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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Alaska can be beautiful in May, but you have to be the kind of person who can ignore the weather and enjoy yourself even if it's damp and chilly.  I wouldn't do a cruise then, I'd want to have activities planned that could be adjusted last-minute OR could continue regardless of weather.  If hikes are planned, for instance, I'd just layer on extra clothes and add full rain gear (including boots and rain pants) and go.  I wouldn't relish sitting on a cruise ship in damp 50 degree weather.

You can look at historical weather patterns here (using Juneau as an example):
https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/PAJN/2017/5/1/MonthlyHistory.html?&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=

Last year, Juneau had about 2.5 inches of rain over the month of May.  But scroll down to the charts, and see how close the temp and dew point are?  When they are close, that generally means it's damp with low clouds.  When they meet, it's fog/mist/rain.  So it was damp and misty nearly every morning last May, and about half the days that lasted all day.

For Africa, I've heard great things about safaris in Tanzania,[b] self-guided trips through Kruger National Park in South Africa,[/b] or private game reserves in South Africa.  I don't have any specific names, though.[/quote]

This can be fairly boring.  You spend 6+ hours a day driving around in your car hoping to see interesting animals. Maybe you do, maybe you don't.  South Africa is absolutely worth a trip, no doubt. Personally I'd do a few days at a game reserve and spend the rest of the time touring the country. It's gourgeous, and very reasonable in terms of price.[/quote]

It's probably worth it splitting time between Kruger and the private reserves surrounding the park. They're different experiences. Self-driving can be a hit or miss, the advantage of going with a professional guide is they know where to go and have extensive contacts with other guides and share the sightings with each other. As much as I enjoyed Kruger it is still not quite the same experience as the proper bush in Zambia or Kenya or Tanzania. It's hard to explain to neophytes why till they've seen both and can compare. The latter just has a dimension of wildness that Kruger doesn't (even if Kruger is still very nice). [/quote]

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