We've also picked other tour companies when for the same price we got more of what we were looking for out of another trip. For instance for Africa, we wanted to maximize our game drives and safari time. It's not that we didn't want anything cultural, but that with a relatively short amount of time, we wanted to spend more time on safari and less doing wine and food, sightseeing and cultural stuff. We ended up paying a little more to tour with an outfitter where we toured privately with just our family group and we spent 10 full days in safari camps, although at one of the camps we spent 2 days doing cultural and sightseeing activities as well as game drives. This was more than ABDs 3 or 4 nights on Safari. To me it would have been "not worth it" to spend that much money and time traveling for so little safari.
i would love to hear what company you used for Africa![/QUOTE]
All of the camps we stayed in are through Wilderness Safaris-they were not cheaper than doing an ABD, but we were able to completely customize our travel group (we traveled with just our party of 7) our destinations, (we chose the camps in Zambia and Botswana with assistance from our TA) and they transferred us from place to place with assistance the whole way (though not with a single guide throughout the trip like ABD).
In order to book these camps you must book through a
travel agent, and I highly, highly recommend going with an Africa specialist. This is a major trip, and I tried asking for info and advice from a generalist and got a brochure
I even contacted one of the top Africa specialists (who literally "wrote the book") and they didn't listen to my needs- (I was traveling with 3 young teen girls and a brother in law born in Rhodesia whose father had been in the British foriegn service and had bad dealings with Mugabe and we pointedly did not want to travel to Zimbabwea) and yet we got 3 itineraries with camps in Zimbabwea in them. So finding the right agent is critical for Africa, and the "best" isn't right for you if they don't listen!!
For us, we had tremendous luck with Travel Beyond in Minnesota, they have a specialty in Africa, most of their agents have been many times, and they can advise about where and help to plan a trip within your budget and create a seamless trip. For our trip, we wanted permanent tented camps (like hotels in the bush) theses are usually $1000 per night, per person!
But we were travelling with 3 kids, and no way we could do that! So TB talked to us and found that there was a special going on if we could travel before July 1, we could save 50%!! That made it do-able (still expensive, but in our budget) So we booked and crossed our fingers that we would have no snow days here in NE and wouldnt have to have the kids miss final exams (luckily, we didnt!)
We were literally met at the plane and had a guide meet us at every step of the trip. The only thing we did alone was fly in the sky, once we landed there was a guide. If you want to get a "feel" for the kind of advice, start lurking in the Trip Advisor Africa boards, you will see that the owner "SafariCraig" weighs in on a lot of discussions and is very very helpful.
But only you will know who is right to plan your trip!! Also, for some folks the level of anxiety about Africa (malaria prevention, the age of their kids, putting all the pieces together) ABD may be the very best choice. Their trip sounds great to me, but for us we simply had a higher priority and (ability to sustain energy and attention for) long game drives in more remote settings.
Good luck, I hope you get to go...it's a pretty amazing adventure!
My English teacher always said " too wordy""
They had done Taulk to Wyoming before and liked it, but said its ABD from now on! I've never done one in Europe, but given I am the kind of person who looks at crowds and goes " ugh!" I can see myself doing one in Italy to avoid all the lines!
