South Africa Vacation 2006

Like Traci and me, our friends Patricia and Jeffrey love to travel. We had been talking about doing a South Africa trip together for a couple of years but never got further than just talking and dreaming. Finally, in October 2005, Jeffrey and Patricia took the lead by contacting a travel agent and then sending out an email soliciting interest in a South African vacation. Initially, there were ten of us interested in the trip but in the end there were six of us who actually went: Patricia, Jeffrey, Susan, Stephanie, Traci, and I.

The six of us were spread across three states: Pennsylvania, Delaware, and California. We spent several months trading emails and holding conference calls to nail down the trip itinerary. As long as the trip included a safari, I was happy. By March 2006, we had finalized an itinerary that worked for everyone:

• 2 nights in Johannesburg
• 2 nights at Kapama Game Reserve (My dream safari. Yippee!)
• 1 night in Durban
• 2 nights in Cape Town for Traci and me but 4 nights for everyone else (more on this mix-up later)
• 2 nights in Sun City for Traci and me

We worked with Elite World Tours to plan this trip. It turns out we were actually working with a network of travel agencies that spanned three countries. Elite World Tours (Connecticut) booked our vacation through Goway Travel (Toronto, Canada) who arranged our tours and transfers through Thompsons Travel and Tours (South Africa). We encountered some glitches in the months leading up to the trip but by the time we were actually in South Africa, our itinerary flowed exactly as planned. I was especially pleased with Thompsons Travel whose representatives we could always count on to be waiting at the airports holding a sign with our names on it. And, with the exception of one incident in Cape Town, the Thompsons guides were always on time (sometimes early) for our tours and transfers. More...