happytourist

We were looking at taking Grand Circle's Capetown to Cairo tour next year and we needed to arrive in Capetown 5 days early to visit a friend. GC says they don't do early tickets, only extensions at the end. We were told to book our own one-way ticket and they won't reduce their price any to compensate.

Obviously, this is unacceptable. I'm really disappointed that GC won't work with us on this--certainly we aren't the first people to ask for this. GC went to Capetown to safari in Kenya to Cairo with post-trip to Jordan.So, does anyone know of another company that does this sort of tour?

thit_cho

I think Nomad and Dragoman offer the Cape Town - Cairo overland tour.

thit_cho

Guerba may also offer it

LynnieD

At least with OAT, which is a branch of GC, you can book your own airfare entirely and they will deduct an amount from the cost of the tour. I did this on their Thailand tour and the amount they discounted for the air was quite fair.

annhig

Hi HT,

I've never taken a trip like this. but in general I'd think twice about booking with people who prove so inflexible. after all, travel is a service industry - if they aren't willing to work with you on this, what is their overall level of service going to be like?

I'd take my $ or £ somewhere where it's more welcome!

regards, ann

ekscrunchy

Here is one you might be interested in. These tours are not truly CapeTown to Cairo excursions in the traditional sense; rather, they are tours that include the Cape, Kenya and Egypt:


http://www.iexplore.com/itinerary/result/48967

happytourist

Thanks for the recommendations of tour companies. We may end up putting together two different packages--one for the safari and the other in Egypt (and hopefully Jordan).

I would still prefer GC (we just did OAT to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos). LynnieD, if they worked with you on tickets, then they can work with us. I'm going to keep calling until I get a better sales rep!

ekscrunchy

If you are flying all the way to SA, you might choose to spend your entire vacation in that country, as there is SO much to see, rather than hop the huge distances from SA to Kenya to Egypt.
Why don't you see the game reserves in SA, rather than going all the way there only to see the Cape?

happytourist

We're going to Capetown to see my old college roommate who lives there. She is going to take us all around the country, although we'll probably do the game reserves ourselves as she has done it many times. We can do the game trip in SA--the only reason for Kenya was that was what was in the Grand Circle tour.

We originally planned a RTW trip, starting in Egypt, going to SA, and then to India, etc. but decided against that as too much trip for us. That's why we still have the Egypt/SA combination in play.

LynnieD

It was no big deal at all. I just told them when I booked that I would handle my own airfare and that was the end of it. A complete non issue.