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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

JNB O.R. Tambo Airport: The Intercontinental

We got off the Premier Classe Train and waited our turn with other passengers for what seemed to be the only elevator available. We exited through the lounge and found our way to the Gautrain, involving a slightly awkward walk outside and across a couple of little streets mainly for taxis, and then up two flights of stairs to get to the station.

We arrived at the airport stop within an hour in total and walked downstairs and across the street to the Intercontinental. A charming young woman checked us in and found us a room already available. She also gave us the good news that we can leave our larger bag with them and pick it up on our way through back from Victoria Falls Zimbabwe.

Tomorrow may be something of an ordeal, involving heat and an overcrowded - chaotic? - airport at Victoria Falls, according to warnings from other travelers who have recently visited.

In the meantime, we'll repack, relax, and enjoy ourselves in this lovely room. The welcome message on our TV screen is noteworthy because it's Mrs. Warner who is the elite in our Hilton and Starwood, our other hotel programs. We're using the annual free night of our IHG credit card to great advantage here - this is an expensive hotel. It's ironic that it's the very card we had to cancel after bad guys tried to use it fraudulently in Cape Town. A new should be awaiting us on our return home.




2 comments:

Gregory said...

Enjoy Vic. Falls. Try to be among the first off the plane and in line for immigration and customs. I used miles for a C award ticket on South African and managed to be second in line, getting through in about 5 minutes. For me, departing from the Vic. Falls Airport was much worse -- about a 30 minute wait. Although there was theoretically a business/*G line, it was closed and I was shooed into the regular line.

Kathy and Brian said...

Thanks very much for the suggestions. Minor horror stories abounded among our Aussie fellow travelers who visited Victoria Falls before our coach tour. We've snagged exit row seats for ourselves in the middle of the plane but we're flying on BA so we have no status.

We're reconciled to a terrible experience, similar to what we experienced in, say, PPT, so if it's anything better than that we'll be thrilled.