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K&T Classic Safari: June 25, 2022
Time to get the ball rolling. I applied for all four visas on Friday afternoon, and we received our Kenya visas last night and this morning. I had made a mistake on my application, and they requested a correction. I sent that in and the visa was issued a couple hours later. The Tanzania visas are still “On Progress”. The applications were a bit tedious, but I saw no need to use Visa Central.
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What did you put down for Host, Hosts address and Hosts email? Seems odd using the hotel information. I would think it would be Tauck somehow.
Also, is Loitokitok the point of entry at Amboselli?
Lastly, how accurate does the date of entry need to be? On the trip itinerary it says Day 6, so I can guess but it could be a day off.
Thanks in advance!
Edited: I'm not on your trip but hoping you can help!
The host is “self”. When you put in self, the other boxes ‘grey out’.
The entry point is Namanga.
I don’t know when you are going so your trip itinerary may be a little different. We are spending three nights at the Four Seasons on this one, so our entry into Kenya is day 7. I’m not sure that is important as the visa is good for a ninety day period, but only for one entry. If you are doing more than one entry, you will need a different visa.
The most difficult thing for me was ‘sizing’ the documents for upload that were less than 300KB. I’m sure Alan knows how to do this with ease, but I found it a bit difficult. I used the Tauck reservation page and the itineerary page showing the hotel as my ‘reservation’.
I recently completed both Kenyan and Tanzanian visas for my 7/2 departure. One Kenyan visa came overnight and the other a day later. The Tanzanian visas came one within a few days, and one took about 10. But no problems and all issued. The Kenyan entry point is indicated in your Tauck documents. Mine too was Namanga. I echo Sealord that for the Kenya visa, there was a size limit for a required JPEG (only) file submission. I was submitting a document originally in pdf format, so that needed conversion and then file size reduction easy enough to do with software on my Mac. For host I indicated Tauck Tours, providing Tauck's Westport address, as well as their phone number and email. Entry dates were confirmed to the itinerary Tauck sent out around day 60 upon final payment, and that document with hotel information I used as an attachment to my visa requests. I did not understand why Kenya needed a photo of the passport book cover. All in all not too difficult and certainly not worth paying Visa Central's fee.
Thank you everyone! Very helpful! We're doing the K&T Classic leaving on July 20.
Sevenseas: Did Tanzania send you an email when the visas were ready or did you have to keep checking their website?
@Sealord - they sent notification emails with a Subject line of Visa Application Notification
We kept checking. My husband’s visa was ready in 24 hours.
The Kenya visas were very quick. The Tanzania visas are still “on progress” after a week.
We got both Tanzania visas today. They took exactly seven days. But, we did not receive an email about them being ready. I was just checking every day.
Things are moving along. We got an email today from our TD with more information about forms. This TD is the same ‘Bill’ we had on our first Tauck tour to K&T, and he was our TD on our last Tauck tour to Antarctica … small world. This is the new information he included in his email:
“ We will need all 3 forms for when we cross the border. You will need to fill out the information on the website https://globalhaven.org/ for a printable copy of a vaccination certificate. Also, you will need to fill out the information on the website https://ears.health.go.ke to get a Travellers QR code. Save these forms electronically on your phones as well as print them out. ”
We also got our new duffels yesterday. We already have three sets of Tauck Eagle Creek duffels that we like, so we will probably use those. Eagle Creek went out of business so they got a new supplier, OGIO, but the bags are ‘slightly’ smaller. We have been using the Eagle Creek bags for most of our trips and we are quite comfortable with them.
We received the same from Bill. He is our tour director on the June 11 trip.
Did you figure out the second link? The ‘Ears’ … https://ears.health.go.ke/ …I got the first link to work, but the second one all I found was bulletins. Wanted a login which I did not have.
Try this:
https://ears.health.go.ke/airline_registration/
PamW: Did you count the email addresses? Ours has eleven, and I know four appear to be ‘pairs’, so I’m guessing we are less than twenty total. Our first trip was only nineteen, but we still only used three safari vehicles and one person always rode with the driver up front, as did Bill.
Is the TD emailing so you can actually see other peoples’ emails or is he blind copying you? That is a privacy issue that Tauck would not approve of before a tour takes place.
TD emailed with other addresses showing, but there is a privacy notice on the bottom of the email saying info needs to be respected. There are 14 email addresses but I was not on the email distribution, my husband was, so it is possible there are more on the tour.
Wow, I’ve never heard of Tauck allowing people know who else is on a tour before it happens
There are no names, just email addresses … fairly obtuse unless one was inclined to be a ‘bother’. As noted, there is a privacy notice at the bottom. I actually paid no attention to them other than to count them to get an idea how many we will be. Tauck will normally give that information but I don’t want to bother them with that unless I need to call for another reason.
If concerned about privacy you can have Tauck put a note in your file requesting that you do not want your personal information shared. We no longer share any personal information on lists that are circulated on tour. We decide with whom we wish to keep in touch with. Unless the privacy notice is written very carefully, it is meaningless legally.
Thanks to PamW we have our QR codes for Kenya. The form looks like it was designed for air arrivals but I put in the flight data for our arrival in Kilimanjaro and the system bought it. Checked the Delta site for our KLM flights and it said we need antigen tests to transit Amsterdam … that would be incorrect. No tests are required. We got our malaria pills today, and our diphtheria vaccinbes have been prescribed. That was pills the last time but they no longer make the pills. We have the yellow fever vaccines and a host of others from previous trips. We spent part of our afternoon picking excursions for the following trip, Rhine Enchantment on the “Grace”. My pre-covid fiscal limit for Tauck trips was one per year … this year we are doing three! ‘You can’t take it with you!”
A correction: Walgreens was making it difficult to get the diphtheria vaccine so I called Costco. They said they are making diphtheria capsules again, so we will get them there in addition to a second covid booster. I have learned to dislike Walgreens. The Costco Pharmacy has always been good here … actually in Novato. Twenty-one days and we blow this pop-stand. I had gotten locked out of the KLM website for unkown reasons. We are on Delta tickets, but KLM airplanes, but I was unable to see our res with KLM. I got through on the phone after a couple attempts and they unlocked my account.
For anyone else needing to fill out visa information such as for Tanzania. I was connected to the Journey preparation team for Tauck. The young man was very nice and told me not to put self as host and then emailed me the exact information with addresses and email and phone contacts. I received all 4 visas within the 10 day time period.
I guess there are multiple right answers for ‘host’? We used ‘self’ and it worked fine. We just received another email from TD with packing suggestions, and other info. He is keeping us all well informed. We got our second covid boosters today, and started taking our typhoid capsules. We had yellow fever and all the other vaccines from previous trips.
Some may be interested in the side effects of the second booster. I know it was not fun for some. Eloise had no side effects other than a slightly sore arm. I felt a little ‘off’ today, and have a sore arm, but not much to talk about. We just got them to put that ‘x’ in the box for doing all we can to avoid an extra vacation. Bill said to bring plenty of masks for the enclosed spaces, whcih we of course will do. With all the dust, we frequently mask up in the safari vehicles anyway.
Interesting that you have heard from your TD several times already. We are a week behind you on 7/2 and have heard nothing so far. Anything useful and unexpected in there to start preparing for now?
In our nine or ten tours with Tauck, we have only heard from the TD ahead of time three times. Our last tour was with this same TD, and we did not know he was our TD until we got to Buenos Aires. So I don’t think you should necessarily expect to hear from your TD before the trip. I have posted here the tips that I think may be more helpful, but I do not have his permission to post his emails here. Most of the information is in your ‘digital green book’, He is putting a few clarifications on things. Plastic bags for example. It is ‘non-reusable’ plastic bags that are a problem. Zip lock bags like for your liquids on the airplane are okay. Bags you got from the cleaners that you use to keep your clothes from wrinkling, or plastic bags from the grocery store … you might go to jail. But, he has never seen it enforced. He is trying to give us the ‘easy’ way. Others have rebutted that ‘this’ will work also. Indeed. But, in Africa it is often ‘form over substance’. Having the correct document is sometimes more important than having the correct information.
We have never been contacted by a TD prior to any of our tours including our two K and T tours. We enquired who might be the TD before one of our tours years ago and the agent said they never told people became occasionally TD s change last minute. We have had last minute TDs a couple of times.
We have never had communications in advance from a TD either. Did know if this was a new practice, specific to the itinerary or just particular TD style. Thanks.
I am wondering that. Funnily enough, on our K and T Rwanda tour in December 2019, the TD was so appalled by how many people on our tour had inadequate footwear That she told me she was going to email the next group to explain the footwear that was required for the tour. We walked right down into the Oldupai gorge, one person sprained their ankle badly and anther stumbled. We enjoyed that but it may have now been taken off the tour, such a shame. We also had a walking safari and it was very wet and muddy. And then there was the gorilla trekking.
When people discuss clothing for a tour, the footwear really is the most important.
Our TD for the Normandy/Brittany tour last year did email us a day or 2 before the tour started. She introduced herself and gave us some info about the first tour day. Nothing about shoes