Route notes
Why this routing works
This 5-week multi-stop itinerary is built around an open segment in southern Africa: Hartford to Antananarivo, then an overland transfer to Cape Town before flights continue to Victoria Falls and back to Hartford. Structuring the trip this way keeps the long-haul ticket focused on the intercontinental pieces while leaving the Madagascar-to-South Africa transition outside the flight path.
The longest scheduled stop is 17 nights in Antananarivo, which makes Madagascar the anchor point of the itinerary. From there, the routing resumes in Cape Town, so timing on the overland segment matters: this kind of sequence works best when the independently arranged surface sector is planned first and the onward flight from Cape Town is ticketed to match it.
In business class, this is a straightforward multi-stop layout rather than a round-the-world circuit. August travel in a July-to-September window can mean tighter long-haul availability than a more flexible season, so the order of stops and the fixed open-jaw between Antananarivo and Cape Town are the key logistics to lock in early.