US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A welcoming country with wildlife that you can't even dream of until you have experienced it!
My wife and I just spent 12 days in South Africa celebrating her 50th birthday. My design was better than I expected. We started with a driver meeting us at Cape Town Airport and taking us to Penguin View House in Simon's Town. We arrived at 8 PM and went for a short night stroll. There were penguins on the sidewalks, walking in the street, and hiding in the bushes! What a start! We got up the next morning at 7 am and walked to Boulders Beach. We were alone on the gorgeous beach with penguins and dasi. Fun! We then took the path to Foxy Beach and watched the morning migration of the penguins back to the beach. The ranger told us they are most active in the morning. The penguins acted like they had never seen the beach before as they ran down the hill in clusters. Cute! There were baby penguins everywhere. Again, very cute! Penguins have social structures and it was wonderful enjoying them for a full day. I recommend this over a short day tour. Our 2nd full day our travel agent, Kerry with Pembury Tours, helped us get a driver on the fly. Uber type drivers are non existent in Simon's Town. The driver took us to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. We walked the beach with about 20 wild ostriches around us! Wow! We also saw mountain zebra and elands. We took the funicular to the light house. We had an incredible view and even spotted a southern right whale below us! There was baboon poop everywhere but we didn't see them at the lighthouse. The staff said they come out at noon. However, we passed a baboon troop on the way out of the park. They looked scary and I was happy to see them from inside a car! Our driver took us to Sea Point for a (late) breakfast. Sea Point is a pretty little beach town. He then drove us over Chapman's Peak. This scenic drive was beautiful but impossible to capture in pictures because it was so grand! We then went to the wharf at Hout Bay and had fired hake for a snack. Hake is a delicious white fish. We also sat on a sea lion that the local fishermen had tamed! From Hout Bay we travelled to Llandudno Beach. His favorite beach. The gorgeous sandy white beach was surrounded by rock formations and expensive mansions. I could see rich and famous hanging out here. Our driver then took us to Ocean View House, our hotel in Camps Bay. For around $130 our driver took us everywhere we wanted to go for the day and also served as our photographer! What a deal! Ocean View House is a beautiful hotel overlooking Camps Bay with the 12 Apostle behind it. Again, gorgeous! We had a 1 mile walk to the restaurants of Camps Bay. We particularly enjoyed Zen Zero. A beautiful beachside restaurant with a perfect vibe and delicious food. The staff and patrons were very pretty people. What a 2nd full day! Our 3rd full day we started with the Hop On/Hop Off Bus at 9 am. We took it to the V& A Waterfront and took the ferry to Robbins Island for the tour of the historic jail. The tour was led by a former political inmate who illustrated the tour with his powerful memories. We saw Nelson Mandela's jail cell of 18 years. It is a great way to learn about apartheid. After the 3 hour tour we had lunch at the waterfront and then completed the Hop On/Hop off Bus ride. The Bus gives you an audio description of all of Cape Town. So day 3 was very complete! Day four we started with a trip up Table Mountain and I ride on the cable car. The views exceeded my expectations! We had a clear sky so we could see all the way to Cape Point! We also saw colorful lizards and sunbirds on top! After Table Mountain we briefly visited a colorful city block in Bo Kaap and visited the V & A Waterfront again. The waterfront has a lot of restaurants and shopping opportunities. We rounded out our day with some beach time at Camps Bay and dinner at Camps Bay. On day 5 we flew from Cape Town to Johannesberg to Nelspruit Airport. Then we were driven to Idube in Sabi Sand Game Reserve in greater Kruger National Park. We were met at reception by a wild warthog, several wild nyalas, and an elephant! Wow, it didn't feel real! Our cabin was incredibly nice and included A/C and a porch. We had lunch and then got on a Toyota jeep for our 1st safari drive at 5 PM. We immediately saw hippos on our trip and then giraffes and elephants. Our first drive concluded in the dark with our ranger following a leopard! The leopard killed a rabbit behind our jeep and we watched it eat the rabbit using a spotlight. Wow! Every jeep has a tracker and a ranger. Our tracker was Ian and our ranger was Mark. The two of them had a wonderful sense of humor and the banter in our jeep was fun on every drive. The jeep can seat as many as 9 guests at a time but we never had more than 6. We had 5 more drives with Idube over the next 2 1/2 days. Idube has a great reputation for seeing leopards because there are many in their reserve. We saw 3 leopards. They don't have a reputation for cheetahs but we got lucky and one came onto the property and we saw it. It was probably the prettiest animal on our trip. Idube does not have any lion prides. We saw several beautiful lions but they mostly slept. Lions sleep 18 hours a day. We saw a beautiful group of buffalo and several rhinos. The rhinos here have had their horns removed to prevent poaching. And we saw countless impalas, many wildebeasts, zebras, mongoose, hyenas, giraffes, and elephants. We had some moments with beautiful wild dogs but they were fleeting because the pack of dogs never stopped moving. The biggest strengths of Idube were probably the leopards and the hippos. The resort itself was beautiful and very comfortable. They give you 3 choices for dinner each night and the meals were delicious. Dinners concluded with a ranger walking you back to your cabin. You can't walk back to your cabin alone because wild animals that can eat you can be on the property. We personally followed a leopard on the property and we saw a hyena on the property. After 3 days in Sabi Sand a driver drove us 2 hours to Umlani in Timbavati Game Reserve in greater Kruger. Umlani had a more intimate feel than Udobe. The owners, Marco and Michaela, bent over backwards to make you feel welcome. The guests at Umlani generally ate meals together at one big table. There were 12 guests. We got very close to the other guests in our two days there. The alcohol and drinks were free at Umlani (unlike Udobe) and you could ask for them or get them yourself. Umlani has a deck on one of its restaurants that faces an animal watering hole. We called it the best deck in the world. Giraffes and elephants commonly strolled up while we were just hanging out! The drives followed the same schedule in Umlani. A morning drive at 5:30 AM and a night drive at 5 PM. Our ranger was Murray and our tracker was Clarence. They weren't funny like Ian and Mark but they were great at their jobs. Timbavati had several lion prides. We saw two of them. If you like lions then this is the place to go! The lion cubs are adorable and they keep the adult lion awake. They constantly harass the lionesses. Cute! We saw several rhinos and the rhinos in Timbavati still have their horns. We saw one leopard with a cub. We didn't see any cheetahs or wild dogs in Umlani. The highlight of our stay and of our whole vacation happened in Umlani. We reserved the "treehouse" for an afternoon. So my wife and I were alone in a glamorous treehouse overlooking a watering hole. When we arrived there was one elephant. Than out of nowhere a long line of elephants marched 2 by 2 down to the pond. At it's peak I counted 65 elephants!!! The personalities that were on display was unfathomable. There was a giant mud pit to the left of the treehouse. Elephants were throwing themselves into both the mud pit and into the pond. They were rolling around and playing with reckless abandon. There were baby elephants everywhere and they were just manifesting joy. Bigger elephants would trumpet on occasion and make me jump. What looked like teenage elephants were jousting in the pond. Sillier elephants acted like submarines and you would just see their trunks come out of the water. One baby elephant acted like he discovered his new trunk and was just whipping it around. The whole lasted 2 1/2 hours and was absolutely surreal. My wife and I just kept laughing. The cabins at Umlani had screens for windows so we heard lots of sounds at night. The sounds were mainly frogs, toads, and bugs. One sound was like a terrible car alarm. The bathroom of our cabin was outside. We loved it but you need to have an outdoorsy personality. The strengths of Umlani was the lions, the rhinos (with horns), and it's crazy amount of elephants. The treehouse is a must do if you go here. The meals at Umlani only had one option but I always enjoyed the one option. After Umlani we were driven 2 hours back to Hazyview. We stayed at Hippo Hollow. The grounds were beautiful and our cabin was very nice. It had a deck overlooking a river. Despite it's name I don't think many hippos are seen here. One of our drivers took us into Kruger Park Lodge and there were several hippos there. I think the same hippos might meander down to Hippo Hollow at night on occasion. We did see several crocodiles in the river. Hazyview set us up to do the Panorama Tour. A driver picked us up at 9 am and he drove us to Lisbon Falls, the 3 rondavals, tSohe Pinnacle, and to Rourkes Potholes. All four sites were beautiful. The tour generally goes to God's Window also but our day was too cloudy. We spent our final afternoon at Elephant Whispers which is next to Hippo Hollow. Here they have rescued 5 male elephants for education. We watched an elephant show and then we road a huge elephant named Shamari. It was educational and fun! From there we were driven back to Nelspruit Airport and we flew home. So in conclusion, the trip felt like a dream. It was surreal it was so awesome. I still can't believe the pictures I took. They look like they belong in National Geographic! I recommend everything we did on our trip. I recommend staying in Simon's Town to see the penguins. 2 hours on a bus tour would not be enough for me. I recommend walking on the beach with ostriches at the Cape of Good Hope. I recommend staying at beautiful and trendy Camps Bay in Cape Town. I recommend the tour of the jail at Robbins Island. I recommend taking the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. I recommend visiting both Sabi Sand and Timbavati Game Reserves. No one should safari less than 3 days. I think 5 days was perfect. And I hope your travels can be as magical as mine.
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
The most amazing, incredible, wonderful adventure at the age of 69 that I have ever experienced.
The experiences that I asked for from African Ubuntu Safaris were met in every way. When I wasn't sure what to include in my adventure Cuan advised me and he was so right. First the adventure camp in the Kalahari, vast open plains and a huge amount of wild life then absolute and utter luxury in the Okavango Delta camp. The contrast in the scenery was incredible, I saw every specie of wildlife I'd only ever imagined, I was extremely lucky. Then on to Victoria falls another wonderful experience, so many hippos! Finally on to the fabulous V & A Hotel in Cape Town for three nights. I was a solo female traveller and felt totally safe every step of the way. The trip was planned as though I was known personally to African Ubuntu Safaris being met on arrival in Johannasburg by Cuans father who stored my luggage (cruising back to Perth) took me to my overnighter met me again after safaris to give me my luggage back. Everyone at the lodges were treated like royalty, best holiday ever and can't wait to do another one!
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing
My first safari was the best part of my trip to Tanzania We were able to meet many animals, our guide David was incredible
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Holiday of a lifetime.
i had been dreaming of travelling to Africa for twenty years, and i must say, it was everything i ever dreamed it could be and so much more. Yes i had concerns, being a female solo traveler was the major one. But i shouldn't have worried because i had an amazing stress free adventure. The reason for my stress free adventure was the amazing team at African Ubuntu Safaris who took care of everything, the service was second to none. Everything was arranged for me, all i had to do was show up. The experience in Kenya was a favorite, from the accommodation in tents, the wonderful native guides, the wildlife...simply amazing. Getting to share knowledge with the Masai was an experience i will never forget. Kenya was a favorite, and a place i will happily go back too. In Tanzania i stayed in Lodges, here to every thing was smooth sailing, everything was arranged perfectly. Zambia was a special destination, it was where i did my first African Safari, and i couldn't have asked for more, lions, leopards, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, monkeys and numerous antelopes. What an introduction to Africa it was. I also had a stay in Cape Town, staying at an amazing hotel right on the waterfront, a stones throw to all sorts of activities on offer in this amazing city. African Ubuntu Safaris ensured i was looked after. An added bonus was knowing that should anything go wrong there was ground support just a phone call away in Johannesburg . The service provided by Cuan and his team at African Ubuntu Safaris is exceptional, i would highly recommend using them to help you plan your holiday of a lifetime too. i was o impressed by the service offered i am already planning my next African Adventure and i will definitely be getting the team at African Ubuntu Safaris to work their magic again.
IL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing
We had a perfect safari tour and we highly recommend African Big Cats Safaris. Our trip was amazing!!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing holiday!
I travelled in a group of 7 friends, visiting 5 National Parks in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania.
From the start of planning our trip in Melbourne Australia, Cuan's assistance and advice was faultless.
We had the trip of a lifetime and the safaris exceeded our expectations. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend African Ubuntu Safaris and I certainly hope to travel with them again in the future. Thankyou Cuan!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Ideal Tanzanian Safari
Traveling in a group of 6 people can sometimes be difficult, but nothing was too hard for Cuan of African Ubuntu Safaris. Our safari was 9 day/8 night, starting and finishing in Arusha. All transport was impeccably timed and organised. Our tour guide, Akim, was informative, fun and an extremely good communicator. The majority of accommodation exceeded our expectations. We couldn't more highly recommend African Ubuntu Safaris for any travel within South Africa/Africa.
PT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wildlife and culture
Perfect for wildlife Safari, multicultural full of life cities, really nice people.
You really can feel and see how climate changes are affecting the world.
You can really get to know kenians and reflect on how basic is not always warranted.
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fabulous, personal and faultless!
It has been nearly 2 years since our trip and I still talk about our fabulous experience often. Cuan organised a personal tour for us which exceeded our expectations. The animals we saw adorn our walls and are a constant reminder of our trip
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Gorillas and Chimpanzees
A good destination for Gorilla and chimpanzee trekking has the experience was a lot better than expected and the parks were well managed has not to get overrun and the people were warm and friendly throughout and Bamboo Ecotours made this a very memorable trip. For birders we recommend a trip to Mabamba swamp Lake Victoria to see the shoebill storks and plentiful bird life.