”This was our first trip with Sikeleli Travel & Expeditions, but it won’t be our last.

Our adventure of three and a half weeks went flawlessly. The entire trip was so well planned with every detail and contingency anticipated.

Sikeleli developed a custom adventure for our group of six that included visits to four countries.

Before and after each flight, we were met by friendly and helpful people who guided us through the maze of customs, visas, and security. They provided efficient and timely transportation to our destinations and made sure we were acquainted with our hotel staff.
Without exception, our accommodations were spectacular and the food was delicious. Our cultural and wildlife guides were very knowledgeable and fun travel companions. We couldn’t have asked for better people to guide us through our journey into the southern African continent. Karen was an amazing travel planner. She took the itinerary we had designed and turned it into the trip of a lifetime. What we didn’t expect was that she was always available throughout our trip for questions or to help with finding restaurants and making reservations.
Since all of our experiences were so rich, it’s difficult to pick a favorite part of the trip. However, the trek to visit the Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda was an experience we will never forget. We emerged from the forest to an opening containing a family of 14 gorillas! At first there was slight apprehension, but those feelings quickly melted away and we began to feel welcomed into their home. It was a surreal and deeply moving experience!
We then journeyed from Rwanda to Sabi Sands in South Africa. At our accommodations at Arathusa Lodge we could view hippos, elephants and lions from our cabin porches or from the common areas overlooking the Hippo Pool. On the first full day of game drives in Sabi Sands we encountered the “Big Five”. The most memorable encounters were with a mother rhino and her baby, a male and female leopard, and a pack of wild dogs that had surrounded a hyena that had attempted to steal their kill!
From South Africa we moved onto Zimbabwe where we stayed at The Old Drift Lodge near Victoria Falls. The falls were spectacular, but the real stars of the show were the elephant families that ate and played along the shores of and in the waters of the Zambizi river. We sat riveted for hours on the elevated deck near the river where we could safely watch these magnificent animals go about their daily lives. Numerous boat trips on the Zambizi showed us birds and animals impossible to see from the game drive vehicles. On occasion, the elephants would come up to the little pool attached to our tent cabin and clean their trunks!
From Zimbabwe it was onto the Okavango Delta in Botswana. This was a dream come true as we had been wanting to explore this area for years. Our two lodges (Camp Moremi and Camp Xugana) were absolutely beautiful. The terrain was so different from what we experienced in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The wildlife was amazing and diverse. The highlights included exhilarating high-speed trips through the reed-lined channels of the Delta in a motor boat and leisurely plying some of those same channels in flat-bottomed boats called, mokoros!
We ended our trip in Cape Town with a hike around Table Mountain to take in the beautiful vistas of the Cape. We toured around the entirety of the Cape and went into wine country to taste some of the finest wine South Africa has to offer. We were also fortunate enough to get a cultural tour into the town of Lunga by a local inhabitant which gave us a little insight into the day to day life of everyday South Africans.
We can’t wait for my next adventure with Sikeleli. We’re not sure of when and where, but we know it will be amazing.

The entire trip was amazing. Highlights were gorilla trek, Aruthusa and Camp Xugana

We were able to work within our budget and we planned well ahead so we were able to get to do what we wanted. espectially the gorilla trek.

The website was great to use. Having the itinerary and all the details available at the press of a button was wonderful. It was also nice to be able to download the itinerary so we had it offline to reference when we didn’t have access to wifi

I would absolutely recommend Sikeleli to friends and family and have already done so.”