African Welcome Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 1999)
- Member Of:
- Southern Africa Tourism Services Association
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $2,343 to $8,972 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
CA
Email Paul Kolycius | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A unique and truly rewarding customized tour with a personal approach that suited us perfectly!
My wife and I were most impressed with the quick response to our late request for a booking on the Blue Train from Pretoria to Cape Town. We feared that we had missed the deadline. Not only did Kathi at African Welcome Safaris book our tickets but she also assisted in arranging our Cape Town and vicinity tours, a Garden Route self drive tour (5 glorious days discovering hidden gems), a glorious 4 nights at the Oyster Box in Durban and all the internal flight arrangements for connecting flights. During our whole time in South Africa whenever we had a question we would just WhatsApp her and we would have an answer and a solution within 10 minutes. Now that's service! At one stage on the garden route we forgot a small black backpack at one of the lodges. They contacted African Welcome Safaris and Kathi called us within 30 minutes of having left. We always felt looked after. Not only did our trip live up to our expectations it exceeded them.
Email Beth | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Planning a Safari? Let African Welcome Safaris Take Care Of You!
Kathi, at African Welcome Safaris, helped us plan the vacation of our dreams! She arranged everything from our custom itinerary, to transportation, to luxury accommodations. Our entire trip was amazing! From our arrival to our departure, Kathi anticipated everything we would need. The lodges, food, guides, and game drives were so much more than we expected.
Email Ros | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Hassle-free at every stage
Kathi Solomon was my contact at African Welcome Safaris. At every stage of planning the trip, her communications were clear and thorough. All paperwork was complete and competently handled. Once there, the drivers she organised for Cape Town and for a day trip to Tshwane were reliable and had good knowledge of the areas we visited. Vehicles were clean and roadworthy. The trip also included a few days at Savanna Lodge at Sabi Sand. The friend I travelled with had been to the safari lodge before on Kathi's recommendation and everything about it was nothing short of fantastic. All up, the trip was memorable for all the right reasons and African Welcome Safaris certainly did their bit to make it so.
HK
Email Tom P. | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Personalized, caring, knowledgeable, responsive, seamless - what more do you want in an agent?
We were a party of 12, ages 6-80, special occasion trip, first time on safari. We reached out to Kathi on a friend’s recommendation and bottom-line, our experience was flawless. Our itinerary was 6 nights Kruger (3n public, 3n on reserve), 3 nights Victoria Falls with day trip to Botswana. Cannot emphasize how much of a difference Kathi and team made - self-booking for a party of this size was a no-go - you need an expert who can hold enough seats on those non-daily, connecting flights, enough rooms at each hotel, arrange reliable, local transfer companies etc., and pull the trigger in one go. Kathi and team took all the stress out of what was quickly turning into a logistical nightmare. And, I got the feeling the $$ was the same or cheaper than self-booking! Our experience with AWS fully converted me to the value of a good agent.
For those who want to read more on our service experience:
- Highly personalized, lots of attention to detail, always thinking ahead, proactively suggesting what is/isn’t suitable for kids and grandparents, and proactively sharing important details with our hotels in advance.
- Highly responsive and knowledgeable: every e-mail replied to promptly within 1-2 days; WhatsApp support throughout the trip with check-ins. Given our party spanned three generations, we had lots of questions around health considerations, travel requirements, hotel swimming pools in winter, suitability of vehicles and road/trail conditions etc., all of which Kathi patiently addressed in detail.
- Seamless: minor issues and schedule adjustments were handled on-the-fly immediately.
- Professional proposals to help our decision-making (and get everyone really excited!): we received beautiful slideshows with itinerary day-by-days, hotel photos, ideas for side activities to give us a sense of what to expect; all documents (tickets, vouchers, receipts) meticulously uploaded onto the TravelKey app once finalized. If tech is not your thing, all docs came in duplicate over e-mail for old-fashioned printing.
- Value: as above, means something different for everyone but the important thing is the whole family felt like the trip was super reasonable in hindsight.. what more do you want?
Thanks for everything Kathi & team. Please don’t retire anytime soon!
SG
Email Chiew | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exceptional and Outstanding
My wife and I had an wonderful tour and safari experiences in South Africa.
Kathi planned our itinerary to perfection. Every detail from initial contact, all through actual tour was carefully thought out and seamlessly organized; greatly exceeded our expectations.
Our guide in Cape Town and ranger in safari were very knowledgeable, highly experienced and passionate about South Africa's history and wildlife which made our experience special.
Stayed at luxurious hotel in Cape Town and beautiful safari lodge in Sabi Sabi Reserve with sightings of different animals throughout the day. Able to see Big Five up close along with many other animals was amazing.
We went home with memories that will last a lifetime.
Highly recommend African Welcome Safaris(Kathi) for unforgettable trip to South Africa.
Email Ellen | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They saved me lots of time & effort in trip planning, and my family had a wonderful trip to Africa!
As a person who never uses travel agents, I turned to Africa Welcome Safaris as I found myself somewhat overwhelmed by the prospect of planning a trip to Africa on my own from the USA with no help and a lot of logistical hurdles going to places I had never been before. So following Fodors recommendation, I reached out to Africa Welcome Safaris, and they gave me a great proposed itinerary for the places I wanted to go within a price range that worked for me. This saved me lots of time and effort, and they answered all the questions that I asked during the planning process. They also arranged all Africa airplane transit (of which there was a lot) and tour guides for my family in advance, and everything went according to plan on the trip itself! We loved all of the places we stayed, including the Kapama River Lodge private game reserve next to Kruger and the Victoria Falls Safari Club, which were just delightful and also had delicious food! Overall, we had an amazing trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe, and I am very happy that I used Africa Welcome Safaris and highly recommend them! They definitely made it easier to plan this major trip.
Email Whitney | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Everyone was knowledge, flexible, and helpful!
Our honeymoon to South Africa was nothing short of perfect. Kathi helped us to plan and execute a perfect itinerary. Upon arrival, all of the drivers and tour guides were friendly and knowledgeable. The entire trip was seamless - from hotel reservations to transfers from one location to another. It allowed us to really relax and not stress about any logistics. The highlight of our trip was safari. Kathi was very helpful in educating us on the different types of lodges and game reserves, and ultimately with her guidance, we picked Dulini which was incredible. We will surely be back to South Africa. Thank you for all of your help!
CA
Email Marilyn P-S | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A stress free, imaginative, superorganized, without a hitch, magnifcent vacation!!!!!
Kathi Simon was an absolute pleasure to work with. As I live in Canada and was concerned that communicating by phone might be a problem, I discovered that she was more than willing to accommodate the time difference and call me when it was convenient for me. She was so warm and patient with any questions or concerns that I had and took the time to research any and every hotel or activity that I was considering, and got back to me within a day or two. She was always aware and concerned about my budget and thankfully abided closely to all my desires and requirements. This was a trip of a lifetime for my husband and I as we were travelling with our adult daughters, knowing that this might be the last trip they might be able to join us on as a foursome. Kathi not only fulfilled her obligations as a travel agent but cemented our relationship for any future travel to South Africa for us as well as any of our friends and relations. She was superb!
Every hotel and lodge we stayed at was fantastic and enjoyable, although I have to add that along with the wonderful environment, service (and food!) that each accommodation offered was the added bonus of the friendliness and warmth of the South African people wherever we went. The highlight of our trip was our four days at the Dulini Lodge in Sabi Sands. I have never experienced the wonder of staying anywhere of this caliber. The cabins were luxurious, each with plunge pools, magnificent furnishings and an outdoor shower with utter privacy. We were taken care of by Given, a lovely man who was our butler. The two safaris we went on each day were an exquisite introduction to the Africa of one's imagination. Our tracker, Martin was amazingly talented and our ranger Fred was so knowledgeable that all the information he passed on to us is indelibly inscribed in our memories to the extent that we still talk about what we learned. I must add that the owners as well as the staff of the Dulini were constantly making sure that all was up to snuff. The food the lodge provided was absolutely magnificent, with more than enough choices to fulfill anyone's desires including my vegetarian daughter!
Every domestic flight was arranged by Kathi beforehand and there was always a guide patiently waiting for our arrival anywhere we landed. One of our guides, Louis van Niekerk, who accompanied us for two weeks of our three week tour was unbelievably knowledgeable and had answers to almost every question about South Africa the four of us asked of him. To top it off, he was such a lovely man that he endeared himself to all of us enough to consider him family!!!
My husband and I have travelled the world over many years, and I have to say that this was one of the most flawless and enjoyable adventures we have taken thanks to Kathi and African Welcome Safaris.
DE
Email Bert | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best safari ever and wonderful organized Cape Town stay
Kathi from African Welcome Safari was wonderful. Each Email was answered immediately and she took care that everything worked very well. She even called the lodge to tell them about our food preferences. The private tours organized by African Welcome in and around Cape Town were perfect. I can not imagine anything what could have been done better. The Safari Lodge recommended by Kathi was incredible, wonderful rooms, very private, great game drives, niche walking tours in the bush and great food prepared by an excellent chef.
For my next travel to Africa I will for sure contact African Welcome Safari again to organize my trip.