Combination South Africa and Botswana Ride

Fancy the chance to relax in a luxury safari lodge but don’t want to miss out on the tented safari experience? This is your ride! It takes all the best parts of our Signature Safari ride with a midweek (independent) transfer to Botswana.

Anna M.

This trip was absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much for all your help and I will be doing this again.

It was over the top, and more than I ever expected, and better than I ever imagined. I have more tours ahead of me, I’m sure.

Thank you so much for all your kind help and attention.

Alix J.

I highly recommend any safari trip like this! I did a custom 10-day South Africa and Botswana safari and it was truly the trip of a lifetime. The facilities are just as lovely as the pictures.

I had a gorgeous rondavel bedroom with a big comfortable bed and my own bathroom. The food is plentiful (is it ever!) and so delicious and fresh. I’m a pretty confirmed carnivore so I enjoyed trying the game meats we had (eland is delicious) but they had plenty of filling options for non meat lovers.

The horses are well-behaved and energetic – there’s rarely a need to thump them to keep up – and the guides quickly learn good horse and rider match ups. The cavalry saddles took this dressage rider some getting used to – hard seats and no flaps! Definitely bring tall boots that are comfortable for walking in or half-chaps and a seat saver if you know your parts are sensitive because you will be in the saddle for hours every day.

I went traveling alone but was fortunate to join a group of three ladies who were super fun, great riders, and often did trips together so we got lots of chances to gallop and “kick some dust”. We saw SO MANY animals it almost got boring! Regular sightings in South Africa were impala (who make the most ridiculous pig noises in mating season), springbok, kudu, wildebeest, eland, blesbok, steenbok, gemsbok, zebra, warthogs, duiker, ostriches and the resident giraffes. Lots of monkeys, baboons and birds of every color as well. In South Africa all of the land is pretty much fenced game preserves so the rides take you to multiple reserves. One ride took us by a children’s school and they sang a lovely song for us – so cute in their uniforms! Lots of schools in both SA and Botswana. We also did an overnight trip to a neighboring reserve and beautiful lodge on a watering hole where we watched animals for hours over a lovely dinner. Every evening brought the option of a soda or “sundowner” gin and tonic often on the ride!

We then traveled to Botswana where we had more of the same plus ELEPHANTS which are truly amazing and a bit scary but the guides are extremely careful and provide clear instruction on when to hold still and when to retreat. We spent one night in an amazing treehouse camp and listened to lions and leopards all night. We tracked cats but never saw them while riding. We did take one Big 5 jeep safari and saw lions resting and rhinos and adorable baby rhinos. (Rhinos are still so subject to poaching that protecting them requires a huge investment in TALL electric fencing and guarded gates.)

The guides were universally amazing and knowledgeable. Becoming a guide is a very demanding professional qualification and all the guides know animals, birds, plants, history, multiple languages, first aid, current events and more! It is worth really talking with them to learn their fascinating stories.

If you’ve ever wanted to safari in Africa and are a good rider, I can’t imagine a better way to do it!