Review: South Africa Father-Daughter Safari, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Sabi Sands, Kruger & Chobe National Parks

3 Destination Safari Trip to South Africa and Botswana...  all logistics, transfers, airlines, reservations, excursions went off without a hitch, every thing flowed seamlessly. Our safari travel company and particularly agent did an excellent job pre-planning and sculpting trip to meet our needs and desires.  We wanted 9 day safari to various locations that had different terrains and bio-diversity, but wanted to be efficient with "travel times" and "travel days" to make use of limited 9 days.

Firstly, Kruger area in SA, our agent guided us away from some lodges and tented sites "inside the park" as one becomes limited to "on road" safari versus if at contiguous private concession [whereby animals freely roam from Kruger park into and out of concession] the safari guides will (and always do) take their Land Cruisers off road and into the bush, for example to find a leopard laying in the bush protecting his kill (water buck)... which this siting would never happen "on road" in the park.  Our agent and this company pushed us to Sabi Sabi Little Bush Camp which was 5 stars and beyond all expectations; modern, clean, impeccable and beyond the call of duty service, and great guides (our guide was great and very knowledgeable). We saw the "magnificent 7" in the first 24 hours [the big 5 plus cheetah and wild dogs].

Secondly, we flew from Nelspruit to Livingston airport in Botswana, had driver take us from airport to river border, hand us off to a boat driver that took us across the river, then he handed us off to another driver that took us through the Botswana customs and then drove us to Kasane airport to meet a 3rd driver from Muchenje Lodge to drive us 50 minutes to the lodge.  All logistics worked perfectly (coordinated by our safari travel company). Muchenje Lodge was 4-star (not 5 star) because it is a bit aged [old bathroom, old toilet, old fixtures] but they make up for it in "safari lodge family atmosphere" and great management effort, buffet style family meals with other guests. Their safaris differed as we were limited to "on the road inside Chobe National Park) type safaris versus off-road. But abundance of hippos, elephants, giraffes here make it worth it.  Just on one afternoon track we saw 36 elephants (different sitings) and over 30 giraffes in just over 3 hours.

Thirdly, we wanted to try a different bio-diversity at Okavango Delta, so our travel company and our agent after much batting back and forth during the planning process, and planning for "bush flights" we selected Khwai Tented Bush Camp by African Bush Camps (they own many lodges and tented camps).  Five Stars, full amenities for a "tented site" very modern, and excellent first class cuisine, high teas, breakfasts and service. Our safari guide was great, friendly, and very knowledgeable. Lots of lions and leopards.

We departed by bush plane (coordinated by our travel company and agent) to Maun and then back to Cape Town.  The whole trip was planned impeccably, and went off without a hitch, the logistics of which I could have never have personally planned or procured by myself. I'm sure we paid a premium using first class travel agent, but it was worth it to just lay back and leave all the coordination to others.

Would we use this safari travel company again? Yes, I had this agent book us a subsequent trip from Cape Town to Victoria Falls for the weekend after this trip, and once again was first class and logistically efficient.