Paula Traber

Trip of a lifetime!  My friend, Fay and I arrived a day early before the tour and we ran into one of the guests whose tour had just finished!!  They told us it was the best trip they had ever been on and now I can say the same!!!   I loved every minute!  Dee and Ronnie know South Africa so well and they were born there and spent many years in the country.  They put together a trip that was the perfect balance of sightseeing, fun activities like wine and olive oil tasting and safari lodges!  And the best part is, everything was included!  (All our lodging and meals, buses and flights to get us from place to place, local guides who knew the area and even the tips for all the many people who took care of us!)  On the trip, they would only tell us what we were doing one day in advance so that we could focus on and enjoy that day!  It was so nice not to have to worry about a thing!

The lodge and game reserves where we stayed were all first rate five star!  The hotels were smaller boutique hotels with character and most of the time, our group of 18 were the only ones there!  The staff at all the places we stayed gave us excellent service – they could not do enough for us!!  Many of the places we stayed were places the Hosted Africa tours had stayed in the past, so many of the managers and staff knew Dee & Ronnie and were so happy to see them again!

Dee and Ronnie did so many things to make the trip special!  They had such good relationships with the three safari lodges we stayed at that the staff at Bakwena Lodge in Chobe were all standing outside when we arrived and greeted us with song!  At the other two lodges, we were privileged to have special dinners in the bush or in their bomas with fire pits and a cultural performance by the staff!  But our hosts outdid themselves at Notten’s in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve on Mother’s Day! They arranged for the lodge to put on a Mother’s Day breakfast after our game drive out in the bush!  There was a beautiful table set with lovely yellow placemats and a little rhino candle from Nottens as well as a gift bag from Dee & Ronnie with a flower and sweet note that said “Every lady is a mum to someone/something.  So Happy Mother’s Day!”  It was so thoughtful and so special!

Travel opens your mind!  I had no idea there were so many beautiful beaches in South Africa!  Or that there were penguins in Cape Town!  Or how massive and beautiful Victoria Falls is!

At the safari lodges, I loved seeing the animals in their natural habitat!  The rangers were a wealth of information on the animal’s behavior and it was amazing to me that the animals were so comfortable with the game trucks! (We saw a mother cheetah and her cub feeding on an impala they had just killed and they just kept eating while we watched!  We came across a pride of 11 lions and watched two young cubs playing and batting at each other on a log!)

I definitely left a piece of my heart in South Africa and I thank Dee and Ronnie, for the trip of a lifetime!!!