South African Safari: Sebatana Private Reserve

May 2022

What? $1,699 for two people for a week of safari? Where? At a luxury lodge in South Africa called Sebatana.. We could not believe the Travelzoo email telling us about this deal. An African safari typically cost more like $5,000 per person from what we had seen up to that point, and that was beyond our price point. (We did not have a bucket list, and, we knew there were so many wonder-filled places to visit around the globe without paying a lot of money). Let’s grab it & see what happens. This was February of 2021, and, tons of super deals came out around this time for hopeful post-pandemic travels. Thanks to this cautious/desperate optimism in the travel sector, we got to go to some of the “bucket list” hot destinations such as this one, Galapagos, and Antarctica.

lodging: A Dutch couple bought an old farmland and started turning that into a private reserve over 20 years ago. There were 4 lodges on Sebatana ground, each with 12 to 14 rooms, a dining room, and a swimming pool. We were in the Elephant Lodge which was almost full at the time with 24 guests. Rooms were spacious, comfortable, and nicely decorated in more rugged glamorous camp vibe than a typical city luxury hotel style. Is it a 5 star operation as they claim? I’d say yes if the highest rating is 7. I’d give it a 4 star rating out of 5. Don’t get me wrong. We were totally happy there. It’s just that it was more like a nice friendly family style operation with a big mama chef rather than an uber-luxury hospitality unit that some high-end lodges offer.

location: 230 Km (143 miles) north of Johannesburg. It took 2.5 hours to get there from the airport in Johannesburg. The drive was pleasant with a snack stop at a farm restaurant. This location is in a malaria free zone.

Lots of open space in the area so that you could spot animals easily as seen below.

Safari: Oxford dictionary defines a safari as “an expedition to observe or hunt animals in their natural habitat, especially in East Africa.” A modern day safari basically consists of riding in a 12 passenger 4×4 vehicle with a canvas top and open sides & looking for/at animals minding their own business. The rule #1: NEVER get out of your car.

The highlight of any safari trip is to see the Big 5 animals: lion, leopard, black rhinoceros, African bush elephant, and African buffalo. Have we? Yes, we have. Sebatana Private Reserve had plenty of animals, but, spotting the big ones was harder here. For that, we had to sign up for the optional tours to a neighboring Welgevonden Game Reserve or Pilanesberg National Park, 3 hours away.

As soon as we drove into the Sebatana ground, these guys greeted us without bothering to look our way. Within the 40,000 hectare landmass of the property (New York’s Central Park: 340 hectare), more than 75 different mammals, over 300 different species of birds, 270 flowers and more than 100 different trees live peacefully according to their claim.

Big 5:

African buffalo: These guys were grazing when we entered Welgevonden one morning. Welgevonden was about the same size as Sebatana, but it was set up more like a park where anyone paying a fee could enter. Sebatana was for their own lodge guests only & most of it was meant to be preserved without human access.

rhino: They were easy to spot at Welgevonden and Pilanesberg (55,000 hectares) & seemed to travel in family groups.

elephant: They were slowly walking around Pilanesberg when we saw them.

lion: Our guide was in constant communication with other guides over a walkie talkie and cell phone to share the information of lion sighting, and, we had seen a glimpse of one or two at Welgevonden. Then, we all saw them right in front of our eyes at Pilanesberg. Two adult females – one pregnant – and a few kids were walking along not paying any attention to us. In fact, they decided to cross the path our vehicle was on, and, the whole gang stepped in front of our car as if we did not exist. I have to admit this was the highlight of the safari experience for me!

leopard: Most illusive of the big 5 is the leopard, we were told. But our guide found one on top of a tree showing off his catch, a kudu, maybe, at Pilanesberg. Even though we couldn’t see it up close (do I really want to?), we could feel the pride and strength of this nimble prince.

others: Along with giraffes, zebras were in abundance at Sebatana. Whenever I looked at the animals on the ground at close range, I was struck by the beauty of these animals: colors, shapes, movements. That was something I could not feel as deeply by looking at photos or videos. You think this zebra photo is beautiful? Wait till you go see in person. Hope you can see a bit of what I mean in following photos.

kudu? What’s that, you may ask. Kudus were the most common game meat served almost every day. Eland was another common animal similar to kudu but bigger. Their meat was tenderer.

impala: I only knew of impala as a automobile brand. Very attractive animal with graceful movements is my biased opinion.

daily program: Each day started early around 6:30 AM for a game drive. There usually was some down time after lunch. 5 optional tours were offered: 2 to Welgevonden, 1 to Pilanesberg, a night safari, and a tribal evening. When the whole package was offered for 250 Euros/person, most people bought it. We thought all the game drives were worthwhile. The night safari was better as an idea than as a reality since we could not see much of anything in the dark with a flashlight held by the guide. (More lights would have defeated the purpose.) The tribal night was much better than expected with a great local style meal and spirited performers. Day time temperatures were around 70 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit in late May, but it got cold in the evenings and early mornings.

There was supposed to be a tour of Johannesburg on our way to the airport on the last day, but the Apartheid Museum, the most popular place to visit in town, was closed that day. So we stopped at a monument in Pretoria and got dropped off at our lodging since we were not leaving that day.

food & drink: We had a great chef who was well versed in the local cuisine and the popular western style foods. Breakfast and lunch were served buffet style while the dinners were brought to the table. Alcoholic drinks and soft drinks were not included and were available for purchase. Happy Hours were popular at the bar.

staff & tipping: There were 3 safari vehicles for our lodge, and the one you stepped in the first day became “My Car” and the driver/guide was yours for the rest of my time there. These guides did so much every day for taking us around, settings things up, making sure everyone was safe and happy. They were very knowledgeable about the animals, geography, trees and plants, local culture, and having fun. We tipped our guide $100 ($10/person/day) for the two of us & we didn’t think it was too much since the safari guides depended mostly on tips. (An average monthly salary in South Africa is about $2,000 according to Google.)

Three kitchen staff and 6 cleaning/wait staff were tipped as separate groups in 2 envelops. We put in $40 to each envelop. They were all very kind and worked hard.

getting there: Sebatana was to pick us up from the airport in Johannesburg. The problem was there were so many other safari groups that it was hard to find our group. What made it harder was the guy who was holding the Sebatana sign walked off with the sign to talk to somebody, thus, I had to ask people with other signs about Sebatana. As you might be able to tell, you have to be a little patient and retain a sense of humor in South Africa in general. Nothing will work perfectly, but, things will work in the end.

Getting to Johannesburg from the U.S. was our responsibility with this travel deal. Most of the people in our group of 14 flew from Los Angeles to London (10 hours), then, onto Johannesburg (11 hours). Three people got on the direct flight from Newark Airport (NYC) to Johannesburg (14 hours). On the average, the round trip fare was around $1,100 – 1,200.

total cost: $850 (tour cost) + $250 (optional tours) + $90 (tips) + $1,200 (flights) = $2,390 was per person cost in the end. I would encourage people to go even if the basic tour cost is twice as much as we paid.

extended itinerary: We were all the way to South Africa, and, we might as well see more while there, right? I wanted to include Namibia on this trip, but, the tourism was not back in full swing after the Covid pandemic in this part of the world, thus, it was hard to find a reasonable way to do so. We went to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for 3 days after the safari, then, we went to Cape Town for 5 days. This itinerary extension added about $1,000/person to our total budget.

Johannesburg -> Sebatana Private Reserve -> Victoria Falls -> Cape Town