This page will be con­tin­u­ally updated to archive a list of the lux­ury accom­mo­da­tions on the Zam­bia side of Vic­to­ria Falls. If you know of an option that’s not listed, please let us know!

Islands of Siank­aba
Post­net 621, Pri­vate Bag E891, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 260 279

The Royal Liv­ing­stone
Mosi-oa-Tunya Road, Liv­ing­stone
Tel: 260 213 321 122

Tongabezi Lodge & Sind­abezi Island
Pri­vate Bag 31, Liv­ing­stone
Tel: 260 213 327 450
Rates: from $450 per per­son per night

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of Sind­abezi cour­tesy of Tongabezi Lodge

This page will be con­tin­u­ally updated to archive a list of the game lodges in Zambia’s Lower Zam­bezi National Park. If you know of a lux­ury lodge that’s not listed, please let us know!

Ana Tree Lodge
P.O. Box 32661, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 250 730
Rates: $575 per per­son per night (doesn’t include the bar)

Chi­awa Camp
P.O. Box 30972, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 261 588

Chongwe River Camp
P.O. Box CA 102, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 278 248

Kasaka River Lodge
Tel: 260 211 256 201
Rates: from $395 per per­son per night

Royal Zam­bezi Lodge
P/Bag CH42, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 840 682
Rates: from $380 per per­son per night

Sanc­tu­ary Zam­bezi Kulefu Camp
Rates: from $400 per per­son per night

Sausage Tree Camp
P.O. Box 35139, Lusaka 10101
Tel: 260 211 845 204

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Sausage Tree Camp

The Sey­chelles is one of those dream des­ti­na­tions in the Indian Ocean, just north of Mada­gas­car. The Sey­chelles are actu­ally 115 islands and offer lush rain forests, gor­geous beaches, and are sur­rounded by unri­valed marine life.

The Sey­chelles is one of those dream des­ti­na­tions in the Indian Ocean, just north of Mada­gas­car. The Sey­chelles are actu­ally 115 islands and offer lush rain forests, gor­geous beaches, and are sur­rounded by unri­valed marine life.

The Four Sea­sons Resort Sey­chelles will cel­e­brate its one-year anniver­sary this Feb­ru­ary. Despite its secluded loca­tion on the south­west coast of the main island of Mahe, it’s still close to the inter­na­tional air­port as well as the cap­i­tal of Vic­to­ria (a 30-minute drive).

This is the type of place you’d be crazy to pass up. The 67 vil­las and suites are more than spa­cious and all vil­las have their own pri­vate plunge pools, out­door show­ers, and sun­set views of the bay. There are two restau­rants and bars, spa, fit­ness and recre­ation cen­ter as well as meeting/banquet facilities.

Dur­ing 2010 Four Sea­sons Resort Sey­chelles is offer­ing an excel­lent deal on lodg­ing here: its stay longer pro­mo­tion, which is valid from:

Jan­u­ary 10 – March 31, 2010
May 11 – June 30, 2010
Sep­tem­ber 16 – Octo­ber 31, 2010
Decem­ber 1 – 18, 2010

Enjoy a com­pli­men­tary 4th night for 3 con­sec­u­tive nights stay
Enjoy a com­pli­men­tary 6th and 7th night for 5 con­sec­u­tive nights stay

The pro­mo­tion is valid for indi­vid­ual book­ings only and not for groups.

For reser­va­tions, call Four Sea­sons Resort Sey­chelles at 248–393-333; fax: 248–393-331; or send an e-mail to reservations.sey@fourseasons.com.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Four Sea­sons Resort Seychelles

If you’ve been plan­ning a trip to Egypt, you’ve prob­a­bly read a lot about the new Uni­world ship River Tosca that  sails the Nile River. She’ll be out of ser­vice from Feb­ru­ary 1–March 19, 2010, and here’s what the com­pany CEO is say­ing about it:

A Mes­sage from the Pres­i­dent & CEO of Uniworld

Dear Val­ued Uni­world Travelers,

There has been quite a bit of infor­ma­tion writ­ten about the River Tosca since it launched a cou­ple of months ago, and I wanted to take this oppor­tu­nity to per­son­ally give you an update on where things stand.

Over the last sev­eral years, we have seen a grow­ing inter­est in Egypt, which is a glo­ri­ous des­ti­na­tion. As a com­pany, we saw the need and oppor­tu­nity to pro­vide trav­el­ers to Egypt with a Nile River cruise ship that would be of a sim­i­lar high stan­dard as our ships in Europe. Uni­world com­mis­sioned the River Tosca with the goal that it would be one of the most lux­u­ri­ous ships to sail the Nile.

Unfor­tu­nately, we expe­ri­enced some unex­pected chal­lenges in intro­duc­ing the River Tosca and we are not happy with the cur­rent qual­ity of work­man­ship fin­ishes in sev­eral areas of the ship. The most obvi­ous exam­ples are the floors in the state­rooms, main stair­well and cor­ri­dors which were dam­aged and scratched dur­ing the instal­la­tion; the mosaic tiles in the restau­rant; and the paint and wood­work in the state­rooms. We have there­fore made the deci­sion to dry dock the ship for seven weeks to cor­rect the cur­rent defi­cien­cies. The ship will there­fore be out of ser­vice between Feb­ru­ary 1, 2010 and March 19, 2010.

We do have an alter­na­tive ship, the Miriam, which we will use while the River Tosca is dry docked. Uni­world has suc­cess­fully used the Miriam prior to intro­duc­ing the River Tosca and the ship is a good sub­sti­tute. The crew from the River Tosca – includ­ing the Hotel Man­ager, Exec­u­tive Chef, and Exec­u­tive House­keeper, all Uni­world employ­ees from our Euro­pean oper­a­tion, will be onboard the Miriam. We will also bring onto the Miriam some of the spe­cial ameni­ties cur­rently avail­able on the River Tosca, such as bed linens, robes, slip­pers, and bath prod­ucts. We will be offer­ing a com­pen­sa­tion pack­age to those clients sail­ing on the Miriam as we under­stand that some of our guests will be dis­ap­pointed with the ship change; how­ever, we will work very hard to ensure they still have a won­der­ful vaca­tion in Egypt.

We are also going to proac­tively reach out to our guests who are trav­el­ing prior to Feb­ru­ary 1 to update them on the sta­tus of the River Tosca.

This was a very dif­fi­cult deci­sion because we know that this will have an impact on our val­ued guests – some who have cho­sen to travel with Uni­world because they wanted to expe­ri­ence the new River Tosca. It is also a dif­fi­cult deci­sion because, even with the cur­rent defi­cien­cies of the ship, the over­all feed­back we have been receiv­ing from guests who have already trav­eled on the River Tosca is very pos­i­tive. The Cairo pro­gram, the Tour Man­agers, the excur­sions, the food, and the ser­vice onboard the ship have all been very well received. And of course the des­ti­na­tion itself is fab­u­lous. It is how­ever the right deci­sion for us to make.

Uni­world has built our very good rep­u­ta­tion today on being a very reli­able river cruise oper­a­tor and we are com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing our guests with a fan­tas­tic vaca­tion expe­ri­ence and value – in every region where we oper­ate. When we re-launch the River Tosca in March, we are con­fi­dent that we will achieve this com­mit­ment in Egypt.

After sev­eral years of suc­cess­fully launch­ing ships in Europe, the expe­ri­ence in Egypt has been a hum­bling one for me and the entire Uni­world team. I want to per­son­ally apol­o­gize to any of our guests who we may have let down and please know that we are work­ing hard to achieve our stated goal of oper­at­ing a lux­ury prod­uct in Egypt.

Kind regards,

Guy Young
President & CEO
Uniworld River Cruises, Inc.

I’ve been doing a lot of online hol­i­day shop­ping and recently picked up some nice travel gifts at Magellan’s Travel Sup­plies. When my items arrived, the box also con­tained a flyer about Magellan’s part­ner­ship with a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion called SEE Inter­na­tional.

Accord­ing to the orga­ni­za­tion, 75 per­cent of the world’s 37 mil­lion cases of blind­ness are actu­ally treat­able, mak­ing the loss of sight a human­i­tar­ian emergency.

SEE Inter­na­tional puts together teams of vol­un­teer oph­thal­mol­o­gists to go where their help is needed, includ­ing places like Thai­land, Mex­ico, Bangladesh, Viet­nam, and Zimbabwe.

Since 1974 SEE’s eye sur­geons have per­formed more than 360,000 sight-storing procedures.

Magellan’s has been a cor­po­rate part­ner of SEE Inter­na­tional for over 20 years, pro­vid­ing travel kits for sur­geons as well as adver­tis­ing out­reach to its customers.

Expe­di­tions to the fol­low­ing coun­tries are sched­uled for 2010: Swazi­land, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Ghana, The Gam­bia, Nige­ria, Namibia, and Kenya.

Dona­tions are tax deductible and may be made online via a secure server. Visit See International’s web­site or call 1-(805)963‑3303 and men­tion that you heard about the orga­ni­za­tion from Magellan’s Travel Supplies.

Sur­gi­cal Eye Expe­di­tions (SEE) Inter­na­tional is a 501©(3) non­profit orga­ni­za­tion. Tax ID #31–1682275.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of Maa­sai woman and child cour­tesy of iStockPhoto.com

If you’re a mem­ber of HHonors, Hilton’s fre­quent guest pro­gram, you’ll want to keep tabs on the upcom­ing open­ing of Hilton Wind­hoek in Namibia.

Hilton World­wide recently signed a man­age­ment agree­ment with Pride of Africa Hos­pi­tal­ity, Africa Pride Hos­pi­tal­ity, and United Africa Group for the first Hilton prop­erty in the country.

Mark your cal­en­dar for mid-2010. That’s when this brand new 154-room hotel will open its doors in Namibia’s cap­i­tal city.

This Hilton is espe­cially appeal­ing since it’s part of a mixed-use devel­op­ment that includes a casino, restau­rants, and bou­tiques as well as res­i­den­tial houses and offices.

The hotel is under con­struc­tion now. Stay tuned for more details as Hilton releases them.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Namibia Tourism Board

Project in Zam­bia with Plan Australia

Do you remem­ber the 1999 movie Office Space with Jen­nifer Anis­ton and Ron Liv­ingston? It’s a favorite of mine and if you haven’t seen it, I’ll need to explain one of the plot lines in order to set up this blog post.

Do you remem­ber the 1999 movie Office Space with Jen­nifer Anis­ton and Ron Liv­ingston? It’s a favorite of mine and if you haven’t seen it, I’ll need to explain one of the plot lines in order to set up this blog post.

Liv­ingston plays Peter Gib­bons, who works in an admin­is­tra­tive role at a com­puter com­pany called Initech. When his friends are laid off, they con­spire to devise a way to skim frac­tions of pen­nies off all finan­cial trans­ac­tions being han­dled by Initech. Con­sider it micro-embezzling.

Think about it… frac­tions of a dol­lar seem like chump change on its own, but com­bine all those frac­tions together and we’re talk­ing big money.

That’s sort of the con­cept that The Foot­prints Net­work, based in Aus­tralia, has embraced to fight poverty across the globe. They believe that micro donations—between $1 and $5—made by con­sumers dur­ing online trans­ac­tions can help fund com­mu­nity devel­op­ment projects.

The net­work funds pro­grams that upgrade farm­ing, edu­ca­tion, access to clean water, and sight restoration—all in an effort to elim­i­nate poverty. One of the cur­rent projects on the docket focuses on improv­ing farm­ing in Zam­bia. This will, in turn, increase access to food for the poor­est fam­i­lies in the region. Plan Aus­tralia is over­see­ing the train­ing program.

Founded in 2004 by WorldNomads.com after the Asian tsunami, 302,278 indi­vid­u­als have raised more than $785,383 for 53 projects around the world.

“Alle­vi­at­ing the extreme cycle of poverty and the ills that accom­pany it is everyone’s moral respon­si­bil­ity,” said Chris Novel, gen­eral man­ager of WorldNomads.com. “Yet the extent of world poverty can seem so over­whelm­ing that many of us are left feel­ing help­less and that the prob­lems are just too big for any one per­son to make a difference.”

In just five years, WorldNomads.com has devel­oped an inde­pen­dent net­work of e-commerce busi­nesses that share the same ethics and val­ues and, through tech­nol­ogy, seek to change the world by ask­ing cus­tomers spend­ing money online to make a small dona­tion to char­ity at the same time.

WorldNomads.com sup­ports all admin­is­tra­tive costs of the pro­gram so 100 per­cent of dona­tions go directly to the projects.

While the net­work is small, it is grow­ing. “We’re look­ing for more online e-commerce busi­ness part­ners to inte­grate the Foot­prints mech­a­nism into their shop­ping carts and, trans­ac­tion by trans­ac­tion, help make a dif­fer­ence,” said Noble.

This is def­i­nitely a pro­gram worth watch­ing. For more infor­ma­tion, visit The Foot­prints Network.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Head­ing to the Mal­dives soon? The island chain just wel­comed its first Hol­i­day Inn Resort on Kan­dooma Island on the South Malé atoll. For those of you who aren’t crazy about trans­fer­ring from Male Inter­na­tional Air­port to your resort via sea­plane (I’m rais­ing my hand right now), you won’t have to when vis­it­ing this Hol­i­day Inn. It’s just a 40-minute/22 mile speed­boat ride from MLE.

There are 160 vil­las here in eight cat­e­gories offer­ing every­thing from gar­den views to those entic­ing over-the-water bun­ga­lows. Each villa offers pic­ture win­dows, out­door show­ers, iPod dock­ing sta­tions, flat-screen TVs, and wire­less Internet.

The resort is hop­ing to lure busi­ness trav­els as well as vaca­tion­ers inter­ested in surf­ing and div­ing; the Hol­i­day Inn is nearby the Kan­dooma Chan­nel, Kan­dooma Caves, and Kan­dooma ‘Thila” (under­sea mountain).

You’ll be able to relax as much as you want or take part in a range of activ­i­ties. There’s a Dive Cen­tre and the Kan­dooma Spa as well as cata­ma­ran, wind­surf­ing, kayak­ing, and snor­kel­ing out­ings. Oh, and don’t for­get surf­ing lessons!

If you’ve got kids in tow, you’ll want to check out the resort’s Kids’ Club that offers babysit­ting ser­vices and age-specific activities.

Bren­dan Cor­co­ran is the gen­eral man­ager of the Hol­i­day Inn Resort Kan­dooma Mal­dives, which opened on Decem­ber 15, 2009.

Spe­cial intro­duc­tory rates start­ing at $290 per night are avail­able through March 31, 2010. Air­port trans­fers are an addi­tional $140 one-way for adults and $85 for children.

For more infor­ma­tion, speak with your travel agent or visit the web­site of the Hol­i­day Inn Resort Kan­dooma Mal­dives.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Hol­i­day Inn

Well, it’s finally our turn! The 2009 Travel Blog­gers’ Car­a­van wraps up today at LuxurySafariExperts.com. It’s been a fun two weeks and I’ve dis­cov­ered a lot of new travel blogs to watch through­out 2010. We hope you did too!

Today’s giveaway—a pair of Able Planet fold­ing noise-cancelling headphones—is cour­tesy of Magellan’s Travel Sup­plies. If you still need to pick up some last-minute hol­i­day gits, check out their web­site. Magellan’s offers some unique and very use­ful items for travelers.

If you’re trav­el­ing to Africa next year, you’ll want a pair of noise-reduction head­phones. They dra­mat­i­cally cut back on air­plane noise so you can lis­ten to music or a movie in com­fort. I tend to watch sev­eral movies on long-haul flights and noise-cancelling head­phones have saved the day on more than one occasion.

Win a Pair of Able Planet Fold­ing Noise-Cancelling Headphones

One lucky reader will be ran­domly cho­sen from all eli­gi­ble entries to win a pair of Able Planet Noise-Cancelling Head­phones. Con­test starts at mid­night on Decem­ber 15 and ends the same day at 11:59 pm. You must have a mail­ing address within the United States in order to be eli­gi­ble to enter and win.

How to Enter

Com­ment on this post between 12:00 am (mid­night) and 11:59 pm on Decem­ber 15, 2009. You’ll need to include your e-mail address so I may make con­tact if you are the win­ner. Good luck!

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Today’s stop on the Travel Blog­gers’ Car­a­van is: EuropeUpClose.com. Visit the blog and com­ment on today’s post for a chance to win a Fuji­film FinePix J28 10MP dig­i­tal cam­era with 3x opti­cal zoom.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com