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Tags: Golf Vacations / Golf / Safaris / Africa / → All Tags

Play Golf or Chase Animals

What do golfers do when their regular golf courses get too boring and they've got far too much money? They head for southern Africa for a luxury golf safari, of course. Pricey tours head through Pretoria, Swaziland, Durban and Sun City, giving golf addicts the chance to enjoy 18 holes at five different courses.

On the off days (or when you think your handicap's just getting too high), you can go on game drives and see some of those African animals everyone always raves about.

Power Golf are the fellows behind these luxury golf and safari combinations, and they do provide a non-golfing activity every day of the tour for unfortunate tagalongs and uninterested golf wives. They claim to travel on the most luxurious train in the world, but perhaps the brand-spankin' new Trans-Siberian will be disputing that soon.

[Photo: caribbeanfreephoto]

Related Stories:
· Not A Real Trans-Siberian Trip [Jaunted]
· Teeing Off With The Pharaohs [Jaunted]

Tags: Lonely Planet / Africa / Guidebooks / → All Tags

Lonely Planet: Mozambique

The Guidebooks sure are easy to tease, but they come in handy once in a while too. Mozambique is an underserved market in the guidebook world as it is, and it doesn't hurt to have an updated book on the block to help you out with logistics there. Lonely Planet: Mozambique is finally out--the release date flip-flopped so much on Amazon so much, we stopped checking up on it. Sure enough, once we stopped looking, the book arrived! Its primary author, Mary Fitzpatrick, has contributed to several other Lonely Planet guides for Africa. The competition will heat up this May, when Bradt has its updated Mozambique book coming out.

Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet: Mozambique [Barnes & Noble]

Tags: Africa / Travel Media / New York Times / Safaris / → All Tags

On Safari, Times Style

This week's New York Times travel section is all Africa, all the time (well, except Weekend With The Kids, but kids are lame). Our best-title award goes to a piece on night safaris in South Africa with the Seuss-meets-Sendak label, "In The Dark In The Park, With The Wild Things." And what wild things you can see!

· At Mountain Zebra National Park: "scrub hares and springhares (bopping on hind legs like diminutive kangaroos), a corkscrew-horned kudu and a toothpick-horned steenbuck, all boasting Prince Charles ears, reminders that by night out there one lives or dies by listening"

· At Addo Elephant National Park: "laughing hyenas, warthogs, yellow mongooses and nocturnal polecats (an African relative of the skunk)"

· At Gorah Elephant Camp: "Seven ghostly elephants floated into view, weightless behemoths drifting inches above the plains, trunks swaying. Behind them trailed a herd of moon shadows."

It's enough to make the most adamant homebody want to grab a pair of night-vision binoculars. Unfortunately, flights to Africa from the US are up nearly 30 percent, says another piece, but there are still ways to get there on the cheap -- by using frequent-flyer miles on partner airlines with better deals, booking two separate round-trip tickets (America-Europe and Europe-Africa) or checking out African national airlines.

Or you can just do African things in New York, as suggested in a piece featuring a bounty of restaurants and a hotspot for African music called St. Nick's Pub. Quick! Cancel those cruise reservations we made two weeks ago!

[Photo: g-hat]

Related Stories:
· In the Dark in the Park, With the Wild Things [NYT]
· Cape Town's Hotel for Regular Folks [HotelChatter]

Tags: Baltics / Africa / Restaurants / Drinking / → All Tags

When In Estonia ... Eat African

While African cuisine doesn't rate quite as highly on the "know it and love it" scale as, say, Chinese or Indian, we do need to nourish our stomachs in a multicultural way. So next time you're traveling through the Baltics and pop by Estonia's gorgeous capital Tallinn, take the chance to check out the tasty African Kitchen.

Not only are the prices great, but there are also plenty of interesting dishes, and definitely things you'll never have heard of. What we love is the equality-based cocktail menu: 23 countries of Africa are represented, each getting a cocktail named after them. The Algeria, for example, is full of strawberries, strawberry liqueur, cherry brandy and vodka (yum!), while the Libya mix has Jack Daniels and cream sherry topped up with treacle and fruit juices.

None of them have much to do with their namesakes, but they'll put you on the tasty path to inebriation nonetheless. If you're not sure whether to choose between a Madagascar or a Mozambique, the African Kitchen are quick to point out that "traditional" cocktails are available too. Grab a Rwanda for us while you're there.

[Photo: Cremo]

Related Stories:
· Croatian Cocktails Take to the Skies [Jaunted]
· Tallinn: Let Me Kiek in Your Kök [Jaunted]

Tags: museums / Africa / → All Tags

Bardo Museum Worth Roman to Find

If it's good enough for Mariah Carey, it's good enough for us. Mariah opened a tour in Tunisia this week. Long a popular summer holiday destination for Europeans, the Tunisians haven't really worked out how to market themselves to the rest of the world. Tunisia sits on that funny north-west corner of Africa, sticking into the Mediterranean, and is surrounded by less tourist-friendly destinations like Libya and Algeria.

But there really is stuff to see, beyond the beach umbrellas and cocktails by the resort pools. If you land in the capital, Tunis, our biggest must-see tip is the Bardo Museum. You see, Tunisia is actually full of ancient Roman sites and artifacts, and the ones that have been ripped out of place (for preservation reasons, of course) have mostly landed here. Massive mosaics are the most impressive feature, when you try to imagine the hours and hours of fiddly work needed to create a picture from thousands of tiny colored stones. For us, the effect is really magical, but for them, it's a pity nobody told them about paint.

[Image via lil/Flickr]

Related stories:
Mariah Carey in Tunisia [Babnet]
Is Tunis Worth Seeing? [Times Online]

Tags: Africa / → All Tags

Back-Alley Bites

Coverage of African cuisine here on Jaunted isn't limited to Nigerian pepper soup. Today's New York Times samples Ghanaian street food. As restaurant culture has yet to take hold on much of the continent, street food remains the most accessible way to sample the local flavors of many African nations. According to the article, here are some rules of thumb:

Head for places where Africans are eating on the run, like bus stations and markets, since that's where selection is widest. More customers means the food will be fresher.

After that, examine the vendor--if their hair is braided, are the rows nice and neat or messy? Nervous nibblers might want to avoid the sketchier looking vendors, but more adventurous gastrotourists are free to sample everything.

The food on offer sounds quite tasty. Kebabs are dusted with a rub of peanut flour and hot peppers before they are grilled, and stews are served inside banana leaves. Sure beats a dirty water hot dog.

Got a tip for good street food, in Ghana or anywhere else? Send it in to tips@jaunted.com

[Image via Demele/Flickr]

Tags: Africa / → All Tags

Nigerian Etiquette

For those who are planning a trip to Lagos, Nigeria in the near future, some freshly updated travel tips from the Economist:

--Don't mention corruption during business meetings, and if the topic comes up, just say that "it's the same everywhere".

--Rush hour in Lagos lasts from 3pm until 9pm, so budget an hour at least to get anywhere.

--Don't be surprised if on the street, people yell "Oyibo!" when they pass you. It means "foreigner", although the literal translation is "he who looks as though he has been stung by a bee".

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Tags: New New Destination / São Tomé / Africa / → All Tags

New New Destination: São Tomé

The island of São Tomé is so tiny it doesn't even show up on a lot of globes. However, once you reach this forgotten island off the west coast of Africa you will have plenty of fine sand beaches to yourself.

What To Do?: Discover a far flung pristine beach and bake within inches of the equator, eat fresh caught barracuda for lunch, take part in extreme game fishing, or grab a machete and go all Dr. Livingston on a rain forest hike.

Getting There: New York :: Lisbon, Portugal :: São Tomé via a variety of airlines. Flight time 28hr 25min.

Where To Stay: Club Santana offers 30 private bungalows set in a garden overlooking private beaches or the Bom Bom Island Resort (on Principe) for those who want a little more luxury.

Official Site: www.saotome.st

Bonus Tip: The recently renovated Marlin Hotel is for sale, if you have $4.5 MM.

photo credit jose borregana

Related Stories:
·   Do you know the way to São Tomé? [Times Online]
·   Sao Tome Information [TripAdvisor]