For those that have done Africa OYO or with another company

[aggiedog]

That sounds like a great trip, and the budget is a full third of what Alluring Africa quoted per person. I think there's a good chance we'll end up traveling December of 2020, so I'll be waiting for your trip report next year to see how things go.

 

[Aelin1977]

Check out The Bushcamp Company. They are in Zambia and have a main lodge and number of out camps. You can either book to stay in the main lodge or split your stays between the various camps. They will transfer you between the airport, the main lodge and the outer camps.

 

[aggiedog]

Have you used them? That looks amazing and perfect for our group of 8. I'm wondering what the cost is and what is included.

 

[Aelin1977]

Have you used them? That looks amazing and perfect for our group of 8. I'm wondering what the cost is and what is included.

Yes. We just got back from a trip that included a stay here. We were only there for a total of 4 nights but could easily have spent 2 weeks there at the different camps. We stayed 2 nights at Mfuwe Lodge, they book ended a stay at Chindeni Tented Camp. We did game drives in the mornings and the evenings and while we were at Chindeni we did walking safaris. The guides who work here are some of the best in Zambia. The camp manager at the second camp we stayed at after leaving the Bushcamp Company said if we did walking safaris in the South Luangwa National Park, which is where the Bushcamp Company is, there was no point doing it in the Lower Zambezi, which is where we were heading. He said the guides in the South Luangwa were the best for walking safaris.

We were there in May so only Chindeni camp was open of the outer camps. Our guide was actually going to get one of other camps set up after we left. I can't speak to price as our stay was part of a packaged itinerary to Zambia.

I believe meals are included in your stay, unless you order directly from the bar but this is something they would be able to answer for you. I believe meals at the camps themselves are included. All our meals were included but like I said, we were on a package.

Game drives are included as are walking safaris (there are certain restrictions with these though, like age of children and such). They can arrange trips to the local village to tour the school and such. Plus, for an additional fee there is a world class spa at Mfuwe Lodge.

 

[aggiedog]

Did you use a travel agent to set the whole package up? If so, would you mind PM'ing me the info?

It's looking like we'd be traveling in December, most likely over Christmas. That may impact what's open or available. I think only 1-2 of their bushcamps are open then. I think I'd like to see the penguins in South Africa, then some sort of safari.

 

[Aelin1977]

It was a set tour with a tour company but they can do custom trips as well so you could do The Bushcamp Company and South Africa. We actually flew through Johannesburg to get to Zambia.

 

[carpenta]

Check out the recent article in the Daily Star about the law just passed in South Africa about the seizure of white farms. Most agree this could lead to riots and starvation if this comes. Look into “E vac” insurance on your trip.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

If you read the TA forum on S. Africa they will have the names of local agents that you can use to arrange your itinerary and offer support while you are there. I can tell you that there are plenty of companies / lodges that you can use that won't bust your budget (3 in college - OUCH!).

With 10 - 14 days I would recommend 3 lodges so that you can experience the different ecosystems. With your time frame I'd skip both Cape Town and Victoria Falls. Each adds in at least a half day of travel time, which takes away from the safari experience.

One lodge that is quite affordable, has a great location and outstanding reviews is Mala Mala. It's in Sabi Sands, therefore you are pretty much guaranteed to see leopards every day, likely several times a day. We were in Sabi Sands last year at Singita and I can tell you that the animal viewing is fantastic. We saw everything, plus leopards galore - with a kill in a tree, a 10 month old leopard cub with her mom, leopards mating (a few times), leopards just crossing the road, leopards sleeping - you get the idea. We also saw a pack of wild dogs a few times, including their 15+ puppies (which were adorable). Hyena cubs circling our vehicle, a young white lion (VERY rare), lions galore, rhinos, etc. I really can't recommend Sabi Sands enough. We have good friends who stayed at Mala Mala and raved about it.

There are many other ecosystems you can visit in South Africa as well. No shortage of places to visit!

For our trip in a month we are using Icon Expeditions. Our agent there has been extremely helpful and is VERY knowledgeable. They work with every budget and are safari experts. Tell them what you want to spend and they will work with you to design something that fits your budget. Rhino Africa is also highly rated.

From our experience and the limited time that we spent on the public roads in the parks, I'd not recommend that you do it on your own. If you can swing it, I would really recommend private lodges, where you can go off road (conditions / animals permitting). Also I'd try for lodges that share traversing rights with other lodges, have HUGE acreage and a "fenceless" border with Kruger. These things combined will give you the best animal viewing.

I am happy to answer any questions that you have.

Singita Is very very expensive 3000 a night!!!!!!

 

[Jess_S]

Check out the recent article in the Daily Star about the law just passed in South Africa about the seizure of white farms. Most agree this could lead to riots and starvation if this comes. Look into “E vac” insurance on your trip.

It's always good to be cautious, but the Daily Star article was a bit sensationalist (not to mention so poorly written as to be almost unreadable). From what I've read, the impact of farm seizures will depend upon whether the government properly supports the new landowners so that the land remains productive.

 

[carpenta]

It's always good to be cautious, but the Daily Star article was a bit sensationalist (not to mention so poorly written as to be almost unreadable). From what I've read, the impact of farm seizures will depend upon whether the government properly supports the new landowners so that the land remains productive.

Well South Africa has a neighbor Zimbabwe that has gone through the same political meltdown......it seems it hasn't' worked out for that country today.....The future looks grim in my estimation.

 

[bananasplitkids]

Did you use a travel agent to set the whole package up? If so, would you mind PM'ing me the info?

It's looking like we'd be traveling in December, most likely over Christmas. That may impact what's open or available. I think only 1-2 of their bushcamps are open then. I think I'd like to see the penguins in South Africa, then some sort of safari.

Hi this was a very informative thread as I am planning a trip to South Africa in December as well. If you plan on doing a safari over Christmas, plan on booking atleast one year out for any of the more affordable private reserves. We are going over the Christmas Holiday this year and found that many of the more affordable private reserves (i.e. Gomo Gomo, Elephant Plains, Umkumbe, etc) were booked when we started looking back in December. In the end we decided on the Xanatseni private reserve that is unfenced to Kruger. We also liked that they had a 2 bedroom family suite, that included private game drives and is all inclusive with south african wines, beers, etc. If you decide to go the private reserve route make sure you check what the max number of people each game drive will have. Also since it will be their summer in December, we wanted air condition which is also limited at the more affordable private reserves. Some of the other private reserves that came highly recommended to us were Senalala, Naledi, and Mohlabetsi. Outside of the 2 nights on safari we are also doing 3 nights in Johannesburg and 5 nights in Cape Town.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I've posted this on a couple of other Dis safari threads, but I wanted follow up on this thread as well. Our July 2019 trip was absolutely AMAZING!!! I was a little stressed about it because I planned it 100% by myself with some help from the Fodor's folks, but no travel agent or tour company, so everything was 100% my responsibility. It went flawlessly with the exception of 2 minor car issues. 1) After an overnight flight from London to Johannesburg, we picked up the rental car and drove the 4 hours to our hotel in Hazyview just outside Kruger Park. It was around 5:15, starting to get dark and we were about 15-20 minutes away from Hazyview when a tire blew. We called Budget Roadside Assistance, but got no help. They just told us to put on the spare, turn the car into the closest Budget office (45 min away) the next day, and pick up a new car. The next thing we knew, a truck load of Afrikaners stopped to help us. It was a dad, his son, nephew and a friend. They changed the tire! They stopped because they could see we were tourists and it was getting dark. They didn't want us out on the side of the road after dark; they wanted us to truly enjoy our visit to their country. We tried to buy them some beer as a thank you, but they said no. We did take a big group picture with all of us though! They were such nice people! 2) After 25 hours of travel back to the US, we got to our car at the airport. It was about 100 degrees outside and the battery was dead. We saw a sign for airport car assistance in the parking lot, called, and were on our way home in about 15 minutes. So all in all, things went very well.

Our flights were about $2000 over budget (my original trip budget for everything was $10,000 - pretty small); I wish I’d been able to travel hack airfare. When I priced things out for Summer 2018, flights were around $1250 each, so I budgeted $5000. I couldn't find anything under $1600 for Summer 2019, so I kept waiting (shouldn't have waited!!!!) and ended up paying $1800 each. I'm still paying off that bill! We also ended up adding two more guided game drives while we were there because my DH loved them so much. Out of the 8 game drives we had, 5 of them were private with only the 4 of us in the jeep with the guide!

Here is what we (me, DH, DS22, DD20) did -
London: London House Hotel in Kensington Gardens/Bayswater area
Day 1 - double decker bus tour with The Original Tour, dinner at a pub
Day 2 - Tower of London, Thames River cruise, Trafalgar Rock & Roll walking tour of Piccadilly and Soho, pub for lunch (I had high tea scheduled but got outvoted), Evensong at Westminster Abbey, pub for dinner
Day 3 - Churchill's War Room, flight to SA

South Africa:
Day 4 - Protea Hotel Hazyview (free using Marriott points), didn't get there until around 6:00 PM, dinner at hotel (DS loved the monkeys here)
Day 5 - Kruger Park sunrise game drive with Kurt Safari (hotel gave us breakfast boxes to take with us, we saw a leopard sleeping on the side of the road first thing), dinner at hotel
Day 6 - had to exchange the rental car, breakfast at hotel (included each morning), lunch at Harrie's Pancake in Graskop, Panorama Route (didn't do the whole thing due to the rental car exchange and late start), dinner in town
Day 7 - breakfast at hotel, Kruger Park afternoon game drive with Kurt Safari (a whole herd of elephants coming up from the Sabi River came right up to our jeep), dinner at hotel
Day 8 - breakfast at hotel, DD and I went to the Elephant Sanctuary to brush down elephants while DH and DS golfed at Sabi River Sun, relaxed by the pool in the afternoon, cultural dinner and show at Shaangaan River Club in Hippo Hollow
Day 9 - Tamboti Tented Camp, breakfast at hotel, then drove up through Kruger Park (drove slowly, game drive style and saw sooooo many animals! elephants, giraffes, rhinos) to Tamboti which is inside Kruger Park, cooked dinner over campfire at camp
Day 10 - sunrise game drive (saw another leopard and 2 female lions but lions were really far away), lunch at camp, sunset game drive (saw a genet and a honey badger), cooked dinner over campfire at camp
Day 11 - Shindzela Tented Camp, after breakfast we drove out of Kruger into the Timbavati Reserve to Shindzela (a beautiful full service classic safari camp with 3 meals a day and 2 game drives a day included. The beds had hot water bottles in them and mosquito netting over them each night when we got back after dinner - so pretty!), afternoon game drive with sundowners (we saw a pride of 5 female lions with 3 sets of cubs that afternoon)
Day 12 - morning game drive, afternoon game drive (saw a hippo marking his territory, so funny!), all 3 meals at camp (and they were yummy, dinner was served in the Boma around the campfire each night - very lovely!)
Day 13 - Protea OR Tambo (free with points, with a late 2:00 checkout the next day), we had one last morning game drive at Shindzela (saw a 500 large herd of water buffalo at a watering hole, and the pride of lions came back to drink as well. The male lion was with them this time!!! After drinking, they stalked the herd of buffalo, we followed them hoping to see a kill, but it didn't happen. It was AMAZING nonetheless!) After one last breakfast at Shindzela, we left for OR Tambo.
Day 14 - breakfast at hotel, naps to prepare for the looooong travel day/s, early dinner at hotel, flight home that evening

We were really happy that we stayed in 3 different places in the Greater Kruger Area because each area had different animals and different size herds. We could not get over the volume of each species we saw. Driving through Kruger to Tamboti, my DS looked to the left and yelled because he couldn't believe how many giraffes were right there. There were 15-20 walking and running right next to the road. The next second my DD yells "look", so we turned to the right. There were 50 or 60 elephants all gathered at the watering hole drinking. The volume and variety were incredible! We saw all the big five multiple times, plus tons of other animals and lots of amazing birds. And even though it was winter, we saw lots of baby animals (rhino, hippos, baboons, zebras, lion cubs, giraffes, water buffalo calves, elephants). It was a GREAT trip! And I can't believe we did all that we did, saw all that we saw, and stayed in the quality lodging that we booked all for a $12,000 budget.