“As long time T&L (Travel & Leisure Magazine) readers and subscribers, we want to tell you about our recent trip to South Africa, Botswana, Zambia & Namibia, and to nominate our Tour Operator, African Safari Consultants, for your 2012 A-List. We were celebrating our 20th anniversary, and wanted to plan a “trip of a lifetime.” We knew we wanted to go to Africa, but had no idea where to start or how to narrow down our choices. Enter African Safari Consultants. With over fifteen years of experience, and a wonderful, informative website, ASC’s head honchos Jeff Ward in NY and Liesl Matthews in Cape Town worked tirelessly with us to figure out which countries, habitats, and lodges would best suit our needs. They were wonderful at planning a trip that fit our budget, and the varied needs of two old fogies, as well as our teenage children. They were endlessly patient as we went back and forth about cost, level of luxury, and types of lodges, giving advice that was helpful, accurate, and based on a thorough first-hand knowledge of the locations we were considering. They even considered when we would need unscheduled down time (after our two day journey from IAH-LHR-CPT), and when we would be happy to go-go-go.
We were particularly cognizant of the value of having someone in NY and in Cape Town looking out for us when, in the middle of our trip, a Chilean volcano eruption caused the cancellation of one of our flights. Liesl quickly got us rebooked and all of our downline transfers re-organized so that we were able to rejoin our intended itinerary as soon as the skies cleared. This had the potential to be a nightmare, but ended up being a small blip on our radar screens thanks to the excellent in-country support of ASC.
Our expectations were high, but our trip far surpassed them. Every part of the trip was just as advertised by the folks at ASC. There were no unpleasant surprises, and we would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone planning a trip to Africa.
We would be happy to answer any questions you might have about our experience with ASC.”
Jill & John Pollock, Houston, TX
