Safari Reviews & Testimonials

– one of the most beautiful experiences of my life
– perfectly organized
– wonderful accommodations
– a very different group, within a couple of days a family and friends
– the best way to discover a part of Africaafr

It was incredibly easy to book the tour with Matthys and the Discover Africa team. They catered to our dates, our budget, and the type of trip we were looking for. One thing I really enjoyed was that everything was taken care of from the moment we touched down in Johannesburg (e.g. – flight the next day, transfers between flights to lodge locations, meals, drinks, everything!) so we didn’t have to think about all the travel logistics.

We stayed at the Simbavati Hilltop Lodge for 2 nights, and the Arathusa location in Sabi Sands for 2 nights. Both the locations did not disappoint. The views were incredible from our rooms (we could see elephants, antelope, hippos etc… directly from our private patios), staff/services were 10/10, and the food/drinks were absolutely incredible.

The game drives themselves were amazing as well – saw all the big 5 (some multiple times) and a bunch of other awesome animals as well. Guides were very knowledgeable, made you feel safe, and were just overall a great time. We highly recommend this trip.

Megan helped us over many months of our indecision going back and forth in planning our dream safari. We could not have been happier with our experience.

We went for a total of 7 nights, 3 different sites in Tanzania doing the wildebeest migration. We got to see lions, cheetahs, elephants, rhinos, zebras, giraffes, and many more animals.

An incredible experience, worth the cost of admission.

We organized a dream vacation to Victoria Falls including Rovos Rail transfer. As Covid hit, the rail portion was canceled and Megan stepped up to the plate and ensured our trip took place. It turned out to be amazing.

We liked the online travel package which was provided which contained plenty of useful information and fully outlined what we could expect on a daily basis as it helped us prepare in advance.

The accommodation recommended was top notch – a 5 star hotel, Vic Falls Safari Club and met all our requirements and was faultless; the same could be said about the tours and transport arrangements. Travelling in these strict health and safety times, having an itinerary that is safe and healthy and well organized sure takes a lot of one’s mind.

Our package included transfers to and from airports, three tours, and accommodation with all meals which meant we could just sit back and enjoy. A great feeling

If you are considering traveling at this time, please contact Discovery as you will not be disappointed.

What a fantastic choice we made! We are from the uk and decided to book our tour with a local African tour operator rather than someone from the uk who has never visited the place. The trip was booked pre-pandemic, however, all way through lockdown Megan from Discover Africa, contacted us regularly, kept us updated and made sure that as soon as the borders were open that our trip went ahead.

We visited SA, Botswana, Namibia & Tanzania. Every transfer was on time, every hotel was excellent and on each safari we saw amazing things – including seeing the big 5 (although not guaranteed!)

Towards the end of the trip SA went on to the “red list” and we couldn’t get home, what a relief it was to know that with a quick whatsapp call, Megan was on to it, hotels were booked and a tour of the Garden route sorted during our extended stay. Our favourites were Babylonstoren and Grootbost which allowed us to experience the diversity of South African nature.

The whole trip was an experience of a lifetime, the Serengeti, the Okavango Delta, Etosha, the Ngorongoro crater to name but a few places we visited.

In essence I would highly recommend Discover Africa to anyone wishing to travel there. I will most definitely be using them again. Great work Megan!

Discover Africa was very accommodating in holding the booking until travel restrictions were lifted. The trip itself was better than expected and went very smoothly.

I’m glad I split the Kruger safari into two different places. Both places were recommended by Discover Africa and were first-rate.

Overall a good value, considering the stays at top-end lodging, transfers and R/T flight from Cape Town. Definitely will use Discover Africa again if I get the chance.

We have done several safaris with Megan at Discover Africa and each one surpasses the last one. This trip was by far the best rip we have ever had.

The accommodations where 5-star, the guides and food where phenomenal, the attention to detail was out of this world. Every detail was attended to I have nothing but praise for this company. I am actually going to be booking another trip with them in September of 2022.

If you are looking for a safari company than this company is the one and look no further! Megan navigated through all the nuances of covid regulations and testing and made the trip seamless.

If I could give 10 stars I would! (Little Sabi Bush camp is amazing and I definitely recommend Kruger)

General: Great service by Antoinette who was helpful and very dedicated to help us booking our South Africa experience. She showed us lots of different options and recommended her favourite stays.

Overall an absolute 5 star service!

Accomodations:

Klaserie River Safari Lodge: Perfect place for the first stay in the region, staff was very limited due to low numbers in travellers (covid) but did an excellent job! A true feel good place right at the Klaserie River. Our guides Lauren and Herman were very dedicated to make it the best stay ever. Great value for the money. Would definitely recommend this place!

Hamiltons Tented Camp: Outstanding private luxury lodge where you won’t miss a thing. From location, food, game drives to service this is what I call high end. Prices are high but standard for this kind of place.

Muluwa Lodge: Nice stay on the way from Kruger back to Joburg. We only had one night but I would recommend staying at least two nights. Beautiful sceneryand lovely tents with great views. Food was tasty and the staff very friendly.

Spier Wine Farm: Large vineyard with nice accomodation. The place is created with lots of love, the garden is beautiful and invites to hang around and have a picnic. Wine was not our favourite but tastes are different so you might like it for sure!

Mont Rochelle: Luxury Hotel on a vineyard owned by Richard Branson. Probably our favourite location in the area if you want to relax for a day or two. Overall excellent service, great food and lovely stuff. Price is high but worth the money.

Mosaic Lagoon Lodge: Hidden gem right at the Klein River Lagoon. Staff was again superb, food great and lots of activities to do. If you don’t like to stay right in Hermanus this is the place to go to!

Lagoon Beach Hotel: A bit off the city trouble but still just a 15 mins drive to the waterfront. It’s a standard hotel like any other. Room was clean, breakfast okay and they offered a free shuttle to the centre.

Cape Milner Hotel: Nice place close to Bo Kaap, walking distance to the city centre. Can recommend the place if you would like to stay in the city.

My wife and I scheduled our honeymoon through Discover Africa just by finding them through a simple Google search. A client of theirs called us right away and then over the next several weeks helped us figure out what package of travel we wanted.

We ended up going on a safari in Tanzania for 10 days while the wildebeest were migrating and then 5 days on Zanzibar to relax. We scheduled all of this in 2019, and when the pandemic hit Discover Africa was kind enough to allow us to simply reschedule to 2021. Once we finally did get to go on our safari we were with a guide almost the entire first 5 days of the trip, which was AWESOME.

A guide was there to immediately meet us after getting of the final airplane’s stairs to walk us through the Tanzania customs and Covid protocols. A guide was then there to drive us to the first hotel and was super informative and great to talk to after a long plane ride. We then met with our actual safari tour guide that night to walk us through what would be happening starting the next morning since we were getting up early to check out OH, and The African Tulip hotel was amazing and they treated us to a surprise, private honeymoon dinner by the pool as with our own little fire pit.

The next morning we went to Lake Manyara with our guide and were blown away right away with all the animals we saw. 5- 10 minutes in we saw a group of giraffes followed up almost immediately by 2 elephants crossing the road only a car’s length behind us. Absolutely surreal. The rest of the day was full of different types of gazelle, babboon, huge baobab trees, water buffalo, dik-diks, and others I’m forgetting. We saw several elephants very close to the car which was awesome. We ate a prepared lunch for us on the top of the overlook of the Lake. Nothing fantastic about the food but they were all designed to be “safe” food choices for everyone’s diet and sensitivities. The safari took up the entire day and we were exhausted and happy as the tour guide took us to our next hotel where we had our own little condominium room. This next place as well put flowers on the bed and treated us special for our honeymoon.

The next morning we had the same tour guide (who had 17 years experience by the way) and went to Ngorongoro Conservation. He drove us up the jungly, misty, crater outer mountain and stopped to look over the massive bowl. Then we descended into the crater and immediately saw zebra, tons of wildebeest, and a RHINO (from a distance). Again a day full of tons of HERDS of gazelle, ostrich, zebra, wildebeest and LIONS laying on the very side of the road, without a care in the world about us getting up close. We ate lunch by this body of water and even it had a herd of hippos popping their heads up out of the water looking at us eat our sandwiches! Again another exhausting, exciting day with elephants as well. Our tour guide took us back to the same hotel that night.

The next morning our tour guide took us to the airport and walked us through the little bit of security that they had to get on a small plane to head to the Serengeti. The plane was small but never felt unsafe. Once we arrived in the Serengeti we were given some tea and were immediately whisked off onto our next safari. There were a heard of hippos basically AT THE AIRPORT. Then we drove off and had lunch with a group of 20+ elephants and baby elephants drinking in the Mara river. Then we were abruptly told to hold onto our lunches to go see the RIVER CROSSING of wildebeest going nuts on the Mara and dodging crocodiles. The day was full of eagles, wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, a duo of MALE LIONS, and much more. The night was at a beautiful, huge tent with our own tent with a shower and double vanity mirror and huge bed. We fell asleep to the sound of wildebeest “moos” and hyena yelps.

The next morning we woke up at 4AM for a morning HOT AIR BALLOON ride. It was around $300 a person but so worth it. The safari car ride can be very bumpy so it was nice to see the Serengeti from a higher vantage point with a smooth voyage. We got the balloon up just as high basically to be above the trees and look down on the herds of animals from above. We also got maybe 15 feet from the center of the Mara river as we hovered directly down the center of it. We even got to see a LEOPARD from above! We landed smoothly and had mimosas to celebrate and were taken off to a hot breakfast in a place surrounded by trees. We got to meet other people safariing from all over the world and the staff everywhere was always so nice.

We then went off to Zanzibar for the last 5 days which was such a different pace than constantly safariing that it was a little hard to pump the adrenaline. The beach was nice but hard to relax with a pretty steady flow of people trying to sell you things or get you to go on excursions with them. We did go diving with DOLPHINS which was probably $120 and was absolutely worth it. We also went scuba diving briefly. Zanzibar was mostly for relaxing, which we definitely did, but looking back on it we wished we had spent more time safarring and maybe only two days on the beach.

All in all,everything with Discover Africa was fantastic. We would highly recommend to anyone willing to travel there.