The Manor at Samara

Justin helped craft the perfect honeymoon for us! There are so many options when it comes to choosing a tour operator that I feel so fortunate we landed on Discover Africa. The experience felt seamless from start to finish. Our trip felt perfectly tailored to what we were looking for. You can tell that they truly listened to your situation and crafted the trip specifically for you. Planning an African safari can easily feel overwhelming, but Justin gave us nothing but confidence. The lodges, staff, guides, transportation, every aspect was top tier. There was constant communication from everyone on the ground to make sure you were where you needed to be on each leg of the trip. Save yourself the option overload and set up a call. No harm in getting a quote and taking it from there!

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!

We truly cherished every moment of our trip—there are countless experiences and memories that words can hardly capture. Cape Town was a vibrant and thrilling city, full of upscale shopping and exceptional dining. Jock Lodge stood out with its charming, rustic “woodsie” design and unique layout. And Palm River Hotel was simply magical—sipping coffee while watching elephants, warthogs, monkeys, and kudu roam freely in their natural habitat was unforgettable.

Thank you Megan for orchestrating such a wonderful journey!

Discover Africa planned a fabulous trip for us! The travel planner came up with an itinerary that included everything we wanted; the trip was extremely well organized; the accommodations were lovely; and the activities were fun and interesting. We especially loved the Queen Victoria Hotel in Cape Town near the V&A waterfront and Beck’s Lodge in South Africa. The management at Beck’s was so friendly and helpful, our safari guide and tracker were extremely knowledgeable and personable, and the chefs were outstanding. I highly recommend Discover Africa!

We did a 3-week bespoke tour with Discover Africa and specifically Devryn Panaino. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana game parks. Our group of 6 had a fantastic time, as the itinerary was top notch, transfers smooth and now we can’t wait to go back. We were nervous about small plane transfers but it was very smooth and professional service. In fact, it puts Aussie’s Jetstar in the shade. We saw all the animals big 5, ugly 5, small 5 and everything in between. Would definitely recommend this company and Devryn. Hot tip: be prepared to spend a bit of money it’s worth it for a truly unique experience.

Vicki's Southern Africa Journey

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.