11 independent reviews for Endangered wildlife conservation in South Africa
Reviews for Endangered wildlife conservation in South Africa
Kerstin Fitzpatrick review 3 Nov 2025
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Spending almost all day being immersed in the African bush, experiencing the wildlife, vegetation and weather without any barriers and seeing so much 'behind the scene' conservation work.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be prepared for a very rewarding experience that much differs from normal (and comfortable) holidays / safaris.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
I supported conservation work to some extend and clearly the charity benefited from my financial contribution. I wish I could have done more / worked more or in different areas.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
An outstanding experience that will stay with me forever.Hazel Dykes review 17 Feb 2020
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
All of it. Some fantastic experiences. Great people doing important work.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be open minded. Don’t look for luxury but enjoy the experience. Look forward to meeting new people and doing new th.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes. The monitoring of the endangered species is definitely having a positive impact on wild life conservation.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
A fantastic opportunity. I enjoyed every minute.Alexandra Bergholm review 19 Aug 2019
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Getting involved in conservation work and being able to spend two weeks in the national park.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Definitely worth doing! The type of work and your experience with the organisation depends a lot on the project you’ll be involved in, so familiarise yourself carefully with the info they provide beforehand to know what to bring etc.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes, I did feel that the work the organisation is doing is making an important contribution to wildlife conservation.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Boris Traverso review 22 Jul 2019
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The close contact with elephants and lions.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Just be prepared to see a lot of wild life in their natural enviorment and learn a lot about conservation.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
It did support conservation. Mostly it financed it. Our help is more economical than presential. But you can't expect to save the world just going there and doing one volunteering experience. The truth is that it's the perfect first step if you really want to know how to help and how conservation works.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
It was a really interesting experience and I definitely recommend it to anyone who love animals.Anne Brown review 13 Sep 2018
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Difficult to pick one thing as there were so many memorable and exciting incidents, but seeing two packs of African Wild Dogs on the first morning was incredible!2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Read all the information(there is a lot) and you will be fully prepared for the experience. Be willing to join in as part of the team, take plenty of layers of clothing ( and a woolly hat!) as it can be very cold on the vehicle and look forward to an amazing adventure!3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
This holiday most definitely supports conservation and the monitors are passionate about their work. Environmental impact is kept as low as possible.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
This was an amazing holiday and I really did not want it to end.Ilona Schultz review 11 Apr 2018
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Hard to tell, because there were a lot. Finding the wild dogs after hours of scanning and watching them watching us :-) An Elephant herd having their veggie dinner in the breath-taking sunset... Observing the pack of wild dogs hunting and sharing the prey like a family. Learning so much about the wildlife and conservation from our great animal right activist and conservationists Meg and Frede. Both are super competent and nice!2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
You need to be interested in conservation, in wildlife and in being away from the daily working life at your desk. Then you will experience a beautiful and very interesting time with so much nature that you will just forget to check your emails.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes, 100 %! The people from the tour operator are very competent in these matters and everything they do is aimed at benefit local people, reduce environmental impact and support conservation.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Just great. I am very happy for this experience and will come back!William Esbjug Gromstad review 7 Feb 2018
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The feeling you get when you stay a month in the African bush is an amazing experience.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Stay for more than two weeks3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I had a wonderful timeEgle Passante review 28 Mar 2018
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
I would not recommend this holiday. At least not in Tembe Elephant Park. There is very little to do and due to the small size of the reserve, viewings of animals (apart from the elephants) are very rare. You drive for hours and hours without seing any animal at all. There is no need of volunteer work so you find yourself being dragged around like a luggage doing nothing. I went away from the camp for two days as I was too bored and I seriously considered to leave after one week.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
The money was well spend as the tour operator is trying to do an admirable work. However my time was wasted as I was sitting around all day doing nothing.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
A big disappointmentRead the operator's response here:
Thank you for your comments and feedback, Egle.
We are saddened by your perception of your experience. However, we feel it necessary to point out that according to our records you in fact chose to remain in camp, deciding not to join the monitoring team, on approximately 10 out of the 23 possible lion monitoring sessions and 12 possible elephant monitoring sessions for those 2 weeks - it is therefore clear when comparing your feedback to the other participants who did take part in all sessions, that the quality of the experience would differ due to the decision to remain in camp instead of participating with the monitoring work. On these monitoring sessions the volunteer team participated by scanning for signal, recording sightings and mapping behavioural data. Among numerous (and lengthy) sightings experienced by the team, most notable from these 2 weeks included an exceptional visual of lions mating, and a very fortunate sighting of a leopard. As your team were also able to be present when a white rhino was sedated and dehorned for security purposes, as well as involved in resetting cameras for the camera trap survey in the northern section of the reserve, and assisting with the Wild dog pup ID kits, updating data and sorting camera trap images, we are rather surprised at the boredom you express.
Nevertheless we feel grateful for all the assistance received from all the members of your particular volunteer team, and for the time and contribution you were all able to make to the important conservation work being done on our projects; we could not do it without our hardworking and dedicated participants. Kindest regards and best wishes from the whole team here.
Sue Shearman review 19 Oct 2017
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Honestly? Every day brought something new and memorable. So that's a minimum of 28 new, exciting memories! The wild dog puppies who really wanted to jump onto the back of the truck. The sounds of the bush at night. The animals visiting camp - not all of which are harmless - especially the vervets standing by to raid the kitchen and the baboons to raid the bins (baboons are terrified of small plastic snakes: good tip). Camping in the bush. The new friends I made from around the world.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
No popping down the shop, so take all the stuff you'll need. Take a mosquito net of you're going in summer - but don't bother in winter and you don't need any anti-malarial stuff in winter either. Buy a South African SIM for your phone. The mobile signal is more reliable than the wifi. Binoculars are essential and a fairly decent digital camera with a good zoom. No need to go mad and spend a fortune, though. You'll be expected to take your turn cooking, so jot down some basic recipes if you aren't good at improvising. The kitchens are pretty well stocked. You don't have to be young! Most of the promo material features young people but I'm rather too close to 70 for comfort and no-one for a second made me feel out of place or any less valued than the younger people volunteering. (The best friend I have made is in her 20s.)3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes. The project has just won the award for Best for Habitat and Species Conservation at the African Responsible Tourism Awards 2017 in South Africa and second best in the entire continent. It also works with local schools to educate local children about the animals they live with - so that's a very long term future investment.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I'm going back in 3 weeks. I think that says it all.Sharon Williams review 6 Dec 2016
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
I only spent 2 weeks on this project and so only visited one reserve. However just in those two weeks I have come away with so many memorable moments to narrow it down to one experience.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
The project is totally focused on the animals and so the daily routine can be disrupted at a moments notice to safe guard the well being of the animals. This is not a safari be prepared to contribute during the daily monitoring sessions and around the camp, there are daily tasks that need doing to keep the camp running smoothly help out the monitors who work extremely hard. Go with a open mind & heart, be respectful & kind to your environment & colleagues and enjoy yourself.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes, Whilst I didn't experience it once a year they get children from the local schools in to engage with endangered species in a bid to educate them on the importance a Wildlife.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
This was so much more than a holiday and I'd book again within a heartbeat.Cathy Bisset review 8 Jul 2015
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
It is really hard to decide of many of the memorable and exciting experiences on this holiday which one stands out the most for me. Everyday it seemed that i saw something different in the bush, unexpectedly two male cheetahs appeared one morning, then there was the cheetah with her cub, there were rhinos and rhino babies, one interesting experience for me personally was a close encounter with an Assasin Bug(reduviidae, heteroptera), I was delighted to read in a blog from Kariega game reserve also in South Africa, that these bugs are rarely seen and are reported not to like being handled and that their bite is extremly painful, but this little one was quite placid when it walked onto my hand. Apart the ZRR reserve I also had the opportunity to go to St Lucia and go on a river boat tour to see hippos and crocodiles, also I went whale watching which was incredible. The hotel Bibs where I stayed in was excellent, clean room and wonderful food, really great value. Also there a lot of good shops there for buying gifts and basics. Back at the reserve the other animals that I saw apart from the beautiful and playful African Wild dogs, were lots of different types of ungulates(or Bambi's as I like to think of them), hippos, aardvark, vultures, lots of colourful birds, lions, elephants, rabbits! Also I was very, very impressed by the standards of the holiday provider team, from being picked up on the first day to tracking the wild dogs, all the staff are awesome! They all have amazing knowledge, are always very calm, professional, excellent drivers, passionate about what they are doing and I never once felt in any danger when we driving around in the dark or over rough terrain, or that they were taking any risks with the animals. The accommodation was very clean and there was a beautiful big area outside of the house where I could sit in the sun when we were having some time off. Also we all got a free t shirt! One activity I personally enjoyed was travelling on the truck with the torch spot light so we could see sides of the road and the road ahead in the dark, which was exactly where we saw an aardvark and they are rarely seen! Beautiful skies, South Africa is worth it just to see the sky at night! Finally I have to say that there were many good volunteers there, I also met volunteers from the other reserves at St Lucia and everyone seemed to get a long and be really good people to be around.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Just read all the information before going and if you get the chance to go to St Lucia it is worth going to. Also I arrived on the Sunday before starting the project and stayed at the Fish Eagle Inn which was lovely and I would definitely recommend arriving on the Sunday rather than the Monday. Also I think it would be nice if the projects had a wish list so that volunteers could bring items for the project that might not be easy for the project to buy or just to help reduce costs, e.g. printer paper or a mop bucket!3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
The holiday was definitely helping conservation. I think that the local people do benefit from this project, but I did think that volunteers could in future maybe be encouraged to shop from the local markets as that could be away of increasing the contact between the volunteers and the locals. Although I did have lunch and shop at the Ghost Mountain Inn and got to Wimpy and Spar. There was recycling in the volunteers accommodation.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I would say it was an excellent experience and when I was at the airport I spoke to other volunteers who had been on different reserves and everyone seemed to have enjoyed their time and felt it was worthwhile. I spoke to one couple who told me they had done a lot of safaris in Africa but would never go back to safaris but would prefer to return to the projects. Lots of people were still wearing their t.shirts I think that was a sign of how much people had enjoyed their time on the reserves.Holiday Reviews
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