Bianca & Craig your expert safari planner/guides
Southern African Tours
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2008)
- Member Of:
- SATSA, CTT & intrasure
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $69 to $129 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
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Email Sara R. | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful adventure!!
Highly recommend this tour company. Gerry was a fantastic guide for our private 11-day tour ; very knowledgeable about the history of the country and very eager to be sure we were taken care of and that we had a great experience. Sheilagh was very thorough in setting up all of our accommodations and reservations and sending us a detailed itinerary along with contact info prior to our arrival. The 2 highlights of the tour were Kruger and Cape Town. In Kruger, we were fortunate to see almost all of the animals in their natural habitats: leopard, elephants, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, hippos, baboons, buffalo, wildebeest, hyenas, water bucks. Cape Town is the most beautiful city I have every visited: 360 degree views of mountains and coastline; the penguins; botanical gardens. Blyde River Canyon was also spectacular. Take a good camera with a good zoom lens. Can't say enough...this company is trustworthy and eager to be sure you have a memorable trip. And we loved that it was a private tour with just the 5 of us in a van and not in a big tour bus with 20-40 other people. All the accommodations were very nice and clean with good breakfasts included.
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Email Lauren Kaas | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Breathtaking!
Craig and his team at Southern African tours took really good care of us. They handled every aspect of the planning of our trip, which eliminated any anxiety that we had of travelling to an unknown destiny. They also put in a lot of effort to tailor make our trip to suit our budget and our wish-list of places to visit. Whilst the tours are set out with a specific itinerary, they had absolutely no problem tweaking and adjusting our travel programme.
Craig’s hosting and guiding skills are excellent. He made us feel at ease and was very knowledgeable on every aspect of our tour. There was never a concern about our safety, or that an unforeseen glitch would spoil the trip for us. It’s been a truly breath-taking and educational experience and we highly recommend Southern African tours to anybody who wants to travel to Africa. We will be homeward bound in the next two days with happy memories and smiles.
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Email Jim Labelle | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well managed and professional operation with great attention to service and satisfaction.
Craig and his team did an excellent job in working with some of our special timing requests on the 7 day Cape Town/Kruger tour. All transfers, lodging, and tours went off impeccably well....we put a lot of trust in Craig's operation and did not have to worry about any of the details.
A real blessing was meeting Gerard Maretz, our guide from Southern African Tours in and around Cape Town. He is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and I highly suggest requesting his services.
Cape Town is certainly one of the world's great beach cities, and Kruger is indeed the Garden of Eden. The lodging and tours that Craig's operations set up for us in both locales were perfect.
It was an amazing trip. I have been blessed to travel to many places in the world, and South Africa will be among the most memorable. We especially enjoyed all of the people of South Africa.....they have a unique understanding of human nature, regret, forgiveness, and most importantly hopefulness for the future. South Africa is one of the world's most special places geographically. It's rainbow of people make it an even more special place.
Our guide, Gerard Maritz, proved knowlegable about all aspects of culture/heritage in South Africa.
Gerald Maritz was an excellent tour guide - able to accommodate some changes along the way and always open to our suggestions for a better experience that suited our needs. He has a thorough knowledge of culture and heritage and generously shared his insights along the way. It was a pleasure to have him aboard!
We did have issues with several of the accommodations preselected by the tour operator, but we're certain that our guide will bring our feedback forward so that changes can be made for future tours.
Reply from Southern African Tours
Posted on Oct 29, 2018Hi Peter & Jessica,
Thank you so much for your kind comments, on your recent tour of South Africa and am thrilled I was able to play a part in the success of your South African experience.
I do apologize for the unfortunate situation which occurred shortly after you checked into your guest house in the Tsitsikamma Village and am very pleased that you were able to obtain excellent alternative accommodation. At the game farm it was disappointing you had to move into a different chalet than you were originally allocated due to the unpleasant smell in your chalet. I have contacted the operators of the guest house in the Tsitsikamma Village and at the game farm in the Montagu district, to mention these unfortunate incidents which impacted on a perfect South African experience.
Kind regards,
Craig and Gerard.
Email Will S | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic tour with an extremely knowledgeable and friendly guide
This was our first visit to South Africa and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Southern Africa Tours setup a great itinerary tailored to our needs that packed in a great deal of things in a relatively short space of time.
We started by giving them a list of the attractions we wanted to see and the timescale that we had and they managed to get everything we'd requested and more.
I'd also like to make special mention to Gerard our tour guide. My wife and I were both instantly comfortable with him from the get-go. He is extremely knowledgeable about South Africa and each of the locations we visited and made great company.
Thank you again for such a fantastic experience!
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Email Paul | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Derick was Great ! Outstanding knowladge , very helpfull .
Best vacation ever !!! for me and my 11 years old daughter . Thanks
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Email albert | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
The Garden Route - A Great Tour with a Great Guide
We booked a five day, four night tour of the Garden Route with this company and were so happy that we did. The company's Craig Lucke did a fine job in making accommodations for us even when two of our party had to cancel out of the tour. He mad it easy for us to make payments, and easy for our pick up and drop off after the tour.
What was especially remarkable about our tour was our tour guide- Derick Keeling.
He made the tour. Articulate, passionate, knowledgeable, and even funny, he provided us valuable information, answered all of our questions, helped us with our luggage and belongings, and even escorted members of our party who were challenged with impaired mobility.
We kept him at our dinner, lunch and breakfast tables because of his insight to so many things South Afirca. A real asset to South African Tours, he exhibited compassion and empathy (giving food to some locals we came in contact with), a sense of safety (intercepting people who might have impaired our secrity), flexibiltiy (offering us alternatives to the set itinereary) and humor (so important later in the day when we were tired).
Easy Peasy. Lemon Squeasy.
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Email Adrian | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A truly fantastic experience!
My family and I enjoyed a great 5 day tour. The itinerary was excellent, the quality of hotels, the comfort and the warmth, knowledge & charm of our guide Gerard were all perfect! Extremely happy with this tour and highly recommendable to anyone that wants to enjoy the Garden Route at its fullest. We are already passing on the tip to all our friends & family. Many thanks to the crew at South African Tours!
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Email Jan | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great last-minute organized 8 days in Cape area
We booked a tour with Craig of South African tours recently and, despite it being really last-minute, quite promptly he was able to put together a very memorable and quite filled tour. The first three days were with Craig himself as tour guide then followed by the Garden tour in the remaining 5 days hosted by Derek. The country is beautiful, even in winter, Craig provided us with a great introduction and reminder of the history of the country and lots of background information on the current situation, government, institutions, people, difficulties and strengths. We visited the Cape area, wineries, Stellenbosch, the beautiful botanical garden and unforgettable views of the landscape around Cape Point and Cape of good hope. Lots of information on good places to eat, walk, surf, live, etc. The Garden tour with Derek was equally fantastic; again loads of very helpful information, conversations with people on the road, beautiful sights of nature, whales in Hermanus, Knysna just recovering from a devastating fire, Storms river mouth wildness, and Oudshoorn's caves and ostrich farms. We felt that the care and organization by Craig's business was impeccable. Despite the short time of our stay we felt we got the maximum out of the time - perhaps sometimes too compressed or rushed, but that was just the nature of our trip; we wanted to see as much as possible. Overall, we met beautiful people from a beautiful, yet somewhat polarized country. Both Craig and Derek put significant personality in their tours - we enjoyed that tremendously. We will certainly go back if the opportunity presents itself.
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Email Amber | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Southern Africa Tours provided an amazing private tour, making our visit a trip of a lifetime!
I have traveled extensively both with and without using a tour company. I wanted to experience as much as possible for my first trip to South Africa and my friend found the 15-day private tour offered by Southern Africa Tours that also included Swaziland and Lesotho. I had never heard of SAT and have had several friends use a private guide for double the price for a similar itinerary so I was a bit skeptical---it sounded too good to be true. We did quite a bit of research before booking and this tour itinerary was packed with all the highlights our group of four wanted to experience, nothing comparable was offered by any other company---and certainly not at the value price we paid. I am so thankful that we decided to book with them! This was a trip of a lifetime and every day felt like the best day ever, it really did surpass out expectations. Andrea was very helpful in answering all our questions before the tour and making sure there were no issues, and you could tell that Craig had a great deal of experience in making sure his clients were well-taken care. They both contacted us during the tour to make sure things were going well. Some of the items we really appreciated included the ability to have a private guide without the huge cost you would typically expect, excellent accommodations that allowed us to further get a taste of the people and culture in each area, and having a tour guide that was South African and enthusiastic to share the knowledge and passion he had for his country. In addition to our regular tour guide, SAT provided several amazing local guides and they really allowed us to experience in depth the diversity of the people, landscapes, and animals on our journey. I would highly recommend Southern African Tours for both first-time visitors and those that are returning to further explore Africa---I can’t wait to go back and would use them again!