An unanticipated but exciting opportunity to tour southern Africa in April 2026 - advice and input requested

[ShelleyB]

Wow that sounds amazing @BriarFlyer, and I feel like I might be a dog person too!

How did you organise this? Did you just make direct contact with the various lodges and book yourselves in? And how did you organise transport between the lodge locations? How does one find a reliable private driver?

Sorry to jump in ahead of @BriarFlyer, but for us finding private drivers was as simple as contacting the lodge for recommendations. And WhatsApp is widely used for communication. For shorter journeys, the usual RideShare apps (Uber, Bolt etc.) are available and you can check ratings. Suspect many of the Rideshare drivers would do longer trips too.

 

[BriarFlyer]

@ShellyB, that's exactly what I was going to say. Our drivers were organised by the lodges -- they knew the locals and had that all lined up and priced ahead of time so we could budget that in. At Vic Falls the hotels we stayed at also found us drivers. I think we got the card of our first driver, who we liked, and called on him several times. It was never a problem to find a ride and the drivers were a delight.

 

[ShelleyB]

Our experience in Tanzania and Zanzibar was the same. All the drivers we used (some recommended, some we just chose) were reliable and safe. We also kept cards and used same drivers where possible. On long journeys we also found them excellent to chat to and get insight into local life.

 

[RooFlyer]

You've probably seen it @Seat0B but here are my Namibia tips

Thread 'Namibia'

Aug 26, 2024

Just finished a 10 day tour in Namibia and offer these observations/tips. @kpc and @bPeteb also recently visited and may wish to offer theirs.

In no particular order:

* Windhoek is a pretty modern city; not a lot to do here, but a few things in the city centre

* Maerua Mall SE of the city centre is the best place for shopping. Taxi fare was A$1.20 to get there from the city! Taxis are numbered on the side, fixed prices for the several I took to/from city. No Uber here.

* Namibia in general is safe, usual precautions an avoidances . Its also very tidy. I saw...

• RooFlyer
• Replies: 4
• Forum: Destination Guides, Tips & Questions

• 
• 

 

[Seat0B]

You've probably seen it @Seat0B but here are my Namibia tips

Thread 'Namibia'

Aug 26, 2024

Just finished a 10 day tour in Namibia and offer these observations/tips. @kpc and @bPeteb also recently visited and may wish to offer theirs.

In no particular order:

* Windhoek is a pretty modern city; not a lot to do here, but a few things in the city centre

* Maerua Mall SE of the city centre is the best place for shopping. Taxi fare was A$1.20 to get there from the city! Taxis are numbered on the side, fixed prices for the several I took to/from city. No Uber here.

* Namibia in general is safe, usual precautions an avoidances . Its also very tidy. I saw...

• RooFlyer
• Replies: 4
• Forum: Destination Guides, Tips & Questions

• 
• 

Yes thank you @RooFlyer, and I will be re-reading your TR (and others) now I have planning to do.

 

[BriarFlyer]

Have fun with the planning @Seat0B. And what a splendid reason to be visiting Southern Africa.

 

[Seat0B]

Have fun with the planning @Seat0B. And what a splendid reason to be visiting Southern Africa.

Yes we are very pleased to welcome her into our family. She’s a delight and together they make a great team.

 

[bPeteb]

Everything comes down to budget and time. Sure it would have been nice to stay in some of the amazing lodges mentioned but our budget just didn't, and won't ever, go there. As kpc has mentioned, our tour and theirs was with Kiboko. We booked through World Adventures. It would be the equivalent of an Intrepid comfort I guess. We had zero complaints with any of the accommodation although some on our tour group did not feel the same. Don't go with five star expectations on 3-4 star budget.

Our group size was 16 max and there were 16 of us. In preference I'd want to bring that back to no more than 12.

Currently the tour we did called African Wildlife Explorer is in the low $7000s (AUD) for 20 days.

My review on the World Expeditions website - We loved our Vic Falls to Cape Town adventure. It was all so easy from the moment we started working with Pam right through to the final pickup at our hotel in Cape Town to take us to the airport. All of the information provided prior to the trip was thorough and accurate. At 61 it was odd to feel young on a trip. It appears as though Kiboko non-camping trips all have a very high average age. Something for people to be aware of when booking although that had no impact on our experience, or the trip in general.

The unsealed roads are BAD. Some truly terrible, so be prepared. Many of the tour vehicles don't have aircon. Ours didn't but for us it wasn't a problem. There was a LOT of driving as well. This is also something to consider. Two smaller trips with smaller drives between parks is something to consider.

Although it would have been great to finish with wildlife overload at Chobe instead of wildlife underload at Kalagardi, we're glad we started with our wonderful stay in Livingstone at the Radisson and did the rhino walk, and finished in CPT. Airlink flies direct into Livingstone from JNB.

In exactly five weeks we'll be in the First lounge in Sydney, ready to return to Africa. This time it's a mid-budget private safari with a newish company called Tapestry of Africa. We're traveling from Nairobi to Mombasa over 20 days. Just over USD7000ish pp. Much shorter drives between the national parks on this trip.

 

[Seat0B]

Everything comes down to budget and time. Sure it would have been nice to stay in some of the amazing lodges mentioned but our budget just didn't, and won't ever, go there. As kpc has mentioned, our tour and theirs was with Kiboko. We booked through World Adventures. It would be the equivalent of an Intrepid comfort I guess. We had zero complaints with any of the accommodation although some on our tour group did not feel the same. Don't go with five star expectations on 3-4 star budget.

Our group size was 16 max and there were 16 of us. In preference I'd want to bring that back to no more than 12.

Currently the tour we did called African Wildlife Explorer is in the low $7000s (AUD) for 20 days.

My review on the World Expeditions website - We loved our Vic Falls to Cape Town adventure. It was all so easy from the moment we started working with Pam right through to the final pickup at our hotel in Cape Town to take us to the airport. All of the information provided prior to the trip was thorough and accurate. At 61 it was odd to feel young on a trip. It appears as though Kiboko non-camping trips all have a very high average age. Something for people to be aware of when booking although that had no impact on our experience, or the trip in general.

The unsealed roads are BAD. Some truly terrible, so be prepared. Many of the tour vehicles don't have aircon. Ours didn't but for us it wasn't a problem. There was a LOT of driving as well. This is also something to consider. Two smaller trips with smaller drives between parks is something to consider.

Although it would have been great to finish with wildlife overload at Chobe instead of wildlife underload at Kalagardi, we're glad we started with our wonderful stay in Livingstone at the Radisson and did the rhino walk, and finished in CPT. Airlink flies direct into Livingstone from JNB.

In exactly five weeks we'll be in the First lounge in Sydney, ready to return to Africa. This time it's a mid-budget private safari with a newish company called Tapestry of Africa. We're traveling from Nairobi to Mombasa over 20 days. Just over USD7000ish pp. Much shorter drives between the national parks on this trip.

Thanks so much for all this information @bPeteb. I will go visit web sites for both Tapestry of Africa and World Adventures.

I note your comments about road quality, which were similar to @RooFlyer’s, and are a little bit of a concern. I’m also a bit concerned about hot temperatures and no aircon in vehicles - that’s made very clear on my “starter” Intrepid research that comfort level trips are not airconditioned. I am a cool climate person for sure - hence my previous lack of interest in this area. As I understand it, April is still pretty hot in Botswana and we aren’t flexible about the time of travel due to the wedding .

Looking forward to your TR.

 

[bashworth]

One of the problems I am having with planning South Africa travels at the moment is the non availability of Classic Rewards Flights Sydney to Johannesburg direct.

Even with Gold Status and trying at 10.00am on the day the flights become available the best I can do is Classic Plus at a huge number of points.

The only Classic Rewards flights Sydney to Johannesburg that I see are on Emirates planes via Dubai but that means another 10 or more hours on the journey!

 

[Seat0B]

One of the problems I am having with planning South Africa travels at the moment is the non availability of Classic Rewards Flights Sydney to Johannesburg direct.

Even with Gold Status and trying at 10.00am on the day the flights become available the best I can do is Classic Plus at a huge number of points.

The only Classic Rewards flights Sydney to Johannesburg that I see are on Emirates planes via Dubai but that means another 10 or more hours on the journey!

Yes I suspect that we will be paying for this trip - we lack flexibility due to the wedding. And how bizarre it would be for us to have to hub through Dubai (where Seat Son and DIL live) to get to the wedding . Once I sort my dates a bit more, I will try my luck asking for release of seats as a WP, but we are expecting to shell out.

 

[bPeteb]

Yes I suspect that we will be paying for this trip - we lack flexibility due to the wedding. And how bizarre it would be for us to have to hub through Dubai (where Seat Son and DIL live) to get to the wedding . Once I sort my dates a bit more, I will try my luck asking for release of seats as a WP, but we are expecting to shell out.

We traveled in August with no heat issues. April I'd imagine will be quite different. I tried without success to get Y+ released for bAlt so we are revenue in both directions. We're not even going to bother with trying for an upgrade to J on the way home. Well, not yet.