animallovernyc

Been trying to plan a may trip to south africa, including some days on safari and cape town and possibly filling in with winelands, garden route etc.

These are some of the companies I wanted to get opinions on:
go2africa
eyesonafrica
ccafrica
ecoafrica
southern destinations

Also, any other places you would reccomend would be appreciate, as well as general ideas as well as booking ourselves. We usually buy hotels by the room as opposed to per person, and also we thought of trying to book some lodges, etc. by ourselves. So any advice would be great.
Thanks so much!

atravelynn

Of those listed, I used Eyes on Africa. They booked a CCAfrica property for me. It would have been the same price going direct with CC Africa. Everything was excellent.

sandi

Suggest you keep all the questions regarding this trip to SA under the same thread. Easier for you to locate, for us too, and your progress can be followed. Right now you have threads of tour operators, routing and medical questions.

May is here already, have you gotten your flight tickets? You'd better get moving on your land arrangements.

Dana_M

I don't have any comments on the companies you mentioned, with the exception of CCAfrica. I haven't use them to book a trip, but I have stayed at many CCA properties,a nd all were excellent.

Bert Duplessis, the owner of Fish Eagle Safaris in Houston, TX is fabulous. He is from South Africa.

CharlotteAnne

We just got back from the trip with Vantage. I would not want to miss out on anything that I did or saw. It was called The Best of Africa...Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.
You can find it on their web site.

nanciej

We used ccafrica for our last trip and are using them again. Not only were the properties wonderful, their guides were standouts. absolutely super.

Nancie

napamatt

Wholeheartedly recommend Eyesonafrica

eyedigress

I have been to Africa 2x (southern and eastern) and used CC Africa both (since they were top notch the first time and couldn't imagine it any better for planning our 2nd trip). The lodges, the service and the experience were all first rate and life changing. Enjoy!

atravelynn

Life changing--that's the Wilderness moto. CC Africa's is "reawaken your soul."

They're both right and I'm a skeptic about marketing slogans and ploys.

Ve

After many, many months of researching different companies to choose from I chose Go2Africa. They say a good guide/driver can make or break your safari adventures, which is most probably true. But as far as I'm concerned, a good trip coordinator is very important in putting together an itinerary and lodgings you'll be happy with. I can't say enough for a young lady that works for Go2Afica that took care of me. Her name is Nicky Human and planned a trip that I was very happy with from being with a small group, going on many safaris and staying in some great accomodations. She e-mails me back very promptly, even though now I've paid up on the trip, stays in contact and has an enormous amount of patience, considering my not so great computer skills at times. I now have under 4 months before leaving on Sep.1st,08 but I know if I need to contact her for anything she'll be there for me. One thing on my itinerary is visiting a village in Tanzania with a school. I'm bringing school supplies with me and needed to know how many children I'm dealing with and their ages. She not only found out all the information I needed, but also arranged for someone to meet me in Arusha who will take the supplies I'm bringing and will distribute them in this village, Nicky does her homework. No matter what company you choose, I wish you a very happy and exciting journey.

purrcy

We used go2africa and have worked with Catherine. Our trip is in late Dec., but she has been a great help.
She booked the safari portion and we are probably going to book rental car through them.
I booked all flights, hotels and tours myself.
The properties they handle are very nice, but we are on a tight budget so I shopped around and found some great prices on flights and accommodations.
I had many, many questions and made several changes and she was very patient and helpful.
The most important thing is to tell them your budget! I was afraid, at first, if I told her, she would just make our trip come out to be "that" amount. After I got her price, I went to 2 others, Eyes on Africa and a private tour operator and neither could make the same arrangements for the price she gave us.
Good luck and enjoy Africa! We can't wait!!

dssxxxx

Go2Africa was approximately $1500.00 per person higher than other quotations we received (comparing apples to apples).

I can only comment on their pricing compared to others.

Just my observation.

kcmo

We booked the safari portion of our trip with Go2Africa. Tracy Payne was extremely helpful. If anything, she was so helpful trying to get us good deals that I had to talk her into a little more expensive choice. We travel next week, but I have been very happy with the company.

atravelynn

kcmo,

Hope you are a real upcoming visitor to Africa and that your trip is fantastic.

This being your sole post, and giving accolades to a particular company, I can't help but wonder if that is truly the case.

Momliz

we used (are using? we leave in December) Eyes on Africa, and have a wonderful tip planned. however, Wilderness safaris, I think, is our ground handler - we are going on on of their safaris. They are controversial on this board, and if I had known our trip was a Wilderness one (could have easily found out with more research, oh, well), I may not have booked it.

Here is another company:
http://www.5riverssafari.com/

I hope you are talking about May, '09, by the way.

atravelynn

kcmo,

By the looks of your 2nd post it does indeed appear you are a real visitor, one who books things last minute.

Have a good one.

mcfiddish

We have a trip coming up in two weeks that I booked through go2africa. I also got quotes from Rhino Africa and CC Africa. I found all three to be very prompt and similar on price (this was for a Kruger safari), but we went with go2africa in the end. Our agent remains very responsive to any questions I send. So I've been impressed with them so far; I'll write a trip report when we get back!

kerryclaw

We returned from South Africa a week ago and had great experience using Southern Destinations. After a difficult experience with another travel agent, friends put us in touch with Jason at Southern Destinations, and we could not have been happier with the suggestions and arrangements he made for us. For health reasons we needed to stay away from the malaria areas, and his recommendation of Shamwari was wonderful. Jason was pro-active, and extremely responsive to all of our requests. All of the accomodations, cars and flights were very well organized and handled.