Find out all about African Budget Safaris and what we do. From safari reviews to where our affordable African safari tours go, we cover it right here.
The idea behind the business is to make it easy for people worldwide to book high-quality yet affordable African Safaris to incredible destinations across southern and East Africa. In Terry's words:
"Our vision was to open up Africa for budget-conscious travellers making it possible for those on a budget to enjoy the same wildlife experience as those paying for luxury safaris."
In the early days, African Budget Safaris was one of the few travel companies online and one of very few offering authentic African travel experiences. We were the first company to offer online budget travel in Africa.
With his passion for sharing Africa with regular travelers from across the planet, Terry set to work finding a hot-shot web designer. That's when serious cyclist Luke Hardiman came on board and built the African Budget Safaris website. By 2009, African Budget Safaris became a registered SATSA member, and the team started getting part-time help to keep up with tour sales and web copy. Since then, the customer service team has expanded to about ten travel consultants cherry-picked from the African travel industry. Plus, a few other team members who handle accounts, marketing, web development, and all the rest.
Today, ABS (that's short for African Budget Safaris) is one of the few online safari platforms to offer one-on-one customer support to clients while they choose, plan, and book their African safaris online. In other words, the experienced people on our team will make sure you end up on the best safari for your needs and budget. You won't get served a generic tour selected by a robot and left stranded with your questions. If things unexpectedly come up or go wrong, then our travel consultants are right there to help clients every step of the way.
African Budget Safaris is currently the only budget safari agency that specializes in tailor-made safaris and private tours in Africa. This means that you can arrange a private safari on a budget with the help of our agents, creating an itinerary customized to your needs and preferences.
Find out a bit more about Terry and the rest of the team of travel experts at African Budget Safaris.
Where can you find reviews of African Budget Safaris?
Our customers post their reviews on an independent review platform called Trustpilot. You can see our African Budget Safaris Reviews on Trustpilot.
We've been collecting client reviews via Trustpilot since November 2017. To date, we have more than 530 customer reviews. Most (95%) rated us as excellent.
Feedback from our customers is essential to African Budget Safaris. It guides us and lets us know where we are excelling and where we can improve. It also helps others to see what kind of business we are and the level of service we deliver. So, we are very pleased with our Excellent rating (4.9 out of 5 stars)!
We can't add reviews to Trustpilot or edit them. The review process on Trustpilot ensures that everything stays 100% above board. Once a travel review is posted, we try our best to respond to each one and take the feedback to heart.
Find out more about Trustpilot and its new transparency feature.
If you've been looking for African Budget Safaris' reviews on Tripadvisor you'll have noticed we're not there. So, you're probably wondering why African Budget Safaris is not featured on Tripadvisor.
In short, we were listed on Tripadvisor for about five years (from December 2012 until November 2017). Then, in late 2017, Tripadvisor began operating as an online travel agent. When they started selling tour packages, the company updated its policies and removed travel agents. This is the nature of business in the fast-evolving digital realm. Therefore, all agents, including African Budget Safaris, were excluded from Tripadvisor.
It ain't all bad. We did have a terrific run on Tripadvisor for many years. And we are very proud of the five consecutive Certificates of Excellence we received from them.
We earned a Certificate of Excellence every year that we were listed - 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017!
African Budget Safaris (ABS) has an established network of tour companies that we work with in Southern and East Africa. This network of safari companies has been built up carefully over the many years that Terry and co. have been traveling and working in the African travel industry. Starting with the handful of companies that Terry knew well and trusted, he's continued to personally curate the collection of African safaris featured by African Budget Safaris. His years of experience working in the travel industry as a guide and travel consultant enabled Terry to pick the best budget tour companies in the business as partners.
Our longstanding relationships with reputable tour companies enable ABS to negotiate prices that are near unbeatable. Thus, our buying power enables us to pass excellent safari prices and travel deals on to our clients without charging them extra. The tour companies that we partner with pay us a commission, so travelers don't spend a penny more when booking with ABS.
When people visit our website and send an inquiry to one of our team members based in South Africa, pick up the email and respond as promptly as possible. From then on in the consultant takes care of the client's needs and answers their questions, getting input from the rest of the team if and when necessary. Once you've chosen your African safari, your dedicated consultant will send you all of the trip details - a detailed itinerary and useful travel information. Payments are processed online via a secure payment gateway, and your travel voucher is sent to you via email. Then, it's time to start packing and planning for your ultimate safari with the help of your consultant!
African Budget Safaris are simply affordable African Safaris. They have a lot in common with other types of safari tours, except that they are less expensive. You might be skeptically asking, but doesn't that mean that African Budget Safaris are dodgy?
No, it doesn't. Past clients have actually said that the 'budget' in African Budget Safaris is misleading because their safari experience was so excellent. By budget, we mean affordable. It does not imply a sub-standard safari or poor service.
The overland tours and safaris that we offer are not luxury safaris at cheap prices. They are good quality African safaris with fewer frills and less fancy accommodation. That said some of our budget-friendly safaris are very comfortable indeed and do offer a bit of extra style and luxury.
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But, mostly, our African budget safaris and overland tours stay at simple and clean camps and lodges that provide friendly service (no private butlers and swish boutiques). The beauty is that our safaris visit the same spectacular wildlife destinations and game parks as luxury safaris, which cost a lot more.
Our Africa overland tours and safaris travel through the same stunning landscapes and take you to the same natural wonders - at a fraction of the price. It's just not about the thread count of the cotton sheets. That would be missing the point anyway. Traveling in Africa is all about the wild experiences out in the bush, on the open roads, and meeting the local people.
Luckily, you can enjoy genuine wilderness experiences on a budget, especially with so many magical camps and lodges being remote and unforgettable without being expensive and pretentious. The more affordable Africa overland tours and budget safaris are still safe. The cheapest trips involve traveling in large groups by overland truck and staying at basic accommodation, but safety is never compromised. The cheapest way to go (to Africa) is on a no-frills camping safari or overland camping tour.
Our selection of budget African safaris and overland tours has grown gradually over the years and now includes almost 600 budget safaris, day trips, and overland tours.
Find out more about Overland Africa Travel & Tours.
In East Africa, our most recently added budget safari destinations are Ethiopia, southern Tanzania, and Rwanda. Ethiopia is the most culturally focussed travel destination we visit. Most of our Budget Ethiopia Tours are focused on historical, religious and cultural highlights, with a few exceptions. Until recently, few budget safaris in Tanzania visited the Southern Safari Circuit. So we were excited to discover new budget Tanzania safaris to southern Tanzania's top parks - Ruaha, Selous, and more. The last of our newer East African budget safari destinations, Rwanda, is an alternative to gorilla trekking in Uganda, which we have featured for many years. Previously, Rwanda was out of reach to budget travelers, primarily because of the more expensive gorilla trekking permits. Luckily, a few years ago more affordable gorilla trekking Rwanda Tours became available as tourism expanded there.
In South Africa, our newest budget safari destinations are the private game reserves of the Eastern Cape in South Africa and Big Five Cape Town Safaris in the Western Cape. We also recently added a host of budget-friendly private tours to our Budget Namibia Safaris. In terms of the Eastern Cape and Cape Town, there are very few budget safari options and we've been very pleased to find a few relatively affordable safaris recently. Our Eastern Cape Safaris combines one of two private game reserves with Addo National Park, which gives visitors the best of both.
A lot of people think that private tours and tailored safaris are only for upmarket travelers on ultra-luxury safaris. But that's not true.
These days, even budget-conscious travelers can enjoy private safari tours. Customized African safaris can be surprisingly affordable, especially if you are traveling in a larger group. The more travelers in your group, the cheaper it is per person with private safaris.
Regarding private group tours, we can tailor-make your itinerary to include the destinations you would like to visit most and skip out places you're not interested in. Our knowledgeable consultants can also tailor private safaris to focus on particular interests, such as birding, photography, culture, walking, and so on. We can also customize the kind of accommodation used on private safaris to suit your preferences.
One of the major advantages of a private safari is the added privacy and flexibility on the road. You'll also get to stay at more intimate accommodation if that appeals, have more wildlife sightings for yourself, and get more one-on-one time with your guide. Sounds good? Chat with one of our friendly travel experts to find out more about tailor-made African safaris.
African Budget Safaris has an office in Cape Town, where the owner (Terry) is based. The team works remotely. We're a slightly maverick, independent bunch of African travel enthusiasts. The team has had diverse travel and work experience across Africa, from guiding overland trips to game-ranging and consulting for well-known safari companies.
The consultants and staff members at African Budget Safaris regularly head out on 'work' safaris. We call them 'educationals'. Not only do we love to experience the African safaris that our partners run, but it's also essential for maintaining our excellent standards of curatorship. Between our educational adventures, we all explore locally (in South Africa) and travel all over Africa and beyond.
Our team includes one honorary local (originally hailing from the UK), and the rest of us are all from southern Africa. Terry's wife joined the team a few years back, and Luke's mom also helps out part-time, so ABS has grown into a real family business. Several of the team members have been around for many years (close to ten,) which makes them like family now, too.
Just about every year, Terry heads out to Africa’s Travel Indaba, which is held in Durban, South Africa. The Indaba is a great place to check in with the safari companies that we already work with and meet new potential partners.
To see who is on the team, visit the ABS About Us page.
Most importantly, African Budget Safaris is a member of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA). Established in 1969, SATSA is a non-profit organization for private-sector tourism. The aim of SATSA is to endorse quality tourism companies and protect consumers. SATSA operates a protective bonding scheme that guarantees consumers against deposits made to SATSA members.
Basically, SATSA membership serves as quality assurance for clients. It's a mark of integrity and accountability that consumers can trust.
Find out more about SATSA and see our African Budget Safaris SATSA profile.
African Budget Safaris is also a member of Cape Town Tourism, the official tourism body of Cape Town and its surrounding areas. Even though ABS sells budget safaris across East and Southern Africa, we are still a South African company based in Cape Town. Our membership of Cape Town Tourism is another vote of confidence and a stamp of approval from the local tourism officials.
Visit our African Budget Safaris Cape Town travel profile on the tourism website.
Can we back up our claims that we offer the best African budget travel deals and the best value-for-money safaris in Africa?
Yes. We guarantee the best prices on the budget safaris we feature. Because the travel industry is so highly competitive today, we give travelers the best price guarantee. The proof is in the pudding, after all.
We've made it our mission to find the best budget-friendly tours on the market, so we're here to live up to our promises. And, the discounted African safaris and travel deals that we offer come straight from our handpicked safari partners. So, we do guarantee the best travel prices on our budget safaris and tours from Namibia to Tanzania and beyond.
An important part of our business is helping people to plan their safaris to various destinations in Africa. So, back in 2010, we started our own Budget Safari Blog. ABS aims to provide useful advice for traveling in Africa and practical tips for African safaris. We try to focus on budgeting tips for African safaris and African travel in general, as well as important safety information and game-viewing guides.
If you've been on an African safari booked through African Budget Safaris or traveled Africa on a shoestring - send us your story or photos, and we'll share them with our viewers. We now have thousands of people visiting our website and blog, so if your tales of Africa or your pictures are a good fit for our readers, we'll share them. We're always eager to share awesome wildlife photos and authentic safari experiences far and wide!
Visit our African Travel Blog and pop us an email if you would like to be featured.
Of course, you can also find African Budget Safaris on Facebook and Instagram as realafrosafaris, as well as on Twitter and Pinterest.
We also have an African Budget Safaris YouTube channel, which we're improving and adding more videos to.
African Budget Safaris is not to be confused with African Budget Safaris (Tanzania), which is a tour company that started in 2012. We are not affiliated with this East African tour company, which simply chose to use a name that's almost a copy of ours.
We do, however, work with several excellent safari companies in Tanzania, Kenya, and the rest of East Africa. If you go to our Budget Tanzania Safaris page, you'll see our Trustpilot reviews (righthand column) from clients who have gone on budget Tanzania safaris with us, such as African Budget Safaris. The same goes for other customer reviews specific to safari destinations that we feature tours to. So, for African Budget Safaris Kruger reviews, check out our Budget Kruger Safaris page, scroll down, and check the right-hand side of the page for the Trustpilot widget.
You may also come across a very old Lonely Planet forum post and two similarly outdated Tripadvisor forum threads where people were asking for reviews and assurances from other travelers. Unfortunately, the posts are super old, but in each, there is at least one reply from people who booked with us and recommended using ABS - hooray!
Lastly, we have a profile for African Budget Safaris on Stride - one of the world's largest tour search and review sites, based in California. One of the great things about Stride is that they pull our reviews through from Trustpilot which helps show people that we can be trusted.
That's the A to Z of African Budget Safaris right there.
If you have any questions, concerns, comments, or suggestions, please send us a message or add them below.
Below you'll find further reading and articles related or similar to this post.
Call us toll free from US/Canada on 1-888-414-6513, or from the UK on 0-808-189-1052. All other countries can contact us on +27 21 791 0878.
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