Travel Butlers African Safari Blog.

During their recent visit to the Waterberg area of South Africa, Tracey & Paul Campbell were delighted to stay at Hanglip Mountain Lodge in the Entabeni Safari Conservancy. 

Entabeni is a 22,000 hectare reserve located less than three hours north of Johannesburg, and there is a wide range of accommodation on offer including luxury ensuite tents, family units, and 5* luxury lodges.  This is a malaria-free area, and this along with excellent game viewing and additional activities including horseback safaris, quadbiking and lake cruises will make this area very popular with families, couples, and honeymooners alike.

We are delighted to now be able to include more information on the increasingly popular Welgevonden Reserve which is located just three hours north of Durban in the Malaria Free Wtaerberg area of South Africa.

Tracey & Paul have recently returned from this region and were very impressed by the beautiful reserve, excellent game viewing, and the standard of the lodges in the region…we are sure you will love it too! 

Personal highlights for Tracey & Paul were the stay at Clifftop Lodge (which is immaculate) and a wonderful sighting of a lioness with her two young cubs….magical!

The Shamwari Game Reserve will be featured in a series on the Animal Planet channel called “Shamwari: A Wild Life” which starts on September 15th in the UK.  

A full schedule for the UK, Europe and Africa is available on the competition page, along with a clip of the programme.

To celebrate this series Shamwari are running a competition with a prize of three nights at the reserve to be taken next year.
See a clip of the programme and enter the competition.

We have just been passed details of a very good deal at Amakhosi Safari Lodge which runs to the end of August.

Guests booking now to stay between now and the end of next month will get to enjoy this lovely reserve for three nights for the price of two. All game drives, bush walks, meals and local beverages are included, and you can read more about this offer here.

Day visitors to the Kruger National Park will again be able to book ahead of time to secure their entrance to South Africa’s most well known National Park.

Visitors who wish to use this facility should be advised that advanced bookings can be made no less than one day prior to date of arrival at the Kruger National Park and that using this facility will come at a minimal and non-refundable cost per person of R20 per adult and R10 per child entering the Park. This fee will be payable (in advance) by all who wish to make a day visitor booking in advance. Guests with day visitor bookings will also be expected to arrive at the booked gate by not later than 1 pm on the date of booking, after which time the booking lapses. Advanced day-visitor bookings will only constitute 60% of the gate’s day visitor quota, with 40% being kept open for visitors to enter on a first-come first-served basis. The gate quotas are limits per gate on the number of day visitors that the area and infrastructure adjacent to each gate is able to support to ensure a good visitor experience.

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.

We are delighted to offer the following Special Offer at Kariega Game Reserve:

3 nights for the price of 2 for stays at Main Lodge, River Lodge, or Ukhosi when you travel between May and September 2008.

The 3 lodges all offer a fully inclusive African safari including accommodation, all meals and 2 activities per day.  Activities include game drives, river cruises, hiking trails, fishing, bird watching, canoeing, mountain biking, and horse riding.

The three lodges each have their own distinctive style, with Main Lodge’s family accommodation in 2,3,and 4 bedroom chalets, and River Lodges’ stunning setting being particularly popular with guests.

You can read more about the three lodges and the special offer online here.

Shamwari  is the longest established of the private reserves near Port Elizabeth, and the combination of luxury safari lodges and the outstanding work that they do with the Born Free Foundation has earned them numerous travel industry and conservation awards over the years.

Travel Butlers are delighted to be able to offer an outstanding special offer at Shamwari’s lodges which is valid for stays between May and September 2008. 

During this time, guests staying for 2 nights at Shamwari are entitled to 3 complimentary nights at either the 5* Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town or other selected 5* properties in Cape Town, The Winelands, and the Garden Route. Click here for more details.

All the lodges on offer a fully inclusive African safari including accommodation, all meals and local drinks, 2 game drives per day in 4×4 vehicles, and an optional guided bush walk each day.

To get an idea of what you might expect to see on a safari at Shamwari, you can see a selection of photos sent to us by some of our guests during their stays at Shamwari.

We are delighted to be able to offer Lion Sands River Lodge for the incredible price of only R2500 per person per night for guests who are able to travel between now and 30th April this year.

This special short notice deal represents a saving of R1780 (42%!) per person per night vs the published rate of R4280, and the rate includes accommodation, meals, and 2 game drives each day.

Lion Sands River Lodge is one of the best know lodges in the world-renowned Sabi Sand Reserve on the western side of the Greater Kruger Park, and boasts a fantastic location right on the Sabie river with some of the best game viewing in the reserve.

The rooms have just been refurbished in the last 12 months, and with the rand now very weak vs other major currencies this offer really does represent amazing value for overseas visitors.