Botswana Safari – Short and Sweet

We really enjoyed our trip from South Africa to Botswana and Zimbabwe! Sometimes a lot of whether a trip is successful comes down to the logistics. In this case, Susan Veldman and the company took care of all details related to our accommodations, transitions between countries and transportation from day to day so that our trip was seamless. The vendors and their staffs (hotels, restaurants, drivers, etc.) were so helpful and friendly. The experience was amazing!

We started to plan our Safari only 2 months prior to arriving in South Africa. The planning and logistics provided by Discover Africa were superb. We only visited Botswana (4 different camps for 2 nights each) and each camp was a wonderful, and yet very different experience in terms of geography and animals. We will definitely be coming back to visit other countries in Southern Africa.

I was enthusiastic to contact Discover Africa for designing a custom tour across Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia because of the numerous positive reviews. Certainly, they excelled in offering me a truly well-made Itinerary! So this will be yet another glowing review for Discover Africa.

Vihann was my point-of-contact and designed my tour, listened to all my needs and patiently adjusted things as I asked for. In any case what was offered in terms of the lodges (I went to luxury end) were already unquestionably good and exciting. It seems Discover Africa understands the needs of the clients well, as far my experience goes. The entire itinerary was outstanding and on-ground experience exactly reflected what was promised!!

On the whole, it was truly a smooth experience without worries. Everything was organized from point-to-point and everyone made sure, I was transitioned between activities, flights, countries, lodges safely, so it goes without saying that using them was a good value for money.

Our Safari was for 15 days and included trips to four different camps in South Africa and Botswana with a side trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Our first stay was four nights at Sabi Sands Bush Lodge in South Africa followed by three night stays at each of the three Sanctuary Retreat camps in Botswana – Chobe Chilwero, Stanley’s and Chief’s. The game drives at each camp were absolutely amazing and very exciting, and we saw an incredible amount of wildlife in the bush (saw the “Big Five” by day 2) and on the river at Chobe, more than we ever imagined.

The guides and trackers were experts in finding the wildlife and very informative in all aspects of animals, plants and birds. They were also very fun to be with. The staff at all the camps were very friendly and helpful and made sure we were safe and comfortable. The accommodations were impeccable and gorgeous, and the food was very varied and delicious.

Our travel planner, Susan Veldman, was fabulous from the start with the planning of our Safari to keeping in touch with us daily during the whole trip. All transfers and connections to the different camps were seamless. We would HIGHLY recommend Susan and Discover Africa to anyone planning a Safari. Thank you, thank you for this most amazing trip ever!!!

Karen & Bill's Safari Experience

This was a holiday of 3 attempts.

Matthys clearly extremely knowledgable, and from experience, about the areas/lodges we visited. The transfers, flights and accommodations were all top notch and nothing went by the wayside.

The trip moved seamlessly from SA, through Kruger, Zimbabwe, 3 Botswana lodges and back to Jo’burg.

Value for money?

Definitely really good quality accommodations and the safari guides were brilliant. We were never crowded into any vehicle we always had plenty of space. The food was amazing and the staff at all establishments were incredibly friendly and accommodating.

Nothing was too much trouble and they went far and above than they needed too.

We loved it so much we are planning to come back in 2024 and do the garden route and some different safari experiences. Missed the Rhino but saw all the other top 4 plus 5 puppy wild dogs/5 adults and 3 leopards. Loads of lions and huge amounts of elephant, bison, water buffalo and numerous other animals.

As Annie once said “I’ll be back!”

For over 2 years my wife and I worked with Megan at Discover Africa to assemble our dream safari itinerary. After some back and forth in 2019 we quickly realized that our dream trip was out of our budget so we held off for a year to make sure we could afford to take the exact trip we wanted. Megan was patient, checking in periodically, and was immediately responsive when we reinitiated the discussion in 2020. She provided recommendations to us from her personal experience and answered any and all questions we had. Once booked, payment was simple with an initial deposit and scheduled date for when payment would be due.

Then COVID hit. Throughout 2020 Megan continually checked in and provided the most updated information she could for the various countries we’d be visiting. Eventually, we found out that due to COVID restrictions our October 2020 trip would have to be rescheduled. Within what felt like an instant, Megan already had the trip we originally designed rebooked and confirmed for 2021. Throughout 2021 we kept in touch and as the trip drew near Megan took charge on identify testing requirements and coordinating the arrangement of tests for us.

During the actual trip, everything was seamless as Megan had arranged. The places she found for us were absolutely perfect for what we wanted. We felt completely prepared for what to expect, what to bring with us, local customs, etc. She provided her personal contact information in the event that we encountered an issue, which we did not. We’ve never been so sad for a trip to end! My wife and I both agreed that this trip felt more like a vacation than any other trip we’ve taken, and we owe it all to Megan and the Discover Africa team for their arrangements and assistance in booking and coordinating our dream safari.