Wednesday, 20 February 2008

From Kruger National Park to Wild Coast

I think my friends were very impressed by the Kruger and I will ask them for their feedback for your website. Overall the experience was excellent although I should point out a few problems along the way. These are to help and are meant to be constructive.

The accommodation in the park was very good although the Electricity load shedding caused a few problems! The kombi hire proved ideal for the number of guests. However, the Kruger experience was marred when the Kombi broke down at Lower Sabie. Fortunately this only happened once we were at the camp but it did curtail our animal spotting on the last afternoon.

The car hire company could only send a replacement the following morning but we only found out that the aircon did not work once we had taken possession of it so we drove back to Nelspruit without aircon. I had filled up the original van with diesel about an hour before it had broken down (an ignition problem apparently) but even so the car hire company asked me how much petrol I’d used in the replacement kombi and wanted to charge me for the petrol from Kruger and weren’t particularly apologetic about sending as van without aircon. I am waiting to see if they will charge me for the petrol, so far they haven’t taken anything off my credit card and I would be disappointed if they did.

Our adventures at The Wild Coast Sun were traumatic – despite having booked directly with them months in advance and having confirmed with them several times we arrived to be told that there was a conference and that our 4 nights were reduced to ONE. (Probably because my sister booked and has a local address so they thought she wouldn’t mind going home.) They eventually put me and my Hong Kong guests up in a substandard hotel 10 minutes away. We are still pursuing this and I might still take further action against them as I was not happy with the way they treated us at all. I have been going there for the last 15 years and was very disappointed and it left a very bad feeling amongst my Hong Kong guests. Thank goodness you didn’t get involved in that booking!

Onto the Sandton Sun – Reception staff were a bit cold and just a seemed unprepared as check in took a long time, despite them having a record of the booking. Maybe it’s a Jo’burg thing but they could do with losing a bit of the attitude. The hotel itself was fine but the service staff were appalling – by far the worst I encountered on the trip. We had to wait for over 50 minutes for 4 coffees on the terrace and I had to complain twice to a very surly waitress who clearly did not want to be there, so I would think twice before recommending that particular hotel, especially as the price was as expensive as Hong Kong hotels so you would expect better treatment.

Despite this, overall though I think it was a successful holiday and my friends came away feeling quite positive and wanting me to plan the next safari!

Best wishes

Kevin

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