Kruger National Park Safaris

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 booked, what we thought would be the trip of a lifetime.  It was so fabulous in reality, that we think we need to go again!  We had turned almost all of the trip over to our travel agency to plan for us, giving them only a minimal outline of what we would like to see.  They planned the trip and only with a few minor changes (e.g. add a day for a wine tour in the Cape) we booked.  Frankly, we were a little nervous about placing a high level of trust in a company we only knew via Zicasso and the internet, but it was trust well placed and rewarded.  Our trip consisted of 3 days at Cape Town, a few nights at Londolozi in Sabi Sands/Kruger, a day at Victoria Falls, a few days at Chobe Game Lodge on the Chobe River, a few days at Savute, and the last few days in the Okavango Delta at Xugana Island Lodge.  Almost 3 weeks in total. All logistics were seamless with no problems whatsoever despite numerous hand offs and transports.

We are fairly seasoned travellers, and did a lot of homework before planning this trip. Nothing really prepared us for how fabulous it would be.  I'd say it was the trip of a lifetime, except that we fully intend to go back.

From first contact to last, this travel agency was a pleasure to deal with.  They were responsive to our ideas about what we wanted to do and see, and put together several itineraries which also included many suggestions that we had not thought of. 

Ours was a private 3 week tour, beginning in Durban, then to the Sabi Sands game reserve (where we stayed at the Londolozi Founders Camp).  We took the Blue Train from Pretoria to Cape Town where we stayed a few days at the very lovely Cape Grace Hotel, and spent 3 wonderful days at the a wine estate near Stellenbosch.

Our travel agency arranged all of our transportation and excursions.  Everything went like clockwork:  all of our guides or transports were right on time, and without exception they were extremely pleasant and knowledgeable people.  We learned a lot about the country from each of them.

South Africa is a long way from Canada.  What made us feel very secure was that we had the personal cell phone number of our agent and knew that we could call her at any hour if something went awry.

The very best thing is that we never had to call!

I would recommend this tour company highly, and would definitely use them again,

I spoke to this Africa safari travel company just about 2 months in advance of our planned trip and was very surprised about how easy it was to arrange the trip we had hoped for.  Our contact was knowledgeable and within a few days of our request, knowing our budget, she had prepared a complete itinerary to include sightseeing and wine-tasting in Cape Town and Franschhoek and 3 days safari in Sabi Sands, next to Kruger as well as 3 days in Chobe, Botswana, concluding with a day at Victoria Falls.  The best part about the entire trip was the ease with which we were able to accomplish everything.  We arranged for our international plane and told our agent the dates and she arranged for everything else.  The cost per person excluding all air and gratuities to guides was <$6000 each and we had really 4-5 star accommodations and most meals included.  The transfers were flawless as we were met at each transfer site by a greeter with our name on a board and we never worried about missing a connection. The information packet we received before the trip prepared us well and we could not have been more pleased with the results!!

Our agent was friendly, knowledgable, responsive and worked hard to put together a great trip that did not blow our budget. The trip was incredible. We started with 3 nights in Victoria Falls Zimbabwe at a lodge that provided 5 star service and accomodations. The game drives there were a bit more tame than our later safari activity at Sabi Sands but we saw lots of elephants, Zebra, Giraffe and even a lion. Every transfer was arranged and if anything could have been upgraded perhaps it was in this area though the transfers were private and vehicles adequate. 

Our next stop was Sabi Sands reserve where we stayed at Savanah lodge. They were terrific in every way. The guides and trackers were top notch. We saw all of the big five as well as wild dogs and other animals. Great food and room as well as personal touches made this place special and overall a great value and choice among the many options. 

We flew to Capetown where we started at an elegant old world hotel on the waterfront, great choice. Trips to the cape point and wine country were very nice. If we were to change our itinerary at all it would have been to stay one less night in Capetown and stay one night in wine country on our way to the next stop which was at Grootbos a world class high end resort on the whale coast. Terrific high end cuisine, wonderful private suites and incredible views were the highlights and a great way to finish our trip. 

Thanks to our agent for making our vacation the best one yet!!

       I like to think of myself as a low maintenance girl, but the truth is, I’m not. And that’s ok. Work hard play hard.  So when I, with my parents, husband and daughter decided to take the trip of a lifetime to South Africa, every detail was really important.  We knew we wanted a mix of a Safari vacation with a visit to Capetown.  For the Safari, all I had heard about was Kruger National park and then nothing else.  My entire view of SA was really what I knew through friends I met during their visits to the US. I found this travel agent on Zicasso and, although she didn’t have that many reviews, she beat out two other well-known companies because of her attention to detail, her exceptional hotel recommendations and her anticipation of what we might need. 

       For example, when looking for Safari lodges to stay at, she asked whether we were ok being in the malaria zone because my daughter is 10 and parents are older.  I had no idea the park was in the malaria zone and none of the other travel agents mentioned this to me! Instead, our agent found us a fantastic 5 star lodge in Welgevonden reserve (Mhondoro Game Lodge) where we had the absolute best guide and staff ever. She also booked us on a charter flight from Johannesburg to the reserve and back, and then the domestic flights from Johannesburg to Capetown and back (we had already booked the international flights on our own).  During our trip, our agent even went online and checked us in for our flights! She also arranged for executive meet and greet services for all our intra-country transfers which helped a ton.  Our travel agent also did an excellent job of booking all road transfers for us and every driver was at least 10 minutes early - we never had to wait - and super friendly and helpful.   She told all hotels, restaurants, etc. that I was gluten-free, she was always available via WhatsApp during our vacation and we even met her for lunch while out for a day tour of Stellenbosch & the winelands - so nice to put her pretty face to a name. 

       All in all, I would HIGHLY recommend this agent and this travel team for any travel in Southern Africa (in addition to S. Africa, I believe she also does Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and some other southern African countries). This travel agent has set an extremely high standard and I wish I could just take her back home with me to organize the rest of my life!