by Mike Wood | Jan 5, 2026
Seychelles were a mixed bag. The Seychelles comprise 155 islands with the three main islands being Mahe, Praslin and La Digue. Populations are about 100,000; 8,000 and 3,500 respectively. We spend five nights on Mahe. The first two nights were at the...
by Mike Wood | Jan 2, 2026
We spent a week in Mauritius. The first four nights were at the fabulous intercontinental resort Mauritius. We stayed for free though using 253,000 Ihg points. The cash cost would’ve been $3340. This may have been the nicest place we’ve stayed at, with a private...
by Mike Wood | Dec 30, 2025
After leaving Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda; we went on to Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Mauritius and Seychelles. In comparing the first four countries to the last five countries, the difference has been like night and day (in terms of poverty, beggars,...
by Mike Wood | Dec 20, 2025
For our first month, the sum total of airline and lodging expenses if we had paid cash would have been $40,728. But by using points and miles our out-of-pocket expenses were only $837. For our second month, the sum total of airline and lodging expenses if we had paid...
by Mike Wood | Dec 7, 2025
The Good, Bad & The Ugly again… The gorilla trekking, lion petting and Murchison Falls were amazing. The Pakwach area was awful. We were in a terrible hotel compound surrounded by poverty. We had hoped to run in the area but we weren’t able to leave...
by Mike Wood | Dec 7, 2025
We had booked a home in Jinja, Uganda through VRBO. The cost was $100 for two nights. But the owner never responded to any of our messages about checking in. I spent 90 minutes on the phone with VRBO. Finally, a half hour after check-in time the owner called to say...
