Planning Travel Archive
Obamacare Effects Travel Insurance
Posted by jimheck in Planning Travel on May 3, 2013
Obamacare is about to have a profound effect on American tourists who purchase travel insurance. But first, the truth about travel insurance: (If you know everything you care to know about travel insurance, already, skip down to the little cartoon to get to the meat of this blog, how Obamacare will effect your travel costs.) [...]
On Safari: East versus South
Posted by jimheck in OnSafari, Planning Travel, Wildlife Management on March 21, 2013
Six weeks in sub-Saharan Africa has confirmed my long-held views on where the best game viewing is and why, how seriously threatened the wilderness is by remarkably fast and unregulated economic growth, and how youthful optimism about Africa’s future mostly discounts its precious wilderness. My first stint of the year began in Cape Town, included [...]
On Safari : The Spectacular Cape
Posted by jimheck in OnSafari, Planning Travel, South Africa on February 14, 2013
Table Mountain is cheeky. It’s one of the main reasons tourists come to Cape Town, but it only lets itself be seen about half the time. The mountain was truly spectacular for me this morning. I’ve been to Cape Town about a dozen times, but I had yet to take the funicular up the mountain. [...]
Beach Bums
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Kenya, Planning Travel, Politics on November 13, 2012
Don’t feel sorry for the harassed billionaires of the world; they’ve found a place to hide from those nasty journalists linking them to blood money, laundering and drugs: the incomparably beautiful beaches of Malindi, Kenya. This summer Brian Dabbs writing for The Atlantic unmasked the Italian cartel in Malindi, Kenya, that uses “Eden” as a [...]
Kenya Great But Don’t Go
Posted by jimheck in Global Relations, Kenya, Planning Travel, Somalia, Terrorism on September 7, 2012
Good news in Kenya is causing extreme turbulence and many countries are cautioning their citizens about traveling there, now. It’s heart-wrenching, because Kenya depends so much on tourism. It’s complicated, because the potential for disrupting foreign vacations comes specifically from a series of successes in Kenya’s military operation in Somalia and its growing role in [...]
Three Times Nostalgia
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Planning Travel, Safari Lodges on August 27, 2012
Not too many years ago, the Mt. Kenya Safari Club was the magic that made a safari. Today it’s just another resort off the Thika Superhighway. Bidding has opened for 95 of the quarter million dollar residences on the Mt. Kenya Holiday Homes resort, located hardly spitting distance of the Safari Club. Each of the [...]
Travel to Uganda Now Deadly
Posted by jimheck in Health, Planning Travel, Safety, Uganda on July 31, 2012
There is a reason that ebola has reached Kampala, and it’s the same reason I’ve recommended against visiting Uganda for a while: the dictatorial Ugandan government. The first (and last) time that ebola (or what we thought might have been ebola) reached a metropolitan area was in Nairobi in 1980, which became the subject of [...]
Hot Migration Topic
Posted by jimheck in Great Migration, Mara, Planning Travel, Politics, Serengeti on July 24, 2012
Is it really such a burning issue: why are the wildebeest so late? I’ve often experienced them crossing from Tanzania to Kenya even later, sometimes not until August. Normally, though, the herds cross the two river border that separates Tanzania from Kenya by mid- to late June, so we’re a month behind. This year it’s [...]
Broken like Most Everything at VicFalls
Posted by jimheck in Planning Travel, Safety, Zimbabwe on January 10, 2012
A young Australian tourist who miraculously survived her bungi chord snapping over Victoria Falls New Year’s Eve is back in a hospital in South Africa. Her traveling companion took a video of the failed jump and it’s going viral on YouTube. Her survival is miraculous. Remember, your feet are bound when taking the plunge, and [...]
Tourism, Come Clean!
Posted by jimheck in Planning Travel, Tourism Trends on November 10, 2011
Yesterday was World Responsible Tourism Day, until yesterday in my view one of the greatest tourist scams in my lifetime. But finally yesterday, Cape Town authorities saved the concept from the dustbin. Nevertheless, tourists beware! WTD began nearly 20 years ago with a mania by tourist companies to be labeled “ecotourism” companies. This was the [...]
War : Week 3
Posted by jimheck in Planning Travel, Safety, Somalia, Tourism Trends, War on November 7, 2011
It’s clear that a major battle is brewing, but it isn’t at all clear who is going to win. America is worried. Kenyans are growing increasingly anxious. More deaths, including tourists. The Thursday afternoon killing of a safari vehicle driver in the Shaba Reserve, and the wounding of a Swiss tourist inside, has no clear [...]
A Sacrifice So Far Far Away
Posted by jimheck in Economy, Planning Travel, Somalia, Terrorism, Tourism Trends, War on October 28, 2011
From far, far away, Kenya is being sacrificed to quell the war on terror. A young and dynamic, growing country with a tremendous future has been thrown to the wolves. The war in Somalia is not going well for Kenya. The army advance is bogged down, more aid workers and civilians have been kidnaped or [...]
Chant of the Impatient & Vanquished
Posted by jimheck in Planning Travel, Somalia, Terrorism, Tourism Trends, War on October 25, 2011
Within a week we’ll know whether the Kenyan invasion of Somalia is the true beginning of the end of al-Qaeda or the start of increased instability and terrorism in Kenya. I’m pretty pessimistic and damn mad. But the outcome of the battle of Kismayo will tell all. Kismayo is a city. A functioning, wealth-producing large [...]