In my experience/IME and my opinion/IMO the Sabi Sands is the best general big five animal viewing area in Southern Africa. Only in the Sabi Sands would I be comfortable telling a client they will see the big five with 99% certainty. The Sabi Sands borders the Kruger National Park and there is no fence separating it from the park. In addition, there are no fences between the individual properties of the Sabi Sands, therefore, the animals can move freely throughout the private reserves and the park. You can off-road in the Sabi Sands making 100% of the land visible. You cannot off-road in the Kruger which makes 2% of the land visible. For animal viewing purposes, they are therefore the same size!

Game viewing in the Sabi Sands is excellent year-round. For this reason, you may want to consider a three day safari here just to “check off” the big five. I like to have my clients go to a property in the Sabi Sands early on your trip if it is their first time safari, because the animal viewing is so prolific. With the big five “checked off”, it is easier to enjoy a safari in the more remote destinations in Botswana, Zimbabwe, or Zambia.

The difference in lodges in the Sabi Sands is somewhat a result of the focus you would put on your dining experience. For example, although the food is very good at MalaMala, it is typically red meat, fowl, fish, and vegetarian offerings served from a buffet. Unless you're a real foodie and/or wine connoisseur I would not let food be the driving factor. The price also is determined by if/if not the lodge has a river and the size of the traversing (game driving) area. Additional factors that go into price may be the number of people per vehicle and the lodges reputation. None of the $$ lodges have a river and all of the $$ lodges are relatively small parcels of land. MOST $$ lodges will have 8-9 people per vehicle. Few if any $$$ lodge will have more than six per vehicle. Here are some ideas.

$$ - Sabi Sands ($300+ per person per night)
• Elephant Plains
• Arathusa
• Cheetah Plains
• Nottens
• Honeyguide

$$$ - Sabi Sands ($600+ per person per night)
• Tinga Narina or Legends (technically in the Kruger NP)
• Lion Sands River Lodge - stay4pay3
• MalaMala Main Camp - always a good value.
• Londolozi Founders Camp

$$$$ - Sabi Sands ($900+ per person per night)
• Lion Sands Ivory Lodge
• MalaMala Rattrays
• Camp Jabulani (elephant back safari NOT in the Sabi Sands)

If you wanted to start in Polokwane you are actually only two hours from one of the most magical places called Mashatu. You are also three hours from Pafuri in the northern Kruger but this place will be pretty quiet in February in IME. IME/IMO The best cheetah and rhino population in South Africa is at Phinda (stay4pay3) and you might consider this place for a second safari after or before the Sabi Sands. My favorite lodge is Vlei. Phinda is near Zulu Land where you mentioned your trip might take you.


If you want to do anything other than safaris while in Southern Africa the two most common side excursions are Cape Town and Victoria Falls. You mentioned both these places as stops on your trip. Cape Town is excellent in mid August to mid April. In Cape Town is the Cape Grace; my favorite hotel in the world. I would consider this "luxury" so it probably won’t be to your taste. Fortunately, there are also many excellent boutique properties at lower price points throughout the city in relatively safe areas. I stayed at the More Quarters Apartments last month.

Another off the beaten path place is a very nice wildlife reserve approximately 4 hours North of Cape Town in the Cedarburg Mountains called Bushman's Kloof. Not many Americans go here. This would be a good place to learn a little bit about the bushman culture and also enjoy five-star cuisine and South African wines. Bushman’s Kloof is in a new category of accommodation that some call “wellness and spiritual retreat”. It may not work for you given your overall requirement of “not luxury people” but there are other, less expensive places in the region.

There are also many economical accommodations in the Wine Country which I would suggest for a two night stay given the overall length of your trip.

Victoria Falls makes a good two-day side trip year-round. The water reaches peak flow rate in May and June and minimum flow rate in September and October. I've been there every time a year. I've also been to both sides of the Falls on many occasions. The Falls can be viewed from the Zimbabwe side in the town of Victoria Falls and on the Zambia side in the town of Livingston. Relative to other countries in Africa that people visit for safaris there is no additional safety issues in Zimbabwe (I took my wife and teenage daughters to Zimbabwe in July for their third Safari - my 29th). Victoria Falls becomes much more of an obvious choice for a side trip if you are taking a second safari or your only safari in Zambia, Zimbabwe, or Botswana. It makes a natural beginning or ending point for any of the major reserves in these three countries. As you will read below, Zambia and Zimbabwe probably won’t be viable safari options during your stay. I do not recommend wasting the money to go to Vic Falls if you are not going on a safari in Botswana before/after.

Zambia is an extremely seasonal safari destination with a short peak season from mid-June through late November. Prices are good here but the wildlife viewing here is seasonal and most lodges are shutdown from late November through May. Most people taking a first-time Safari to Zambia would combine one lodges each in Lower Zambezi with one lodge in the South Luangwe and possibly one lodge in Kafue.

IMO Zimbabwe is the best value in all of Africa for a safari but not so great in February. There are two world-class national parks here. The first one is Hwange National Park which is approximately a 45 minute charter flight from Victoria Falls. During the worst of Zimbabwe's political isolation most of the lodges in the Park shut down and there's now only three left. With the Renaissance of travel in Zimbabwe over the past 18 months everyone is reopening as fast as possible. Hwange National Park is a year-round destination but has a prolific peak season from June through November. This is also a big five safari destination. The second major national Park in Zimbabwe is Mana Pools National Park. There also only a few lodges open in this Park and the industry is rebuilding. Mana Pools is closed from November until at least April.

If measured by market growth, Botswana has been one of the most popular Safari destination in southern Africa for the past 10 years. It gained in popularity as Zimbabwe declined and now commands the position of most in demand and therefore highest price. Botswana is a year-round safari destination but the animal viewing is generally considered to be excellent in mid-June through October and good to very good the rest of the year. Prices drop significantly on November 1. The Okavango Delta and the Chobe national Park ecosystems are the two most popular places to include on an itinerary. The Chobe national Park ecosystem also includes three parcels of private land directly West of the Chobe called the Linyanti, the Kwando, and the Selinda concession. Each of these concessions has multiple private lodges on them. In Botswana I typically recommend safaris on private concessions. The national parks get extremely crowded and you run into the same issues as you would in any national Park in places such as Kenya or Tanzania. These issues are uncontrolled number of vehicles animal sightings, no night drives, and no offloading. All three of these limitations do not exist on private concessions. There are eight permanent lodge chain operators in Botswana. Several of them have enough lodges in the various ecosystems to offer a diverse itinerary. My personal favorite lodge chain is Wilderness Safaris. They have over 20 Safari lodges in Botswana including Mombo camp. I have been to all of them and most of them more than once. I've also been to most of the Sanctuary Lodge camps (owned by Abercrombie and Kent) and the Orient Express camps and &beyond camps. With the incredible offers from Kwando called Five Rivers and the joint offer from Sanctuary and Wilderness called “Six Country” a safari in Botswana in February is cheaper than it has ever been since 2004. Some lodges are excluded from these specials but you can put together a very nice safari for around $500 per person per night when the flights and transfers are factored-in. Both Five River and Six Country are only valid for November-March.

Hope this helps!

Craig Beal - owner - Travel Beyond

Polokwane is not that close to Kruger - about a six hour drive. It is close to Mashatu - so far my favorite southern Africa camp in SE Botswana. It's also close to the Waterberg Biosphere and there are lots of lodges in the area. We went to Entabeni this year and were very pleasantly surprised, and has big 5. In/around Kruger you're most likely to see the big five. Kruger park, Sabi Sand reserve, Timbavati reserve, etc.

That's quite a trip - we only did Waterberg, Kruger area and Zululand in 3 weeks. Add in CT and VF and you'll have a lot of one night stays. I prefer to stay 3 nights in one area than doing too much and have time to enjoy each camp. In Zululand, we enjoyed the Zululand Rhino Reserve - they just got lions! Also visited Tembe Elephant Park and were also pleasantly surprised. (Phinda is out of our price range). Mkhuze NP is also a big five reserve, as is Hluhluwe-Imfolozi.

Have fun planning!

Craig and I agree on a lot in our two posts - we were writing at the same time.

Thank you so much for the info. I think we will for sure do the Sabi Sands reserves, and then I will have to do a little more reading to decide VF and Botswana or going south to Zululand. We need to take the trip to Capetown as our airline tickets are into Johannesburg and out of Capetown, but with this info I can make a better decision on itinerary.

mary - we did Mashatu/Pafuri/Sabi Sand in 2009. It was a very nice 10 night trip and all comfortable driving distances. Mashatu and Mala Mala are owned by the same co, and there is a flight between them once a week if you want to skip Pafuri or not do self drive. The drive to Zululand from Sabi Sand really needs an overnight in Swaziland to break it up. The Indian ocean is beautiful and warm year round. You can fly to CT from Richards Bay or Durban. CT is a beautiful city - lots to do so give it at least three nights. If you decide on VF, Chobe NP is very close and everyone highly recommends the river boat trip. Lots of elephants!

Whatever you decide, you're going to love it! If your daughter/fiancé write (blog) about their experience, I'd love to hear about it. We met a doctor on our last trip. Speaking with him was fascinating.

FYI - The owners of MalaMala and Mashatu cancelled the flight between the two properties.

Craig Beal - owner - Travel Beyond

When did they do that? I just talked to someone in June who did that flight.

David Evans was at our office two weeks ago. He is the managing director of Mashatu/MalaMala and Mr. Rattray's son-in-law. He did not say when it ended but I think it was recently. You can still get FEDAIR to fly the route but it is not economical unless you have 4+ people.

Craig Beal - owner - Travel Beyond

I did Mashatu/Mala Mala in October of 2010 and the flight was gone then, but I did a private charter between the two that was very reasonable at the time and it was just for two passengers (ChilliPepper charters:http://www.chillipeppercharters.com/).

We did the Kruger area, Cape Town and Victoria Falls in January 2009 .... comforatbale but not luxury end of the scale. Our trip report may give you some ideas.

http://www.fodors.com/community/africa-the-middle-east/trip-report-5-fantastic-weeks-in-south-africa-victoria-falls-zimbabwe-and-mauritius.cfm

I don't know if you've heard but Mala Mala just started the charter flights again between the camps. I just got notice last week so I'm not sure if it is on their web site yet.