On June 2, Sanc­tu­ary Zebra Plains opened for busi­ness in South Luangwa, Zam­bia. Zebra Plains promises the ulti­mate bush expe­di­tion for adven­ture seekers—a walk­ing safari com­bined with fine din­ing and high-end tented accommodations.

Respected guide Garth Hov­ell leads two walks each day at Sanc­tu­ary Zebra Plains and it’s com­mon for guests to see hip­pos, hun­dreds of species of birds, zebra, ele­phant, ante­lope, buf­falo, puku, lion, leop­ard, and wild dog. In addi­tion to Hov­ell, safari-goers are accom­pa­nied by armed game scouts and a tea bearer. Depar­tures are set on Mon­day and Thurs­day, with a three-night stay minimum.

The inti­macy of this safari expe­ri­ence is main­tained with just four tents—two dou­bles and two twins. Each tent has a bed, com­fort­able fur­ni­ture, mos­quito nets, en suite facil­i­ties and a flush toi­let. Water for al fresco show­ers is mixed to your pre­ferred tem­per­a­ture by a tent atten­dant. Meals are taken in the main mess tent with a full din­ing area, library, and bar.

This sea­sonal camp is open from June to Octo­ber each year and is designed to leave the low­est pos­si­ble car­bon foot­print. In fact, in between sea­sons the camp is packed up leav­ing no trace…as if it were never there.

Zebra Plains is offer­ing an open­ing spe­cial: book a stay for two at Zebra Plains and the sec­ond guest’s stay is half price (a sav­ings up to $825). This deal is valid for new book­ings for travel that takes place between June 1 and Octo­ber 31, 2011.

Con­sider com­bin­ing the walk­ing safari with a stay at Sanctuary’s per­ma­nent lodges in South Luangwa: Sanc­tu­ary Puku Ridge Camp and Sanc­tu­ary Chichele Pres­i­den­tial Lodge, where they are cur­rently offer­ing three nights for the price of two.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact your travel agent or Sanc­tu­ary Retreats.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Sanc­tu­ary Resorts

Sanc­tu­ary Retreats reached out to me today to let me know about a change to the yel­low fever vac­ci­na­tion rec­om­men­da­tions in Africa.

Accord­ing to Sanc­tu­ary, the World Health Organ­i­sa­tion (WHO) recently revised its yel­low fever vac­ci­na­tion rec­om­men­da­tions for the con­ti­nent. As a result, the South African Depart­ment of Health issued a state­ment that all trav­el­ers from South Africa to Zam­bia and trav­el­ers from Zam­bia to South Africa will now require proof of a yel­low fever vac­ci­na­tion. This was not pre­vi­ously required.

All in-transit pas­sen­gers between the two des­ti­na­tions, irre­spec­tive of the time period in tran­sit, will also require proof of yel­low fever vaccination.

Con­sult your doc­tor about this change or find a physi­cian spe­cial­iz­ing in travel med­i­cine at the Amer­i­can Soci­ety of Trop­i­cal Med­i­cine and Hygiene or the Inter­na­tional Soci­ety of Travel Med­i­cine. Also, don’t miss the CDC’s Health Infor­ma­tion for Trav­el­ers to Zam­bia.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

NEWS FROM SANCTUARY CHICHELE PRESIDENTIAL LODGE, ZAMBIA—On April 13, His Excel­lency Dr. Ken­neth Kaunda vis­ited Sanc­tu­ary Chichele Pres­i­den­tial Lodge to offi­cially re-open the prop­erty after an exten­sive refur­bish­ment. The lodge was orig­i­nally built in the 1970s for Dr. Kaunda, the first Repub­li­can pres­i­dent of Zam­bia, as his pri­vate retreat in the South Luangwa National Park.

The open­ing cer­e­mony was also attended by other dig­ni­taries includ­ing for­mer First Lady and now Deputy Min­is­ter of Tourism Vera Tembo, The Hon­ourable Min­is­ter of East­ern Province Isaac Banda, His Royal High­ness Chief Makumbi and Tim­o­thy Mushibwe, Chair­man of the Zam­bian Tourism Board, along with mem­bers of the local media.

Dur­ing his speech, for­mer pres­i­dent Dr. Kaunda thanked Sanc­tu­ary Retreats for the sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment made in Zam­bia and the role they are play­ing in pro­mot­ing tourism in the coun­try. He empha­sised that tourism is crit­i­cal for the devel­op­ment of the local econ­omy in Zam­bia as it pro­vides employ­ment for local peo­ple and assists in the fight against HIV and Aids.

His Excel­lency also had time for a game drive in the val­ley where he spot­ted plenty of wildlife includ­ing the noto­ri­ous Chichele pride of lions on a buf­falo kill with their three small cubs, before end­ing the day with cel­e­bra­tory sun­downer drinks on the mag­nif­i­cent Chichele Hill.

His Excel­lency stayed over at Sanc­tu­ary Chichele Pres­i­den­tial Lodge and left the next morn­ing with these kind words: “How won­der­ful to come back here to Chichele. The recep­tion was as out­stand­ing as always with won­der­ful and mean­ing­ful smiles.”

For more infor­ma­tion about Sanc­tu­ary Chichele Pres­i­den­tial Lodge, talk with your travel agent or con­tact Sanc­tu­ary Retreats.

Photo cour­tesy of Sanc­tu­ary Retreats

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

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

Okay, British Air­ways won’t take you to Africa for free, but with a new pro­mo­tion they’ve announced with part­ner credit card Chase Visa, they will give you 100,000 bonus miles that can be used to travel to many amaz­ing African  gate­ways, including:

Egypt (Cairo, Hurghada, and Sharm el Sheikh)
Kenya (Nairobi)
Mau­ri­tius
Morocco (Mar­rakech)
Namibia (Wind­hoek)
South Africa (Cape Town, Dur­ban, Johan­nes­burg, Port Eliz­a­beth)
Tan­za­nia (Dar Es Salaam)
Uganda (Entebbe)
Zam­bia (Liv­ing­stone, Lusaka)
Zim­babwe (Harare)

So how do you get this prac­ti­cally free trip to Africa? By sign­ing up for an unprece­dented bonus mile deal: earn 100,000 miles with a new British Air­ways Visa Sig­na­ture Card from Chase.

Card Ben­e­fits

• receive 50,000 miles after your first purchase
• spend $2,000 within three months of open­ing your card and receive an addi­tional 50,000 miles
• earn 1.25 miles for each $1 spent
• earn 2.5 miles for money spent on BA purchases
• spend $30,000 in a cal­en­dar year and you’ll receive a 2-for-1 com­pan­ion award certificate
• $50 off a British Air­ways flight if booked before Decem­ber 31, 2009 (for travel before the end of 2010)

This promo is espe­cially entic­ing since British Air­ways offers what they call “House­hold Accounts.” This means you can com­bine miles with any­one liv­ing at the same address. That makes man­ag­ing miles SO much eas­ier! You’ll retain your own Exec­u­tive Club mem­ber­ship but your mileage bal­ances will be combined.

You may use British Air­ways miles on any OneWorld air­line, including:

Amer­i­can Air­lines
Cathay Pacific
Finnair
Iberia
Japan Air­lines
LAN
Malev
Quan­tas
Royal Jordanian

Other British Air­ways part­ners also include:

Aer Lin­gus
Alaskan Air­lines
Brus­sels Air­lines
Caribbean Air­lines
Mexicana

This British Airways/Chase Visa promo is def­i­nitely some­thing to look into, espe­cially if you’ll be trav­el­ing to Africa in the com­ing years. I know that’s how I’ll spend my miles! Apply for the card now.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Sanc­tu­ary Lodges & Camps—founded by Aber­crom­bie & Kent as envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able lodgings—has expanded into Zam­bia with five new properties:

Sussi & Chuma is built among huge ebony trees, just upstream from Vic­to­ria Falls in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park. The 10 lux­ury tree houses have pri­vate views of the Zam­bezi River. Chuma House is an exclu­sive two-bedroom villa located near the lodge.

Lechwe Plains Tented Camp in the Lochin­var National Park, north of Lusaka, is a photographer’s par­adise. Located on the Chunga Lagoon, this World Her­itage Wet­land offers incred­i­ble birdlife and tens of thou­sands of Kafue Lechwe (ante­lope), an aquatic ante­lope of excep­tional grace.

Kulefu Tented Camp in the Lower Zam­bezi National Park is on the wildest stretch of the Zam­bezi. Eight spa­cious tents are set on plat­forms at the river’s edge.

Puku Ridge Tented Camp in the South Luangwa National Park is a real wilder­ness expe­ri­ence under can­vas with excit­ing wildlife oppor­tu­ni­ties. This superb prop­erty is located on a ridge over­look­ing game rich floodplains.

Chichele Pres­i­den­tial Lodge was orig­i­nally built by Pres­i­dent Kaunda and refur­bished as an early colo­nial “Gentleman’s Lodge”. The hill­top set­ting in South Luangwa National Park over­looks plains teem­ing with wildlife.

“Though rel­a­tively unknown out­side Africa, Zam­bia offers a diverse range of envi­ron­ments with pro­lific wildlife,” said Aber­crom­bie & Kent Group Chair­man and CEO Geof­frey Kent. “Walk­ing safaris were pio­neered in Zambia’s Luangwa Val­ley; if you have only seen ani­mals from inside a vehi­cle, you will find walk­ing with big game a thrilling expe­ri­ence. Night dri­ves are also a spe­cialty and the best means of see­ing some of the more elu­sive noc­tur­nal species, includ­ing leopard.”

The com­pany also oper­ates Olo­nana in Kenya’s Masai Mara; Swala in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park and Kusini in the Serengeti; Gorilla For­est Camp in Uganda’s Bwindi Impen­e­tra­ble For­est; and four prop­er­ties in Botswana (Sanc­tu­ary Chief’s Camp, Sanc­tu­ary Chobe Chilwero, Sanc­tu­ary Stanley’s Camp, and Sanc­tu­ary Baines’ Camp).

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Aber­crom­bie & Kent or call 1-(800) 554‑7094.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of Zam­bezi Kulefu Camp by Yolandi Scanes, cour­tesy of Aber­crom­bie & Kent