Fly-in Bush and Beach options in South Africa
I just got back from a great trip sampling a new nine day fly-in safari which offers a classic bush and bush combination in South Africa. Of course we had to cram nine days into four so it was a whirlwind trip but it was great fun and I really recommend this tour for those of you who want to combine a safari with some beach time with the minimum of fuss.
The fly-in safari begins and ends in Johannesburg and you fly from one lodge to another in a small charter plane offering you the convenience of a private safari minimizing the transport arrangements to maximize your time at the lodges. In fact it takes away much of the hassle of getting from one lodge to another – the road transfer to the nearest airport, the extended check-in period at the airport, the fitting around the flight schedule whether it suits you or not, waiting for your luggage and finally getting to the next lodge often by a lengthy road transfer.
Indeed with a fly-in safari the transport part of the trip is part of the pleasure! You fly directly from one lodge to another often at lower altitudes so that you can really appreciate the countryside. We saw giraffes cantering below us as we came into land at Kruger National Park and - one of the highlights for me - a whale leaping out of the Indian Ocean as we flew down to Thonga Beach Lodge.
All of this usually comes at a hefty price if you have your own private fly-in safari but this fly-in safari has two set departure days so that flight capacity is well utilized and thus prices are surprisingly attractive for a tour of this quality.
Another appealing aspect about this fly-in safari is that you can combine two, three or four of lodges over the nine days so that you have a fair amount of flexibility as to how active you wish to be.
You can opt for 4 nights at one of the private concessions in the Kruger National Park followed by 4 nights on the beach at Thonga Beach Lodge. You can combine two nights at Rhino Post Safari Lodge enjoying open vehicle game drives followed by two nights on a walking safari at Rhino Post Plains Camp and then follow that up with some time on the beach (4 nights at Thonga Beach Lodge).
Or if you are the sort of person who loves seeing as much as possible, you can even combine all four camps with two different camps in the Kruger National Park (Rhino Post Safari Lodge and Rhino Post Plains Camp) with two nights at Kosi Forest Lodge in the middle of the Kosi Coastal Reserve and then end with two nights at the beach at Thonga Beach Lodge.
In the next couple of posts I will describe some of the lodges in more detail but my personal recommendation is to combine three lodges in this nine day fly-in safari and then perhaps add on a few nights in Cape Town at the end. We’ve put this option on our website to give you a better sense of how it works – look at our Bush and Beach Fly-in Safari with Isibindi tour.