Kruger, Timbavati and the Panorama Route

As a party of seven guests we found the travel arrangements seamless and the accommodation well suited to both older and younger members. In addition, we were of mixed bush experience with some seasoned safari members and some first timers. The Lodges and especially the guides were able to accommodate all levels of interest and discussion. We stayed at a lodge in the Chobe concession (our experienced and wise guide was Lebo) as well as in the delta in the Khwai concession (our guide Biyst was approachable and knowledgeable). The Lodges were well appointed, comfortable and the service friendly and impeccable. Discover Africa’s organizational skills were spot on! This was both affordable and value for money. They are clearly the experts in this area and we can highly recommend them especially for first timer safari travellers.

Fantastic Africa vacation! Discover Africa organised the whole trip seamlessly so that I didn’t need to plan anything but just enjoy every day. They provided me with a very detailed daily itinerary, including airport pickups. Inyati Game Lodge in Sabi Sands and Old Drift Lodge in Victoria Falls were excellent choices. We saw lions in action, a leopard devouring a kill in the tree, wild dogs hunting prey…  Victoria Falls was magnificent and beautiful with a half-circle rainbow. Special thanks to Matthys of Discover Africa for excellent planning and organising our Africa vacation. Highly recommend.

Organised a 10 day trip to Cape Town and a safari with Discover Africa. Fabulous experience with the travel, transportation, the tours, and the safari, and give full credit to Chrizaan at Discover Africa for doing an outstanding job.

Spent a fair amount of time evaluating different tour organisers, largely using reviews such as this to identify good ones, and hopefully avoid working with less reputable companies. I rarely write reviews but want to recommend people in a similar situation to strongly consider working with Discover Africa, especially if the rest of their company is staffed with people like Chrizaan. Collectively, we established timing, budget targets, and experiences. She provided suggestions for 4 days in Cape Town and recommendations for the type of safari experience I wanted (family of 5, all adult children). Even with a 7-hour time difference, communication was prompt, questions and details answered, and her suggestions were perfect. Our family had a fabulous time (Cape Town, Jock Safari Lodge) and would return in a heartbeat. I would not even consider using any other travel advisor.

We did a split tour. Two different safaris. While both had their strengths, in hindsight we feel the first Safari at Becks Lodge was our favourite and wished we’d have stayed here for our entire duration. It is personal with incredible staff and a wonderful guide and tracker. Anything after this would have had to be 100% to match it. We were made to feel special and nothing was too much trouble for all who worked there. We were blown away by the accommodation, the magnificent setting, the food and how the tracker and guide Mandilah and Patrick went above and beyond to make our drives special. It was more than we could have hoped for.

Our second Safari was different. It seemed more commercial and the setting was resort-style. Attention to detail wasn’t as good and our guide was young and quite inexperienced. The staff was polite and kind although we felt it was more out of necessity than passion. However the accommodation was superb, the room was beautiful with a personal pool, food and beverage were excellent with excellent waiting staff.

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.

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.