One of the most popular excursions available from Victoria Falls is a day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana. Plenty of tour companies offer this all-inclusive service of round-trip pickup/dropoff in Victoria Falls, drive to Botswana border where they hand it over to their contracted Botswana tour company that transport you round-trip to Chobe National Park. The game drives occur in 2 parts, one in a vehicle on land and then on boat. Between the 2 we stopped at a resort for lunch. We paid 170$ USD per person for the entire package (which included Park entrance fees). The …
Africa Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report: Day Trip to Chobe National Park, Botswana
Africa Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
We were staying in the Zimbabwe side of the Victoria falls town and took a cab (all rides $5) from our hotel to the park entrance. We paid for the entry fee with credit card. After entering the park, we looked at the map and realized that the view points were like an arc that extended along the ridge. There are 2-3 to the left of the entrance and the rest to the right. We spent about 4 hours in the park going from end to end. After our visit, I changed my clothes in the restrooms in the park …
Africa Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report: Victoria Falls, Zambia
We were staying on Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls town. We took a cab from our resort to the border post (all cab rides $5). After passport stamping, we crossed the border to Zambia side. We walked across the Victoria Falls bridge (about 15 minutes walk) to the Victoria Falls Park entrance. Just a fair warning, there are a lot of touts on the way from the border post to the park and they will pester you to buy knick-knacks but not that aggressive so it was not much of a concern for us. After paying the entrance fee we …
Africa Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report: Etosha National Park, Namibia – Day 3 & 4
Day 3: We started our day early by leaving Okaukuejo camp. Our plan was to drive eastbound in Etosha park and reach Namutoni camp by evening while stopping at Halali camp for lunch for a couple of hours. After reaching Halali camp for lunch, we stopped by the Halali waterhole and saw a huge herd of elephants come in. The rest of the drive to Namutoni camp was fairly uneventful besides seeing mostly herbivores. What we were mainly hoping to see was some big cats but this was not to be on this trip. Day 4: This was our last …
Africa Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report: Etosha National Park, Namibia – Day 1 & 2
Day 1: We had arrived in Windhoek the night before and stayed at Hilton Windhoek which is about 40 minutes from the airport. In the morning we started our 415 km drive to Etosha National Park. It took us around 5 hours with breaks. We entered the park through Anderson Gate as we were staying in Okaukuejo Camp for first 2 nights. Right after entering the park we drove towards Okondeka waterhole. After we entered the Okaukuejo Camp where we were staying the first 2 nights, we checked-in at the reception, paid our park fees for the entire stay. We …
Africa Destination Trip ReportsJune 2024: Namibia and Victoria Falls Trip – Introduction
For our second vacation of 2024, we are going to Africa. We been to this continent thrice before, first time in 2016 for Egypt-Kenya Safari trip, then in 2018 for South Africa trip and finally in 2022 for Seychelles trip. This time we will be visiting the Etosha Park in Namibia for 3 nights and then 3 nights in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I am also planning to go to Chobe National Park, Botswana for a day trip from Victoria Falls. The trip will have following reviews: Airline Review: Qatar Airways Business class from Seattle to Doha Airline Review: Qatar Airways …
Destination Trip Reports South AmericaTrip Report – Buenos Aires, Argentina
MilesPointsTravel Disclaimer: This review is very light on photos. My phone was snatched from my hand in Santiago, Chile at the end of the trip and since I did not backup my photos to cloud, I lost majority of the photos taken during this trip. Only photos that my wife took with her phone made it to the trip report. Day 1: We were staying at the Buenos Aires Marriott Hotel which was only a 2 minute walk from one of the iconic Buenos Aires landmark, the Obelisk. We decided to walk from our hotel to Mercado Central, a great …
Destination Trip Reports South AmericaTrip Report – El Calafate, Argentina – Visiting Perito Moreno Glacier
Day 1: We spent 2 days in Argentinian Patagonia in the town of El Calafate. We took the 3 hours 20 minutes flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate Airport and arrived early in the morning. After picking up our rental car from the airport, we checked in at our hotel Mirador del Lago and were soon on our way to the main attraction of this trip, the Perito Moreno Glacier. The drive from El Calafate town to Perito Moreno takes about 1.5 hours and some portion of the trip is quite scenic where you can see the beautiful blue …
Destination Trip Reports South AmericaTrip Report – Iguazu Falls, Argentina
Day 1: We walked from our hotel (Panoramic Grand) to Puerto Iguazu bus station and took Rio Uruguay bus to the entrance of the Argentina side of Iguazu Falls. Again the fares are cash only, no credit cards accepted at the bus station. After paying for the entrance tickets (credit cards accepted here), we entered the park. If you are visiting 2 consecutive days, you should save the ticket stubs as the 2nd day is 50% off. There are 3 main hiking routes on the Argentina side of the falls – the Lower circuit, the Upper circuit, the Green trail. …
Destination Trip Reports South AmericaTrip Report – Iguazu Falls, Brazil
We were staying at Panoramic Grand Hotel in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina. There are multiple options to visit Iguazu Falls on the Brazil side from Puerto Iguazu. One can take a cab (or a private transfer service) directly to the Iguazu Falls entrance or take a bus from Puerto Iguazu bus station. The hotel was about 10 minutes walk to the Puerto Iguazu Bus station. After arriving at the bus station we purchased a round trip ticket on Rio Uruguay Bus to Iguazu Falls, Brazil. The fares are cash only, no credit cards accepted at the bus station. The bus requires …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report – Neil Island, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Day 1: We stayed just 1 day at the Neil Island (now renamed Shaheed Dweep). This island is much less tourist oriented compared to Havelock Island. After arriving late morning on a ferry ride from Havelock, we were driven by our transfer service to the resort (Seashell Samssara Neil Island). We only had the afternoon for sightseeing on the island and our first stop was Bharatpur Beach. It was low tide time and you could walk on knee deep water for close to 1/2 mile from the shore. Next stop was Laxmanpur Beach #2 that has the popular attraction, “Natural …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report – Havelock Island, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Day 1: We started early in the morning from Port Blair to travel to Havelock Island on Makruzz Ferry. The journey takes about 1.5 hours and the ocean was not choppy so went by pretty quickly. I had already arranged private transport so the driver was waiting for us at the Havelock Ferry terminal and drove us to our resort (Tilar Siro Andamans, CGH Earth) where we were staying for 2 nights. We arrived around 10 AM and spent a couple of hours walking along the resort’s private beach. In the afternoon we had our driver take us to Radhanagar …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report – Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Day 1: Port Blair is the main island of the Andamans and your main point of entry and exit for all flights. We arrived at Veer Savarkar Airport just before noon and had our transport waiting to take us to our hotel (Lemon Tree Hotel Port Blair). The hotel is right outside the airport so pretty soon after checking-in we were ready for sightseeing. Our first stop was Corbyns Cove Beach. Its just 8 km from the airport on the south eastern part of the island. The beach had calm waters surrounded by beautiful greenery from 3 sides. The beach …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsNov’23 – Dec’23: India Trip – Introduction
Just came back from my yearly family trip to India. My parents had always wanted to visit the Andaman Islands and so I decided to do some quick planning and squeeze in a 5 night trip to these islands. At the beginning of my trip to India, in order to redeem some Delta Skymiles for the outbound journey, I had to position myself to Cabo San Lucas to start the trip (pricing arbitrage). Airline reviews, hotel reviews and trip reports for this trip: Hotel Review – Hampton Inn Los Cabos Airline Review – China Airlines Business class from Los Angeles …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report – Boracay, Philippines
Day 1: We arrived at Caticlan International Airport on a short 1 hour Philippines Airlines flight from Cebu International Airport. I had already pre-booked a transfer package for seamless transfer for the trip. It included Bus transfer from Caticlan Airport to Jetty – ferry from Caticlan to Boracay – Bus transfer from Boracay Jetty to hotel and back in reverse order at the end of our trip. Total cost was 20 USD per person round-trip. It was late afternoon when we checked into Ambassador in Paradise hotel in Boracay (located in Station 1). We decided to have dinner at …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsMar’ 23: Boracay, Philippines Trip – Introduction
One of the bucket list places I have been meaning to visit is Boracay, Philippines. I remember reading a few “Top 10 beaches in the world” articles a decade ago and Boracay featured in a few of those. Well March 2023 is when we finally were able to check this one off of our places to visit finally. It was a long distance away from West Coast but it was very much worth it. I will be posting the following reviews for this trip. Airline Review: EVA Air Business Class from Los Angeles to Taipei Airline Review: EVA Air Business …
Destination Trip Reports North America US, Canada, MexicoTrip Report – 3 Days in Big Island, Hawaii
Day 1: We arrived at Kona International Airport from Los Angeles early afternoon. After picking up our rental car, we drove to our hotel for the first night, Courtyard by Marriott King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. After checking in, we went wandering along the hotel grounds. The water being very cold for January, we spent a couple of hours by the hotel pool instead. We used our welcome drink vouchers from check-in at the pool bar and took it to our room to enjoy the view from our patio. After enjoying the drinks we left the hotel for dinner. After …
Destination Trip Reports North America US, Canada, MexicoJan’ 23: Hawaii Big Island Trip – Introduction
We had been planning on going to the Big Island in Hawaii for a while. Back in 2018, we had a trip to the Big Island already booked but due to increasing volcanic activity we changed our trip and ended up in Oahu instead. When Hawaiian Airlines had a good airfare sale, I jumped on another chance to visit this island during the January long weekend (Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday). We ended up having a great time on the island along with once in a lifetime opportunity to view active volcanic activity from a distance. Hotel Review: Courtyard by …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report – 3 Night in Hilton Maldives Amingiri Resort
Day 1: Me and my parents arrived in Male International Airport in the morning from Kochi, India. Karen’s flight from London was delayed by 3 hours so I made the decision to send my parents to the resort so they did not have to wait with me at the airport. Hilton Amingiri representative at the airport assured me that my parents would not have to wait at the hotel to get a room even though both rooms were booked under my wife’s name and mine. After Karen arrived at the airport, we took the same speedboat to the resort. After …
Africa Destination Trip ReportsTrip Report – Praslin, Seychelles
Day 1 (Day 3 of Trip): We drove from our hotel (DoubleTree by Hilton Seychelles – Allamanda Resort and Spa) to the Cat Coco Ferry Terminal for our ferry to Praslin Island. The ferry takes about 1 hr 30 mins from Mahe to Praslin. I had heard that the seas are rough starting June and so we had already applied a motion sickness patch about an hour before leaving for the terminal. After arriving at the ferry terminal, we picked up our rental car (Capricorn Car Rental) and drove to the resort (Le Deuc de Praslin) where we were staying …