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What cost of living crisis? Travel company launches £120k tour of Africa by private jet

Passengers will be accompanied by a doctor, photographer and luggage manager

Simon Calder
Travel Correspondent
Thursday 08 September 2022 10:17 BST
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Into Africa: Participants can expect the height of luxury
Into Africa: Participants can expect the height of luxury (Paul Goldstein)

As many people fret about high energy prices and the cost of living crisis, a luxury tour operator has unveiled a three-week tour to Africa next September costing £119,875 – or £5,450 per day.

Abercrombie & Kent is offering 48 travellers a lie-flat bed aboard a privately chartered 757 jet.

They will fly first from London to Cairo and Luxor in Egypt to visit the Pyramids and the antiquities of the upper Nile. Next, to Rwanda, for an encounter with mountain gorillas.

In Tanzania they will “explore the Serengeti in search of Africa’s iconic wildlife, and soar high above its plains in a hot-air balloon”.

For Botswana, “the finest safari camps” are promised as they search for wildlife in the Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park.

In Cape Town, accommodation is in the One&Only. The choice of activities includes wine tasting, a helicopter tour or visiting Robben Island – where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated.

The northbound journey begins with a stop in Cotonou, Benin where participants can “attend a Vodoun (Voodoo) ceremony for authentic insights into this venerable religion”.

The final nation is Morocco, for a night sleeping under the stars in the Sahara and another in The Oberoi in Marrakech.

The longest flight leg is just six hours, from Cape Town to Cotonou, meaning passengers may not get the full benefit from the lie-flat beds. But they will be accompanied on board by a doctor, a photographer and a luggage manager.

Geoffrey Kent, founder and chief executive of Abercrombie & Kent, said: “Africa is where I was born, where my parents and I founded A&K 60 years ago and where, even today, I still feel unbreakably connected to the land and its people.

“It has been a point of pride for me that A&K provide the best African travel experience available.”

The price is per person based on two sharing, with a single supplement of £26,290. Passengers are warned that prices may increase if exchange rates move unfavourably.

On Wednesday sterling fell to its lowest level against the US dollar since 1985.

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