Last night I skipped a function and deliberately stayed home to finish
a bespoke luxury trip to South Africa that I'm helping a reader arrange for her family.
In a way, it's quite fun to do as
she left all the decision-making to me.
She seems to have a pretty wide berth as far as budgets are concerned, and
she wanted best-of-breed experiences.
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| One of my favorite hotels in a never-endingly eventful Travelife... |
So I could book
the experiences, hotels and restaurants I wanted.
What a fun time I had,
planning a Travelife for someone else, but in a way I would do for myself.
Scroll down to read more...
MY OWN SHORTLIST
I booked a lot of the hotels, restaurants and wineries I'd used on
my own trip to South Africa last year, as I'd shortlisted those already
for my own private holiday.
So I knew these were good.
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The perfect pannacotta at one of South Africa's best restaurants.
And among the best restaurants in the world. |
So basically,
I was planning my own holiday in South Africa all over again.
We'd picked all
the best restaurants in South Africa for our trip, give or take a few, and so I'd booked this lady as well for
these same world-class places.
FOLLOWING FOOTSTEPS
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| At La Colombe in South Africa |
She and her family are eating in almost every restaurant we went to in South Africa, beginning from Day 1 to the last day of our two-week holiday.
It was enjoyable to remember this trip all over again.
How can you possibly not, when you're looking at the same photos and even the same routes?
ONLY THE BEST
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| This room was called the Armani Suite... |
So I'm even writing down
the exact room numbers of the nicer rooms in each of the hotels we stayed in, so they know which to ask for.
I'd done the same with the food.
At some restaurants,
I know exactly what to order.
So on her itinerary, I'd placed little notes like: "
The mussels in lemon grass and coriander are very good here," or "
Don't miss the sticky buns at breakfast."
I almost wanted to add: "
Bring some home for me, please."
Of course, this is almost impossible, although I do remember that we snuck a couple out from the breakfast table at one hotel and held on to our supply of
sticky buns in South Africa for four whole days.
We finally ate these for breakfast on our way to the airport for a series of flights back home on the last day of our trip to
South Africa.
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The antique desk in one of my favorite hotels
on my South African holiday last year... |
GOT TO GET MORE ROOIBOS TEA
But I will ask her to bring back some
organic loose rooibos tea for me -- just in case my supply doesn't hold out until my next trip.
Fortunately,
my next trip to South Africa may be sooner rather than later.
All this planning for
a dream trip to South Africa part 2 -- a trip I would've planned for myself, and that I've literally slaved on for a couple of days now. for someone else -- has been great.
But
last night I also realized I'm not going on it.
TRAVELIFE TO SOUTH AFRICA...
HERE WE COME...
I must admit
it's a bittersweet feeling to get so up close and personal with South Africa again, and at the same time, not to be able to re-experience it myself.
So I'm now thinking of
organizing a group together for a trip to this country I've grown to like a lot.
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| Come up Table Mountain with us, for a most amazing view.... |
It won't be
too over the top, so more people can join us, but it'll definitely be
a pretty nice Travelife kind of trip for about 10 days.
Call Meg or Kat at Travelife Magazine, if you wish to get on
our mailing list for South Africa, tentatively set for the middle of November. This was the exact time we went last year and
the weather was perfect.
Meg or Kat at Travelife Magazine
Tel 8138400/ 8922620 (office hours)
travelife@travelife.biz
In fact, come to think of it, almost everything about it was seamless and perfect in
a so very never-endingly eventful Travelife way.
