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Celeb Travel / Honeymoon Travel / South Africa Travel / Safaris / Kim Kardashian / → All Tags

Is Kim Kardashian Planning a Secret Honeymoon in South Africa?

Kim Kardashian and her fiance Kris Humphries are busy making plans for a lavish wedding worthy of her $2 million engagement ring, but their honeymoon may be a bit less luxurious.

Kim recently told Hollywood Life that her dream getaway is a safari in South Africa:

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Theme Park Travel / Amusement Parks / Disney / Disney World / Safaris / → All Tags

Disney to Add Private Safaris for its Animal Kingdom Park

If you’ve ever visited the zoo, and wished that you could get a little more up close and personal with the critters you’re in luck. Disney is planning to offer a more personalized experience at their Animal Kingdom theme park, so maybe this will stop crazy people from jumping into the animal enclosures.

The details are sketchy at this point, but the people behind the Mickey-magic are figuring out how to work in private safaris into the theme park. There will be guided hikes through some of the areas seen during the Kilimanjaro Safaris Expedition, and we’ll assume that involves staying a safe distance from the lions.

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Adventure Travel / Safaris / Discovery Channel / Luxury Travel / Africa Travel / Peru Travel / Mexico Travel / Historical Travel / Tour Packages / → All Tags

The Very Rich Can Hop On Discovery Channel's New Hardcore Adventures

Is this the recession or what? Guess not: Discovery Communications is teaming up with travel provider G.A.P Adventures to launch dozens of luxury trips based on Discovery Channel programming. With prices starting at $2,000 per person for trips ranging from 3 to 24 days, these are not for the faint of wallet.

Locations range from common tourist destinations like the USA and Mexico to places like Botswana, where you'll probably always need a guide. All of the packages come with their share of intriguingly esoteric Discovery Channel twists; one of the USA tours revolves around historic parks in the Southwest. What travelers will see on the 12 day tour, though, ranges from rock formations to deserts to dwellings abandoned thousands of years ago.

The other USA destination is even more nature-oriented, taking travelers all the way up north to Alaska. Adventurers spend 10 days observing wildlife in their habitat, which can be both mindblowingly fascinating and straightforward deadly.

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Safaris / Hunting / When Animals Attack / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Aussies Might Let You Catch A Croc

Safari lovers take note: the Northern Territory in Australia might be your next big destination. The local government has approved a proposal to allow safari hunters to kill some of the biggest salt-water crocs around Darwin.

The growing population of crocs have made a huge mistake by snacking more often on people, so there's not too much opposition to the plan. Plus the revenue raised by the safari fees is meant to benefit local Aboriginal groups, so it's got some feel-good value too.

But don't book your trip just yet. First, the plan is open for comment and must then be approved at a national level too. Second, the suggestion is for just 25 crocs to be killed on safari over the next five years. That's not a low of beady eyes to go round.

Related Stories:
· Trophy Hunters Invited to Kill Crocodiles [The Age]
· Pub Travel: Sharing A Bar With A Crocodile [Jaunted]
· Crocs Interrupt Tourist Plans in Oz [Jaunted]

[Photo: wouter!]

Adventure Travel / Africa Travel / Safaris / Horseback Riding / → All Tags

Get On Your Horses, Kenyan Style

On those days when we figure we've spent much too long with the Tivo, it's time to dream us up a bit of adventure travel. The crew of Bailey Robinson have a motto of "travel without compromise" which seems to fit our mood, too, and our eye's been caught by a trip through currently-not-too-dangerous Kenya.

We should mention that this gang is obviously obsessed with horses, and riding features in a lot of their trips; this one in the Maasai Mara is no exception.

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Animals / It's Summer Somewhere / Safaris / → All Tags

'Minimal Impact' Lion-Spotting in Botswana

Here, kitty kitty! It takes a lot of patience and a little luck to spot a lion in the wild on safari in Botswana, but all that hardship becomes worth it once a pride rolls into view.

The Chicago Sun-Times sent a writer to Southern Africa where he spotted a lioness, impalas, hippos and African fish eagles, all while staying in tents in the gorgeous Okavango Delta. The company that showed him these wonders? Wilderness Safaris, an ecotourist outfitter practicing minimal-impact camping on their trips through Botswana and other southern African countries.

We couldn't find a current rate for Wilderness Safaris' "Safari for all Seasons," but the company is offering a seventh night free if you pay for 6 nights. Not very recessionary, but if you're going to go on safari, best to do it in a way that when the economy improves, it'll still be there for the rest of us.

Related Stories:
· Delta force: Searching for lions on African safari [Chicago Sun-Times]
· Rhino Travel: Kenya is Back in Black [Jaunted]
· Amazing Race 7 Hotel Report: Botswana Safari Lodge [HC]

[Photo: justin]

Safaris / Rhinos / Africa Travel / Animal Travel / Animals / → All Tags

Rhino Travel: Kenya is Back in Black

As big and bad as they seem, Africa's famed black rhinoceroses are in trouble, having been pushed to the brink of extinction by a century of poaching, trophy hunting, and habitat loss. So it's heartening to hear that wildlife organizations in Kenya and the U.K. have begun releasing captive-bred black rhinos into the Kenyan wilds. As BBC News points out in a brief story and nifty video, the groups recently released a group of young rhinos into an area that only 30 years ago supported 20,000 animals, but now has fewer than 500 left. If managed well, a successful rhino recovery could provide a substantial boost to the country's tourism industry, bringing in hordes of camera-wielding visitors desperate for a snap of the most powerful-looking of the big four. And anyway, the black rhino is a pretty cool beast: they hang out alone and wallow until it's time to mate, they're vegetarians, and they only lash out when the feel threatened, unlike their jerky cousins, the hippos.

[Photo: BBC News]

Related Stories:
· Black Rhinos Released Into the Wild [BBC News]
· Safari Coverage [Jaunted]

Safaris / Elephants / → All Tags

Saturday Video Hotness: Ticked-Off Elephants and Handsy Baboons

Grab a coffee and start your weekend off with a few minutes of wild animal safari and ambient techno. This groovy new clip from Boing Boing tv was shot in the northwest corner of Benin, near the border with Burkino Faso, and it takes you out into the wilds of the Pendjari Biosphere, one of a dwindling number of places in Western Africa where indigenous wildlife still thrives. Kick back as a big female elephant takes serious offense at the correspondent's proximity to her youngsters, and try not to chuckle as a frisky baboon touches a colleague most inappropriately at a watering hole. Yuks aside, it's a nicely produced video that will make you want to take off to the savannas of Africa yourself.

Related Stories:
· Elephant-blogging in Benin with Xeni [Boing Boing]
· Safari Coverage [Jaunted]

Plastic Surgery Travel / Safaris / South Africa Travel / → All Tags

Plastic Surgery Travel: Surgery and Safari in South Africa

You would not believe the number of emails we are getting asking about plastic surgery travel, so to help you out, we've uncovered another hot, faraway place to both explore exotic lands and get one's neck fat sucked out: South Africa.

SA and India are often more popular in the States and Britain for medical tourism than their Latin American and Southeast Asian counterparts because English is the doctors' first language, according to Lorraine Melvill, founder of Surgeon and Safari. The travel agency arranges exactly what it sounds like -- a quick nip/tuck before sending you off to recuperate where only the rhinos and giraffes witness your puffy, bruised face slowly deflate. Some (smartasses) call these trips "beauty and the beast" tours.

Travelers/patients stay at luxury-but-remote spas and safari lodges, like Montello (pictured above). If you'd like to stay out of the bush, another agency, Mediscapes, coordinates travel to medical facilities in Cape Town, and includes a list of recommended top-tier hotels nearby.

Related Stories:
· Plastic Surgery Travel [Jaunted]
· Surgeon And Safari [Official Site]
· South Africa Hotels [HotelChatter]

[Photo: Spojení]

Safaris / National Parks / South Africa Travel / National-Parks-World-Map / → All Tags

Destination: Pilanesberg National Park

Forget your standard Busch Gardens Animal theme parks and get yourself to see the real thing, in South Africa. One of the best places to see "the big five"? Pilanesberg National Park, in the country's North-West province. Covering a space occupied 1200 years ago by a volcanic crater, the park itself is conveniently round (making getting lost difficult) and holds a small lake at its center (an ideal spot for watching the animals get a drink).

Opened in 1979, the majority of its residents (elephants, rhinos, giraffes, impalas, zebras) were relocated from other areas in Africa for protection and preservation purposes. Options for exploration are pretty endless - you can stay and camp, take a ranger-led ride, or even a hot air balloon ride above the park. Just beware when picnicking-- the animals are used to humans, and its not uncommon for a baboon to come swipe a sandwich or two.

[Photo: Jen&Co]

Related Stories:
· World's Best National Parks Map [Jaunted]
· Pilanesberg National Park [southafrica-travel.net]

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]

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]