Itinerary Overview
- Qatar Airways flight from JFK into Entebbe, Uganda via Qatar hub in Doha, Qatar.
- One night in Entebbe, Uganda upon arrival
- Three nights in Bwindi, 2 days of gorilla trekking
- One night in Entebbe, Uganda to complete Kenya immigration documents
- Four nights in Masai Mara, with game drives each day
- Qatar Airways flight from Nairobi, Kenya to JFK via Qatar hub in Doha, Qatar.
Notes On Itinerary
- When you look at total in transit time to and from Africa, we spent almost 72 hours (3 days) of time!! We left at about 11 pm on Thursday and arrived in Entebbe at about 4:30 pm on SATURDAY. We were so determined to see the mountain gorillas that we did not really consider this negative. But, as we traveled in business class, the actual flights were not problematic with lie flat seats, good food, ample entertainment, and access to business class lounges, except in Nairobi.
- Over the course of the 505 days between our original departure date and our actual one, Qatar Airways changed its flights several times, which required changes to ground arrangements. Originally, we only had a 9-hour layover in Doha and an early morning arrival in Entebbe which necessitated booking our room for the night before so that we could have a room when we arrived. Once the 17-hour layover was introduced, we no longer needed to have the room available early.
- What was interesting is that we booked our flights through Amex but we could still see our booking in the Qatar app. But, whenever there were flight changes, we only got notified by Amex and not Qatar.
- Another factor we did not really consider were the light aircraft flights we took in Africa. These were consistently single engine, two pilot, 11 passenger planes that had “strict” 15 kg weight limits on baggage. Luckily, every flight was very smooth.
- Most of the small airports that we flew into and out of in Africa had just a single dirt runway and sometimes a house that served as the terminal. Terminal and airstrip were separated by a split rail fence.
- I would never use Sleep-N-Fly in any airport again. Ours was a just single small corridor into bunk beds. There was no restroom even inside the Sleep-N-Fly. You had to go down the public hallway about 50 feet to the public restroom. All of this for a mere $340 for a 13 hour stay.
Travel Agent
We got a recommendation from a Canadian/American couple who live in Europe. They had used a travel agent in the UK for their trip to Namibia and were very happy with him. So, on their recommendation, we contacted Rob Slater, a principle in Safari Consultants (Suffolk UK, 44 (0)1787 888590, info@safari-consultants.com or rob@safari-consultants.com).
I cannot emphasize how pleased we were in working with him, remembering that we started planning in August 0f 2019 but did not finally travel until February 2022!! Over this time, there were several changes due to flight changes from Qatar and then there were Covid impacts to consider. All of this was handled flawlessly by Rob. We simply booked our own flights into and out of Africa and Rob arranged all the rest, all the accommodations, required Covid testing, in country flights, taxi’s, gorilla permits, and most of the meals, except for 2 dinners and one lunch. And things that we had to do ourselves, like East African visa or Kenya health forms, he provided detailed instructions and guidance
Weather
We picked February mainly because it was historically one of the drier periods in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where rain during a gorilla trek in a dense forest would have been difficult. It was also supposed to be the end of the dry season in the Mara. As it turned out, we only saw rain in Bwindi on the day we arrived and as we were leaving the gorillas on the second day of trekking and the rain, while somewhat heavy, only lasted about 30 min in each case. In the Mara, we saw rain in the evenings, but days were clear and bright. In both places, mornings were cool, in the 50’s, with days getting up to the 80’s.
Tipping/Credit Cards
We paid Safari Consultants for all the arrangements in Africa, so everything was prepaid. But there was still the question of how much to tip for certain services that were included in the total cost of the trip. Like how much to tip a taxi driver for ride from airport to hotel or how much to tip staff at each of the locations we stayed at, or how much to tip our personal guide in Bwindi or the game guide in the Mara. Rob Slater detailed all this for us because we needed to bring the correct amount of cash to cover all these tips and with the correct denominations of currency. In the end, we traveled with something like 87 US bills ($5’s, $10’s, $20’s, and 2 $50’s). We had limited use of credit cards, mainly for meals at the Boma Hotel in Entebbe and a few extra services at the Volcano Bwindi Lodge.
Travel Insurance
We used Tin Leg to buy $25k worth of travel insurance at a cost of something like $1700. They were cooperative when we had to delay the trip twice due to Covid, simply rolling the coverage over to the new travel dates. Luckily, we did not need to use this insurance.
We also purchased AMREF Flying Doctors coverage which provides emergency airplane evacuation from either Uganda or Kenya to Nairobi in case of some medical emergency.
International Flights to Africa
Qatar Airway is a fine carrier, with good seating accommodations in business class, good food, and good entertainment selection. We had use of the American Airlines lounge in JFK, which was a bit cramped. We used the business class lounge in Doha during our 17-hour layover, in fact, eating all our meals there in their sit down, waiter serviced, dining areas.
Telephone
We have a plan through Verizon where if we use either of our phones when in a foreign country, we are charged $10 for 24 hours of usage and then our normal cell & data rates apply. Use of the phone in Africa was to keep in touch with our family but there was a more important reason. With Covid and increased health checks in general, the cell phone became essential to receive required Covid test results and required health screenings for each country. As we were often in areas with no or limited WiFi, we relied on our cell service heavily.
Hit back button and select Boma First Stay.