44 Best South Africa Tours for 2026/2027

My best friend and I just recently returned from an excursion in South Africa. There are simply not enough adjectives to describe this experience. Starting with the initial “interview” with Matthys Van Aswegen…. Matt was so thorough, so personable and extremely knowledgeable. I was able to comfortably explain to him exactly what we wanted without feeling “snobby”. He put together a package that was amazing. Everything we wanted and more. I basically said we wanted to be treated like queens and we were! The accommodations he arranged in Cape Town, Simbambili and Rattary Lodge were unbelievable. Our main focus was to see as many exotic animals as possible. We saw absolutely every animal except the cheetah (extremely rare). Every. Single. One. We were treated to the rare sight of wild dogs, and a hippo OUT of the water as well.

Booked almost a year in advance, Matt was vigilant in his correspondence. He sent numerous suggestions for preparing for the trip which were extremely helpful and informative. He answered all of my emails and questions within 24 hours. Just before we left he also gave me his personal phone number in case we ran into any difficulties ( we didn’t). I can’t say enough about how incredible he was and firmly believe he was the reason our trip was so spectacular. After seeing my photos and videos, several friends are now interested in a Safari and I have strongly recommended him.

If anyone is interested in a Safari, Discover Africa would be the first place to start. Bar none.

First safari for us – 3 days in Arusha, 2 Tarangire, 2 Ngorongo, 4 Serengeti and 6 in Zanzibar.

We found the choice of potential locations, accommodation, routes etc almost bewildering at first. Matthys at DA carefully sought to understand we were looking for and came up (after a couple of face to face discussions and several emails) with a suitable schedule

Pre and mid trip communication was excellent. The DA portal is very detailed and comprehensive and the app was very useful on a day to day basis once we arrived in Tanzania.

The recommended accommodation and transport was mostly superb, only issue was transferring from Kogatendi to Zanzibar where a supposed direct flight was in fact 2 flights with a 2 hour delay on the second, meaning we arrived in Zanzibar around 4 hours later than planned. We understand this happens quite regularly in the bush so not a big deal.

My wife was unfortunately taken ill during the trip (not attaching any blame to any lodge or hotel, these things can happen any time). An initial doctor visit was very well handled by our first guide (en route from Tarangire to Ngongoro), and after a slight recovery she again went downhill when we in the Serengeti. Between Matthys from DA and our driver in Zanzibar a hospital visit was pre-arranged when we arrived and the recommended hospital was excellent. The camps in Ngongoro, Serengeti and the hotel in Zanzibar really couldn’t have done any more to make sure she was as comfortable as possible.

The accommodation was fabulous in all locations and the two guides/drivers absolutely exceptional. All arrangements went as planned and everyone we encountered were so friendly and helpful. Despite the illness disruption we saw many amazing things, too many to list here,

Would very happily recommend DA and use them again.

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!

A trip of a lifetime. Great guides covering Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyana, Ngorongoro crater and southern Serengeti, where we saw herds of elephants, giraffes, antelope, zebra, wildebeast, cape buffalo, eland, jackels, hyenas, mongeese, hippopotomi, rhinoceroses, lion, leopard, cheetah and loads more. This was followed by a more relaxing period on the beaches of Zanzibar, where we snorkelled with dolphins and amongst the numerous fish living on the coral reef.

Every day on safari, we woke thinking that the day could not be better than the previous one but were consistenly wrong.

The fixed accomodation was excellent, the mobile camp was more agricultural as expected. Food across the various locations was good to great.

Definitely worth the money, with incredible experiences

Megan Warrington was amazing to work with. She was very informative and kept us up to date on everything. I found out that I would need to have surgery a few days after returning from the trip and asked Megan if she would be able to arrange for a wheelchair to be at the airports and activities we had planned. She got everything scheduled and sent me confirmations within a short period of time…That is what you call service!!!!!

Was just awesome, would recommend anytime…saw all big 5, all small 5, live kill by lions…was just divine