South Africa Adventure Trips

Lower your expectations if you have been on previous tours. The tour director situation is very different and left me disappointed compared to other tours I have been on.

The trip was exactly as advertised. Our guide, Shumba, and driver, Willard, were great. They explained things well, were knowledgeable, and prepared us daily for the next day. Saw lots of animals! Unfortunately no leopards, but did see a black rhino.

It was my first Contiki trip and I decided on Cape Safari Falls as it was one that i've been looking at for awhile. Took the plunge a month before the tour departure date as another tour I was booked on (with a different agency) got cancelled due to the Middle East issue and I got this through a last minute deal. A very efficient tour taking you through the highlights of Southern Africa (well there are too many but this does the trick) from Cape Town to Kruger, Victoria Falls and Chobe! The itinerary well was thought out, logistics were impeccable, trip manager was awesome and of course as with any Contiki, the company you keep in is the cherry on top. Absolutely no regrets taking this Contiki trip and since I came home, I've just been looking at more options. However I digress as the only regret I had was not extending the trip as they do a modular option with Cape Safari Falls as part of the longer Cape to Delta Safari, Southern African Safari. That said, my suggestions to Contiki would be to have more experiences included for the price that's being quoted - not just on this trip but for a lot of other trips they have on their website. I think on this trip, there were many instances where one has no other alternative but to opt for the FTAs as if you don't, you would just be left in the middle of nowhere hanging out by yourself as these were places / experiences that nobody would opt out of e.g. game drives in Kruger. This is quite difficult for the target market Contiki is serving as many of us were budget- low-end travellers so there had to be some cutting corners along the way to afford most or all the add-ons which amounted to approximately USD 800-1500 extra on average depending on what you would like to go for.

Everything from the trip manager to the included and add on experiences were the best! Our trip manager was so knowledgeable about the countries we visited. The stays were clean, comfortable, and welcoming. The food was incredible.

The trip overall was a great experience, one that I’m glad was planned out for me. The sheer amount of paper work, entry points and what not would be a complete hassle to do and figure out. So all the efforts of the guide was really appreciated. There were definitely locations where we all wished we had maybe a smidge more time in but the trip was overall well planned and now it’s a spot on my list I’d want to go back to and spend even more time at. One thing I will say though is that the pamphlet shared before the trip made it seem like you could only bring a large suitcase and a backpack or small hand bag but having a carryon was definitely possible, even on the smaller flights without extra charge and that may reduce down some of the weight off your back or large bag. But overall better to try to minimize as much as possible with the amount of moving around that’s done on this trip. Definitely a trip of a lifetime!

Was a great experience. Really loved the safari portion. I would recommended flying into Krueger instead of Johannesburg. It would’ve saved a lot of time and given more safari time. We saw there were better hotels we could have stayed at. Highly recommend switching to better places to stay. Otherwise everything else worked out really well. And our tour manager was amazing!