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Laundry on the Great Migration Tour
We are going on this tour in August….I know that on other of Tauck safari trips the laundry can get done at some of the locations…..I wondered if this is also the case on the Great Migration? when did people arrive before the start or the trip to help with jet lag/
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When we went on this trip in 2019 due to flight schedules we arrived in Arusha 2 days early. Coming from the west coast our flight took us thru Amsterdam where our arrival in Amsterdam necessitated an overnight there. That turned out to be a great decision because we got to spend a lovely day in Amsterdam, used Marriott hotel points for the overnight stay and then flew to Arusha the next morning, arriving late afternoon. We had a full day in Arusha to explore with a local guide, and then the next day (day 1 of tour) to visit Arusha national park. The park was a beautiful way to introduce us to a safari. By the time our Tauck trip started we were over jet lag. BTW, this is a wonderful trip, prepare to enjoy. (You asked about laundry, I don't remember doing any but we brought enough clothes to last)
It’s such a short tour, do you think you will need to do laundry!
Laundry is available at all the hotels. I wasn't long at Rivertrees (arrival hotel) so I can't speak to details. Kitela, the one near the Crater, was the only one to charge ($1/item) for laundry and also the only one who would do undergarments. Laundry was complimentary at the last two locations in the Mara and Serengeti. At the latter two, laundry is done by hand by the staff and comes back extremely clean and tidy.
We arrived late Day 1 (7pm to airport); there were no planned activities that day and we met everyone else in the morning on Day 2. The rest of the group and the TD had informally met that day, but we missed nothing from coming in late that evening. One person in our group had arrived several days early, the rest I think earlier in the morning Day 1 or the day prior. I usually like to arrive a day early for tours, more due to the uncertainty of air travel than time zone acclimation; this time arriving late Day 1 was the best logistic for the airline we took.
You know your own body best to decide if the early arrival days are worth the time. For me personally, I usually just push through, tired for a few days from travel, then going to bed early since I'm so tired. IMO given the nature of the tour (lots of time in vehicles) you can tailor how active you are to your energy level and won't have a your experience dampened by being a little sleepy on the first few days. If you do choose to arrive early, there are some side trips you can do in the area and arrange via the hotel.
You're going to have an amazing time!
Thank you all for your replies….we are coming from CA so Sherry, your input regarding staying in Amsterdam overnight or so, and then exploring Arusha hit a chord…since it is such a short tour, did you all add in something afterward? Visiting Cape Town for instance? Such a long way to fly we would like to add more and were thinking about Cape Town….thanks for all thoughts….very valuable..
I went to Tanzania/Kenya - the trip ended in Nairobi. We flew direct to CAPETOWN on Kenya Air. The flight was great. We stay 5-6 days in CAPETOWN. We stayed at the Taj CAPETOWN in the business district. It was a very good location and the hotel provided a car to take us to the waterfront or elsewhere. We then flew back to New York.
We did extend our Great Migration Tour with a 3 day stay in Capetown. We would have preferred going to Capetown first but flying that way added more time to the trip, so we went from Nairobi. After so many safaris we chose to skip those in Capetown.and hired a driver to see the penguins, table mountain, Cape of Good Hope,etc and then another driver to visit the wine country and Stellenbosch. We hired taxis for dinners at the Wharf. IF you have the time, do it, you are right it is a long way from California.