AfricanOverlandTours.com BLOG

Every so often the South African Rand gets hit by the markets thus weakening it against the foreign currencies (GBP, USD, Euro, etc) therefore making holidays to Africa much more affordable. This is currently one of these times.

I have just done some figures and since the beginning of January 2008 the Rand has lost 18% of it’s value against the British Pound. This means that your overland or safari has just got 18% cheaper.

It has lost 17% against the US Dollar and 11 % against the Euro.

What does this mean to travellers? If you are paying South African Rands for your Africa overland tour then you will be saving a lot.

16.1670 GBP (13.24 15 January 08) (DECREASE OF 18%)

8.05985 USD (6.75 15 January 08) (DECREASE OF 17%)

12.7284 EURO (10.03 15 January 08) (DECREASE OF 11.2%)

Andrew

www.africanoverlandtours.com

Travel insurance is definitely seen as one of those expenses that you just don’t want to have to do, but should anything go wrong (as it does) it is absolutely vital.  Have a read below as to why you should have travel insurance.

1. Travel Insurance protects your investment in your holiday.

You may recover the cost of pre-paid, non-refundable, and unused payments of your trip if you have to cancel because of:

• Illness, injury or death to the insured, a family member or traveling companion
• Bankruptcy or Financial Default of your travel supplier*
• Terrorist incident
• Called to jury duty
• Quarantined
• Auto accident on the way to the airport
• Home damaged before departure
• Job termination

* Travel insurance must be purchased within 14 days of the initial trip deposit or payment in order to receive coverage for pre-existing medical conditions and financial default.

2. Provides peace of mind while traveling.

• Coverage for emergency medical expenses
• Coverage for emergency medical transportation
• 24 Hour hot-line for travel assistance

HOw much does it cost?

The cost of Travel Insurance is based on the trip cost per person, the age of the travelers and the length of the trip.

To request a personalized quote please email your travel information to info@escape4africa.com.

1. What is your country of residence?
2. What are the birthdates (month/day/year) of each traveler?
3. What is the trip cost per person?
4. What are the dates of your travel?
5. Can you receive HTML-style emails?

Travel insurance is critical in today’s un-certain world to protect your travel investment, your health, belongings and vacation memories.

The latest news to come out of African overland travel sector is that Africa Travel Co. (ATC) has bought Wildlife Adventures Africa overland operator.
It looks very promising for the Africa overland tour industry as they have a very unique product offering and the merging of the two makes for an excellent partnership. We have the understanding that both products with remain largely separate which bodes well for people who have come to love Wildlife product. Wildlife Adventures has been a leader in the accommodated overland market and we are very pleased that the Four Country Classic (accommodated Cape To Vic) will continue.

ATC has been operating Africa overlands for over 18 years and throughout Southern and East Africa. They are renown for excellent service and quality products.

With Graeme Thomson and Leanne Guild heading it up can only grow from strength to strength.

Best wishes to the whole team from Escape 4 Africa Travel (www.africanoverlandtours.com)

Great news for Cape Town is that on March 30, Emirates will begin operating daily flights between Cape Town International Airport and Dubai International Airport

Emirates will be operating its Boeing 777-200, one of their largest aircraft. The plane offers comforts such as personal video screens, in-seat phones, and facilities to send and receive email and sms from each seat.

The Emirates’ flight EK 771 will take off daily from Cape Town International Airport at 18:10 hours, touching down at Dubai International Airport at 05:40 hours the following day. The Inbound flight EK 770 will depart Dubai at 08:35 hours, arriving in Cape Town at 16:25 hours.

It means the there will be some great pricing and flight options and more people seeing our beautiful country!

Great news for all!

Andrew
www.africanoverlandtours.com 

Great news,

Nationwide Airlines is slowly but surely beening reinstated back into the service. This has been wonderful news for travel in Africa.

We are so happy about the news. It means that we have better flight prices for some routes. In particular one of my clients had a quote of over 8000 ZAR for the Johannesburg to Livingstone Route from a carrier and now with Nationwide back up we could find the same route of 2600 ZAR return.

Here is the latest updates that we have recieved from Nationwide.

• The 767 operated well and as scheduled over the weekend - 1x JNB-LGW r/t and 1x JNB-CPT r/t

• I understand Safair have cleared all the 737s already so just waiting for the SA CAA to do their bit and release them for flying again. Some flights are scheduled to operate tomorrow and more flights will resume operations as the week goes on.

The details for some of this week’s flights as best as I’ve been given them are as follows although more flights are planned and I’ll update you as soon as I’m informed:

JNB-DUR resumed 12 Dec

JNB-LVI resumes 14 Dec

Great news all round!

Andrew

www.africanoverlandtours.com 

I have to tell everyone about a great company in Cape Town that organises internships for foreigners in South Africa (http://www.allinterns.co.za).

So often in the travel industry do we get enquiries from people that are coming out to Africa and are looking to spend some time out here. In fact the travel industry often has people who are doing internships before they depart on an overland tour.

This company www.allinterns.co.za is based in Cape Town and run by a friend of mine, Richard Rubenstein. Richard is well known in Cape Town and has subsequently developed great relationships with companies that are looking for interns.

They offer a great service from helping you with matching the perfect internship to your CV/desires, visa’s, accommodation, transport, pick up from the airport, maps, sim card for your mobile and many more! Have a look at http://www.allinterns.co.za/onoffer.htm and see all they offer.

They have a great additional website (www.stufftodo.co.za) which gives information on what is going on in Cape Town. Very USEFUL.

At any one time they have over 50 interns working in South Africa. So if you are looking for a very different experience before or after your overland why not try it out!

Hope this is useful to some of you.

Andrew

www.africanoverlandtours.com 

Hi there,

Welcome to our dream of creating an place where people can share their amazing experiences in Africa which will enthuse you with the same love and wonder that we have for this vast beautiful place we all call Africa.

Tell us about your favourite places, events that are occuring or post some questions on your upcoming adventures or any africa overland tours.

All we can say to people that haven’t been here is: Keep a open mind, come to Africa and let it change your life..

You can email your stories at info@escape4africa.com or simply comment on the stories.

Best wishes from

Andrew and Gelle