Botswana Redefined – A Slow Safari Concept

Discover Africa and their trip advisor Megan Warrington did a fantastic job arranging our trip to Cape Town, Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), and the Chobe River and Kwara Camp in Botswana. We originally planned this trip a few years ago, but had to cancel. Megan was able to resurrect our itinerary with a few improvements this year. The trip details they provided were very accurate and helped us in our planning (and packing). All the transfers/transportation went without a hitch. Greeters met us at each location and guided us to the appropriate next step.

All the accommodations they booked us in were top notch; better than we anticipated. In particular, they had booked us into a camp in the Okavanga delta run by the Kwando Safari company. When they Kwando company ended up closing the camp for renovations Megan made sure that Kwando upgraded our camp and we ended up at the amazing Kwara camp, their flagship location, with no additonal cost or bother for us. (That camp was amazing great wildlife, staff, food and “tents”.)

I would recommend Discover Africa and Megan to anyone planning a trip to the Southern Africa area for a safari or city visit.

Discover Africa Safaris listened to what we wanted to experience in Africa and tailor made a series of fly in fly out safaris for us. The game drive locations that they chose were exceptional. This is why we came to Africa. Within minutes of our first game drive we were within metres of a pride of lions. The next day we were following a tracker on foot to a group of cheetah cubs.

They were contactable during our holiday and were able to resolve an issue which arose with one of our accommodation providers during our holiday. This enabled us to enjoy our holiday whilst they sorted out the issue in the background.

Fellow travelers, I had not a worry ! as the itinerary went so went our adventure! From the Drivers to the Hotel staff to the small aircraft pilots! Wonderful! Always there to make our travels smooth and refreshing ! I drink lots of water and really appreciated that they all had bottled water for me! Then we have the Lodges and the staff, who could not have made us feel more welcome and accommodated!

The food was delicious and the icing on the cake were our guides of course Jinxy at Saguni lodge and Cosi at Kazidore lodge! I should not forget to say that both lodges were as pictured, and accommodations did not disappoint! Discover Africa really took care of us ! Susan called us several times throughout our trip to check on us, and make sure we were well cared for and satisfied with our stay.

Our trips organized by Discover Africa were amazing. Matthys put together three incredible packages and worked with us throughout the entire journey to make everything perfect.

We went to Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania with Discover Africa, and had a stay in Cape Town between two of the safari trips.

Matthys was right there when we wanted to make small changes to a flight and a hotel. We absolutely could not have been happier, they exceeded our expectations completely.

There really aren’t enough superlatives to describe this trip. Because we didn’t have a hand in planning it (our friend who invited us to join them did) we were a little nervous about all the opportunities for problems to arise (i.e., in the many transfers and handovers required to move from place to place, company to company, and country to country.)

We needn’t have worried one bit. Every step of the way the transfers were perfect; there was ALWAYS someone at the other end waiting for us. If I had any questions along the way I could just message our rep (Megan- the best!) and she would clarify in a very timely way.

Every place we stayed was great; every adventure perfectly fitted us. I would not change a single thing in our entire three-week adventure. I write a kind of travel blog and have people follow all my trips. Everyone was amazed at the things we did and saw, and many are wanting to follow our path and take this journey themselves.

And I encourage them to work with Discover Africa because everything was perfect. I travel a lot and have known my share of travel issues, but I did not have to do anything on this trip but enjoy it. And we enjoyed it immensely!

Right from the initial enquiry we were given useful advice on the type of trip to do in Botswana in February, the booking was handled efficiently, and all contact was of a friendly and courteous nature. We had some issues with our international flights, but our consultant (Judy Burrows) helped us to resolve these despite not having been involved in the booking process.

The safari itself ran very smoothly, from being met off our flight and assisted through the airport in Maun by representatives of the charter flight company (Moremi), through all the transfers between camps, and a final meet and transfer to our hotel at the end of our trip. The camps were all of an excellent standard, and we had many memorable sightings of animals and birds. The guides were very knowledgeable and skilled at tracking predators in particular.

The food was excellent, and rooms comfortable and clean. It was good to see that the safari company (Kwando) employed mainly local people at all levels including management, and the inclusion of a short session of singing and dancing by camp staff before dinner one night was a highlight of the holiday.

I would definitely use Discover Africa again for future trips.