South Africa Travel Guide

Very diverse and varied experience!

The reserves and botanical gardens are breathtaking! I recommend seeking tours that offer transport to and from the destinations.
We found people friendly, food and activities affordable and readily accessible.

The corrupt leadership of the country and the disparity between classes is heartbreaking.

The most beautiful part of the trip was taking the panoramic scenic route from Johannesburg to Kruger national Park. Kruger was awesome and we saw all of the big 5. Cape Town is a fantastic city and is a cross between Sydney, Australia, and San Francisco, California. We especially enjoyed the V & A waterfront. We would highly recommend the hop on hop off bus to get a feel for where you want to return to.

Great for budget and convenience, but more downtime than expected

Safari With Us booking at Kruger adventure lodge was overall a good experience for the price we paid, which while not cheap was definitely the cheapest we found compared to others for the value it offered. This package definitely maximizes budget and convenience (transportation to/from airports and safaris each day, breakfast and dinners included), however the package included more downtime than was expected with little to do on site.

The package advertised activities at night, full day safari and optional game rides on the third day. All optional rides were ~$100 extra each, there were no activities at night, unreliable WiFi only in the reception area, and the full day (which does start at 5am) ended before 3pm with nothing to do in the evening. So, what we thought was a 3 day safari was actually 1.5 (evening ride day 1 and 5am-3pm day 2). The game rides were incredible and made the experience absolutely worth it, but more transparency about what we were actually getting up front would have been nice.

The staff were mostly friendly (especially those who drove us and receptionists up front), with exception of 1-2 wait staff who seemed caught off guard when we sat down to eat and were not friendly at all.

The rooms were clean and spacious, though the AC does go out, the fridge did not work, and we found a frog in our bathroom on the last day.

Overall, I would still recommend this tour package if you are looking to maximize on budget and convenience while still getting to see some incredible things, but not if you are looking to maximize your time on Safari or a luxury lodging experience.

Ok

Food, transportation, guide were great... but the wildlife and safari experience was regular

Wildlife

My accommodation, food and transport to Ndaka at Nambiti game reserve was excellent and so was the weather and wildlife. Our game ranger and staff went the extra mile and had sighting of 4 out of Big 5

One of the most magnificent adventures of my life.

Naledi Bush Lodge and the entire staff were helpful, gracious and knowledgeable.

a pleasant trip along the garden route

Cape Town was great as always, but for the weather, cold grey and foggy. Winchester Mansions hotel was very comfortable. unable to see anything at Cape Point and table mountain cable car was shut. V&A shopping improves with each visit.
Drove the garden route and stayed at Franschoek, The Avondrood Guest House, lovely, wine tram was great. Stayed at The Belvidere Manor Kynsa, nice complex of chalets outside Knysa, very pretty views and visited the Craggs sanctuaries , all of which were very good. Bird World is a very special place!
Drove to Port Elizabeth. Only stayed at one private game park on this safari, Lalibela which,we found out when we arrived, was under reconstruction( not the lodge, the reserve !!! ) . We were shown a video explaining their long term plans and why we would go on to see huge areas of devastation so the vibe was very muted at Lentaba lodge. Had we known they were taking hundreds of mature non indigenous trees out with heavy equipment we would not have stayed there. The bush has yet to grow back. The effect on the wildlife must be substantial. We paid for a chalet upgrade ( it was our wedding anniversary and my wife's special birthday ) only to find it was nearest to the very noisy generator which switched on every 4 hours when they experienced the Government induced power cuts. Very obtrusive in the room. It was so noisy it drowned out conversation at the pool! Sounded like a jet engine! . Weather was not good, with rain and mist and little sun, not a good time of year to safari. In all a holiday with some highlights but could have been so much better. Not good value for money to us.

Entertaining, eye opening.

Viva Safari did a fairly good job, I should qualify that my budget did not allow me to be to demanding , the guides were recent graduates, very friendly, but they never left the paved roads in the park, pretty much anyone could have rented a car and did what we did and saw what we saw.

Security feel makes in shaky.

You probably don't get the wilderness experience you would get elsewhere - unless you go for the smaller lodges & private concessions.