Any recommendations? I've contacted a few people I know visit this site but no reponse yet and I'm getting a bit antsy to get something confirmed. Thanks

Do a search on Kathi who posts here. She's very experienced in dealing with hunters travelling to Africa and is ALWAYS on the ball..........

I recomend Kathi at Wild Travel. She is a member here and has been excellent in stting up and changing things for me. Including rearanging my schedule while I was in country so that I could stick around to hunt another elephant last year.

JPK

......and other vote for Kathi!! She is great to work with. She hunts and knows hunters.

Bob


kathi@wildtravel.net
708-425-3552

Another vote for Kathi from me... I've buffooned around trying to get my flights just right and she's changed them for me again and again without complaint.

Elaine Porteous at African Odyssey Travel
866 486 9351

Shawn at Gracey Travel. Great to deal with and not too misfortunate looking (if you ever meet face-to-face). She did my trip to Zim in 05 and it went off without a hitch.

Brian

Another vote for Kathi, and she is a hunter. I would rather support a fellow hunter that will go the extra mile to help you than some of the other tree huggers mentioned. Sorry about that latter comment, the devil made me do it.

Steve Turner at Gracy Travel (1-800-299-8558 or Steve@Gracytravel.com) is also very good. He will try to get everything you ask for at the best price he can.

I also highly recommend Kathi. She has been a great help to us over the past several years.

I have had great experience with Susan Hill at Gracey Travel.

She was able to get a hunting buddy and I a great deal on a upgrade to business class going to Zambia this July.

Leaving July 17,

H KITTLE

KATHI! Damn it!

Here is Kathi's phone number, the best way to quickly get things setup: (708) 425-3552

Phone Kathi at 708-425-3552. As mentioned, she is a hunter and many of the other agencies are not staffed with hunters.

I also think you will find Kathi to be lower in cost than Gracey.

And the winner is Kathi by a landslide!!!!!

Kathi seems nice, but I haven't used her.

I have been using Gracy Travel since '95, and they are outstanding. They provide excellent travel packages for African hunts, and they are great at fixing things when a wheel comes off. I also recommend them to clients.

jim

Kathi is the one

I have never used Kathi but her reputation here is stellar. I have been using Gracey Travel and dealing with Steve. He is extremely effecient and knows his stuff. He has been great to work with.


465H&H

Shawn Brigance at Gracy Travel. She took care of my arrangements to Zim in 2003 and 2005. Great job and great trips.
Doug

Shawn at Gracy Travel has handled all of my 5 trips to Africa and I have never had a problem. In fact, she looked after some things that I had not thought of.

Kathi made my arrangements. A fine job and very pleasant to deal with

highly recommend.

Dear AR Guests ...

This is direct from my Company Profile pdf document and offers you a wide selection choice for consideration ... They are ALL superb

Some (Travel Agents) to consider ex: North America to JNB (Johannesburg)

Gracy Travel San Antonio TX --- Webpage Link

Travel Studio Toronto ----------- Webpage Link

Premier Tours PA ----------------- Webpage Link

Kathi Klimes --------------- kathi@wildtravel.net

Take care

Cheers, Peter

I've also used Kathi and was quite happy with her. She seems to be the most popular here followed by Gracy. I don't think that you can go wroug with either, although I'll be calling Kathi for next year.

TerryR

I would recommend you do a search and you will find a lot of information on various travel agents, good and bad.

Another vote for Kathi. Jerry Hoover

Linda Schrader (used to be Linda Carroll)
Falcon Travel, Inc
3030 Orchard Hill
San Antonio, TX 78230
Tel: 210.479.9895
Fax: 210.492.9486
lacarroll@earthlink.net

She will take care of you start to finish and has sent many to the the dark continent. Highly recommend her.

Lane Easter
ledvm

I've used Elaine Porteous at African Odyssey for three trips. She has been very helpful when SA Air screwed with flights, and patient with me with changes.

Both times I went to Africa in the 90's I used Custom Travel. They were usually the lowest fares but that was before the internet became so popular.

They usually have a small ad in the SCI "newspaper".

http://www.customtravelafrica.com/

Gacey back then had a bad habit of booking a spot for you on SAA even if you just made an inquiry. If you went with someone else, you had to call Gacey back to remove their hold because you couldn't be double booked on the same flight. They tried to pump me for info i.e. prices I paid but I wasn't playing.

Why not do it yourself? I have used agents over the years, and invariably they do a good job for a while, but somehow they always seem to screw stuff up eventually.

Like a lot of people these days, I have traveled extensively for work and vacations--something like 70+ times to Europe, Africa 13 times, etc. and have nearly 2 million miles on my FF accounts.

Many of my associates travel as much and NO ONE uses an agent. I suppose they are good for the occassional traveler, but I think they are totally unnecessary- they make mistakes, slow things down, etc.

I tried to use Kathi for a slightly complicated trip, multiple emails, three phone calls, and she just wan't paying attention or was too busy, but she never got it right, so I just gave up. She also struck my as somewhat of a "know it all" who was telling me things that I knew, for a fact, were incorrect.

I then called Shawn at Gracy three times in a week's period, and never got a return call.

With the internet you don't need them, And for those who travel certain routes often, you willknow as much or more than the agent.

Some may not agree, but this has been my experience.

I have used kathi as well as one of the others mentioned here and all in all I prefer dealing with kathi klimes. No agent is God and some mishaps are beyond repair by anyone: for example; last month my united flight from Dallas to Dulles was cancelled. causing me to miss my scheduled saa flight; the next day my rescheduled saa flight was cancelled until the next morning. So, for two days I sat around in Washington. Kathi did what she could, but , no one can prevent two separate planes owned by two separate airlines to
develop mechanical problems on the same trip.