Welcome

Welcome to my blog for friends and family about my 45th Birthday Trip to Africa. I wanted to provide a space for anyone who was interested in the trip to follow as I plan and take this trip of a lifetime. I will occasionally be blogging before departure and will do so daily while I'm on the trip. Hope you enjoy!

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..  :-)

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