South Africa Travel Guide

The most european part of Africa.

I am quite sure my rating would be much hire, if I had visited Southafricas Top-destinations in wildlife! ( Addo-Park, Krüger-Park) Unfortenately they were not on my route ( Cape to Namibia), but what i ´ve seen makes me wanna come back some day.
The Kgalagadi is quite nice with larger number of predators, but we had not much luck there. The stuff there was very nice and i love the red soil of the Kalahari. For me the most beautiful part of the soutafrican part of the trip was capetown and the wonderful table mountain scenery! It was much safer, than I thought before!
My wife enjoyed the Namaqualand with its flowerful deserts most! But to see this, you have to visit it during spring!
Most of the streets were easy to drive. In Kgalagadi it was a bit difficult! One amusing thing: Our 4x4 was equipped with winter tyres, which was not the best choice with temperatures up to 35 Celsius.
But we finished safe, and enjoyed our journey very much!

Great for budget and convenience, but more downtime than expected

Safari With Us booking at Kruger adventure lodge was overall a good experience for the price we paid, which while not cheap was definitely the cheapest we found compared to others for the value it offered. This package definitely maximizes budget and convenience (transportation to/from airports and safaris each day, breakfast and dinners included), however the package included more downtime than was expected with little to do on site.

The package advertised activities at night, full day safari and optional game rides on the third day. All optional rides were ~$100 extra each, there were no activities at night, unreliable WiFi only in the reception area, and the full day (which does start at 5am) ended before 3pm with nothing to do in the evening. So, what we thought was a 3 day safari was actually 1.5 (evening ride day 1 and 5am-3pm day 2). The game rides were incredible and made the experience absolutely worth it, but more transparency about what we were actually getting up front would have been nice.

The staff were mostly friendly (especially those who drove us and receptionists up front), with exception of 1-2 wait staff who seemed caught off guard when we sat down to eat and were not friendly at all.

The rooms were clean and spacious, though the AC does go out, the fridge did not work, and we found a frog in our bathroom on the last day.

Overall, I would still recommend this tour package if you are looking to maximize on budget and convenience while still getting to see some incredible things, but not if you are looking to maximize your time on Safari or a luxury lodging experience.

Ok

Food, transportation, guide were great... but the wildlife and safari experience was regular

Wildlife

My accommodation, food and transport to Ndaka at Nambiti game reserve was excellent and so was the weather and wildlife. Our game ranger and staff went the extra mile and had sighting of 4 out of Big 5

One of the most magnificent adventures of my life.

Naledi Bush Lodge and the entire staff were helpful, gracious and knowledgeable.

a pleasant trip along the garden route

Cape Town was great as always, but for the weather, cold grey and foggy. Winchester Mansions hotel was very comfortable. unable to see anything at Cape Point and table mountain cable car was shut. V&A shopping improves with each visit.
Drove the garden route and stayed at Franschoek, The Avondrood Guest House, lovely, wine tram was great. Stayed at The Belvidere Manor Kynsa, nice complex of chalets outside Knysa, very pretty views and visited the Craggs sanctuaries , all of which were very good. Bird World is a very special place!
Drove to Port Elizabeth. Only stayed at one private game park on this safari, Lalibela which,we found out when we arrived, was under reconstruction( not the lodge, the reserve !!! ) . We were shown a video explaining their long term plans and why we would go on to see huge areas of devastation so the vibe was very muted at Lentaba lodge. Had we known they were taking hundreds of mature non indigenous trees out with heavy equipment we would not have stayed there. The bush has yet to grow back. The effect on the wildlife must be substantial. We paid for a chalet upgrade ( it was our wedding anniversary and my wife's special birthday ) only to find it was nearest to the very noisy generator which switched on every 4 hours when they experienced the Government induced power cuts. Very obtrusive in the room. It was so noisy it drowned out conversation at the pool! Sounded like a jet engine! . Weather was not good, with rain and mist and little sun, not a good time of year to safari. In all a holiday with some highlights but could have been so much better. Not good value for money to us.

Entertaining, eye opening.

Viva Safari did a fairly good job, I should qualify that my budget did not allow me to be to demanding , the guides were recent graduates, very friendly, but they never left the paved roads in the park, pretty much anyone could have rented a car and did what we did and saw what we saw.

Security feel makes in shaky.

You probably don't get the wilderness experience you would get elsewhere - unless you go for the smaller lodges & private concessions.

Rich with natural beauty

The time I spent in South Africa was great, though most of it was driving. I was with some veterinarians who were visiting various game ranches and conservation operations. While I didn't get to spend much time in the "wild bush", the scenic views I experienced while driving down the eastern coast, and inland areas was breathtaking. There is such a variety of natural beauty in South Africa, with many different ecosystems, and varieties of people. I experience such a rich diversity of cultures, languages, and traditions. My time spent in the parks was limited to a few short day visits, but all of the accommodations were top notch, and quite luxurious. Being one of the more developed nations in Africa, many of the facilities and services in South Africa are superior to other countries. A great place to visit, whether you want to go on Safari, tour by car, or just view natural beauty.