Home. Planning my trip

Planning my trip

Planning is the most important aspect of the holiday and/or safari in Africa.

Together with our assistance you can build a program that will suit your needs. Follow these easy steps in order to create the basis of your dream holiday in Africa. Visit the Quick Country Overview to see if your style and budget will fit the country of choice.

Always remember to check for specials on the Home Page under 'Red Hot off the Press' and in the righthand column under Specials for the latest Special Deals on offer.

Step 1: Your requirements

1.Budget – how much money are you prepared to spend on your vacation – excluding international air fares.

2.Length of holiday – how many days do you have to your disposal.

3.Luxury Level – do you want to travel to Africa on a shoe string or do you want to travel in absolute style and luxury.

4.Type of Accommodation – hotel, B&B, Guest House, Self Catering, Camping, Resort, Honeymoon Retreat, Lodge, Health Resort or a combination of these

5.Your interest: Are you interested in cities and cultures, or do you want to combine it nature? Do you have specific interests like birding, fishing, safari, train tours, beach or wellness spa’s. Again you might require to combine these.

6.More or less. You might want to see as much as possible or relax in one location for a period. Through experience though we have learned that less is more. Africa is a huge continent – as an example the whole of USA can fit into the Sahara desert which is only a part of North Africa. The distance between Cape Town and Johannesburg is nearly 1500 kilometres (nearly a 1000 miles). Cape Town to Dar Es Salaam is more than 5000 kilometres (more than 3000 miles). If you want to see as much as possible, think of using air travel as well.

7.Are you going to Africa with your family with young kids, on honeymoon or just general holiday with your partner and/or friends?

8.Do you want rent a vehicle and travel by yourself with our assistance to book you a car and accommodation and advising you on what to see and do? Or would you like to sit back and relax in a scheduled escorted tour? A combination of these is again possible.

9. Which countries? This is a most difficult choice. Please read through our country information. Each country in Southern and East Africa has a special appeal. It will all depend on your interest.

10. The Best Time to travel. In Africa there is no such thing. Even in winter the temperature can be mild (although in certain locations it does get very cold). It is only the Western Cape region that gets most of its rain in winter (May – September). The other regions of Southern and East Africa get summer rains – normally thunderstorms that last for only a few hours. East Africa has 2 rain seasons – the short rains of October – December and the long rains from April to May. The landscapes are transformed when the rain fall and that again is a different sight than when it is all dry. It is actually during Africa’s winter period (dry period) that the game lodges are popular and higher priced. During this time though specials can be had in most part of South Africa especially Cape Town.

11. Special requirements: do you have special dietary requirements that need to be relayed to all the hotels and operators? Do you or any other member of your party have any disabilities that we must know about in order to cater for their needs?

Step 2: Contact us

Once you have decided on all these, then the next step is easy. Contact us and give us all these requirements.

Step 3: Correspondence

We will be constantly either in email or telephone contact to keep you up to date with the development of your itinerary. During this period you need to enquire from the airlines whether your international connection will be possible. We will be able to book all flights within Africa.

Step 4: Vouchers

Upon completion of full payment, we will email you all your vouchers, complete itinerary and if you decide so a complete travel pouch with background information, brochures, maps etc. Each voucher is made out for each service you use and this voucher is handed over to the particular service provider – hotel, car rental company or tour operator.

Step 5: Insurance

This step is of utmost importance. Please ensure that you have adequate travel insurance to cover you and your loved ones. Certain credit cards will cover a certain part of your travels but not all – read the fine print because extra cover is normally necessary. Please ensure that you will be able to be repatriated in cause of illness or death or at least be able to be admitted to a private hospital. Certain insurances can also cover you if you cannot join the tour in which case you will normally forfeit either the balance or a portion of the full amount of the tour cost if you are not covered. Your plane might be delayed and your first night’s accommodation will be forfeited. Please also read through our Insurance section of our Terms & Conditions. Some of the operators that are advertised on our web site include some degree of medical assistance. There are various excellent travel insurances including Europassist.

Step 6: Visas

Here is a general guideline for visas - but please remember that these can change constantly.

BORDER = VISAS OBTAINABLE AT BORDER
YES = VISAS MUST BE OBTAINED BEFORE DEPARTURE
NO = NO VISA REQUIRED

Step 7: Your holiday starts

We will arrange that a representative will meet you at your arrival airport and transferred to your destination or we will give you exact easy-to-follow descriptions if you decided on a self-drive vacation. From the moment you step of the plane, you will be taken care of – either in the background by our managers who will know at all times where you should be or by our representative.

Step 8: Returning home

Unfortunately your holiday will come to an end. We will keep contact and ensure that you have had a memorable time and you are more than welcome to give us feed-back on your tour/safari in Africa. We always stay in contact with our existing clients and keeping them informed on special packages and interesting information on this fantastic continent.

Click Here for:

• Cape Town Tour
• African Safaris
• African Overlanding

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