How much time do I have available for my African safari?
You should allow a minimum of about two weeks. Also, take into consideration (especially if you are traveling from the West Coast) that you need to allow two travel days to get to Africa and at least one day for the return. For the game viewing part of your safari (excluding travel time to the safari regions), a minimum of 5-7 nights in preferably two different wildlife regions is ideal.

For example, if you choose Botswana, it’s better to include at least one camp in the Okavango Delta (preferably two to allow you to experience the Moremi Game Reserve) and as time permits, a camp/lodge in Chobe National Park, a great contrast and an excellent stepping stone for Victoria Falls. For an East African safari, like Tanzania, either a driving or fly-in safari is suggested. And, for this, you should allow a minimum of 8 nights. If you would like to combine the Maasai Mara in Kenya, another 4 nights is the minimum we recommend.

When should I travel?
Many people want to know the “best time to visit Africa.” This largely depends on whether your main focus is game viewing and, if so, high season is generally June through October. High season is also the dry season in both East and Southern Africa. In Southern Africa, December-March is commonly referred to as the “Green Season,” which is also the rainy season in the game viewing regions; however, this period offers benefits such as herbivores have their babies and lush green landscapes and dramatic skies make for superb photography.

In general, temperatures are similar between the East and Southern African regions with May-August being the cooler winter months. East Africa has a long rainy season (April-May) and a short rainy season (November). Again, the holiday season (mid-December – mid-January) is “Peak Season” in East Africa as well as in Cape Town, South Africa, being the dry summer season. East Africa is renowned for its wide open plains and huge herds, especially during the migration of wildebeest and zebra, commonly referred to at the Wildebeest or Annual Migration between the Maasai Mara in the north and the Serengeti in the south. It is a spectacle not to be missed. It is difficult to predict the migration but in general you have a good chance to witness it between the months June-August.

Should I select a Group Safari or a Tailor-made Safari?
Group Safaris: These are set up in advance by the operator. Touring arrangements and lodges/camps are already selected and number of days at each property as well as set departure tour dates. Some group tours have an escort and some are locally hosted. For group safaris in particular, we suggest you plan your safari well in advance. Since safari properties are relatively small, space is limited and therefore fills quickly. When travelers book less than 90 days prior to traveling, group space has often either filled or has been released. Note: If you find a group safari itinerary that suits you and it turns out to be full during your time frame, then we can build a comparable tailor-made safari for you to suit your travel dates and interests while accommodating you at excellent lodges

Am I planning a Africa safari with family and/or friends or as a solo traveler?
A safari is a special experience to be shared with family members or with a group of friends. The group safari departures range in participant size from a minimum of 2 up to 24. Or, we can arrange a tailor-made safari for your special group or occasion (family reunion, birthday, honeymoons, anniversary celebrations, etc). If you are traveling solo, you may choose to join a scheduled group safari or even a previously privately arranged tailor-made journey, which translates to shared game drives and meals at safari lodges and camps.

Africa Luxury Safaris: These adventures highlight the best wildlife viewing areas in the predator rich regions visited in specially designed 4 x 4 game viewing vehicles. These small group departures are joined by excellent rangers.
Walking Safaris: Experience the excitement of a small group safari on-foot in the company of experienced trackers and guides who are trained to ensure memorable wildlife encounters as well as safety.

Sights & Safaris: These signature itineraries combine the excitement wildlife safaris with the best sights and experiences in the region; from amazing cities to wine tasting, from awe-inspiring scenery to train journeys.
Mobile Tented Safaris: Luxurious tented, seasonal camps move around bringing guests within range of impressive wildlife.
Family Safaris: Designed specifically with families in mind, these itineraries capture a safari experience that will appeal to children, parents, and grandparents alike.
Fly-in Safaris: Experience the beautiful expanse of the African savannahs with these exciting fly-in journeys. Utilizing flights between safari camps to maximize game viewing time.

Do I have any special interests, such as photography or adventure?
The Africa experts c an assist you select a safari to match your special interests, be it photography, birding, open-vehicle game drives, mokoro (canoe) and boating trips, or adventure activities such as Great White shark cage diving off the coast of South Africa, bungee jumping at Victoria Falls, or a hike up the world-renowned Table Mountain.

Ah, the Caribbean! Sun, sand and sea of the most beautiful kind are the most appealing things there is to the Caribbean group of islands, most especially in the island of Antigua. Of course, the colorful culture and the proud people complement its natural beauty so much so that Antigua is one of the world’s perfect holiday spots, if not the most ideal of them all.

Take a Holiday!

There are 365 days in a year. Now, it’s your choice if you want to work your butt off for 365 days in a year and wait for a leap year to come in order to take one day off. It’s also your choice to visit the 365 beaches in Antigua anytime of the year you want to!

But of course, wallowing in the beauty of sun, sand and sea in Antigua is not all there is to your holiday, far from it. You have to engage in water activities that take advantage of the sunniest weather in the Caribbean, which include boating, diving, snorkeling, fishing kayaking, swimming, windsurfing and sunbathing. Or you can just ogle the scenery and the species of the opposite sex at the nudist beaches!

If you are not much of a water baby, land activities are yours for the taking. You can go on excursions, engage in sports activities, slide the zip line, dine and drink to your heart’s content and dance the night away. Of course, you can also become a hermit in your holiday home if crowds are not your thing either.

Remember it’s your holiday and nobody can tell you what to do on your holiday! Well, maybe your family members can but Antigua is a free country so, by all means, you can assert your right to party.

Buy a Home Already!

Once you have been deeply enamored of Antigua, it makes perfect sense to buy a holiday home in the island. After all, it will be your home away from home and you might as well make it the most perfect second home you can have!

Besides, it’s still wiser to buy a holiday home than rent it, finance and fun-wise. Think of it as an investment in real estate that will pay off in two basic ways – avoidance of high rental costs and recoupment of investment either through rentals to other holidaymakers or sale in the future.

Plus, you don’t have to worry about obnoxious guests invading your personal space! Yes, even holidays that are supposed to provide for rest and recreation can turn out into mini-nightmares, no thanks to the hotel guest from hell.

Now, if you have a holiday home of your own, you can choose the guests to invite. And did we mention that you might even run into the likes of Timothy Dalton, Eric Clapton, Giorgio Armani and Oprah Winfrey, all of whom maintain holiday homes in Antigua?

Truly, buying a home in Antigua has its merits. And it’s not just sun, sand and sea that matters either because colorful celebrities, charming company and calm climate awaits you and your family!

http://www.paradisepropertiesconnection.com

After a long wait and long isolation through decades of communist dictatorship, Albania has finaly opened its doors to the international market trade and investments.

But for such a well located country, which enjoys over 402kms of unspoilt coastline along the Ionian and Adriatic seas, Albania has been virtually untouched by the property boom which swept Europe in the last decade.

Ironically, however, just as the rest of Europe is beginning to put the brakes on property, Albania wants to make its presence felt.

A large number of foreign investors and copanies are present in Albania and the government are being very proactive in attricting more foreign investors and companies in Albania.

Albania Properties: www.albania-properties.co.uk have been operating in the Albanian property market for over 10 years selling and managing property to the locals. The last two years the market have changed dramaticaly and and e huge demand from foreign market too.

Considering that Albanian properties, lands and other investment opportunities are 75% cheaper compare to other European markets of Bulgaria, Croatia or Montenegro off plan property prices have reached over 2000 Euro per square meter it has never been a better time to invest or spend the summer holiday in the unspoilt Albanian coast.

Depending on location and size, land prices can cost as little as 20 per sq.m. If you’re in the market for a finished apartment, prices per sq.m can be as low as 550 in a prime Tirana location.

If you’re in the market for a finished/re-sale apartment, prices per sq.m can be as low as 550 in Tirana. This is a medium-to-long-term investment.

For more information visit: www.albania-properties.co.uk or www.holiday-property.net.

From holiday homes in Spain, vacation rental properties in Florida, beachside villas in Barbados, Antigua and Tobago, luxurious villas in Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca, beautiful apartments in Tenerife and Lanzarote, idyllic country cottages in England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales, rural holiday homes in France, Italy and Portugal, Cyprus or Turkey, not forgetting the picture perfect ski chalets in the French Alps, Italian Dolomites or Austrian Tyrol- people from all over the world have taken advantage of the increased economic prosperity over the last few decades to invest their hard earned savings in some form of bricks and mortar.

In addition to buying your holiday home for its likley future capital appreciation, I suspect that you are also very keen to generate income from your investment by means of letting our the property for a few weeks or even months each year.

But with so many properties out there to choose from, it is important that you consider and plan a careful strategy in order to market and promote your property in the most cost effective way, to ensure that your efforts ultimately yield more rental income, than you are spending in marketing, advertising and other related costs.

So here are some tips and ideas which I think you will find useful in ensuring that your property achieves and even surpasses your expectations in terms of generating rental income.

1.Know Your Break Even Point!

How much income do you need your property to generate each year to cover any mortgage, maintenance costs and local authority charges and taxes- not forgetting of course, the monies you may have to spend on advertising and promoting your investment property? How much does it really cost you to maintain your property each year. You need to include any mortage costs, maintenance costs, local authority or muncipal taxes and levies etc. Once you have calculated this figure you will then be able to calculate how much each week you need to charge our your holiday property for in order to at least break even and cover your costs. Knowing this may also allow you to be more flexible when it comes to setting the weekly rental price of your property. This is especially useful in a competitive market or during times when, quite simply, there are fewer people looking to rent holiday homes.

2. Set An Advertising Budget (And stick to it!)

Clearly it would be disappointing to find that despite your best efforts, you have actually spent so much money in promotional and advertising costs, that it has wiped out any potential profit from your total rental income. In the world of business, many companies would tend to set a marketing budget of anywhere between 5% & 10% of their total annual turnover. This would seem to make sense, and if you see your investment or holiday rental property as a business- which I suggest you should-then you can use this 5-10% figure as good guideline in helping you to set a sensible advertising budget.

3 Know Which Methods Are Working (Keep Records)

A marketing director of a well-known company was once alleged to have said that he believed about 50% of his marketing budget produced profitable returns. The problem was, he didn’t know which 50%! This may sound funny, but alas, it is an easy trap to fall into and its cause is largely down to not keeping records or tracking exactly where each new business enquiry comes from.

This problem is so widespread amongst all businesses that it goes to explain somewhat, why many companies have now started to ask their potential and actual customers that most valuable of $64,000 questions- “Where did you learn about us?”, or “Where did you find us?”.

Some sage business guru once said “Turnover is vanity, but profit is sanity!”. In other words your campaigns must be cost effective and generate more in ultimate rental income than the cost of the promotional activity itself. Some campaigns may well bring in rental enquiries and even some actual bookings but at what cost?

4. Understanding Your Cost Per Enquiry.

If you are going to be able to understand which of your advertising campaigns are more successful and produce the best results, it is vital that you have a mechanism for recording the results of your various marketing and promotional activities. This will allow to ditch those methods which have a very low return on your investment, conversely it will also allow you to focus more on those methods and areas where the majority of your enquiries and bookings are coming from.

5.Use The Pareto Principle (The 80/20 Rule!)

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr.Joseph M.Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto’s Principle. While it may be misnamed, Pareto’s Principle or Pareto’s Law as it is sometimes called, can be a very effective tool to help you manage effectively.

Despite all of your various efforts at promoting your property, you will probably be amazed to calculate that most of your booking enquiries will come from one or two sources- this is what we mean by the 80/20 rule. Providing you are not like our unnamed hapless marketing manager referred to in point 3, then you should be able to use this valuable information to really focus on those activities which achieve the most profitable results.

Summary

So there you have it! Some tips and examples as to how you can leverage the rental income producing ability of your holiday home, whether it be a villa, townhouse, cottage, ski chalet or apartment.

In future articles I will be covering the issues of where best to advertise your property and how to ensure you are promoting your property in the most advantageous and effective way.