I like to think of myself as a low maintenance girl, but the truth is, I’m not. And that’s ok. Work hard play hard. So when I, with my parents, husband and daughter decided to take the trip of a lifetime to South Africa, every detail was really important. We knew we wanted a mix of a Safari vacation with a visit to Capetown.
For the Safari, all I had heard about was Kruger National park and then nothing else. My entire view of SA was really what I knew through friends I met during their visits to the US. I found Natalie and although she didn’t have that many reviews, she beat out two other well-known companies because of her attention to detail, her exceptional hotel recommendations and her anticipation of what we might need.
Mhondoro Safari Lodge
For example, when looking for Safari lodges to stay at, she asked whether we were ok being in the malaria zone because my daughter is 10 and parents are older. I had no idea the park was in the malaria zone and none of the other travel agents mentioned this to me! Instead, Natalie found us a fantastic 5 star lodge in Welgevonden reserve (Mhondoro Game Lodge) where we had the absolute best guide (Ivan!) and staff ever. She also booked us on a charter flight from Johannesburg to the reserve and back, and then the domestic flights from Johannesburg to Capetown and back (we had already booked the international flights on our own).
During our trip, Natalie even went online and checked us in for our flights! She also arranged for executive meet and greet services for all our intra-country transfers which helped a ton. Natalie also did an excellent job of booking all road transfers for us and every driver was at least 10 minutes early – we never had to wait – and super friendly and helpful. She told all hotels, restaurants, etc. that I was gluten-free, she was always available via WhatsApp during our vacation and we even met her for lunch while out for a day tour of Stellenbosch & the winelands – so nice to put her pretty face to a name.
Stellenbosch Winelands
All in all, I would HIGHLY recommend Natalie and the Travel Advisor team for any travel in Southern Africa (in addition to S. Africa, I believe she also does Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and some other southern African countries). Natalie has set an extremely high standard and I wish I could just take her back home with me to organize the rest of my life!