Bench Africa Avis 

We visited Makutsi Safari Springs for 6 nights, commencing 14 March 2020.
This was organised by Bench Africa as part of a cruise package, Prior to our departure, Bench Africa provided a comprehensive personalised booklet on what was in store at Makutsi. On arrival we were advised by our travel agent that our 27 night cruise from Capetown to Athens had been cancelled.
After a warm welcome we settled into our comfortable rondavel and decided to make the most of this now very short holiday.
It turned out to be a fantastic and unforgettable experience, even though 3 days into our stay we were advised that the Australian Govt. wanted all Australians to return home as soon as possible.
We were treated to up close and personal experiences; on our first game drive our vehicle sat in the middle of a lion and lioness and two young lions feeding on their kill. More of the pride were sitting in the river bed just out of sight.
Day two our guide found the pregnant female cheetah. He happened to be in charge of the cheetah breeding programme and after he alighted from our open safari vehicle, the cheetah got up and walked over to him .Less than an hour later in a different section of the park, three more cheetahs crossed the track a little ahead of our vehicle.
We were told we would be unlikely to see elephants during our stay as they had migrated to the southern end of the park. However, we were told we would see several on our day trip to Kruger National Park. We enjoyed our day at Kruger and saw a wide variety and number of animals. Then on our last game drive at Makutsi, our guide followed elephant tracks, and we were treated to almost an hour among a herd of 19 elephants, a huge 30+ year old bull down to two babies. These were very up close and personal (and a bit scary but SO exhilarating.) There was no shortage of wild animals to be seen during our four game drives, including a night game drive. The guides were extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
Another highlight was a day trip to Blyde River Canyon in the beautiful Drakensburg Mountains.
Our stay was made very enjoyable by the friendly staff, beautiful meals, the indoor and outdoor natural thermal spring pools, and many of the animals grazing around the camp.
Sadly, due to coronavirus and the travel restrictions, the camp was to temporarily close and most of the staff leave, shortly after our departure.

The biggest of thank you's to Lara, Maria & the team at Bench for going above and beyond to organise our dream honeymoon to Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar. It was everything and more than we had dreamed of!
Maria was exceptionally helpful and patient with all our questions, changes and calls!
Highlights were gorilla trekking in Uganda and Giraffe Manor - two unbeatable experiences I would recommend to anyone!
We're in love with Africa and we'll definitely be booking via Bench again next time!

Maria organised a fantastic trip. We had a great time in Africa and would definitely use Bench Africa again for our next trip.

We had a terrible experience at our hotel in Cape Town booked by Bench Africa and were directed to Zambia, rather than Zimbadwe, to see Vic Falls, when it is common knowledge in the travel industry that there is little water in the Falls on Zambian side and we could not get back to Zim side due to problem with visas, so we were denied seeing the most important part of our African experience; also the reception at our hotel in Livingstone insisted that we were Americans from DC and we spent 45 minutes before they reluctantly gave a us room, without functioning airconditioning, despite it being 35 degrees c , until the morning of our departure when the AC started operating!
Our 6 days in Makutsi Safari Park near Kruger was sensational and the Cresta Mowana in Kasane was also wonderful as we saw all the animals with wonderful guides and terrific accommodation and these 2 experiences made up for the hopelessness of the hotels in CT and Livingstone.
Overall, we refused to allow the 2 bad experiences to spoil our African experience and we are booked to return to Africa to experience more of its wonder and we are taking friends back with us so they can share our wonder too.
We told Bench Africa about our horrible time at the CT hotel and the disappointment of not experiencing the wonders of Vic Falls , but apart from a promise to look into why it all happened , we have heard nothing back and assume we were consigned to the "too busy" basket.

This is now our fourth trip to Africa with Bench International and this last trip we had the pleasure of sharing the experience with friends. Again our experience surpassed expectations in every way. The properties we stayed at : Madikwe Hills, Leopard Hills and King's camp provided luxury accommodation, exceptional service, wonderful food and fantastic game drives. What more could you ask for? It is just hard to fault any aspect of this holiday. We would like to thank Julie De Palo at Bench for again helping us with all the arrangements for this special trip, providing us with more amazing memories. It will not be our last trip to Africa!

Bench has always provided prompt and thorough information, and the booking process and holiday experiences just as described - very happy to book again and again! Our holiday this time was a bit different, stayed at Makutsi Lodge (outskirts of Kruger National Park) instead of travelling/touring, and had a wonderful time!

Wow..where do I begin, every aspect of this adventure was perfect. The trip of a lifetime ill of experiences I will treasure forever. Karen our travel conSultant from Bench, created a trip that delivered in every way. She asked what we wanted to do and see then created and worked with us to create that delivered everything and more than we expected. Everything went like clockwork there were no issues or hiccups throughout the month we spent in East and South Africa.
Travelling throughout East Africa was absolutely our highlight. We saw every animal possible, vast herds on the move and in their natural setting. The Lodges and service were fantastic and we were totally spoilt in every way. Cape Town, the vineyards and Victoria Falls were icing on the cake. An amazing holiday from start to finish.

We were very well looked after on our classic Namibia safari from start to finish. The itinerary provided a good deal of variety in our daily activities. Our guide was excellent in terms of his driving, knowledge, organisation and helpfulness. The hotels were wonderful and the camping days were fun and an opportunity to see some out of the way places. We were very impressed by the delicious meals during the camping days. We would not hesitate to repeat this safari experience.
Eric at Bench was so helpful and responded very promptly to email queries.

I used benchAfrica to book a week at Makutsi Safari Springs in late September. I spoke with Hank who was very helpful, and has kept in touch since I returned home by sending a Welcome Home card. He answered all my questions and gave good advice.

Very happy to recommend bench Africa! Bench arranged a custom safari itinerary in Kenya and Tanzania for our family to celebrate my husband’s 50th birthday. After two nights in Nairobi, we experienced fantastic 11 nights on Safari with our own driver and vehicle, staying mostly in luxury tinted accommodation close to within the parks. We visited Amboseli National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, the Seronera Valley of the Serengeti and then headed north to the Mara River where nature gave us the gift of seeing the wildebeest migration in action during an extraordinary river crossing complete with crocodile encounters! We finished off with five nights of beach luxury on the island of Zanzibar. A once in a lifetime experience!

Bench Africa recently organised a very personalized trip in Africa for our family. The planning and organisation was extremely thorough and consultant (Lyndal) was very patient whilst we changed our plans and dates numerous times. Once we were in Africa, our transfers, guides and accommodation were all excellent. We would highly recommend Bench Africa

Most helpful and all arrangements ran to plan.

This was the trip of a lifetime and going through Bench travel the best decision I made. We had Karen organise our trip and with only 10 days she fitted everything in we wanted to do from Cape town and the wine district to Safari in Sabi Sabi and Victoria falls. It was so well organised it just flowed. Karen was always very helpful and calmly made any changes we needed. Every person we met was interesting and helpful and added to the experience. In particular Sabi Sabi Bush Camp was fantastic, the enthusiasm, passion and knowledge of our safari driver Ruth and tracker Heaviness was contagious and the lengths they went to to ensure we had the most amazing experience ever was truly remarkable. They went out of their way to make sure both the other couple in our vehicle and ourselves enjoy every minute and of course tracking down the Big 5. Ruth even dined with us every night adding lots of back ground and stories to the experience and making us really feel at home. The Camp itself is amazing, as is the food and service and all the staff. Many thanks for making my 60th so special.
Ilios do a fabulous job with all their drivers who always appeared on time and each added their own flavor to the trip. We were never left waiting or in any doubt we would get to where we had to be on time.
We did a half day Capetown private tour which was great as we could choose where we went. The full day small group tour to the Cape of Good Hope was fantastic. We were lucky to be there in winter as apparently the ques to get in can be terrible in summer. Yes the baboons steal from you, one lady had 2 tops stolen from her hand and another her handbag with all her money and passport in it which luckily a ranger retrieved. After a private full day wine tour where we managed to go to some of the more interesting older wineries was great and ended up staying the night in a fabulous french provincial style villa the Franschhoek Country House which has an interesting tasting restaurant.
The experience of going to Zambia and Zimbabwe to see Victoria falls was fabulous as was the helicopter ride and the sunset cruise. The little shops in Victoria are great as is the Elephant Walk shops and craft market. The Brewery is a great place for lunch. Easy and safe to walk around these places. Possibly The Kingdom isn't the best place to stay but it was very central and an experience in itself.

A huge thank you to Bench and all their associated tour companies in South Africa for making this trip so special. I have traveled all my life and would normally organise things myself but I have to say it really was worth going through Bench who knew how to put together an amazing experience.

I booked the Grand Tour of Africa through my local travel agent with Bench Africa and as I was travelling alone and this was my first trip to Africa I was slightly nervous. My agent assured me that I would be well looked after every step of the way and he was right! I received detailed documents from Bench Africa with added tips which were very useful. The Grand Tour is in two parts, Wildlife & Warriors from Johannesburg to Durban, then a short flight to Port Elizabeth and then a Garden Route tour from there. So we had two different guides, Walter and Abdullah, both were excellent. A party of 14 for the first part and 12 for the second. Another couple from Australia and myself and the rest from UK. Kruger was a highlight and we saw the Big 5 really quickly as well as most of the Ugly 5 as well as many more! The guides in Kruger keep in contact by radio and are excellent at finding where the animals are. I was amazed to discover that Kruger was twice the size of Wales! We returned for an optional night safari which was incredible too. It was totally amazing to see the animals so close up, just that made the tour worthwhile. So many included activities and a really busy tour but we saw so much. So many animals, beautiful scenery, famous places like Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope etc and visited wineries, ostrich farm and saw the main cities too. We were offered extra tours, one was an elephant sanctuary where I got to take an elephant for a walk and another was Tenikwa Big Cat Reserve where we had afternoon tea with a cheetah prowling outside OUR enclosure and later went for a walk with him. The hotels on the tour were excellent, a stand out was Hunters Country Lodge where the finest details are included, an open fire lit in your cottage while you are at dinner and hot water bottle in the bed were just a couple! I also enjoyed The Benjamin in Durban, smaller rooms and older hotel but amazing service, so friendly and helpful and the open cocktail cabinet in the evenings was an enjoyable place to meet people. The only hotel that wasn't up to standard was Surval which had been changed from my itinerary and was a disappointment. The hotel rooms although large were very dated and they need refurbishing badly. The meals included in the tour were excellent and food in South Africa is very reasonable when we had to pay for our own. When we did the wineries tour we had 3 on the itinerary but when we got to the 3rd one (Spier) there was no booking so we had to leave. This really wasn't an issue as I was feeling that maybe 3 wine tastings in one day was too much! So although a couple of glitches nothing major and certainly didn't have any effect on the trip at all.

Maria organised our recent adventure to Tanzania and Kenya. The whole trip worked like clockwork - every pickup, every driver, every tour – all were on-time and everyone we met were incredibly friendly and helpful . The Tanzania Tour, over 6 days,was a wonderful experience with a great bunch or fellow travellers. Our fly ins to the camps at Amboseli and the Masai Mara were wonderful with luxury "tents" and such friendly helpful staff at both Satao Elerai in Amboselii and Sarova Mara in the Masai Mara. At Satao Elerai, we woke up to the sight of Mt Kilimanjaro and zebras outside our tent. We sat on the terrace watching the elephants, zebras, giraffes and antelopes using the water hole.
Maria's knowledge of Africa is amazing and her advice on our itinerary was invaluable. We will be calling Maria to arrange our next adventure in Africa.

Our favourite holiday ever! Karen's pre-tour organisation was excellent. The on-the-ground tour companies in Africa were efficient and timely, the accommodation was often very special and our guides were friendly and knowledgeable. We couldn't believe how close we were to the animals without disturbing them in any way. We hope to return one day soon.

Great easy organised safari via Bench Africa. The Journey was an adventure that was life changing. Will use Bench again for our return trips.

We used Bench Africa for a recent safari/holiday in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe - It was even better than we imagined. Service from local in-country providers was excellent; hotels/lodges and camps were all very good: all the arrangements went off without a hitch and were on schedule. As for the scenery, people and wildlife it was truly memorable trip! Advice from Bench in preparation for the travel was very prompt and helpful. Thoroughly recommended.

In June this year we travelled to Botswana,Zimbabwe & SA with Bench, the second time we have used Bench.
Arrangements made by Katelyn Quinlan were perfect and took into account my wife's mobility issues.
Needless to say the Safari Camps were excellent, the wildlife outstanding and the whole experience was a trip of a lifetime.
We will use Bench again and would highly recommend them to anyone planning a trip to Africa.

Bench Africa, through Maria, exceeded our hopes and expectations in advising and booking our itinerary for us. All of our bookings and connections throughout Africa proceeded without hitch and we couldn't be happier with the quality of the accommodation and experiences. We particularly appreciated Maria providing additional advice to us on the tricky issue of tipping at game parks.

The highlight of our trip was our stay at the Santuary Makanyane Safari Lodge in the Madakwe reserve. The whole team at the lodge was friendly and welcoming and went out of their way to make our stay special. They found the perfect blend of luxurious, but relaxed. The food and accommodation was absolutely outstanding - we loved the fact that the open fire was waiting for us in our chalet when we returned after dinner each evening. On our game drives we saw a wide range of animals, including cheetah, lions, giraffes, elephants, buffalo, rhino, hippo, hyenas etc. Pulling up for our evening sundowner (or two) was a highlight and we really appreciated the company and insights provided by our guide Dylan. I would highly recommend Santuary Makanyane to anyone contemplating a once in a lifetime safari experience.