Originally Posted by
cheltzel
I agree with you on the relative closeness of locations. If your desire is to visit the Rift Valley and then off to Cape Town and the wine country of the Western Cape, by all means go for it. I just responded to make sure the OP knew there were traditional land safari lodges/camps much closer to Rwanda and that there were some extremely high value camps in the OPs price range in the private reserves adjacent to the Kruger. The OPs response made it obvious that the OP was knowledgeable and was looking for sights/experiences best done at a location like the Tswalu reserve. But going longer distances and doing multiple camps/locations in a relatively short time can cost a fair amount of your budget in both time and money. Personally, I prefer to keep the locations relatively close to the point where transferring between them is convenient enough that we spend 80% - 90% (or more) of our time at the locations we wish to visit. As always, YMMV.
Thank you again for your input. I think what I was not clear enough about was that I have already experienced a more traditional safari setting once at RockFig in the Timbavati and Londolozi in the Sabi Sands. Next summer I will be visiting Silvan and Londolozi in the Sabi Sands, so the purpose of Tswalu is to go after a different landscape and different set of animals. It just so happens to be in SA. Magashi in Rwanda is intriguing, but really the uniqueness of Tswalu is what wants me to pair it up with Rwanda, rather than doing say Tswalu + somewhere else in SA in 2026 and then waiting another year or two to do Rwanda. I think based on what I've read in the thread above that there are mixed feelings on the pairing of destinations requiring commercial flights and there certainly is the risk of missing a flight or experiencing delays, but to experience two spectacular destinations like this, I think that I am willing to bite that bullet to be able to do so. I appreciate everyone's feedback!