Cape Town and Sabi Sand Safari Honeymoon

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!!!!!

An outstanding safari trip made seamless and wonderful by Adelle at Discover Africa. From start to finish this trip was amazing, the flights were well organised our pickups and transfers were on time and comfortable. We stayed the first two nights at Jocks a private concession in Kruger and everything from the food, accomodation and our wildlife guide Patrick was out of this world.

We then transferred to Arathusa Lodge in Sabi Sands game reserve and while different experience again the accomodation, food and our tracker Adam and Guide Geoff were outstanding. Not a single complaint and felt Adelle did a wonderful job of making things easy for us when the enormous choice of accomodation options and places to stay can be overwhelming. We saw the big 5 and many other animals and I would recommend Discover Africa and Adelle to anyone I speak with!

It was an amazing holiday! First time in SA, and we had 8 days to visit Kruger Park and Cape Town. Matthys was our travel expert, and he arranged our tour in a smart and super convenient way, advising the best stay & safari options within our budget. Honeyguide Mantobeni Tented Camp in the middle of Kruger Park was epic! All domestic flights, meet & greet service, and hotel booking in Cape Town were awesome!

Thank you for your amazing work and care of your clients!!!

I went on a safari to Sabi Sands this year, and Discover Africa arranged the perfect 5 day stay for me. I was planning on a fairly short notice of 2 months considering Oct is high season in the sands, but Barry Greenshields was able to fetch some great accommodation options for me.

He recommended the Sabi Sabi little Bush Camp and it was absolutely amazing; the wildlife experience, the accommodation, cleanliness of the camp, facilities, the food, guides and the staff was all top notch. Being a photography hobbyist, I had laid out my expectations of getting some great photos of wildlife especially big cats in the safari, and surely enough I managed to have some amazing sightings on Lions and the elusive Leopard.

I had quite a few Leopard sightings, during the day as well as in the night, making for some amazing photos. Other than the big 5, I also got to see some very beautiful birds which are always a great subject for photos along with other prey animals as well.

Being a tour operator, I think the real value the company can offer is i) giving accommodation recommendation based on experience (actual stay experience is up to the accommodation management but the tour operator must know what it is like and whether it would meet the client’s expectation), ii) effective and responsive communication, iii) being transparent with costs and iv) ensuring the booking process is smooth and the client does not experience hiccups on the logistics or payments etc.

I was very happy that Barry was great in all these areas – from the planning process, from recommending the accommodation, accounting for my budget and tending to all my queries. Communication was fast and responsive with all channels available i.e. email, WhatsApp, call etc and I didn’t have to wait long for getting responses despite it being busy season. He was also very transparent with trip costs i.e. the accommodation cost, flight ticket and transfer cost etc so that I would know exactly what I am paying for and make adjustments accordingly to suit my budget.

Sometimes tour operators do not provide cost breakups since the client would then make comparisons, but I believe that if your service is good, you have fair prices and a host of accommodations to choose from then there shouldn’t be anything to hide – the client will recognize value and pay for it accordingly. They had booked air tickets as well to and from Johannesburg and every thing was super smooth throughout the trip – I just had to sit back and enjoy the trip. The payment process was also very easy – i.e. no “5% extra if you pay by credit card”, etc.

If I go to South Africa again, I would definitely book with Discover Africa again.

We found Safari Bookings online and chose Discover Africa after reading the excellent reviews.

Megan contacted us by email the next day and we began the process of picking out a trip with her help. We decided on a stay split between Arathusa Lodge in the Sabi Sands reserve and Jock Safari Lodge in Kreuger. Megan arranged all transfers, bookings, internal flights, etc. from Johannesburg airport and back to the airport after our vacation.

There were absolutely no issues with her arrangements. She kept us up to date with emails and totally fulfilled all of her promises to us. I told her this would be a trip of a lifetime for us, but now that we are home we are starting to plan another trip back to Africa and we will use Megan to make our arrangements again.

The lodges she chose were perfect for us. We flew in to the Arathusa private airstrip and were taken to the lodge. That afternoon we went on our first of four game drives from Arathusa. We saw rhino, giraffe, leopards, hyenas, lions, elephants, and so forth. Our ranger and spotter were very knowledgeable about the animals and explained their habits.

Jock Lodge in Krueger has a history going back to the beginnings of the establishment of the park. The game drives there also amazing. If anything, we saw more big cats and elephants than in the Sabi-Sands area. On our last game drive we saw four female lions surround a small herd of buffalo and attack successfully.

If you have ever wanted to see the African plain and its animals get in touch with Megan at Discover Africa.

I am giving below my feedback about all aspect of the trip from 24th May to 5th June, 2016.

a) Accommodation at Johannesburg, Victoria Falls, Skukuza Rest Camp, Kruger National Park and Cape Town was well located with comfortable rooms as per our requirements.

b) Transfers and Tours at all places was on time and we did have not much of a problem.

c) Flights booked for various places were on time and we were able to maintain our schedule.

d) Two Dinner arrangements at Johannesburg and Cape Town was satisfactory. I have only following comments which if amended will help other travelers.

1) Guide at Victoria Falls was not very helpful. We had to spend some funds to cross the Bridge by walk. I am not sure why this was not included.

2) Kruger National Park – Safari timing during Morning and evening appears to be on fixed irrespective of seasonal variation. This resulted lots of time in movement in darkness which was a waste. This can be easily rectified if Kruger National Park changes Safari timings as per Sun rise and Sun set.

3) Wine Tour at Cape Town should have been included. You ultimately accommodated us at an extra cost. I once again like to convey my sincere gratitude and thanks to you and Discover Africa for arranging this wonderful trip for eight Senior Citizens from India and UK having ages 70+.

I shall definitely recommend Discover Africa and particularly you whenever any of my family and friends plans trip to South Africa and nearby countries.