I have two itineraries for a 3 week trip to S. Africa and Botswana. Any comments on which would be best. Prices are close.

Itinerary 1
3 nights Djuma Vuyatela
2 nights Toka Leya - Zambia
3 nights Chitabe
3 nights Duma Tau
2 nights Kwetsani
4 nights Radisson Cape Town

or

Itinerary 2

3 nights Singita Boulders Lodge
2 nights Camp Moremi
3 nights Camp Okavango
3 nights Savute Lodge
2 nights Tree Thorn Lodge Zambia
4 nights V & A Hotel Cape Town

Comments would be appreciated. We are looking for a moderate level of comfort and a good game experience

I would choose the first choice for a number of reasons.

Itinerary 1, involves private concessions the whole way. Where you can off road , go on night drives and track the various animals. Accommodation will be comfortable and game viewing excellent.

The second itinerary has the majority of its cost in the stay at Singita. The camps in Botswana are run by Desert and Delta. They are a more of a mid market camp. you will not have so much freedom and privacy game viewing as Savute and Camp Moremi are in quite busy areas of national parks.

If you dropped Singita Boulders for Djuma, then the cost of this itinerary would reflect the true cost comparisons of the Botswana camps.

Pure game viewing terms, itinerary 1

We stayed at Chitabe, Duma Tau and Kwetsani in June of 2007 and all the camps were wonderful.

Just for that reason alone I would ick Itinerary 1

ttt

Nr 2 definitely not I would say because of what others mentioned above.

Nr 1 - maybe depends on the price and which time of the year you are travelling.

Is there anything in peculiar what you are interested in and why did you choose Kwetsani???

Greetz,

Johan

Thanks for the replies and comments. We are traveling in Aug/Sept 2009. We chose the camps that were recommended by our agent who is an agent for Wilderness Safaris and because those camps put the trip within our budget. We are leaning toward choice #1.

Regarding the Botswana leg of your trip I recommend the 1st itinerary for game viewing, although it will be probably be more expensive.

Camp Okavango is entirely about mekoro/motor boat trips, and we saw very little game there, whereas you can have the same style water experience at Kwetsani with very good game viewing drives to Hundu Island.

hi paradisedb,

can't help with the rest but any trip that ends up at the CPT Radisson is ok by me.

seriously, it is a great hotel - DS still raves about the breakfasts.

have a great trip,

regards, ann

I saw your other thread where you were asking about Mala Mala versus Djuma. Why would you want to go to Singita instead?

There are other places too to consider - Kirkmans, Sabi Sabi, Lion Sands. etc etc.,

The two itineraries I posted were propsals from two different agents and I wanted feedback as to which was the best before I booked. I gave each agent a price range and an idea of how many nights we wanted to spend on the trip and after quite a number of changes, these are the itineraries that they came up with.

I was at Camp Moremi and Xugana recently (December). Camp Moremi was a big disappointment for me. The lodge itself is in need of a major upgrade and while the game viewing was good, there were a lot of other vehicles around because it is a public park

Xugana was by comparison a much better lodge, mainly because of the staff and there not being other people around. It isn't so much about the game as about enjoying the experience of Botswana, the open spaces and the thrill of the safari.

But I would choose option 1 as well given the choice.

Looking forward to feedback on Toka Leya