Archive for the ‘Southern Africa’ Category

Hilton Windhoek to Open in Namibia in Mid-2010

Posted on December 19th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

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

Micro Donations to The Footprints Network Tackles World Poverty

Posted on December 18th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

Project in Zambia with Plan Australia

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.

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.
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

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

December 15: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Posted on December 15th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

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

December 14: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Posted on December 14th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

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

December 13: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Posted on December 13th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

Today’s stop on the Travel Blog­gers’ Car­a­van is: MyItchyTravelFeet.com. Visit the blog and com­ment on today’s post for a chance to win two great prizes: a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card, which may be used at any Barnes & Noble store or online at BarnesandNoble.com, and a “Library Edi­tion” of the most recent sea­son of “Rudy Maxa’s World”, including six DVDs con­tain­ing 13 shows on des­ti­na­tions in India, Turkey, Japan, Thai­land, St. Peters­burg, Esto­nia, and Argentina ($112 value).

“Library Edi­tion” of the most recent sea­son of “Rudy Maxa’s World”,
includ­ing six DVDs con­tain­ing 13 shows on des­ti­na­tions in India, Turkey, Japan, Thai­land, St. Peters­burg, Esto­nia, and Argentina ($112 value“Library Edi­tion” of the most recent sea­son of “Rudy Maxa’s World”,including six DVDs con­tain­ing 13 shows on des­ti­na­tions in India, Turkey, Japan, Thai­land, St. Peters­burg, Esto­nia, and Argentina ($112 value)

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

December 12: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Posted on December 12th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

Today’s stop on the Travel Blog­gers’ Car­a­van is: EllenBarone.com. Visit the blog and com­ment on today’s post for a chance to win a day pack from First Ascent, a new extreme adven­ture line of gear and cloth­ing form Eddie Bauer and partners.

In addi­tion, ExOf­fi­cio will be pro­vid­ing the ulti­mate travel ensem­ble! You could be trekking the globe in the lat­est ExOf­fi­cio out­fit includ­ing; 1 Shirt, 1 Pair of Pants and 1 Pair of ExOf­fi­cio Under­wear. (approx­i­mately $200 value)

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com


December 11: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Posted on December 11th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

Today’s stop on the Travel Blog­gers’ Car­a­van is: CruiseDiva.com. Visit the blog and com­ment on today’s post for a chance to win a copy of Fodor’s The Com­plete Guide to Caribbean Cruises and a World Ground­ing Adap­tor Set cour­tesy of Magellan’s Travel Supplies.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

December 10: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Posted on December 10th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

Today’s stop on the Travel Blog­gers’ Car­a­van is: JtheTravelAuthority.com. Visit the blog and com­ment on today’s post for a chance to win a Moun­tain­smith Tour FX cam­era bag.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

$950 RT to Johannesburg, South Africa from JFK or IAD

Posted on December 9th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

Lion at Kings Camp, Timbavati in South Africa (photo by Leonard Hospidor)

South African Air­ways is offer­ing a good deal for econ­omy roundtrip travel from U.S. gate­ways to Johan­nes­burg. From now through April 30, 2010, you can fly roundtrip from New York (JFK) or Wash­ing­ton Dulles (IAD) for $950 per per­son. (Of course, you’ll also pay approx­i­mately $140 for the required gov­ern­men­tal taxes, depar­ture fees, and the Sep­tem­ber 11 secu­rity fee.)

Sim­i­lar low fares are also avail­able from other U.S. cities.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

December 9: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Posted on December 9th, 2009 by Andrea M. Rotondo

Today’s stop on the Travel Blog­gers’ Car­a­van is: What a Trip. Visit the blog and com­ment on today’s post for a chance to win an Otter­box cell phone case or a Briggs and Riley Base­line 20-inch carry-on expand­able wide-body upright suitcase.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

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December 14: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: EuropeUpClose.com. Visit ...

December 13: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: MyItchyTravelFeet.com. Visit ...

December 12: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: EllenBarone.com. Visit ...

December 11: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: CruiseDiva.com. Visit ...

December 10: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: JtheTravelAuthority.com. Visit ...

December 9: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

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December 8: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: JohnnyJet.com. Visit ...

December 7: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: CiaoBambino.com. Visit ...

December 6: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

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December 4: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

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Uniworld Dry Docks River Tosca & Replaces Her with Miriam on Egypt’s Nile River

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New Madagascar Conservation Map

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Morocco: Port of Call for Windstar Cruises in 2009

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Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park on 60 Minutes

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Namibia

Hilton Windhoek to Open in Namibia in Mid-2010

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Kensington Tours Discounts Its Sophisticated South Africa Package

Kensington Tours Discounts Its Sophisticated South Africa Package

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$950 RT to Johannesburg, South Africa from JFK or IAD

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Uncategorized

December 5: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

December 5: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: TheBrooklynNomad.com. Visit ...

December 3: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: DreamofItaly.com. Visit ...

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December 2: Win Cool Travel Prizes!

Today's stop on the Travel Bloggers' Caravan is: LuxuryCruiseBible.com. Visit ...