Air Flights to Afica
I am thinking about my air logistics already for our Botswana, South Africa, Zambia trip scheduled for August 2024. I know it's a ways away and it is an incredibly long flight no matter which airline I pick (and never mind about the price). I like to be prepared with information before consulting my travel agent. I know it's too early to book anything and I'm just exploring with "pretend" dates on Google Flights, I am concerned about the " extreme length" of the flight from California (SF Bay Area) to LVI Livingstone, Zambia.
Here's my question: Do any of you seasoned jet-setters spend the night at an airport hotel along the way in order to re-group, get a good night's sleep before venturing on to (LVI) Livingstone? If so, which airport, London? Dubai? Egypt? anywhere else maybe from the east coast? I would really appreciate your thoughts on this. Thank you.
Comments
OurTravels34, the B, SA and Z trip is amazing! It is in my Top Five. A lot of people like to layover in Amsterdam. My Dutch friends use the airport hotel there, but I have not so can’t really vouch for it. Have a fabulous trip.
Thank you very much.
The available flights have changed since we went which makes it harder to get to Livingstone. We flew Atlanta direct to Johannesburg on Delta. We arrived about 5:30 pm JNB time and spent the night at the InterContinental Hotel at the airport. We had a great night's sleep and were rested for the short (1+40) 10:40 am SAA flight to LVI. We arrived at LVI ready to boogie. After checking and getting settled at the Royal Livingstone, we were ready for our (pre-booked) afternoon microlight flights over the Falls! I would take a similar overnight enroute layover again.
Much appreciated as always.
Our travels, we just booked flights for a tour beginning in Namibia this coming November and are using Qatar air. We have an 8 hour layover in Doha and have booked the Oryx hotel there which is airside. I believe my husband said it was $230. Doing this saves us taking three flights, this way we have just two flights. We fly back from Victoria’ Falls Zimbabwe and that is three flights.
Thank you British. I am writing all this down. It's really a bummer flying from the west coast; it always adds on another 4+ flight hours. It's hard to get used to sitting in an airplane seat for that long. I just can't do it. I would love to teleport myself one day to Europe.
OurTravels34 - It’s not longer from the west coast if you’re going to Asia! 😃 You just have to change the tours that you’re doing.
When I did the SouthAfrica tour we flew Emirates, went a few days early and spent 2 days in Dubai. The flight to Cape Town was a 3 am flight so we kept the hotel room for the evening, showered and then headed for airport. Arrived decently well rested since we napped on the dubai->cape town flight. Sure helped acclimate us to the time change.
I have used the Sofitel in terminal five at LHR, and it was quite nice … probably the nicest part of terminal five. BA thinks T5 is the best terminal in the world. I only flew for 37 years and I think it is the worst outside of the third world. I go to great lengths to avoid T5, but sometimes I just can’t do it. I should know this but I don’t … is there a trick to getting an overnight stop without paying more for the ticket?
I think I’ve read somewhere that Emirates has a kind of stopover program somewhat what Icelandic Air has (I’ve known others who have stopped over in Iceland using thst program) but I don’t have concrete information on the Emirates program.
Qatar has a stopover program in Doha and TAP has a stopover program in Lisbon, but I think that you can use them only on round trip flights. The stopover option disappeared from the pulldown menu when I was looking at multi-city flights on the Qatar website, and after I had booked a multi-city flight using TAP, I decided I'd like to stay over a few days in Lisbon, and I got the message that my flight was not eligible for a stopover.
Thank you. That’s what I thought regarding stopovers.
When we went on the Kenya and Tanzania classic safari we were able to layover in Amsterdam. When I called KLM they told me no stopover allowed, but when our travel agent called he was able to get it at no extra charge
Thank you. That is interesting.
I would never use the KLM route again. That is the one where it is pretty common for the checked bags to not make it from Amsterdam to Arusha, it happened to us and in the three times we have been via Arusha we have come across others who have not gotten their bags. There is only one flight a day, so the earliest you may see your bags is 24 hours later. Since that experience we have used Qatar
When we did that tour, we flew from DFW on AA to Heathrow and had a 12.5 hr. layover which gave us time to check into the Sofitel, sleep, shower and have a light meal prior to boarding for Johannesburg. Although, it is still another long flight to Johannesburg, it was very helpful in getting our bodies adjusted to Africa. This was my favorite Tauck tour. Enjoy!
British - You are so right, when I went to Kenya and Tanzania in 2021 with a friend with KLM, my luggage made it ok but my friend's luggage did not, good thing we got there an extra day early on our own, it took her 2 days to get her luggage.
I have spent most of the last two days looking at the options for flying to Arusha. This will be our fifth trip to Africa and what is important to us is the total enroute time. We have used KLM three of those times, and we will be using them again. One leg to Amsterdam, short but adequate connect time, and one leg to Arusha. Total time enroute from San Francisco, twenty hours. The return flight is on Air France with a stop in Paris … enroute time twenty-three hours. We carry everything we need on the airplane so lost luggage is not an issue. We do check a bag, but it is all ‘not necessary’ stuff. KLM is not Qatar, but they do a pretty good job. The only times we have ‘lost’ luggage were on British Airways and United. If your flight arrives late, you may make the flight but in many cases your luggage may not.