chillg8r

This is a followup on a thread I started elsewhere when I was looking for point redemption advice. Now it is more about itinerary. Just to recap:

I am planning a 2 month trip for my wife and 24 year old son to Africa to east and S Africa. As the trip is in its early planning stages we have a lot of flexibility. My wife and I are a youthful 59 and 54 years old and are seasoned independent travelers. Our son will only be with us for two weeks or so.

My thoughts so far are:

Arrive in Cape Town August 23rd, 2016
On to Kenya. Zanzibar?
Fly into Addis Ababa during the week of September 26th. Spend one month in Ethiopia.
Fly home ~Oct 24th.

So you can see that i have a lot of flexibility between Cape Town and Kenya. We would like a great Safari experience and would not mind “splurging” for 3 nights at the Maasi Mara, probably around September 12th? I understand that is a great time for the migration as well as everything else.

We are middle class people trying to travel for 2 months so we have to be somewhat frugal, but we are not the camping type, more the hostel and better type. We love to have cultural experiences and historical experiences, hence our attraction to Ethiopia. What we don’t know is how many days do we need to spend on Safari? And how different are the safari experiences from park to park? We could spend 3 weeks in S Africa and do a self drive for a few days in Kruger and then fly from J’burg to Nairobi. We would then have 2 weeks in Kenya….but is that too much Safari? It was implied in the other thread that there is no reason to visit the Serengeti if we were going to the Maasi Mara. That is partly why I am wondering just how repetitive the safari's can get?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Sabasi

I'm always skeptical when people say they will get to know the locals and the culture by taking a guided tour or, worse, a game safari. That's just not realistic. The way to do that is to spend a few months volunteering (5 or 6 days a week) in a single country (and do a safari on the side).

An elephant in Kenya is the same as one in Tanzania. What varies is the landscape, how crowded the parks are, the weather, the guide. So whether it gets repetitive totally depends on one's personality.

johan rebel

To a very great degree that will depend on your level and breadth of interest.

Some are quite happy watching Animal Planet in a comfortable home environment, others will go on week-long hikes in 100°F heat and 90% humidity to view animals close up on foot.

For those for whom a safari is a one-off experience focusing on the big & hairy as well as fangs & claws, a couple of nights at a line-'m-up lodge will suffice.

For those with special interests (e.g. birding) it pays to carefully select the most productive game reserves, and to invest more than just a few days.

Self-drive is an option, but requires more of an effort, which effort rewards the experienced and knowledgeable far more than it does novices.

How repetitive a safari gets at a particular location will depend on a number of factors, of which the size of the traversing area is the most important one, for obvious reasons. The area's scenic and faunal diversity also matter, as does the range of activities offered. Some lodges only offer morning and afternoon game drives, with perhaps a so-called walk thrown in after brunch and on a full stomach, in the heat of the day. Others may in addition offer proper walks; night drives; photographic hides; power boat trips on rivers, lakes or dams; canoeing; sleep-outs; microlight flips; mountain biking; or balloon safaris.

Johan

johan rebel

If you have specific skills that cannot be procured locally. Otherwise far better to spend your money on putting the unemployed locals to work.

I never understand the people who take pride in flying to Cape Town, where they spend two days painting the walls of a local kindergarten pink, followed by two weeks touring wineries. The money spent on airfare would have employed a small army of out-of-work locals, and bought a truckload of pink paint.

Johan

chillg8r

I was thinking that just the other day, but perhaps there is value in supporting people's altruistic instincts, regardless of how deep it runs? Maybe that person you refer to has never been outside their own community and even such a meager experience as you des ride transform their outlook for life?

i am American and know quite a few people who have never travelled to any place that is culturally very different than their home and, imo, they lack a certain empathy for others that, it seems to me, can only be gained while traveling.

Back to the topic of the thread. My wife and I are not avid bird watchers or even committed hikers or campers. We just love experiencing new things and meeting and playing with people of all cultures and learning how to live in a more open minded and supportive way. I've always had Africa on the brain and always wanted to go on safari but, truth be known, as I began my research visiting the Omo Valley and northern Ethiopia had as much or more appeal.

If I could figure this all out on the fly i would but I think I will have to prearrange flights due to the distances involved.

Just as an aside, on our last big trip we spent 3 months in SE Asia and all I had prearranged was a flight into Bangkok, the first 3 nights lodging and a flight home from Saigon 3 months later. I don't think that is possible this time.

Thanks for your feedback.

MADPhil

[QUOTE=chillg8r;25079792]So you can see that i have a lot of flexibility between Cape Town and Kenya. We would like a great Safari experience and would not mind “splurging” for 3 nights at the Maasi Mara, probably around September 12th? I understand that is a great time for the migration as well as everything else./QUOTE]

We spent three nights in the Maasi Mara a few years back and it was quite sufficient for an overview of a small area. Don't commit to too much riding around in the back of Land Cruisers, that gets pretty tiring. You could probably sit in a hide and watch things for days though! We stayed at the Karen Blixen camp and there was quite a lot to see in and around the river outside, but it was a long ride from the airstrip. We opted out of a day trip to a different area and instead visited a Maasi show village nearby. This was in April so there was no migration.

manneca

A long, long time ago, we did Samburu, Masai Mara, Lake Navasha, Ngorongoro Crater and the Sergengeti. It was all different. I think it was probably about a month. So, how long you want to spend depends.

So glad you're going to Ethiopia. It is a fantastic country. Don't miss Lalibela; it's amazing.

You can spend a lot of time in Cape Town, too.

We also went to Swaziland on a whim from Jo'burg. It was beautiful.

SanDiego1K

We've been on both self drive and guided safaris in South Africa and Namibia and guided safaris in Kenya and Tanzania. In general, I'm ready for a break after four days of safari, then ready to return to safari after a few days away. Driving ourselves in South Africa was ideal as we interspersed stays in national game parks with urban or cultural experiences. We did a longer safari in Tanzania, but there was great diversity where we went.

chillg8r

Were there any particular parks in S Africa that you recommend, other than Kruger np?

SanDiego1K

Addo Elephant Park was great. Addo is outside Port Elizabeth. We drove to Port Elizabeth from Capetown, covering the Garden Route. It was a bit blah in my opinion. However, near Capetown the penguin colonies near Hermanus are very much worth seeing as are the whales off the coast of Hermanus should you be there the right time of year.

We flew to Durban from Port Elizabeth. My notes say we had a pleasant drive thru Valley of 1000 Hills and it is lined with craft and coffee shops. From Durban we drove to Shakaland. It is built like a Zulu Village. It was built as a set for a movie filed in 1985. 50 beehive huts were added to turn it into a hotel

We drove thru St Lucia to the river and found a government boat leaving on a hippo tour. Fantastic. I have great memories of the many many hippos we saw in the river. We saw one large group of 24 hippos and many smaller groups as well as crocodiles. Then we drove to Hluhluwe. It was very hot, over 100 F, and the hut we had was not air conditioned. We took a night game drive with indifferent results, then saw more animals on our morning drive. The best was seeing 3 cape buffaloes grazing on the law of Hilltop Camp for at least an hour before dinner.

We drove on to Swaziland and Reillys Rock Hilltop Lodge.This property was built for the Reilly family in the 1910s. It now has rooms for rent. It's been many years since we were there, but we had the good fortune to visit with Mickey Reilly's son, Terry. He talked to us about his conservation efforts and the great frustration of poachers. They had 92 rhinos in Swazi, all killed by poachers in the 90s.

It's a short drive on to Kruger from there.

More recently we flew into Windhoek, spent a night, rented a car, and drove the desolate roads to Sossuvlei. Many farmers gave up their land to have it enclosed as an animal conservation area. It was a beautiful landscape but light on animal viewings. There is an enormous sand dune in the area. We drove up to Swakopmund, from where one can go up the Skeleton Coast and to Etosha National Park. That might be another trip for us.

Johan Rebel is an amazing safari resource in this forum. He might well have current information than me, and I would listen to him.

s0ssos

I'm presuming you looked into it, but safaris are quite expensive actually.

I think how long you can stand a safari is how long you can stand doing the same thing every day, driving and trying to spot different animals.

Sabasi

Throwing money at a problem is frequently not the solution. People who say, "Why did you volunteer your time when you could have just donated money?" don't get it.

chillg8r

Thank you to everyone for your feedback. I am learning for all of these posts.

We'll start in Cape Town, which should be whale watching season. We will rent a car and work our way across until we get to J'Burg for our flight to either Zanzibar or nairobi. While in S Africa we will definitely visit Kruger NP but maybe use our rental vehicle and self drive inside the park for a couple or three days. Also, maybe catch another game park in S Africa that is in our path. Swaziland perhaps?

I am thinking that a nice 3 night splurge stay in the Maasi Mara is in order, perhaps at Mara Engai Wilderness Lodge? A trip to Lake Nakuru sounds good. And if we still feel like we want to see more game then we could go to Nairobi NP as well. I think that would be a nice variety. And we can add or subtract based on how we are feeling during the trip.

I would also like to side trip into Zanzibar, before or after Kenya, and finish with a month in Ethiopia as mentioned above.

Keep the suggestions coming!!! I really appreciate it.

konagirl2

As I am sure you are finding out, Africa is a big place. You could easily spend a month just around the Western Cape! But your intention to split your time over three countries is really good and will give you the incentive to keep revisiting.

+1 for whale watching and visiting the penguins at Betty's Bay. Even if you are not into hiking, the scenery all around Cape Town in amazing.

If you are in to people, history and culture then Cape Town is a great start. Consider driving the R62 towards Port Elizabeth for contrasting scenery. If you go via Oudtshoorn, I think the place we stayed was Aan de Burg; the owners were very insightful on the recent history and politics of that part of the world. With just 3 weeks in SA, I would consider flying Port Elizabeth to JNB or Durban (after visiting Addo).

In answer to your original question, wildlife, nature and the great outdoors are the major attraction of east and south Africa for me. But even if they aren's that big a draw for you, I would say over 2 months it will be worth doing at least 2 'safari' type trips in different areas. The Serengeti / Maasai Mara will offer very different landscapes and viewing to South Africa. To keep costs down, doing self-drive in South Africa is very affordable but I would note whether you self drive or not, accommodation within the Parks gives you the best experience (together with following Johan's guidance elsewhere on this forum) but they tend to get booked up well in advance. So you might have to chose between fixing certain dates into your diary (perhaps around flights?) or risking a less good experience, for example if you have to stay outside the Park.

Personally, I would book the flight JNB - NBO and book 3 nights in a river-view bungalow at Lower Sabie a few days before (allowing for travel time in between) as soon as reservations become available (~1 year ahead). Or I would stick to the Western Cape for 3 weeks including Addo for 2-3 nights and then head straight to Kenya / Zanzibar.

chillg8r

Thank you for these suggestions. We are very excited but am a bit frustrated that I can't book anything yet! 😀

Keep the suggestions coming!