African Safari Getaway to Botswana & Zambia

Absolutely awesome experience – better than we imagined! We spent time in Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta and Cape Town. The service, guides, lodgings and experiences we had in each location were exceptional. This safari travel company and our travel planner made everything easy – we were greeted each step of the way, enabling us to enjoy our African adventure without the normal stress of traveling in another country. In Zimbabwe, we experienced majestic Victoria Falls both from the air and a guided tour through the park. We enjoyed a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi River. Our room at the Ilala Lodge was picture perfect and comfortable, plus we could see the mist rising from the falls. In Chobe National Park, we went on numerous game drives and boat tour with a dedicated guide. The Ngoma Safari Lodge was the most visually extravagant place we ever stayed.  The view walking into the lodge literally takes your breath away as you look down at the Chobe River with herds of zebras, giraffes and antelopes moving between a small watering hole close to Ngoma Lodge and the river. Combine that with great location to Chobe National Park, exceptional guides, thoughtful and well-trained staff, delicious dinners and wonderful rooms with incredible views and you have the perfect safari location. In the Okavango Delta we saw so much wildlife (inlcuding a numerous lions and African Wild dogs and their pups) and were again blessed with wonderful guides, great staff, and lovely rooms in an amazing location at Sable Alley in the Khwai Reserve. Cape Town gave us an opportunity to relax at the boutique hotel and enjoy winery tours and a peninsula tour, as well as amazing restaurants.

Originally, I tried to work out an itinerary myself using online review and travel books, but became concerned about arranging transportation and guides. Then I contacted several different travel agencies. This travel planner quickly responded. She made everything easy for us. She worked with us on locations, desired experiences, dates and cost. We really wanted to see Botswana’s Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta. Two other companies were trying to steer us away those areas due to cost and availability, but our travel planner was able to make it happen for us. She took care of absolutely everything from lodging, car and in-Africa air travel, tours, guides, and even restaurant reservations for us in Cape Town. Amazing personalized service.

This company makes you feel very pampered and special. Our travel planner made time to meet us in Victoria Falls (her home base). In honor of our 30th wedding anniversary, the travel company surprised us with a complimentary dinner and bottle of wine at our Victoria Falls hotel, which had one of the best restaurants in Victoria Falls.

Our trip was fantastic start to finish.  All of the activities our safari tour designer booked for us were outstanding and our accommodations were first rate.  We really liked our tour guide in Cape Town/Franschoek – she was very helpful and we were comfortable with her from the beginning.  We really enjoyed our tour of Cape Town, Table Mountain and our day trip to the Cape of Good Hope, including the stop for the boat trip out to Seal Island and to see the penguins at Boulders. 

We spent 5 days in Cape Town then flew to Hoespruit to the Mikanyi private game reserve.  The lodge and our room at Mikanyi were exceptional and the game drives were unbelievable – we saw so many wild animals up close and personal (including the Big 5)!  The staff at Mikanyi were outstanding!  When we left Mikanyi, we drove to another nearby game reserve where our tour designer had arranged for a charter flight to Nelspruit where we flew to Livingstone – then by car over to Victoria Falls.  The Falls were breathtaking – we took both a walking tour and a helicopter tour of the Falls.  We had to cancel one of our scheduled activities at Victoria Falls (the river cruise) because I was too sick to go.  After Victoria Falls, our tour designer made arrangements for us to be transported over to Chobe National Park where we spent 2 days on a cruise.  The staff of the boat were quite good and our safari guide did his best to make sure we got to see a variety of the wild animals in the park.  Again, got to see all of the Big 5 here, with the exception of the rhino.

This was our first trip to Africa so our main concern was the transfers on arrival and from one location to the other.  Our tour designer handled all of the transfers exceptionally well for us.  All of the individuals involved in our transfers were right where she said they would be and all of them were right on time.  Every aspect of our trip went exactly according to the itinerary our tour designer put together for us. 

We had a very enjoyable trip to Victoria Falls, back to the Republic of South Africa (via Botswana) for a typical safari experience in the Northwest Province at Madikwe Game Reserve, and then a week in the Cape.  Our travel agency suggested the Victoria Falls stop and Elephant Camp in particular.  Elephant Camp was very nice (and we were in the intimate four "tent" family camp that opened just in March) with excellent service and good food.  However, our agent oversold the opportunity to interact with the somewhat tamed elephants on the Wild Horizons/Elephant Camp Reserve.  We had literally no more than five minutes with the elephants, feeding them, so far less than we expected.  We enjoyed the visit to Victoria Falls National Park, as well as a canoe safari on the Zambezi above the falls.  We also very much enjoyed our time at Madikwe Safari Lodge, a very nice facility with an excellent guide, good food, but not always top-rate service.  However, I wish the agent had suggested the opportunity to fly in and out of Madikwe because it has an air strip, and this would have saved us a great deal of travel time doing mostly road transfers to and from Madikwe.  Our travel company was responsive to our requests for particular accommodations in Franschhoek and Cape Town, though they were different than the accommodations suggested by Born Free.  In both cases, we enjoyed our choices very much, as much because of location as because of the facilities themselves.   In Zimbabwe and Madikwe, service was not always up to par at all facilities, and meals were not always as excellent as we expected, but our travel company is not responsible for this.  

When our son left his Kindle on one of the transfers, Born Free helped track it down and get it sent by courier to catch up with us at Cape Town.  This was very helpful, but instead of charging us the cost of the courier and telling us what that cost was, they passed onto us the round figure of ZAR 500. I would have preferred transparency on that.  One of the other transfer operators officiously collected form the safari lodge things of ours (plaster imprints of animal tracks) we had asked them for--she did this while we were having breakfast our last morning.  But then the transfer operator forgot to give the things to us when she dropped us off at Oliver Tambo Airport--even though they were on the front seat of the van next to her!  Again, we were able to get these items sent by courier to catch up with us on Cape Town, but I didn't think we should bear the cost of that.   

 All I want to say is amazing. That is what this trip was. We dealt with this travel agency and safari coordinator and, after a few minutes of conversation, it felt that we knew each other for a long time. We had already decided that we wanted to go to South Africa. This trip was expanded to include Victoria Falls. I am going to talk about the tour, the service, and the accomondations. Each private transfer and private guide arrived early and were waiting when we arrived. The lodge and hotel rooms and locations were to use one word, perfect. At Kruger we were at Jock's Safari Lodge. Our room was more like a private chateau. It was totally separated and private. King size bed inside, a beautiful room. Outside, we had our shower (bath tub with shower inside), two lounge chairs and a private pool. Also, a queen size bed under a portico overlooking the bush where we saw elephants, giraffes, monkeys and I think impalas. The food was included and excellent. The Safaris, three a day, were led by a fully trained and personable ranger. We ended up seeing the big 7 and many more. This is the place to stay. At Hazyview, one night, we had a private cabin at Hippo Hollow overlooking the bush and allowed us to see elephants. At Victoria Falls we stayed at Ilala. On the way to meals we saw a family of baboons, some wart hogs and other animals. We had a wonderful river cruise at Chobe National Park where we saw large herds of elephants and others. We then had a half day driving Safari. The only negative were the bad sandy roads, but we weren't driving, so no biggie. Victoria Falls was visible from our room. How is that for a view? It was more impressive up close. Now onto Cape Town. Be prepared for a party atmosphere. Great restaurants, bars and shoppin. But on this trip, so many meals were included that we ate on our own I think three times. We spent the three days touring with the same guide and he was obviously very educated and knowledgeable. Oh, and friendly. We did the Cape Peninsula tour, a city and Table Moutain and Wineland tours. Unfortunately, this was the end. We were treated like royalty throughout these two weeks. Our travel agency and their travel representative prepared the vacation of a lifetime for us. We couldn't be happier.

In one word - AWESOME!  We are a party of 8 from NY -  we started at the PUMBA Private Game Reserve, saw every animal under the sun and more, ate wonderful food, loved the accomodations, felt like we were taken care of in every way.  Next stop was Capetown and the Mount Nelson Hotel - old world luxury and charm - beautifully appointed rooms, wonderful buffet breakfast.  We toured the Peninsula, saw the sunset from Table Mountain, hiked Lions Head - ate at the waterfront and had tons of fun at Star Dust and Moyo.  Final stop was Victoria Falls - we toured the falls from both the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides, took a dip in the devils pool and had a fantastic lunch on Livingstone Island.   We spent a morning walking with the lions - got to touch and pet them and walk thru the wilderness with them - what an experience!  We spent the day at CHOBE in Botswana and saw so many hippos and giraffes and cape buffalo.  A trip of a lifetime and all arranged by the caring staff at our tour company.  They asked what we wanted to do, listened to all our requests and made it happen for us.  Such a smooth trip from start to finish.