Vayama Travel Blog

Book  ‘Multiple Stops’ and save on fares aboard the  A380

By Florin R. Ferrs

(Cheap Airfare guru and world traveler.)

The advent of the A380 pasenger aircraft and its immense capacity should, in theory, save travelers money. But so far, the airlines operating these behemoths of the sky seem happy to charge a premium for the experience.  Much has been written about the A380’s upper floor, featuring showers, sleeper seats, private cabins and walk-up bars.  But what’s the experience like for the pasengers flying coach? Is it worth the premium for a springtime trip?

The big boys of the sky

AF A380 Size Does Matter

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Does South Africa Deliver? Florin R. Ferrs flies there to find out.

South Africa has been in the travel map a lot lately, with its vuvuzelas in the news during a great world cup this year, I was itching to find out if this country could really possibly deliver all the travel treasures it promises.

I found a deal on my favorite international airfare portal  for a flight on South African Airways to Cape Town via New York and Johannesburg, with a feeder flight from California to New York on Virgin America. I decided to book 2 separate roundtrip flights in order to spend one night in New York each way to break up the trip (I’m glad I did).

When it came to finding hotels in Cape Town, I found out that most hotels start from $100 and up. Backpacker hostels are a cheaper option,  but I wanted a private bathroom,  so I decided to use AirBnb.com. They are a San Francisco based website that puts you in touch with apartment owners from all over the world, enabling travellers to avoid hotels and save money, while getting a more localized experience.

My apartment owner turned out to be an artist from Leeds, England that purchased a cosy vacation studio apartment in downtown Cape Town, located walking distance to most of the sights,  inside a cool building with an interior courtyard with shops that cater to traveller’s needs (from laundry service, to a curry, plus a corner shop and an internet cafe).  The apartment owner was also able to organize covered parking with 24 hour security for my rental car (a bit of a necessity in Cape Town, more on that later).

Colorful Cape Town

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Whales, Elephants, Zebras and Warthogs in South Africa’s Capes.

By Florin R. Ferrs

After a week in Capetown, eating Cape Malay curries, browsing in the African markets, going up Table Top and hitting the bars along Long Street, I was quite ready to hit the road.

You can’t come to South Africa and not do a Safari.  So I decided to visit the South African National Parks website where I booked a cute bush bungalow in Addo Elephant Park.  Addo is not quite as large as Kruger National Park, but it’s quite impressive in its own right, with herds of wild elephants, zebras, warthogs, lions, cape buffalo and even whales and sharks just off its protected beaches.  Addo’s main entrance is located about an hour from Port Elizabeth, approximately a ten hour drive from Cape Town, in the Eastern Cape region.

I consult my guidebook and learn that fortunately the 10 hour drive is chock full of South African touristic wonders: The Cape Wine Region,  the whale watching coast around Walker Bay and the town of  Hermanus, the southernmost tip of Africa at Cape Alguhas, and the “Garden Route”,  that links several beach towns from Mossel Bay to the Surfing community of Jeffrey’s Bay.

Posh Stellenbosh

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Tweet and Win Two Tickets to South Africa on South African

What could be better than a trip to South Africa? A FREE trip to South Africa! Travel meets Twitter with South African Airways and vayama.com, who are giving YOU the chance to win two free international airfares to South Africa on South African Airways.

All you need to win is a valid Twitter account! Signing up is easy. Here’s how:

Step 1) Follow @SAAUSA and @vayama on Twitter.

Step 2) Click here to receive your unique URL and Tweet, and complete the entry form. Remember, the more people that enter the contest via your Tweet, the more chances you have to WIN!

And be sure to add us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on all of vayama’s great international airfare deals!

When You Win: Seven Sweet Things About South Africa

South Africa has arrived on the tourism map. This long-suffering country has now emerged as a touristic powerhouse to rival the most popular destinations in the world, and in many ways, surpasses them.

Why is South Africa So Happening Right Now?

1- It’s Breathtakingly Beautiful: South Africa’s rugged coastlines, powder-white coves, beautiful beaches, and wide-open plains are rife with amazing wildlife. World-class national parks host equally magnificent safaris for reasonable rates, welcoming travelers to the dynamic South African landscape and its majestic mountains, pine forests, stone deserts, and semi-tropical rivers.

South Africa is a beaut.

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Get way off the beaten track with vayama’s hot airfare deals.

By Florin R. Ferrs

In these days of GPS travel there are not many true off the beaten track places left to explore. Sure, one can trek into Iran from Kurdish Iraq (and get kidnapped for the effort) or take a wrong turn on a canoe ride of the Amazon river and end up in a Yanomami village set on wooden stilts with  virtually no contact with the outside world.  But when I say “Off the beaten Track” I refer to those last few places left on this earth where one can truly be isolated from the outside world and still maintain a modicum of civilization. No point going to the end of the world only to be inconvenienced by the utter lack of creature comforts. Let the brave kids wear the Birkenstock sandals and live off the grid while digging wells in some remote Central American village (been there, done that). Some of us are not getting any younger and my end of the world trip better come with running water, a beautiful beach and rustic local bar with crusty locals (make that a rustic tea shop in Muslim countries).

Until the end of the world:

Top 5 Off the Beaten Track Destinations for 2011.

Galapagos, Ecuador: Be Darwinian

The Galápagos Islands are famous for their endemic species first described by Charles Darwin:  Humpback whales, giant land tortoises, sea turtles, iguanas, albatrosses, the blue-footed booby, several species of seals and many more. Have a “Darwinian” adventure in the Galapagos with LAN Airlines new direct flights to the islands from the USA via Quito. Add a stopover in Quito and go from snow capped volcanoes at the center of the world to some of the most isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean. The only way to explore the islands is by boat, many relatively luxurious yachts offer snorkelling and “eco adventures”, book in advance and do your homework to find the best boat that fits your budget.

Galapagos: Giant Tortoise

Easter Island, Chile: Get a-head

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is one of the most isolated islands on earth, located on the southernmost corner of Polynesia. The island is home to the mysterious Moai (rock-heads monoliths). Rapan Nui has belonged to Chile since the 19th century, but a strong Polynesian culture remains. The sight of its many majestic Moai lined around the island, facing the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, is on the top of many a bucket list. It is possible to now fly from the USA (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Miami) to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), via Lima, Peru on LAN Airlines. I recommend a stopover in Lima on the way to Easter Island to do Machu Picchu, the Nazca lines and the beaches of Miraflores.

Rapanui: Hard-headed

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On the Beat’s Path:  Retrace the Beat Generation’s favorite haunts in Tangier  & Mexico with vayama’s cheap airfares.

By Florin R. Ferrs

(World traveler, cheap airfare expert and occasional beat.)

There are better hotels in Tangier than the El Muniria, but Naked Lunch wasn’t written in one of them.  Luxury sheets and a Jacuzzi do not make up for the wonderful view of  the Pillars of Hercules heralding the Atlantic into the Mediterranean that you get from the large French windows of the Hotel El Muniria’s Jack Kerouac Suite.

It isn’t even much of a suite, just a single room with a queen bed and a private bathroom (its second luxury).  The bed of the Jack Kerouac suite is positioned in such a way so that when you awake to Tangier’s early morning calls to prayer,  your feet will point towards the large French  windows, inviting you to open them wide to admire the expanse of Tangier’s bay, its palm lined beach boulevard and the dry hills of southern Spain on the opposite shore of the Mediterranean.

A room with a view at the El Muniria



The Beat poets put the hotel El Muniria on the map; a framed black and white picture above the tiny bar of the “Tangier Inn” downstairs captures them in all their Beat Generation Glory: Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, smiling in the Hotel’s garden with its British expat proprietor.  Nowadays you can enjoy lunch in Tangier with your clothes on, don’t miss the fabulous Cus Cus au legumes, its labyrinthine Medina, chock full of spices,  camel leather cushions and colorful textiles.  Do as the locals do and spend a lazy afternoon sipping sweet Moroccan tea outdoors in one of Tangier’s many French era cafe’s.  Save your energy for Tangier’s wild nightlife of belly dancer bars and, of course, lively conversation and cold Moroccan beers at the bar of the Tangier Inn, where you might meet an interesting ex-pat or two.

You can fly nonstop to Morocco and avoid the occasional volcanic interruptions that have closed airports in the U.K. & Ireland.  Vayama.com is offering discounted airfares from New York to Casablanca on Royal Air Maroc , you can also fly into Madrid and take the train south to Algeciras where they run a daily ferry to Tangier.  I found great fares on Vayama.com from the East coast to Madrid, with the added bonus that Madrid has remained open trough all the volcano crisis, making it a great base for your southwestern Mediterranean off the “beat”-en path explorations.

The Tangier inn: Lunch is dressed nowadays

Mexico City Blues

You can still trace the Beats without booking a transatlantic flight; I just saw that vayama’com has discounted airfares on Aeromexico, nonstop from San Francisco to Mexico City , a city that has retained most of the charms that made it a hot bed of the Beat generation. Great world-class museums, cozy cantinas, and leafy plazas selling colorful arts and crafts or as William Burroughs puts it in his introduction to his novel Queer: “I liked Mexico City from the first day of my first visit there; it was a cheap place to live, with a large foreign colony… cockfights and bullfights, and every conceivable diversion. A single man could live well there for two dollars a day.”

Prices have gone up a bit since Burroughs’s day, but you can still stay in a cheap and clean backpacker’s hostel right on the Zocaco (Mexico City’s large downtown Plaza) from $16 per night and sip a nice cup of coffee for two bucks while been serenaded by a Mexican Guitar trio at Café Tacuba, a 100-year-old coffee shop and Restaurant tucked away on one of the many cobblestoned streets that emanate from the Zocalo.

Perhaps the best guidebook of Beat Generation Mexico city is Jack Kerouac’s poem “Tristessa”, where he describes the Mariachis on Plaza Garibaldi (they are still there) and the large Diego Rivera  Murals that are a Mexico City staple.

El Mariachi on Plaza Garibaldi

Take the Turibus (Mexico City’s Big Red open top Tourist Bus), and hop on and on along all the wonderful sights and sounds of this greatly underappreciated city, including stops in the Downtown Zocalo, the amazing National Museum of Anthropology, the bohemian enclave of Coyoacán, home of Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul and Troski’s house and Mexico City’s wonderfully large Chapultepec Park, where Jack Kerouac suggested to Burroughs that the name for his upcoming book should be; Naked Lunch.  A book that was not to be completed until a few years later in a  hotel room next to the “Tangier Inn” in Tangier’s El Muniria hotel.

Beat it to Morroco & Mexico with vayama’s cheap international airfares.

Next Week: Lisbon Escapade

Q: Did those extra seats to Johannesburg on South African Airways for the World Cup become available?

By Florin R. Ferrs (Frugal frequent flyer & international airfare expert)

I am glad to announce that yes; South African Airways is releasing more and more economy seats for travel in June. The discounted airfare from the USA to Johannesburg for the World Cup dates are also far lower than they were last year. Check out vayama’s airfare deals on South African Airways today.

I already saw a deal on Vayama from $1049 total from Washington to Johannesburg. More seats will become available through the winter and spring so keep checking vayama to find the best deals to South Africa for the World Cup. Goooooool!

Here is the original question and reply from last year.

Q: How do we get discounted airline tickets to Johannesburg for the South Africa Football World Cup next June?

Unfortunately, FIFA dictates who they can sell their tickets and there are only 3 large consolidators appointed in the USA by FIFA – who can sell the entire world cup package (Including hotels plus Air etc).

The discounted airline tickets to Johannesburg for next June are currently blocked by the airlines to fulfill the package deals given out through the FIFA appointed agents.

However vayama.com expects to get last minute deals when the appointed agents return some blocked seats, if they are unable to sell everything by the ticketing deadline – that will be sometime next year, aprox 3 to 4 months before the June kickoff . So keep checking this space and the vayama.com website for news of cheap Johannesburg Tickets closer to June.