It's almost time! After spending the last 11 months thinking about this trip, the RETIRED RAHNS are heading to Africa!!
This is the first post of (hopefully) many chronicling this trip of a lifetime using our new and improved WANDER YEARS blog. This is the spot where we will share our retired adventures with friends and family! This blog is not connected to our Seldom A Dull Moment business. This is just our happy space to share our next chapter with those who are interested. :)
So, lets get to it....Africa for 11 days! We've received many questions and wonderings about our trip, so I'm going to share some of the backstory and some of what we are looking forward to!
Why Africa, and WOW?!
- Yep, this has been a conversation and a dream trip for at least the last 5 years. A friend of mine went 3 years ago on basically the same trip that we are doing, and hearing about her adventures further pushed us to make it a reality.
- Don's aunt mentioned to us about 3 years ago that she had always dreamed of going on an African Safari, we mentioned we were dreaming about it also....here we are, and she is going with us!!
- My mom has always wanted to go to Africa, and she hasn't been able to travel a lot during the last few years while dad was sick. Mom has an opportunity now to live out one of her dreams and she is coming with us also!
- One of mom's best friends loves to travel. We reached out to her to see if she wanted to be mom's roomie on this adventure; the answer was yes and she is coming with us!
So, this trip has been dubbed "Don and the Golden Girls," and we are all ready for the adventure of a lifetime.
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| Image courtesy of ChatGPT :) |
How did you plan such a big trip?
- Short answer...I didn't!
- Long answer...I talked with my friend about her trip and she connected me with the travel agency that she used, and I reached out and we were on the way.
- Many of you know that I love to plan vacations. So much that I started a business and got certified as a Family Travel Coach to help others plan great vacations. I even wrote two books about vacation planning.
- This trip was beyond what I was comfortable researching and planning on my own...wild animals, diseases, game drives, safe lodging...I'd rather leave this to the professionals!
- We were so lucky to get connected to Roane Travel Design. They are an American based travel agency that focuses on African travel and they built and own the lodge that is our final stop on our 10 day adventure. They also have many philanthropic initiatives in Tanzania that they support, and we are excited to experience many of them!
- So, you could say I was an "adjacent" travel planner for this vacation. I was the communicator and the voice of our 5 person group with Roane Travel, and my primary role could be identified as "herding cats" as the five of us put the final touches on our packing, documents and everything we might need as we head to Africa for 11 days!
Where are you going?
- We knew we wanted Serengeti, and when I spoke with the head of Roane Travel, he asked about budget and duration of trip. He asked what we wanted out of the trip and then he prepared a tentative itinerary that he shared with us in a virtual call last December.
- We said about 10 daysish, and a budget per person that we knew was doable. We also mentioned seeing wildlife and multiple game drives. We mentioned that we didn't need any big cities, we really just wanted the safari experience.
- He definitely delivered and we signed off on the itinerary in December, 2024 and began dreaming about this once in a lifetime adventure for all of us.
- So, we are heading to Tanzania by way of Ethiopia for 10 nights...here are some of the high level details from the itinerary documents that he shared with us:
How do you prepare for an African Safari vacation?
- Well, you start about a year out!
- We were given a multi-page document from Roane Travel with things to think about, packing lists, and everything else that we didn't know or think about.
- We had to meet with the Travel Clinic and get recommendations on what vaccines we would need to travel, your primary care doctor is not qualified to help you with this. They will refer you to the local travel clinic. So, Don and I are now fully vaccinated against Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and are up to date on all of our other important vaccines.
- Whether it's your color palette or not, neutral colors are HIGHLY recommended when on game drives. Dark colors attract mosquitos and tsetse flies. Bright colors attract the big animals. So, all 5 of us now have a solid wardrobe of khaki, brown, and varied shades of green. Also, bright or sparkly nail polish could attract animals, I never would have thought of that!
- We all will be starting our Malaria medication very soon also. You can get these tablets from your PCP. You start a couple of days before departure and should continue for 7 days upon returning.
- You can only bring 33 lbs. of luggage. It must be soft sided and that weight limit includes any carry-ons or backpacks. This is due to the bush planes that we will be taking. Luckily, Don has been given a bit of grace so that he can take all of his camera equipment with him.
- The 33 lbs. for 10 days was a little scary initially, and we were assured that laundry services are provided for us. While we are out on game drives, they will do our laundry and it will be ready for us, for the next days.
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| My third attempt at packing! |
What's the plane trip like?
- That was a big conversation for us early on and we all decided that we would splurge for business class, and lay down seats/beds.
- My one role as "Adjacent Travel Planner" was to get us to and from Africa, specifically Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania. Once we land in Tanzania, there will be a car waiting for us, and we don't have to think about anything else until they drop us at the airport 10 days later.
- After lots of research and recommendations from the travel agency, we settled on Ethiopian Airlines (a partner with United Airlines).
- Our flight over is 14 hours to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- We then have an 8 hour layover with hotel and food vouchers included, so we'll be able to rest and refresh.
- We then have another 2 1/2 hour flight connecting us to Arusha, Tanzania.
- The return trip is similar with only a 3 hr layover in Addis Ababa.
- The business class was a definite and also compression socks! :)
This trip sounds exciting, are you nervous?
- At first I was, and if you see me the day before we leave, I probably will be, and the big answer is ...not really!
- We decided to go the luxury route to feel safe, taken care of and have less stressors. A meeting with our financial planner was necessary to achieve this goal. :)
- We will be staying at 4 different luxury lodges, starting with a villa, log cabin style rooms and then our last two stops are in luxury tents with en-suite bathrooms.
- At the lodges with tents, there are "warriors" that patrol the grounds with spears to protect you at night from any wandering animals. (that's a little concerning, and you are told you don't leave your tent after dark without being accompanied by a guard). My friend felt very safe, and we have talked with others that have stayed at the same lodges and they felt very safe!
- This travel agency caters to Americans, and they are pretty amazing already and we haven't even left yet. (Ask me about the package we got in the mail with all sorts of "get excited about your trip" gifts).
I can't wait to share this trip with everyone! Hopefully, I can encourage some of you to take the plunge and book an African safari adventure for you and your family!!
We will have strong wi-fi at each location, so I am hoping to do daily updates with our adventures. If I don't do it while we are there, I probably won't get it done. Here's hoping!!
