Christine Sales Office
Wildlife Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 1971)
- Member Of:
- Southern Africa Tourism Services Association
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Mid-range)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $211 to $236 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Highlight of our trip to South Africa
After researching, for what seemed like forever, for safari options to take from our short stop in Johannesburg we opted for the three day Classic Kruger Park safari with Wildlife Safaris. I am glad to say it was the highlight of our holiday to South Africa. We had a small group and a fantastic tour guide, the wonderful Hoppy, which meant it was a very personalised experience and there was very little we didn't see. We saw all of the big five right up close and so many different animals and birds that we lost count! It also didn't feel rushed at all, despite the short timeframe. The booking process was very easy and the Wildlife Safaris team were always very prompt in replying to any queries I had. I would recommend them to anyone looking to go on a Kruger safari. I would also like to thank Hoppy for his vast knowledge on what seemed like absolutely everything and such a great experience!
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Email Marguerite | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
All You Could Hope for--and More
A fantastic safari. Hoppy, our safari guide, was knowledgeable, friendly, and committed to providing the best possible visit to Kruger National Park imaginable. His keen vision was particularly helpful, the result of which was our seeing spiders hanging from trees, turtles in the road, even small exotic birds--all in addition to the Big Five (we saw them all) and hundreds of other animals, many in hard-to-see locations. The park is beautiful, but Hoppy's knowledge and enthusiasm (and keen eyes; did I mention his incredible ability to see animals) made the safari fantastic. Food was excellent; lodgings were not fancy but very nice--exactly what we expected: clean, comfortable, and conveniently located. A+++ safari. A+++++++ guide. I highly recommend Wildlife Safaris; ask for Hoppy by name.
Email John & Susan Wilson | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great experience, fun, laughter and excellent Guide.
From our initial contact to returning to the airport, we were well taken care of. Dates tailored to our needs. Timely response to all our questions prior to the safari. We thoroughly enjoyed our time during the safari; the variety of accommodation, meals and above all the many different animals. The experience and knowledge of our guide enhanced the trip. It certainly went beyond our expectations.
Email Terry and Sally | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An experience of a lifetime
We've just returned from a most amazing 4 day Kruger Park safari which we added on to a business trip to Johannesburg – and what a trip it was, a truly amazing experience!
This was our first safari and we hoped we would see a lot, but nothing prepared us for the variety and abundance of wildlife that we were privileged to see - this trip far exceeded our expectations in every way.
The organisation was excellent and booking was simple. The bungalow accommodation in Skukuza rest camp was wonderful, the food was excellent, the safari vehicle was open sided and high up giving us a great view, and our guide Nik, was brilliant!
Nik was friendly, very knowledgeable and shared his knowledge and expertise enthusiastically – and his eyesight was amazing! None of us spotted that a ‘log’ by a watering hole was in fact a sleeping lion, Nik did!
We had a great group and seeing how the other guides and visitors shared information about locating wildlife was wonderful. We saw the ‘Big 5’ and much much more! Nothing quite prepares you for seeing a group of elephants crossing the road beside you, or being within arms reach of wild rhino! There are many memories which we shall never forget.
We are so enthused about the whole experience, we talk about it every day, and will be back for more – we’re hooked!
Many thanks to everyone at Wildlife Safari’s for making our trip so wonderful; Christine and Lynn for the organisation and for answering endless questions before we went, and of course, Nik, our brilliant guide who made the whole experience so special.
Highly recommended.
Excellent service, planning and tour guide!
This was our first trip to an African Safari and we had the most wonderful trip of our lives. Every member of our family thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. And, I must say that the team at Wildlife Safaris and their partner made our stay and safari a wonderful experience. The tour guide is the MOST important person to make your trip pleasant and exciting. We had the best guide I can think of. He was diligent, methodical, courteous, experienced in tours (17 years of expertise with Kruger Park) and he knew all the critical points in the park and made sure that we got to see all the Big-5 animals. He would look out for all the species and gave us a sheet that listed all the animals and birds and I think we were able to check-off almost 95% of the creatures listed on it. He would take the time to explain each new species with history and special features of that creature. I will make sure that I recommend the folks at Wildlife to all my friends, who are already excited to make their trip to South Africa. We started planning with Wildlife folks almost a year in advance and their staff were so prompt in communicating all details via email and made sure we had the best deals. They made the entire exploration and reservation process so simple and stress-free!!
Email Jonny & Louise Linden | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An unforgettable experience.
We were collected by Hoppy bright and early from our hotel in Johannesburg and enjoyed a great drive out of the city to Kruger National Park.
We absolutely loved the whole experience, from the moment we arrived to the afternoon we left. Thanks to largely to Hoppy's great knowledge and experience we were lucky enough to see an amazing number of animals. Perhaps the highlight being a young leopard passing our car half an hour before we left the park on the final day, completing our sighting of the big 5 over the 3 days. We also saw numerous other animals and birds.
We loved it and hope to come back someday to stay longer.
Genuinely can't recommend Wild Life Safaris and particularly Hoppy enough.
Email Victoria | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Utterly Unforgetable Trip
We completed the 3 day Kruger Park Safari two weeks ago, and I'm pleased to say that it exceeded our expectations in every way! Everything was so well organised and planned, right from the original booking process all through to being dropped off back at departures at Johannesburg airport in plenty of time for our flight. The instructions were very clear and the itinerary was very accurate - we were picked up by the comfortable, air-conditioned minibus almost the second we stepped out of arrivals! We hadn't expected a private safari - just us and our guide in the minibus for the entire 3 days - so that was a fantastic bonus and enabled us to have a more personalised tour, to stop for as long or little as we wanted and to ask all the questions we could think up.
Our incredible, knowledgable guide Clive made the trip for us. His facts and stories about Kruger and South Africa in general kept us entertained for the entire weekend, especially on the long drive to Kruger from Johannesburg. We could not have asked for a better guide. He went out of his way to ensure that the trip was as special for us as possible - from making sure that we saw all of the big 5 (including 3 leopards!) and much more, to serving us tea, coffee and rusks at 5.45am before our morning drives! The highlight of the trip for us was seeing a cheetah - rare as there are less than 100 in the park!
Everything about the trip was perfect for us, and definitely worth every penny and more. For two night's accommodation in an ensuite chalet, two dinners and two breakfasts, transfers to and from Jo'burg, not to mention the game drives themselves, the value was incredible!
We are so grateful to Clive for everything he did to make our trip so unforgettable, we would go back in a heartbeat.
AE
Email Padmini | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An unforgettable adventure into the wild
It had always been our dream holiday, to visit Kruger National Park and see wild animals in their natural habitat. Well, this dream came true this July, and it was a truly unforgettable experience. We spent four glorious days hunting wild game-with our cameras, of course- and were one of the lucky 33% who spotted all the Big Five.
The four-day tour was well planned, with stops for breakfast and lunch. As our vehicle wound slowly through the park, we soon learnt to spot wild animals hidden in the bush and among the trees. My first sight of two giraffes standing together and gently nudging each other and the family of elephants- five babies flanked by a huge female in front and another at the rear- well, these are sights that will forever be etched in my memory. We were lucky too in spotting a lion sunning itself on a rock as well as two leopards at fairly close quarters. Both day and night tours were excellent, with many stops for photo-shoots whenever a wild animal had been spotted.
Our trip would certainly not have been so enjoyable if it were not for our guide, Liese. She was not just knowledgeable, but patiently waited while we had our fill of photographing or filming. There was a lot about the wild we learnt from her, foremost of which is to respect the jungle and the creatures. "Don't expect anything, and then it'll happen," she cautioned us. This seems to be true, as we sighted some of the more exotic creatures when we least expected it. Thank you, Liese, for being such an excellent guide!
The camps we were put up in were basic but clean, with running hot and cold water and comfortable beds. The restaurants were also good, but catered mainly to meat eaters. Since all four of us were strict vegetarians, we found the few vegetarian options on the menu not always to our taste. Well, we were here for the safari, not for fine dining! On our last night, Liese surprised us with a lovely vegetarian meal which she had prepared! That shows service that goes an extra mile!
If anyone reading this review contemplates a Kruger park safari, I'd say, just go for it! And I'd strongly recommend Wildlife Safaris for their most excellent service.
Would give more than 5 stars if we could
We booked Wildlife Safaris for the first part of our honeymoon in October 2015 and we could not have been happier. We're writing this review a bit late but life happens and time flies!
To start, I spoke with no one on the phone. Everything was handled through email and it was booked to perfection. Yes, it is a scary thought when you think about not conversing with anyone but email and sending them money for a trip that is halfway around the world but they made everything feel so comfortable and smooth I didn't even think about that fact until after we returned from our trip and others found it odd we spoke to no one beforehand. Kudos to the office staff at Wildlife Safaris for making it seem completely normal to do this and comfortable every step of the way.
Hoppy picked us up the morning of our Safari at our hotel in Joberg to start our 5 day panorama tour to Kruger. If you have the time to do this it's worth it. To see blyde river canyon and God's window were spectacular. Even Lisbon falls was small but breathtaking. It was a great way to kick off our 5 day safari before we were surrounded by tons of wild animals!
Hoppy, our guide, was incredible. We were lucky enough to be on our own safari without booking a private one so we were in a microbus with A/C, very comfy! Back to Hoppy though....did I mention he was incredible? He could spot animals from a mile away...no exaggeration. One of our favorite moments of this if when my wife was focused on looking out the left side of the bus while I was looking out the right, making sure we would miss nothing. Then, all of a sudden, the bus comes to a stop, gets put into reverse for a few feet and Hoppy points into the bush to a termite mound. On top of the mound, blending in perfectly, was a Dwarf Mongoose. "Right there, you see it on top of the mound?" Hoppy says to us. Finally, we saw it, adorable and about 100ft or so back from the road into the bush. Then we collectively thought out loud "how the heck did you see that thing driving by and blending into the mound?" Like I said, he was that good. He was putting us on animals all day long. We saw the BIG 5 three out of the four days we were on tour (we got VERY lucky) and saw the big 7 including some cheetahs and wild dogs. Yes, like I said, we got VERY lucky but Hoppy knew where to take us. He also knows the other guides and found out about a fresh Lion kill of a Buffalo and took us there. It was like a drive-in theater, perfectly open area with 6-7 lionesses seeking shade while one lioness was forced to protect the kill from the vultures while 100's of buffalo looked on. It's an image we won't soon forget.
The longer trip afforded us more time to see more places as Hoppy drove us all around. Up at 5am, water ready for tea/coffee by 5:30am then out the door by 6 am. It was well worth it to see several different parts of the park and have breakfast at the different camps. We didn't get to sleep in but who wants to do that on a safari anyway?
We spent 80% of our days with Hoppy in close quarters only departing for sleep. It was a special occasion for my wife and I as I said it was our honeymoon but it was simply a pleasure to get to know Hoppy for those 5 days. We were legitimately sad when we left him after our safari and still think about him from time to time. He was an amazing tour guide but also a wonderful person that made quite the impression on us. We would love to thank him again in person but hopefully this review makes its way to his computer screen somewhere!
Thank you again to everyone at Wildlife Safaris. Someday we hope to come back with our children and will for sure book them again and hopefully Hoppy will still be there to bring us around!
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Email Katie | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
What a Great Trip!
Myself and a group of friends went on a three day Classic Tour with Hoppy as our guide. Hoppy was extremely professional and friendly. He picked us up promptly at the arranged location and was a great guide throughout the trip. He imparted lots of information about South Africa and living there. Since he has worked as a guide for 17 years, he knows everyone in the park and all of the great locations to view animals. He worked really hard for us to see animals and to place the safari car in the ideal location to get pictures. It was a fantastic trip and our only regret was not getting to stay longer!