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Specific timeline for each day
We are participating in the SA: An Elegant Adventure starting Friday, August 4, 2023. Will TAUCK provide a specific timeline of activities? i.e. dinner at 7:00 pm, depart hotel for flight 8:00 am, arrive back at hotel 4:00 pm, etc. I would like to make dinner reservations for the "dinner on your own" day but I do not know what the timeline is. I appreciate your feedback.
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You will get a "Go Sheet" from your TD on Day 1 or Day 2, that provides that info. If you want it earlier, you'll need to call Tauck, they will give you a rough idea, but be advised all can change.
Great! This is very helpful information. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
We took the South Africa Elegant Adventure tour in November of 2021. At the beginning of the trip we were given the itinerary for the entire trip. It was pretty specific with times. I don’t recall if we had too many changes. Here is a copy of the itinerary we were given. Apologies if this is too long and verbose.
Nice format. Easy to read.
Awesome John! Different from when we took the tour. We went to Robben Island with Tauck. We did Kirstenbosch Gardens on our own, it deserves more than one hour, that area of the planet has unique flora not found anywhere else! It also had a great gift shop. We had a lovely time there. The Cape Grace free limo took and collected us. A couple of years later we went to a talk about the gardens at a local museum, Winterthur, and the large book about the gardens was for sale. I was able to buy it then as it was too heavy to get in CapeTown and before Amazon. We also enjoyed the Christian Barnard museum. Highly recommend the Vegan tasting menu at the Cape Grace. We had Spa treatments at the Cape Grace. We went to the Aquarium in CapeTown. Our hotel in Johannesburg was in the Sandton mall. The only negative was the wine paring dinner, only because the service was very slow and those of us who got served last were being herded back on the bus when we had just been served dessert, and forget coffee, not a nice experience to end an elegant meal.
We completed this trip in May of this year. We did stay at the Cape Grace Hotel in Capetown, which was wonderful, but it is being refurbished. So, you will be staying at a nice hotel some distance from the waterfront. I hope that you have a couple of extra days in Capetown. The itinerary on our tour is similar to the one posted above. We had a tour of the gardens in Capetown,which were lovely, even in the rain. Our tour did include a visit to Table Mountain, but that did not occur due to high wind. On the few extra days that we did on our own in Capetown, we went to Robben Island (which was well worth the rocky boat ride) and to Table Mountain, as well as a few other places. Mr. Brand (one of the guards of Mandela) did give a wonderful lecture, so it was nice to have visited Robben Island before hand. I bought his book. I would recommend a visit to the District 6 museum, which is not included in this tour.
I presume your question about booking a dinner on your own is for the time in Johannesburg. I guess you will be staying at the Fairlawn- a nice boutique hotel in a suburb, but it's about a 10 minute drive from the Sandton mall. Some in our party took the hotel transport to the mall and had dinner there. There were many restaurants and no need for reservations- the mall did close around 7 pm on the day our tour was there, so people didn't have a lot of time there. We ate at the Fairlawn- food is good, but service a little slow. They have a casual menu that you can order from as well as the main dining menu, so that may have slowed things down. You can also eat at the bar. We were happy to stay put. After all of the food on the tour, especially the many meals during the safari, it was nice to eat light at the restaurant.
As far as packing, we each took one suitcase (per instructions) and one duffel (rolling is perfect) that meets the requirements. You can leave your larger suitcase at the Johannesburg airport and just bring your duffel to Victoria Falls. It wasn't a problem. No need to over-pack. If you need clothes done, 24 hr service at the safari camps and the laundry fees are cheap.
Multi-layer. In May it was chilly in the morning (fleece or puffer vest, sweatshirt, hat, scarf, gloves) and nice in the pm. If you get to Table mountain, chilly at the top.
On safari, it gets chillier because you are driving, so quite a breeze. We had rain one morning on safari, but were supplied with big ponchos. Also, they supplied hot water bottles and blankets if needed. We brought binoculars, but didn't use them much. Brought a camera, but used or i-phone mostly. Several brought cameras with large lenses, but we did not. I don't think we missed much.
In Zimbabwe, at Victoria Falls, it would be best to have some water shoes or water proof sandals. I had been to Victoria Falls on the Botswana trip and on the Zambia side, water shoes were provided. Not so on the Zimbabwe side. The Victoria Falls Hotel is lovely. We ate one evening at the buffet/dinner show. It was fabulous and not to be missed. Others ate at the more formal restaurants and missed the great show.. English tea service was included in our trip, but our tour director never told us, so you may want to check on that. One thing I missed and was offered at a big price, was a helicopter ride over the Falls. I get motion sickness, so I didn't do it- but those that did loved it. You will need an English charger in Zimbabwe.
Thanks for providing the picture of the timeline. There are minor differences for the August 2023 Elegant Adventure but his information will help our family be better prepared for the trip. Thank you so much!
kuaysullivan, we ate dinner at Marble Restaurant on our free night in Joberg. The restaurant is gorgeous and has spectacular views. Try to go at sunset if you decide to make a reservation. Our hotel provided transportation.
In nearly 20 tours, I have never seen a timeline ("Go Sheet") exactly like the one posted above by JohnS. Some have had more, some have had less detail, but no two have looked the same. I suspect each TD or Cruise Director uses their own favorite format, and at least for now, there is no standard Tauck Go Sheet. Maybe someday. And most importantly, the schedule is not written in stone and can change from year to year, tour to tour, and even day to day!! Tauck HQ will have similar information as your departure date nears- I suspect TDs must send them a copy, but again, the schedule is subject to change. That is one reason booking hard-scheduled, on-tour, private excursions can sometimes be risky.
Alan is correct. We have only ever tried scheduling other things a couple of times during supposed free time and both times the Tauck schedule was changed last minute. We arrange to arrive early for the tour if we have our hearts set on doing extra activities.
When I went to K &T in 2021 right after they opened travel to Africa our TD Mary handed out a beautiful booklet with not only the daily schedules but stories about the area we were visiting, the best I've had as far as itineraries from TD's.
kuaysullivan Hi.
If you call Tauck, they can give you time of arrivals back to the hotels after activities, of course add an xtra 1/2h. just in case there is traffic or a kill.
thank you John S for the 2021 complete itinerary... that helped.
We are taking this trip May 31, 2024.
since Janet suggested water shoes we are going to order the new lightweight rubbers that fit over shoes.