Liselle prepared a trip for her guests Sam & Margaret Brown, who stayed over at the elegant The Peermont Mondior in Johannesburg, The Kingdom Hotel in Zimbabwe, Camp Moremi, Camp Okavango and Savute Safari Lodge in Botswana. Sam shared the following guest feedback:
“Hi Liselle,
It was good to have a chat when we were in Cape Town & I discovered this email not long after I had spoken to you.
Once again thank you for organising our trip as it all went seamlessly & we were very pleased with all the arrangements you made for us!!!
I’ll respond to your questions with a rather long winded account of our experiences.
Even though the adjoining food court was something a little like Las Vegas we found that the Peermont Mondior was perfect for our needs & we were provided with a huge suite which was unexpected & also possibly because we arrived quite early in the day. The staff couldn’t do enough for us. The only downside (& I gather this is soon to change) Wifi was only available in the lobby (not in the rooms) & was quite expensive. The courtesy airport transfers are very regular & very efficient. We did a half day tour of Soweto & Joburg which was interesting & I learnt a lot more about some of the issues of 1976.
We were impressed with the flights we did on SAA as they seem to have more legroom than Qantas flights in Australia.
We were very pleased that we stayed in Vic Falls as (contrary to some reports) we found people in the street very pleasant & even though there were lots of people trying to sell us souvenirs, they didn’t persist if we told them we weren’t interested. The Kingdom Hotel was very satisfactory & we spent a lot of time by the pool as the temperature was 37 degrees when we were there. Wifi, though a little slow was complimentary. We only had breakfast in the hotel but it was very generous. The location is perfect as it is so easy to get to the falls & unlike others we met who stayed at the Vic Falls Hotel, there was no problem processing our credit card payment at the end of our stay.
We had dinner one night at the Boma Restaurant which is part of the Vic Falls Safari Lodge which we enjoyed though it was a bit kitsch. It is heavily themed & lots of game on the menu but the best feature for us was the dancing & drumming which we thought was worth the cost of the meal US$40 alone. We caught a cab from the Kingdom (US$30 return including tip) but we heard later that the Safari Lodge does have a complimentary shuttle service, so it might be worth keeping that in mind for the future.
We also did a sunset cruise on the Zambezi organised by the tour desk in the Kingdom & we were very pleased we did as we were on a small boat with only 4 others, so it was much better than some of the big boats which had 40-50 people.
We chose to walk over the railway bridge to see the Zambia side of the falls & we were glad we got the double entry Zimbabwean visa at the airport ($45 as opposed to $30) & a 1 day Zambian visa for $20. The view of the falls was far inferior at this time of the year & it was quite hot, but the highlight for me was talking to a couple of young blokes trying to sell us copper bracelets & who knew as much about our Australian election held a few weeks previously as we did. We subsequently heard that literacy in Zimbabwe is 85% & so we felt desperately sorry for these well educated people who have been reduced to this by poor government. Our friend in Stellenbosch works in the fruit & veg export business & is very positive about the future of Zimbabwe once they get a better government & said he had only encountered petty crime (stealing) rather than violence.
The airport at Vic Falls is very primitive & were lucky we arrived (the 1st of 3 aircraft) when we did as our wait in the visa queue was relatively short & we met a couple at the Kingdom who were forced to stand in the sun for 2 hours & he spent the next day in bed trying to recover after a long flight from Australia.
We couldn’t fault our experiences with Desert & Delta as everything went as planned. It is a wonderful concept & it was a great suggestion of yours to stay at 3 different camps as they all offer different experiences & animals. We are both interested in plants, animals & birds so there was always something new to see. If anything in Africa, the birds were more of a surprise than the animals as we have seen so many photos of the animals & also in zoos etc, but the birds were magnificent.
The accommodation in all the camps was luxurious, the food good, all the staff very friendly & our personal guides very competent. We particularly liked the way that every evening the manager introduced the chef for the evening who then explained the meal & then introduced the waiters etc. We also liked the fact that as they are all small, both the guests and the staff get to know each other on a first name basis. Added to that, at each camp you have the same guide & guests in the vehicle so we got to know some very nice & interesting people from Switzerland, Ireland, USA etc.
We were lucky that the Botswana National Day (30th September) & our 41st wedding anniversary coincided so it was a double celebration as they had lots of singing & dancing.
We both love flying in light aircraft so that was an added bonus as we could see the countryside from above & all at low altitude too. Interestingly, all our pilots were female, 2 from SA & one from NZ & none over 22 but very competent!
We were very pleased we had done the initial safari in Kenya & Tanzania as we saw the sweeping plains & the large herds of wildebeest & zebra as well as the big 5 & lots of other animals including cheetah. We did it in a group of 10 Australians in a safari truck & though only 2 couples knew each other we got on very well. We then had 4 days on Zanzibar to recover which was also great.
The Okevango was a very different experience & at a much more relaxed pace than our safari with a 3 hour siesta & the opportunity to travel on the waterways so both areas complimented each other & contrary to a slight worry, we didn’t ever say ‘not another bloody elephant’ even though Savute Lodge is beside a waterway where herds of 40 elephants would come to drink!
We finished our trip with 4 days in Cape Town at the V&A (on your recommendation) & that also was an excellent choice because of the standard of accommodation & its location. We did the usual great trips to Table Mountain & Robben Island & then hired a car for a day & drove down to the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Town is certainly a different world to the Africa we had experienced & then when we stayed with our friends in Stellenbosch it went up another rung!
Ben grew up near Stellenbosch & Sam is the daughter of friends (& a friend of our son) & they have 3 children under 7, so it was nice to get back to some normalcy, home cooked meals & all in a beautiful setting.
I’ve probably gone on long enough!
However, we would be very happy to recommend you if you like, particularly if you have inquiries from Australia, as I admit at one stage when I was paying for the trip over the ‘net having done everything by email, I thought (only for a fleeting second!!) what if this is all a scam!
Continue to enjoy your pregnancy & enjoy your trip to Chile. ( we have 3 sons & 6 grandchildren so have an idea of what’s ahead for you & your husband)
Regards from us both
Sam”
