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Great Migration
My wife and I are taking the Great Migration trip starting on August 17, 2023, and are questioning the luggage issue. According to the website, Tauck is providing " a large rolling Eagle Creek Duffle." What is the size of this duffle? Eagle Creek makes many duffels, and they all look large.
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Did Eagle Creek get a relight? On our last safari we were given Gigio duffels because Eagle Creek had gone out of business. We used our old Eagle Creek bags because they were slightly larger. You can fit everything you need for a safari in the duffel, but we always bring one checked bag for the liquids. We bring aboard ‘everything’ we need for the safari. You are going to the outback in Africa. If your checked luggage goes astray, you will not see it for awhile. On our last trip we had a number of people on safari in their ‘travel clothes. We travel in our safari clothes.
We are going in August on the Tarzarnia: Serengeti to Zanzibar trip and were wondering about luggage. Any suggestions? I have been told a good plan is a soft-sided large duffle bag with a separate hauling cart. Has anyone used this method? I found the bag at LL Bean and REI for about $100 to $120. I also found a cart on Amazon for about $35 that I believe will fit inside the bag for being checked. Both weigh less than ten pounds. Any suggestions or other ideas?
You can take a regular suitcase because Tauck sends you a duffel that can only be used on the safari part about two weeks before. The only thing you have to be aware of is that it is not unusual for suitcases to be delayed on some flights from the US, especially those coming via Amsterdam airport. So do take two changes f clothes in your carry on just in case. We pirate Tauck duffel in our reguLr suitcase until we go there. SeaLord uses one duffle for one of their carry ons I believe.
We took this tour years ago. Actually, we met SeaLord and his wife at the start hotel. They were going on their first K and T tour. I can’t recall the year, but it was when there had been an Ebola scare on the other side of Africa but people still canceled so our was not full. The Tanzania Zanzibar is the best value AFRICA tour that Tauck do.
Actually, we use both duffels as primary luggage. One gets checked cuz we always have too many fluids to carry on board. We take one duffel and a roll-aboard which is used as a cart for the carry on duffel on the airplane. That is plenty of luggage for an Africa trip. A large suitcase is not necessary nor desired.
This is typical of what ‘all’ of the luggage looks like.
The duffel used on the Great Migration is larger than those in the photos above. For the Great Migration, the duffel they send is the only checked luggage you take on the entire trip. No one had any regular hard-sided luggage on the tour, just the duffel and bags that would be considered personal items on most airlines (backpacks, camera bags, small gym bags, etc.).
I posted photos of the GM duffel bags along with relevant measurements in an August 2023 post here: https://forums.tauck.com/discussion/17151/duffel-bags-great-migration#latest
To minimize the risk of lost luggage, my husband and I packed smaller duffel bags as hand luggage, making sure they fit in the large duffels before we left home. We then took those smaller duffels as our carry-on hand luggage until we got to the first hotel and then condensed everything into the main duffel. This resulted in the checked duffels being less than half full on the outbound flight, but it worked well. There is also laundry available at every hotel on this tour, complementary at 5/8 nights, so there were no issues with space for us.
The Botswana tour will also be using the rolling duffel. The luggage information section states that if guests choose to bring luggage in addition to the appropriately sized rolling duffel and carry-on, they will be charged $230 per piece to have it flown, on Day 3 from Kasane to Maun, where it can be picked up on Day 9. I think this is sensible because casual clothing is appropriate on this tour and laundry services are available. Checking the rolling duffel at the airport will be easier than doing so with the regular duffel (hard to carry through airport) and a lot more convenient than packing the duffel in a larger suitcase and then unpacking suitcase and packing duffel for most of the trip - and doing the reverse prior to flying to Cape Town.
Which Botswana tour are you referring to, there are two?
The 30 x 15 x 14 rolling duffel as the only piece of checked luggage applies to both Botswana trips.
Backpacks: I guess it depends on what you carry. My backpack has all the high value items. Camera, lens, binoculars, passport, paperwork, keys, glasses, meds, iPad, and one puffer jacket. It weighs a ton, and there is no room for other clothes. So ‘Eagle Creek’ goes on the plane. British can make do with a small backpack, but she is a swimsuit model.
SeaLord, I carry all those things in my backpack except paperwork, my husband carries those. Oh, no keys, don’t take keys with us.Then I have two sets of clothes and one pair of shoes and a swimsuit.
I was referencing the Botswana, South Africa & Zambia tour.
Thank you Lotusgirl, Interesting. We took that tour quite some time ago and hope to take it again in the future.
We flew to Kasane in a ten seater plane this past November and had regular suitcases and backpacks, there were no unusual restrictions on that tour. We did not fly out of that airport. Either way, a rolling duffel would be plenty big enough for the entire tour. Our tour was 23 days, but we could have easily reduced our clothing.