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South Africa packing panic

mjr487

I do not know where to start...from the suitcase size for the smaller flights to the clothing needed... can I have back pack and carry on and checked bag? do I need 'dressy' clothes...what does one wear on the Elegant Adventure in S Africa.. end of Aug into Sept? thank you for easing my anxiety

Comments

Lotusgirl

“Special Luggage Restrictions for this Tour:

Checked luggage aboard the on-tour flights to and from Johannesburg and Victoria Falls may not exceed 44 lb (20 kg).

In addition, guests are limited to one soft-sided, carry-on bag per person not to exceed 15 lbs (6.8 kg), and no larger than an average knapsack.”

If you look at the information regarding checked and carry-on luggage for the tour, you will see what I have copied regarding the on tour flights.

As to a few of the dinners, they are dressy casual, not dressy.

We took this tour around the same time. For daytime, we primarily wore safari-like travel clothes. It was on the cool side for morning game drives, and we layered with a fleece jacket and windbreaker/rain jacket. I did bring shorts and swimsuit and used both. Safari style hat with chin strap is handy for the game drives. Lots of mosquitoes at Victoria Falls.

This is a wonderful trip. Enjoy.

mjr487

thank you for all the suggestions!! so helpful...I cannot wait

GailP519

I am leaving on this trip early Sept. Tauck just send the final documents & it is 44 lbs checked bag & 15 lbs carryon, but it does not stipulate soft-sided. It does state the measurements 20x15x10 (which would include wheels & handle. Hope this helps.

MikeCoyner

We did this trip in August. Checked luggage was sometimes weighed but they were forgiving for slight overages. They never weighed a carry on bag. As overheads are small on the included flights, I'd suggest that you be pretty sure your bag could fit under a seat. If so, you'll have no problem. We had perhaps 4 or 5 dinners where nice casual clothes were ideal. Many other dinners were attended in the clothes we toured in that day.

Sandman

I am still confused about the luggage for this tour. Mil mentioned packing your duffle inside your checked bag for use on the smaller airplane flights. What do you do with your "checked bag" when you embark on the small planes? Also, read about leaving heavier bags in Johannesburg when you travel to and from Victoria Falls. I am not sure what happens on tour, and I, too, just got the final docs for our September trip and found these issues unclear. Can anyone please give me some guidance specific to this Elegant South Africa tour? Thanks.

scsmithwy

If you are on the Elegant South Africa tour, you don’t need to worry about the duffle. There is a duffle for the classic safari Kenya and Tanzania tour that you have to use for a couple of the flights while your main luggage is taken by vehicle to meet you at the following stop. I think the other Africa tours have specific duffles that are intended to be your only luggage, but I have been on both the first two tours.
The internal flights on Elegant Adventure are commercial flights with an airline called Airlink. You can look at their website for specifics, but if you live in the middle of nowhere like we do (Wyoming,) these planes are bigger than the ones we fly to Denver.
When you leave Johannesburg to travel to Victoria Falls, you will have the opportunity to leave some of your luggage in Johannesburg to be securely stored rather than taking everything with you for the two nights in Victoria Falls. If you leave something there, it will be returned to you when you return a couple of days later for your flights home. I hope that helps.

Sandman

Thanks, scsmithwy. So much appears on this forum that i have been confused about the Elegant Adventure trip. I think your response says it all until someone else jumps in with different advice!

buonviaggio

Sandman - scsmithwy is 💯 correct! No need for a smaller duffle on the Elegant Adventure tour. However, if, like me, you don’t feel like having to worry about all of your stuff (plus alcohol if you bought any in South Africa) for a couple nights in Zimbabwe, you can check that bag in at the airport. Tauck has someone who will help do that for you (we had “Jo from Jo’burg” 😜). So basically the local Tauck rep will come meet the group, and she’ll take care of any luggage you want to store from there. Then she’ll have it for you when you come back to the airport in Johannesburg. Easy peasy! I think I may have been the only person on our tour who left a bag with Jo but I just found it easier to travel light to Zimbabwe.

Sandman

Thanks as well, buonviaggio. I appreciate the direct response that reinforced what scsmithwy advised. Don't know why i was getting so confused, but with 7 weeks until we leave I can now plan how to pack for this trip. Problem with past trips is my wife and I always travel "heavy" and will have to cut back. We are going and coming home through Dubai and plan on leaving a bag there with stuff we wont need on the safaris.

JeanS

Thanks to scsmithwy and buonviaggio for the information about Elegant Safari. We are on the 9/18 trip and appreciate your tips. The ability to store luggage while in Zimbabwe sounds like a nice option. If there is anything else you wish you knew ahead of time, please feel free to post!

buonviaggio

I can relate regarding the packing, Sandman! I do the same thing….But this tour isn’t as limited luggage-wise as some of the other African tours. Jean - The one thing I would say is if you can arrive early and visit the Winelands, do it! We did - but friends of ours with whom we were traveling didn’t and regretted it after seeing our pictures. Also, I recommend visiting Robben Island if you arrive early. It’s well worth it. If you are there prior to the start of the tour and have a beautiful, clear day, you may want to go up to Table Mountain on your own since weather can be iffy there, and if the winds are too strong and/or weather is rainy/foggy, you won’t get there. The day we were supposed to go with Tauck it rained and was completely fogged out, but fortunately the next day was better and our fabulous TD switched the itinerary around so we still got to see it. One other tip - we sprayed our clothes with permethrin in advance and used Deep Woods OFF and despite being a mosquito magnet, I managed to dodge being bitten! I didn’t see many mosquitos (we were there in October) but generally, even if there is just one, it will find me. In Johannesburg we had a spectacular dinner at the upscale Marble Restaurant which I highly recommend! Scenic views of the city skyline and wonderful food and ambience. But if you go, have the hotel’s driver take you and bring you back (it’s about a 15 minute drive from the hotel). It’s not really safe to walk around Jo’burg at night. This is a totally amazing tour - one of our very favorite trips! Enjoy!!!!

Sandman

Thanks as well, buonviaggio. Jean S, it looks like we will be on tour with you. Look forward to a great tour. Our first in Africa.

SandyFeet

Go to Marble in time for for the sunset. It is a great restaurant in Joberg and not to be missed. Lots of security in the area.

BarbBob

Thanks for all this information. I, too, have been confused about the luggage. Friends have questioned being allowed hard sided luggage, as duffles were required on the excursions. buonviaggio your suggestions are noted and appreciated.

RobertDevermann

We had hard sided luggage for check in bag and soft sided for carry on. They never weighed the carry on so you have some leeway there. Just don’t go crazy on the size of the carry on. They are not real strict on the weight of the carry on. Just don’t abuse it. Many in our group were 50 lbs and one person was 56 lbs because of souvenirs picked up along the way.

RobertDevermann

In terms of camera, I would recommend the iPhone 16. It took better pictures than the 10 yr old digital zoom SLR I used.

RobertDevermann

Many recommended not wearing black on the safari. We went in May which is late fall. We did not see any mosquitoes or. Tste flies and the Rangers were wearing a black overcoat on the jeeps. So at least in May I would not hesitate to wear a black outer coat. I will also note that I thought May was an excellent time to go on a safari. It is late fall and the foliage is dying back so that you can see the animals much better. Also very few mosquitoes or flies. It is a bit cool with temperatures in the low 50s in the morning. Recommend wearing layers. You do not need a winter coat. A fleece and a lightweight Tic undergarment would suffice. You can get by with two Safari shirts, and two Safari pants. Laundry is convenient and relatively inexpensive on the Safari portion. I would also recommend doing a helicopter ride to see Victoria Falls. It gave a great perspective of the fall that you could not get walking along the trail.

British

There are no tsetse flies in South Africa, so wearing black or blue is fine.

British

On return from that tour we had our bags weighed at the airport returning home. They were very strict.

Steven_Wasserman1

Still a bit confused on carry-on rules for flights inside Africa. I understand we are limited to one carry-on, so I guess I should take that literally...but if I have a rollerboard that can go overhead, am I not permitted to bring a backpack for under the seat?

British

The planes are too small and you don’t need many clothes and it’s a short tour.

Sealord

Overhead if you have one will not hold a rollaboard. Your backpack will be on your lap.

British

It’s funny, we are traveling with a couple right now who are inexperienced travelers, they have huge suitcases and big roll ons plus backpack for a nine day tour. I think as you travel more you learn to cut back, find smaller things to travel, find lighter empty suitcase etc. Another couple on this trip had just carry on. .

scsmithwy

For the South Africa Elegant Adventure tour, all of our flights were on a commercial airline called Airlink, The planes all had overhead bins. They weren’t huge, but they were much bigger than the bins on the United Express plane we fly to get to Denver where everything bigger than a large backpack has to be gate checked. The seats were very similar to basic economy flights with storage space under the seat in front of you. I had a backpack and a small purse and had no problem putting the backpack above and the purse under the seat in front of me. From what I remember, there were several group members with small carryon roller bags/backpacks and they didn’t have any trouble. I do mean small. Not the bigger carryons that you can fly with domestically.

The flights on Elegant Adventure were completely different than the flights on Kenya and Tanzania. I wonder if some of the advice above is more relevant for the other safaris.