Kanyezi Africa Safari
- Located In:
-
United States
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 1983)
- Tour Types:
- Mid-range & luxury tours with set start dates and a fixed itinerary
- Destinations:
Reviews
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Email Garth and Anne | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well worth the wait!
Our recent trip with Kanyezi Africa Safaris was a bit unusual. We had started our adventure with a tour of the beautiful Cape Town area in March 2020, but were forced home early due to US restrictions to travel on account of Covid-19. Our experience with owner (and our tour guide) Chris, along with top-notch accommodations and personal attention, made us determined to return for the missing safari part of our planned vacation when it was possible again.
That turned out to be nearly two years later. Our already high expectations were exceeded by our stay at Dulini River Lodge under the auspices of Kanyezi. The lodge’s setting, overlooking a beautiful river valley with frequent animal sightings, was hard to beat. Each room was actually a separate villa with comfortable and spacious lounging and sleeping quarters, bathing area with soaking tub and walk-in shower, and riverfront deck with plunge pool and outdoor shower.
Food was creative, varied and more than ample. Our twice-daily game drives brought us in remarkably close proximity to all the legendary animals we had hoped to see – and a few more – in their natural habitat, behaving naturally if occasionally surprisingly. We were delighted to be the first group in two years to visit the local village where so many of the staff called home, to meet with groups of children and enjoy an impressive performance by the young people’s choir. Kudos to Chris for making it happen for us.
What really made the trip for us was the wonderful Dulini staff. Without exception, they were caring and competent, eager to take care of whatever we needed or wanted. Special mention should be made of our ranger Mac and tracker Prince, who seemed to have an almost telepathic ability to communicate the best routes and locations of the sometimes-elusive wildlife. Mac’s ability to multitask the challenging off-road driving, radio contact with other rangers, game-finding, and explanations to us was quite remarkable. We were also expertly catered to in the lodge by Sipho, our butler. Many thanks to all for making our stay so special!
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Email Pam | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tour operator was amazing!!!
I would like to thank Kenyezi Safari (Chris, Michael, Chip) for the most amazing vacation experience I have ever had. I think I can speak for the other 8 ladies in my group, that the professionalism, detail and care we received made this trip such a success.
From start to finish, they were experts in planning airfare, touring the Cape Peninsula, especially the Penguin Sanctuary, while staying at the Spier Hotel and Winery in Stellenbosch, to Krueger National Park and staying at the Dulini River Lodge within the park. Having lunch on their deck and having elephants walk by is a sight I won’t soon forget. With our extremely educated rangers and trackers we entered the animal kingdom like no other. No words can describe the up close and personal experiences we had with the animals in their world.
We are all hoping to convince our husbands to come back for a golfing/safari combo trip in the near future. Take care and thanks you for an experience of a life time.
Pam Staub (Draggoo Girls)
Oxford, MI. USA
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Email Ricky | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unhelpful to the max
We booked our trip for 2020. They were very happy to help us select them and arrange the entire trip with them. They highlighted (over and over and over again) that they were a five-star resort, which to me means five-star assistance and service. Then COVID happened and they ignored our requests for help. We did have travel insurance (as they recommended) but they were not interested in helping us with the process. We will NOT be booking our next safari with Kenyazi.
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Email Anne | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Lack of Integrity and Unethical Business
We were supposed to travel to South Africa in the summer of 2020 with Kanyezi Africa Safari. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, our trip was canceled. We contacted Chris and Michael Kanyezi to get a refund. Kanyezi said that they had given our total payment (approximately $24,000) to subcontractors that book flights, lodge reservations, safaris, etc. and could not get the money back. Side note, we also had a cruise, VRBO, and concerts planned in 2020, all of which were reimbursed to us with no problem. Airline flights hadn't been booked when they canceled, and they wouldn't even reimburse us for the flight. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Kanyezi starts sending emails to rebook. Kanyezi said we had 2 weeks to rebook without being charged an increase of $2600 per person. Payments needed to be wired by December 29, 2020. Note: all payments had to be wired. I spoke with the owners and agreed to pay approximately $3900 per person to rebook. This money was to cover the flights from small airlines within Africa that went bankrupt. When a new contract was emailed to me, they had us paying $4628 per person PLUS $980 per person to cover taxes and fees. At this point, I was not willing to dump another $11,216 into this trip. That is what I would have to pay on top of the $23,990 I already paid, and I still had to buy insurance?!? I find it unethical and a lack of integrity to not reimburse us anything. I'm very disappointed with this company. A trip of a lifetime has turned into a $23,990 LOSS. I've saved for years for this trip. It's just incomprehensible.
Unethical company during pandemic
We booked this company as a trip of a lifetime. Due to the pandemic Kanyezi cancelled our trip and refused to return our deposit. Chris the owner claimed that he had distributed our deposits to various tour subcontractors and that they were all teetering on bankruptcy without showing us any proof. They all seem to be still in business and are still taking deposits for future bookings. He claimed he had no second party insurance with the various hotels, lodges, guides etc. and that we should make a claim to our own insurance company. He then refused to provide a simple standardized invoice noting the trip cancellation making the insurance claim much more difficult. He also said if we booked a future trip we would have to give another deposit instead of using our funds he already had in his hands. Why would anyone do this? Avoid Kanyezi like the plague. They are not honest business people.
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Email George and Theresa | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic Journey
Well above and beyond our expectations! Even with the Coronavirus crisis developing, we were able to thoroughly enjoy Cape Town and the Dulini reserve. Accommodations were wonderful, tours exciting, and tour guides/trackers very entertaining! You will be blown away by the amount and diversity of animals you encounter. Food and service-first class!
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Email Sam and JoLynn Hezlep | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Extraordinary Adventure Vacation
Kanyezi African Safari's boast of extraordinary 5 - star service and accommodations is certainly not an exaggeration. They were with us every step of the way from planning through execution phase. If you would allow me to make one recommendation in a lifetime for your most enjoyable, exciting, and memorable adventure vacation it would be with Kenyezi African Safari at Dulini Collection in Sabi Sands. Our private villa at Dulini was "Leadwood" with a private swimming pool and beautiful view of the river and wild game. Service at our lodge, including everything from meal and drink preparation in the "treehouse", to modification of travel arrangements, demonstrated every attention to detail. Fred Smith, our ranger, and Tyron, our tracker were magnificent and very impressive, this being only our second safari. They worked extraordinarily well together as a team and went well above and beyond our expectations to discover and locate unique game sightings. Their familiarity and knowledge of Sabi Sands terrain and topography was indeed impressive enabling them to put us in optimum positions to observe and photograph multiple lion prides, female leopards training their cubs, elephant, buffalo, and wildebeest herds. All numbers of game were plentiful this time of year and the weather was perfect. Again, I would highly recommend Kanyezi African Safari without any fear of contradiction!
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Email John L. Richards | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Inspite of a femur fracture, this trip met all my expectations and beyond.
Kenyazi arranged a safari that met all my expectations and beyond. When we arrived in Johannesburg, it had been raining for several days and not safe enough to take the small plane to the reserve. They arranged for a driver and made sure we got to our destination in time. Our accomodations at the Leadwood Dulini Resort was very nice and comfortable. The eating areas faced out into a large open area with the Sand River along the right edge. We were often treated to nice wildlife sightings while we ate. The food was plentiful and very tastey. Our guide/driver was very knowledgable about the mammals and birds. He was good at getting us into good positions for photographs (everyone in our group are advanced ameteur photographers and birders). He was very good at finding the animals we wanted to see and got us close to the BIG 5. What a thrill it was. Now I want to take my wife there and have her experience the wonderful sights we experienced. Once we were there, I can not think of anything I would have changed except the pain in my hip. Without the help of my friends, the guide and tracker and the wonderful staff at our lodge, I would not have been able to make it through the week. They even made sure I help at all the airports going home, so that I could get on and off the planes and around the airports. The only thing that could have been better was the communications from Kenyezi before the trip. Sometimes answers to our questions were slow to come but eventually did. I think the problem was not theirs but the British airlines that were having some strike issues.
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Email Lezlee Liljenberg | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful News and Greatly Relieved
We heard great news from Chris last night and he is going above and beyond to make our trip the Experience of a Lifetime. We are truly looking forward to this trip and were worried due to all of the issues with travel being cancelled and all of the knee jerk reacting across the world. Guess we got fearful too concerning the trip and the money being wired. Chris has assured us that all is OK and that he plans on retainng his company's impeccable reputation serving all of his clients! Thank you for corresponding with us and putting us at ease.
Sincerely, Lezlee
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Email Joanna | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful experience
We had been wanting to do a safari but wanted to do it first class with lots of game drives. This was it. We had an excellent guide, Manie, who took care of us from the time we stepped off the plane till our departure. He was very thoughtful, took care of anything we might need. We were met at the airstrip by a crew who took care of luggage, had cold waters, welcoming smiles. The Dulini River Lodge was exceptional with staff to match. Our Ranger, Morah, tracker, Christopher, were a great team. The knowledge, not only about animals, also about the vegetation, birds, insects, was amazing. Every game drive was a new experience, seeing more animals than we could have imagined. On the morning game drive a stop was made for a special coffee and cookies. The evening game drive had a stop at sunset for some refreshing drink and snacks before heading back to the lodge. There were a total of 11 guests which was a nice number. Every meal was wonderful, every staff member was attentive, cheerful. It exceeded any expectation we may have had. We do hope to return. Thanks to all who made this an awesome experience.