African Welcome Safaris
- Office 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:
- $127 to $485 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
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!
CA
Email Stacy | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
From the initial email exchange, I knew we were in the BEST hands!
I cannot say enough great things about Kathi. She offered great itinerary choices, was extremely responsive and put together such a fantastic trip for us. We travelled through South Africa without having to worry about anything - everything ran according to plan. We toured Johannesburg, Capetown and the Winelands. We visited Victoria Falls - which was a little hectic, but well worth seeing. While there, we chose to do an "Elephant Experience", which gave us face time with rescue elephants. While a little bit contrived, thoroughly enjoyable. We did two safari tours: first was in Sabi Sabi - we were fortunate enough to see the Big 5 in our first couple of drives. Our lodge was amazing - the people, the food, the small number of guests at any given time! We did a walking safari, on offer as a different perspective to track elephants. Our second safari tour was at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve. A completely different landscape and unimaginably vast. Extreme exclusivity. Lucky enough to see the animals that are unique to there: meerkats, black maned lions, aardwolf, black rhinos, wild dogs (with pups), and cheetahs (as well as the "regular" variety - lions, oryx, 3 different antelope, springbok).
Again, the graciousness of the entire staff overwhelms you. The food was delicious and plentiful.
Our entire trip far exceeded any expectations we had! We fell in love with South Africa and cannot wait to go back!
Email sarah | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
wonderful
Wonderful experience from the beginning of organising our trip. Thank you Kathi! Most efficient person to deal with and nothing is too hard, just makes everything work. Thank you for the attention to detail
SG
Email Amy | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Listen + Understand + Plan = Unforgettable & Awesome holiday :)
We had a really wonderful time there. We saw the most beautiful sunset, had the most amazing game drives and received awesome services provided (especially at the Tintswalo Manor House). It was really an experience for all of us and South Africa is really a beautiful place! The planning was very detailed, with useful advices on the number of days to spend on each places. Perfect!
SG
Email Jean | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Kathi was amazing!
Kathi was incredibly patient despite all the changes we had her make. She was helpful and replied as soon as she could. While the trip was unlike anything we had done before, we felt more options could be given regarding the type of car we were paying for. Well, we got a Mercedes and should not complain. Yet I can't help but wished we were given options (regular sedan vs luxury) beforehand and its corresponding costs. My tour guide was friendly and we had fun exploring Cape Town with him. Cape Town is beautiful and our safari was great.
Email Susan | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
An unforgettable experience !
Having been confused by a multitude of safaris on offer we were fortunate to have a friend recommend African Welcome Safaris.
From our initial enquiry Kathi Simon was welcoming, efficient and quickly gained our trust, which was particularly important to us, considering the transfer of money necessary.
Kathi acknowledged our requests and organised a safari to suit us. All arrangements worked perfectly and all personnel were friendly and efficient.
The safaris were more than expected with Camp Okavango being a highlight. We particularly enjoyed the walking safari and felt the animals were truly wild.
We had complete trust in our wonderful guide, Zac, which was tested on a few occasions!
Everyone, on the ground & in the air made us feel really special & welcome....could not have done more!
I even had a Birthday cake made for me, along with a rendition of Happy Birthday sung in the local language!
I t was SO special....I cried with emotion!
This was a trip I'd dreamed about & it turned out to be so much more....unforgettable!!!
PH
Email Joanne Mae | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An experience I won't ever forget
Last 2012, my family decide to go to South Africa for a vacation. I consulted with a local agency, they were not able to give us an itinerary since it was too early (March 2013, intended date of our vacation). So I went online to see if I could just book a tour or look for other agencies, the 1st website I checked was African Welcome Safari, I answered some questions on their website. I wasn't sure if they would reply since I have experienced with other agency who didn't. When Kathi Simon replied, she gave us an idea of what to expect, places to visit, what clothes to wear, what kind of luggage to bring and etc. She took care of everything. Fast forward to 2016, we decided to go to East Africa this time and I inquired if I she can give us an itinerary and she did. She took care of everything again. My sister asked me why do we have to go to 3 different camps or lodges if we can just stay in 1 place and experience it all, like we did in South Africa. We only appreciated it all when we were there and experienced all different places that we went to. In short, I have no regrets whatsoever of booking with African Welcome Safari. If we ever decide to go back to Africa, we will definitely book again with them.
US
Email Laura | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent service and great value
We got a recommendation from a friend who had previously used Kathi at African Welcome Safaris, and I'm so glad we did! We had the best experience from beginning to end. Kathi was incredibly responsive and made sure we stuck to our budget. Then, when we decided we wanted to upgrade, she went back and provided even more options. She provided excellent options and included lodges that we hadn't heard of in our own basic research. We went back and forth until we found just the right lodge, then she magically planned everything else around it: airfare, transfers, payment with the lodge.
On the ground, everything ran so smoothly. Our flights were lovely and perfectly scheduled to ensure we would come in and leave at just the right times: to get there for lunch and the evening game drive on the first day then time to do the morning game drive and pack on our last day. Those were details I didn't think about, but Kathi did. Our ground transfers were on-time or early, so we were never worried about being late.
I would absolutely recommend using African Welcome Safaris -- and plan to use them again in the future!