Travel Review: Luxury Africa Safari, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Cape Town, Franschhoek, Table Mountain, Victoria Falls

So before you start to read this you should make a coffee as I have no way of condensing this to only a few words. 

I will start though by telling you that our trip was so incredibly amazing that Richard and I had to keep pinching ourselves and asking if this was real and were we really here doing this.  We cannot thank you enough for all the work and effort you put into this trip.  It was so well planned and organized and everyone was where they were supposed to be every single time.  We never had to wait and wonder, everyone was punctual and very friendly. The accommodations were spectacular.  We truly felt like we were being spoiled every step of the trip.

So, we will start at the beginning.  We loved Cape Town.  Our driver was fantastic.  We really connected with him and since he was with us a lot it was very good.  We were fortunate enough to be able to go up Table Mountain, not as scheduled but we fit it in on another day.  I believe I also told you that the lady on the plane sitting next to me invited us to her place for dinner.  We took her up on that and went to her home, met her husband and children and then they treated us to a dinner at Groot Constantia which was quite lovely.  We met on the plane strangers and left as new friends. The South African hospitality is second to none and everyone is so friendly.  Table Bay Hotel...very lovely and excellent location.  Enjoyed all the tours, felt like we got in all the highlights.

From there we went to Franschhoek and quite enjoyed our time there as well.  The tram is fantastic, the wines are awesome (we certainly drank our share) and the scenery was beautiful.  Loved the accommodation...very quaint.

From here we went to Ulusaba.....probably what we would call the highlight of our trip.  We hate to rank anything because it was all great but there was something special about our 4 days there.  Our safari family as I like to call them consisted of a family with two young boys and Richard and I with our ranger and tracker....two amazing guys.  We all connected so well and had 4 spectacular days together.  Our ranger said we were in the less than 5 % of the guests that get to see the Magnificent 7 which are the Big 5 plus the cheetah and the wild dogs. I had tears in my eyes when we had to say goodbye with hugs and kisses all the way around.  And not sure if any of you have stayed there but the rooms are so cool and the food was excellent every meal. Highly recommend.  We did take the opportunity while here in between game drives to go into a local town and spend some time at a primary school with the children.  The children sang songs and recited some poems and just couldn't get enough hugs from us.  They were quite enamoured with my blonde hair and our sunglasses which was very fun.  A good time was had by all.

Our Panorama drive was quite lovely and I am glad you were able to fit that in.  Oliver's was  also a very quaint hotel and the rooms were quite beautiful.  Could definitely spend more time there.  Beautiful location and we had a fabulous meal there as well.

From there it was off too Victoria Falls.  What a beautiful hotel and talk about location.  We enjoyed both the tour of the falls and the sunset cruise.  The only negative was that the food and drink was extremely over priced in comparison to everywhere else we had been.  They did put out a pretty amazing breakfast and having zebras prancing on the lawn in front of your table as you dine was quite entertaining.

On to the last part of our journey....Camp Okavango.  Pretty amazing tents.  Lying in your bed at night and listening to the symphony of insects, baboons and hippos was quite something.  This was quite a different safari as we were either boating on the river or doing a walking safari on one of the islands.  The guides again were excellent and again we felt like we had a good connection and lots of fun and laughter.  It took Richard a few hours to adjust to the fact that it was 37C and this is a tent with no AC, but the nights do cool down and it was no problem sleeping.  The camp was quite beautiful and well taken care of.  The staff there were also very friendly.

And so now we are back home again, back to work and eager to share our pictures and stories with our family and friends.

I have not attached any photos as we have to find some time to sort through all 1500 of them yet. 

Well, I guess in summary if some one asked me to rate the trip out of ten I would give it a 15 and you get 5 gold stars for the amazing job you did putting this perfectly wonderful vacation together for us.  

Many many thanks to our travel planner...you are awesome.

Warm Regards,

Jacqueline and Richard.