Cape Town to Victoria Falls - Hotel/Lodge

Great adventure and my first trip to Africa. Starting in South Africa with good wine and penguins, onto Namibia seeing the second largest canyon in the world, ancient cave paintings and sunrise at the Sossusvlei dunes. It's a great trip if you are no rush and limited by time. Sit back and enjoy the scenery go by. Extend your trip both at the beginning and end. There's lots to do in Cape Town and many adventure activities to try in Victoria Falls. Wildlife in Etosha and Chobe was incredible. Abundance of zebras, giraffes, elephants and special spottings of cheetahs, lions. Kanoeing on the Orange river and the mokoro ride in Botswana were also special things to mention. The long drive days are a small sacrifice to see all there is on the itinerary!

The adventure was amazing. Small group of 11. Everyday was so different from the last. I really liked driving through the countries even though sometimes the roads weren’t the best (was prepared for that). The wildlife we saw was beautiful! The hotels were fine.

A great full on trip seeing loads of animals, meeting many different local people.

Have just completed this epic journey and can honestly say it’s been one of the most memorable trips I’ve ever taken. It’s really more of an expedition than a holiday, but for that very reason delivers so much. We covered around 5600km in 3 weeks so that involves a lot of early starts and long days spent bumping about on dusty, rocky roads. The diversity of experience however makes it totally worthwhile - from the hustle and bustle of Cape Town to the red sands of Namibia and the quiet majesty of the Okavango Delta.

This was a wonderful introduction to Southern Africa. Although there were some long days travelling, the constantly changing scenery in Namibia was a delight, and we gained an appreciation of the vastness and emptiness of the country. The bus was noisy but not uncomfortable, and with eleven members of the party, there was plenty of room for us to move around. We had a brief introduction to the Cape Town area, then travelled north firstly through farmland in South Africa, and then through the wonderful Namibian desert scenery before spending a few days observing the wild animals in Etosha (Namibia) and then in Chobe (Botswana). Victoria Falls made a spectacular end to our trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed this adventure! Our driver guides Jonathan and Ante worked long hours driving us and cooking our food, they were humorous and informative keeping 16 of us in line. Our group was a great bunch which made the driving times (which are VERY LONG) quite fun. There is a lot of "Bushy Bushy" stops along the way. All the accommodations were great. The only complaint I would have is that the ":Stevie" bus was not Air Conditioned, it was a very HOT drive in the Namibian Desert with no AC. Also no one was told there would be an extra cost for the safari drives in Etosha Park which was $100.00 US each. I also feel the amounts of money in the Trip Notes is way off base, you will need a lot more than what is recommended.

This trip was the ultimate collection of culture, animals and sightseeing. From metropolitan Cape Town to the beauty and remoteness of Namibia's deserts and sand dunes, the thrill of game drives and the beauty of Victoria falls, this trip has it all.

This trip lived up to our expectations and we thoroughly enjoyed it! The lodges and hotels were all very different and on the whole of a good standard. Beds were clean and comfortable. The journey is over 5000km in total, therefore includes long days, often over bumpy unmetalled roads. Included activities were varied and enjoyable. Some early starts but these were all for good reasons!

This was a fantastic trip. It involved a lot of driving through the virtually uninhabited desert of Namibia, along mainly unpaved 'corrugated' roads which provided a great deal of 'African massage'. Potential travelers should be prepared for this experience but the desert scenery is ever changing as are the colors. You certainly gain a very real appreciation for the size of the country. For me the first memorable activity was canoeing on the Orange River - so peaceful with amazing scenery! Fish River Canyon was also impressive. My only real complaint is that the Trip Notes mentioned that on Day 7 we would 'watch the early morning light creep over the dunes' at Sossusvlei. This proved to be impossible for two reasons - one is that the park gates do not open until 7:30 am (the sun rises at about 6 am) so it would be necessary to stay inside the park overnight, the second is that we had to drive about one hour passed the park to our lodgings, so adding two hours to our already considerable drive. We ended up climbing Dune 45 in the heat of the mid-day sun. Still an incredible (and very memorably hot) experience but definitely not what we had been lead to believe. Etosha National Park exceeded all expectations - especially at the water hole at Halali where we saw two families of elephants, rhinoceros and a leopard! Also a couple of honey badgers. Of course on safari we saw impala, zebra, giraffe, kudu, oryx, ostrich and many, many birds. Okavango Panhandle overwhelmed us with hippos. Chobe National Park also provided great safaris, hippos and many, many male elephants feeding at a reed bed in the middle of the Chobe River at sunset. Not to mention more birds. We were upgraded to a 5 star hotel in Victoria Falls and the Falls definitely lived up to their reputation.