Travel and tourism

A guest post by Jeffrey Cammack.

South Africa is a wonderful destination for a Big Five safari as there are numerous game reserves offering amazing game viewing. The problem is often deciding where to go on safari as there are so many options. If you are travelling to South Africa and only spending a couple of days on safari I would highly recommend that you opt to stay at a private safari lodge in a private game reserve as this will maximize your chances of seeing a lot of animals. The reason that you will see more game in a lodge in a private game reserve is that there are more opportunities for off-road viewing which means that you get very close to the sightings.

My two favorite game reserves are the Sabi Sands and the Timbavati. Both these reserves border the Kruger Park and the game wander freely between the two. The Sabi Sands is especially famous for the number of large cats in the area, so if you want to see lots of lions and leopards, this is the place to visit.

There are quite a few lodges in both theTimbavati and the Sabi Sands. The level of luxury and the prices vary substantially depending on what you are looking for. In the Sabi Sands you will find the ultra-luxurious safari lodges like Singita and Londolozi but there are also less pricy options such as Arathusa. The common factor between the lodges is that they all offer exceptional game drives. In the Timbavati you will find some less expensive options which still offer great safaris and very comfortable accommodation. My favorite two lodges in the Timbavati are Motswari and Kambaku.

If you are looking for a great safari in a malaria-free area, the best game reserve is Madikwe Game Reservein north western South Africa bordering Botswana. Madikwe is as close as you will get in terms of a nature experience to the area around the Kruger Park. An additional advantage of the Madikwe Game Reserve is that it is only about a three hour drive from Johannesburg. The safari experience in Madikwe is very good and there are some very nice game lodges in the area, our favorites being Madikwe Hills and Impodimo. If you are hoping to see the elusive and highly endangered African Wild Dog then Madikwe is also the place to go.

I hope that this post has helped to shed some light on where to go on safari in South Africa. No matter if you choose to visit the Sabi Sands, Timbavati or Madikwe game reserves, you are sure to have an amazing safari experience. You do need to be aware that these are the most popular private game reserves in South Africa so you often need to make a reservation at your chosen lodge well in advance.

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About the guest writer
 Jeffrey Cammack writes for Safari Guide Africa. Safari Guide Africa is a boutique African safari tour company based outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Their core philosophy is that no lodge or hotel is recommended that they have not visited and they only encourage guests to visit the places they have enjoyed.

Ok, I’m standing at the gate with my carry-on bag, waiting to board my flight when an airline staff approaches me. After a quick check, I’m told that my bag is a tad too big and I have to check it in… and there’s a fee for that. I would then argue that I’ve used this bag many times before and there was never a problem and I would receive the same response: each airline has different requirements. This has happened to me several times and, yes, it’s annoying. About a month ago, I was approached byFlyLite, a manufacturer of lightweight luggage who asked me to test their product. I don’t often do product reviews but considering my experiences, this was one product I certainly wanted to try.

I opted for the MultiBag Foldaway Wheeled Cabin Holdall (wow, that’s a mouthful!). It arrived in a small, neat package and I stared at it for a while. It was so small and light!

Along with the bag came instructions and a list of airlines. The bag could be changed into six different size configurations. The list shows you how to alter the bag’s size depending on which airline you’re flying with! For instance, according to the list, KLM has a cabin bag size limit of 55 x 35 x 25. For this configuration, the bag’s left and right zips should be closed and the centre zip open. Brilliant!

I soon had the opportunity to take my new bag for a spin… in Madrid. It certainly is lighter than my Samsonite carry-on luggage – which exceeds 8kgs with a laptop, a pair of shoes, toiletries and a few pieces of clothing. My Flylite bag was more than a kilo lighter with the same items. Thumbs up for that. Aside from a small external compartment (a folded A4-size paper fits snugly into that space), there are no other compartments. I would have preferred a separate sleeve for my laptop/iPad to keep it in place.

What I really liked about the bag is the fact that you can roll it around on wheels or carry it as a backpack – I like these options as there’s no pleasure in dragging your bag on an unpaved surface or even worse, a muddy field. The telescopic handle and the wheels are sufficiently sturdy and handled Madrid’s streets with ease.

On a whole, I’m very pleased with my new Flylite MultiBag Foldaway Wheeled Cabin Holdall. It’s light and strong, and the various size configuration options are very handy. Would I recommend it? Absolutely! I always try to travel as often as possible with only a carry-on so this bag is perfect!

Note: Flylite provided the bag for my review. As always, opinions expressed above are mine, and mine only.

A trip to a good bookstore is about more than just picking up a new novel: you’ll understand if you’ve ever stepped foot in one. These are the places where the shelves are packed from floor to ceiling with interesting titles, the booksellers themselves are knowledgeable, friendly and likely to know better than you what it is that you’re looking for, plus there is an atmosphere that makes you feel comfortable enough to browse for hours. And a good bookstore, of course, offers well-placed comfortable chairs, which you can sink into, new book in hand, surrounded by the smell of fresh coffee.

The sad truth is that with the prevalence of internet bookstores places like this are in danger of dying out – in fact approximately half of UK bookstores have closed in the last decade. So if you believe in the pleasure of browsing free from Amazon’s ‘suggested titles’, with the chance that you might just discover something new, then read on.

In this post from Jill at Latitude 50 we’ll introduce you to six of the best bookshops in the UK, where you can reclaim the simple pleasure of a trip to a good book shop…

Tucked away in a narrow street in the pretty seaside town of St Ives, is the St Ives Bookseller. This is a true independent bookshop, filled with solid oak bookcases, which are in turn crammed with and a wide range of fiction, children’s, local interest titles and more. The staff are ever-friendly and the shop also hosts a programme of regular book signings and events to keep their customers rolling in though the doors. It certainly seems to be working, as the St Ives Bookseller was the proud winner of the 2012 South West regional prize for Independent Bookseller of the Year. What’s best about this shop is it’s just seconds from the beach, so, after you’ve enjoyed its inner delights, you can amble down to the sea and enjoy a few hours relaxing to the sound of seagulls and waves, with your new title safely in hand.

A true institution in the city of Oxford, Blackwell’s Bookshop offers room upon room of beautiful books that will keep any booklover entranced for hours. The shop also has a particularly good selection of rare, collectable and antiquarian titles, which attracts customers from all over the world. It’s not unlikely that you may bump into a famous literary face here either, as author Ian McEwan is a regular visitor to the store and Phillip Pullman, the creator of Northern Lights lives just minutes away. The shop is surrounded by some of Oxfords most famous colleges, as well as being a stone’s throw from the magnificent Bodleian Library, which all make for excellent sight-seeing afterwards.

This wonderful Shropshire bookshop was voted on of the Top 50 bookshops in the country by The Independent – and it’s no surprise why. Along with a great selection of books, Booka Bookshop has a fabulous café, serving fairtrade coffee, tea and delicious homemade cakes – their sticky lemon drizzle takes a bit of beating! With events happening as often as weekly, it’s a bustling, busy, bookshop that is very much a part of the community, plus love the idea of their ‘Book and a Beer Book Club’, which anyone is welcome to join!

Bookshop, performance venue and gallery,The Society Club in Soho offers more than just the chance to pick up a great read. In fact, it also serves classic cocktails and welcomes dogs! It’s very eccentric and great fun. The owners also offer a ‘Book Hunting Service’ where they will search out hard-to-find titles for their customers and are always on hand to give suggestions. This is a quirky place to while away an afternoon – though you’ll probably spend more time enjoying the people watching, than you will reading.

This very old bookshop has been trading in the picturesque village of Grasmere in the Lake District since 1887. Sam Read Bookseller is almost always open, warm and inviting and it seems ready for a customer at any time. In an area with connections to Wordsworth, Coleridge and the Romantics, John Ruskin, Beatrix Potter and Arthur Ransome it’s no surprise really that it’s survived but it would be unfair to attribute it’s success solely to it’s location. Read’s stocks everything from the latest releases, to modern classics, as well as having an impressive selection of modern poetry. As the store is a stone’s throw from Dove Cottage and the birthplace of modern Romanticism it would be a shame not to make a visit there too.

This newly decorated bookstore in Suffolk is the clearly the project of true booklovers. Browsers is small in size but full of fantastic reads, with the ideal atmosphere for some seriously relaxed browsing. It has helpful, unobtrusive staff, who know their stock and are proud of it but also don’t mind if you just want to come in and take a look around. Don’t leave without visiting the café, which serves a range of scrumptious homemade cakes – all made with recipes taken from their own selection of cookery books! They also have a Children’s bookshop just over the road, so you can set the kids free in there before settling down to a good browse yourself. Bliss.

If you have been inspired to make a visit to one of these fabulous UK bookstores, why not team up a visit with some great accommodation and a weekend exploring a new corner of the country. Sometimes it’s the simple pleasures that can be most refreshing – we assure you you’ll come home feeling reconnected and inspired, with some great new titles to add to your own library.

Note: this post is brought to you in partnership with Latitude 50.

UBER. I’d never heard of it until my recent trip to Berlin. I was handed several discount vouchers and decided to give them a try one evening. After a long day out on the town, the idea of my very own private limousine to take me back to my accommodation sounded very appealing. I downloaded the UBER app on my iPhone and set up my profile in minutes. A map showed me exactly where I was and how long it would take for the nearest driver to reach me. Six minutes! I hit ‘Request Black Car’ in an instant. I received a text message within seconds announcing that the car was on its way. This included the car’s license plate and the name of the driver. Several minutes later, I received another message saying that my driver would be arriving shortly. Moments after I received that message, the limo pulled up and the driver stepped out to open the door for me. That was simply the coolest way to order a taxi!

That first ride got me hooked – the limo was a very spacious and supremely comfortable black Mercedes S3 with a driver smartly suited up. Very classy! Inside, I found plush leather seats, tinted windows and complimentary bottles of water. The driver dropped me off at my doorstep and that was it. There was no need to fumble around for cash. It’s billed directly to my credit card. As soon as I stepped out of the car, I received another message to tell me how much the ride had cost – I’d already asked the driver but it was cool to get a confirmation. I later received a receipt via email, showing a detailed breakdown of the cost, a map outlining the route, how many kilometers it was and how long it took! I knew it there and then… I’ll be using UBER again for sure!

UBER is an on-demand private driver service. To get started, simply download the app – available for both iPhone and Android phones – and set up your profile, including your credit card details. Verify your account and you’re good to go. It’s dead easy.

To request an UBER driver, launch the app. A pin on a map immediately shows you your location. You can move the pin to a specific spot or enter an address as your pick-up point. The app will also tell you how long it’ll take for the nearest UBER driver to reach you. It also allows you to punch in your destination and receive an estimate of the fare. Once you request a driver, you’ll be notified of the car’s license plate and the driver’s name. You can easily look up all your previous trips on your profile page – this includes maps of your trips and the costs.

I absolutely loved the convenience of ordering a driver via the app. The notification services are a great touch – you know exactly when the driver will arrive. I ended up using the UBER service almost every day when I was in Berlin. The Mercedes and Audi sedans were very comfortable. Despite the exclusive feel of the service and the luxurious cars, the service doesn’t cost a lot more than a normal taxi. I was expecting double the rates of a taxi but it was closer to a third more. That’s not a bad surcharge for the extra comforts and convenience.

The UBER service is available in numerous cities in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Milan, London, Paris, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney – there’s a list of the cities on the site/app. If you’re interested in testing the UBER service, sign up with my ubervelvetescape promo code and get a EUR/USD/GBP 10 discount on your first ride.

Note: UBER provided me with several discount vouchers during my stay in Berlin. I used them all as I absolutely love this cool service. My enthusiasm expressed above is a true reflection of how I felt about this service.

Last week, I posted a plea to the Weather Gods to usher in the spring a.s.a.p.! That didn’t quite work, unfortunately.  So, here’s some inspiration to get everyone into the mood for a colourful spring and a lovely warm summer! A walk around the tulips fields in Holland is one of my favourite things to do in spring. There are guided walks that will lead you through a dazzling sea of tulips. The most popular flower-growing area in Holland is around the town of Lisse (30 minutes drive, southwest of Amsterdam), also home to the famousKeukenhof gardens. My favourite area lies to the north of Amsterdam between the towns of Schoorl, Callantsoog and Schagen. The endless fields of flowers will simply blow you away! Read the accompanying post: “Holland At Its Best“, and enjoy this sea of tulips!

 See other Velvet Moments.

“My velvet escape travel tip” is a guest series about what the name ‘Velvet Escape’ evokes. With this series, I hope to uncover travel tips from places around the world to help visitors have a truly local experience. Today’s guest post is by Lisa Egle who describes her little piece of paradise in Indonesia.

I love adventure and intense cultural experiences, but I also crave peace and quiet. That’s why I go out of my way to visit places that soothe my mind, heart and soul. I prefer off-the-beaten-path destinations where I feel that I’m truly escaping from everyday life.Gili Meno — a small island off the coast of Lombok, Indonesia — was exactly that and thus, my ‘Velvet Escape.’ As soon as I saw the glistening turquoise water and felt the soft white sand under my feet, a profound sense of relaxation washed over me; I knew I’d truly arrived in paradise.

The island, one of three in the Gili chain, is small and not overrun with tourists. It tends to draw a lot of couples, but it’s also great for solo travelers looking for serious solitude. Because there are so few people, it’s often possible to have the beach to yourself. Moreover, there are no cars or motorbikes — just bicycles and cimodos (horse-drawn carts) — which means it’s incredibly quiet compared to other parts of Indonesia.

The locals (population: about several hundred) are warm and welcoming. If you walk around the island, which takes about one hour, you’re bound to be greeted by them. I befriended a couple, the owners of the bungalow I stayed in. They were fasting for Ramadan and shaded themselves in an elevated open-sided bamboo hut in their yard when the sun was intense. They invited me to join them several times and sometimes I did. One day, I went on a bike tour of the western side of the island with my husband to see the salt-water lake and the bird sanctuary. Later that afternoon, I ran into a woman who’d given me a massage on the beach the day before. She invited me to share Ramadan dinner with her family (Sasaks originally from Lombok). I accepted and enjoyed a wonderful home-cooked meal.

Speaking of food…restaurants are found along the beach and inland and serve Western food and typical Indonesian dishes. Quality and prices vary. The best option for dinner is the ‘catch of the day’: fresh local fish (eg, red snapper and prawns). It’s displayed on tables along the beachfront’s main drag, just as the sun is setting, so you can’t miss it. Choose what you like and it will be grilled and served with the sides of your choice.

Meno is the mellowest of the three Gili Islands. The other two are Trawangan, a party place known for late-night partying, and Air, which offers a little less action. You can reach any of these islands by speedboat from Bali and Lombok, with slightly less frequent service to Meno. There are no ATMs on the island, so plan accordingly.

I have two tips for anyone hoping to enjoy a Velvet Escape on these islands. First, read between the lines when consulting your travel guide. Mine compared Gili Meno to a ‘Robinson Crusoe adventure,’ which is one of the reasons I chose it. Also, get some advice from the locals and ex-pats. They should have some valuable inside information.

I’m so happy that I did both and, as a result, spent several unforgettable days in paradise. And I’m sure I’ll return in the future for another wonderful Velvet Escape.

About the guest writer
Lisa Egle is a solo traveler and editor/publisher of ChickyBus, a travel blog that takes readers/’riders’ to unique destinations around the world via photos, videos and stories. She’s also the author of Magic Carpet Seduction, a memoir of off-the-beaten path travel to China, Latin America, Turkey and the Middle East. When she’s not on the road, she’s home in New Jersey, working as an ESL professor and enjoying her many hobbies, including hiking, photography and drumming. Follow Lisa on Twitter.