, Tanzania... I plan on making Dar Es Salaam my base and taking the fast ferry over to Zanzibar for the day
9/15-16 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.. I can easily book a stopover and get another country in.
9/16 Return to Johannesburg for the flight home
Will cost me about 87,500 frequent flier miles and I'll get to ride in a 787. I was really hoping to get the Seychelles or Mauritius in but it doesn't appear that it will work. However, this is not a final itinerary by any means.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Trip
What's unusual about this trip, for me, is that it's essentially a guided tour. I will be picked up and dropped off at every airport and for every scheduled activity. It's not my normal style of travel. However, upon reviewing the schedule for the trip (http://www.flysaavacations.com/south-africa-travel/south-africa-cape-and-safari/), I do have a few days at leisure in Cape Town. My itinerary is slightly modified from that advertised on the website and it actually works in my favor. I'll be able to see some of urban Cape Town before being taken out into the wilds of the Thornybush Game Reserve near Kruger National Park.
The itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 (9/2/12): Flight SA 0204 New York JFK to Johannesburg OR Tambo (JNB)
Day 2 (9/3/12): Flight SA 0328 JNB to Cape Town International (CPT) then a transfer to the Southern Sun Waterfront Hotel in Cape Town (http://www.southernsun.com/hotels/waterfront-cape-town/pages/overview.aspx?gclid=CIfZ6ti9q68CFUbe4AodlB9zmg).
Day 3 (9/4/12): Half Day Winelands Tour
Day 4 (9/5/12): Happy Birthday!! Day at leisure in Cape Town
Day 5 (9/6/12): Day at leisure in Cape Town
Day 6 (9/7/12): Flight SA 0314 CPT to JNB then SA 1227 from JNB to Hoedspruit (HDS) with a two hour transfer to the Monwana Lodge (http://www.monwana.com/).
Day 7 (9/8/12): Monwana Lodge
Day 8 (9/9/12): Monwana Lodge
Day 9 (9/10/12): Flight SA 1226 HDS to JNB....
The remainder to be determined until....
Day 15 (9/16/12) Flight SA 0203 JNB to JFK
The Cape Town hotel has a four star rating on TripAdvisor while the game lodge gets 5 stars. When reviewing all this to make a decision, this was part of the reason I decided to take the tour. I'm not much of a budget accomodations type person (though I will do so in a pinch).
I will even earn my United frequent flier miles on the trip. Unfortunately, the long flights will only earn at 50% but the short internal ones will earn 100%. Not that it matters much to me.. :-)
The itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 (9/2/12): Flight SA 0204 New York JFK to Johannesburg OR Tambo (JNB)
Day 2 (9/3/12): Flight SA 0328 JNB to Cape Town International (CPT) then a transfer to the Southern Sun Waterfront Hotel in Cape Town (http://www.southernsun.com/hotels/waterfront-cape-town/pages/overview.aspx?gclid=CIfZ6ti9q68CFUbe4AodlB9zmg).
Day 3 (9/4/12): Half Day Winelands Tour
Day 4 (9/5/12): Happy Birthday!! Day at leisure in Cape Town
Day 5 (9/6/12): Day at leisure in Cape Town
Day 6 (9/7/12): Flight SA 0314 CPT to JNB then SA 1227 from JNB to Hoedspruit (HDS) with a two hour transfer to the Monwana Lodge (http://www.monwana.com/).
Day 7 (9/8/12): Monwana Lodge
Day 8 (9/9/12): Monwana Lodge
Day 9 (9/10/12): Flight SA 1226 HDS to JNB....
The remainder to be determined until....
Day 15 (9/16/12) Flight SA 0203 JNB to JFK
The Cape Town hotel has a four star rating on TripAdvisor while the game lodge gets 5 stars. When reviewing all this to make a decision, this was part of the reason I decided to take the tour. I'm not much of a budget accomodations type person (though I will do so in a pinch).
I will even earn my United frequent flier miles on the trip. Unfortunately, the long flights will only earn at 50% but the short internal ones will earn 100%. Not that it matters much to me.. :-)
Monday, April 9, 2012
Making the Purchase
Since I had never used Groupon before, I was a bit nervous about making the purchase. It was a lot of money to commit and when the site mentioned it could take 24 hours before my Groupon would be available for use, my anxiety level went up. Turns out it was all unnecessary. The purchase was a piece of cake and the Groupon was available to be used immediately.
Next thing to be done was to call South African Airways Vacations and book the trip! I wasn't sure how that was all going to go but it was easy as well. I had already talked to them about the trip so I knew what dates were available and what I wanted them to book for me. A few hours after exchanging some information, I had an itinerary in hand. But what about the actual flight info? Well, it was only a day behind that. Now that I had the full details, I could begin planning the remainder of my trip.
The one thing that is still up in the air at this point is the travel insurance I'm required to carry. They gave me a cost quote, but it's about double what the paperwork they included states or what the vendor states on their website. Just another cost amongst what I'm sure will be many to come before the trip arrives in September.
Next thing to be done was to call South African Airways Vacations and book the trip! I wasn't sure how that was all going to go but it was easy as well. I had already talked to them about the trip so I knew what dates were available and what I wanted them to book for me. A few hours after exchanging some information, I had an itinerary in hand. But what about the actual flight info? Well, it was only a day behind that. Now that I had the full details, I could begin planning the remainder of my trip.
The one thing that is still up in the air at this point is the travel insurance I'm required to carry. They gave me a cost quote, but it's about double what the paperwork they included states or what the vendor states on their website. Just another cost amongst what I'm sure will be many to come before the trip arrives in September.
The Jump Off
As friends and family know, I typically take one "big" trip a year right around my birthday. With it usually being the week of Labor Day, it's an efficient way to take a week off and only have to use four days of vacation. On occasion, I decide to do things differently. This year is one of them.
I had been tossing ideas around in my head for a few months now as to how I was going to celebrate my 45th birthday this year. Since my bucket list contains only one item, to hit a century (or visiting 100 countries), I was trying how to add a few more all in one shot. With the business travel to Germany now that I work for a German company, I've been able to add European countries pretty easily. However, there's one thing that's been stuck in my craw and that was the fact that I still hadn't been anywhere in Africa.
Therefore, a trip to Africa was on my mind. The problem was that it was difficult to decide where to go since Africa's so large and diverse. I had thought that maybe I'd do South Africa since it seemed like an easy entry point to the continent (like I felt that Singapore was for Asia) but really couldn't get up the nerve to sit down and plan anything.
That all changed a few weeks ago when I got a Tweet that there was a Groupon for a trip to South Africa. Now, I had recently removed Groupon from my phone because it seemed everytime I got a notification, my other phone apps froze up. In addition, I hadn't bought a Groupon in the year that I had the app.
Therefore, I had to go to the website to review the Groupon. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was a Groupon for a trip through South African Airways Vacations for a 10 day, 7 night trip in South Africa. I looked through the details a little further since a lot of these trips are for pairs and not singles. Lo and behold, it appeared that I struck gold. Not only was it available for single, the discount was more than a quarter off!
I spent the next few days hemming and hawing about whether to buy the trip or not. I asked a few questions about the trip through Groupon and got interesting answers back. I also posted on Facebook about the possibility and got a lot of people telling me that I should just go for it. My big deal was that it was a lot of money for a vacation. While I like to travel in style, I'm frugal about it. I don't like overpaying for things. However, I was also nervous about trying to independently arrange a trip in Africa since I don't have a lot of knowledge about the continent nor do I know many people that do.
I thought I was going to have to rush to make a decision since Groupons have a deadline to purchase but was given a reprieve when they extended the deadline. This gave me a weekend to think about it and ask my boss if I could take the time off when he returned to the office on Monday. Actually, I lost pretty much the entire weekend looking at information about South Africa and the remainder of the continent. This was important as I had decided to stay an extra week after the package was over. I was already going to be down there so there was no reason not to.
When I saw my boss on that Monday, I asked him about taking two weeks of vacation and was told it wasn't a big deal and that he'd cover for me. I'm in charge of a large construction project and at that point all we'll be doing is site and structural work so I shouldn't be missed. Therefore, all I had to do was pull the trigger on the Groupon and book the trip. In the back of my mind, I couldn't let go of how much it was going to cost. However, once I realized that it would be relatively hassle free (since I rarely have hassle free travel) and that most of the details for the first week would be arranged, I decided to make the plunge and book the trip.
I had been tossing ideas around in my head for a few months now as to how I was going to celebrate my 45th birthday this year. Since my bucket list contains only one item, to hit a century (or visiting 100 countries), I was trying how to add a few more all in one shot. With the business travel to Germany now that I work for a German company, I've been able to add European countries pretty easily. However, there's one thing that's been stuck in my craw and that was the fact that I still hadn't been anywhere in Africa.
Therefore, a trip to Africa was on my mind. The problem was that it was difficult to decide where to go since Africa's so large and diverse. I had thought that maybe I'd do South Africa since it seemed like an easy entry point to the continent (like I felt that Singapore was for Asia) but really couldn't get up the nerve to sit down and plan anything.
That all changed a few weeks ago when I got a Tweet that there was a Groupon for a trip to South Africa. Now, I had recently removed Groupon from my phone because it seemed everytime I got a notification, my other phone apps froze up. In addition, I hadn't bought a Groupon in the year that I had the app.
Therefore, I had to go to the website to review the Groupon. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was a Groupon for a trip through South African Airways Vacations for a 10 day, 7 night trip in South Africa. I looked through the details a little further since a lot of these trips are for pairs and not singles. Lo and behold, it appeared that I struck gold. Not only was it available for single, the discount was more than a quarter off!
I spent the next few days hemming and hawing about whether to buy the trip or not. I asked a few questions about the trip through Groupon and got interesting answers back. I also posted on Facebook about the possibility and got a lot of people telling me that I should just go for it. My big deal was that it was a lot of money for a vacation. While I like to travel in style, I'm frugal about it. I don't like overpaying for things. However, I was also nervous about trying to independently arrange a trip in Africa since I don't have a lot of knowledge about the continent nor do I know many people that do.
I thought I was going to have to rush to make a decision since Groupons have a deadline to purchase but was given a reprieve when they extended the deadline. This gave me a weekend to think about it and ask my boss if I could take the time off when he returned to the office on Monday. Actually, I lost pretty much the entire weekend looking at information about South Africa and the remainder of the continent. This was important as I had decided to stay an extra week after the package was over. I was already going to be down there so there was no reason not to.
When I saw my boss on that Monday, I asked him about taking two weeks of vacation and was told it wasn't a big deal and that he'd cover for me. I'm in charge of a large construction project and at that point all we'll be doing is site and structural work so I shouldn't be missed. Therefore, all I had to do was pull the trigger on the Groupon and book the trip. In the back of my mind, I couldn't let go of how much it was going to cost. However, once I realized that it would be relatively hassle free (since I rarely have hassle free travel) and that most of the details for the first week would be arranged, I decided to make the plunge and book the trip.
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