Sabi Fly In Safari

We were initially overwhelmed with all of the options for African Safaris when we first started planning our trip. Luckily, Discover Africa responded promptly to our initial request for information and we were quickly scheduled for an initial consult with Adelle Bell.

Adelle presented several options and really listened to our feedback to tailor a perfect week in the African bush for our honeymoon. She took care of absolutely everything for us besides the international flights, which was a big weight off our shoulders after just planning so much time planning our wedding ourselves. She was also extremely communicative throughout the planning process and while we were on the ground the week of our honeymoon as well.

We spent 3 nights at Motswari in the Timbavati Private Game Reserve followed by 3 nights at Arathusa in Sabi Sands Private Game reserve. Both lodges and reserves surpassed our expectations. Motswari felt like a much more traditional and authentic safari experience, while Arathusa felt more up-scale and resort like. The staff and hospitality at both were fantastic, and the game drives surpassed our expectations immediately.

If you are considering booking a vacation to Africa, I would highly recommend booking through Discover Africa and asking for Adelle specifically. She will knock it out of the park!

I just came back from my holiday organised by Discover Africa and can safely say this was one of the most incredible trips I’ve ever done (and I travel quite a lot). I can’t recommend them enough!

I contacted them last minute, merely 4 weeks ahead of my planned travel dates. Matthys, the travel expert that took care of me, scheduled a video call to understand better what I’m after. I gave him a rather vague brief (Victoria Falls + safari somewhere in South Africa, Botswana or Zimbabwe, including walking safaris; avoiding touristy hotspots and crowds as much as possible). Within just a couple of days he came back with an itinerary that fit the bill to a tee. Just a few highlights from my trip: watching a group of hippos at sunset just in front of my porch in Chundu Island near Victoria Falls, a microlight flight over the falls (the views are incredible), watching a pack of wild dogs hunting kudus in Sabi Sand (and hyenas joining in too), and tracking lions on foot at Rhino Walking Safaris in Kruger NP. Each of the locations I visited offered something truly special.

Everything was perfectly organised, including all the transfers between locations. Matthys was very responsive whenever I had any questions (even outside of working hours). This was my first visit to this part of Africa, and I already know I’ll be coming back soon enough and will reach out to Discover Africa to help me make it happen.

We found Discover Africa through a local travel agency comparator. From the very beginning of our safari in South Africa, we were charmed. Adelle, our agency contact, is a wonderful person who understood our needs and our client profile perfectly. She was able to propose us tours and itinerary perfectly adapted to what we wanted. We will definitely return to South Africa for a second safari and will contact Adelle again to plan this trip.

We worked with Alice in planning our travel experience, including lodging and safari. She was absolutely stellar… we originally planned to take a one year wedding anniversary trip in April 2020, and then the pandemic hit. Over the next few years Alice worked with us diligently to keep our reservations intact until we were finally able to travel this month!

The lodge we stayed was fantastic, we were beyond thrilled with Lion Sands and the service provided. Every detail was truly customized for us. Our guide, tracker, and butler were the best in the biz.

They went the extra mile to help me when I thought I had left my lens cap in the safari vehicle, sensing someone to find it and drive it out to us on our way back to the airport! We felt safe, saw basically every animal you could hope to see in the wild and even ones we didn’t, like the African wild cat!

Seriously I can’t say enough great things about Alice and Lion Sands river lodge. You won’t be disappointed!

Megan, We just returned from our family trip to your country on June 4, 2021. We had a GREAT TIME! Thank you for changing things as required over 2 years (as our trip had to be postponed from May 2020 to May 2021 due to COVID-19).

Now our thoughts on the two lodges and our trip overall: Ngala tented camp: Personalized attention, food was a notch up from the safari lodge. The accommodations were a notch below the safari lodge, given that it is tented. The accommodations were fine (as in decent) but did not really like the outdoor showers.

Saw the white lions at Ngala on our first and second days there. Was one of the highlights of our trip. Would we stay at the tented camp again?? … Possibly. All the transfers everywhere were seamless. The Fairlawns stay on both occasions was very nice! They really do a very nice job at this hotel.

The PCR test to return to the US at Jo berg airport was pretty painless (took the PCR test to avoid the hassle of whether the antigen test would work). Got the results via email in four hours and got the certificates printed out at the airport PCR facility the next day.

Tengile River Lodge; This lodge was truly stunning. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The food was divine. The snacks on the game drives were a notch better than Ngala. The drinks were top of the line and the four of us had our own safari vehicle. We had Warren as our ranger and Jophet as our tracker. They were both very, very good and really friendly. On day two we saw four of the big five on the morning game drive (lion, black rhino, buffalo, and elephants). On the evening game drive on day two we saw lion, buffalo, elephants and the leopard. Also saw lions with cubs on day 6 and also saw leopard with her cub on day 5. Finally saw the honey badger, which as our ranger at Tengile pointed out is extremely rare to spot. Once again thank you for everything.

One final point the game viewing in the Sabi Sands was very good… as good or better than 2017. The game viewing we thought at Ngala this time was not as good as what we saw in 2017. Paucity of animals… though we were very, very happy to see the white lions of Ngala.

We worked with Alice to plan the safari portion of our South Africa trip. Alice was wonderful to work with. She was very helpful with finding two safari locations within our budget. We considered both Botswana and South Africa, and she provided some great insight into each area.

The vacation she planned went so smoothly! We were very impressed. The safari lodges and hotel in Johannesburg were excellent. I would definitely plan another safari through this company.