Safaris?

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

TD and I won a safari in an auction a couple weeks ago in South Africa.  It's always been on my bucket list, and just moved it up a few spaces when the opportunity came up.  We have 2 years to take the trip, so now need to figure out when we want to go and how we want to do this.  We have to pay for airfare though.....OUCH!!

The airfare's going to be ugly, but we've got a couple choices of cities to fly out of (either Seattle or Vancouver).  The trip itself is AI for 6 days, but there is no way we are flying that far and not doing something else.  I'm thinking maybe going up to Tanzania and then spending some time on the coast (where there's supposed to be some decent scuba diving).  Or seeing what it would cost for a layover in Morroco would be (another thing on my bucket list), or Paris (TD's never been and probably one of my favorite cities after Istanbul).

UGH!  I don't even know where to start, and I know that the planning is all going to get dumped into my lap.

[haapai]

You might want to check out some of the island nations off the coast of East Africa.  Some of them have quite strong tourism infrastructure.  I wouldn't worry too much about English not being the primary language of such places either.  If they are used to catering to European tourists, only speaking English shouldn't be a problem. 

There also might be some SCUBA-centered tourism on the islands off the coast of Tanzania and Kenya. 

The costs may blow you out of the water.  Some of the places that cater to the French are really, really pricey.  The airfares from SA to some of these places, may also be eye-watering. 

But if you check them out, you'll at least be able to say that you considered them. 

[Artemis Windsong]

Ask your guide service to send you a brochure.  It will tell you a lot of helpful information.  Pay particular attention to the packing list.

Is this a photo safari?

[haapai]

Are you retired?  I'm sorta cringing at the thought of someone trying to squish a safari plus an exotic dive trip into a two-week US-style "vacation". 

One of the first things that you learn when you google scuba South Africa is that they have a lot of scuba diving and a nice warm current on the East. 

The second thing that you learn is that one of their major airports is quite elevated so "no dive" rules kick in when you fly to the coast. 

[Artemis Windsong]

No dive rule?  Does that mean you don't dive and fly on the same day?  That is only common sense; but my DH has known people who did both. Their plane had to be diverted.  They spent a good amount of time in decompression.

[simser]

Ohh!! Ohhh! Pick me!! Pick me!!

I leave in 2.5 weeks for my safari in Africa. I'm going to South Africa (specifically Kruger) and then Victoria falls through Botswana back to Johannesburg.

I'm not sure I would combine a safari and a diving vacation- safaris are best in winter, and I get quite cold and wouldn't want to swim (although it will get better as you go to the equator).

My flight was only $1300 from phoenix (about the same as it was to Europe, and much cheaper than australia, so maybe I'm jaded on the "only" part). Travel is taking up more of my time than I would like- about 2 days on each side of the trip.

I really wanted to go to Zanzibar, and Victoria falls and game drives, but I had to cut out Zanzibar in a two week trip. Stuff seems to move slower than we are used to.

If you want a monthish I'll have come back, and will be able to give better South Africa advice.

[Deleted]

Fantastic opportunity! Do I remember that you were going to start a new career program at school? Sounds like this would be a great graduation gift to yourself! 

[Bonny]

Ooooh another exciting trip The Walk of the Penguin Mich! No advice as I wasn't able to go on my Mt. Kenya Hike and Safari I had hoped to do two years ago. I have friends who regularly go to Tanzania; their daughter has been a missionary there for several years. They live in an isolated area off Lake Victoria where the closest store is 50 miles away. I think it's a full day to get there and back.

Just color me green with envy and looking forward to how this turns out!  

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Apr 26, 2015 21:31:38 GMT -5 simser said:

Ohh!! Ohhh! Pick me!! Pick me!!

I leave in 2.5 weeks for my safari in Africa. I'm going to South Africa (specifically Kruger) and then Victoria falls through Botswana back to Johannesburg.

I'm not sure I would combine a safari and a diving vacation- safaris are best in winter, and I get quite cold and wouldn't want to swim (although it will get better as you go to the equator).

My flight was only $1300 from phoenix (about the same as it was to Europe, and much cheaper than australia, so maybe I'm jaded on the "only" part). Travel is taking up more of my time than I would like- about 2 days on each side of the trip.

I really wanted to go to Zanzibar, and Victoria falls and game drives, but I had to cut out Zanzibar in a two week trip. Stuff seems to move slower than we are used to.

If you want a monthish I'll have come back, and will be able to give better South Africa advice.

I"ll be anxious to hear about this.  

We have as much time as I can take as TD has massive amounts of vacation accrued.  So if we go during our summer, we can take up to a month.  If we go during my December break, we'll have almost a month.  I'm shooting for around 3 weeks.

When I was looking at flights last night, I found that it is cheaper for us to fly out of Vancouver than Seattle by a considerable sum.  Another idea that I had was maybe spend 2 weeks in South Africa, the safari is 6 days, then maybe go to Victoria Falls and/or Tanzania, back to Johannesburg and fly out to the Maldives so TD can do some diving.  Airfare was just a little over $2000 out of Vancouver ($3000 out of Seattle).  Otherwise, Johannesburg and back runs around $1800 out of YVR ($2100 out of SEA).  It's still weird wrapping my brain around the fact that that last flight connects through Hong Kong!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Apr 27, 2015 0:16:50 GMT -5 @rockit said:

Fantastic opportunity! Do I remember that you were going to start a new career program at school? Sounds like this would be a great graduation gift to yourself! 

Yep, I'll be halfway through at the end of this semester.  I'm really enjoying it too, so consider that this was a very good choice for a second career.

I hate the idea that I no longer will have all this time to myself though!

[NoNamePerson]

Surely you two love birds need a chaperone      I'm game!!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Apr 27, 2015 16:54:29 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Surely you two love birds need a chaperone      I'm game!!

Uh......no thank you.  

[NoNamePerson]

Apr 27, 2015 18:54:45 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Apr 27, 2015 16:54:29 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Surely you two love birds need a chaperone      I'm game!!

Uh......no thank you.  

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

So it's looking like this is moving along and we'll likely be going in December for about 3+ weeks.  My time is limited and December is the only time that I'll have this long off from school (other than right now, and we can't go during the summer).

I started looking at airfares, and it appears that either Emirates or Turkish Air are going to give us the best rates with the least amount of connections if we fly out of Vancouver (which makes since, as we can park at TD's mom's house so not pay hundreds of $$ for long term parking in Seattle).  Turkish Air is likely going to win, as it connects through Istanbul and I have friends there, so we will likely spend a couple days visiting.

So that leaves us the 6 day safari, 2-3 days in Istanbul and travel - so 11 out of the 25 we are planning.  Options are to stick in South Africa and fly back home from Cape Town (maybe renting a car and drive ourselves), or stay to the north and maybe look at spending some time on the Seychelles.  That would give me the opportunity to dip my tootsies in a third ocean.

The more that I read, the more I realize that even this is not enough time!