We're going to... AFRICA!

Yesterday I was bound and determined for Kevin and I to pick out where we wanted to go on vacation this year.  We are both working on our MBA's so there are only two months when we're not in school:  May and June.  Well, it's already almost May and we hadn't decided on a continent, let along a country, city, or time to travel, so we decided we had better get on the ball, and fast. 

My goal yesterday was for us to pick when, where, and how, and then book our flights.  Ok, ok, ok... I admit this was a little aggressive.  And we didn't end up meeting our goal.  BUT, God willing we have decided where we are going to go...

AFRICA!!!!

 

Specifically we've decided to travel to South Africa, and if everything goes as planned we'll be traveling there in mid-May (flight prices rise significantly in June).  May is only a couple weeks away!!!  Ahhh!!!

We want to spend about half our time in Capetown, South Africa, and half our time on a game resort near Johannesburg where we'll do safaris.  Here are some beautiful pictures of Capetown and South African safaris that inspired us...

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Yesterday, when Kevin and I sat down to talk about it I started asking him all sorts of questions about where he wanted to go.  Kevin's first question was, "How much do we have in savings?  Can we afford this?"  Rose and Dick, you have raised a very conservative boy.  Good work.  :)

After talking about the money situation, we both agreed that we both felt comfortable using a portion of our savings for this trip.  We then started brainstorming about where we wanted to go.  The first place Kevin mentioned was Spain.  I told him how our cousin Julia also recommended that yesterday.  But instead of jumping into specific cities or countries we wanted to see, we decided it might be best to take a step back and talk about what continents we wanted to see.  Here were our lists, starting with the places we most wanted to see first:

Kevin:                         Amanda:

Africa                          Africa

Europe                         South America

Asia                            Asia

South America              Australia

Australia                      Europe

Antarctica                   Antarctica

North America              North America

I was surprised that Africa was on the top of Kevin's list.  It was on the top of my list too.... things are never this easy. 

But I have to admit something slightly embarassing that may have given us a case of "Africa-on-the brain".  One of my guilty pleasures is the TV show The Bachelor, and this season I even roped Kevin into watching.  This year they spent a good deal of time in South Africa... and it looked freaking amazing...

South African Airways put together a tour based on many of the things they did on the bachelor... stays in Capetown, wine tastings, elephant rides, shark dives, and a safaris.  You even stay in the same amazing private game lodge, the Lion Sands River Lodge, that they stayed on during The Bachelor.  Here is a link to all the tour details... click here!

These tours are limited to six couples and we are planning this last minute, so we may not be able to get on that exact tour, but there are many other similar tours.  All the tours are expensive, but are great deals compared to what it would cost to book each of the pieces individually, plus they handle all the transportation, including flights.  They all look like trips of a lifetime.  The offices in South Africa are closed for the weekend, but we should get the rest of the details this Tuesday and hopefully should be able to finalize everything then. 

So I guess this will give us a few extra nights to "sleep on it" and count our pennies.  So what do you guys think?  Has anyone been to Africa or South Africa?  Know anyone that has?  Anyone willing to admit their addiction to The Bachelor?  Thanks again for everyone's advice yesterday.  Stacie and Danny - you were right about Capetown!