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SafariBookings® - Compare African Safari Tours List

User Reviews of South Africa (1,282 Reviews)

South Africa Safaris South Africa
Sort By: Date Most Helpful Rating 1-10 of 1,282 Reviews

Average User Rating

4.8286 / 5 4.8 /5
4.8421 / 5 4.8123 / 5 4.6251 / 5 4.5213 / 5

Rating Breakdown

5 star 1094 / 10 1,094
4 star 158 / 10 158
3 star 20 / 10 20
2 star 3 / 10 3
1 star 3 / 10 3
0 star 4 / 10 4
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Male avatar icon Tony United Kingdom flag GB       Visited: September 2017 Reviewed: Nov 11, 2017

Email Tony  |  65+ years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Tony and not that of SafariBookings.
0 / 5 0 /5
5 / 5 4 / 5 3 / 5 / 5

I've given almost the same rating as for the Kruger park as we didn't see anything of the rest of South Africa other than the Sabie Sands and the Klasserie reserves.

Male avatar icon Mbabane Mike Swaziland flag SZ       Visited: January 2017 Reviewed: Oct 2, 2017

Email Mbabane Mike  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Mbabane Mike and not that of SafariBookings.
0 / 5 0 /5
4 / 5 4 / 5 5 / 5 4 / 5

I don't have enough time in other parks to rate them. In fact I haven't been to any of these listed below...yet. But we do love going to Mpumalanga province for vacation. The scenery is fantastic.

Male avatar icon Bruwer Burger South Africa flag ZA       Visited: April 2017 Reviewed: Aug 1, 2017

Email Bruwer Burger  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: over 5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Bruwer Burger and not that of SafariBookings.
0 / 5 0 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

SA is the place to see the big 5 in natural and safe environment. See my flickr stream.

Male avatar icon Tom Friedel Australia flag AU       Visited: May 2017 Reviewed: Jul 26, 2017

Email Tom Friedel  |  65+ years of age  |  Experience level: over 5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Tom Friedel and not that of SafariBookings.
0 / 5 0 /5
5 / 5 3 / 5 4 / 5 4 / 5

Can only reference the Kruger area

Male avatar icon David Oman flag OM       Visited: July 2024 Reviewed: Jul 22, 2024

Email David  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of David and not that of SafariBookings.

Difficult to enter

1 / 5 1 /5

I am unable to write a review of South Africa, its wildlife, or its landscapes due to the frustrating experience with the online eVisa system.
Our first application was rejected after nearly three weeks without any update on the website, despite being notified of a decision. It took several phone calls, emails, and text messages to receive the official verdict.
We are still waiting for a decision on our second application, two weeks after submission.
Our travel plans for July had to be rescheduled for August in the hope that the visa will be approved in time.
Having traveled to numerous countries, we find this process to be the most exasperating. While most countries have their peculiarities in documentation requests, requiring copies of our deceased parents' death certificates appeared unreasonable.
Other eVisas we've applied for were processed within hours or days, but this takes weeks.

Male avatar icon Stephen Ireland flag IE       Visited: January 2020 Reviewed: Jan 26, 2020

Email Stephen  |  35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Stephen and not that of SafariBookings.

Aquila is terrible. May as well go to a zoo!!

1 / 5 1 /5
1 / 5 1 / 5 1 / 5 1 / 5

Terrible. Not really a safari. Beside main road, loads of fences and gates. Few animals. Day at zoo would.be better

Avatar icon Jennifer Rogers United States flag US       Visited: September 2018 Reviewed: Sep 18, 2018

Email Jennifer Rogers

The review below is the personal opinion of Jennifer Rogers and not that of SafariBookings.

Poor Communication and Follow up

1 / 5 1 /5
We saved money for our South African vacation for over a year and a half and the part we were most looking forward to was our 2-day Safari in Pilanesberg. My husband even purchased a new camera for the game drives.

Shortly after we arrived at the Bakubung Lodge in Pilanesberg we were told by another guest that the evening game drive had been cancelled due to wildfires. The entire park had been closed for the first time in history. We were told that we would be informed of the status of our morning drive later that night. Had it not been for this individual we would not have been told of the cancellation- we did not hear anything from Go Safari.

We inquired on the status of the morning game drive several times that evening and nobody at the resort seemed to know anything. We went to bed disappointed but hopeful for a morning drive.

We awoke the next morning at 5AM to get ready just in case the drive was going to occur. We went to the lobby and,
Read more again, nobody had any information. Worse still....no word from Go Safari. After standing in the lobby for an hour exchanging awkward glances with the front desk staff we finally went back to the room assuming the drive was cancelled (we were literally the only guests standing in the lobby). Still...no word from Go Safari.

Our ride back to Joburg was not scheduled to pick us up until noon so we had 6 hours to sit there and do nothing. So, we sat on a bench outside and waiting for 6 hours to be picked up. As we sat there, we had hoped for word from Go Safari. Anything would have been nice. "We are sorry about the cancellations", "Would you like to try again another day?", "Can we provide a voucher for a future date?" But Go Safari did not reach out.

We understand that the wildfires were not anyone's fault and those things happen. We can tolerate disappointment. What we are upset about is the total lack of communication from Go Safari and the horrible customer service we have received.

We spent nearly $900USD on one night at a lodge with crappy food and poor service from the staff.

We had several more days to spend in Joburg and would have gladly paid for another driver to take us back after he park opened so we could even get one game drive in.

This was supposed to be a trip of a lifetime. Go Safari really messed this one up.
Male avatar icon Alireza Milanian United Kingdom flag GB       Visited: November 2024 Reviewed: Dec 17, 2024

Email Alireza Milanian  |  65+ years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Alireza Milanian and not that of SafariBookings.

I was disappointed with this safari.

2 / 5 2 /5
2 / 5 2 / 5 2 / 5 2 / 5

As I mentioned, this safari was very disappointing, didn't see many animals even with the long drives. We had two whole days drive in Kruger park and hardly saw any animals, I understand big part of safari is having luck and being in the right place at the right time. Maybe we were not lucky enough.

Female avatar icon María Paz Venegas Chile flag CL       Visited: November 2023 Reviewed: Nov 26, 2023

Email María Paz Venegas  |  35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of María Paz Venegas and not that of SafariBookings.

Dissapointing

2 / 5 2 /5
2 / 5 2 / 5 3 / 5 4 / 5
The experience in Kruger Park was ok but not how we expected, we didnt saw too many animals. We think that our guide wasnt good, he drive for the same part of the park most of the time, we spend our without seeing animals.

We didnt saw any cheetas, leopards and Rhinos. The thing is that most of the time you can see them there, so we think that our guide wasnt good. We’ve been in Tanzania but there is another thing, we really enjoy there, the parks, the tour guide and we saw a lot of animals.

We noticed that many people that pay a lot in the private reserve they has more chances to see animals and different species, I dont know if that a point to consider because they own a lot of animals , and the know exactlu where they are, but is very expensive too. Or maybe the option to drive by yourself could bebetter because you can go everywhere..

Also the communication during the tour with the agency wasnt good (Shinzelle Safaris).

We
Read more regret to add Kruger Park in our trip to Africa, that money could worth it, in another place, because we visited Tanzania and Uganda and everything there was amazing.
Avatar icon Martin Germany flag DE       Visited: November 2018 Reviewed: Jan 2, 2019

Email Martin

The review below is the personal opinion of Martin and not that of SafariBookings.

Awesome Tour from VIVA Safari, Bad customer Service from Booking agency

2 / 5 2 /5
5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5 5 / 5

The tour ist just great. Awesome staff at the Camps, good Guides, lots of animals. 5*! You can book it from a Lot of booking agencies.

What was really bad is the fact that we were not informed about our late Pickup. The driver was there around 11 instead of 8.30/9. We could not reach anyone at the booking Agency, the south african representative told us that he did not work there anymore.