African Welcome Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 1999)
- Member Of:
- Southern Africa Tourism Services Association
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $120 to $458 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
CA
Email Ashley and Braden | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best vacation of our life!
Our booking was done through Africa Welcome, and the owner, Kathi Simon, took amazing care of us from day 1 of planning. We were on opposite ends of the world, and Kathi had no problem answering our questions quickly and thoroughly, and making changes last minute - she was a gem and the entire reason we were able to go!
In South Africa, we started our voyage from Capetown, on to Franchoek (wine region) and then onward to Kruger National Park and then through Johannesburg on our way back home. The country of South Africa is like no other I have seen - it is so diverse, with a very westernized city like Capetown with amazing food and scenery, and then the wine region which was like Napa Valley or Okanagan (Canada) on steroids - it was THAT good - the buildings were designed beautifully and the wine was fantastic. And finally, the unbelievable wild animal life in Kruger National Park! It really was a dream trip and South Africa is an amazing place with many secrets that unfold for the tourist! Our private lodge, Simbavati, was beautiful, high-end, amazing service and food. Our guides and trackers made our trip, by teaching us so much about the animals, the terrain and the foliage. We loved every minute of our trip and have been highly recommending to anyone who will listen!
You MUST go to South Africa, we seriously thought about how we could move there, that's how amazing it is - no joke, you will be blown away!
Email Alan | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Totally competent
This was the fifth safari that African Welcome have sorted out for us. They know what we want before we ask and we just relax knowing it’s all in hand. We have total faith and we’ve never been let down. Looking forward to the next one
Email Ian Humphrey | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The trip was well organised, the overnight stays exceeded our expectations.
Communications were rapid and coherent. Expertise of advisor useful and valuable. All the information provided was clear and precise with the electronic information particularly good.
Email Nicola Wetherill | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Impressive service
I found African Welcome Safaris by chance when searching Google for safari holidays, read their excellent reviews and went ahead and contacted them. From that first email Kathi was extremely responsive and helpful....emails came back same day or next day but often within hours. Nothing was too much trouble despite changing our plans numerous times....Kathi understood that this was to be the holiday of a lifetime and we wanted to get it 'just right'. She understood that we had a budget and offered us various choices within that budget. The accommodation she booked for us in Johannesburg was outstanding and every transfer and flight booked through African Welcome Safaris went without a hitch. The safari was out of this world and the advice she gave us about what reserve to visit and why was spot on. She communcated the special needs we had (there were a couple) to the hotel in Johannesburg and the lodge on safari making our stay perfect. I would not hesitate to recommend Kathi and African Welcome Safaris to anyone wanting to go on safari or simply to visit South Africa....we have already passed their details to two sets of friends thinking of going and they would definitely be our first choice were we to safari again. Thank you so much Kathi.
CH
Email Sophie | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fabulous trip to South Africa - unforgettable experience
It is the second time we have requested African Welcome Safari to plan another trip to South Africa. The first time was in 2016. The trip was so marvellous that we decided to go back this year. It has been another unforgettable experience. We did a horse back safari at Wait A Little, a big 5 safari and it was just amazing. Kathi from African Welcome Safaris has tailored made our trip taking into account all our requests and budget. She had also made some very valuable suggestions, one of them, was to spend a few days in Kosi forest. What a beautiful part of the world. I highly recommend this travel agent if you want to spend some memorable time in Africa.
Trip of a lifetime -the beauty , the adventure , the experience of South Africa !
After extensive research of safari companies in South Africa we chose African Welcome Safaris and I could not be happier. Kathi Simon responded to all our inquiries promptly and thoroughly. She was able to find a great resort (Simbambilli) that would meet our exact needs. She walked us through the process with ideas and information that was very useful In addition to booking the safari she recommended that we stay four nights in Cape Town and provided private tours for three days. The Alfred and Victoria hotel was right on the harbor with beautiful views. The surrounding area was very colorful with performers and plenty of delicious restaurants to chose from. Our guide Graham was extremely informative and enthusiastic about Cape Town and the surrounding area. He provided us with local color and was sensitive to our needs. He was amazing! Leaving Cape Town we traveled to Sabi Sands and stayed at Simbambilli. The atmosphere, the service and especially the safari rides with Jaben and Rodney were exciting and exceeded our expectations. Ashley coordinates everything you need flawlessly . The safari rides were full of adventure tracking animals and finding them - white rhino, lionesses, leopards, giraffes, elephants, zebras, hyenas, warthogs, impalas , hippos etc- was breathtaking and so informative. Relaxing at The lodge with the view of the waterhole where impalas, elephants, warthogs, baboons to name a few come to drink never grows old. South Africa was as special as we dreamed and this tour let us revel in this beauty. This was a wonderful trip of a lifetime that we will always treasure.
SG
Email Jia Hui | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing, comprehensive and easy-to-use service
Kathi was prompt and patient in arranging my first trip to South Africa. Louis, my private guide for Cape Town was friendly, kind and extremely knowledgeable and he made my trip to Cape Town a blast. Overall a great experience and an extremely trustworthy travel service provider that I highly recommend!
FR
Email Juan Antonio | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Meeting all our requirements
- The trip-Safari met all of our expectations.
- Kathi understood very well our requirements and developed an itinerary to fit perfectly what we were looking for:
* Family fun
* Wild Life
* Some adventure (not excesive)
*Comfort in the nature.
She managed to combine a good trip for our party of 7.
The part of the trip from Cape Town had several roadblocks (not due to African Welcome).
Disapointing was not to be able to do the White shark cage diving. It is annoying that no sharks have been seen in the last months. (we regreted to miss this hit).
We were not even able to pick up Roben Inland Tour tickets netiher (fully booked during our stay).
I appreciated the flexibility of African Welcome looking for alternatives like the Whales Watching trip, Seals colony trip or thd Birds Sanctuary in Hault Bay.
I recommend next time African Welcome should warn on the sharks shortage in advance ..
Beyond those two missings, the rest of the Cape Town part was easy and funny.
Cape Royal suites were great and I recommend to advertize the courtesy shuttle from the hotel , very convenient to visit Waterfront , downton and all kinds of pick ups for a party of 7 (and free of charge).
Regarding the Kruger part of the trip I want to remark that Bateleur was great (low level of accomodation but very appealing, great level of exclusivity and quality of the staff).
Thornibush was surprisingly known by us, as last time we were there in 2009 when Thornibush was called Kapama Bush Lodge....so we unfortunately repeated our lodge without knowing it. However the quality of Lian (guide) was so great, and we saw so many wild life scenes , that we did not mind to repeat.
Regarding Tintswalo Manor House it is relevant to differentiate the accomodation from the game-drives.
Accomodation in a private house, private garden with our private waterhole always plenty of animals was the best spot of the trip. Exclusive butler, ranger, tracker and chef was also a hit .
However the quality of the guide and the tracker was well below the average of the other two previous locations.
Their attitude and behaviour was OK and they were always looking for us. But beyond the Big 5 they were not really able to talk about insects, birds , small mammmals, plants , flowers, other animals, etc....We felt their qualification and English level below the average.
We actually saw more wild-life from our private in house water hole than during the game drives. And Sophia (Bateleur Camp) was able to tell us more about the bush in one morning that the Manor House's guide in 4 days and very little talkative.
Big 5 is OK, but the quality of the guides/tracker resides in their ability to find other exciting topics in the bush when big 5 are not found or when we have seen the same lions family the last two days.
In the positive side the hospitality in Tintswalo: dancing, singing, dinner and breakfast in the bush was memorable.
I would recommend anyone to follow the same order: Bateleur, Thornybush and Tintswalo Manor House. Each of them had a pick of memory:
- Bateleur: modest but exciting and exculsive camp, excellent insects, scorpions, stars speaches.
- Thornybush: the best wild life sightings: running the wild dogs with cubs, hyenas fighting, tracking the black rhino and more.
- Tintswalo Manor House: animals came to our waterhole while having a beer from our coach: elephants, kudus, bufalos, warthogs, etc.... More fun than animals, and that is also part of the expectation.
All in all a great Safari...we will come back again .
CH
Email Claudia Maradan | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This agency provides utmost professional advices and individualized services.
We knew about African Welcome Safaris thanks to friends who used their services the year before. We very much appreciated their responsiveness and listening to our needs and expectations. We lived amazing top class safari days within the Kruger park area, and were very well advised on what-to-do in the Southern part of South Africa, i.e. Capte Town and the Garden Route. African Welcome Safari organized everything from hotels to local flights booking, including car rental and private transfers, allowing us to fully and safely enjoy our 15 days in South Africa.
HK
Email Annie | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great!
Truly professional and helpful guides combined with great hotels, with our agent Kathi always willing to answer any questions we might had, including last minute questions about drones and whether a fleece and windbreaker would be sufficient since it wasn't listed in the general information for winter travelling. For faster answers, call or ask to add agents on whatsapp, which Kathi suggested for quicker information exchange!