Help with ONE routing including Mauritius and Dubai
 

I am trying to plan a trip with a ONE 3 continents ticket from Mumbai. The most important stops I need to make are at Tokyo, London, Mauritius and Dubai, although I shall try to add some more once these are incorporated.

Can anyone advise me on a routing that would allow this? I had a quick look in the archives, and could not find anything.

Thanks in advance

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You can't include Africa for a three continent Oneworld Explorer, it will at least be a four continent.

Mauritius is a pain to include in a OWE at this point, and you cant do it without an open jaw.

My suggestion is to do a 3-continent Circle Indian, and go something like BOM-HKG-NRT-LHR-DXB-LHR-MRU//JNB-HKG-BOM. The segment between Mauritius and Jo'burg is an open jaw and will run you about $300, if I remember correctly. I bought my ticket ahead of time, since it was imperitive that I was able to get on the flight, but I think if you have time to wait and a little flexibility, you could probably get that segment a bit cheaper in MRU.

Thanks a lot Darren. That is very helpful advice.

Darren, Just curious about your MRU open jaw. We are currently looking at including MRU as part of our AONE, to also include NBO and concluding in JNB... Thinking about LHR-MRU//SEZ-NBO-JNB.. Open jaw MRU-SEZ was looking to be about $200 pp. Since it seems you have some experience with MRU, would you anticipate any problems with such a plan? Just asking, as we are issuing our last segments next week and want to be prepared (and are clueless about most of Africa!) Thanks for any advice you can give me!

Robin

I am not sure exactly what you are asking, so I will answer as best as I can. First, if you are asking about routing, that is fine. I was going to go to SEZ, but decided not to pass through NBO for a number of reasons, not the least of which that there were riots going on at the time. It would have been an overnight stay and I just didn't want to deal with it. So I stayed in MRU for about a week and a half, then eventually went back for about 5 days. The one thing I have heard is that Seychelles is expensive, and there are few or no alternatives. They limit the number of tourists each year (I think to about 300k), and demand easily outstrips supply. This is not first hand, though, since I never actually made it there...yet.

I liked MRU a lot. People will say it's expensive, and it can be, but it doesn't have to be. Place I stayed at was about $25 a night, including breakfast. But if you want to go and drop several hundred a night, you can do that as well. The country is climatically diverse, and the center can get downright cold up near Curepipe. But unless you just have to go, you won't probably be there much anyway. Otherwise, it's the most perfect weather you can imagine. My second trip was in their winter, and it was maybe 70. First was in summer, maybe 80. Port Louis is interesting, worth passing through, but don't base yourself out of there. I stayed near Blue Bay, but most people stay either in the north west or north east. The beaches there are absolutely amazing, though a bit antiseptic for my tastes.

Culturally, it's mostly a mix of Indian, Arab, European, African and Chinese, with Indian being a very large majority. If you like Indian food, you will never want to leave. I highly recommend going to the markets and having all the treats. And they are cheap, so if you don't like it, toss it and try something different.

Finally, there are a lot of planes going from Mauritius to Seychelles, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. The airport is really a little hole in the wall, with a surprisingly nice lounge. Not quite as remote as Easter Island, but also not one of the hubs of the world. Getting a seat shouldn't be a problem at all.

Hope that helps, if you want anything else, you can email me.

Oh, and find out if you need a transit visa still for NBO. When I was going to go, you did, and iirc, it was NOT available at the airport.

[This message has been edited by Darren (edited 02-05-2003).]

Darren, do you have a feel for the present advisability of transiting NBO to SEZ? We were also thinking about doing that in a few months.

(Also, does anyone have any idea how to book South African Express JNB-Skukuza? They claim that SAA handles them, but it's not obvious from their web site, and ITN for instance doesn't know they exist. Their own web site offers no useful contact.)

No, sorry I don't. I will give you the factors of my decision, and I don't know if they would apply in your case. Frankly, I have been a bit isolated lately, so although I know Nairobi was just bombed again, I haven't heard anything about the aftermath. But in any event, I made my decision on the day I was to travel to connect down to Mauritius, so maybe 5 days before I was to be in Kenya. It was early October 2001, and there was still a lot of unrest in the area due to the incident in New York, and what made my decision was when there were riots in Kenya that were starting. I felt I didn't want to be put into that situation when I didnt have to be. Especially because mine was an overnight transit, so I would have had to go into the city. I won't get into the psychological reasons why, but I am kind of a fearless traveler and not afraid of death, so I don't worry about a lot of things like that. But it was enough to get me not to go. The other reason my decision was made was because it was a lot of flying and I decided I didn't want to do that much at one time.

If you are transiting without leaving the airport, I would have absolutly no concern. If you are doing an overnight in the city, I think it would depend on whether there were any immediate concerns rather than if there are any distant concerns. I will say, though, that BA handled everything brilliantly, and with more understanding than most other airlines would have.

Thanks so much Darren.. My concerns about the flights were not so much about safety or cost, more with routing.. But, safety is definitely an issue, as I will be traveling alone with my daughters for the most part (hubby meeting up with us in NBO or elsewhere after MRU). Our most crucial decision at this point is where to do a safari NBO vs. JNB.. We can use our Hhonors points for NBO, but the distance/safety issues have me rethinking JNB as an alternative. Safari prices are so reasonable, it seems a waste of 500K Hhonors points for the NBO deal. Hubby was still pushing for the freebie, but these safety concerns might just change his mind.

Do I have alternatives to the SEZ-JNB routing (besides NBO?)? I will have 4 segments to get there, so any ideas of interesting routing would be greatly appreciated!

Robin

My experience is that for a week or so of safari'ing, Kruger National Park, 300 miles E of JNB, provides by far the best game-viewing experience for the buck.

Besides safety, the big problem in the Kenya area is poaching. There's little control, and besides diminishing the population, it makes the animals very skittish - without a great deal of luck or the services of a guide it's hard to get within a mile of anything interesting.

Contrast Kruger, where historically poaching has been well controlled - the animals are almost too comfortable with humans, so it's trivial to drive up to a herd of giraffe or a pride of lion in your self-drive.

Under the old government, the place was the weekend family outing for the locals, and was incredibly cheap for first-class accommodation. They're trying to get more tourist dollars out of it now, but it's still an incredible bargain for a great game-viewing experience.

I suggest including tanzania - about 3 hours from nairobi to arusha - the safari center. Tanzania is considered by many to be the very best for game viewing and you can easily include it in safari starting in nairobi. Safety should not be an issue on safari - only in nairobi (or jnb).