SAMPLE ITINERARY TO SOUTHERN AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA AND BOTSWANA COMBINATION
Day 1 - Departure
*Scheduled flight from Washington-Dulles to Johannesburg
Day 2 - Johannesburg, South Africa
*The Grace Hotel at Rosebank
Bed and Breakfast
*Coach transfer from Johannesburg Airport to
The Grace Hotel at Rosebank
Conde Nast Traveler Magazine’s January 2005 issue featured - The Gold List, The World’s Best Places to Stay. The Grace Hotel came in as #3 out of the top South African hotel properties. This subdued and refined sophisticated seven-year old boutique hotel is soothing...like a home away from home. It is located in the heart of Sandton’s exclusive and vibrant classy suburb of Rosebank. The Grace has a calming and comforting effect upon your soul and is extremely welcomng and amicable which begins right at the front door by the doorman. The service is stunning and consistent upon many visits there and the world-class staff manage to treat everyone like their most important guest. You can always count on The Grace with its attention to detail and special touches including complimentary tasty refreshnments available to the guests in the library and complimentary cafe. Beautiful paintings and intriguing artwork along with exquisite floral arrangements are arttistically displayed throughout the hotel.
The 73 room guest accommodations start on the fifth floor in tastefully furnished elegant English Country decor rooms with luxuriously spacious en-suite bathrooms complete with bath and separate shower. The rooms have a mini-bar, satellite TV, wall safe, tea/coffee making facilities, hairdryer, air-conditioning and telephone. The interiors are enhanced by natural light from French casement windows with views over the town. Beautifrul Jacaranda trees form arches over the streets and when in bloom turn the neighborhood into a magical mass of purple.
The Grace embodies all that is essential to the discerning guest, being particularly suited to travelers seeking a relaxed, upscale ambience - a true blending of personalized hospitality. Flavorsome cuisine is always the order of the day in the hotel’s fourth floor Dining Room that opens onto a terrace garden with a heated rooftop lap pool. The amazing sumptuous buffet breakfast is not to be missed. It is marked by variety and a delicious abundance of choices, bountifully arranged. There is a covered walkway linking the hotel with the adjacent Rosebank Mall for shopping and restaurants. The Mall’s Sunday Rooftop Market, arguably South Africa’s best, offers a huge range of beautifully hand-crafted merchandise. For the non-shoppers there is a gym and spa on the hotel’s fifth floor.
Day 3 - Mpumalanga, South Africa
Exeter Private Game Reserve, Sabi Sand, South Africa
*Kirkman’s Kamp
Full Board and Game Viewing Activities
*Coach transfer from The Grace Hotel to Johannesburg Intl’ Airport
*Scheduled flight from Johannesburg to Mala Mala airstrip
*Road transfer from Mala Mala airstrip to Kirkman’s Kamp
Kirkman’s Kamp is located on one of the most elevated sites overlooking the Sand River. The Kamp has spectacular views of the unspoiled wllderness for as far as the eye can see. The large lounge leads through double French doors onto rolling lawns that provide a velvety contrast to the wild and tumbling bush surrounding the Kamp. The lounge’s 1920’s style decor shows off many safari photographs and memorabilia from the early days in Africa. The safari difference now being, however, that the shooting is done with cameras.
The guest rooms consist of 18 semi-detached cottages. Each room has access to its own private front veranda and has an en-suite bathroom featuring ball and claw footed bathtubs and a shower. Everything is as authentic as possible, in keeping with the feeling of the colonial atmosphere of an old South African homestead complete with style and luxury, except that air-conditioning, overhead fans, heated towel rails and hairdryers are provided.
There is a swimming pool, tennis court, also a bar and curio shop. Breakfast and lunch are usually served on the shady verandas. Dinner is a very special event taken in a reed enclosed “boma” around a camp fire. Kirkman’s Kamp is a true “South Africfan Eden.”
Kirkman’s Kamp is located in the game-rich Sabi Sand Reserve adjacent to Mala Mala Reserve and Kruger National Park, and offers exceptional “Big Five” game viewing and photographic safaris. Guests may see over 200 different species including Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino, Buffalo, Cheetah, Hippo, and Giraffe, along with a great variety of small animals and a wealth of bird life. Safaris are conducted over the vast bushveld in open Land Rovers accompanied by a game ranger and a tracker. Game drives are usually undertaken in the early morning and late afternoon when the game is on the move. Spotlight safaris after dark provide the opportunity to view the nocturnal creatures and carnivores “on the hunt” - a truly exhilarating experience.
Day 4 - Mpumalanga, South Africa
Exeter Private Game Reserve, Sabi Sand, South Africa
*Kirkman’s Kamp
Full Board and Game Viewing Activities
Day 5 - Johannesburg, South Africa
*The Grace Hotel at Rosebank
Bed and Breakfast
*Road transfer from Kirkman’s Kamp to Mala Mala Airstrip
*Scheduled flight from Mala Mala Airstrip to Johannesburg
*Coach transfer from Johannesburg Intl’ Airport to The Grace Hotel
with a visit to Cambanos African Curio Centre, enroute to hotel.
Day 6 - Linyanti , Botswana
*Kings Pool Camp - rated as a “6 PAW” Premier Wilderness Camp
Full Board and Game Viewing Activities
*Coach transfer from The Grace Hotel to Johannesburg Intl’ Airport
*Scheduled flight from Johannesburg to Maun, Botswana
*Private light aircraft transfer from Maun Airport to Kings Pool Camp
Kings Pool Camp is located in a private reserve in the Linyanti / Savuti Channel area in the northern part of Botswana, on the western boundary of Chobe National Park. The camp overlooks the oxbow-shaped Kings Pool Lagoon and the Linyanti River to the north. The area has a large wildlife resource with a wide variety of species, but it is most noted for its very large Elephant populations. There are good populations of Impala, Lechwe, Kudu, Zebra, Giraffe, Sable, Waterbuck, Buffalo and the smaller plains antelope and their predators Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Wild Dog and Hyena. The reed and papyrus swamps here are ideal for numerous and diverse species of birds.
The accommodations are quite luxurious in the nine canvas tented rooms under cool thatch, overlooking the hippo filled lagoon in front of the camp. Each of the new suites has its own large bedroom area, lounge, private plunge pool and a sala. The en-suite bathrooms are tiled with double showers, double hand basins, a separate flush toilet and also a refreshing outdoor shower. The main lounge, dining room and pub are under thatch and there is a swimming pool and an open-air ‘kgotla’ for dining under the stars. This main area is linked to the guest tents by a raised walkway, allowing animals to wander freely around the camp.
Days 7 & 8 - Linyanti, Botswana
*Kings Pool Camp
Full Board and Game Viewing Activities
Activities include day and night game drives in open 4x4 vehicles, occasional guided walks and double-decker boat cruises along the Linyanti River (when water levels permit). Highlights of Kings Pool Camp include the amazing sounds of the wildlife all around, as well as two hides. At the western end of the camp is a thatched hide overlooking the Kings Pool Lagoon where guests can spend their afternoon siesta hours watching game come down to drink, and an exciting underground hide where guests can sit with the water at eye-level and see elephants feet and trunks almost within touching distance, while safely inside the hide - an experience that transcends that of an ordinary safari (when water levels permit).
Day 9 - Okavango Delta, Botswana
*Jao Camp - rated as a “6 PAW” Premier Wilderness Camp
Full Board and Game Viewing Activities
*Private light aircraft transfer from Kings Pool Camp to Jao Camp
Jao Camp is located on a large, remote island in a private reserve bordering the Moremi Game Reserve in the heart of the Okavango Delta. The habitats vary from waterways and lagoons to dry Kalahari grasslands and this camp offers both land and water experiences depending on the Okavango’s flood levels. Mokoros (dug-out canoes), boating, fishing, walks, day and night game drives in 4x4 vehicles and birdwatching are usually on offer all year round. Huge herds of Red Lechwe can be seen, followed by prides of Lion. Other game includes Cheetah, Leopard. Tsessebe. Zebra and Wildebeest, as well as Hippo and Crocodile. Elephant are also in the area.
Jao Camp was featured in the Architectural Digest, March 2002 issue and is definitely a luxury bush camp. The architecture is breathtaking - a combination of Frank Lloyd Wright meets Edgar Rice Burroughs in an engaging fusion of functional comfiort, being thoroughly secure while living simultaneously in and outside of nature. It speaks directly to an American’s sense of a tree house adventure.
The furnishings throughout Jao Camp are a combination of African and Balinese, and the nine spacious, beautiful tents have each been individually handcrafted. They are rusticated, luxurious rooms featuring thick timbers complexly planed and joined without nails by Zanzibar boatbuilders. Each tent has a roughly thatched roof, primitive interior detailing and ripstop-canvas walls designed to admit the night sounds of the animals and essences of Africa. They have an en-suite bathroom with a large bathtub and a double pottery basin vanity, a flush toilet, as well as an outdoor shower and a private sala for afternoon siestas or just watching the serene, wonderful views of the surrounding landscape. The rooms are built under a canopy of shady trees on raised decks with a timber walkway that leads to the main areas of the camp. The leadwood railing was hand-worked with an ax to achieve rustic pointed ends. There are two secluded plunge pools, an outdoor “boma” for dining under the stars, as well as an excellent wine cellar and a curio shop. Jao also has a Salon where a full time therapist offers a wide range of massage therapies. Wow, Jao!
Day 10 - Okavango Delta, Botswana
*Jao Camp
Full Board and Game Viewing Activities
Day 11 - Okavango Delta, Botswana
*Mombo Camp - Rated as a “6 PAW” Premier Wilderness Camp
Full Board and Game Viewing Activities
*Private light aircraft transfer from Jao Camp to Mombo Camp
Day 12 & 13 - Okavango Delta, Botswana
*Mombo Camp
Full Board and Game Viewing Activities
Mombo Camp is situated on Mombo Island adjoinng the northern tip of Chief’s Island and is within the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. Conde Nast Traveler Magazine says it’s the #1 camp in all of Botswana again this year and they call it the “jewel of Botswana...maybe the most luxurious camp in Africa.” What sets this camp apart from the rest is that both the rooms and game viewing activities received a perfect 100 score from the magazine’s poll. The staff are really there to make sure you have a great time in this world famous camp, “Mombo...A Place of Plenty”. The camp offers abundant big game viewing, arguably the best in Botswana. The highlight here is the concentrations of plains game and all the predators - including the big cats! Leopard and Lion sightings are particularly good. Upon arrival at Mombo on our last visit there, we watched a leopard from the living room deck...what a welcoming greeting!
Mombo is built under the shade of some beautiful mangosteen, ebony and fig trees. The dining room, pub and living area all overlook the veld in front of the camp - a breathtaking view that teems with game. There is also a main plunge pool for relaxing in the heat of the day. The cuisine is creatively prepared by Chef Craig Higgins who now has his own book out, Elephant in the Kitchen, Recipes from the Wilderness. Craig and Mombo Camp were featured by The Today Show’s host, Matt Lauer, when Matt visited this renowned camp for his annual “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” series.
Mombo has nine “gorgeous” pavilion tents, enormous and elevated off the ground so animals may wander under your room. The guest’s rooms and the walkways that connect the rooms to the living area are up to 2m off the ground, allowing for guest safety. The luxurious, spacious canvas tents are well appointed with hand-carved furniture, leather couches and African accents that make it very Safari Chic. They have en-suite facilities - double showers, a vanity with double ceramic basins, flush toilet, and a refreshing private
outdoor shower with a view of beautiful Africa.
Day 14 - Johannesburg, South Africa
*The Grace Hotel at Rosebank
Bed and Breakfast
*Private light aircraft transfer from Mombo Camp to Maun Airport
*Scheduled flight from Maun Airport to Johannesburg Intl’ Airport
*Coach transfer from Johannesburg Intl’ Airport to The Grace Hotel
Day 15 - Departure for USA
*Breakfast Buffet at The Grace
*Walk via the covered walkway from The Grace to The Rosebank Mall’s Rooftop Sunday Market for last minute shopping
*Coach transfer from The Grace Hotel to Johannesburg Intl’ Airport for scheduled flight from Johannesburg to Washington-Dulles
Day 16 - Arrival at Washington-Dulles, USA *End of arrangements
COST IN US DOLLARS
$12,274.00 per person sharing for above itinerary (2008 cost)
<>Please note that above price is subject to change due to airfare fluctuation, the rate of exchange and fuel surcharges.
INCLUDED IN COST
-Round trip Intl’ air from USA on the direct services of South African Airways. -Domestic and Regional air on South African Airways and Air Botswana.
-International arrival and departure taxes for the USA and South Africa.
-All transfers as stated in itinerary.
-All tours as stated.
-All meals as detailed in itinerary.
-14% vat tax.
-Fishabout Safari Duffle Bag
One Night -The Grace Hotel at Rosebank, South Africa
Two Nights - Kirkman’s Kamp, South Africa
One Night -The Grace Hotel at Rosebank, South Africa
Three Nights - Kings Pool Camp, Botswana
Two Nights - Jao Camp, Botswana
Three Nights - Mombo Camp, Botswana
One Night - The Grace Hotel at Rosebank, South Africa
EXCLUDED FROM COST
-All items of a personal nature, such as hotel extras, room service, phone calls, laundry and meals not mentioned in itinerary.
-Gratuities to guides, game rangers and camp staff.
-Services not mentioned in itinerary.
-Cancellation and interruption insurance.
-Kruger National Park entrance fee R80.00 approx US$15.00
-SA National Park conservation fee R120.00 p/person p/day approx US$20.00
