Kimkim Trip Reviews for South Africa

Amazing itinerary and client-focused service by Deb! The itinerary was fairly complex since we were visiting 4 countries, but the activity selection, local guide selection, accommodations, and the *numerous* transfers were all seamless. We are so happy with our trip, and could not have done it without flawless execution by Deb. She was also very mindful of our budget and we felt she maximized the experience and value based on what we had planned on spending. Also amazingly responsive during our vacation whenever we had questions.

Hotel Review

Ivory Wilderness River Rock Lodge

Hoedspruit

Great accommodations, *impeccable* hospitality, and Craig was an amazing safari guide! It was 100% the highlight of our trip.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Private reserve, and can view so many animals right from the lodge deck.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

E-biking Day Tour Stellenbosch to Franschhoek

South Africa

Beautiful way to experience Stellenbosch.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Deborah could not have been more perfect from start to finish.

The start: we were taking a last minute vacation to South Africa as part of our honeymoon (I worked for an airline so that was feasible). When I say last minute, we were coming in a week!!! That was absolutely no problem for Deborah, who took it in stride, perfectly planning every detail from our time in Cape Town to our safari in Krueger. If you are considering working with Deborah, do it! Thanks again for making our trip one we’ll never forget.

We had an amazing time in South Africa and the ease of coordinating on KimKim and our specialist Carla was great. Would definitely book this way again!

Our honeymoon to South Africa was truly unforgettable, and we are already dreaming of our next safari trip. We wouldn’t change anything about the itinerary Petru helped us put together, other than adding more time! We can’t wait to be back and would use Petru again, especially with how communicative she is and how easily she helped us navigate having to delay our trip by 8 months due to Covid. Thanks for helping us create the best memories!

I was very impressed with Stephanie. She was wonderful and i would reccommend her and book with her again. We were loving our trip but then the Government of South Africa declared a national disaster and the Canadian Government ordered all Canadians abroad to come home so we needed to leave our trip early and forego our 2 nights at Addo Elephant park, our 3 night safari at Hlosi and our flight on safair back to Cape Town. Given the circumstances, I am extremely shocked and upset that we have not been refunded for the portion foregone. I am also still waiting on paperwork to show what we lost having to leave early so that i can at least try to make a claim through travel insurance. Please advise. Thank you, Brianna Davies

Our local specialist Deborah was fantastic in helping us organise the trip from start to finish. We encountered a few teething problems along the way to do with booking of flights but all issues were resolved to our total satisfaction without any fuss. Deborah also arranged excellent choice of on the ground personal guides and car transfers which all went very smoothly, they were all very professional and knowledgeable. All in all we would highly recommend Deborah and her team and would like to thank her for making our honeymoon so memorable in South Africa.

My friends and I had an AMAZING trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe. It was probably the best vacation of my life...and I've gone on a lot of vacations. Cindy was such a great agent, and she created an exceptional itinerary for us. I will definitely be telling all my friends to use her when planning their trips to the area. Thank you, Cindy!!

My wife and I traveled with another couple to Victoria Falls (2 nights) and South Africa. We toured the garden route (5 nights), had 3 nights in Cape Town, and had 2 nights at Inyati Game Lodge. Kimkim did an excellent job in making all our travel arrangements. This included internal flights, rental car, and all hotels. All our hotels were excellent with the exception of Ibhayi Guest Lodge in Port Elizabeth.

Our rooms in Victoria Falls Safari Lodge overlooked a watering hole. From our balcony we saw hyenas, elephants, zebras, giraffes, and multiple antelopes. Outside of Knysna we stayed at Brenton Haven. The rooms were large, self catering, and had excellent views of the beach. We also enjoyed the food at their restaurant.

Our last two nights were spent at the Inyati Game Lodge in Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve. Their food was excellent and plentiful. The rooms were also very nice. We loved our guide Diff and tracker Rodger and highly recommend both of them. We were fortunate to see a pack of dogs and a clan of hyenas fighting over a kill. We also saw a leopard in a tree eating an impala. Both Diff and Rodger were friendly and informative. Diff also would identify all the birds. We were able to see the big five before our trip was over.

The service from our travel specialist Lize was prompt and efficient. This included fulfilling our request to move our pick up time up by 30 minutes on our last day. (request was made at 9 am, pickup at 1230). She also arranged to have another couple added to our Cape Town tour with short notice.

This is the third trip my wife and I have taken with kimkim. We highly recommend them.

Stephanie was great, really helpful, knowlegable and able to work within our modest budget. Thoroughly recomend Stephanie and kim kim

Eon was excellent! He was very knowledgeable and gave us time to spend together as a family.
Thanks to Debra for all the helpful tips for the road trip as well!

Our 21 day South African “Investment Trip” was over the top in so many ways: tailor made itinerary by Carla and Deidre @ Salty Travel with revisions, figuring out and responding to our “wants”, including:
Lodgings:
*Cape Town/Presidents Hotel @Bantry Bay - 2 bedroom 2 en-suite bath sitting room and kitchenette, delicious European & full breakfast (eggs cooked to order), delightful staff and daily chocolates!
*Hermanus/Baleens Hotel - unique in style but very comfortable and close proximity to the beautiful beach, delicious cooked to order breakfast.
*Albertinia/Garden Route Game Lodge - “posh” and lovely, 2 adventure filled Safari drives (including ‘happy hour’ adult refreshments), delicious meals served in the Lodge with well appointed tables (linens, floral centerpieces), private and comfortable ‘mini’ self contained lodges with water hole views of animals coming in for a dip or drink.
*Knysna/Belvidere Manor - European styled bungalow 2 bed 2 bath, living room, fireplace and full kitchen fronting a large lawn with a swimming pool and lawn game courts from the lagoon-bay to the east and the Belvidere Manor to the west, Spectacular Service, delicious food and delightful Pub onsite! Clearly one of our favorites!
*Addo National Elephant/Schotia Private Game Reserve - our in the bush private ‘huts’ en-suite full bath, freestanding fireplace, beverage center, and a resident wild cat that guarded our residence,.fabulous guide who shared his outstanding knowledge of animals, habitats, and made the Safaris memorable!
*Kwalucia Private Safari Retreat - the absolute “highlight” of our trip - fabulous B & B hosted by Adrian and Marie Joubert, private, secluded, restful, beautiful extra large rooms with en-suite, personalized service, incredible, delicious, traditional South African food that made our stay EXTRA SPECIAL! Adrian also suggested a whale watching boat trip that also included deep sea fishing - catching a yellow fin tuna that was then prepared and served for our breakfast -SPECTACULAR memories and adventure on the water. Incredible atmosphere, service and friendship!
*Ermelo/Ermelo Inn - a quick overnight enroute to the Panorama Route Scenic drive. Adequate but very ho-hum compared to other “stays” - please note there were very FEW choices in Ermelo.
*Graskop/Graskop Inn - traditional, historical Inn with so much character! Individually designed/decorated en-suite rooms by South African artists & designers. This stay was treasured as we enjoyed an evening ‘a cappella’ serenade by hotel staff during dinner! The warm fun loving staff made this overnight stay WONDERFUL!
*Hoedspruit-Kruger Orpen Gate/ Tremisana Safari Lodge & Marc’s Treehouse Lodge - this was the most unique and in some ways least accommodating of our wonderful stays! We ‘chose’ this Safari lodging because it sounded fun, unique and accommodating. The bottom line - unique/yes, fun/yes because of kitchen & Safari staff, unique / NOT delivered as advertised - treehouses were anything but! ALL would never pass an inspection codes in the USA! We signed a liability waiver for good reason - so many unsafe situations (unsafe tree rooted walking paths to accommodations, poor lighting, electrical issues that left several guests “shocked” while showering, etc...) MAINTENANCE issues too numerous to list! YET, this accommodation will remain a favorite in spite of its ruggedness and disrepair (that could easily be corrected with a bit of infrastructure investment) because of the wonderful staff and fellow GUESTS (from around the world) that provided many discussions and giggles in a friendship forming environment. I can’t thank the cooks enough for a very special birthday cake with candles that was baked in the tiniest of ovens!
*Johannesburg /The Capital-on Bath - Carla had booked a 2 bedroom apartment, but we were initially placed in two separate rooms far apart in the hotel... after producing our printed itinerary to the staff a correction was quickly made and our accommodations were TOP NOTCH! The service was wonderful as well.

Tours arranged for by Carla and staff:
*Cape Town - Hop-on Hop-off - great way to see the city, becoming familiar with the surroundings (would highly recommend). It would have been nice to have pre-paid vouchers for Table Mountain but now reflecting back - we were very fortunate to even get to the top due to erratic weather!
*Robben Island Museum Tour - prearranged/prepaid tickets made this MUST SEE Cape Town landmark a wonderful trip without waiting in walk-up lines.
NOT INCLUDED ON ITINERARY-Cape Point/Boulder Beach/Cape of Good Hope private tour arranged by another private tour company once we realized the time and difficulty of doing it “self drive” - highly recommended when in Cape Town! .
*Spier Wine Farm - fabulous, wonderful setting, great wines and knowledgeable staff! Thanks for the recommendation!
*Garden Route Game Lodge - absolutely “posh” but a bit contrived as far as animals in “natural” environments. Being familiar with San Diego Zoo Park - not much different but the Garden Route Game Lodge is a whole lot farther away!
*Knysna - Knysna Eco Adventure/Featherbed Eco reserve (outstanding). In spite of a rainy day, we loved this active hiking Eco Tour! The Lodge, newly rebuilt after being leveled by a wildfire in 2017 was AMAZING! The buffet style lunch was incredible offering locally sourced fresh foods, some cooked South African meats, soups, salads, and Malva pudding or ice cream sundae bar!
*Addo Elephant Park - Schotia Private Game Reserve Safari included 2 dusk drives, 2 dawn break drives and 2 nighttime after dinner drives - EXCELLENT Safari GUIDE/Naturalist. Additional Safari to Addo Elephant National Park - outstanding opportunities to see over 8,000 + elephants in their natural surroundings.
*St. Lucia - Hippo & Croc Sunset Cruise - at best “okay” crowded with boats on the estuary.
*iSimangaliso Wetland Park Tour - UNESCO World Heritage Site - absolutely WONDERFUL!
One of the best Guides we had our whole trip! We didn’t get to snorkel due to high winds/waves but were allowed to wander the beach for two hours and then stopped at several beach heads on the tour!
NOT INCLUDED ON ITINERARY: but arranged by B & B host - a pre dawn departure whale watching (migration season) and deep sea fishing tour by a private provider... breath taking, incredible, thrilling and a MUST DO tour in St. Lucia!

Rental Cars
Cape Town delivery - seamless in the pouring rain - however we didn’t notice a sizable dent as a pre-existing damage during the initial inspection. When loading our luggage we then noticed the dent and took “time and date stamped” photos - we then presented photos at drop off in Port Elizabeth with no problems and no incurred charges!
Durban - airport pickup very easy but time consuming.
Hoedspruit /Eastgate Airport - Very Easy once we found The airport!

Maps/printed directions:
Schotia Game Reserve - drove right past it! Poorly marked! We were 1/2 hour late checking in and missed part of the afternoon game drive - Schotia Reserve was very accommodating and quickly made adjustments to deliver us to the tour already underway in the bush!
Hoedspruit Airport - directions took us to the South African Air Force Airport and after several local inquiries and our own GPS locator we finally found the Eastgate Private Airport/airstrip 1 hour later than anticipated!

SIM Card: unfortunately, not being familiar with SIM card replacement on my apple iPhone we thought we had accomplished the set up when in actuality we had NOT! We did rectify the issue six days into the trip. Fortunately, we did not have the EMERGENCY of NEED to use the SIM card but we did have the USA based SIM card with us and could have used it for an expensive option if absolutely needed. Very minor detail that was easily corrected.

OVERALL - our itinerary was wonderful and the website information was easy to refer to, maps were primarily correct (our experience with Google or Garmin GPS is 95% accurate) useful and helpful. We certainly appreciated Carla’s accommodating us via Skype on several occasions - even though our emailing was equally useful - talking to and seeing who you are working with is MOST ASSURING! The importance of working with local travel specialists ie, Carla, Deidre and Shonna @ Salty Travel is ADVANTAGEOUS ! We would HIGHLY RECOMMEND others to use Kim Kim Travel and their localized selected travel specialists.

We had a great trip to southern Africa! Deb booked everything we asked for and more. Our favorite experiences included shark cage diving in South Africa, the Chobe photographic safari with Pangolin lodge in Botswana, a great Kruger safari, and the eye opening Soweto tour in Johannesburg. Beautiful parts of the world with comfortable lodging and memorable moments. Deb took away all of the logistical issues I was stressed about when I initially started planning, and incorporated experiences I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Loved it!

First, I need to thank Deborah and Tara from Eglin Africa Travel in Cape Town for their recommendations and for planning & arranging an amazing two week holiday in Africa. This was important as my family celebrated my wife's 60th while away.
I cannot recommend their services highly enough - real five star support right throughout the process and they even created a WhatsApp group so we could communicate while away.
Deborah recommended amazing hotels in Cape Town and Stellenbosch and three fantastic game lodges in Khwai, Chobe and Victoria Falls.
Two of the lodges were Pangolin Photo Safaris. Each guest is given a Canon 80D DSLR camera with a 150-600 telephoto lens and taught how to use it to take fantastic photos of the amazing wild animals in Africa. My entire family, none of who have photographic experience beyond an iPhone, really enjoyed the experience and we have hundreds of photos of lion, leopard, elephant, hippo and the amazing African antelope and birds.
If you travel to Africa, please contact Deborah and Tara.

The rafting trip was well organised and a great day out !

This is the third time I’ve used kimkim to help with my travel planning. Clearly they work with the best travel specialists in the world. For my South African adventure kimkim connected me with Elgin Africa, I couldn’t have asked for a better match!

Deborah contacted me first, she got back to me right away with answers for my questions about budget and best time to visit South Africa. After couple of emails I knew I was in good hands.

Tara contacted me second, she was wonderful from the start, always available to quickly and patiently answer any questions, worked around my budget and tailored the itinerary based on the list of places and experiences I wanted.

This trip was amazing largely to Tara’s impeccable planning, I never had to worry about a transfer, guide (the guides that Elgin Africa works with are wonderful), or accommodation, everything was perfect!

While traveling, Deborah and Tara checked up on me often making sure everything was running smoothly and that I was enjoying my trip.

Anybody planning to visit South Africa should contact Elgin Africa, they are the best!

We had two tours- one with Eon and one with Lisa- and both were wonderful! Eon took us to the wine country- 3 wineries and lunch- and Lisa took us on a scenic tour of the peninsula- Cape Point, Boulders Beach- and lunch at Two Oceans. We cannot say enough about them- both guides were so knowledgeable, fun, interesting, attentive, sweet- we were so very impressed! Would definitely recommend both to our family and friends.

We had a truly great trip. We spoke with Deborah and Tara beforehand and they planned everything out perfectly. All great choices for accommodations, tours and guides. Also, they stayed in touch with us the whole time to make sure we had no problems or to make additional suggestions on the go. So glad we found them and KimKim!! Seth Jacobson

We were quite apprehensive embarking on this trip due to the fear of the unknown. However, right from the onset our fears were allayed by the excellent planning by Tara and her team and the constant follow up throughout the trip. We felt assured that if we ran Into any problems, they would be taken care of by Tara.
Overall the iterarany planned between Tara and us was excellent!!! The only suggestion we would have is for the day trip to the Drakensberg should be done in two days if time allows. Otherwise you end up driving over 12 hours in a day!!!
The Earth Stompers tour was absolutely fantastic!!! Our guide Christine deserves many kudos as she dealt with everything with expertise and a constant smile!!!
Tours organizers in St. Lucia we’re also awesome. We were very happy with the game we saw and we would certainly recommend Cape Vidal. Our guide Arno was beyond amazing. His knowledge, passion for his job and again a constant smile made the tour incredibly fun.

Overall a fantastic trip!!! South Africa is beautiful and so are the people.

Please note that this review pertains to the Elgin Africa travel agency, and is not a reflection of the small group tour we joined, which was delightful.

My boyfriend and I chose to use KimKim because of the wonderful reviews and business model – offering customized, local attention for a 5% service fee. We are economical travelers and have spent nights in modest quarters (including a tent in the desert without heating, cooling or a personal toilet). Which is why we specifically described our accommodation needs as “something comfortable, but it does not need to be luxurious. Comfortable and affordable will do as we do not intend to spend much time confined to a room.” However, we quickly realized while on our trip that we had been hoodwinked into needlessly extravagant lodgings. On our first night we were booked in a 5 star hotel with amenities that, since our flight was not scheduled to land until nearly 11 pm, we could not even take advantage of. In addition, during the group tour, we discovered we had been booked at completely separate and more expensive accommodations than the rest of our group. On one night we had an entire two story, two bedroom “castle” with a balcony overlooking citrus orchards completely to ourselves. Does that sound like comfortable and affordable to you? Several other couples on the tour had backpacker en suites; yet we were never even provided that option. Being separated from the group was far from ideal and required extra busing back and forth, less time with our companions, and a greater expense.

We also discovered, during the course of the trip, that none of the added activities we had scheduled were included in the final price. Why, then, was it imperative to know which activities we would participate in to finalize the bill? We presumed, since we were not given the final invoice until after we determined our full course of activities, that the activities were included in the total price. What an unpleasant surprise to discover mid-trip.

In fact, now knowing the true cost of the group trip (based on materials emailed directly from the tour company), we actually appear to have been overcharged at least ZAR6,600 given that our only extras on top of the tour were a one night hotel stay and an airport transfer. After the trip concluded, I sent a note to the specialists asking to see an itemized breakdown from the trip as well as a rationale for why we were not offered the backpackers en suite option, but have received zero response.

Using a service like KimKim I expected much better. My boyfriend and I debated greatly amongst ourselves over the cost of the trip, but we certainly did not presume we were being exploited. Since we may never have another opportunity to visit South Africa, we made sacrifices to pay for the trip only to find out after that we could have paid far less. Elgin Africa did not provide full transparency and tricked us into the most expensive accommodations package with no apparent motive beyond fattening their own wallets.

Deborah was a fantastic tour guide and helped us to find 2 amazing once in a lifetime tours.
Kruger national park was amazing and hosted by an awesome local guide who showed us the big 5 and more. Everything went really smoothly with meeting the guide and Deborah and Tara were super helpful ensuring we were collected and happy throughout the trip.
The second part of our holiday was doing the garden route which again was a fantastic experience and showed us many of the best sights!
I'd really recommend Deborah and Tara to anyone going to S Africa as they helped us find 2 great tours that were perfect for us and ensured we had an amazing holiday!
Thanks again!
Zoe and Rob