A Leading Kruger Park Safari Specialist
Shinzelle Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2014)
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $394 to $1,014 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
US
Email Fernanda | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent service despite last minute lodge change. Kruger guide Edson was fantastic
Have had excellent experience with Danielle via email and whats app. Despite last minute change in lodge we have enjoyed Tshukudu lodge. Great service and sunrise sunset safari. Our guide Edson is amazing had a adventure packed Kruger day safari with a unique and unforgettable experience. Saw white lion mating. Dingo family. Leopard. Cheetah stalking. Elephant families with little ones. Zebras. Wilderbeast. Impala and so much more. Hipos and zebras. Lunch was in a great restaurant. Exceeded all our expectations.
US
Email David | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Friendly, professional and reliable tour operator with an expert, knowledgeable driver/guide
Communication with Danielle from Shinzelle was friendly and professional. We completed the booking process in July for a 3-day December safari + 1-day Panorama excursion. Stayed at the Gecko Lodge about 15-20 minutes from Kruger's Phabeni gate. Jeffrey, our driver and guide was excellent, friendly and knew all the right places for sightings. His 16 years of experience showed as we enjoyed spectacular sightings on each day in Kruger. We were always first in line to enter the park and saw animals no matter the weather, even providing ponchos for the rain. Panorama tour was slightly affected by rainy, cloudy weather, but our guide Henroux made the most of it, doubling back to places we had already visited when the weather cleared. That was much appreciated. The lodge was comfortable and the hosts very friendly and accommodating. There are more expensive lodging options inside the park itself, but this tour fit our budget and our needs perfectly. Would highly recommend this tour operator, our safari driver/guide and the lodge.
Email Philip | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing experience!
Due to COVID we had been waiting 3 years to do this Safari and it didn't disappoint! Many thanks to Danielle, our guides and hosts who looked after us and ensured that we had an amazing experience. We had 2 safaris in the Pridelands conservancy and spent 2 full days in Kruger where we got incredibly close to the big 5 animals. We also had very rare and special encounters with wild dogs and cheetahs! Seeing wild dog pups and hyena cubs was like something from David Attenborough. We also did a 1 day tour of the Blyde River Canyon which showed us beautiful areas and taught us a lot about the local culture. African Rock Lodge where we stayed was extremely comfortable, with excellent food, staff and very friendly hosts. It also had lots of interesting wildlife wandering close by as it is inside the Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate. All in all, an unforgettable trip!
AE
Email Roberto Rubio | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Jeffrey, our Safari driver, was great; the rest of the logistic was below par.
The best part of the tour: Jeffrey, our safari driver, did what he could to show us some good sights. However, there are better months to see the big five at Kruger than September and October.
Good: Dinner at Gecko Lodge was good; the lunchbox they give you for taking early in the morning before your safari, not so much.
Below par: the rest of the logistics, poor communication, pick-up was late, lodge had some issues.
Overall: I would not repeat it, but it was a decent experience.
IT
Email Giulia | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great organization and very good guides
We had a great experience with Shinzelle Safaris, awesome guides and small groups that allowed us to see all the animals in an exciting way
Email Mick R | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Good operator but can improve on comunication
A friend and I did the 5-Day Private Photographic Safari in the Kruger Park. After an initial hick-up with the transfer from Johannesburg to Hoedspruit (we did receive a refund at the end of the safari) and a change of camps from Satara to Letaba and Oliphants (which we were not advised of until meeting our guide) the trip was amazing. Our guide Nick was excellent. Not only was he good at spotting animals but was a great photography teacher as well. The end of the 5 days he had us both using the manual settings on our cameras. There was a lack of cat sightings with only 3 lazy lions seen in the 5 days but that was made up for with lots of hyenas and some great wild dog sightings close to Letaba Camp. Both camps were nice, with accommodations at both clean and tidy. Food at the camps was good but choice limited as it was the same restaurant chain at both camps.
Email Zdenka Rosecky | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent holiday
The operator of Shinzelle Danielle suggested that we change our original plan to spend all our time in Skukuza camp, and it was obvious that she knew well what we might like. This change provided a more diverse countryside and wildlife experience.
However, as Mark mentioned sometime close to the beginning of our holiday, our conversations with Danielle were not as smooth as before, occasionally making us uncomfortable. It was apparent that she had a primary job of communicating with customers herself. The main surprise was that we started in Pretoriuskop Rest Camp instead of Skukuza Camp. It turned out to be a perfect choice, perhaps even better, as it was closer to the airport and very comfortable. Nevertheless, we believe we should have been informed of this change beforehand.
During our 4-night stay in Kruger National Park, we switched between two camps with clean and comfortable accommodations. We spent two nights in Pretoriuskop Rest Camp in the south and two nights in Letaba Rest Camp in the north. Both were good, but we particularly loved the latter because it was situated on the bank of a river, allowing us to see a variety of animals wandering around the water.
For the last three days, we enjoyed private luxury accommodations and an excellent day trip to Blyde River Canyon. This package included three private safaris, which were very enjoyable. We saw a lot of animals, except for the elusive leopard.
Our guide, Rufus, accompanied us for five days from morning to evening, filling that time with his deep knowledge of wildlife and nature. He was always happy, smiling, patient and willing to answer any questions we had.
Would we choose Shinzelle again? Absolutely. Everything worked smoothly, and we loved every minute of our trip, including the food, accommodations, people, countryside, and wildlife. The entire 7-day experience was exceptionally well-organized, starting with our pickup from Nelspruit Airport and concluding in Hoedspruit.
Email Simon | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great tour
Full package tour that worked perfectly. We did a four day tour (one afternoon & one morning on a local park connected to the Kruger and two full days in the Kruger) and frankly it was one of the best experiences of my life.
Everything was done really well by the team, including stressless pickup from the airport, ontime pickups, decent guides and saw way more than we were (or at least I was) expecting. The hotel they arranged was a great mix of small boutique with a great safari vibe and an absolutely banging BBQ.
I can't recommend these guys enough, we were on a tight schedule but were able to do everything we wanted during these few days.
US
Email Andrew & Debra Cutler | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari and truly personal service
We enjoyed an outstanding and truly memorable safari with Shinzelle in March 2023. It was five days and four nights split between two lodges in different private game reserves in the Hoedspruit/Balule area. We toured the Blyde River Canyon area one day and another a full-day safari in the Kruger National Park. Otherwise it was early morning and evening safari drives in the reserves, including the evening of our arrival and the morning of our departure. The lodges were beautifully set in wild areas, but yet comfortable, with great service, and great food. Each had its own distinctive character, the first we especially loved the shaded dining area with "infinity" pool on an elevation with a view-to-die-for of the Drakensberg mountains and the sunsets. We found this lodge hard to leave. The second, we loved the separate, private, comfortable, round-cottage-type rooms with airy, high thatched-roof ceilings. Throughout, we enjoyed fabulous game drives, with different types of experiences in the different reserves and Kruger NP. Our first drive, in the light of the early evening, and then into the dark, we spent much of the time following a pride of lions on the move and looking to hunt. In another we found ourselves surrounded by 40 or more elephants for an extended period, with many young, and many large females, all happily feeding. I think the highlight was the all-day Kruger tour, simply for the abundance of wildlife, large herds of zebra, giraffes, buffalo, elephants, impala, and too many others to be listed. (It was March, there had been good rains and things were very green with abundant grass, very beautiful.) Also, birds. The only predators we saw at Kruger were a pack of wild dogs that were resting and relaxing beside the road, and that we sat and watched just a few feet from us for quite a while. But we had already had multiple intimate encounters with lions, so no problem there. Logistically, things were well organized and smooth. Shinzelle had a guide (Johnny, who we loved) assigned to take care of us for other than the safari drives in the private reserves. So he guided our Blyde and Kruger tours. A nice thing about visiting in March (other than the nice weather and the bountiful grass and flowers) was that the lodges were not very busy so we had very small groups on the drives, and it was just us for Blyde and Kruger, so we had a good chance to get to know our guide. We took the transfer van from OR Tambo to Hoedspruit and back. This was efficient and worked out fine. My thought is that the journey is quite long and in some places the road is not great. If cost is not important you might consider flying.
CA
Email The Spegels | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome!!!
We had the most incredible time on our safari & we highly recommend it to anyone who is planning to go to South Africa.
Our guide was accommodating, and he tried his best and succeeded in showing us everything we came for. We saw so many animals and that was largely a result of our guid’s expertise. He was extremely knowledgeable and answered all of our questions.
We felt safe, and we were well taken care of. There isn’t anything more that we could have wanted.
It was an adventure that we will always remember.
