Just got back from South Africa-Trip Blog and Picture link!!! Finished!!!

[Forever a Princess]

Hello!!!

We just got back from the South Africa trip. It was an amazing journey!!!! We feel so blessed to have gone on this trip.

I am currently in the process of doing a blog about the trip. Go to foreveraprincessrenee.blogspot.com to see the blog.

Please note: there are spoilers on the blog regarding the mouse magic and the surprises that we had the on the trip. So keep this in mind if you do wish to read the blog.

For our pictures go to weluvdisney.smugmug.com. Click on the Travel section.

Enjoy!!!
Renee

 

[Tozzie]

Hello!!!

We just got back from the South Africa trip. It was an amazing journey!!!! We feel so blessed to have gone on this trip.

I am currently in the process of doing a blog about the trip. Go to foreveraprincessrenee.blogspot.com to see the blog.

Please note: there are spoilers on the blog regarding the mouse magic and the surprises that we had the on the trip. So keep this in mind if you do wish to read the blog.

For our pictures go to weluvdisney.smugmug.com. Click on the Travel section.

Enjoy!!!
Renee

The pictures are amazing, it looks like you had an awesome trip!!! Thanks for Sharing.

I would love to go on this trip but i would starve, I wouldn't like the food.

 

[kidcoos3]

Food wasn't a problem on this trip at all! Lots of places were buffets with many choices. Even the restaurants typically had a few choices.

 

[sayhello]

The pics look great! Are you going to do more captioning? If you are, I'll wait to look at the rest until they're captioned, so I can know what I'm looking at!

But it looks spectacular so far. I'll check out your blog when I get home from work!

Sayhello

 

[Forever a Princess]

The pics look great! Are you going to do more captioning? If you are, I'll wait to look at the rest until they're captioned, so I can know what I'm looking at!

But it looks spectacular so far. I'll check out your blog when I get home from work!

Sayhello

Thank you!!!

Yes! DH will be working on captioning in the next couple of weeks. That way you can search by Safari etc.

Enjoy the pics and the blog!

P.S. I see that you will be doing the ABD Mediterranean cruise in May. Tina our ABD guide from South Africa will be one of your guides on this adventure. Tina is AWESOME!!! You're in for a real treat. Have a great time and I can hardly wait to see your pics and trip report. We want to do this Adventure next year!!!!

Renee

 

[beachbunny]

Thanks for posting the pictures. I'm going next April and I'm really excited that they included the Elephant place.

You saw rock hyraxs. I just love them! We had them scampering across the roof of our tent last time we were out in the Serengeti following the Great Migration.

This is just an off the wall question, but did you eat the salads? I usually don't eat salad in Africa, but wanted to know if S.Africa was safe.

 

[Diskidatheart]

Great pictures! I didn't get to go through them all, but the one's that I saw were beautiful. I'd love to go on this trip, but my wife is concerned that we would go all that way and wouldn't see any animals on the safaris. Is that even a possibility?

 

[sayhello]

Thank you!!!

Yes! DH will be working on captioning in the next couple of weeks. That way you can search by Safari etc.

Enjoy the pics and the blog!

P.S. I see that you will be doing the ABD Mediterranean cruise in May. Tina our ABD guide from South Africa will be one of your guides on this adventure. Tina is AWESOME!!! You're in for a real treat. Have a great time and I can hardly wait to see your pics and trip report. We want to do this Adventure next year!!!!

Renee

I look forward to the pics & blog!

Yes, I'm doing the ABD Med cruise! 5 weeks to go. So one of our Guides will be Tina? Cool! Do you have a picture of her you can point me to? It will be neat being able to recognize a Guide when I get there. Glad to hear she is awesome! The Guides really make these trips!

Sayhello

 

[Forever a Princess]

For a picture of Tina go to this link.

weluvdisney.smugmug.com/Travel/South-Africa-2010/Day-11-The-Little-5/11705436_HAKun#826603668_Y8PZX-A-LB

Let me know if this does not go through.

Renee

 

[Forever a Princess]

Thanks for posting the pictures. I'm going next April and I'm really excited that they included the Elephant place.

You saw rock hyraxs. I just love them! We had them scampering across the roof of our tent last time we were out in the Serengeti following the Great Migration.

This is just an off the wall question, but did you eat the salads? I usually don't eat salad in Africa, but wanted to know if S.Africa was safe.

The Elephant place was something that we did on our own and was not officially part of the adventure. The guides set everything up for us-transportation there and back etc. But our guides could not go with us.

We ate the salads and fruits. DH had no problems. I had to back off and stick with the warm foods for the latter half of the trip.

 

[sayhello]

For a picture of Tina go to this link.

weluvdisney.smugmug.com/Travel/South-Africa-2010/Day-11-The-Little-5/11705436_HAKun#826603668_Y8PZX-A-LB

Let me know if this does not go through.

Renee

I cut & pasted it into the address bar, got to a picture of a cute blond woman and a Guide named Craig, both wrapped in a rather large snake!!! She looks like a lot of fun! Cool! Thanks. I'll tell her "Hi!" from you!

Sayhello

 

[beachbunny]

How much did the elephant place cost? How long did this last, and did you miss anything the group did by going there?

Were there other activities that were extra?

Did you change money before you left? How much should I expect to spend - I'm a shopper. What was the best souvenier you purchased?

Did you arrive in Capetown a day early? I'm thinking about flying to London for a couple of days and arriving in Capetown on Day 1.

Thanks for your answers!

 

[kidcoos3]

Tell her "hi" from the Petersons too! Both guides are great fun. It's Craig's birthday on Saturday!

Leslie

I cut & pasted it into the address bar, got to a picture of a cute blond woman and a Guide named Craig, both wrapped in a rather large snake!!! She looks like a lot of fun! Cool! Thanks. I'll tell her "Hi!" from you!

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

Tell her "hi" from the Petersons too! Both guides are great fun. It's Craig's birthday on Saturday!

Leslie

I absolutely will! "Hi!" from Renee and from the Petersons. Gotcha!

Sayhello

 

[Forever a Princess]

I cut & pasted it into the address bar, got to a picture of a cute blond woman and a Guide named Craig, both wrapped in a rather large snake!!! She looks like a lot of fun! Cool! Thanks. I'll tell her "Hi!" from you!

Sayhello

Thank you for saying "Hi' to Tina for me!

 

[brewcrew]

I sat here and read your blog with my 9 year old and now she wants to go on this trip! Great trip report. I'm glad you had a great time!

 

[Forever a Princess]

How much did the elephant place cost? How long did this last, and did you miss anything the group did by going there?

The Elephant Ride and experience was about $100 per person plus about $80 per person for the van ride from the hotel to the Elephant place (We could not use Disney Transportation since this was not an Adventure event). The Photo package and the DVD was also about $60. The whole experience was well worth the price. The Elephant ride was priceless.

Craig and Tina set up the van ride for us. We purchased our tickets for the elephant experience when we got there.

We did this on Day 8 of the Adventure. We did not miss anything as that time period was slated as an afternoon/evening on our own.

We headed out to the Elephant place about 3pm and we got back around 6:30 P.M.

Were there other activities that were extra?
-There was a couple of nights that we had time on our own to go out to dinner and shop. Craig made recommendations for places to eat and he set up the reservations for us.
-Tina set up a couples massage for us at Kapama Lodge. Beautiful Spa!!! The price for couples massage was quite reasonable.

Did you change money before you left?

I could of exchanged money in Atlanta but I exchanged for a small amount at the Cape Town Airport when we arrived. The next day Tina told us that the best way to obtain Rand was to use an ATM. So I used my bank card to get out Rand both in Cape Town and in Knysna. There are no easily accessible ATM's to Adventurers in George or Kapama Lodge. Tina kept reminding us of this during our trip. I also used my credit card for a few of the purchases.

Remember to call your credit card company and your bank before you go!!!

How much should I expect to spend - I'm a shopper.

I'm a shopper too!!! The shopping in South Africa was to die for!!!!
Customs limit for an individual is $800, family is $1600. This is equivalent to about 5864 Rand for an individual. That's quite a bit of Rand!!!!!!!

We bought sooooooooooo much stuff and did not hit the customs limit.

What was the best souvenir you purchased?

1. Painted Ostrich Egg.
2. Replica of part of an African Door.
3. Small wood carving of the continent of Africa.
4. Elephant tail jewelry.
5. Ostrich purse and coin purse.
6. Map book of Africa.

I'm currently working on my blog page for Knysna. This will talk about the wonderful shopping in more detail. I'll have pictures of #1-#3 in this blog. And I'll explain #2 in more detail. I'll have the first part of the Knysna blog up by this weekend.

For a picture of the Ostrich purse and the coin purse see my blog page on In George by George. They are gorgeous items!!!!

The best place to purchase Elephant tail jewelry and the BEST store to shop in is at the Waterfront at Cape Town. The store's name is Out of Africa. There is a smaller one in the mall itself. This is not the one that I am talking about though. The big huge Out of Africa store is over by the draw bridge/Robben Island Museum. Craig will give you a map of the Waterfront when you get there. He can circle that area on the map.

Did you arrive in Capetown a day early? I'm thinking about flying to London for a couple of days and arriving in Capetown on Day 1.

Yes!!! We flew in a day early to get a jump start on acclimating to the time zone. We're so glad we did!!!! There is so much shopping to do at the Waterfront. You'll be glad that you had the extra time as once the Adventure starts you go! go! go!

Thanks for your answers!

Your Welcome! I enjoyed answering them!!!

Renee

 

[Forever a Princess]

I sat here and read your blog with my 9 year old and now she wants to go on this trip! Great trip report. I'm glad you had a great time!

Thank You!!!!

 

[beachbunny]

Thank you so much for your answers! I'm getting excited already and I still have a year to go!

Please keep coming back here because I know I'll have more questions.

 

[2littlestitches]

Wow, this trip looks amazing! I loved seeing all the pics. We did the ABD Australia trip, which was so wonderful, but the Africa one has been on my radar. After seeing the pics, I think it's a must-do!

My kids are ages 7 and 9. I had one question....were the younger kids allowed on the safari rides? In reading up on this ABD trip there were some disclaimers about younger kids possibly not being allowed on the rides. Realistically, my kids will likely be a few years older before we are able to do this trip, but just wondering what restrictions were placed on the kids.

Thanks for sharing your amazing pics!