American Express Membership Rewards - Platinum Travel Service for Game Reserves?

Has anyone used PTS for booking game reserves in South Africa?

I was thinking they would have good experience with the high end game reserves -- particularly if they have a specialist, but don't want to waste my time if others have had negative experiences.

Thanks!

I recently booked a South Africa trip with Ngaire Keene of http://www.bkafrica.com She is wonderful and is very knowledgeable about the game reserves in the country. Even if you plan to use PTS, check out her website for reviews of the various game lodges. (Select from the "Hotels/Lodges" pull-down menu on the homepage.)

We ended up selecting Kings Camp (Timbavati Game Reserve) and Leopard Hills (Sabi Sands Game Reserve). I loved the look of Mateya, but we decided against going to Madikwe on this trip. We're also visiting Cape Town and Hermanus (Birkenhead House).

Good luck with your travel plans!

Andrea

Andrea,

Thanks for the information. Did you find that your experiences at those two lodges matched the reviews?

Joel

Hi Joel,

We haven't gone on the trip yet, so I don't have firsthand experiences to share with you. However, we've done several other trips based on Ngaire's recommendation and have always been pleased.

Her agency offers customized itineraries, packaged solo trips (Ker & Downey-based), and escorted trips to South Africa. You can read some reviews from past guests by visiting the message board at http://www.luxurycruisetalk.com

For reviews of previous escorted trips to Kings Camp and Leopard Hills (as well as other lodges), go to that website and then click on the forum titled "ROAR, TUSK, and POP." ROAR and TUSK refer to the Africa escorted trips. (POP was an Antarctica trip.)

You can also click on the ROAR 2 forum to read about a future escorted trip. (The one my husband and I are going on.)

Apart from those links, I also recommend reading this article if you're interested in visiting Mateya in the Madikwe Reserve: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=3477973&page=1

We did a lot of research on the luxury game camps in South Africa before booking Kings Camp and Leopard Hills. Kings Camp is a great value (3600 rand per night) but doesn't offer complimentary laundry and I don't think the suites have private plunge pools like Leopard Hills. Leopard Hills is definitely topnotch, but it's also much more expensive at 6300 rand per night.

I loved the look of Mateya, but we don't want to fly on four-seater planes so we specifically selected two lodges we could do a land transfer between instead.

Have fun planning your trip!

Andrea

you might post in the luxury hotels forum with your budget and any countries / resorts of interest. plenty of africa experience/reports, a number of singita fans, etc.

virtuoso properties / benefits >
http://hotels.dinersclubus.com/africa__the_middle_east.htm

there are no game reserves that are FHR properties.

We happen to use Ngaire Keene also and we did both Kings Camp and Leopard Hills in September 2006. The trip was fantastic. We use Ngaire's agency not only for land tours, but also cruises. I can't say enough good things about it. I posted many pictures of our African trip and would be glad to tell you how to view them if you are interested. Feel free to contact me at dreps@comcast.net.