How much time needed to connect in Jo-berg at end of Elegant Adventure Tour?
A question for those of you who have already done the South Africa Elegant Adventure tour:
Trying to figure out how late a flight to book home from Johannesburg on that last day.
I've read that the flight from Victoria Falls arrives in Jo-berg at about 3:30ish? How much time did you need to get through customs & security? Did you find the airport chaotic or easy to navigate? Any input would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance for your help,
DB
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Tauck took us and our luggage right to our check in counter. From there we walked to and got through passport control and security in under 30 minutes. I'd say to be safe, I'd not book anything before about 6:30, but (assuming your Zimbabwe flight is on time), you'll likely end up with time to spare.
It was touch and go on my journey. First flight cancelled we were on later flight that kept getting delayed. If it wasn’t for Tauck rep in Joberg who guided us through the airport not sure that we would have made it. They were incredible!
Agree with Mike; plan to allow yourself three hours. Our tour ended in Joberg on March 19, 2020 so the circumstances were very unique. I remember saying good bye to our amazing TD as we collected our small luggage from the carousel. He then must have guided us to the Tauck rep who was responsible for storing our larger luggage while we were at Vic Falls. The Tauck rep pointed us in the direction of an official guide who worked at the airport (identifiable by orange vests) who then took us and our luggage to the airline check in desk for our flight home. It was worth the tip we gave him. Beware of unscrupulous people at the Joberg airport who offer their “assistance”; ALWAYS look for the orange vests. This is a wonderful tour, and I hope you will love it as much as we did.
We just booked our air for that trip next September. Unfortunately, we could not book through Tauck as they were unable to get the business class seats or routing we wanted to/from ORD (we wanted only 1 stop in each direction). So we did better in that regard and on pricing booking on our own on United. We depart J’berg at 7:00 pm on departure day.
We did this tour in August of this year. We were originally on British Airways but when they inexplicably cancelled our flight the day before we headed home, we had to rebook our flights home onto Turkish Air, leaving Joberg at 1830 which should have given us three hours after flying arriving from Victoria Falls. We left a little late and landed just before 1600. It then took over an hour to get through immigration. I think they had two people working in the section we needed to clear. It was phenomenally stressful. I don't think it would have been as bad if we had arrived on time, but you can't count on that. Our incredible tour director was waiting for us at the baggage claim with our bags already loaded on a trolley. He said we would be fine. We shouldn't dally, but we didn't need to run to check in at Turkish Airways. This was maybe 75 minutes before our flight to Istanbul was due to depart. The local representative was just outside the secure area with the bags we had left in Joberg. She had a trolley for us too. We combined the bags and off we went. Thankfully, there was no line for Business Class check in and we had no trouble from there. Getting back through security and immigration was a breeze after what we had been through. It was maybe 20 minutes. We got to the gate within 5 minutes of when were due to start boarding. We had a bit more time than that as it turned out but I'm not sure I've ever been so relieved to board a plane. Our tour director was right, we were fine but standing in that immigration line was excruciating. Even with our late check in, our checked bags made it all the way home. Three hours should be okay. It just might come with more stress than you were anticipating.
As noted above, it's an incredible tour and the Tauck team is incredible too.
Thanks so much to everyone for the helpful feedback. I appreciate all the detail -- sounds like some of you had truly stress-inducing situations!
I was planning to book a 7:20p BA flight, but now thinking we should take the 9:20p flight instead.
We generally travel carry-on only, so don't have to collect or check bags, but it sounds like the wild cards here are potential delays on the VF flight and the possibility of a long wait at immigration/passport control.
Side question: has anyone use the BA lounge in Jo-berg? (If we book the later flight and things go smoothly, we'll have a long wait there!)
Do you have to go through immigration/passport control if you're just transiting through Johannesburg?
They’re arriving from Zimbabwe. They’ll exit the secure area after customs and then transit to their new flight check in area. I used to go into and out of Jo-burg regularly for business. The lounge area is fairly nice, and the new international terminal shopping area is nice as well. Taking the later flight should alleviate all of your concerns. Between the shopping area and the BA lounge, I’d guess you’ll be entertained, well fed, and relaxed for your journey.
I understand that they're coming from Zimbabwe...but just wondered why South Africa would care about customs and immigration if they were just taking a plane out of the country to Europe. If they do, they do. I was just curious.
Thank you, @MikeCoyner! You are an amazing resource!
Just returned from this trip in December. It was magnificent. Debra, not sure you will do the entire 2 week trip with carry on, but Tauck will store your luggage at Joberg airport and have it for you when you return from Zimbabwe. We had no issues with immigration and there is a large duty free shopping area plus all the airline lounges are nice and easily accessible. We had a 10pm flight home and it was perfect.
Just returned from this trip and it truly was amazing! We had no issue with the connection time on our return to Joberg airport from Victoria falls -- in fact, our flight home was delayed and we spent 8 hours in the lounge...
And, a note to anyone who, like us, prefers to travel COO: we had no problem doing two weeks with just our carry on bags and personal items. The safari camps do laundry very inexpensively and there was never the need to "dress up."