Country Counting

I’m Terry and I love to travel.

How to visit Southern Africa: part 2

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Cape Town, South Africa.

Kelly and I finished our one-month trip to Southern Africa with a one-week stay in Cape Town, where we saw all the sites: Tabletop Mountain, the colorful Bo Kaap neighborhood, the Southernmost tip of South Africa, the penguins at Boulders Beach, the Victoria and Albert Waterfront shops and cafes, African Museum of Modern Art, National Art Museum, District 6 Museum, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden and too many foodie spots to mention. Read Kelly’s blog for the details on food. She’ll make your mouth water.

Terry at National Botanical Gardens.
Terry at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens in Cape Town.
Kelly at high tea.
Kelly eyes the delicacies at the Mount Nelson Hotel’s high tea.

Since I am the logistics person, I’ll fill you in on where we stayed and how we got around in Cape Town. I selected the Mount Nelson Hotel, a Belmond property. We have stayed in several Belmond hotels in the past and I’ve found them to be first-rate and always in interesting historic buildings. The Mount Nelson is in a colonial era building and is loaded with magnificent South African art on every floor. We took advantage of their wonderful gift shop that had beautiful ostrich purses and leather goods, scarves and beaded dolls. High tea is another highlight of the hotel and we enjoyed mounds of goodies with our own tea expert to help us decide from over 20 different tea selections. Whew.

Since we were there for so long, we were upgraded to a deluxe room, complete with separate sitting area, two twin beds, a view of the courtyard garden and bathroom with shower, double sinks and a huge bathtub.

The hotel is in a great location and we were able to walk a few blocks to several good restaurants. We also walked through the city’s garden right across the street and from there to many of the city-center attractions.

When we had farther to go, Kelly used Uber to get us around. It was unbelievably easy and inexpensive. I paid $90 for the hotel to send a car to the airport to pick us up. After we found how easy it was to use Uber in South Africa, our return Uber trip ran a cool $12. Most of our around-town trips were $2-3. All the drivers were courteous and efficient. Toyotas were the cars of choice!

Namibia dunes
The dunes are so beautiful it is hard to describe. A true once-in-a-lifetime experience.

This trip was a big one and we covered a lot of territory. But every spot we stopped had a unique offering. It was hard to name a favorite. The dunes in Namibia were spectacular.

Terry and Zebras
I fell in love with zebra, shown here at our lodge in Namibia, We Kebi.

elephants
Elephants up close and personal in Botswana.

The animal drive in Botswana was amazing. Visiting South Africa and learning about its history and culture was eye-opening.

Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls from a helicopter above.

Victoria Falls from both Zimbabwe and Zambia was gorgeous. Our day trips to Swaziland and Lesotho showed us how tiny countries can co-exist in the middle of huge South Africa.

Game drive in Botswana
Here we are in Botswana with our guide, Jeremy. He could see animals across acres! What a great guy.

    I’m happy to share our itinerary. We had a great time, stayed in very nice accommodations, eat fabulous food and saw everything on our list of “must-sees.” We never felt unsafe or threatened in any place we visited and the people were always kind, hospitable and helpful. After looking at dozens of “package” trips, I know we saw what we wanted, when we wanted at a fraction of the cost for most trips. We like independent travel and don’t want to be forced onto buses or herded around. We were able to hire guides and drivers when needed through hotel concierges and took advantage of free walking tours in both Johannesburg and Cape Town.

    Add Southern Africa to your calendar. You won’t be disappointed!

    PS Don’t feel you have to buy a whole new safari wardrobe to make this trip. After seeing hundreds of tourists in beige, I gotta admit, only the African folks really look good in that color!!

    To cruise or not to cruise? That is the question.

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    I’ve never been a big fan of cruises. I’ve always felt too confined, controlled and not able to “do my thing” on a big ship. Add to that the mandated community dining and it was just too much for my rebellious self.

    But, I recently saw a Viking cruise that went to two countries I wanted to visit: Algeria and Tunisia. It had been twenty years since my last cruise, so I thought, why not give it another go? Heck, thousands of people go on cruises every day. Maybe I had been wrong about my earlier assessments. After a little persuading, my hubby, Ken, agreed to accompany me.

    I’ve been on three other cruises and none of them wowed me. My first experience was a spring break cruise to the Caribbean with three college girl friends. We thought we were going to have a wild and crazy time with all kinds of gorgeous guys on the ship. I can remember my Mom laughing her ass off as she dropped us at check-in. All we saw were masses of senior citizens. Suffice to say there were no ship-board romances on that cruise!

    Our second cruise was with my in-laws to Mexico. That trip included hoards of loud New Yorkers and their kids running around the ship and lots of mediocre food. The third cruise was with my parents who wanted to be glued to our sides. Loud announcements on the PA every fifteen minutes were beyond obnoxious: ping pong on the Lido Deck; lecture in the auditorium and volleyball on the sports deck. Soup every night changed colors from white to gray to yellow to green. It all tasted the same.

    My husband quickly adopted the name “prison ships” and we thought our days of cruise ships were dead and done.

    So here we were, booked onto a one-week cruise ship leaving from Rome and returning to Barcelona. My sister reminded me: “keep your expectations low and you’ll have a good time!”

    Things started out poorly. We received an email from Viking telling us that the Tunisia stop was being cancelled due to demonstrations! I quickly went online to read what was happening and as usual, things weren’t as bad as folks made them out to be. I called Viking upset about this change and threatened to cancel the trip. Of course, cancellation would mean a 100% cancellation fee. To sooth my savagery, they offered me a $200 credit. So I took the money, vowing to drink myself sick as compensation for missing Tunisia.

    Once on board the ship, we had a few pleasant surprises. Our state room was much bigger than any of the previous three we had experienced. The bathroom had a separate shower, so you didn’t have to worry about showering over the toilet. The public areas of the ship were beautifully designed — modern and comfortable, with numerous options for sitting, chatting, and watching the waters go by. There was a three-story atrium area, complete with Steinway piano for afternoon concerts and an indoor pool with plenty of upscale lounge chairs and sitting areas. One of our favorite spots was the forward two-story bar, surrounded with shelves of books, ship models and sailing paraphernalia.

    There were no “old school” required dining partners or times. You simply went to one of the two dining rooms whenever you liked or booked a reservation at one of the other two “special” restaurants. Our first night, we dined at the “Chef’s Table,” a special restaurant. Food wasn’t bad — but the chef had clearly not gotten the message that foam was over. Every course had some kind of foam. But it was a pleasant experience and we couldn’t really complain.

    Breakfast and lunch were whenever you liked within designated times. Breakfast was from 7:00 to 10:00 and lunch from noon to 2:00. Room service, with a limited menu, was available 24 hours. You could eat as much as you liked and fortunately, the food was decent, there were healthy options and plenty of variety.

    I must admit that after a week of eating on the ship, I was ready for a change. All food came from the same kitchen so it was a bit similar. The “special” restaurants did give you something slightly different, although service could be slow. In addition to the Chef’s Table, there was an Italian restaurant that was pretty decent.

    Shortly after leaving Rome, the captain announced that the seas were too rough to go to Naples, the substitute port to make up for missing Tunisia. A number of fellow passengers were hoping to visit Pompeii and were thus unhappy about this development. Of course, all was supposed to be for our safety, so you couldn’t complain too much!

    After a stop in Sicily, we headed for Northern Africa and our stop in Algeria, only to be told by our captain that, once again, we had rough seas and high winds and could not get into Algeria. ERRRR. I was NOT happy. So off we went to another substitute port, Mallorca.

    The rest of the cruise progressed as advertised, but after talking with a number of other passengers, it appeared that many were distressed about missing the two North Africa stops.

    So what is my bottom line on cruises? Here are things that are positives. You’ll get:

    • A small taste of a country or area
    • A controlled environment with food provided, tours offered and “no thinking” required
    • A one-price “all-inclusive” vacation. Viking charged $105 per person for a week for gratuities and alcohol was additional. Wine and beer were included.

    However, to me the negatives outweigh the positives. I don’t like:

    • The total loss of control over where you go
    • The possibility of getting seasick (I had two bad nights on the Viking cruise)
    • Being on a large ship with a lot of other people you may or may not like. Luckily, two friends were with us on this cruise and they were fun to be with.
    • Food that can get boring after a week of the same thing.
    • Being subjected to tours that are not individualized or private. We rode busses for most of the port cruises.

    If you are a cruise fan, I can highly recommend Viking. The ship was beautiful and all the staff were top-notch, helpful, friendly and kind.

    Bon voyager or NOT!

     

     

     

    If seeing the pyramids of Egypt is on your bucket list, now is the time to go!

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    Five-star hotels for under $200, taxi rides for $3 and metro fares for six cents. Egypt is cheap, fun and the people are friendly.

    My niece, Kelly, and I just returned from a week in Egypt and I gotta say — Egypt is on sale and it is safe and easy to get around. Here is what you need to know.

    First, look for cheap airline tickets. Kelly and I got ours for free with our frequent flyer miles, but she originally found a Delta fare for $600 from Atlanta to Cairo. So getting there is a deal if you watch the airlines carefully.

    I’ve learned that when traveling to a poorer country, I like to stay in a nice hotel to escape the craziness of the city. I found a rate at the Ritz Carlton for $150 per night – which was a steal! Use your government rate, AAA or senior rate and you can find a bargain. The people at the Ritz were kind, helpful and friendly. Food at a 5-star hotel is usually expensive – but not the case at the Ritz. We ate breakfast for free (included in the above rate) and lunch with drinks and dessert ran $25 for both of us. All was served in a beautiful setting overlooking the Nile River. It really doesn’t get any better than this.

    Getting around was an even better bargain. It cost 20 to 30 Egyptian pounds to go just about anywhere in the city ($2 US). The most we paid for a taxi was $9 to get to the airport. And when we decided to ride the metro from the old city back to our hotel, it was a staggering 6 cents apiece. Yes, that is cents, not dollars. It was quite an experience to ride the metro and only when we got off did Kelly tell me they had women only cars. I would have loved to ride again and get in the women only car – just to people watch!

    We walked a good bit, too. From our hotel it was an easy walk to see the Nile at night. We were never harassed or bothered and we were two obviously foreign women alone in the city. Never a problem.

    If you are going to take taxis, be sure to have your bellman tell the taxi driver where you are going and have a map with you to point to locations you want to visit – or better yet, have your concierge write out your destinations in Arabic, so there is no confusion. If worse comes to worse, there is generally a person around who speaks English and can tell your driver where you want to go.

    We spent a day seeing the pyramids and had a fabulous time. We hired a guide through the concierge at the hotel and requested a woman. (We always request women and have found them to be more in tune to social and women’s issues and better guides – except the one we had in Beirut – but that’s another story for another time.) We paid $140 for the day with a guide, driver and car. We paid our guide about $3 for the two of us to ride a camel to the pyramid overlook and it was well worth it. Our camel guide took pictures of us atop our camels with the pyramids in the background. Priceless.

    For museums, see Kelly’s blog about all the museums we found. They were great and it was fun to find them, too! My favorite part of our museum trek was getting caught behind fences near one museum and being rescued by two workers – who drove us around the fences and to the museum entrance – all without them speaking English. Kelly gave me one of her “are you sure about this AT?” looks, but I knew they were well-intentioned, and off we went!

    Get that schedule out and plan your trip. You’ll have a great time, you don’t have to be in a group to be safe and this trip will not break the bank. So go already!

    To Cairo and back for under $400

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    I needed a cheap ticket to Cairo. Kelly found a great deal on Delta from Atlanta to Cairo and has never been to Egypt, so decided now was the time. Her fight left at 4:30 am and I told her I was too much of a princess to get up at that hour.

    If I could find a cheap ticket, I would go with her. So my search began. Before long, I found business class flights on United for 250,000 miles. OK, I had the mileage, so I booked the flight.

    In the middle of the night, I realized I could re-book the flight and have a layover in Istanbul and another in Dublin and spend an extra week on my way home from Egypt.

    I had come down with kidney stones a year ago when Kelly and I were in Istanbul and missed my day of shopping at the Grand Bazaar. This was my chance to get back to the Bazaar and find those earrings for my friend, Lora.

    I’d never been to Northern Ireland, so why not hop up there from Dublin and get that country. And while I was so close, I could check off Isle of Man and fly down to London to spend some time with my college friend, Diane, who lives there.

    How to do all this on the cheap? After studying the United flight schedule, I realized I could fly home from Dublin direct to Orlando on Aer Lingus, a United partner. The flight showed availability in business class. All I needed to do was get from Cairo to Istanbul and from Istanbul to Dublin or Belfast.

    With a few internet searches, I found the flights I needed and decided the most economical way to make the trip was to pay for Cairo to Istanbul and Istanbul to Belfast. Both flights were under four hours and both could be had fairly cheaply in economy class. That would give me a business class flight for the long haul from Dublin to Orlando.

    I got on the phone with United. You can make a change in a booking within 24 hours, but you can’t do it online. You must speak with an agent.

    After two very long conversations with an agent and then a supervisor, I was ready to pin down the details. Then we were disconnected. Errr. I had to call back, do the detestable wait on hold and explain everything again to another agent, who couldn’t figure out how to do what I wanted and another supervisor – only to be disconnected for the second time. Ok, calm down, don’t let United get the best of me. On the third call, I asked for a supervisor immediately and explained how I had been disconnected twice. She took my phone number, I explained what I wanted and she promised to call me back after figuring out how to do what I wanted.

    In the end, I re-booked the first flight, got business class from Orlando to Cairo and Dublin to Orlando for only 100,000 miles. I paid less than $387 for two flights – Cairo to Istanbul and Istanbul to Belfast.

    Granted, it took a bit of time. But I love using my airline miles to get a bargain and I felt pretty good about this one. I get to spend a week with Kelly in Egypt (and Beirut – we’re doing a one-day dash to Lebanon), pick up my missed time in Istanbul and get two new countries! I’d call that a successful day of booking!