BootsnAll Travel Community

Here is our plan:

Africa:

U.S. to Cape Town, a 21 day Gap tour from Cape Town to Livingston. From Livingston to Kili, and a hike up. Then a week in Zanzibar with drinks, sun and sand. From Zanzibar to Cairo, pyramids, etc. Definitely want to get to Petra/Jordan as well. That will do it for Africa.

Africa Questions:

1. We are from East Coast, SC to be specific, what is the best place to fly to Cape Town from? Cheapest? (the only one I have found has been NYC).

2. Is overland from Livingston to Kili possible or do I need to fly? What is cheapest/best?

3. What about from Kili to Zanzibar? what is best, cheapest, most used transportation method?

4. Same for Zanzibar to Cairo?

5. When leaving Egypt/Jordan to go to India what is the best place to leave from? Amman?



Thanks for all the help guys, look forward to some good answers. Stouds

1. Does Northwest or Delta fly from your gateway in SC to Amsterdam? Then you could take KLM to Cape Town.

2. Flying Livingstone to Lusaka to Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro is 5 1/2 hours pure flying time. (The bus from Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro alone is an about 12 hrs. bus ride; just for comparison - and most likely double or more all the way from Livingstone.) You will have to decide if the time versus monetary savings is worth it.)

Now, are you locked in to do Kili before Zanzibar? I know, you may want to rest after the climb, BUT...

If you flew from Livingstone via Lusaka to Dar es Salaam (Zambian Airways) - or if you really want to do overland to Dar, you could take the ferry to Zanzibar, and then fly from Zanzibar to Kilimanjaro, which would make more sense and surely save you a bundle.

3. First see my rerouting suggestion under #2. There are daily non-stop flights from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar (50 min. flight). A one-way flight is about $150, double for a round-trip.

4. There are no non-stop flights from Zanzibar to Cairo. You'd either use Kenya Airways via Nairobi, or Ethipian Airways via Addis Abeba. If you go to Zanzibar first, then Kili climb, you'd fly out of Kilimanjaro via Nairobi to Cairo.

If your international carrier is Northwest/KLM, you can add Kenya Airways segments at much lower rates than a stand-alone ticket. KLM & Kenya Airways have tariff/code share agreements.

I can't help you with #5.

Cool! Thanks for the advice. We want Zanzibar after Kili so we can marinate on the beaches for a week after the hike, so going before Kili would not really be ideal for us. From Kili, could we go overland to Dar, and then get the ferry to Zanzibar? Would that save some $$? Also could we not take the ferry back to Dar from Zanzibar and then fly Dar to Cairo? or am I completely confusing what your saying.

Also, do you know what the price difference between overland from Livingston to Kili, as opposed to flying would be. We are not strapped for time by any means, but also don't want to waste 3 days to save $200.

Please also consider an excursion to Jozani Forest on Zanzibar. I noticed you have no other wildlife (the animal kind) in your itinerary, which kills me - you should at least see the red colobus monkeys on Zanzibar. I cannot imagine going to Tanzania, and not at least go to a major game park to see elephant and lion and lots of other animals. Sorry, as an Africoholic, I just had to get this in here.

Now to partially answer your questions:

As I mentioned, the one-way flight from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar is about $150. Compare that with a 12-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam, an overnight in Dar es Salaam, and a 2-hour ferry ride the next morning from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar... I don't know the cost of the overland, but knowing how stuffy busses and ferries in Africa (and elsewhere) can be, and given the time it takes to do the overland, I would fly.

You CAN take the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam, and then fly from Dar to Cairo - either via Nairobi (Kenya Airways) or Addis Ababa (Ethiopian Airways). (There are no non-stop flights Dar - Cairo.)

I have no clue what the overland cost would be for Livingstone-Kilimanjaro, but I'm pretty sure it would take a MINIMUM of 3 days. In comparison, you can fly that stretch all in one-day, though with lay-overs in Lusaka and Dar es Salaam. The flight from Livingstone via Lusaka to Dar es Salaam is about $300 one-way (and does not operate every day), and from Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro about $175; or a total of $475. Again, personally, I would not want to be cooped up on a bus or train for 3 or 4 days, and then trek Kilimanjaro.

As a teacher of mine used to say: "Clear as mud?"

Thanks for clearing that up. You might have missed it, but we are definitely doing some game parks on the 21 day Gap tour from Cape Town to Livingston. The wildlife and Kili is our main reason for going to Africa. We will definitely check out your suggestions on Zanzibar as well, it sounds cool. Those plane prices don't sound too bad, and really Africa is the only place we will be doing alot of flying. We are pretty much overlanding SEA, and SA, so we can splurge for a couple extra flights in Africa. Thanks again for the info, it was very helpful.

For what it's worth....I booked my flight from New Orleans to Cape Town through cheapoair.com--they had the best deal I could find.

Is it a direct flight from N. Orleans?

Gosh - yes, I missed that... sorry! I assume you're going from Cape Town into Namibia, via Etosha and the Caprivi Strip into Botswana and then on to Victoria Falls (Livingstone)?

I don't know how much time you have in Livingstone, but beyond going to see the Falls, MY favorite two activities there are the 1/2-day elephant back safari ($140/person) and the 15-min. microlight flight ($115/person) over the Falls, especially early in the morning or late afternoon when the sun is low on the horizon.

One other thing on Zanzibar, would be a visit to the spice plantations. They grow just about any spice you can think of (except Safran), as well as tropical fruit, which you get to taste, and some of which you probably never heard of. You can combine the spice plantations and Jozani Forest into an afternoon; getting to the monkeys late afternoon is best, as that is when they are most active, and a hoot to watch. They are only feet away - and at eye level or on the ground.

There are NO non-stop flights from anywhere in the US to Cape Town. South African Airways has direct service from New York and Washington to Johannesburg, with a connecting flight to Cape Town. They offer add-on flights from 50 US gateways to connect with their New York or Washington flight. For anything within Africa on South African Airways, you have to backtrack via Johannesburg; for example: Kili-Johannesburg-Cairo, or Livingstone-Johannesburg-Kili.

Often, flying via Amsterdam and using KLM's non-stop flight into Cape Town works out better.

Cheapoair.com is just one of the online consolidators, many of whom do not do anything other than either one-way or straight round-trip tickets.

I am going to pretty much concur with the time frames Africaholic has mentioned.

Overlanding from Kili to Zanzibar is going to lose you a day.

Overlanding from Livingstone to Kili will lose you at least 3 extra days. And very long days.

So, it really comes down to how much your days are worth to you.