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:
- $119 to $455 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
Best honeymoon in the best location organised by the best tour operator
Kathi of African Welcome Safaris is highly recommended. She was very responsive, both before and during our trip from late October to early November.
At the planning stage, she found out about our needs and provided appropriate advice, including on where to splurge and where we did not need to. When we splurged, the choices provided to us were the best luxury choices and we thought every dollar was well spent. The entire experience was extremely pleasant, personalised and comfortable.
During the trip, when we had to make last minute changes due to weather conditions and some of our planned items (e.g. ferry to Robben Island and cable car at Table Mountain) had to be rescheduled, Kathi attended to them immediately and worked tirelessly even during weekends (although we much rather not bother her if we didn't need to!).
Our guide/driver in Cape Town Henrik deserves a special mention. He was always early, went above and beyond, shared his experience, and took us off the beaten path whenever we have some time in between planned items.
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Email Kayleen | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great to work with and they arranged the perfect trip to South Africa!!
Kathi planned the perfect trip to South Africa for us. All places we visited were amazing/beautiful and all very different. The resorts we stayed in were so nice and we hated leaving them but the next location was just as nice! The safari at the end was our favorite part of the trip. Amazing Savannah Private Game Reserve. Loved everything about this place! Animals we saw, service, guide, tracker, food and every person we interacted with were amazing. Would love to go back to Africa someday. This was on my bucket lust and all expectations were exceeded!!
Email James Bell | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Could not have been more helpful, brilliant service.
Wonderful service from Kathi. Safari trip was all seamlessly arranged until we had to cancel on a Sunday with less than 24 hours notice. Despite the time and date she answered the initial call and then called back again with an update, by the Monday not only had she managed to cancel the trip BUT also managed to re-arrange it 17 days later including re-arranging flights and the Safari package itself at virtually no additional cost. She then kept in touch throughout our trip to ensure we were always at the right place and time. Totally professional could not recommend highly enough.
SG
Email sQ lin | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic and so prompt responses throughout! Truly a peace of mind vacay.
I have not used a full tour concierge and have previously used day trip bookings only. i first tried them a couple of years ago when i was contemplating and back then, the quotation support was very quick to work out an itinery for me back then despite me not going for it.
This round, Kathi is even more awesome. She not only helped me tailor a full plan with some light initial budgets but went on to provide me alternatives such that i have many plans to compare (i know im terrible). She was also very very VErY prompt (and im very fast on emails haha) to assist me in customisations and adding the bits and recommendations. For once i didnt have to my usual excel planning sheets and whats best, everything was on a downloadable app! Even when i was there, she pays attention to the days i need to take flight and send me check in link as well as guide info.
The final recommended duration of 5 nights safari (an absolute dream), 5 nights capetown and 3 zimbabwe/botswana days were the best! Totally a fantastic inauguration to my South africa trips. And i think the price is really value for money!
In fact i recommended to my SA interested friends even before my trip and will continue to use them for my Future SA trips.
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Email Jane Mutschelknaus | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very efficient in helping us schedule our adventure
African welcome Safari was very helpful in scheduling our adventure. They took into consideration all our requests as well as adding other recommendations. They helped us with our adventure in Cape Town, the Garden Route, wine lands, and a beautiful safari. Very responsive in their replies to us. The scheduled accommodations and transfers all went very smoothly.
HK
Email Pat | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Overall speaking quite good.
Everything--lodges, food, services, tour guides, etc.-- is as expected or better, with one exception. One of the safari lodges did not have air-conditioning. At 40C during midday, which usually lasted for about five to six hours, it was very uncomfortable. Even though there were no safari drives during midday, staying in our room with the fan blowing only hot air, it was close to unbearable. The one way out was to take a dip in the pool, but not everyone wanted to do that.
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Email Steve Katzen | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
African Welcome Safaris creates dream tours of Africa.
Friends recommended African Welcome Safaris after their trip to South Africa and Victoria Falls. We were amazed at how informative, efficient, and personable Kathi was, and how easily she helped design our fantastic tour of Capetown and the Garden Route, as well as our trip to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
She asked us what we wanted to see, where we specifically wanted to go, and what activities we wanted to do. Once we started communicating, Kathi came up with an itinerary that included all places that met our desires and fit our timetable. She suggested guided tours with local guides and activities that we could book through her, or in some cases, we could book on our own.
Kathi booked all our regional flights, transfers, and incredible accommodations. She also arranged a rental car for our self-drive tour of the Garden Route.
We spent three nights at Arathusa Safari lodge at Sabi Sands bordering Kreuger and our ranger guide and tracker found all of the Big 5 plus lots of other animals including hyenas and crocodiles, impalas and kudus. Roy, our ranger guide had 21 years experience and could tell about the family relationships between lion prides and leopard mothers, cubs, and fathers!
All in all, our detailed daily itinerary spelled out everything we needed to know to have a seamless travel experience.
We highly recommend African Welcome Safaris to anyone seeking a tailor-made unique visit to South Africa, Victoria Falls, and Safaris.
We can't wait to return!
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Email Deanne Cricks-Smith | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Life changed
I was nervous about going to SA because of rumors of violence and the state of the world. I always felt safe. I was picked up from the airport and taken to the hotel, that was very nice. The value for the money was incredible. My guide Henrik was very knowledgeable, and my Agent Kathi made sure I was having no problems by keeping in contact. Everything we did was top notch and the personal attention was over the top. We always had our own guide. Nothing was a group until the safari, but even that was an incredibly small group.
I did NOT want to leave and I got home less than 1 day ago and already planning a next trip.
The only part I would change is the wine tasting. If you love wine it is perfect. However my stomach cannot handle it, and I had to take a lot of antacid and suffer. The experience was awesome even with the pain, but given an option I probably would have skipped that part.
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Email Nancy Zimmerman | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a lifetime - could not have been better
We traveled to Madikwe from South Africa in late September - stayed at the Tuningi Safari Lodge.
We had some specific requests as we were three people and had a tight timeframe as we had to be back in JoBurg for a flight to Lesotho.
Kathi was SO attentive to our needs and requests - she put together an itinerary that worked for us and fit our budget. She responded to emails or whatsapp messages in a timely way and gave us the attention we needed. She even got us reasonable transportation to and from the hotel before the trip.
The detailed itinerary that is easily accessible from a web link gave us peace of mind and the information we needed to feel comfortable traveling from the United States for this trip.
Tuningi is first class - we couldn't believe how nice the lodge is. Heidi and Gavin were warm and welcoming and the staff is first rate, kind and caring and looking out for every aspect of our experience.
The rooms - suites were amazing, beautiful and comfortable. I felt like I was in a movie...each room has a canopy bed, inviting sitting area with fireplace and coffee service. The bathroom is huge with a full size tub and outdoor shower. They also each have their own private deck with loungers to watch the animals trek to the onsite watering hole (which they do every afternoon).
The food - omg the food was incredible. Fresh, delicious and gourmet. One meal was better than the next. They took great care to make sure we always had what we wanted and every dish was beautifully plated.
Andrew was out guide on each days safari drives (there were 2 a day, 6am and 4pm). Andrew made sure we saw as much as we could and we incredibly knowledgeable about the area, relaying facts about the animals and birds we saw each day. We saw a lot of Elephants, Zebras, Giraffe and Ibex but found something new on each drive.
Whether we were out on game drives, relaxing by the pool or watering hole each day or eating a delicious gourmet meal the staff was the absolute best. I didn't worry about anything.
I would defiantly return to Tuningi and wouldn't hesitate to use African Welcome Safaris again or recommend them to friends.
Email Steve Allen | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Outstanding!
When we first considered travelling to Africa we contacted some UK travel agents however it wasn't until African Welcome Safaris was recommended to us that we appreciated how important it was that our agent was 'on the ground' and had specialist knowledge of the region. Kathi Simon put together a fantastic itinerary that managed to capture all the places that we wanted to visit but not only that but with much greater value for money than the UK agents. This included arranging upgrades on both Rovos Rail and the Zambezi Queen river boat. All our transfers worked like clockwork and the private guide that Kathi chose for us in Cape Town was outstanding. Kathi stayed in touch with us both before and during our holiday and nothing was too much trouble. She even recommended restaurants for us to eat in Cape Town and made reservations on our behalf. My wife and I were incredibly impressed with African Welcome Safaris, as indeed other friends of ours have been, and we would not hesitate to recommend them if you are intending to visit Africa.