Four resources for horse-crazy travelers

by Katie Hammel on

I grew up riding horses, and though now that I live in a big city I don’t get to ride as often as I’d like, I still love the feeling of galloping on horseback to the rhythm of hoof beats. I’ve ridding with the gauchos in Argentina, through coffee fields in Honduras, over rolling green hills in Hawaii, and on the five-gaited four-legged teddy bear of an equine that is the Icelandic Horse. If you love horses and are looking to plan an equestrian vacation, here are four resources to get you started.

Equitours, “America’s largest and oldest horseback riding vacation company”, offers packaged tours for avid equestrians. With tours in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe, America, and the South Pacific, they pretty much cover the globe by horseback. The site allows you to search by experience level, location, length of tour, and date. Trips range in cost from $800 to $2900 and include riding, accommodations, meals and transfers, but not flights.

Hidden Trails Equestrian Tours offers packaged vacations, but goes beyond the standard trail rides. In addition to vacation treks, they offer cattle and wild horse drives, riding clinics, covered wagon treks, riding safaris and pack trips in over 40 countries. Specialty trips include ride and cook, ride and fish, woman only, and gaited horse trips. Rates range from $600 to $3000 and include riding, accommodations, meals and transfers, but not flights.Equitrekking works with local riding companies to offer equestrian vacations throughout North and South America and Europe, with few options in South Africa, India and Nepal. In addition to offering links to the individual companies and their tours (which range in price, riding ability required and length) the site also offers advice and information on equestrian travel, travel tips, and clips from episodes of the Equitrekking TV show.

Nancy D. Brown, a travel writer and the lodging editor at Uptake.com, details horseback vacations around the world on her new blog, Writing Horseback. Detailing everything from full-service ranches and resorts to equestrian vacations and companies offering trail rides, her site covers destinations from California and Oregon to Antigua, Norway, and Hawaii. It’s not a fully comprehensive list of everything that’s out there (the site is quite new) but if you are open to suggestions for a destination, want to plan a trip to a resort that caters to riders, and prefer first-hand reviews, this website is a great resource.

Tourists sue safari park when lions get too close

by Kraig Becker on

The Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, located northeast of Cape Town in South Africa, is being sued by eight British tourists who had a wildlife experience that was a bit more than they had bargained for. According to this story from London Times, the travelers are now seeking hundreds of thousands of British pounds in damages after suffering through a traumatic experience that left them bruised, battered, and shaken.

While visiting the park back in 2007, the group’s vehicle overturned, temporarily stranding them in the park, while a pride of lions closed in around them. Several of the occupants of the vehicle suffered injuries, including broken ribs and a variety of other bumps and bruises, all the while being eyed like lunch by the big cats, which actually came within a meter and a half of the frightened travelers. One of the lions even made off with a boot belonging to one of the tourists.

Eventually, the group was rescued by another safari vehicle that passed by, and now the 8 Brits are looking for £582,000 (roughly $955,000) in compensation, citing post-traumatic stress and emotional damages. The lodge, which is largest private game reserve in South Africa, says that it will fight the charges in court.

This story reminds me why it is a good idea to have travel insurance when heading into more rugged areas.

Relative stability brings tourists back to Zimbabwe

by Sean McLachlan on

For a while now most news out of Zimbabwe has been bad. Gross mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe led the country to financial ruin and hyperinflation, with people using gasoline as currency because nobody wanted the government’s $50 million dollar bills.

But with the return of relative stability thanks to the new unity government, tourists are coming back to Zimbabwe. The nation’s Council of Tourism reports that 362,000 people visited Zimbabwe by August 2009, up from 100,000 in the same period in 2008. It wasn’t clear if this figure only counted tourists or all foreign visitors. A decade ago, Zimbabwe raked in $250 million annually in tourism revenue. That dipped to just $40 million in 2005, but has risen to $100 million since the unity government came into power in 2008.

However the numbers are created, it’s still good news. With the country’s economy in shambles, an influx of foreign currency is sure to help. The government has been offering tax incentives for companies wanting to invest in Zimbabwe tourism. And with attractions such as Victoria Falls (pictured here) and abundant wildlife, if you’re looking for good deals on an African trip you may want to consider Zimbabwe. They’ll certainly be glad to see you.

South African safari lion reminds people to lock their doors

by Scott Carmichael on

Imagine this – instead of sitting in your car, slowly driving through the Lion Safari Park in Johannesburg, one of the cast members decides to pay you a personal visit.

The 300lb lion was able to open the rear door with his teeth, and right as he was about to climb aboard for lunch, the driver hit the gas and drove off.

A car behind the vehicle was able to catch the incident with his camera, and as you can see above, the lion was pretty close to getting into the car.

The car sped off, with the lion chasing it, obviously annoyed that his delicious snack was leaving him. A park warden was able to hold the lion back by throwing stones at it.

Lesson learned: lock your car doors whenever you are surrounded by wild animals. According to the park, all animals are well fed, and it is “unlikely” that they’d attack any tourists. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not take that chance.
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(Photo from The Telegraph/KETTS)

Plan a luxury safari in the US with American Safari Cruises

by Katie Hammel on

When most people think of a “safari” they think of hiking through the bush of South Africa or trekking through the jungles of Costa Rica in search of exotic animals native to the region.

But here in the US we have plenty of our own wild animals to see and going “on safari” here doesn’t have to mean doing one of those drive-though “wild animal” parks where non-native animals like zebras and giraffes flock to your car for the food they know you’re going to throw at them through your open window.

For a more upscale safari trip in the United States, check out American Safari Cruises, which offers small-group ultra-luxury all-inclusive sailings around North America. There’s aren’t your typical mega-cruises. The vessels are yatchs and are limited to 12, 22 or 36 guests. All meals, airport transfers, alcoholic drinks and shores excursions are included in the price. And according to the company’s website, they institute green and sustainable practices, and give back to the communities they visit on each safari.

Some of the safaris offered include spotting whales, black bears, grizzly bears, bald eagles, mountain goats and wolves in Alaska, birdwatching and snorkeling with sea turtles and exotic fish in Hawaii, and looking for whales, sea lions, seals, black bears and deer in the Pacific Northwest.

Cruises range from 7 to 14 nights and rates start at about $5000 per person.