Travel Butlers African Safari Blog.

Many thanks to everyone who enetered this competition.  The animal caught on film giving birth in the first episode of  ‘Shamwari: A Wild Life’ on the Animal Planet chanel was a giraffe.

Our congratulations go to Sophie Eyre who was randomly drawn from hundreds of correct answers and wins a 3 night stay at Shamwari courtesy of  The Mantis Collection, Animal Planet and Rockwallaby Productions.

Anyone else thinking of going to Shamwari next year might be interested in the special offer we are running for travel between May and September where guests booking 3 nights at Shamwari can enjoy 2 or 3 complimentary nights at selected hotels across South Africa (a saving of more than R8000 / US$ 1100 / £550).

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.

THE Riverdene Lodge in the Shamwari Game Reserve has been newly renovated to accommodate adults and children, and now has a children’s programme for families. 

The newly renovated accommodation at Riverdene Lodge features 2 supervised playrooms for children’s activities and supervised lawns with a jungle gym; a sports and social programme which incorporates soccer, cricket, treasure hunts and swimming. A special children’s menu is available, and child minders are available at all times.

Upon arrival, each child will automatically receive a Born Free Foundation certificate and a fluffy toy. Daily game drives for children and their parents will be organised with trips to the Born Free Centres and the Shamwari Film Studio. 

Children will be introduced to the Shamwari Game Reserve and Born Free Foundation’s challenge to promote the conservation of species and the protection of habitats whilst maintaining a compassionate approach to the welfare of animals.     

At the Shamwari Film Studio, children will be shown where the popular international Unearthed 2 series was filmed, produced and edited. Children will also be exposed to the filming of the new wildlife series entitled Shamwari: A Wild Life, which will be launched in September 2008.

Lastly, children staying at the Riverdene Lodge will be invited to take part in the special education programme at the Shamwari Animal Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre.

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.

Our congratulations go to everyone at the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa on winning the TripAdvisor® Travelers’ Choice Award for BEST LUXURY - AFRICA  TRAVELERS CHOICE DESTINATION.

Selected by the largest travel community in the world, The TripAdvisor® Travelers’ Choice Awards showcase the hotels who have earned their distinction from real travelers rather than journalists or travel industry insiders.

Shamwari has 6 luxury lodges set in the verdant bush of the malaria free Eastern Cape, and has previously been voted “World’s Leading Safari and Game Reserve” & “World’s Leading Conservation Company” by the travel industry.

For most people the idea of spending the night under canvas surrounded by the sounds of the African bush brings to mind the romance of a bygone age of adventure.

Fortunately there are dozens of tented safari camps all across South Africa where it is possible to recapture this magic.

From Bayethe Lodge (Shamwari), Lalibela Tree Tops Lodge, and Gorah Elephant Camp in the Malaria Free Eastern Cape, up to Savanna and Hamilton’s in the Greater Kruger Park there is some outstanding 5* tented accommodation available with many ‘tents’ boasting air conditioning, luxury bathrooms, and even private plunge pools!

For guests travelling on a more modest budget, lodges such as Gomo Gomo and Kwa-Mbili offer less extravagant accommodation, however the large tents all still have proper double or twin beds and ensuite bathrooms…it’s still along way from most peoples idea of roughing it!

Our top 10 tented camps in South Africa are:

1 ) Bayethe Lodge
2 ) Tree Tops Lodge
3 ) Mkuze Falls Tented Lodge
4 ) Gorah Elephant Camp
5 ) Gomo Gomo Game Lodge
6 ) Savanna Private Game Reserve
7 ) Hamilton’s Tented Camp
8 ) Chapungu Luxury Tented Camp
9 ) Kwa-Mbili Game Lodge
10 ) Entabeni Wildside Tented Camp

This listing is ranked on the number of nights guests have spent at each lodge based on recent bookings made by Travel Butlers.

With the school half-term holidays only a few weeks away, and Easter following on shortly afterwards, we thought this would be a good time to look at the most popular safari lodges for families visiting South Africa’s malaria-free regions.

A quick glance at the listing below show that the game reserves in the Eastern Cape (Kariega, Kwandwe, Lalibela, Shamwari, and Amakhala) are particularly popular with families, and safari lodges in this area take the first 7 spots. This highlights the great appeal of South Africa’s most popular family holiday route  which is a few days in Cape Town, followed by some time exploring the Garden Route Coastline and a safari in one of these malaria free reserves.

The remainder of the top 10 is made up with lodges in the Madikwe reserve up in the far north of the country on the border with South Africa, and somewhat surprisingly no lodges from The Waterberg area feature at all despite it’s convenient location just a couple of hours outside Johannesburg.

The Kruger area and KwaZulu-Natal are both considered low-risk malaria areas and are therefore excluded from this listing.

The full listing is:

1 ) Kariega Lodge
2 ) Kwandwe Ecca Lodge
3 ) Mark’s Camp
4 ) Long Lee Manor
5 ) Woodbury Lodge
6 ) Amakhala Safari Lodge
7 ) Leeuwenbosch
8 ) Little Madikwe
9 ) Jaci’s Tree Lodge
10 ) Madikwe River Lodge

This listing is ranked on the number of nights children under 12 have spent at each lodge based on recent bookings made by Travel Butlers.

For the 10th consecutive year, Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape has been awarded the World’s Leading Safari and Game Reserve and the World’s Leading Conservation Company at the prestigious World Travel Awards gala ceremony.

On receiving the 2 awards the CEO, Adrian Gardiner said: “We are very proud to have been recognized as the best by our industry partners worldwide for 10 straight years. When we began, conservation was a small part of tourism. Today, we are very encouraged that more tourists are aware that we must sustain and preserve our environment for the generations to come. It is our firm commitment that tourism should benefit all people, not just the few.”

Tracey & Paul Campbell of Travel Butlers were delighted to attend a recent event held at the South African Embassy in London hosted by the Mantis Collection, South African Airways and The South Africa FIFA World Cup Organising Committee.

The 120+ guests from the travel industry were treated to many fascinating speakers including Virginia McKenna (founder of the Born Free Foundation), Will Carling (the former England Rugby captain speaking about his recent family safari in South Africa), and Adrian Gardiner (founder of the Shamwari Reserve and Chairman of the Mantis Collection).

The evening was a huge success, and given the prestigious location and illustrious speakers, Tracey & Paul were particularly honoured to receive The Adrian Gardiner Award For Innovation on behalf of Travel Butlers