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Advice and Suggestions for Southern Africa - April or June / July?

Advice and Suggestions for Southern Africa - April or June / July?

Old Aug 19th, 2014, 12:23 PM
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Advice and Suggestions for Southern Africa - April or June / July?

Just returned from what was an incredible adventure in South America (I'll be posting a trip report in the SA forum in the coming days), and came home with some inspirations for a trip to southern Africa for my next journey. Doing some early research to think about our options.

Cape Town and Victoria Falls are most important to us, along with a wildlife safari or two somewhere. Initial ideas that come to mind are Kruger, the Okavango Delta, South Luangwa, or someplace in Malawi. We may want to pick one place for a wildlife safari or combine two to get a wider experience. Thinking about April or late June / July; even early August works. Wildlife budget is around US$350pppn; can go to $450pppn if it would make a huge difference.

What are some good lodges / destinations that you would recommend for the time of year? And is one month preferable than another for the months I have in mind? I understand that the weather at the Cape is very different than the weather at Victoria Falls, for example, but am unsure if there's a good balance.

Thanks.
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Old Aug 20th, 2014, 12:54 PM
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Botswana & the Okavango are incredible but it is more expensive to get there & lodges tend to be a bit more expensive than South Africa. The private reserves in Sabi Sands have the BEST wildlife concentration, especially of leopard!Notten's is a cost effective family owned camp there & we had incredible sightings. If you can rev up your budget to $450 per night you will find much more. The tour operator we used is based in Capetown so they really helped us each time. April was nice for fall colors but if you go later in July the bush is less dense & you can see animals more.
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Old Aug 20th, 2014, 12:56 PM
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August even better as there is no foliage on the trees & its winter there. Mild climate. Cool mornings but good during the day. We will be back there in August 2015.
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Old Aug 20th, 2014, 12:57 PM
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IF you do go to Botswana & can splurge 1 place is to do the elephant encounter at Stanleys.
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Old Aug 20th, 2014, 04:55 PM
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Thank you for the suggestions, leopardgirl. Will check out Notten's.
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Old Aug 29th, 2014, 08:21 PM
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I think there are some better options than Nottens that will meet your budget. I personally find Elephant Plains a much better value for your money as far as accomodations and quality of the guiding. There a few others that you should consider as well. An itinerary that includes Victoria Falls and Cape Town would be a great trip. I have some very good ideas for lodging there as well. My email is on my profile, I can provide more details for you if you like.
All the best!
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