Affordable Cape Town, Kruger Safari and Victoria Falls journey

We just returned yesterday from our Discover Africa honeymoon trip booked by Susan. It was amazing from start to finish. We started out in Cape Town; we visited Boulders Beach, v&a waterfront for the boat rides, etc., and some shopping. The hotel Susan picked was located in the perfect spot, right near many restaurants, and to travel we used Ubers, which all in all was very cheap to use.

Our next stop was Kruger National Park, which was by far my favourite part of the trip. Lion Sands Tinga Lodge was our stay, and the 2 daily game drives were amazing. Even though it was an early start, it was all worth it for what animals we saw, and no game drive was the same. Our last stay was in Victoria Falls. The hotel was amazing, and the views were amazing.

The only downfall of that part was you couldn’t take a walk, etc. out of the hotel due to animals roaming, so you could only use taxis or shuttles, which could end up expensive, and being on a bed and breakfast basis ended up being expensive when buying food at the hotel.

But other than that, all in all, the whole stay was incredible and a once in a lifetime experience. We say we will be back in the future with our children when they are older. Also, Susan was amazing whenever I needed help to sort anything out. Currency/booking my flights, etc., so I made sure we booked the right ones. Thank you again!

Chelsea's Honeymoon Safari Experience

This is the second “once-in-a-lifetime” trip we’ve booked through Adelle at Discover Africa–and it won’t be the last. Her knowledge of the available tours/lodges/details created very memorable trips. Having to translate our expectations and lack of knowledge of safaris and the various regions into a customized trip with unique and enjoyable experiences could not have been easy, but she’s made it seem so.

Our first trip introduced us to Cape Town, Sabi Sands, and Kruger. From the at-airport welcome for initial transportation, to various flights, and at-lodge customized details (e.g., special meal needs), the itinerary and connections were flawless. The length of stays was discussed and Adelle’s recommendations for each proved exactly what we needed. Even shifting our trip one week on her recommendation enabled us to avoid very heavy seasonal travel from Europe that we were unaware of. In-country/in-continent knowledge coupled with a deep experience with planning travel proved invaluable.

Our second safari experience involved several lodges (with airport-to lodges-to airport transportation) in various locations (Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa). Each provided unique aspects of the safari experience, and (again) the recommended length of stays for each was spot on.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our travel as arranged by Adelle, and are developing plans for another trip. We’ve discussed alternative levels of accommodations, and her knowledgeable responses related to differences between all-inclusive luxury vs. non-inclusive high-quality convinced us to again trust her planning for wonderful experiences of a lifetime.

We would recommend Adelle’s and Discover Africa’s travel services without hesitation and regularly provide their contact information to friends, family, and others who are interested in discovering Africa in a most beautiful, intimate, personal, and respectful way.

Megan, We just returned from our family trip to your country on June 4, 2021. We had a GREAT TIME! Thank you for changing things as required over 2 years (as our trip had to be postponed from May 2020 to May 2021 due to COVID-19).

Now our thoughts on the two lodges and our trip overall: Ngala tented camp: Personalized attention, food was a notch up from the safari lodge. The accommodations were a notch below the safari lodge, given that it is tented. The accommodations were fine (as in decent) but did not really like the outdoor showers.

Saw the white lions at Ngala on our first and second days there. Was one of the highlights of our trip. Would we stay at the tented camp again?? … Possibly. All the transfers everywhere were seamless. The Fairlawns stay on both occasions was very nice! They really do a very nice job at this hotel.

The PCR test to return to the US at Jo berg airport was pretty painless (took the PCR test to avoid the hassle of whether the antigen test would work). Got the results via email in four hours and got the certificates printed out at the airport PCR facility the next day.

Tengile River Lodge; This lodge was truly stunning. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The food was divine. The snacks on the game drives were a notch better than Ngala. The drinks were top of the line and the four of us had our own safari vehicle. We had Warren as our ranger and Jophet as our tracker. They were both very, very good and really friendly. On day two we saw four of the big five on the morning game drive (lion, black rhino, buffalo, and elephants). On the evening game drive on day two we saw lion, buffalo, elephants and the leopard. Also saw lions with cubs on day 6 and also saw leopard with her cub on day 5. Finally saw the honey badger, which as our ranger at Tengile pointed out is extremely rare to spot. Once again thank you for everything.

One final point the game viewing in the Sabi Sands was very good… as good or better than 2017. The game viewing we thought at Ngala this time was not as good as what we saw in 2017. Paucity of animals… though we were very, very happy to see the white lions of Ngala.

Megan at Discover Africa helped us turn a simple safari into the trip of a lifetime. She exceeded expectations at every turn. We had a package deal for a basic safari but knew that we wanted to make more of the trip than just that.

Megan helped us to find our perfect balance of luxury and budget and to spend the right amount of time in the right places. Even though we live on the other side of the world, she was always accessible in our planning to answer questions and provide options and constructive advice. And that accessibility continued throughout our travels which gave us great comfort knowing we could get questions and concerns answered right away.

Our safari at Sabi Sands Little Bush Camp was more than we ever imagined with top-notch luxury, great food, and incredible safari drives. We had sightings of just about every animal in the region including cheetahs and leopards on the same day.

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.

The service received from the staff at Discover Africa was fantastic. Dealing with Megan was a pleasure. She was able to create a unique package for us that both exceeded our expectations and fitted within our budget. My fondest memory was definitely the trip to Devil’s Pool at Victoria Falls. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and something I will never forget.