Timbuktu Travel

Name: Timbuktu Travel
Address: The Foundry, 74 Prestwich Street, Cape Town, 8001, ZA
Telephone: +27212017253

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Timbuktu empowers curious travellers to explore far-flung corners of the world But really, the only people losing out are the travellers themselves.

Timbuktu was founded in 2014 with a clear mission: to make far-flung corners of the world more accessible by empowering you, our travellers, to explore and build trips, regardless of experience or budget - and save some pennies along the way. For years, trips to remote places have been notoriously exclusive and complicated to plan and book. We’re on a mission to change this. Using over 30 years of combined travel experience, we’ve created a content-rich site that showcases our hand-picked crop of amazing journeys and empowers you to chop, change and refine them - or simply build one from scratch - all under the specialist guidance of our experts. It’s fun and easy, and saves you money. You explore and create; we guide and fulfill your dreams.

29/10/2026

There are few greater luxuries than waking up to a sensational view but not every vista is made equal. Here are six hotels doing sea views in truly spectacular style.

📍Tucked beneath whispering casuarina trees on a tiny private island off Zanzibar, at &Beyond Mnemba Island’s andBeyond Mnemba Island open-air bandas, there’s just a scattering of driftwood, thatch and rush matting between your bed and the Indian Ocean – with your own stretch of white sand right outside.

📍Cascading down a cliff on Bali’s quieter eastern shores, Amankila’s Amankila stilted suites and famed three-tiered infinity pool – echoing the island’s rice terraces – gaze out over the shimmering Lombok Strait.

📍High above Camps Bay, The Marly’s The Marly Boutique Hotel & Spa sea-facing suites gaze straight out over the beach and Atlantic swells, while its rooftop pool delivers a full sweep of ocean and the Twelve Apostles – no better spot for a sundowner in the whole city.

📍Designed by one of Geoffrey Bawa’s own protégés, Jetwing Yala’s Jetwing Yala deluxe rooms frame the Indian Ocean through vast picture windows and private balconies, with nothing but dunes and coastal scrub standing between you and the water.

📍On Kenya’s Watamu coast, every room and residence at Hemingways Hemingways Watamu faces the sea, balconies overlooking Garoda Beach and the marine park’s ever-shifting shades of turquoise.

📍Terraced into a jungle hillside above Manuel Antonio, Hotel Makanda Hotel Makanda by The Sea by the Sea’s villas and infinity pools look clean across sixty miles of Costa Rica’s Pacific coastline – sunset drinks are non-negotiable.

25/10/2026

Some destinations get booked for the beach, the wildlife, the ruins – and then the food quietly steals the whole show. We’ve rounded up a few places where the kitchen deserves just as much of your itinerary as the sightseeing.

📍Zanzibar, Tanzania – Beyond the beaches, Forodhani Gardens comes alive each dusk with grills, spice smoke and the tang of urojo. Cloves, cardamom and turmeric run through everything here, from coconut fish curry to the folded, fried ‘Zanzibar pizza’ everyone queues for.
📍Medellín, Colombia – Yes, there’s the mighty bandeja paisa (rice, beans, chorizo, plantain, all on one heroic plate), but a new wave of chefs is remixing Antioquian staples into a totally fresh flavour.
📍Lima, Peru – Ceviche at lunch, smoky anticuchos for dinner, and layered causa in between – Lima’s coastal bounty and Chinese, Japanese and Andean influences collide into something extraordinary.
📍Sri Lanka – Between temples and tea country, don’t skip kottu roti chopped to a rhythm on a hot griddle, or a hopper cracked open with an egg at its centre.
📍Fez, Morocco – Wander the medina and you’ll find centuries of Fassi cooking still going strong: flaky pastilla stuffed with spiced pigeon or chicken, slow-cooked tanjia sealed in clay, and khlii – salt-cured beef hung to dry for days before it hits the pan with eggs for breakfast. Finish with honey-drenched chebakia and you’ll understand why Fez is Morocco’s true culinary capital.

Click the link in our bio to start planning a trip built around the plates you’ll savour – and even attempt to recreate on your return home.

20/10/2026

Some of the very best stays on our books don’t come easy – a light aircraft here, a boat transfer there, maybe a bumpy hour on dirt roads to finish it off. But that’s rather the point. The mission is what keeps the crowds away, and the accommodation waiting at the end is very much worth it. Here’s where we’d happily go the extra mile for. 👀

📍Jao Camp, Botswana – Rising into the treetops of a private Okavango island, Jao’s soaring, sculptural interiors and bird’s-nest pool gazebo make this one of the Delta’s true design icons.

📍Jao Camp, Botswana

📍Amankora Gangtey, Bhutan – A Kerry Hill-designed lodge overlooking a glacial valley where endangered black-necked cranes come to winter.

📍Amankora Gangtey, Bhutan

📍King Lewanika Lodge, Zambia – The only permanent camp in Liuwa Plain, enjoy a front row to Africa’s second-largest wildebeest migration and fifty-strong hyena clans.

📍King Lewanika Lodge, Zambia

📍Greystoke Mahale, Tanzania – Charter flight, then a boat along Lake Tanganyika – all worth it for wild chimp trekking and a swim in the world’s second-deepest lake.

📍Greystoke Mahale, Tanzania

📍Xigera Safari Lodge, Botswana – A living gallery of pan-African art and craft, with suites raised on stilts so the Delta’s floodwaters can pass right beneath your feet.

📍Xigera Safari Lodge, Botswana

📍Awasi Patagonia, Chile – Every villa comes with its own guide and 4x4, so your days of puma-tracking end with a private fireplace and hot tub.

📍Awasi Patagonia, Chile

📍Wild Coast Tented Lodge, Sri Lanka – Cocoon-shaped suites built to mimic Yala’s boulders, laid out in the shape of a leopard’s paw print.

📍Wild Coast Tented Lodge, Sri Lanka

16/10/2026

Few destinations ask quite as much of your suitcase as Indonesia. One moment you’re layering up before dawn on the rim of a smoking crater, the next you’re stripping down for a swim in some of the clearest, most biodiverse water on the planet, before wrapping yourself up to step into a temple by lunchtime. It’s glorious chaos, and it deserves a little packing strategy. 👜

🎒Skip the hard-shell suitcase – a soft holdall will serve you far better for hopping between islands on smaller planes and liveaboards, with a daypack for the essentials too.
🥾Lightweight, breathable clothing in easy neutral tones is your daily uniform here, but don’t be fooled by the tropical heat at sea level – the likes of Ijen Crater can plunge below freezing before sunrise, so a proper warm layer and windproof jacket are non-negotiable for anyone summiting a volcano.

🥻Speaking of which, consider the humble sarong Indonesia’s great unifier. Beach cover-up, temple attire, impromptu blanket – one good batik piece will see you through.

🌋If volcanoes are on the itinerary, take well worn-in boots, a reliable headtorch and trekking poles for the likes of Rinjani. Heading to see Ijen’s blue flames? A gas mask is essential, not optional.

🤿 Divers and snorkellers should prioritise their own mask and fins, a rash guard, and reef-safe sunscreen – the Coral Triangle deserves nothing less than our full protection.

🦟 Round it all out with insect repellent, a decent first aid kit, a dry bag for boat transfers, a power bank, and plenty of Rupiah in cash for the outer islands.
Eclectic? Absolutely. But that’s Indonesia for you – volcanic, aquatic and endlessly surprising. Click the link in our bio to start planning your own adventure.

14/10/2026

Our CEO, Johnny Prince Johnny Prince , has travelled far and wide, from Rio to Puglia and across the wilds of Africa. So, when the chance to go gorilla trekking in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest came up – his answer was a resounding yes. Staying at Asilia Africa’s Asilia Africa latest lodge, Erebero Hills, everything from the views to the guiding was exceptional. As you can tell from these shots taken exclusively from Johnny’s camera roll, the trip was magical in every way ✨🦍
And he came back with a few words of wisdom for first timers too.

Click the link in our bio to start chatting with one of our specialists about your own epic trip to Uganda.

02/10/2026

Gorilla trekking is one of the most thrilling experiences to be had in East Africa. 🦍 One of Timbuktu’s co-founders, Johnny Prince , recently went on adventure with Asilia Africa in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. His group was well-prepared the night before, setting off in the early morning air to find their assigned gorilla family. They spent an unforgettable hour in their presence, watching them snack on bamboo, youngsters clamber about, and even a silverback mating just a few metres away. 👀
And they left forever changed.

Click the link in our bio to start planning a once-in-a-lifetime gorilla trekking adventure with one of our specialists.

02/10/2026

The world never stops building, reinventing and quietly outshining its neighbours. And here’s what properties have just landed on our radar.

📍Hoanib Elephant Camp puts you face to face with Namibia’s desert-adapted elephants in one of Kaokoland’s wildest, most remote corners with 10 tented rooms, endless skies, zero footprint.
📍A decade in the making, Gora Kadan Fuji 強羅花壇富士 | GORA KADAN FUJI on Japan’s Izu Peninsula is a ryokan built quite literally to frame one famously camera-shy mountain. Think private onsen, kaiseki dinners and Fuji from every angle, mist or no mist.
📍Under the gaze of the Andes, Awasi Mendoza’s Awasi Mendoza Moorish courtyards and 55 vineyard acres make it Mendoza’s most charming address for oenophiles.
📍On Etna’s slopes, a converted 18th-century monastery, Monaci delle Terre Nere Etna W**e Eco Resort , is doing Sicily properly: 0-kilometre menus, estate-bottled w**e and a pool with views of the volcano and sea in equal measure.
📍In Botswana’s Okavango, Dulini Daunara Daunara Safari Camp - Botswana sits beside its own private lagoon – tented suites, 440-plus bird species and a whole villa available for exclusive use.
📍The Cotswolds got a serious shake-up with Estelle Manor Estelle Manor . Its 3,000 acres, a Roman-inspired spa and vintage-glamour interiors feel worlds from your average country house.
📍At the very edge of Volcanoes National Park, Sambora Kinigi Sambora Kinigi remains one of our best-kept secrets for gorilla trekking. It’s intimate, it’s authentic and you just won’t want to leave.
📍At the foot of Franschhoek’s mountains, Sterrekopje Sterrekopje Farm is 50 hectares devoted to the art of doing less: sunrise harvests, pottery in the Atelier, hammam rituals and absolutely no fixed menu.
📍On Bahia’s coast, Pousada Tutabel Pousada Tutabel keeps Trancoso’s laid-back magic alive – steps from the sand and a short stroll from that famous 16th-century church.
There you have it: nine reasons to start dreaming. Click the link in our bio to begin planning a stay at any (or several) of them.

17/09/2026

Some trips just have that rare, can't-stop-smiling energy about them, and this recently-booked East African adventure created by travel specialist, Jenna Coiley, is exactly that. Beginning in Nairobi, our guests will settle in amongst the roses and jacarandas of Karen Blixen Coffee Garden & Cottages – the very farm once tended by the Out of Africa author herself – before heading north to Laikipia.⁠
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At The River Camp in Ol Pejeta Conservancy, days unfold on the banks of the Ngobit River, Mount Kenya rising in the distance. Between game drives in search of the Big Five, there's the rare chance to meet Najin and Fatu, the world's last two northern white rhinos, and get up close with the conservation work protecting them.⁠
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Next, it's on to the wildlife-thronged Masai Mara and Rekero Camp, an unfenced, old-school tented stay just 150 metres from a famous Talek River crossing point – expect lion roars after dark and wildebeest thundering by at breakfast.⁠
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Crossing into Tanzania, our guests will be in for a treat at Out of Africa by Laba Explorer, a vintage-style camp hidden in the Serengeti's Seronera region, before ending in the wilds of the south at Laba Siwandu Camp, where days on Lake Nzerakera are spent gliding by boat between hippos and crocs.⁠
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Coffee farms to lakeshores, old-fashioned charm to untamed wilderness – this is East Africa in all its glory. Click the link in our bio to start planning an unforgettable safari of your own.

https://www.timbuktutravel.com/trips

14/09/2026

There's no shortage of history in the UK's hotel scene, but the best part is what's being done with it. ⁠
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A grand old Georgian townhouse becomes a jewel box of velvet and antiques with a subterranean spa. A Highland coaching inn quietly turns into a gallery, with thousands of artworks and antiques tucked between its sitting rooms – think a Picasso above the mantelpiece and a sculpture watching over breakfast. A country manor gets a playful, kaleidoscopic makeover while the acres of parkland and lily-filled lake outside stay exactly as they should be. ⁠
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The UK doesn't do just one kind of glamour – it does a dozen, each one wildly different, and every single one worth the trip. Click the link in our bio for our full round-up of the UK's best hotels, then start planning your own stay.

https://www.timbuktutravel.com/blog/best-hotels-in-the-uk

12/09/2026

The UK doesn't do a single golden season, instead it does four very different moods, and the trick is finding the right one for you.⁠
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In spring, the Lake District turns properly photogenic with daffodil-filled valleys and wobbly-legged lambs, while the Cotswolds' honey-coloured villages sit against fresh green hills and grand gardens fling open their gates. Come summer, London's days stretch on for b**r gardens and Wimbledon strawberries, and Edinburgh hosts not one but five festivals at once, doubling its population and turning the Royal Mile into one long, rolling performance. ⁠
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Autumn is the great trick of the calendar – warmer and drier than August, but with the crowds gone and the Cotswold arboretums blazing copper and gold. And in winter, London does Christmas with real gusto while Edinburgh owns New Year's Eve entirely, with Hogmanay's torchlight procession and a hundred thousand revellers watching the castle erupt in fireworks at midnight.⁠
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The one thing you can always count on? Rain, at some point, regardless of season. Pack the layers, pack the waterproofs, and let the UK surprise you anyway.

Start planning your trip to the UK : https://www.timbuktutravel.com/blog/when-is-the-best-time-to-visit-the-uk

Address

The Foundry, 74 Prestwich Street
Cape Town
8001

Telephone

+27212017253

Website

https://www.timbuktutravel.com/

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