African Welcome Safaris
- Located 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:
- $117 to $448 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
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Email Tricia | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari Dreams a Reality!
African Welcome Safaris and Kathi Simon made my safari dreams a reality (bucket list item checked off!). I was referred to African Welcome Safaris and Kathi from a friend who booked her African vacation a few years ago. I attempted to mimic her same itinerary and was so fortunate to work with Kathi. I reached out to her with my available dates and requests, and she responded so quickly with a quote and options. Unfortunately, the lodge I had requested was not available, but Kathi researched and provided two options along with price differentials. My friend and I ended up choosing the Elephant Plains Game Lodge in Sabi Sands, and we couldn't be happier with the experience!
Communication: Excellent from day 1! Every time I reached out to Kathi, she responded within 24 hours. We even encountered a flight delay on our way to South Africa, and she responded to assure us that our guide would be tracking our flights and would be there to assist when we did land. We also encountered a cancelled tour (due to weather) in Cape Town, and Kathi was available to discuss our options and even went out of her way to call the tour operator to discuss rescheduling during the remainder of our stay. She also moved our other tours around just in case to avoid conflicts.
Safari: The Elephant Plains Game Lodge exceeded every expectation I had! I still can't believe that I was fortunate enough to stay there and see all the animals in the area. We saw all the Big 5 multiple times. The accommodations are incredible, and the game drives so thrilling. The food was terrific and plentiful.
Service: It was so stress-free working with Kathi! I didn't have to worry about arranging transportation to/from airports or domestic flights, times, or airlines. The timing for everything worked out perfectly so that I could maximize the time spent on safari. My friend and I landed from our international flight, proceeded on a domestic flight to the safari area, and transported to the safari lodge all in time to catch the afternoon game drive! All the arrangements were perfect; we didn't encounter any issues during our travels. It's such a relief to get off a plane and have someone waiting for you. I'm so grateful to have met so many friendly people during my vacation. Everyone made our stay so special, and I learned so much about the culture and history from each person we met.
Value: I've been all around the world, and I would say that this vacation to South Africa was the most unique and affordable experience. When I was first doing my research, this vacation was not a possibility because all the safari lodges I came across were very expensive and not within my budget. I'm so happy I reached out to Kathi because she kept my budget in mind, and I'm actually shocked by the value received.
It was a breeze working with Kathi, and I definitely plan on visiting again. I wouldn't hesitate with reaching out to African Welcome Safaris and Kathi for my next African vacation. I only wish there was a similar company available for all my international travels!
IT
Email Brenda | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Perfect organization and great safaris
Many thanks to Kathi at African Welcome Safaris for planning a wonderful two-lodge safari in Kruger: great accommodation (Thorny Bush River Lodge and Narina Lodge at Lion Sands) and spectacular animal sightings. A very special holiday that allowed us to sit back and enjoy the experience as everything had been looked after to perfection.
Email Rowena and James | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing, once in a lifetime trip for our honeymoon.
Would definitely recommend this company to our friends and family, Kathi was fantastic at sorting out everything for us and nothing was a problem. Communication was fantastic, and our trip was planned exactly to our needs.
While on our honeymoon we had a brilliant time, and everything was planned to perfection. We did not have to worry about anything, everything had been organised for us it was fantastic. All of the places which we stayed at were super and made us feel so welcome. We had a fantastic honeymoon and really loved South Africa particularly our safari. Thank you Kathi.
NZ
Email Andrew | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Fantastically well organized Botswana/south Africa safari
Kathi was outstanding throughout. Same day replies and perfect trip as requested
We will be using African Welcome Safaris again.
Family trip to South Africa
I entrusted our vacation to Kathi from African Welcome Safaris completely and was thrilled with the result. She put together a rich but relaxing 14 day itinerary. For example we did four days on safari versus the two or three that many others did. I think we had a much deeper exciting experience as a result.
Everything was smooth and seamless. The hotels were so much nicer than we'd imagined our budget would allow.
We had no real problems but the way Kathi kept in touch during our trip, I have no doubt that she would have been there to help resolve them.
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Email Sean | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
First Class Experience with African Welcome Safaris
From the time we first contacted African Welcome Safaris to the very end of our trip, Kathi was top-notch in helping us have the best vacation ever! Kathi worked with us and our schedule to figure out the best dates for our trip. She was then able to figure out how to put everything we asked to do, which was a lot, into our time in the country. Kathi was extremely easy to deal with and everything was ready for our trip to South Africa!
Once in country, everything that was set up for us to do was just plain awesome! Rhys picked us up at the airport and was our tour guide for our time in the Cape Town area. He was a wealth of knowledge, easy-going, and was a great guy to spend 5 days with. Laura was a great guide up Table Mountain and we enjoyed our time with her as well! Again, everything we did in Cape Town, Gansbaai, and the surrounding area was taken care of and the only thing we had to worry about was getting our luggage from the airline. Hikings, paragliding, cage diving with sharks, and a trip to the Cape of Good Hope were just a few highlights of our time in the area.
After our time in Cape Town, we headed up to Sabi Sabi Little Bush Camp for an amazing safari experience. Again, Kathi took care of all the bookings, including lodging and our plane trips from Cape Town to Sabi Sabi and later from Sabi Sabi to Johannesburg. Little Bush Camp was an amazing place and we wouldn't have picked it without Kathi's help. We would definitely recommend Little Bush Camp to anyone looking for safari.
This vacation was the best of our lives! We could not have had such an amazing time without the help of Kathi and African Welcome Safaris!
FR
Email Dominique | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our short notice safari experience
We decided one week before departure to add 4 days of safari before starting the business trip in Jo'burg.
I googled for a short trip and found The African Welcome Safaris. One short mail and within minutes Kathi Simon from Safari Bookings contacted me. It took us less then 24 hours to settle everything. Despite a public holiday in SA and weekend on top it went so quick!
We took off to Hoedspruit and there started the magic. We enjoyed it very much. Kapama Buffalo Camp was incredible and met our expectations 150%. We will most likely recommend Safari Bookings and Kapama to our friends or might even return with our grownup children.
20-35 years of age
They organised our dream honeymoon and it was perfect in every way.
I would recommend this company to anyone, we had a brilliant experience with them. From our initial contact requesting a quote, right through to the itinerary at the end, they were perfect. The responses to my emails were always very swift and I found them so efficient to deal with in general. They took into account everything we wanted from our honeymoon and came back with a comprehensive itinerary and price. Kathi Simon was wonderful, the accommodation she recommended was always spot on and the information on activities and advice that she provided was so helpful. If we ever return to this part of the world we will use these guys again without a doubt, thank you so much for putting together our dream honeymoon, it was awesome!!
Amazing experience with African Welcome Safaris
From day 1 Kathi was extremely helpful in booking our safari at Kapama River Lodge. With so many safaris to choose from, Kathi was able to provide us some options that best suited our needs and preferences while also giving her advice on which ones she thought we'd like the best. We ended up booking a 4 day safari at Kapama River Lodge and couldn't be happier with our experience. All of the details were taken care of in advance (by Kathi), allowing us to have a relaxing and fun time on safari. I would recommend working with African Welcome Safaris to anyone as we truly had an incredible experience!
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Email NYC Tough Customer | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The best among many I contacted
Kathy Simon was incredibly attentive, responsive, and on top of all details for our safari spread across two different game preserves. I contacted about 8 different operators and solicited quotes from all of them, and Kathy's was quite competitive, and consisting of well-reviewed properties. More importantly, she was the MOST responsive agent of all of them, always getting back to me right away with answers to my questions. This was decisive for me. She even made a last minute adjustment to some of our transport, arranging things while we were on vacation in the bush. In the end, I actually found a better deal for this than she did by searching a bit online, but when I told her about this, she booked it at the same price, which I really appreciated. Outstanding service, reasonable prices.