6 days / 6 nights, through March 20, 2013. Highlights: Three nights at Little Vumbura Camp in the Okavango forest / hippos, crocodiles, red lechwe, elephants, cheetahs, migrating birds / in Linyanti Reserve, view giraffes, baboons, hyenas, lions, leopards / night game drives for aardwolves, servals, pangolins. Land, $3,400. Extraordinary Journeys Africa (New York, NY; 800 / 403-6012).
8-day / 7-night wildlife safari in ZAMBIA; departures Jan. 20-April 1, 2013. Highlights: In Luangwa Valley, daily game walks plus boating safaris in rivers or lagoons to see hippos, crocodiles. Land, $2,205 (Kapani camp option) or $3,285 (Chinzombo camp). Norman Carr Safaris (phone, in Zambia, +260 216 246025 or 246015 or, in UK, +44 845 468 2177 [messages answered in 48 hours]).
My husband, Ed, and I chose “Tigers & the Taj” for our fifth trip with International Expeditions (Helena, AL; 800/234-9620). Our trip, March 10-25, 2012, cost $6,680 per person, excluding international air but with a discount for having traveled with the company.
We like International Expeditions because it provides superior guides and excellent accommodations, your only tipping is to your main guide and, on this trip, all meals were provided. On this trip, there was only one other tour member.
12-day / 11-night North Atlantic whale-watching cruise aboard 105-passenger M / V Ortelius. Departures June-October 2013. Highlights: Hansweert, NETHERLANDS / Aberdeen, SCOTLAND / in Shetland Island waters, minke whales, white-beaked dolphins / Pictish stone ruins on Fair Isle / glaciers, bird-watching on NORWEGIAN island of Jan Mayan / look for blue whales, orcas, polar bears, walrus near Alkhornet / Longyearbyen. Cruise, from €1,500 (near $1,937) quad porthole to €2,900 suite. Single rate is base times 1.7.
14 days / 12 nights. Highlights: Kalahari elephants, lions in Chobe National Park, BOTSWANA / in ZIMBABWE, Mpisi village / Lake Kariba / game drives in Matusadona National Park / Victoria Falls. Land, from $5,579. From New York, from $7,009. Single supp., from $900. Book by Dec. 14, 2012, for $900-$1,000 discount. Discovery Tours by Gate 1 (Fort Washington, PA; 877 / 900-9777, www.discovery-tours.com).
In July, the Supreme Court of India banned all tourism and business activities within the “core areas” of all of its 25 national tiger reserves until states comply with the “core/buffer” management strategy laid out by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 1972.
Protected core areas of at least 300 square kilometers are where tigers can find water, shelter and prey and breed in safety. Around these are “buffer areas” in which limited industry (logging, farming, grazing, etc.) as well as tourism lodges are allowed.
Africa CAN be affordable, from Egypt to the Cape. Here are some travel selections on Egypt, Uganda, Botswana and South Africa.
9 days / 8 nights, March 19-27, 2013. Highlights: Professional photographers tour with group and give tips / Cape Town / winery tour / Stellenbosch / penguins at Boulders Beach / Big Five at Sabi Sabi Game Reserve. $4,899 from New York. Single supp., $800. Lion World Tours (Toronto, ON, Canada; 800 / 387-2706, www.lionworldtours.com).
by Herschell Gordon Lewis; Pompano Beach, FL
Dear Globetrotter:
Welcome to the 438th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine, the one you help write.
I’ve got lots to report this month.