Christmas & New Year Tours & Trips in Africa

What people love about Christmas & New Year Tours in Africa

• Traveled in November

  5

  Great tour with increasingly exciting adventures, a fantastic group leader, wonderful driver and comfortable accommodation.

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  Dunes, Deltas & Falls Discoverer
• Traveled in May

  5

  Honestly Liz made the whole tour

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  19-day Cape Town to Victoria Falls (Camping)
• Traveled in April

  4.5

  I'd decided to do this tour for the animals, landscapes and the fact it was a good length of time, being not too long or too short. It covered a vast area of Southern Africa, in just under a month, making staying in a tent for many nights bearable and keeping on the move kept the excitement high. Our guides were very informative and extremely helpful, clearly knowledgeable in all aspects of Africa and on the rare occasion that they did not know the answer to something, they would be determined to find out for us, meaning the trip was not only incredibly enjoyable, but it was an education too. The meals were amazing, we never expected to be fed as well as we were. I was wary of African food, thinking we would be having to try strange and unfamiliar dishes, but most of them were dishes from home, ranging from spag bol to sausage and mash! Cereal, toast, eggs and pancakes for breakfasts and sandwiches/pasta/potato salad for lunch. But then we ate out a couple of times and quite often had the option to taste something completely new, such as Kudu, Zebra, springbok etc so the variety was always there with the option to play it safe too! The truck was bumpy as it clambered over rocky terrain, particularly driving through dry and dusty Namibia. But with the amazing scenery and landscapes, you didn't have time to notice. My face was pressed against the window much of the time looking for the next animal! Sometimes the drives could be very long and you would cover up to 600km a day, so bringing forms of entertainment with you is a very good idea! The campsites on the whole, were not bad, with most having ablution blocks and relatively decent showers and toilets; things I did not expect to have quite so many of so I had prepared myself to make do and now wish I had taken small trivial accessories like a bit more make up or possibly jewellery; especially for when we visited a town or city, or everyone dressed up a bit more to go for a meal out. Some campsites also had a pool and although small and cold, they were perfect for when you just wanted to climb off the hot truck and cool yourself down. It was a shame that after 19 days we changed to a completely new truck and tour guides. Though the new guides were good, I found myself missing our previous ones and our group which had dispersed at Livingstone, having spent 24/7 with them for the previous 19 days. Heading to Johannesburg, it felt as though we were getting a lift home. Unfortunately our Shangaan tribal cultural evening was cancelled and we were placed on a sunset game drive around Kruger National Park instead, which was disappointing. One of the reasons my boyfriend and I had booked to go on the tour was for the people and the culture and we were really gutted that it was changed on that day. The sunset game drive was average as we were placed on an open truck with a group of older Americans who had obviously just arrived and were getting excited at all the animals we had seen so many of already and began to ask some slightly daft questions. So it became a little tedious. But I'm certainly not wanting to put the Kruger down at all, because it was an amazing place to have an all-day game drive around. We saw such a variety of animals, including a leopard lazing around in a tree. And our guide would hear of a sighting on the radio and do a full turn in the road, speeding off to take us to see something immediately; he was great and the game drive was a lot of fun! I would highly recommend it. Speaking of the Kruger, in the last 5/6 days we had with the new group, I would say that the National Park was probably one of the only things I stayed on the trip to do and if it hadn't have been for that one day and two nights there, I probably would have stuck with the 19 day Desert Tracker and left at Livingstone. I would recommend that if the Kruger does not bother you (though I highly doubt that) then I would suggest staying with the 19 day tour. The only real main issue we had was the confusion with extra money. We had been told that it was fine to use US Dollars everywhere in every country we went to, but as soon as we started on the tour, we suddenly needed local currency which immediately became an issue as we started to realise we did not have enough. There were plenty of cash points and bureau de changes around along the route but we became unsure if we were going to be charged for withdrawing money; and that was if our cards even worked. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't and it was worrying when they didn't as on some occasions we had to feed ourselves. One of our group even got his card swallowed by a cash point and had to wait all afternoon just for the bank to open it up so he could retrieve it. I'd definitely recommend having extra money for each country on top of the local payment of USD. South African Rand, Namibian Dollars, Botswana Pula, Zambian Kwacha. My Highlights: Etosha, Chobe, Kruger National Parks and game drives Victoria Falls, Elephant ride at Livingstone (Optional Activity and something you have to pay for yourself) Lion Encounter at Livingstone (Optional Activity and something you have to pay for yourself) Cheetah Encounter and being able to touch them Getting very close to wild elephants on game drives and at the watering hole at one campsite Chobe River Cruise

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  25-day Cape Town to Victoria Falls & Kruger (Camping)