Testimonials

We recently returned from our trip to South Africa. The easiest way to sum it up was 'unbelieveable.' We wanted to thank you for all your help and great suggestions. You may recall we originally went for a safari we purchased at auction and you convinced us to see Cape Town and the Winelands. You also convinced us to take a guided day-tour, which I was initially not too keen on. What a great decision you had. We were shown around by a guy our age who was very very nice and knowledgeable - in spite of the weather, it was the perfect day.

The Cape Cadogan is one of the most beautiful hotels I've seen and the service was impecable. The staff could not have been nicer or more polite. They genuinely made us feel spoiled and 'at home' at the same time.

If I recall, you had not had much interaction with Steenberg before you and I started researching them. Keep them on your list! Amazing. Absolutely amazing. It was my fiancee's birthday and everyone, and I mean everyone, wished him a happy birthday. We had champagne waiting in our room, the women at the spa gave him a candle and we had more champagne waiting at Catherine's, the restaurant (a great restaurant - worth recommendation!). I have a nice overhead photo of Steenberg if you would like to keep it on file...

In addition to thanking you, I am writing to tell you that we WILL be returning to Africa, at least once more, if not twice. This is saying alot, as I have never returned to the same place twice (it's a big world with much to see). But we would like to spend some time in the Winelands in the Franshoech and Stellenboch regions. We would like to consider 'camping' at the facilities at the Cape of Good Hope National Park (I can't believe you can spend the night there). We would also like to spend some time on the "Garden Route," this time with a car. Another trip we would like to consider would be Mozambique - for diving. We are told it is some of the best diving in the world. We would love some recommendations for other places near Mozambique to see.

We will definitely speak again, as we begin our planning to return to Africa. Thank you again so much.

- Wendy Taylor

Hi Marianne,

Our trip was wonderful thank you. The travel and transfers went incredibly smoothly, especially the pickup from Victoria Falls to Kasane. The luggage storage and meet and greet was flawless on both ends of our trip. Our favorite camp was Selinda but we really enjoyed them all. Selinda had the best combination of food (including one of the best steaks we have ever had anywhere), accommodation (beautiful tent covered by thatching with very few bugs), and staff (on our last night we got a bubble bath with champagne, a private dinner on the porch, and some other incredible touches). We also got to see an absolutely incredible range of animals at Selinda (basically everything from wild dog to leopard to cheetah) and Lesh, our guide, was the best of the 3 guides we had. Kwetsani was probably the least nice of the three accommodation wise but their main area and boardwalk were fantastic and they had an incredible staff. The managers were really funny and had tons of stories to tell. We also got to take a mokoro ride here which was really nice. The birdlife and huge herds of red lechwe were the highlight here. Duba, in my mind had the best landscape and some very unique animal encounters (aardwolves, tssessebe, and some very cool hippo encounters spring to mind). We werent huge fans of the common area but the accommodation was really nice, the food excellent and the staff and guide very good. They also offer massages which was a nice touch.

- Evan & Kim

It was great. We were sad to leave. It was very special. And, we had just amazing experiences that we’ll remember forever!!

- H. Boesky

Our trip to Africa was simply awesome. Debra Baumgart and Discover Africa planned and executed an incredible trip. We saw everything we wanted to see and more. The accommodations were amazing, the service fantastic and everything happened exactly as it was supposed to happen. We could not have asked for more!

- Eric D. Horodas

Our trip to South Africa was amazing! Everything was wonderful and the arrangements were awesome!

Everything you arranged for us was wonderful, exciting and well planned. The tour drivers were very nice and always on time. We felt that we had a full day of activity each and every day, and we had time to relax or explore on our own. We thank you for your services and we would recommend your company to friends.

- Diane Lund

Dear Debra,

The trip was amazing and you are amazing!!! You did a spectacular job. Everything was perfect. 10 out of 10. I'm going to have all of my photographs put on a thumb drive and I will send them to you.

Thank you again!

- Glenn D.

Our Africa adventure expanded our hearts beyond our wildest imagination. We both feel the outstanding trip planning by Discover Africa allowed for that experience! The safari camps far exceeded our expectations; the delicious food, the helpful courteous staff, the knowledgeable guides & trackers, the comfortable, clean and sometimes quite luxurious accommodations all created the best experience possible. The flights and all transfers went smoothly as well. The service provided by Discover Africa made our trip a life changing experience and we KNOW that is the truth. We were well taken care of in all ways. And we WILL return and recommend them to everyone interested in traveling there.

- Ron & Winalee Zeeb (Scuba Tycoon & Heartdance Press)

Well, what a trip of a lifetime! Bob and I thank you for this perfect experience for our first visit to Africa. We loved it all -- the hotels and camps, the sequence of the trip (which was so important). You were absolutely right in putting the safari last. However, we were overwhelmed with our good fortune to get Robin Binkes as our Johannesburg guide. He made our tour so powerful, as he is so passionate - and a wonderful story teller. Going with him to his school and seeing his interaction with kids in Soweto and Alexandra was so special. History came alive with him. Words really can't describe our experience in seeing the animals up close, and those SUNSETS!! The combination of Lebombo and Boulders was perfect. So different, but we loved them both. Enough of the superlatives. Suffice it to say -- it will be an unbelievable experience for us forever.

THANK YOU for your attention to all the details, and for creating a memory of a lifetime.

- Judy H.

The details of our trip were organized by our USA travel agent, Discover Africa, in Beachwood, Ohio; working with Wilderness Safaris in SA. The planning, communications, and daily support/implementation was extraordinarily excellent. We were a little anxious about making such a long, complex tour alone. Your warm, caring assistance and the travel teams' expert, high quality support removed that anxiety---and resulted in this being a "lifelong memory bank experience!

- Tom M.

Hi Marianne,

We got back lat night after about 26 hrs of flying and layovers. But I have to say it was all worth it. This was truly a trip of a lifetime. We enjoyed every minute of our trip. I now understand how you and Lesley put our itinerary together., Each lodging was different and each place we experienced was different. All in all, it truly was a trip of a lifetime and we thank you for planning it and helping us have a very memorable time!!!

- Laurie & Howard

Hi Debra, boy is Africa far, far away! And there was a lot of traveling...7 out of the 15 days. Yet you put together a great trip in the right order. We couldn't have been happier. And all of the contractors were first rate. You have great connections there. Also, being met and escorted everywhere made all the travel worry free. It was fabulous. Everything was great, thank you so much. Everything exceeded my expectations.

- Wendy Wright

We've been busy catching up here at home. We spent a day with Robin going through Alexandra township. A remarkable day visiting the streets with attendant funerals and gambling, one of the hostels, Nelson Mandela's first home (a tin-roofed shack with brick walls), and the sights and smells of a thriving poor neighborhood. All the people were very friendly and welcoming yet we were the only white folks in evidence for most of that day. We had lunch in a pleasant hotel near the township and then visited the home where Mandela was arrested and finally the Apartheid museum. The tour is a "must" for your other travelers, although we would have been afraid except for the confident and knowledgeable guidance of Robin. We planted a bouganvillea in the yard of an Alex resident that was named "Dina" in my honor! I promised Robin a Sleepless in Seattle shirt and a UW baseball hat that I will send soon.

It is hard to describe the rest of the trip: so much to say about this experience. We have never felt so removed from our daily lives, so totally immersed in another reality. Antarctica paralleled this experience, yet there I felt closer to our urban life as we were on the ship several times during the day. In contrast, in Africa we felt very in touch with the rawness of nature. The felines and ungulates were so close that we could smell them. The endless dust of Africa lingered in our noses for many days after we got home.

Ken and the Bellons took many, many photos. I wrote a journal that I will type and put together with photos of Ken's. It will be fun to re-live the trip in this way.

Thanks for helping us put this together. We will definitely contact you when we want to return.

- Dina

Our Discover Africa trip to South Africa in 2005 was very exciting and interesting thanks to your wonderful planning and suggestions. The safari at Mala Mala was the highlight of our stay and the attached photos attest to the wonderful opportunities we had to see the animals up close and personal.

- Ezra Steiger, MD

When you book through Discover Africa, no detail is left to chance. Drivers, accommodations and advice are all superb!

- Chris Shirtcliff

Where to begin . .

We can’t thank you enough for everything you did for us to insure an over the top African experience. We had wanted Anne to have a special trip and she did. She is so excited about her experiences that she is planning to take advantage of some inexpensive airfares presently being offered from Addis Ababa to Cape Town and return with her friends.
I will definitely send you some photos separately since I am computer challenged when it comes to photo attachments to emails.
We have so many highlights, so here are a few in chronological order:

• Having someone greet us at the plane at all airports was invaluable. I’m never traveling again without taking advantage of that option if it’s available.
• Paul, our guide for Cape Town and the Vinelands, was so knowledgeable. He and Anne hit it off and they enjoyed discussing African politics. It was great to have him for our entire time. Especially driving the backup vehicle for our cycling day. Yes . . . I did cycle, but we all enjoyed the first vineyard so much that we got behind schedule and only cycled ½ a day. We did have a lovely lunch at La Petite Ferme.
• The Vineyard Hotel was great and we ended up taking all our meals there since on our travels to the ferry for Robben Island we discovered the restaurant we had reservations for, Mondiall, evidently had only recently closed. Not to worry, we loved our dinner at Myoga. Also we did receive room upgrades.
• What can you say about Babylonstoren other than it truly is special. They didn’t miss a beat. From our arrival and discovering they had upgraded our room to accommodate Anne’s room being just across the courtyard from our room, to their already having arranged for a car to take us to dinner at Terrior. Also Anne was wowed that they had the gin she had mentioned on the questionnaire she had filled out for you. And after requesting soy milk for her first breakfast coffee she found soy milk in her room refrigerator. We loved Babylonstoren so much that I could see in the future (if there is another trip) using it as the base for all the time in Cape area since we have obviously experienced the downtown twice. I’ll never forget getting into bed and finding a heated water bottle!
• Now onto Victoria Falls and the timeless Victoria Falls Hotel. We especially enjoyed our accommodations in the Stable wing and all the associated amenities. At this point Anne was really beginning to love the upper end accommodations. Can they get any better? For sure they did. Our private tour of the Falls and evening river cruise insured a nice interlude between Cape Town and our Safari.
• Linkwasha was incredible. We had heard from many of our guides n advance that we would love Linkwasha. On our plane ride from Victoria Falls up to the camp the Catering Manager, Linda for all the camps and the upper management person in charge of all the camps(not sure of his title, but his name was Courtney) for Wilderness Safari were on the plane. They were on their way to get ready for the opening of a new camp.
• The one hour+ drive from the airstrip ended up being our first game drive and our return trip also was a drive. This meant that we had a total of 9 drives. Except for one evening drive when there was an additional person with us, we were the only people with Edison, our incredible guide. With so many drives we had the ability to take our time and had many opportunities to just sit and wait for the action.
• Our “family tent” was over the top. Didn’t expect that we would have 2 separate bathrooms! Nothing like sitting on your deck on a couch viewing the animals around the watering hole.
• How about elephants joining you for dinner as they drank from the swimming pool? Unfortunately, we didn’t have our cameras with us that evening.
• I know Anne is absorbing the magnitude of the entire safari experience. We are now addicted and will hopefully do another one when our granddaughters are older.
• Our plane back to Victoria Falls was a 5 seater and Anne joined the pilot up front.
• Althol Place was an idyllic change of place and wonderful bookend to our trip.
• Of course Robin Binckes was fabulous. It was a National Holiday, Heritage Day, and our time spent in Soweto was very festive. We had not gone to Soweto 8 years ago and were glad to be there for lunch. We also returned to Alexandra, the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill.

Almost forgot to tell you that while we were at breakfast our first morning at Althol Place we met 2 couples from Providence and NYC that you had helped. We knew you were known around the country, but this was proof positive. They had been with Robin the day before.

Dave is out of town this week, but he said we should give you a call which we will do next week. In the meantime, I hope this very long email will convey what a wonderful time we had and how appreciative we are of all your efforts. We do not take your level of expertise for granted. We consider ourselves fortunate to have had you plan our trip and have referred you to several of our friends.

- Liz

Discover Africa has arranged both our trips to Africa. We have a real passion for travel and have indulged that passion over the years. Since that has given us first-hand experience in what it takes to organize trips, we can appreciate all of the arrangements that Petra at Discover Africa made for us. I also appreciated the ease of communication and Petra's keen understanding of what we wanted. North Island was, in its entirety, the best place we have ever been. It is as though someone said ‘Here is your chance to create a fantasy. Now go to it.’ Throughout I was reminded of how wonderful it is to deal with a professional - Petra, Vielen Dank!

- Bere and Giacomo Antonini

When we arrived we were treated like royalty, and while we were there we were treated like family.

- Dennis E. Eckart

I cannot express enough my deepest appreciation for your hard work in planning our family trip of a lifetime. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to go on an African safari and every dream was fulfilled. The contrasts among the 3 camps, both with the camps themselves and the terrains, was just right. Jao Camp is exquisite, Selinda was friendly, welcoming and a terrific introduction to the bush camp experience and Jack's Camp was like going back 100 years. All wonderful, all highly recommended by the MacKenna family. I went with 3 teenage boys and was so pleased to hear all of them to this day tell their friends that this was the best vacation we ever did. Attached are just a few of the hundreds of beautiful photos we came home with. I had them printed in bound books by Kodak online and the boys still pull the books out to relive the memories. In order, these 5 photos are of Victoria Falls, sunset on the Okavengo Delta, leopard on the Okavengo, a bull elephant and a malachite kingfisher.

Thank you once again for everything. I will recommend Discover Africa to anyone who asks.

I forgot one of the highlights of the MacKenna family trip to southern Africa last year. Your office kindly notified Jack's Camp that my oldest son, Duncan, was turning 20 during that part of the trip. In the middle of the Makgadikgaki Pans, the most desolate terrain I have ever seen (a picture of which is attached), while most of the crew was off fighting grass fires, the kitchen baked Duncan a chocolate birthday cake! A picture of Duncan being presented with the cake by our guide Cyrus in the tea tent is attached. And of course no picture of this part of Botswana is complete without a picture of meerkats, so I attached one of those (we have many and they are all cute).
Thanks again for wonderful memories.

- Donna B. MacKenna

Discover Africa did an outstanding job planning our trip to South Africa (Capetown, Franschoek, and Plettenberg Bay), Victoria Falls, and the three safaris in Botswana. All of the arrangements worked flawlessly, and the South Africans we met were very impressed with the itinerary we were provided. We have recommended Discover Africa to a number of our friends, and they have been equally pleased.

- Sheila and Orry Jacobs

What can you say about Babylonstoren other than it truly is special. They didn’t miss a beat. From our arrival and discovering they had upgraded our room to accommodate Anne’s room being just across the courtyard from our room, to their already having arranged for a car to take us to dinner at Terrior. Also Anne was wowed that they had the gin she had mentioned on the questionnaire she had filled out for you. And after requesting soy milk for her first breakfast coffee she found soy milk in her room refrigerator.

We loved Babylonstoren so much that I could see in the future (if there is another trip) using it as the base for all the time in Cape area since we have obviously experienced the downtown twice. I’ll never forget getting into bed and finding a heated water bottle!

- Liz

"We just returned from a three week adventure to South Africa planned by Hadas Rudy that was just marvelous and was in no small measure due to her expertise. Everything she suggested was just perfect and the entire trip was remarkably seamless. Not only that, but Hadas kept in touch with us during the trip, just to insure things were going smoothly. Hadas is just wonderful and her responsiveness, both in the planning stage and while we were traveling is pretty amazing. I can't wait to take another trip so that I might have the pleasure and fun of working with her again and to share her enthusiasm for Africa."

- Penny Brown and Jeff Rappin

Lesley Kaye organized a wonderful trip for our family to South Africa and Botswana, and we were so impressed that I have recommended several of our friends and their families who have been equally pleased. Lesley is extremely knowledgeable and can plan a very personalized trip.

- Jean Lindenbaum

I really have to thank Petra at Discover Africa for making all the arrangements for us. She went above and beyond what we expected. Her attention to detail and her obvious emotional involvement made all the difference. Petra, we will never, ever be able to thank you enough for your help and advice in making this truly the "TRIP OF A LIFETIME".

- Linda

Just a quick note to thank you (and Frank) for the wonderful care you gave us during our trip to your beautiful country. You went above and beyond any service position as tour guides, you are much more like family to us and we already miss you! We are back home with our dogs and are sifting through over 600 pictures (not counting the video we took with the camcorder). We are tired from the long flight, the customs, the security checks, the flat tire on our vehicle when we went to retrieve it, and the time changes. Needless to say, we all slept very soundly last night. We cannot tell you how much we appreciated all the information you shared with us and how honestly you answered all of our questions. We feel as though we now have a sense of your country’s struggles, history, and hopes for the future. Thank you for being so authentic. AND, South Africa beat England in the rugby games!!! We feel very different and this is hard to explain, but our visit to South Africa has changed us and we hope this feeling stays with us forever. It is kind of like we inhaled new, fresh air and exhaled the old, tired air that was filling our lungs. We do want to return and we probably will. If either of you ever need a letter of reference, please do not hesitate to ask. We would be happy to tell others just how wonderful and professional you are. And when you get to the US for a visit, at least give us a call and let us know where you are and if there is anything we can do for you. You are welcome at our home anytime. Thanks again and we will be in touch every so often with updates on our lives here.

- Amy V. Marsters

Thank you Debra! Great trip, absolutely loved it! Cape Town was really beautiful as promised and the safaris were unreal.

Overall a great trip and one I would recommend to anyone! Thanks for all your hard work in putting it together for us!

- Frank Sterling

Hi Lesley,

We had a truly wonderful time on our honeymoon. Thank you so much for taking care of us. We loved the Safari and maybe plan to do it again for an anniversary down the road. Vumbura Plains had the biggest open room layouts with super nice staff. Mombo’s room layouts were a little congested (we’re curious what it will look like post the 2016 renovation) but the food and game viewing was by far the best. Lastly we fell in love with Abu’s elephants which was the camp’s highlight. Overall, we were super happy and impressed with the Wilderness Safaris model of taking care of you from start to finish. We loved Cape town, especially wine country. We wished we could have spent more time there. In hindsight, we also should have listened to you and stayed at the 12 apostles. The Atlantic view had amazing views from Camps bay and a very friendly staff but our room was smaller than we expected, especially given the price range. By far, our favorite spot in wine country was Babylonstoren. The food was amazing and the entire vinyard and farmhouse look was beautiful. Our favorite places were Babylonstoren, Delaire and The Cellars (had dinner at the Greenhouse which was wonderful). Delaire is just at another level in terms of luxury. Wow. Thank you again for your help. We certainly would recommend the trip to any friends in the future.

- Sisi and Charles