Insider's Guide To Africa

Aardvark safaris took excellent care of us and crafted an itinerary that was tailored for our family traveling with an 11 year old daughter. We explored diverse landscapes including the dunes in Namibia to the remote Hwange national park in Zimbabwe. The transitions were seamless and the lodges took extra care to make the experience unforgettable. The Imvelo properties were the perfect mix of rustic and luxury and allowed for great wildlife sightings. We were lucky to see the African painted dogs twice! Thanks to Jo at Aardvark safaris for her attentive care and service! We are already thinking about our next adventure!

Staying at the Elephant Watch Camp in Samburu National Park was out of this world. The day trips on Safari in an open jeep were magnificent, with our guides William & Peter who were Samburu tridesman. They managed to find all the animals we wished to see. The accommodation was far better & completely different than expected. It was welcoming, spotlessly clean & so relaxing. Brilliant showers - the best ever!!
The food was outstanding, plentiful using fresh local produce. Evening meals were sometimes served by the river with log fires.
The Samburu tribe people were an absolute joy to be with. They were friendly, informative, very humorous & went out of their way to help us. All the staff in the camp led by Bernard were wonderful & helpful people.
One of our highlights of our camp stay was watching the sun going down after a walk to the top of a hill & where we were greeted with a big open fire & the Samburu tridesman dressed in their fabulous local clothes singing & chanting songs.

After leaving the Elephant Watch Camp reluctantly we headed south to Chale Island & again we were certainly not disappointed. The Hotel room was very spacious with a balcony & stunning views.
Gorgeous beach & pools should you prefer. Towels were given for the beds & also a rolled up for your neck. Really first class
There were several restaurants serving delicious foods with local fresh fish & other local produce. The breakfast served gorgeous fresh fruit including Prosecco.
If you wanted there was lots of activities. We went on a great Kayaking experience which was a two hour guided kayaking tour through the Mango Forest. It was lots of fun, tranquil & we spotted lots of bird life.
Unfortunately again our fantastic stay came to an end but It’s something we will never forget !!

We would like to say a huge thank you to Aardvark Safaris for the meticulous & thoughtful planning of our holiday.
There choice of location, accommodation were First Class & there recommendation of VIP meet & greats at the airports was hugely beneficial. We never had to worry about any aspect of travelling as all our needs were taking care of.
A holiday of a lifetime!

We have just got back from a truly amazing Safari in Botswana bookend through Robyn at Aardvark Safaris. Initially we were recommended to them by a friend of ours. Well what a recommendation that was, it was so easy to book, Robyn took care of everything for us and it worked out perfectly from start to finish. Her knowledge was amazing which I think made our holiday so amazing and stress free.
The only downside is that it was so good, we are both so in love with Botswana and can’t wait to go back and do it all over again. The best holiday we have ever had and we have travelled all over the world.

We had an absolutely fantastic experience with Aardvark Safaris and would happily recommend them to anyone planning a special African holiday.

From the very beginning, Maddy was wonderful to deal with — warm, responsive, knowledgeable and incredibly thoughtful throughout the planning process. She took the time to understand what would work best for our family, including travelling with our four-year-old son, and created an itinerary that felt exciting, seamless and perfectly suited to us.

Every detail was carefully considered, from the accommodation and transfers to the safari experience itself. The trip ran incredibly smoothly, and we always felt well looked after. Our stay at Saruni Mara was unforgettable, and the whole holiday gave us memories we will treasure for years.

Maddy was not only highly professional but also genuinely caring and enthusiastic about making the trip special for us. Her communication before, during and after the holiday was excellent, and it was a pleasure liaising with her.

Thank you to Maddy and the entire Aardvark Safaris team for organising such an incredible family adventure. A very well-deserved five stars.

We have just had the most magical family holiday, organised by Jo Ainscough at Aardvark Safaris. We went on safari to Kulandila and Sungani Camps in Zambia followed by a week at Azura Resort on Benguerra Island, Mozambique. Jo worked tirelessly to make our quite vague wishes a reality. This involved multiple flights, being met and guided through airports to make our trip as seamless as possible. And, thanks to Aardvark and Jo thinking of everything, it was seamless. Their recommendations - the places we stayed - not only fitted what we wanted they exceeded our expectations. Our travel days were organised meticulously and made super easy and smooth. BA cancelled our flight to South Africa so we were delayed by a day and Jo managed to find alternatives for us at super short notice that meant that we recovered some of our 24 hour delay and ended up only missing 8 hours of the original itinerary. Always available, professional, nothing was too much trouble, our trip was organised to perfection and we can wholeheartedly recommend them. THANK YOU AARDVARK!

Really excellent help, advice and work planning a big adventure for our family.

Amazing trip. Interactions and communications with Jo at Aardvark were excellent throughout, from planning and preparation to execution. Meet and greet at Kigali airport and handover to my wonderful and knowledgeable driver was seamless and made everything easy. A tour of stunning Kigali and a visit to the genocide museum is a very recommended start. Poignant and sobering, but also the contrast to how far beautiful Rwanda has come from those dark times sets the scene for the rest of the trip, which is full of optimism and recovery. Five volcanos national park is awesome. Gorilla trekking is well organised and led by superb guides and trackers. Sharing time with gorilla families was such a amazing and humbling experience that it is difficult to put into words. I will never forget it. Visit to the Golden monkeys is also very worthwhile and a gentle introduction to acclimatise to the altitude. Accommodation at Five volcanoes boutique was excellent. Friendly staff, lovely rooms and excellent food. Only a short drive to the national park centre where trekking was organised. I was travelling alone on this trip and having the same driver for the whole trip really made it special. Dieudonné was highly knowledgable, super friendly, enthusiastic and an excellent trip companion. All in all, a fantastic trip organised through Aardvark, my second time with them and looking forward to the next!!

My wife and I used Aardvark to book a safari for our honeymoon in June 2026. Aardvark were recommended to us by someone we met on another holiday, and we'll now recommend Aardvark to anyone we know that wants to go on a safari!

Before booking, the team at Aardvark (first Emily, then Jo) helped us consider options that worked with our budget across a few different countries and set out the pros and cons of each.

After we settled on an option (Zambia for 11 nights) a personalised holiday plan was provided along with a load of other information which helped us prepare for our first safari. The communication was incredible throughout.

The local company that Aardvark booked through were incredible. We stayed at three different Green Safaris properties - Tongabezi Lodge in Livingstone, Potato Bush Camp in the Lower Zambezi and Shawa Luangwa Lodge in South Luangwa.

At every lodge the facilities and staff were amazing. All of the safari trips were incredible. They were aware it was our honeymoon and made an extra effort (ran a bath with rose petal in it on our arrival, for example) We're vegetarian and the lodges made a big effort to accomodate us - at one we had a meeting with the chef to discuss our likes and dislikes.

Green safaris also appeared to be a far more positive company than others in Zambia - they treated and paid the staff well and made a huge environmental and ecological effort (electric trucks, provided reusable water bottles to guests, etc.).

The only downside is that we're now not sure we can do any holiday which doesn't meet the standard that Aardvark has set for us!

We have just arrived back from an epic safari planned by Lucinda. We went to Zambia where we stopped on the edge of the Zambezi River which was magical. The accommodation was first class and the people so friendly and welcoming. Whilst there we visited Victoria falls, went on a sunset river trip where we saw amazing wildlife and visited the local village and school which was truly inspirational. We then went to Savute Channel in Botswana where once again we made even more amazing memories seeing a great range of wild animals and birds and camping in a very special place. We left here to go on horse safari where I had two completely different days of exciting fast paced riding.

It was our first time to Africa but I am sure we will be back. Lucinda planned our trip to perfection and pitched where we stayed and what we did with an experts knowledge. She listened to our wishes and planned accordingly and everything ran smoothly. Each place we stayed was completely different which gave the trip a good variety.

I would not hesitate to recommend Aardvark as they certainly know how to safari.

Rowena Happy Camper

I've tried doing a long, comprehensive and glowing review, but it will not publish. After a number of lengthy conversations with Lucinda, she worked out exactly what type of holiday we wanted, and totally delivered.
At the start I was thinking it was a lot of money to pay for a holiday, by the end I was astounded and the value we'd received and how cheap it was.
We'd come across Aardvark via two personal recommendations, and boy, did they deliver?.
Many thanks Lucinda, we've had the most amazing experience in Zambia and Botswana