Sabi Sands Safari and Mauritius

My son Max and I just returned from an incredible trip to South Africa and Mauritus, and I can’t say enough about how exceptional Susan Veldman was throughout the entire process. From the very beginning she listened to what we wanted and designed an itinerary that was exactly right for us-thoughtful, seamless and perfectly tailored. Every detail was handled flawlessly. The drivers were prompt and professional, the local agents knowledgeable and the hotels outstanding.-each one what we hoped for. There was not a single disappointment on the trip which is rare for a trip of this scale.

What stood out the most was Susans care and attention. She checked in regularly to make sure everything was going smoothly.
I would highly recommend working with Discover Africa for a trip that would be memorable, stress free and tailored to your preferences and budget. Susan is not only incredibly organized but highly invested in making your experience special.

Debby Anziano's Safari Experience

She found the most outstanding places for us to stay with our favorite by far Leopard Hills Lodge in Sabi Sands Reserve, A small intimate lodge with incredible rooms, food and the game drives did not disappoint as we saw the big 5 every day and many leopards while feeling we were only ones in the park. I have been on several safaris in Africa but this was different how alone and private it was.

The other hotel I would not miss was one of the best hotels we ever stayed at in the world in Johannesburg, The Residence Hotel which was amazing and since our flight was cancelled due to a Lufthansa strike we had to stay an extra night which was also a highlight of our trip and we would go back to Johannesburg to stay there again.

Thank you Susan for making this such an amazing trip!

We had a great experience planning our holiday with Discover Africa, and especially with Diane. She set up an initial Zoom call to help understand our wishes for planning a memorable first time on safari. She was flexible and found ways to adjust the itinerary when I asked about changes (e.g., swapping out a portion of the holiday, adding a private tour, etc.). When we found ourselves ill during the trip, Diane was a lifesaver. We had to change a portion of our itinerary, and she did it all promptly, which was such a relief, allowing us to relax and get better before our safari portion of the trip started. It would have been such a pain if we had to manage ourselves. She even coordinated with the hotel to send a doctor to our room.

On a whole, all the hotel bookings were excellent – great locations, rooms, and breakfast options. Our transfers were always on time and made getting around so convenient. The safari was certainly the highlight, and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. We saw so many animals on game drives, and even from our room. The staff and service, including the food, was fantastic. I know we’ll want to have another safari experience in the future and will come back to booking with Discover Africa.

We had a rough idea of a trip to South Africa & Zimbabwe but we were unsure of selecting accommodation, transfers etc. Megan at Discover Africa prepared an itinerary for us which we worked together on to produce a trip of a lifetime. Megan selected some fantastic hotels for us to stay in, organised all the internal flights, transfers and day tours.

The trip ran smoothly, every day was an amazing experience & the quality of operators, accommodation and transfers was superb. We organised a Zoom meeting with Megan to finalise the itinerary and payment details. Megan was lovely to deal with and no question was a trouble for her.

She supplied her own contact details for us to use before the trip & while we were travelling. Every detail was covered. We had a trip of a lifetime and we would highly recommend Megan at Discover Africa to anyone thinking of travelling to Africa.

Our only advice is always to remember to take an international covid vaccination certificate while travelling overseas.

Discover Africa , and Matthys van Aswegen in particular, was a pleasure to work with. Firstly, his patience and understanding is a true fine attributive of his. We started talking about a safari to South Africa in mid-2019. We had both phone calls and email exchanges, and he was always responsive with concrete intelligent answers.

In fact, he sent me many options/packages that were only in Kruger, and others that included Botswana, whatever combination I asked him for, he put together happily. However, by the end of 2019, not knowing about Covid yet, we simply weren’t ready to go on Safari yet. He never put any pressure and was quite understanding.

We then spent most of 2020 emailing back and forth again during the pandemic, with many more questions and options. In Dec 2020, I finally booked a Safari with him to Mala Mala camp in Sabi Sands(one camp , 4 nights, seven game drives), as well as visits to Johannesburg and Cape Town.

We continued to exchange emails during 2021, updating and tweaking the itinerary, when suddenly the Omicron variant hit during Thanksgiving. Since there was MUCH uncertainty with Omicron and our trip was a few weeks away, I couldn’t take chance with my family’s well-being and potentially getting stuck in South Africa.

So I postponed the entire trip for a year to Dec 2022. Matthys, once Again, was only understanding and flexible! He helped me re-book everything to Dec 2022 AND I even rearranged the itinerary completely, and he was accommodating and cooperative. He was also able to transfer all of my pre-payments for Mala Mala, other hotels, flights, to Dec 2022 so that not one penny was lost!

In short, he was amazing ! We just returned a few days ago and the safari at Mala Mala was something me and family will always treasure. We also very much enjoyed Cape Town and the winelands! Discover Africa gets an A+ !

We worked with Alice to plan the safari portion of our South Africa trip. Alice was wonderful to work with. She was very helpful with finding two safari locations within our budget. We considered both Botswana and South Africa, and she provided some great insight into each area.

The vacation she planned went so smoothly! We were very impressed. The safari lodges and hotel in Johannesburg were excellent. I would definitely plan another safari through this company.

All was quiet at Masodini Lodge when we heard the roars of a female lion calling for her pride to help feed her babies, she’d recently been wounded. She must have been at least 500m away but sounded like she was at the foot of our door. The sound still rumbles through me.