At the recent Good Safari Guide Awards ceremony, which took place in Durban on May 8th 2008, the prestigious Singita Boulders Lodge walked away with the Best Safari Property in Africa award, and Notten’s Bush Camp won the Runner Up Best Safari Property in Africa award.

 The Good Safari Guide is an independent directory of the top safari lodges, hotels and camps in Africa.  It is the travel professional’s definitive selection of the most professionally run, independently selected and vetted safari properties.

Amied at travel professionals globally, the guide cuts through the clutter of the many thousands of safari products, focusing on those that are established and managed by the most professional ’safari’ hoteliers.

The independent Awards honour the best in the safari industry.  Nominations in the 13 categories are accepted only from qualified travel professionals, with a panel of distinguished industry judges making the final tough decisions.

Thanda Private Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal has won two prestigious awards at this year’s World Travel Awards: South Africa’s leading safari lodge, and Africa’s leading luxury lodge which it won for the 2nd consecutive year.

The news comes just 6 months after Thanda was voted ‘luxury individual hotel, lodge or resort offering best overall product and service’ in the Selling Long Haul awards for 2007 by readers of the trade publication. Thanda, which means ‘love’ in Zulu, won the Leading Safari in South Africa award in 2006 and Africa’s Leading Luxury Lodge in 2007.  

The only private game reserve in the world to hold exclusive membership with the prestigious Leading Hotels of the World, Thanda’s world-class facilities include the opulent main lodge, authentic safari-style tented camp and award-winning wellness centre.

THE Mount Nelson Hotel has officially opened its new spa, the Librisa Spa. The development has been housed in 6 Victorian buildings on the edge of the hotel’s property.

The spa has 8 treatment rooms, 4 of which have been equipped for couples. The spa also has a manicure and pedicure room, garden conservatory relaxation area, sauna and steam bath, and hot and cold plunge pools.

Treatments on offer include massages, wraps, facials, waxing, manicures and pedicures.

There will also be treatments aimed at men, teenagers and children.

The luxurious 5* Cape Grace, situated in the heart of Cape Town’s bustling Waterfront area, has won several awards recently.

Firstly, the January 2008 issue of the US Travel + Leisure magazine announced the world’s top 500 hotels as rated by their readers and global team of reporters.  The hotel achieved recognition as the 20th best hotel in the World; as well as the 5th best hotel in Africa/Middle East and the 2nd best city hotel in Africa/Middle East.

Secondly, the Cape Grace won the ‘Best Independent Hotel’ award announced in the January 2008 UK Luxury Travel magazine’s Reader Awards. And lastly, the hotel was selected as one of the top 10 hotels in the ‘Best Luxury in Africa’ category in the 2008 TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice awards.  Selected by the largest travel community in the world, TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice awards showcase the hotels who have earned their distinction from those who know them best - the real travellers.

Travel Butlers are delighted to announce  a photo competition that we are running in association with SA Wines Online where you could win one of 3 cases of South African wine. 

Each year we are sent hundreds of photos by people whose holidays we have helped to organise, and rather than leave them to collect metaphorical dust on a forgotten computer somewhere we have decided that we should share them with visitors to our website and offer prizes for the 3 very best pictures.

The competition is open to anyone who booked their trip through Travel Butlers, and the closing date for entries is 31st May 2008.

Entries will be published on our web site, and we will be judging the competition and notifying the winners in June - the 3 best pictures will each win a mixed case of 6 premium South African Wines with a value of £60.

About SA Wines Online – get a £10 discount on your first order.
Shortlisted as Decanter Online Wine Merchant for 2007, SA Wines Online has the largest range of fine South African wines in the UK. You will find your favourites all in one place and have them delivered directly to your door anywhere in the UK.

Get a £10 discount on your first wine order at: http://www.sawinesonline.co.uk/.

We have added a demonstration movie to our Honeymoon Gift Registry service that will show friends and family of couples that register their honeymoon with us how they can buy a gift voucher online via our secure web server. The movie requires flash player 7.0 or above.

We will add further movies showing how to purchase via cheque or bank transfer in the next couple of weeks, meanwhile you can read more about how the service works here.

We are delighted to announce that our new Honeymoon Gift Registry Service is now available online.

The service is designed for couples who are looking for an alternative to the traditional wedding gift list of toasters and towels, and combines our experience in planning and booking African honeymoons with an easy to use way for family and friends to buy personalised gift vouchers to help send the happy couple on the trip of a lifetime.

There is no charge for setting up a Honeymoon Gift Registry with us, and no bank or credit card charges for vouchers that are redeemed against bookings made through Travel Butlers.

You can read more about the service here.