The Wild Wings team - Loving Every Moment!
Wild Wings Safaris
- Offices In:
-
United Kingdom
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2005)
- Member Of:
- SATSA & ABTA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $232 to $1,987 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Kim Thomas | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My family and I had a fantastic time on the Safari that Wild Wings recommended and booked for us.
Wild Wings Safari booked us on Safari at Elephant Plains lodge - it was spectacular! The personal service from the moment you arrived from staff and guides was outstanding. Not only was the tracking brilliant, but Dawi, our guide, was also really good at predicting which direction the animals would move and was thus able to often get a good spot ahead of them so often we could watch them ambling leisurely towards us. It was phenomenal. We saw loads.....up close! His off road driving was spectacular too. There were so many magical moments both at the lodge and on the drives. The setting was fantastic. The food was also fantastic. And eating outside in the evening was pretty special too.
Wild Wings also booked us into Hippo Hollow for New Years eve. The welcome and service there too was outstanding. We got to watch the hippos in the river and come up onto the grass while we having dinner. A new years eve to remember!
The planning and organisation of our trip was great - very efficient and professional. In the end, though, it is the recommendations that count for so much......so five stars and a massive Thank You to Wild Wings Safari for Elephant Plains and Hippo Hollow. A magical time for me and my family.
Email Siobhan | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Yet another awesome safari expertly organised by Wild Wings.
This was my third safari with Wild Wings. The trip was, as ever, superbly arranged and organised by Madi. We stayed in Skukuza Camp in south Kruger for a few nights and then transferred further north to Elephant Plains in Sabi Sands for the remainder of our holiday. Simon was our guide in Skukuza - his innate knowledge of animals and birds has, in my view, never been surpassed by any other guide I have been on safari with. We had amazing sightings (particularly the wild dog/hyena skirmish) and a lot of fun too. Elephant Plains was also fantastic and the leopard sightings we had there were beyond our expectations.
I honestly don't think we could better the experiences we had on this safari, but are already planning our next safari with Wild Wings - I can't recommend them highly enough. Thank you everyone at Wild Wings for such a fantastic holiday.
CH
Email Elise | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Experience - Top Organization
It was perfectly organized. All information was shared in advance and the support from the team in the office was perfect. They answered all questions and offered easy & fast solution to any problem.
Simon (the guide) was extremely nice with interesting stories to share and great knowledge of the wildlife. He was always on time, well organized and reliable. In addition, Simon was a great cook!! We really enjoyed our breakfast and diners ;-)
Last but not least: we saw the most amazing animals!!! For a 3 days safaris during a heat wave (37°C: animals tend to hide in such circumstances), it was really a gift to be able to see that much. Some people will say it is luck, but I think is also relates to the guide. He knew his stuff ;-)
Thanks you Simon and Wild Wings Safaris team! We really enjoyed ourselves!!
Elise & Jean-Baptiste
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Email Lisa, Tim, Brianna & Kylie | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A dream come true delivered with expertise and efficiency!
If you are going to go on a Safari in South Africa, then you need to be with a guide who loves animals, loves his job and knows where to go. Although it is his job, I don't think he really works a day in his life, with the exception of loading luggage and cooking amazing meals! Simon is the epitome of the perfect Safari guide. His vast knowledge and passion for Kruger Park are exceptional. There was not one question I asked during our 5 days with him that he could not answer. And while we all know that the ultimate goal is to see The Big Five, there is so much more to see and learn about. Simon did that for us. I came home with a video of a dung beetle rolling his fresh dung ball across the road. I watched as a group of grasshoppers crossed the road in front of us in a large cluster and then understood why as Simon explained this to us. Yes, it is exhausting, yes you are up early every day, and get to bed late. But you are on safari in Africa and if you want to see everything you possibly can and learn more than you ever dreamed, then this is the company to work with. Our family has the luxury of using pass benefits to fly. As a result, this trip was booked very last minute. We had been watching the flights to and from Johannesburg and were quite confident we could get there and back with no issues. On January 25th, we booked our 5 day Safari with Wild Wings. And on February 1st we departed for Atlanta due to a huge blizzard in Minneapolis. Our 15+ hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesbury left on Wednesday evening and we arrived at 5:30 pm on Thursday where Gilbert from AfricaSky House greeted us. Everything was perfect. Our room, our dinner and breakfast and then, Simon showed up at precisely 8am to drive the 6.5 hours to Kruger. He was professional, friendly and very, very efficient. Simon has been a Safari Guide for 14 years and 11 of them have been spent with Wild Wings. I don't think we could have been blessed with a better experience. Granted, some of the days were very long, but we saw so much, I really didn't care. Simon taught us so much and his passion and love for Kruger is incredibly obvious. We saw everything we dreamed of in just the first day, including a cheetah kill, lions, elephants, giraffes, hyena, cape buffalo, wildebeest and too many to name. We did a bush walk that was off the charts as we encountered a pride of lions with a fresh kill, we did a night drive and saw 3 male lions eating a hippo. All told we saw at least 47 lions during our trip. When we arrived at Satara, we were treated to a 3 night stay in the Frankl Guest house complete with 5 bedrooms and our own private watering hole. The pictures we took are phenomenal. Simon should be on NatGeo. He is that good. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts Wild Wings. This really was a dream come true. I miss Kruger every single day and I will forever be thankful for the incredible journey we experienced with you.
Email Kenny McColl | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An exceptional safari experience, with an outstanding guide.
We have just enjoyed a Wild Wings 2night/3day Kruger safari - and what an incredible time it was! As someone who has enjoyed previous safaris in Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania, I feel well qualified to comment on our experience. Every aspect, from the initial responses to our enquiries, through to the logistics and the transfers from Johannesburg to Kruger, the accommodation (at Skukusa), the catering arrangements, and of course the safari itself was excellent. But what made it exceptional, was the knowledge and expertise of our guide, Simon. I say 'guide', but he was also our driver and chef! His wildlife knowledge (birds, mammals, reptiles...) was incredible, and certainly I have no hesitation in saying that he was the best game guide (by some margin) that I have experienced in my 4 safaris. And he never switched off! Even on the journey back to Johannesburg, he was pointing out birds that we passed.
You can't judge the success of a safari trip solely by the wildlife encounters that you have , or whether you manage to see the Big Five; but even by that measure, our experience of Wild Wings was exceptional. Simon is courteous and considerate to other game viewers too - be they other safari guides or just members of the public who have turned up in their own vehicles...and asking what it is that we're looking at. By the way, you can self-drive in Kruger, but why would you want to? The place is vast, and without Simon's skills we would have seen very little. Yes, he is connected in to a number of other game guides who share their finds, so it does increase the likelihood of good interactions; but he has an incredible eye and ear for spotting the smallest movement, the faintest of sounds that can lead to a fantastic encounter. And as I said, he operates with courtesy and consideration to other users of the park, and most importantly to the wildlife.
In summary, the best endorsement that I can give is to say that if (when!) we return to Kruger, we will not be looking anywhere else: Wild Wings Safaris will be our first port of call.
Email AdeleO | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Another amazing safari experience!
This was my third safari with Wild Wings and yet again from booking with Gavin to pickup and drop off, it was an absolutely amazing experience. It was also my third time with Simon as a guide and his knowledge and passion for the wildlife of Kruger never ceases to amaze me. We had so many wonderful sightings thanks to Simon's expert eye and understanding of animal behaviour. If there is a sighting to be had Simon will find it!
A close encounter with a cheetah had eluded me on my previous safaris and was high up on my wishlist this time. I was not disappointed. We found one just minutes from camp and spent an incredible 40 minutes watching as it got up from resting to take a stroll down to the Sabie River bank for a drink. We had numerous lion sightings and a very special treat was seeing the famous white lion for the second time. Another amazing 45 minutes were spent in the company of a beautiful leopard enjoying some time in a tree and an incredible sighting on our night drive where another beauty walked alongside our vehicle for 10 minutes. Add to this white and black rhinos, elephants galore including a tiny infant suckling, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, warthogs - the list is endless as my 1000+ photographs prove!
Accommodation at Lower Sabie and Satara was great and Simon's cooking delicious - the ostrich steak was superb!
We have already booked a fourth return visit and cannot recommend Wild Wings highly enough. Definitely 5+ stars.
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Email Donna P | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Choose ANY other company!
The guide Simon is a tourist who moved to South Africa to do tours and it shows in his arrogant, opinionated, disrespect of the South African people (he made fun of the way they talk), disrespect of the animals (he was gleeful at the thought of witnessing a kill in stark contrast to how the local guides respectfully handled the same situation and he even defended poaching saying "poachers are just people trying to feed their families") and his disrespectful comments about americans which he repeatedly made. Kruger National Park was amazing, the South African people were wonderful-- do the tour, just do it with ANY company but this one!
Reply from Wild Wings Safaris
Posted on Apr 5, 2016Hi Donna,
I take great pride in my job and in offering people the best safari experience possible. I am, therefore, greatly disappointed that you feel your safari didn’t live up to that standard. I am also sorry for the way that you feel about me as a person. I am passionate and enthusiastic about the Kruger and its wildlife. This shows up in the fact that I get excited about the animals and their behaviour. I always try and get close to the action and position the vehicle in the best possible way for the guests to see and photograph. If that is considered gleeful, then I’m guilty as charged. Most guests realise that this puts me in stark contrast to other guides, for whom guiding is merely a job. For me, this is my life, and I love seeing animals live and act in their natural environment, and showcasing that to the guests who come on my safaris.
Conversation around the dinner table often turns to relevant issues such as wildlife management, conservation, poaching, hunting and culling. I never condoned poaching and never will. It’s one of the more serious issues that we are currently struggling with. Perhaps you didn’t quite understand the context of my poaching statement. I mentioned that poachers are often killed in Kruger, to which you responded: ”Great, I hope they shoot more.” I continued saying that shooting poachers is not the real solution, many are merely doing it to feed their families. The fight of rhino poaching is much bigger than merely eradicating poachers. I’m not quite sure how you interpret this as me defending or condoning poaching.
I’m baffled by the fact that you think I’m a “tourist” when I have in fact been born and raised in South Africa and have lived my whole life here. I am also not quite sure what you are suggesting by saying that me being a “tourist” shows in me supposedly being arrogant, opinionated and disrespectful. What does that say about other tourists?
With regards to making fun of people, I do like to look at the lighter side of life. Most people refer to it as having a sense of humour. I guess it takes two people with a sense of humour for a joke to work. I can’t quite recall where I made fun of the way South Africans talk. After all, I am South African and I talk like them. I might talk funny, but I’ve learned to live with it. I have had many Americans on safari before, and most of them don’t take the things I say so literally or personally. I’ve made the same jokes before without anyone ever getting offended.
In the end, I still tried to make the safari a success, as far as possible. I went out of my way to cater to your vegetarian and gluten free requirements (unfortunately I was not told in advance that your husband also does not eat other things like onions or garlic). It appears my best efforts were perhaps not enough, or not appreciated by you.
We were lucky to have many great sightings including various predators such as lion (even the rare white lion), leopard, cheetah, wild dogs, etc. By sightings alone you were very fortunate, but it is a pity that normal and natural predator behaviour was disturbing to you. I also purposefully did not go to sightings that I knew would get you upset, like the lions feeding on a buffalo kill. For the sake of the other guests, I also tried to keep things light-hearted. I believe I had some success in giving them a great experience, despite the tension caused by your obvious displeasure, as can been seen in their review of the same safari (by Mary, dated 4 April 2016).
I leave you with the same words I said when I dropped you off, “I know this safari might not have been the best experience for you, but at least I hope that you can take some good memories home with you.” I always think one should hold on to the positives, rather than the negatives.
Personally, however, I do not think going with any other company would have made the experience any less miserable for you.
All the best for your future.
Regards,
Simon Vegter
Wild Wings Safaris
TH
Email Mary | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful Safari
Firstly, I have never responded to an individual review before, but I must. I happened to be on the same safari as the person who wrote the previous one star review. All I can say, is that sometimes there is no pleasing some people. Anyone going on a safari must go with an open mind and the desire to learn from the experts without preconceived notions. This is not a zoo, it is real life, kills happen- it is part of the animal kingdom.
Simon is an experienced, knowledgeable, and most of all, passionate guide. My husband and thoroughly enjoyed our time with Simon, from the breakfast he cooked in the morning through to the dinners he cooked at night. In between, we searched for sightings with Simon and it was always fun and very productive. Our safari with Simon was one of the highlights of our month long trip to this beautiful country. Wild Wings support staff were there to answer every email and did an excellent job of organizing everything for us. ( we did a number of things through them.
I would highly recommend Wild Wings and plan to send my sister on this trip!
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Email Jacqueline | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect! Excellent! Exciting!
We could not be happier with our safari experience, it was honestly the time of our lives. We loved that we decided to spend half of our time in Kruger Park and the other half in Greater Kruger Park. Both were very different experiences and both had so much to offer. I really recommend that you offer this combination to anyone that wants to have the most well-rounded safari experience. In Kruger we saw the Big 5 in the first 1.5 hours. Simon, our guide, was so passionate about his job and really had every intention to show us as many beautiful animals as possible. We saw leopards and cheetahs and lions fighting over a buffalo kill. It was incredible! The food he prepared for us was efficiently made and very delicious. Off-roading in Greater Kruger Park was a whole different experience! Tracking and following paw prints was very exciting. Our driver Carl (Karl?) and tracker Lucky were amazing, informative, and very exciting. The accommodation at both camps was so beautiful! And the staff was friendly and helpful.
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Email Keith | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A perfect first Safari the one that makes you come back for more
I wanted to personally thank Gavin at Wild Wings Safari for all the help in organizing our holiday in South Africa. I don’t believe this trip would have turned out as spectacularly as it did without your precise attention to detail and personal assistance to our needs.
From the start, when Simon picked us up in Johannesburg he proved to be a wealth of knowledge in Kruger Park and South Africa in general. He was not only a fantastic guide but he was as interested in the animals as we were!
It can’t be normal for any safari guide to take myself and my wife as his only guests out for the first afternoon for 5 hours (after driving 6 hours from Johannesburg), and then 12 hours for the second day, and 6 hours for the third and final day before driving us an additional 4 hours to our next destination.
Simon’s knowledge of the Kruger Park animal life could be summed up in just one of the many encounters we experienced:
As we were driving over a bridge, in which many other trucks and vehicles had crossed over that same day, Simon stopped and was listening to see what the excited monkeys were chattering about. Simon explained that he was looking to see where the monkeys were literally pointing out as if it was danger. As we gazed in the monkeys’ direction, Simon (and my wife) spotted in the horizon a leopard sleeping on the banks of the river. We appeared to be the only ones to have spotted this sleeping leopard. It was our second sighting of a leopard in just 30 minutes. Remarkable!
Nthambo Tree camp was another recommendation that you gave us, and it was a truly amazing experience that was just as professional and remarkable since it was conducted on a very personal level. Matt, Alex and Nadia of the base camp were attentive to our every needs while we were in the bush and in the camp. The comradery at the camp between the small group of guests and staff was much like it is in a family. (We guests even ‘friended’ each other on Facebook.)
The guides in Zimbabwe were everything we had grown accustomed to having during our trip: both warm and engaging. We will never forget the magnificence of the Victoria Falls, and the unique experience of riding those royal elephants for our Elephant Safari.
For the duration of this entire 2 week vacation, with the exception of the 1- 2 hours of clearing customs in Zimbabwe, everything went according to plan.