byb310

Any advice on where to stay? We are looking for above average accommodations but not top of the line..

Any help, tips.. thanks!

johan rebel

Could you please be a little more specific?

Length of stay?

Special interests (birds, that kind of stuff)?

Are you combining your safari with other activities?

Staying / going anywhere else?

Self-drive / Guided?

Self-catering / Lodge?

Point of arrival and departure?

Number of persons?

Any kids?

Johan

SafariCraig

Johan has great questions. Budget (per person) is also crucial for dispensing relevant advice on a safari in South Africa. I am always schocked that people don't want to put their budget on a Forum but few actually do. That is the only way to get really good and relevant advice.

Craig Beal - owner - Travel Beyond

JLSocks

I'm also looking for recommendations for a 4 night South Africa safari near Kruger with some friends in family in early June. Looking to spend around 4500 to 5000 rand per night per person and am currently debating Exeter River Lodge and Dulini Lodge in Sabi Sand.

I had originally considered Kapama Karula because of the lower cost but became a bit worried about the game viewing there when I started reading up on in it more.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

SafariCraig

Have you considered Lion Sands River Lodge? If you worked with an operator with access to their stay3pay2 pricing it would be within your budget. Lion Sands has about 4,000 hectres of private land plus anouther 4,000 hectres with Kirkman's Camp. Exeter is less than 2,000. I have been to Lion Sands three times and it is fantastic.

Exeter is on the fenced border of the Sabi Sands and the northern boundary is a fence to the public lands. Outside the fence you have the normal activities taking place in the communities outside (dogs barking, lights at night, music playing etc.). None of these things effect life in camp as they will not be seen or heard from the Exeter lodge but Lion Sands is interior to the Sabi Sands and there are no fences so you do not have any of these things. Here is a map of the Sabi Sands maintained by the Sabi Sands trade organization. http://www.sabisand.co.za/ssw-map.html

Exeter is relatively small and they share their land with two neighboring lodges which allows guests to have enough environmental diversity on game drives. So you will see guests from other lodges during your game drives. This does not cause overcrowding as they manage the number of vehicles per sighting well. The lodges that share the land are Ulusaba and Leopard Hills. You will still enjoy the service, guiding, and cuisine if you choose Exeter as &Beyond is consitenly good accross the board.

Lots of people are attracted to Exeter because they have a stay4pay3 special. They have had stay4pay3 pricing in place for at least the past three years with no interruption. So the deal is part of their price available any day of the year. Also, a four night stay at Exeter is not ideal since the property is tiny (in my opinion). You valuable vacation time may be better spent at a second property after 3 at Exeter (like perhaps Ngala).

If you want an &Beyond property interior to the Sabi Sands, I would stay at Kirkman’s Camp instead of Exeter. It is South of MalaMala on the above map and guests can drive on the Southern third of MalaMala in a soon to expire traversing agreement. Kirkman’s guests can also drive on Lion Sands once per day. The Sand River flows directly through the property which is important during the dry season. Kirkman’s is a little less luxurious than Exeter. You should also consider Tinga which is a private concession inside the Kruger owned by Lion Sands. Tinga guests can drive on Lion Sands as well.

If you are working direct with &Beyond you may want to consider getting a consultation from an independent safari agency that does not have their own beds to fill as that can sway the opinions of the sales person (as you can imagine).

Craig Beal - owner - Travel Beyond

byb310

For more details of my proposed trips... We will be in South Africa 2 weeks, so we would like to do 2 to 3 night safari at two different game reserves (at least this is what our initial thoughts are). We would like to spend a max of 6000 Rand per night.

Our goal is to see the Big 5, not into birds except vultures..

Want to enjoy the scenery and being under the African stars...

It will be just my wife and I, we would like an all inclusive deal (meals, drinks, safari, etc)

We will also try to spend some time in Capetown winerys, and we want to do a great white shark trip, but the safari is the number one reason for the trip.

Not sure where to fly from NY, to where in SA?

SafariCraig

If you want AA miles you should fly from New York to Jo'burg via London on BA or via Madrid on Iberian.

If you want the most convenient route, then SAA (Star Alliance) is non-stop from New York to Jo'burg.

Here is a rough plan:
Day 1 depart
Day 2 arrive JNB. May need to overnight. If not, fly to Richards Bay and road transfer 1 hr to Phinda Vlei. Maybe do stay4pay3.
Day 3,4 Safari
Day 5 Back to Richards Bay. Fly to Cape Town via JNB.
Day 6,7,8,9 Cape Town and wine country.
Day 10 Fly Cape Town to Nelspruit/MPQ. Charter 20m or drive 2h20m to Mala Mala or Lion Sands.
Day 11,12 Safari
Day 13 Home.

Craig Beal - owner - Travel Beyond

JLSocks

Craig-

thanks for the suggestion regarding Lion Sands. I followed up with by booking agent and it appears I can get about the same rates there as I can with Exeter and Dulini.

The booking agent also recommended Chitwa Chitwa for around the same price. Any experiences with Chitwa?

Thanks again!

SafariCraig

I have never been a guest at Chitwa Chitwa but I have driven on their land before. In my personal opinion I would go to Lion Sands over any of the properties north of MalaMala especially if the price is the same. I simply love Lion Sands. BTW - Lion Sands was one the cover of Conde Nast in August 2010. It will also be featured in a few weeks as one of the locations for the TV show The Bachelor which is on ABC on Monday nights right now.

If you get your agent to quote you in Rand you should get a better price than you are getting now. If you are working with a US agent and they are not quoting in Rand they will be taking a currency hedge on the price they quote you so the sale price will be higher.

If you go to Chitwa Chitwa and your agent is not experienced selling Africa be sure they book you on a commercial flight to HDS instead of MQP if you are road transfering into/out of the reserve. HDS is much closer than MQP to the lodge. It will save you several hours in a car...

One more thought: for your second safari experience if you want something truly unique and over to top go to http://www.tswalu.com/ . A four night stay includes free charter flights to/from Cape Town or Jo'burg so you can do this at the end and have Cape Town in the middle. It will be beautiful weather in May.

Craig Beal - owner - Travel Beyond

dracularsa

I know I have recommended this in previous post but I would just like to add another option - especially if you would like to safari at two different places that is reachable from Johannesburg.

Ivory Tree Game reserve is a private lodge on the edge of the Pilansberg National park and uses the park's grounds for their safari's. As South Africans we have stayed there once and the experience was fantastic. I don't have other 5 star experiences to compare it to but the fact that the area is malaria free and that it is just next to Sun City (One of South Africa's largest Casino / entertainment complex / well known golf course) is really a big plus. It is also just about a 90 minute drive north of Pretoriahttp://www.suninternational.com/Dest...s/default.aspx

The park is renound for their many white and black Rhinos and has many elephants and lion - all which you could easily spot within 1 day. We also were lucky to spot leopard and cheetah during our weekend there.

The fully inclusive deal with this lodge comes with great accomodation - large bed, large stone tub, outside shower (enclosed), sun sofa's on the patio. Great food - to much to eat really - Buffet breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and then a buffet dinner ( ever 2de night at the camp fire) and 2 game drives per day with knowledgable game drivers. Check out theri website
Link

johan rebel

These traversing deals often make me laugh. The example you give is fairly straightforward compared to others I know of, but I can see all sorts of complications. As they used to say until a few years ago: "bush politics are worse than Bush politics"

Johan

SafariCraig

I had not heard the Bush politics joke before! Good one.

johan rebel

I have stayed at Chitwa Chitwa, and concur. Nothing wrong with Chitwa Chitwa, but nothing special or exceptional about it either.

Johan

sidgopalan

I'm planning to visit South Africa around the same time. This is my first time, so apologies if these questions are obvious.

A little background: My dad's 60th birthday is at the end of May. My brother and I are planning to take him on this safari.
5 people (Dad, Mom, Brother, Bro's wife, and me).
We're planning for 9 days (2 weekends + 5 days). However, that includes travel from the US to South Africa..... So I'm thinking of a 5-day safari.
We're budgeting around $4000 per person + airfare for the trip. Does that seem reasonable?
Since this will be our first safari, we thought Kruger with the big five would be a good experience

Lion Sands river lodge sounds great - but what about the safari guides? Do we need to make sure a tour operator has access to this river lodge?

What should I be looking for in the tour operator? From other posts on this forum, it seems that the following tour operators are reasonably good:
Mountain Travel Sobek
Wilderness Safaris
Geographic Expeditions
Bushtracks

Thanks for your help.

LAXGR

I'm looking for approximately the same thing, same budget and timeline, to travel with 3 people. Does anyone have any experience with the Balule reserve? There's a place there called Naledi game reserve that sounds promising, but I can't find much info about it other than their website and favorable tripadvisor reviews...