Alluring Africa — Local services in Orlando

We (two couples who have traveled extensively together internationally for about 25 years) have just returned from an unbelievable trip to South Africa and Victoria Falls that was excellent in every way. It was the most seamless, well organized, and supported trip we have ever experienced. Susan Neva from Alluring Africa was superb in every aspect of her recommendations, planning, support, communications, and customer service in putting the details of the trip together.

We divided our trip between about 10 days in multiple safari locations and Victoria Falls, and 10 days in Cape Town and the nearby Whale Coast and Cape Winelands. A combination of multiple small scheduled and charter flights were required to get us to the best safari locations, and each transfer was absolutely perfectly synchronized. The safari lodges Susan booked for us - particularly Kirkman’s Kamp in Sabi Sand Reserve adjacent to Kruger National Park, and Phinda Mountain Lodge in the Phinda Reserve are among the best in the World - combined outstanding game viewing with terrific meals, experiences, exceptional totally inclusive service, beauty, and atmospheres. We saw more wildlife (leopards, lions, cheetahs, herds of elephants, rhinos, hippos, African wild dogs, hyaenas, giraffes, kudus, baboons, warthogs, wildebeast, and numerous others), often within five feet of our safari vehicles, in numbers and engaged in activities we did not think possible. Our guides and animal trackers were outstanding and went deep into the bush to find the best viewing, our accommodations were terrific, and although we were much, much closer to the wildlife than we ever considered possible, we never felt at risk because of the professionalism of the staff. All other aspects of the trip were equally of the highest quality possible.

I will provide just a couple of examples of Susan Neva’s exceptional value. When we first arrived in Johannesburg after a 16 hour flight from Atlanta, we were met when we first departed the door of the plane (before we had ever passed through South African Customs) by Susan’s representatives to guide us through Customs. They took us to an expedited line for Customs clearance that bypassed everyone else that was waiting, and we were in our vehicle heading to our first outstanding small, intimate guest house to rest up before transfer to our first safari lodge - The Residence - within 10 minutes of landing. The 5 star accommodations and the outstanding meal and spa that greeted us started our three weeks in South Africa in a phenomenal way.

A second example is the day we were supposed to transfer by charter plane from Sabi Sand Private Game Preserve to the Kruger National Park airport, and then a second charter plane from Kruger to Phinda Private Game Preserve. We were told by our Kirkman’s Kamp host the night before that the weather conditions (early morning fog and wind) for our next morning flight were not going to allow the flight to Kruger to occur, but that Susan’s resources had already reorganized the itinerary to provide for a driver and ground transportation to Kruger, and the charter flight to Phinda was still going to occur. We did not have to worry about one thing, and the rescheduled transfers occurred seamlessly.

We recommend Alluring Africa and particularly Susan Neva to anyone if you are going to Southern Africa! I have planned most of our own trips for over 50 years and consider myself an expert trip planner, but I never could have put the complex details of this particular trip together without using Susan, who has been named Best in the World by Travel and Leisure for planning trips to this...

Thank you Coral and Alluring Africa, Wow, it really was a trip of a lifetime.  Using Alluring Africa was a great decision for us. They are a smaller company, but very good at what they do. There are so many safari travel companies to chose from, it is hard to know where to start. Alluring Africa and Coral were fantastic. They created an experience we will never forget and a trip we will measure all our other travel against. From planning to scheduling and then traveling, everything was easy with Coral as our travel specialist. Coral can help you create a itinerary that meets all your needs and desirers. This was our first trip to Africa and Coral was able to work with us and come up with an itinerary that included gorilla trekking and safaris, was in budget and fit in the timeline we had available for this travel. Coral gave us options on lodging that helped us maintain our budget and still receive 5 star level service. The final travel document that Coral provided us was very detailed, including schedules, flight times, points of contact for all reservations, country details, and tip guidelines. We even had a pre trip FaceTime meeting and a post travel call. Both were very helpful and informative. Our itinerary included 6 flights in Africa, 7 hotels/lodges over a two week period.  We can’t thank Coral enough for such a well-organized trip, the travel was seamless and all the individuals we met (drivers, guides, airport support..) were fantastic.  The lodging choices were great; from Four Rosemead in Cape town, Kigali Serena and The Bishop’s House in Rwanda, and Katambuga House(Arusha), The Highlands (Ngorongoro), Nimali Mara (Northern Serengeti), Airport Planet Lodge (day room Kilimanjaro) in Tanzania. The only thing we would have changed was to add one more night to our stay at the Highlands.  With the drive time to and from the airport we did feel “rushed” on that part of the trip and wished we would have spent one more night. I’m not sure what we expected when we went out the door to start our trip, but the from the greeting in Cape town to the departure from the Serengeti having “escorts” every where we went was amazing! Coral’s planning included personal airport greetings, private transportation, private guides, and our own safari vehicle. Having the same drivers and guides at each stop really does add to the experience as you build a relationship with them. Coral, thank you for giving a heads up to both camps about our anniversary they both provided a special celebration that will be...

An Africa safari has been on my bucket list for 25 years. I have travelled extensively over the years. Finally, a trip of a lifetime with African Bush Camps arranged by Coral at Alluring Africa! Two years ago I started working with a local travel agency, and the experience became so frustrating and overwhelming as we wanted bush camps, real and authentic Africa and the choices presented weren’t that. Eight months later I found ABC and Coral…our Safari was everything we wanted, although I do wish we had added a 4th camp!

Kanga Expeditions, Mana Pools in Hwange Nation Park, Zimbabwe is a must!! Every minute was a memorable experience here, the elephants up close and personal drinking from the pool!! Look both ways before exiting the lodge as there is an elephant highway at the foot of the stairs! Love this! The sounds at night exhilarating and at first frightening, yet we loved it. The morning we left, 22 lions were feasting on a kill and we drove right up to them as it was on the road out of camp!! We saw elephants, zebra, lions, etc. Somalisa in Zimbabwe was our next bush camp, here we saw our beloved giraffes, of course hundreds of elephants, we tracked down the elusive mom leopard teaching her cub how to hunt! Here I woke to a giant couple of lions walking by our deck at 3am in the morning!! Talk about memorable experience! Linyanti Bush Camp in Botswana was our 3rd…Great Plains loaded with herds of elephants in the HUNDREDS, zebra and water buffalo too!! We had to rush past as our guide knew we did not want to be in the middle of hundreds of elephants!! The lions were super active here and on the hunt daily!! The swamp milkweed a great hiding place! We saw hippos here in Chobe National Park and wild dogs!! Our guides Reggie, Robert, Max, Brighton and Dolphis are experts in what they do, they know every inch of the parks and we trusted them completely at every turn and up close encounter!! A big shout out too to Sam and Savannah too. African Bush Camps is your ticket to authentic bush camp safari’s!! Wilderness Air was phenomenal too!! Thank you Coral for listening and delivering everything we asked for!! Remarkable teams throughout our trip! And we loved the Manor House on the waterfront in Capetown, loved the penguins and the journey to The Cape...