Picture this: After months of research you’ve finally booked the hotels and flights for your dream trip to Africa, all on your own. And it wasn’t cheap either. You dropped about $10,000 per person on the trip, plus, you calculated approximately 26 hours worth of research on your end to plan this trip.
But it’s not over yet.
You spend another half day researching all the vaccinations you’ll need to visit Mozambique and Botswana – the areas you plan on visiting during your African safari vacation – as well as the passport and visa regulations for each country.
One month prior to your trip, you’ve got all your vaccinations, you’re up to date on all the visa and passport regulations and you’re ready to go! You think of how much you need this vacation after all the stressful planning you put into it.
Before you know it, the day has finally arrived for you to depart to Africa for your dream safari vacation! While at the airport, where you plan on taking a flight to JFK Airport and then a second non-stop flight to Johannesburg, your flight to JFK is delayed. Ooops, you didn’t plan on this delay.
One hour turns into two. You know you’ve missed your connecting flight. The stress is piled high right about now, wondering how you are going to get to Africa, how to contact the accommodations you’ve booked and activities you had planned the next day, and how this is going to effect your entire trip. You spend hours trying to re-coordinate everything.
Once you finally get to Johannesburg, an entire day later, you are exhausted but excited to start the trip. You take your connecting flight from Johannesburg to Mozambique only to find that when you arrive at customs you were supposed to already have a visa for Mozambique. But wait. One month ago the Mozambique consulate said that you could obtain your visa upon arrival to the airport! Well, guess what, they changed their policy but you were so busy preparing everything, taking care of your family, and working at your day job that you didn’t have time to check if there were any updates before you left.
By now, you’ve pretty much lost it, so we’ll stop right there.
The reason why I’m sharing this hypothetical stressful story with you is because this happens to travelers all the time. So how are you supposed to ensure that everything runs smoothly during your travels? Unfortunately, you can never completely eliminate issues from arising; however, when you book an African safari vacation through an Africa travel specialist, not only can you count on way fewer issues—if any arise at all—but your travel professional will also handle all of the re-coordinating and will never let you travel to Africa without providing you with ALL updated information that you might never know about if you booked on your own.
Here is EXACTLY what an African safari vacation specialist can provide for you:
• The most up-to-date information on visa and passport regulations, as well as required vaccinations for the countries you will be visiting. For example, Hills of Africa Travel stays current on all government regulation changes for every country we send our clients to. We know changes as soon as they happen so we can keep our clients in the know and well prepared for their trip. This not only reduces stress but also ensures a smooth, seamless travel experience.
• Peace of mind when traveling. If you miss a connecting flight, your travel specialist will handle the re-coordination of your flights, accommodations, and activities for you. They’ll also ensure that you are escorted throughout your journey the entire way and well looked after.
• Tried and tested travel tips and recommendations for the best accommodations and activities to suite your particular needs and interests.
• All the details are planned out beforehand. Let’s say you are allergic to peanuts or shellfish. Or perhaps you are kosher. Your Africa specialist will ensure that all the accommodations you visit know about your needs and they will cater to those particular needs in the cuisine they provide to you.
• Exceptional customer service around the clock to ensure that all of your questions are answered and provide you with the best insider travel advice possible.
• A trip that is well-thought out and that meets your exact needs. Instead of spending hours upon hours planning your trip to Africa and researching all the little details, all you have to do is tell an African safari specialist your needs, desires, interests, and budget, and they’ll create a completely customized journey for you. A journey that features only the best properties and activities and that includes all the small details you might overlook when booking on your own.
