Traveled in November 2021.
“Wow, where to begin! We had the most incredible honeymoon in Victoria Falls, Botswana, and South Africa. It was easily the best trip we’ve ever taken. A huge thank you to the Sikeleli team for putting it together!
We loved seeing the incredible diversity of environments and wildlife at each of our stops. Sunset river cruises on the Zambezi; the vast, open spaces and solitude of the Kalahari desert; the vibrant city life in Cape Town; and the amazing big-game sightings in the Sabi Sands. We saw a herd of 100-plus elephants swim the river, a mother cheetah and her two cubs on the hunt, a pride of lions at the waterhole, a rhino vs. hyena staring contest, buffalo fighting for dominance, and leopard cubs playing. We also got to hang out with a family of meerkats who used our heads as lookout perches! At every stop, we had luxurious accommodation, gourmet food, and perfect service.
Honestly, the so-called “camps” in the “bush” were nicer than many 5-star hotels in the US or Europe.
Although we traveled during the pandemic, we couldn’t imagine a better COVID trip than a safari, where we were outdoors and in wide open spaces pretty much the entire time. Testing and travel was made easy by Sikeleli, who arranged to have tests at each of our camps with minimal disruption to our day. And one of the major benefits of traveling during COVID was that none of our safari camps were fully booked, meaning there were multiple days where we had a “private” safari with us being the only guests with our guide.
Sikeleli was incredible throughout the entire process with scheduling and budget, particularly after we had to postpone our trip multiple times due to COVID. We originally planned to travel in May 2020, we postponed once to November 2020, and then had to postpone again until November 2021. Each time, Sikeleli seamlessly handled the rescheduling, largely keeping our original itinerary intact and on budget. And then when major new expenses arose (such as the cost of a helicopter nurse visiting us at Jack’s Camp in Botswana to do a COVID test), Sikeleli covered it.
We would recommend Sikeleli to anyone, and we already have!
Karen, our primary contact, was excellent — extremely responsive, knowledgeable, and easy to work with. She made our entire trip run smoothly from the moment we stepped off the plane from our flight to Africa until the moment we boarded our plane back to the US.
Fungai also assisted during the planning process and was equally excellent – she even met us at our first lodge to greet us when we arrived.
A major reason the trip went so well was Karen, Fungai, and the entire Sikeleli team. Thank you!
