In the second part of our exclusive Q&A series with the team behind African Safari Consultants, we speak to Cape Town based partner Liesl Mathews about eggs benedict, where to go with your kids, the perfect holiday snap and much (more) more… For part one of our series, where we speak to Jeff Ward, click [...]

African Safari Consultants Team Profile: Jeff Ward
With this, the first in a new series of posts, we’ll be chatting to the faces behind African Safari Consultants and asking them about their favorite destinations, how they got into the industry and much (much) more. First up we speak to Mr Jeff Ward, managing partner of the New York office. 1) Where are you from? [...]
Related Posts

The McClay’s African Adventure
The team at African Safari Consultants recently received this amazingly positive feedback from the McClays, for whom we’d organised their dream African safari. Donna McClay was kind enough to provide us with some excerpts of her travel diary, which we’ve included below. Enjoy!
Related Posts

Feedback from the Campbell Family
Jeff and Lise, We are sorry to report that we are home. We are thrilled to report that every aspect of the trip was amazing. I am in the process of downloading photos as we write this and can’t wait to go through them and relive every minute. We can’t thank you enough for the superb [...]
Related Posts

Birders vs non-birders on safari
Non-birders on safari Now here is a dilemma. We recently had a couple who all in all had a fantastic safari in Botswana and Kruger except for one recurring problem….They proclaimed to not be very interested in birds, but just as luck would have it, they found themselves on game drives with keen birders, or [...]
Related Posts

We’ve been nominated for Travel & Leisure magazine’s A-List Travel Agent awards!
“As long time T&L (Travel & Leisure Magazine) readers and subscribers, we want to tell you about our recent trip to South Africa, Botswana, Zambia & Namibia, and to nominate our Tour Operator, African Safari Consultants, for your 2012 A-List. We were celebrating our 20th anniversary, and wanted to plan a “trip of a lifetime.” [...]
Related Posts
Trip feedback: Cape Town, Rovos Rail, Botswana, Vic Falls
Hi Liesl and Jeff, We’re back home reflecting on our trip as John goes through his hundreds of photographs. We just want to let you know how fantastic our trip was! From beginning to end all worked out to be all we wanted and more. Our time in Cape Town was excellent — including being [...]
Related Posts
Client Feedback: Jim & Elizabeth – August 2011
Great feedback from an African Safari Jeff and Lise, We are sorry to report that we are home. We are thrilled to report that every aspect of the trip was amazing. I am in the process of downloading photos as we write this and can’t wait to go through them and relive every minute. We [...]
Related Posts
My Favorite African Places
That ultimate African destination With Irene causing havoc along the coast of the USA it is a good time to remind you of why you should visit our beautiful continent Africa! I have also covered some good tips on how to choose your Safari in previous blog posts (so go back and have a look) which just [...]
Related Posts
How to choose your Safari – Part 2
Choosing the right safari Last week I promised a few more tips on how to choose the right safari. Last week I covered: 1. When do you want to go? 2. Winter vs Summer? 3. Malaria Free Safaris? 4. Your budget? With these 4 questions covered we can look at getting a little more specific about your experience. [...]
Related Posts

How to choose that African Safari
Tips for choosing the right Safari Vacation We are often asked in this business where the best place to go on safari is. People ask this without realizing the choice that is out there and without really thinking about what it is they want to get out of the experience. Everyone is different, and we [...]
Related Posts
Categories
Tags
Recent Posts
Feedback
Tom and I are now at almost the end of our time at our Londolozi stay and it has been absolutely incredible. I never dreamed of seeing all the things that we have seen: a lion pride eating a giraffe that they killed a couple of days before, a small herd of about 20 elephants just walking calmly by our range rover, a leopard pulling a warthog out of its den (we arrived after it had killed the warthog—which I was glad not to witness); lions mating, a leopard eating an impala up in a tree; incredible things. The staff and the rangers have been great. The food is wonderful and way too abundant—I am afraid to go home. Thank you for your assistance in making it happen. Best regards Marjorie
Hello Ilze, Yes, now back at work and, unfortunately, getting back into the old routine. Olympic action is certainly going better than we expected – big plus point there. The gorillas behaved impeccably. They were less than an hour away from the track start. The leader had a bit of an argument with one or two of the younger ones. Baby on mum’s back. Beating of chests. Probably most if not all of what you would want/expect to see. It took longer to find the golden monkeys but they too were good but not quite so obliging from the photography point of view. Marlin Lodge was very good, thank you. The people there – staff – were a really good crowd. The place itself was a delight. The main problem here is that all the weight we lost with gorilla and golden monkey tracking has been put back with – possibly – a vengeance! The weather was better than the week before we were there and, on the day we left, it had taken a turn for the windier and cooler – so we could not complain. I have to say, their attention to detail was excellent. Last but not least, we both enjoyed immensely both parts of the trip and thanks for your help in doing just that. I will certainly get in touch with you again should we get down into that part of the world again. Mgahinga – Bwindi Lodge – Peermont – Marlin Lodge Kind regards, Graham
Every aspect of our trip was spot on - no delays, missed connections, late flights or missing transfer drivers. We came home with thousands of pictures and many incredible memories. Thanks to your expert consultation, we had the trip of a lifetime and have been smitten by the people and places we've experienced. Thank you for being so attentive and responsive to our questions. I have already provided your contact info to several colleagues who are interested in planning a trip to Africa. We hope to plan another adventure to Africa - perhaps Namibia next time and will be sure to call you!
The McClays
Thank you very much!I can’t begin to explain to you how wonderful everything was. To be honest, even though I had agreed to everything, I was still a little skeptical about some of the recommendations you had made. Turns out, some of the things I had been most skeptical of (Cape Town, Victoria Falls, San Camp) were the absolute highlights. You and your team did a remarkable job and Milena and I have already begun trying to figure out a way to get back. If there is ever anything that we can do to help you all convince prospective clients that this is something that they need to do, we’d love to help.As far as pictures go, Milena and I are far from good. However, that didn’t stop us from taking ~2,000 photos. I’ll send you an invitation to our Snapfish folder. Additionally, I’m a fan of African Safari Consultants on facebook. I’m not sure if that gives you access to my photos, but if it does, we’ve got a bunch of them posted there as well. Again, most of them are pretty bad, but if you happen to see anything that you’d like to use, they’re all yours.If I get some time later today or over the weekend, I’ll try to put together a more thorough review of everywhere we went/stayed. Needless to say, we were impressed by everything and we only have good things to say.Thank you all so much for everything you did.
Good morning! It sure was a terrific trip for all of us...thanks to both of you for putting up with my endless emails---I guess I worried unnecessarily! The stay at the Stanley was a perfect introduction to the city, and the hotel is wonderful, well preserved, very helpful and friendly staff, great location. We did the Kazuri bead factory one day, and volunteered the next. We had a really nice dinner in an alley down the road from the hotel...called BoBos which is a Turkish outdoor restaurant. Certainly nothing formal, outdoor seating with few amenities, but very good inexpensive food. Worth a look. Then had Gamewatchers pick us up to begin the safari...our driver Stephen was an excellent guide, full of info, very interactive. Took great care of us. The other driver, Tony, was also very good though I was not in his RangeRover too often. Sweetwaters was a great choice. Nothing negative to say there. Lodging very nice, food good, game sightings excellent, fun nighttime entertainment. We all enjoyed. Lake Nakuru was the following day. Unfortunately, I would say that of all the experiences, this was the least favorite. The lodge was quite good, food good, good location within the park. The lake water was apparently very high for this season due to prior months' rains, so the bird life was marginal. Game viewing ok, but of course nothing like the Mara. Mara Entim was one of the favorites of all the camps. Beautiful location, top quality staff, camping on the river's edge couldn't be beat, though the sounds of the hippos grunting all night long was very disruptive to our sleep! The game drives with the park staff were incredible with awesome sightings, just overall magnificent! We got to the NBO in plenty of time for flight out to EBB. I was very impressed with Gamewatchers and our guides. The only negative was Nakuru and the long drive. I think we would have been better off hitting a different park between Mt. Kenya and Mara making the drive less intense. In Entebbe, as you know, we changed lodging to the Karibu House instead of the Lake Vic Hotel. I would strongly suggest you look at Karibu. It's a guest house with about 6 rooms, excellent ownership, very secure location, great staff, good chef in the kitchen, all in all a perfect stop over. First day was Ndali Lodge which a beautiful setting. The owner is very friendly and spends time with the guests, though his staff is not as well trained as I would have expected given his British background, quality of the lodging. Enjoyed Kibale. Could have passed on the Bigodi walk I think, esp during mid day when very hot. Then QE park at Mweya...what a great setting. We loved it! A perfect end to the travel. The Kazinga channel ride as lots of fun as were the game drives, though I was a bit underwhelmed with the volume and diversity of the game in QE. Especially as I compared to the Mara or Mt. Kenya. The landscape and views are unbeatable, but not many animals. Example no giraffe, rhino, few lions. Despite that, we had a marvellous time there. The setting really is unbeatable. Entertainment at night with tribal dancers was fun. Our Wild Frontier guide was named Ham, and he was outstanding. Very personable, soft spoken, courteous, well informed, etc. I would highly recommend him to future travellers. We all really liked the variety that Uganda gave us after a week in Kenya. The varied terrain and different cultures were educational, and it fulfilled the desire I always had to get to this area of Africa. I would not really change anything on the itinerary except the Nakuru stop. Otherwise all lodging and guides were very well chosen You both did a great job for us....thanks loads. I wish we were headed back to the continent soon, but I fear it will be a few yers. Garth

















Recent Comments