Adventurous Southern Africa Tour

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.

We wanted to let you know how much we appreciated all of the local guides. Our guide in Cape Town was wonderfully knowledgeable, kind, and accommodating. Our guides in Victoria Falls were also wonderful.

The private game reserve was the perfect choice, with a warm, welcoming crew, lovely accommodations, and knowledgeable professional guides and trackers. And delicious, abundant food. The hotel at Victoria Falls was also lovely, with very friendly, professional staff.

Everyone across the board was helpful, accommodating, and respectful of our mom’s need for a little extra help (with the exception of Lufthansa in Frankfurt). We didn't book them through you, but wanted to give you the heads up in case you use them in the future for disabled or mobility-impaired guests. Every single person we encountered in Africa was kind and respectful, and we really appreciated that.

Thank you for working with us to create a truly special experience.

 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.

Zicasso’s travel agent was a delight to work with. He turned our extremely ambitious wish list into a two-week dream itinerary that included stays in Cape Town, the Winelands, a safari lodge, and Victoria Falls, and ended with three nights aboard a houseboat on the Chobe River. All accommodations were superb and perfectly situated for enjoying the local scenery and culture. 

We transitioned from the cosmopolitan beachside vibe of Cape Town’s Camps Bay to a safari lodge that looked out on a busy watering hole frequented by hippos, zebras, elephants, antelopes and giraffes. We took advantage of many excursion opportunities: shark-tank diving, a swim in Devil’s Pool above Victoria Falls, a helicopter ride over the falls, ziplining, wine tasting, quad biking through vineyards, and a visit to an elephant sanctuary that included interaction with the animals.

Thanks to our agent’s meticulous planning, each day flowed seamlessly into the next. Transportation to and from airports and excursions was handled by a friendly cast of drivers and guides, all determined to make sure we had the best experience possible. We went to bed each day feeling like it had been the best day of the journey. It’s rare for my expectations to be exceeded, but our agent and his team did just that. It was an extraordinary experience.

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.