"Downtime" clothing

gatorjulie

I will be on the K&T tour next month. Does anyone have an opinion as to clothing to pack for "downtime" around the hotels - days and evenings? I have seen that "safari" clothing is fine all the time, but would it be advisable to consider taking shorts, sandals - that sort of thing - for hanging around the hotel during the days. How much "downtime" is there? Thanks for any information --- can't wait for my trip!!

AlanS

We went in 2015 and except for two days (now 1 day) at the Mount Kenya Safari Club, there wasn't a lot of down time. Even at the Safari Club where free time could be filled with golf, horseback riding, and a visit to the small animal conservation park just outside the gate, you rarely needed anything more than your "safari" clothes. Everyone at most of the hotels and certainly the camps is on safari and this is a very casual tour, so no need for "nice" evening attire or "smart casual" unless you want to bring it. You'll mainly want to change clothes during the day because what you wore on a game drive is dirty or still damp from perspiration. A good compromise for shorts (you don't want to wear shorts on game drives because of mosquitoes and biting tsetse flies) is pants with zip-off bottoms- Columbia or similar brands. Don't worry about buying something (safari clothes) you'll only wear on one trip- you'll find other trips and times to wear them and if you are any kind of traveler at all, you can figure this won't be your first and last trip to Africa. You can also spend down time at the few pools along the way, though waater temps were a bit cool (Amboseli, Safari Club, Four Seasons Serengeti), so bring a bathing suit.

bella c

Good question as We will be on K/T July 15th. I have all my safari pants and shirts but I too wonder about the down time.
Jeans are out and I would think tights or leggings are not appropriate. I am searching for maybe gauze pants. Lightweight easy fit and can be worn with loose fitting top. Still not sure. Also, how many Tee shirts should I bring.
Problem is they take forever to dry. Also, what length socks, crew, knee, ??
Hope we get a good answer!

Fourpatch

Hi,
My hubby and I are scheduled to go on Safari in August and have been on Safari before a few years back. Our evening clothes tended to be clean safari outfits. I'm more of a casual dresser but don't remember guests being dressed up. I found that you get pretty dusty during the drives so we tended to have our clean clothes for the evening and then our dusty clothes for the drives. I looked back at our pictures and for the most part we wore on the drives khakis, shirts and a light jacket. Night was just a clean version of that. There is laundry service which tended to have a quick turn around so that was really helpful.

British

Agree with Fourpatch. Africa is one of the few places we bother to get laundry done because it is very cheap or sometimes free. Evenings tend to be short at camp, often going straight to dinner after the second game drive and early to bed ready to get up at 5am for the morning game drives. It's such an easy tour to take when it comes to clothing as no need to take any dressy clothes. No need to take shorts or sandals, the evenings can be very cold ( you often get hot water bottles put in your bed, lovely!) and you need to be covered up for mosquito protection, the evenings being the prime time for getting bitten. The footpaths to the tents in some of the camps are just dirt paths, so its best to have feet enclosed because of that too.

mazalea

British wrote:

Agree with Fourpatch. Africa is one of the few places we bother to get laundry done because it is very cheap or sometimes free. Evenings tend to be short at camp, often going straight to dinner after the second game drive and early to bed ready to get up at 5am for the morning game drives. It's such an easy tour to take when it comes to clothing as no need to take any dressy clothes. No need to take shorts or sandals, the evenings can be very cold ( you often get hot water bottles put in your bed, lovely!) and you need to be covered up for mosquito protection, the evenings being the prime time for getting bitten. The footpaths to the tents in some of the camps are just dirt paths, so its best to have feet enclosed because of that too.

What about shoes? Tennis/sneakers at all; times?

British

I never wear tennis shoes or sneakers for travel so not the best person to ask. They scream American and I have good and comfortable other shoes that can transfer easily from day to night if necessary. I always wear dark Lands End, Merrill or LL Bean style slip on suede waterproof shoes, khaki, brown color ways because your shoes will get filthy and dusty. You can wash them when you get home and they look as new. I take two pairs. I wear one pair on the plane and pack the other pair. Flip flops for going to the pool"

mazalea

THANK YOU. Do you wear the slip on in Africa because you can slip off to stand on the seats on safari drives?

AlanS

mazalea wrote:

THANK YOU. Do you wear the slip on in Africa because you can slip off to stand on the seats on safari drives?

Maryanne- I wore slip-offs or tan/brown (so they wouldn't show dirt) suede tennis shoes that I left un-tied or just left off. If you look at the photos I posted in older threads, you will see people standing on seats. This happened almost everytime we stopped to view game.

British

mazalea wrote:

THANK YOU. Do you wear the slip on in Africa because you can slip off to stand on the seats on safari drives?

Depends which part of Africa. In K and T, you are allowed to stand up and on the seats too, no shoes. In Southern Africa countries you must stay seated at all times so that you don't stand out as an individual to the animals and might spook them or make yourself more prone to attack. If everyone stays seated, they only see one big thing, the safari vehicle. Last year in Botswana, my foot was bracing me from being tossed around in our vehicle because I was in the high back seat, and it was slightly sticking out of the side of the vehicle.when we stopped right beside a lion, the guide noticed and immediately got me to pull my foot back in. Yes, it's all so exciting!

mazalea

Thank you both so much!

Sealord

We will be doing our third Tauck safari next year. We have done K&T and Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa. We are returning to K&T on July 14, of '18. We almost missed our Baltic trip last month due the British Airways 'problem'. So we are testing the Tauck insurance right now. We will see how it works out. Tauck has already reimbursed us for the parts of our trip that we missed. I'm saving my claims for BA for last to see what the insurance covers first. Clothes: As said, safari clothes, preferably clean ones in the evening, are appropriate. That being said, you will encounter people at the Four Seasons who may have arrived in their own jet. So if you are a woman who feels awkward wearing safari clothes when near someone dressed like Malania, you might want one 'evening' outfit that is a little nicer. The K&T vehicles are 'enclosed' with pop up tops, the Botswana vehicles are 'wide open' so you need to stay within. My wife had a wild lion within three feet of her. I was on the other side. (;-). Laundry: Don't have it done at the Four Seasons unless you are desperate. Very expensive. I wear Keens type hiking shoes. They work well. Just did two weeks in the Baltic with nothing but our carry-on, so our attitude about what is necesary has changed. We will probably return to Africa with nothing but the Tauck duffels, and a rollaboard that we use as a cart for one duffel, and we check the other duffel with the liquids.

AlanS

Tauck insurance covered every penny of the trip AND airfare (booked myself, not through Tauck) when we had to cancel our Best of Ireland tour less than a week before departure. They even put the cost of the policy which is non-refundable into a "Dream-saver" account which we applied to our next tour (must be used w/in 1 year)! I call that pretty darn good. We met the criteria- relative hospitalized. Claim process simple and easy, just needed attending physician certification.

MGeiss

We heard that we'll be advised to NOT wear blue because it attracts tsetse flies. Any truth to this?

British

Yes true, avoid blue and black

Sealord

AlanS wrote:

Tauck insurance covered every penny of the trip AND airfare (booked myself, not through Tauck) when we had to cancel our Best of Ireland tour less than a week before departure. They even put the cost of the policy which is non-refundable into a "Dream-saver" account which we applied to our next tour (must be used w/in 1 year)! I call that pretty darn good. We met the criteria- relative hospitalized. Claim process simple and easy, just needed attending physician certification.

I posted this elsewhere, but your experience with the insurance was our experience also. I did not have to claim anything from British Airways except the EU Regulation 261 penalty for not getting us to our destination. Actually, the day after I filed that one I got my first communication directly to me from BA since the May 27 debacle, and they said they had already cut a check for that and we should receive it soon. 'Everything' else was covered by Tauck and the insurance.

KathrynH

As others have noted, there is not so much down time on the K&T tour and it is very dusty. We worked out a scheme whereby we would shower for supper after game drives and wear our next day tee shirt and trousers. This worked until we ran out of clean clothing at the end. Our tour director was collecting unwanted clothing at the end of the tour so we left behind filthy socks and other items that we would never use at home. Somewhere in Kenya are two locals wearing our unwanted pith helmets!

British

Pith helmets! Hilarious, I've only seen those in the movies!