Travel
My name is David Siegel. I’ve been to 99 countries and have been to Africa seven times. As part of our services, Christina and I want to offer adventures that push all of us to new levels. This trip is designed to bring teens and their parents together on a shared adventure with big common goals.
In February 2024, we will take teens and parents to climb Mt Kilimanjaro, go on safari, and encounter mountain gorillas. This is a 3-week trip in partnership with the Socratic Experience online school. We have a summer bootcamp in Colorado in early August. The class begins in September and runs through April.
Details …
January and February are the best months for this trip. July and August are the worst months — summer is the coldest and most crowded time in Kenya. February is ideal for climbing and seeing animals.
This trip is 22 days in Kenya and Uganda. This doesn’t count the travel days getting into and out of Nairobi. We would love to add another week in Tanzania for those who wish to extend (details below).
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In partnership with …
“David knows Africa! His high-end expectations, organizational skills, and attention to detail made for a photographic safari to Namibia and Botswana I’ll remember for a lifetime.”
Dan Bartell, Denver
We — The Infinite Game of Life — are the tour company. We will rent and drive our own vehicles, handle security and logistics, get insurance, and take care of everything from the first day to the last.
This trip requires a minimum of 18 people and a maximum of 35, including children. The number of people determines the price (see below). Everyone coming on this trip must commit to climbing the mountain.
The proposed Kilimanjaro route is 7 nights, 8 days, with three full nights high on the mountain allowing for acclimatization, with a 90+ percent summit-success rate. All tents, meals, toilets, sleeping bags, and medical support will be provided. Hikers need to bring their own shoes, personal items, and mid-layers.
Children must be 12+. They will train and study for months in advance to prepare with their parents. They must be able to walk ten miles in a day. The youngest person to climb Kilimanjaro is an 8-year-old girl. Kids can do this, but they must take training seriously, they should come to the Colorado high-altitude bootcamp in July, and they should not be complainers.
This trip will be a TSE elective. Students will choose what aspects of Africa they want to focus on and learn, keep journals, interview local experts, take photos and videos, have discussions about what they see and hear, and put together presentations and videos. After the trip, they will create presentations, videos, and reports, which we will put on the TSE website. We want to coordinate with your child’s school to make this into a serious learning experience.
This is a trip you must train for. Everyone going on this trip will attempt the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro. You must have a serious training regimen to build up your mileage, endurance, breathing, and exposure to altitude.
There will be a mandatory weekly meeting, starting in September. We are going to take this seriously. Travelers will need to start training for the hike in July. We will have a weekly session to talk about training, gear, preparation, and study for the trip.
We would like to set up a kick-off training trip in Colorado in the first or second week of August. This would be a high-mountain trip based in Leadville, where we climb several peaks over 14,000 feet. It will give people a chance to see how they do at altitude. This is for people who like to get up and out early in the morning, as it rains every afternoon in the Colorado Rockies in August.
We are not making any money on this trip. We’re running this trip at cost. We’ll take deposits in June and make reservations. Then we’ll figure out all the details, and in Nov or Dec we’ll send the final bill for the exact cost, with no mark-up.
I have the experience. I have been to Africa 7 times and led safaris from Namibia/Botswana to Kenya/Uganda/Rwanda. I have been to most of the lodges on this trip. I’ll have insurance, rent vehicles, drivers, arrange for all the hotels and flights, etc. This saves money vs putting all this together with a local operator.
We will take care of you. We can handle any special diets, medical needs, special accommodations, etc.
Learn wildlife photography. Many people who go on safari get expensive gear a few weeks before the trip and read the manuals on the airplane. I have hundreds of hours taking photos in the bush and have taught photography in Namibia and Botswana. We’ll start six months ahead and make sure photographers have the equipment and skills they need before we arrive. Those who are interested can come with me to work on skills for focus, exposure, framing, working with light, and more.
What’s special about this trip. Anyone can book a safari. Anyone can book a trek to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro. Very few companies will do both. We are the only company that will be with you for six months, checking in, tracking your training, making sure you have everything and are prepared. We are the only company working with schools to make it educational for kids, so they can get a month off school and learn from the real world. We will help you prepare, train, be in the summit photo, finish the trip, and then document it afterward.
Proposed Itinerary
Day 0: We will meet your flight in Nairobi and take you to your hotel, where we will have a group dinner and a walk around town. We will leave most of our stuff in Nairobi with a member of our staff.
Day 1: We will drive 2-3 hours to Arusha and stay in a mid-range hotel. We may stop for a game drive on the way if time and weather permit.
Day 2: Transfer to Moshi, where we will meet our guides, and then another 1 hour to the Londorossi gate trail head (elevation 7,800 ft). Rain or shine, we will hike to Forest Camp (elevation 9,500ft), about 3-4 hours through the rain forest.
Day 3: Forest Camp to Shira Camp 1 (11,500 ft), 8km, 5-6 hours. Habitat: moorland.
Day 4: Shira Camp 1 to Shira 2 to Moir Hut (13,800 ft), 14 km, 5-7 hours, moorland.
Day 5: Moir Hut to Lava Tower to Barranco Camp (13,000ft), 7 km, 4-6 hours, semi-desert.
Day 6: Barranco Camp to Karanga Camp (13,100ft), 5km, 4-5 hours, alpine desert.
Day 7: Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp (15,300ft, 4km, 4-5 hours, alpine desert.
Day 8: Barafu Camp to Uhuru Summit (19,345 ft) and down to Mweka Hut (10,000 ft), 5km ascent, 12km descent, 7-8 hours up in the dark (no full moon), 4-6 hours down, arctic environment.
Day 9: Mweka Camp to Moshi (5,400ft), 10 km, 3-4 hours, rain forest, shower, relax, and have a nice dinner with our guides.
Days 11: Drive or fly back to Nairobi, allow kids a chance to catch up with school, meet some locals, and other sights.
Day 12: Drive to Loldaiga Hills, a private ranch near Nanuki.
Day 13 & 14: Loldaiga safari and learning
Day 15: Drive to Nakuru for our charter flight to Kasese in Western Uganda. A very short drive takes us to a local hotel, where we will spend the night. Next day will be a hike in the Rwenzori mountains if weather permits, then drive to Mweya Lodge.
Day 16: We will stay at Mweya Lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park for four nights. The lodge will be our base for game drives, boat trips, and possibly a special trip to a cacao plantation in the Republic of the Congo (not dangerous, we have friends there).
Day 20: Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Southwestern Uganda. We will have 3 nights at the Nkuringo Gorilla lodge. This is a rainforest. It is not for everyone. There are bugs. There are stinging plants. You have to plan accordingly. We will have a special 4-hour habituation gorilla encounter here. Most gorilla tours give 1-hour access only. In addition to learning about the rain forest, we will also meet and learn about the pygmy people who live in the region.
Day 21: Drive back to Kesese for our charter flight to Nairobi. Overnight Nairobi.
Day 22: Depart Nairobi.
Extension 1: We would love to extend this trip to include the Masai Mara reserve, Ngorogoro crater, and the Rift Valley. That would be an extra week and an extra $5-7k per person. An unforgettable week, but it may be too much for most people.
Extension 2: We would love to be among the first people to visit the Ngaren Museum of Humankind, celebrating human origins, commissioned by Richard Leakey and being built now by Daniel Libeskind studio. The museum is not far from Nairobi. We would add 2 nights and one day if this is possible, but we don’t know if the museum will be open by the time we arrive. See the video below.
Kids and no kids
We expect families with teens will sign up for this trip. However, please tell us if you would like to come. If we have enough people, we will put together a separate trip for people without kids. Talk with us and tell us what would be best for you.
The educational experience
The Africa trip is a real class, sponsored by The Socratic Experience. We will meet Wednesdays starting in early September for two hours a week. We’ll work on training and keep each other accountable for getting our miles in. We’ll work on planning the trip and what to expect. We’ll hear from others who have climbed the mountain. And we’ll study the animals, ecosystems, and people we plan to visit. Everyone will learn about termites! Termites are the bedrock of the African savannah. Groups of kids will work on studying their favorite animals.
The trip itself will be a class. Kids will keep journals, make videos, talk with people. We will meet conservationists and people helping school children. After the trip, they will put together media and make a group video showing what they learned.
This Wednesday class will last from September to June. We’ll have a lot to do when we return to put all our stories and media together.
The entire trip can be billed through The Socratic Experience as a learning experience. We will work with your school to help give students academic credit for this trip.
Price
This is not a cheap trip. It’s not ultra-luxury, but it’s not budget. In Africa, ultra-luxury starts at $2,000/day/person. I would call this trip upper-middle on the luxury scale. The price, which includes meals, flights, and all transportation will be somewhere around $16k per person, starting and ending in Nairobi. Travel to/from Nairobi is extra. Here are the base-price estimates, depending on the number of people who commit:
If we extend it to 4 weeks, it will be more. We need to understand what people want, because Tanzania can range considerably from tented to ultra-luxury. I will have a final offer once I have spoken with people about what they want. I’m not making any money on this trip, I’m doing it for cost, so we’ll make all our arrangements and then adjust the final bill for the actual amount.
The minimum number needed is around 16. We can handle as many as 40, but we may close it around 30. It all depends what people want, so contact us and let’s discuss the options.
“I’ve taken a lot of trips, and one of the best trips I ever took was to Africa and it was curated and lead by David Siegel. We spent 2 weeks traveling around Namibia. Everything was perfect. Great lodging, food, transportation, and a scenic wonderland.'“
Gary Foster, film producer