Just read all the helpful advice you all gave to Stevento which encouraged me to post my plans for Feb. 2016 in hopes you can share your expertise with me as well.
My husband and I will be in southern Africa arriving JNB 2/3 and departing JNB on 2/27. He will be on sabbatical from his university job and is as interested in exploring identity politics in SA as I am in safaris and landscape. So while he'll enjoy the museums explaining apartheid, a visit to Soweto and tours of townships, I look forward to Victoria Falls, national parks/private reserves and the Cradle of Humankind. He will not spend the entire time on vacation; he'll be meeting with university faculty in CPT and mentioned whether we should try to see one of his students who is now in Swaziland (not essential).
Given the (rainy) season, I have tried to plan an itinerary that gives us the best chance to see wildlife. For that reason, we include Etosha National Park in Namibia and don't plan to do Kruger.
We have a ton of Carlson points (his and mine). I would like to use them, booking reservations before the change in the second night free goes into effect at the end of May. I figure we'll use them in JNB and CPT but haven't yet researched if there are other Carlson locations that might work for us as well.
This is my very early thinking and I am happy for any advice on how to change/tweak it:
Option 1:
JNB Jo-burg >> WDH Windhoek >> CPT Cape Town >> Victoria Falls (LVI or VFA) >> ?? >> JNB Jo-burg
Feb. 1 - Leave JFK
Feb. 3 - Arrive Jo-burg 4:10PM
Feb. 3-5: Jo-burg; Recover from jetlag at a Carlson hotel with second night free; enable H to see Apartheid Museum and tour Soweto
Feb. 5 (Evening): JNB >> WDH (Windhoek)
Feb. 6-11 - Etosha and other places reachable from Windhoek
Feb. 11: Windhoek >> Cape Town
Feb. 11-18 - Cape Town and other places reachable from Cape Town
Feb. 19: CPT >> Victoria Falls
??
??
??
Feb. 25-26: Back in Jo-burg to allow a full day at Cradle of Humankind; another Carlson 2 night stay
Feb. 27 - Leave JNB 8:30PM
Option 2:
Jo-burg >> Cape Town >> Windhoek >> ?? and Victoria Falls >> Jo-burg
Feb. 1 - Leave JFK
Feb. 3 - Arrive Jo-burg 4:10PM
Feb. 3-5: Jo-burg
Feb. 5: Jo-burg >>> Cape Town
Feb. 5-13 - Cape Town and other places reachable from Cape Town
Feb. 13: Cape Town >> Windhoek
Feb. 13-20: Etosha and other places reachable from Windhoek
??
?? and Victoria Falls
??
Feb. 25-27: JNB
In both options 1 and 2, we'll certainly adjust a day here and there, for example perhaps we'll want more time in Etosha. At this point, I would like to just get a skeleton place-to-place itinerary and I can adjust the length of time in each place later based on how long we want in each place and the flight options we find.
While it would be nice to use points/miles for the intra-southern Africa travel, and I have a ton of Avios, I am not tied to doing so to get around. But I would like to set it up so that we don't include a leg with only super-expensive fares or a minimum number of departures a day/week.
We are inclined to not drive from place to place. I think we prefer to fly the longer distances and then rent a car while in a particular place if that seems the best strategy to get around in that particular section of southern Africa.
We are open to bus or train travel but not for distances longer than 4-5 hours. Which I think limits us to flying....
The Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park in Botswana may be likely destinations between Victoria Falls and our return to JNB to fly home. But I haven't researched Botswana yet so I am not quite sure of the best way go from Victoria Falls to Maun (?) which seems to be the jumping of point for the delta and Chobe. Reading on FT tells me that we can actually do a day trip from Victoria Falls/Livingston to Chobe so that's another option.
Another option might be to overnight in the Cradle of Humankind area instead of driving from Jo-burg.
What other locations might I consider adding to the itinerary instead/in addition to what I have? Are there other/better options considering it is the rainy season? Would switching up the order of where we go when make it easier/cheaper to get from place to place?
Thanks for any ideas/critiques/advice/comments. All are welcome! Thanks again!