South Africa and Kenya with South African Airways Holidays

My sister and I had a fabulous 11-day tour with South African Airways Holidays (814 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Ste. 203, Coral Gables, FL 33134; phone 888/777-1138 or visit www.saaholidays.net) in March ’04. The cost from Atlanta, Georgia, was $2,250, including airport departure fees, all the meals for five days on safari and breakfasts at the city hotels.

We were very pleased with the flight as well as all of our accommodations, food and service. All of our pickups were on time and friendly, waiting with us at the airports until we received our boarding passes. The people everywhere were very friendly, soft-spoken and interested in our enjoying our trip.

We arrived in Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA, for two nights. For our free day, a local guide, Francois Viljoen (phone 27-21-913-6150 or e-mail fransuz@mweb.co.za), met us for a trip around the Cape of Good Hope, Duiker Island (to see the seals) and Boulder Beach (penguins). He had been recommended by ITN readers (Feb. ’04, pg. 83 & July ’04, pg. 116) and we echo those high commendations. He charged the two of us a couple hundred dollars for about eight hours’ touring.

The next day we had an interesting tour of the city (included) and an afternoon visit to the wine country with Colin from Wilderness Tours.

The following day we flew to Nairobi, KENYA, where we were met by Peter Thuo of Rhino Safaris. I had mentioned to Kathi at SAA Holidays that I was very interested in birding, so she requested a guide well versed in birds. Peter more than fulfilled that criterion — we saw 170 species.

We highly recommend Peter. He was always early, he was knowledgeable in all areas, he was a good driver on Kenya’s terrible roads and his van was clean. He also had a very good sense of humor.

We were five nights on safari, staying at Samburu Game Lodge, Samburu Game Reserve, The Ark in Aberdare National Park, Lake Elementaita Lodge (where we saw the flamingos on Lake Nakuru) and, the last two nights, Mara Simba Lodge in the Masai Mara Game Reserve.

It was fascinating to see so many animals so close. We recorded 35 species, from the suni (the smallest antelope, which hops like a rabbit) to the eland, plus innumerable elephants, giraffes, zebras and more. The most enjoyable were the adorable lion cubs playing like kittens.

— MARY LOU DUSEBERG, Mountain Home, AR