Hemingways Ol Seki Mara

We had a wonderful safari experience, and Justin from Discover Africa made everything seamless from start to finish. Communication before the trip was clear and helpful, and we felt well supported throughout.

Some truly special moments including the fantastic lodge we stayed at (Arathusa) and the incredible wildlife sightings made the trip unforgettable.

Everything including flights and transfers ran smoothly, which allowed us to simply enjoy the experience. We would happily recommend Justin and Discover Africa to anyone planning a safari.

Coming in absolutely blind on how to plan an Africa trip, I stumbled across Discover Africa Safaris on the internet and reached out for an inquiry. Susan responded and started off with a video conference to ask about what we were thinking. Susan was extremely knowledgeable and answered all my questions as well as providing great insights that I wasn’t thinking of. My trip had additional complexities since I was going to a family wedding before, but Susan was able to navigate logistics with ease. She provided 3 options for our trip. Once we picked, she handled all the bookings/reservations in Africa. After things were booked, she proactively reached out for trip reminders, checked us in on our domestic flights within Africa, and reached out to ask how things were going while we were on our trip. Everything went perfect. We had an absolutely wonderful experience with the booking process and most importantly discovering Africa. 100% recommend!

Vihann was responsive and friendly, worked patiently with me as I tweaked my itinerary three times. I researched the camps myself and Vihann supported with his local knowledge so the result was very memorable and extraordinary holiday. I was very happy with local transfers, guides were available to answer questions and food was top notch.

We just returned from our first African trip and had an absolutely amazing and memory making trip. We are usually self planners for our vacations but with essentially no knowledge I attempted to do research on Africa and felt overwhelmed. As suggested from different sites I did contact several companies and ultimately chose Discover Africa and was certainly glad we did.

We worked with Susan and after a lengthy phone conversation and some e-mail follow ups she put our itinerary together. Revisions were not an issue for her and Susan provided some great knowledge when it came to deciding our ultimate plans. In hindsight, I never would have been able to co-ordinate all the different aspects of accommodations, air and ground transfers, and paperwork the way she did. The availability of using the TravelKey App was great.

Our 15 day safari far exceeded our hopes. Each camp/lodge had their own unique qualities and all the guides and staff overflowed with knowledge and kindness. As I told Susan, when the experienced guide gets his camera out because the siting was rare or exceptional you know you have had a WOW moment.

Susan was great about keeping tabs on us and assuring all was going smoothly. She even contacted the lodge to assist in getting my husband some food items more to his liking. Our trip itinerary consisted of:
2N-Xugana Island Lodge- Okavango Delta
2N-Camp Xakanaxa- Moremi Game Reserve
4N- Camelthorn Lodge- East Hwanga National Park
2N Insika Lodge- Victoria Falls
4N Sable Camp- MalaMala Game Reserve

We have been blessed with many wonderful travels prior to this trip but it’s fair to say we will go back and explore more of what Africa has to offer and Discover Africa, and Susan will take the lead!

Africa was on my travel “wishlist” but I never thought I would actually get there

That all changed when our son was home for a visit over Christmas. He announced that he and a friend were going to Africa. They had selected DISCOVER AFRICA to plan their trip. He shared all the details with us and we decided it was an adventure we had to experience as well.

Our son connected us with Vihann Van Wyk at Discover Africa, the same agent he was using. Vihann was a pleasure to work with. He coordinated our trip with our son’s and tweaked the details as requested. Communication was a breeze through both email and WhatsApp. Vihann made suggestions as well as accepted specific requests from us to build a custom itinerary. No detail was overlooked. Some accommodations were adjusted to keep us within budget without sacrificing our experience.

All drivers, tour guides, experiences & lodging did not disappoint. All internal flights were on Airlink …. better than some regional airlines in the USA. The weather was perfect too!

Deborah's Safari Experience

Our itinerary included:

*CAPE TOWN – Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel….very nice property with an excellent breakfast and beautiful outdoor dining. Must sees were the full day Cape Tour, Wine Tour to Stellenbosch, Table Mountain and High Tea at the Cape Grace Hotel.

*KRUGER NTL PARK – Lion Sands Tinga Lodge….a dream experience! Excellent private bungalow, twice daily game drives, delicious food, and a wonderful massage and facial at the spa. The staff was outstanding.

*VICTORIA FALLS – Shongwe Lookout Lodge…a modest property that met all our needs and saved us some money. We experienced the Zambezi River sunset cruise, Victoria Falls ( incredible!! ) , lunch at the Lookout Cafe and a visit to the historic Victoria Falls hotel for lunch.

*JOHANNESBURG – Marriott African Pride Hotel in Melrose Arch ….an upscale area with lots of shopping and dining. The Soweto Tour was an experience not to be missed. We visited Nelson Mandela’s office and home. The Apartheid Museum was sobering and moving.

Lastly, every where we went we met the nicest people….friendly and helpful.

Excellent adventure! An experience like no other!

We had been thinking about a Southern Africa safari trip for a few years and had some valuable input from Zimbabwean friends who had been on tour many times. So we had a general idea of when and where but needed guidance on the finer details and options, as well as someone to put it all together once we’d agreed on an itinerary (South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana). This was possibly going to be our one and only trip of this type so we wanted to get it right!

I saw an ad for a tour similar to what I had in mind so contacted Discover Africa (DA). Devryn was able to clearly outline his preferences that would meet the brief. He suggested the order of travel, how long at each place, what type of accommodation (generally getting better as we progressed), how to get from A to B, etc., via several email conversations.

We had a Zoom meeting with him before finalising the plan, where we were able to ask further questions, which he was able to answer confidently and competently, given he had been to these places himself.

We felt confident enough with his recommendations to lock it in 12 months ahead of the trip.
Naturally, you anticipate some things will go wrong on tour, e.g., a missed connection, a guide not turning up, or accommodation not being as described, and we were mentally prepared for that.

Garry's Safari Experience

However, every connection was made on time and the accommodation exceeded our high expectations!

The Safari experience itself (which Devryn obviously couldn’t guarantee) was superb. The guides from the lodges we used were experienced, informative, respectful of the animals, and considerate of what we had and hadn’t seen previously and so every day (twice a day!) was another trip into the unknown. Everyone hopes to see the Big 5, which we did early on. After that it was a matter of literally sitting back in the jeep and seeing what would turn up. The birdlife was better than I expected (the lilac-breasted roller was a favourite), and seeing small animals like mongooses (4 different species), a chameleon and a steenbok were unexpected highlights.

The food was varied at the various lodges, with usually a buffet of 3 main courses of western-style cuisine (although I ate wildebeest, crocodile, kudu and springbok when it was offered). We finished off with 3 nights in Cape Town to let the Safari experience sink in, which was a very good move.

So in summary, we did some initial research, worked out a plan with Devryn, and he nailed the brief. We’ll never know if it could have been even better, but I seriously doubt it.