Bench Africa Reviews 

Absolutely amazing!

Some of the hotels could use a bit of a spice up but apart from that it was just amazing!!

Awesome tour. Will absolutely be recommending the tour to my clients.

Thankyou Bench for taking care of all of the fine details and arrangements so that we could enjoy the most magnificent trip! So many incredible, unforgettable experiences!

One of the best experiences of my life, would happily recommend Bench, the trip was amazing and our tour operator Maria was perfect!

One of the best weeks of my life! Crew were great, accommodation fantastic and I loved how it was all inclusive. Food was exceptional.

All the arrangements made by Bench within Africa were excellent, our connections and pick ups were where we were told to expect them and it was friendly professional service.

Most amazing trip ever. Every little thing was thought of and the full experience was amazing. I would travel again with Bench in a heartbeat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bench Africa were amazing! Travelling through Botswana with three young children was always going to be tough, but the Bench team had everything organised and chose the most suitable camps for a family like ours. The all inclusive activities were brilliant, especially the doors free helicopter ride over the Okavango Delta. We felt so spoiled the whole way.

Tanzania:
Our Leopard Tours driver/guide in Tanzania, Michael Lucas was outstanding - very knowledgable, thoughtful, helpful, accomodating, good sense of humour & all round nice guy. We were all very sad to say good bye at the Kenya border!

The standard of accomodation overall was fantastic! Mount Meru Hotel, Ngorongoro Farm House, Serengeti Sopa lodge all excellent but the tented camps were our favourites! Kirumuru was just great but the Satao Elerai Camp blew our minds - probably our favourite accomodation anywhere in the world!

Kenya:
Again, our Southern Cross Tours driver/guide in Kenya, Freddie was outstanding - very knowledgable, thoughtful, helpful, accomodating, good sense of humour & all round nice guy. We were all very sad to say good bye at the the end of the safari.

The only massive disappointment for the trip was arriving late in the day at Satao Elerai & not having any real time to enjoy this fabulous camp. We definitely should have stayed an absolute minimum of 2 nights but were rushed away straight after an early breakfast to transit to the next overnight stop at down town Nairobi! We just could not understand why we would suffer hours of peak hour traffic & a huge day in the car, only to end up in a hotel room in a major city - not what we came for at all! There appears to be no rational reason to go through Nairobi at all. All of us would much rather have spent an extra night at Satao Elerai, enjoyed the sunset cocktails on the deck chairs & and some chill out time around the pool & found another route to Masai Mara - avoiding Nairobi at all costs (even if this meant adding an extra night to the package).

Masai Mara Game Reserve was amazing as was Lake Nakuru. The Masai Mara Sopa Lodge was a bit of a disappointment (very tired & in need of a major refurbishment) but the Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge was absolutely fabulous - could easily have spent another night there also!

Overall, we loved the trip but if the above mentioned changes could be made to the itinerary, it would be absolutely outstanding

Above and beyond. Maria our agent was incredible. We sent Bench our budget, timeframe and what a very vague brief of what we would like to see. From the moment we connected with Bench, we knew we were in good hands. Every detail of our honeymoon was organised, our brief was matched and we didn't have to worry about a thing! We had the most incredible experiences in Kenya & Zanzibar and our honeymoon was truly once in the lifetime. The places we stayed, the food, the services and everything in between was 5 star +++

Had a terrific 2 week holiday in Africa. Bench travel were fantastic in organising our holiday and making sure we got the most out of our break. The highlight was staying at leopard Hills reserve and being completely looked after by Duncan and his team. Cant thank Bench enough

Once again Maria did a fantastic job of organising our African adventure.
Our private tour of Namibia by Ultimate Safaris was excellent with a truly wonderful guide and very well equipped safari vehicle. Although many of the roads are terrible, the scenery and animal encounters more than make up for it. Paying the extra for a private tour rather than the group tour is well worth it.
The Cape Cadogan Boutique Hotel in Cape Town was wonderful. Great location, large well equipped rooms and caring staff.
Marataba Safari Lodge, in north west South Africa, has to be in one of the most stunning locations in Africa. The lodge has a large concession in the Marakele National Park, which is home to most of the African animals you expect to see on safari. A luxury experience, but unfortunately a boring 4 hour drive from Jo'berg.
Madikwe Safari Lodge is also a 4 hour drive from Jo'berg, in the Madikwe Game Reserve. A wonderful luxury lodge with great food and intimate service, however the Reserve is so large, that finding many of the animals can become a frustrating experience.
Ilios Travel and South African Airways both provided reliable, on time transfers and flights during our trip.
This was our 4th trip to Africa, but will certainly not be our last!

All good. Thanks.

Following our trip I would like to say it was the most amazing trip we have ever been on.

The food and accomodation was outstanding, in particular Amalinda's stunning rooms. Ivory Lodge was equally as excellent and their staff first class.

Of note also was the Shindzela Camp where the atmosphere and natural bush environment was amazing.

The days were sometimes long traveling but always worth it when we arrived at the next destination.

Our Guide, Dumi was brilliant. He assisted and guided us throughout the journey and everybody felt totally safe in his care.

Overall we were thrilled with the service we received from Lyndal at Bench Africa. The most positive aspect was her knowledge of all of Africa, particularly the areas we were interested in. She helped us narrow down our choices and the holiday was a perfect blend of action, adventure and relaxation.

I had a great trip. A few minor discomforts but I would (and have) recommended Bench to anyone considering and African holiday. The guides and drivers from Ilios travel were great; the bus was a little uncomfortable (seats too narrow).
We saw so much wildlife at the various safari parks; so fortunate!
I also loved the bird life and the Botanical Garden tour.
Accommodation everywhere was very good. In Durban we stayed at The Benjamin Hotel. That room was a little small; difficult to place luggage etc.
Otherwise it was okay. All meals provided were excellent. The meals we paid for were very reasonable, as was alcohol (compared to Aussie prices).
Victoria Fall and Botswana exceeded our expectations.

We very recently returned from our amazing family holiday to Kenya, Zanzibar and Egypt. Each country was uniquely different and beautiful. It truly was an adventure that we all loved. Our tour guides were all wonderful and full of local knowledge, the hotels were all beautiful, I only wish that we had more time to spend there! Everything went smoothly, we felt completely safe and most of all the kids were never bored!. This was definitely a holiday that we will remember forever.

Bench did an excellent job of organization. Everything was in place on time, except the pickup was not present at our arrival in Johannesburg. We were very late coming through immigration (over 90 minutes), and when we arrived, the pickup had taken other passengers on ahead. Which is ok except we had to ask another driver to ring the company to find out they were coming back for us. It is very uncomfortable to arrive somewhere and find yourself on your own.

All the tours were excellent, starting with Kruger NP and we were extremely lucky to see all of the animals in the first day.
The accommodation was top class in every case and meals were fine.

The downside was lots of hours in the uncomfortable bus, sometimes with no air conditioning. Driving down the Garden Route could have been anywhere, as there was nothing especially African about the countryside. I personally had very little interest in the cities, although Capetown was interesting because of Table Mountain. Again, we were lucky to have a spectacular day for our visit - warm, no clouds, no wind.

If we had gone home from there, I would have been very disappointed with the trip, with only three or four days truly African.

The extension to Victoria Falls and especially Chobe NP was the redemption for the whole trip. In particular Camp Kazuma. Straight out of a movie with safari over the open savanna, the lodge with elephants right out the front, amazing people and fantastic service. Would go back in a second.

Steph from Bench Africa did a great job with recommendations and our bookings. Her specialist knowledge was invaluable.