Unfiltered Botswana

This was my 6th trip to South Africa and Botswana and, as always, Matthys van Aswegen made it a happy, safe, and exciting experience! My roommate, Glenna, and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to South Africa’s Boulders Beach to visit the African Penguin Reserve and all the beautiful scenery in that area. Another Discover Africa staff member, Kayla Robson, joined Glenna and me for dinner one evening and it was such a delight getting acquainted with another Discover Africa person whose talents enrich the travel experience.

When we arrived in Botswana we were so pleased to have the two guides I have always requested and, even though I’ve been at Camps Moremi and Savute before, they provided us with safaris that added to my previous experiences, learning new things about animal behavior and, the bonus, twice seeing a cheetah – a cat I hadn’t yet seen in Botswana!

And I’m already planning my next trip to these two fabulous countries!

I had received a glowing recommendation for Discover Africa from a member of my synagogue who has done multiple safaris with them. So when it came time to select a safari vendor for a once-in-a-lifetime wildlife safari for my daughter and I, I reached out to them. I’d done some research ahead of time and so knew that we were interested in Botswana, specifically the Okavango Delta. My contact/resource at Discover Africa was Susan Veldman and she was great.

She listened to what I told her in terms of what we were looking for and crafted a proposal that met our needs in terms of schedule, length, etc. Initially she had us ending our trip at Victoria Falls (my impression is most multiple-stop safaris in the region start or end there), but when I told her our focus was really on wildlife, she came up with an amended itinerary that subtracted Victoria Falls and added Chobe National Park. In short, she listened and responded to our input. We did 8 nights/9 days. We flew into Johannesburg, South Africa, from NYC via London. Those flights we booked on our own, but everything else and all the other flights (Johannesburg to Botswana, 3 bush flights to our lodges/accommodations, then back to Johannesburg from Kasane) were taken care of by Susan.

Plus we had dietary requirements (I’m a vegetarian and my daughter is allergic to dairy) that Susan communicated to the 3 lodges we stayed at and they came through with flying colors. I haven’t eaten so well in quite a while! We spent 3 nights at Kadizora Lodge (in the Delta), 3 nights at Saguni Lodge (eastern edge of the Delta, near Khwai and the Moremi Game Reserve) and two nights further east, at Elephant Valley Lodge outside of Kasane and adjacent to Chobe National Park.

Each lodge and experience was a little different, and we loved all three. Kadizora was the smallest of the three, and the most isolated — there weren’t many other lodges nearby and so we did not see a lot of other vehicles on our drives. The terrain in the area was flooded delta and savannah-style plain for the most part, with good/long visibility. Saguni was a little larger and close to the village of Khwai; the terrain in the area was more scrub trees, as well as savannah, so visibility was often more circumscribed. The wildlife in both areas of the Delta was similar, and both of the Okavango lodges were near water (Saguni especially).

At both the Okavango lodges we supplemented our drives with water-borne excursions, including two mokoro (traditional dug-out canoes, propelled by guides with long poles — think of Venice and gondolas) rides which were fantastic. We loved our guides at all three lodges, but bonded especially with Action at Suguni — he was very knowledgeable and a real gem. Elephant Valley Lodge was the largest of the three we stayed at; it is near Kasane, a significant town near the borders of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Paved roads, shopping centers, more people. And Chobe National Park was by far the most crowded of the three areas we drove in. And in the national park, as opposed to the Delta, guides were not permitted to take their vehicles off-road in search of game. More than compensating for this, though, was the sheer volume and density of wildlife in Chobe NP. It was amazing.

In short, Discover Africa delivered a perfect wildlife safari for my daughter and I which met all our (very high) expectations. We couldn’t have been happier, and Susan was always available for questions, both before and during the trip. We were in good hands throughout!

We found that Discover Africa was the perfect agent to use for booking our Botswana trip. The itinerary, the advice and the correspondence from beginning to end were faultless. We had the holiday of a lifetime that exceeded our expectations.

We would not hesitate to use their service again!

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.

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.