July 14th 2024 journey and prestay
Here is my first report of our family’s journey to the Bridges tour.
There are nine in our family, two grandparents, four parents and three grandchild ages 7, 10 and 10.
We organized a transport service from our homes just northwest of Philadelphia to JFK the evening of July 11th and stayed at the TWA airport hotel which was the original TWA terminal building ingeniously converted and a cool place to stay. We chose to fly from JFK because we wanted to fly Qatar airways and they stopped flying from Philly airport late last year….AA took over the route there and we have tried it and everything is far inferior to the Qatar experience.
Our flight to Doha was at 11-20 am the next day. My husband and I flew business class and everyone else economy.
On arrival at Doha 11 hours later, we had arranged to be collected by a pre arranged concierge service…..this cost $400 for the family. Most flights do not stop at the terminal so you have to walk down the plane steps and get on a bus to the terminal. Two ladies carrying signs with our names on were waiting at the base of the plane steps. Once business class deplaned, one of the women went into the plane and the rest of our family were called to disembark in front of everyone else! Which caused embarrassment from our family. We got onto one of the buses with just two other people and proceeded to drive around the same building three times, we could not figure out why, but it was busy. To our delight, the bus stopped right outside of the boarding gate for our next flight which was due to start boarding within thirteen minutes. We were escorted to the front of the boarding line! Three of us had platinum plus status. This is the third time we have used this service, we did not have to go through security either.
On our first Bridges tour last year, we decided to wear matching t Shirts which our daughter designed and printed, so we wore them again for the journey. Some people might think that’s a cheesy thing to do, but actually it was perfect for identifying us as a group, especially, as it turns out, we were being lead in front of everyone else!
Our next flight to JRO, Kilimanjaro airport had one stop over in Dar Es Salaam, where most people got off the plane but we stayed on, this part was a six hour flight. Not many people got onto the flight from here, so when we arrived at JRO airport one hour later, we were near the front of the immigration line that was for people who had acquired E visas.
As reported earlier in the month, credit here to SeaLord of the forum, the airport now want to see your boarding pass before you enter the terminal building.
Luggage appeared fairly quickly, you have to put it through an X-ray machine before you exit the building.
There was a large number of people waiting with signs outside. Instead of spotting the Tauck sign, I spotted a medium blue McBridges sign. There were two vehicles, one to carry the luggage and one to carry us. The drive to the Gran Melia hotel was a good hour long through small towns and villages with these being packed with people, many on motorbikes, it was a Saturday evening. The landscape around was typical flat African bush land with some mountains in the background. The land at the side of the roads had many sunflower and cornfields and a few rice fields. There were some large heavy and slow trucks on the road which took a while to safely pass at times. The usual sight of people walking along the roadside. Herds of cattle and goats, the latter being corralled by young boys with a dog and a few donkeys used for transport. The driver kept a running commentary of everything we saw and it was particularly interesting to hear that Tanzania is self sufficient in food.
We eventually came to the hotel which is about six years old, a very large gated five star property. By this time it was just about dark. We were allocated our rooms, had very quick showers and then headed for one of the restaurants on the roof. It was very busy. We ate and then went to bed. Just as we we leaving we met up with the Sue K of the forum.
Our room is on the fourth floor, clean and modern, good lighting. Electric sockets are international. There is bottled water in the room, tea and coffee facilities. I’m writing this in ‘Notes’ and then trying to get back to sleep. Good night!
Comments
So glad you all made it safely! Wow you did have a tight layover - you got to the gate 13 minutes before boarding your next flight, Crazy!
Welcome on this great tour. My family and I just left Tanzania on July 10 after doing the Serengeti’s and Zanzibar trip with Jennifer S as our tour guide. She mentioned she would be doing bridges next. She was excellent so I hope you enjoy the trip as much as we did.
British: Have a wonderful and memorable vacation with your family. I look forward to your upcoming reviews. I hope the grandkids have a blast. They’ll never forget this.
British, make many happy memories with your family on this wonderful Bridges Tour!
British - I had to laugh about the matching shirts. Just because the shirts were functional, and useful to identify the group doesn't mean they aren't cheesy. 😂
Hopefully the group whistled or sang 'Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho it's off to Safari we go' as you were paraded through the airport. 😂
Have a good time. I look forward to the rest of your reports.
Yes, here is my husband talking to Jane Goodall today, more later!
British - Thank you. Looking forward to the rest of your reports.
Sam, we are off this morning for our trip.
I didn't realize Jane Goodall was still living. What an amazing woman. I still have her book, 'In the Shadow of Man' in the den. I probably would have been speechless if I had the good fortune of actually meeting her.
July 14th, Day 1, but no Tauck activities on the agenda.
We all got up at different times. Supposedly to ‘do our own thing’
Our daughter was first up at the gym, my son didn’t wake up until 10-30am and he had to wake his family at 11am, they were too late for breakfast.
We all eventually met up in the coffee plantation within the hotel grounds. My husband and I have been to so many coffee plantations with Tauck over the years, so we were able to pick up some of the fallen ripe ‘cherries’ and squash them and explain about the two coffee ‘beans’ inside. There was an area where the hand picked beans were drying in the sun…for two weeks. The children could handle those too. We walked past some vegetable patches and up to the chicken coup which had many pretty egg laying hens inside.
We went to the handicraft center and were shown around, weaving, glass blowing, beading etc. We all purchased various items. This is worth a visit.
The Spa is in this area, a separate building. Prices were extremely reasonable. I had a two hour Burka ritual…a coffee smelling sugar scrub, then a wrapping to make me sweat, a shower and then a 90 minute aromatherapy massage. The cost was approx $100 and it was an excellent quality. My husband had a 90 minute hot stone massage.
While we were changing to go down to the spa, my son texted us to tell us Jane Goodall was sitting in the pool bar, she was making a documentary and filming was taking place up at the top of the coffee plantation. She is one of my husband’s heroes. He quickly put his clothes back on and went to speak to her. In his excitement, he confused her research with that of Diane Fossey. It was fun to watch him so thrilled and he came back to me with excitement palpitations. We had purchased tickets to see Jane in Philadelphia in 2020, but of course the event was canceled.
The family spent most of the afternoon in the shade on sunbeds that were in the pool shallows. The pool was cold, my youngest grandson had almost navy blue lips and shivering by the time he came out of the water. Sadly, because of the timing we could get our massages, I did not go in the pool!
We ate at the Grill in the evening. It was very quiet, but despite this, the food was about an hour in coming.
Our first safari tomorrow!
British, have a blast with kids and grandkids, make a lot of memories.
OMG. British that is AMAZING. What a fortuitous stroke of luck! Did your husband happen to ask how long she plans to be there filming?
Thanks for the updates on the hotel. Sounds like pool is a bit chilly! I had heard the food can be a bit slow. I know the review I linked said the guy asked for ketchup each morning and it took so long that his breakfast was cold by the time it arrived.
We are just about to leave our house to start the journey! Enjoy the time with your family, especially the grandkids! Hope to catch up to you at some point. We'll be arriving in the evening on the 16th.
I bet your grandkids will ask you and your “where are we all going next year?” Happy safari-ing.
Dogdoctor we leave the Gran Melia hotel early on the 16th. Our first safari in a few hours time. Our youngest is over excited, which is a worry.
Last night, my grandsons, 7 and 10 polished off a smoked salmon platter, a plate of octopus and two huge lobsters. One even extracted a lobster eye and ate that! It was hard to figure out how much the check was, my husband and my son in law were so tired, they left the table while I settled the bill. My son assured me that the tip he was working out was correct….I hope so, as in total it was well over 1,000,000 Tanzanian shillings. I might just work it out now at 4-20am
Ourtravels, that’s it for family travel at this level for now 😂😂😂. Hoping all continues to go well, so fortunate we all are and a great way to celebrate our 50th anniversary.
British, thanks for letting us follow along and taking the time to post in such detail. Great reading; can't wait for the safaris. Have a wonderful time with your family!
p.s. to dogdoctor: If that ketchup was for his morning eggs, well, I'm with the waiter!
July 15th 2024
We met our TD this morning, Chris M who we had for our 2016 Botswana tour.
It turns out there are just two families on the tour, ours of 9 and Sue K’s group of 11, Sue had worked that out already, one group must have canceled.
We headed out with 4 safari vehicles and drivers to Arusha National Park. We have been there before. It is about a 45 minute ride from the Gran Melia hotel. We passed the road where the Serena Deluti hotel is and where we have stayed three times before. That hotel is still used for the Tanzania Zanzibar tour. It has a much more Africa feel but the Gran Melia is about ten times more fancy.
Arusha National park is very different than the other parks. Our driver described it as an appetizer for what is to come. There are narrow roads with thick vegetation at the sides, so you have to have your eyes open all the time looking for wildlife. We had several sitings of black and white colobus monkeys and blue monkeys and baboons. Zebra and Cape buffalo, a couple of bush bucks and a darker antelope, oh and Giraffes! It’s the wrong time of year for seeing flamingoes on the lake.
There was one major very surprising siting. The only big cats you may see are leopards but rarely. Our vehicle passed another and the people were pointing and saying ‘Cheetah’ I thought I misheard, but sure enough there was a gorgeous cheetah walking along the road. We just got a glimpse of it before it disappeared into the bush. I didn’t catch a photo.
We had a picnic lunch in the park and we got back mid afternoon. We are now enjoying a cup of tea, hopefully, if I can persuade Mr. B to forgo a nap, a swim and then the Welcome dinner.
So all the younger adult and children have had their first taste of Tanzania today.
Tomorrow is our first hotel change and it will be a big change, rustic and in tents, only electricity at certain times of day.
British happy 50th anniversary, what a great way to not only being in Africa which you love but having your family with you.
Thank you to everyone for sending kind messages!
British - is this the approach Simon uses to keep everyone in the family under control? 😂
https://bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=von+trapp+children+names+in+sound+of+music&&mid=6E354694E8DD540787646E354694E8DD54078764&&FORM=VRDGAR
British - You were about to fall off the page. I’m sure you are having too much fun to visit here for a while. Enjoy!