Last week Conde Nast Traveler released its annual Travel Specialists list, kind of like the Oscars of the travel world. And with another record-breaking 7 Trufflepig planners with their names in lights (again), we feel more than usually justified in describing ourselves as the Tiny Company with the Great Big Nose. We are of course […]
I’m not alone in finding that the Zambezi Valley always has a special draw – flying in invariably gives me a frisson of excitement. Once you climb over the hills east of Lake Kariba, you begin to descend as you cross into Mana Pools. As you get low enough, you’ll see an elephant or two, moving through the […]
We may be a tiny travel company (with a great big nose) but when Conde Nast Traveler magazine published its “2017 Top Travel Specialists” list last week, we blushed hot pink to see that Trufflepig has more experts listed than any other outfit. Our very own Dan, Rudston, Tyler and Sebastian, for Italy, Spain, Southern Africa and Myanmar. CNT describe them as “the […]
One of the most elusive animals in the African bush, and pretty much the holy grail of wildlife sightings for any die hard safari nut, is the peculiar pangolin. I’d been going on safari for nearly 2 decades before my first sighting, on my latest trip to Zimbabwe, and as you’ll see, even then it […]
If you’ve ever dreamed about going on safari but figured it was too expensive, think again. Wilderness Safaris’ 6 Countries Summer Special is back and this year its better than ever. Wilderness Safaris began offering the Six Countries Special a few years ago, to run during the North American winter, and each year it seems […]
The thing most people don’t know about safari in Africa is that it’s not all about seeing the big animals. Of course the sight of your first elephant in the wild is impressive (even more so if it’s charging you), and hearing a lion’s bellowing roar will rock your eardrums like nothing else. But when […]
If you woke up this morning and said to yourself, “You know what I’d like to do today? Jump into a small pool right at the edge of a massive waterfall and then hang off the edge of said waterfall over a 108m vertical drop”, then by jove you’ve come to the right place. I’ll […]
It’s tax season. Not much fun, right? Perhaps, but I’d like to see if we can buck that trend and have some fun with numbers for a moment. A friend just sent me this photo of some actual paper money from Zimbabwe. One hundred trillion dollars, that’s more than a little mind-boggling. So, I turned […]
If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to talk statistics for a moment. The largest African elephants weigh in at around 13,000 lbs and stand 10 feet tall at the shoulder. Each of its two swiss-army-knife-like tusks can weigh in at 150 lbs with the largest recorded being 287 lbs each—which is kind of like having […]
Modernizing a famous hotel is a difficult job. I’m not suggesting it’s in the same league as lion taming, or being a Kardashian, but think about it; take a legendary landmark and update it to meet the needs of the 21st century traveler, but without changing its fundamental essence. A case in point is the […]
On a recent trip I had it all—the best room, the best guide, the best meal, and yet something was missing. What has happened to me? Have I become that complicated? Quite the opposite in fact. If you take an old tree and cut through the rings of time, you will find at its heart the […]