It’s been a few weeks now since I posted that we’d be going on a Safari trip, and we’re back home again. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. This proved to be an unforgettable trip, so I wanted to give a brief recap and introduce the reviews that wil lcome out of this. All in all we’re looking at a staggering 14 reviews including both flight and lounge reviews!

Our South Africa safari trip: itinerary overview

Overall we were away for about 15 days, of which 13 days actually in South Africa, and the other two days in transit in either Doha or Addis Ababa. Here’s (briefly) the full itinerary:

• On our outbound flight, we flew Qatar Airways business class via Doha to Johannesburg, where we stayed the night.
• The next day we flew to the Kruger National Park, where we rented a car for 5 days on a mixed self-drive/guided game drive safari, staying at three rest camps throughout the park.
• We then flew from Mbombela’s (previously NelSpruit) Kruger Mpumalanga Airport to Port Elizabeth via Johannesburg.
• Once in Port Elizabeth, we rented a car and drove the garden route, with stays in local B&Bs and small hotels in Plettenberg Bay, Mossels Bay and Oudtshoorn.
• We then made our way to Cape Town, where we stayed three nights at the Hyatt Regency Cape Town to see the city, and we did a day trip down the Cape Peninsula.
• Finally, we flew out from Cape Town Intl Airport, flying Ethiopian Airlines business class back to New York-JFK via Addis Ababa.

New York to Kruger: A fantastic flight in Qatar Airways’ Qsuite business class

It’s an understatement to say that we were excited for our flight to Johannesburg. neither my husband and I had flown Qatar Airways before, let alone in business class, and certainly not in their famous Qsuite business class seat. Qatar Airways slogan for the Qsuite experience is ‘first in business’ and is wel-known for being a top-notch, if not the world’s best, business class experience.

JFK-DOH: Qatar Airways Airbus A350-900 Qsuite

Flying oneworld airlines out of JFK’s Terminal 8, the lounge you visit is almost always the Greenwich lounge, which I reviewed before. it’s a decent lounge that’s quite big, with nice food and some good drinks, but it needs a redesign. Boarding was a bit of a mess, which is how boarding tends to be at any terminal at JFK. But, once on the plane, the fun started.

I will post a full review of the flight of course, but suffice it to say it was a stellar flight. We paid to assign the middle seats. To sit in, the Qsuite seat is very comfortable. It is pretty wide, with high walls that provide adequate privacy. The entertainment screen is bright and crisp, and easy to use.

But what makes this specific middle seat special, is that you can lower the middle partition to create a true double suite. And I can’t overstate how lovely the experience is! It truly feels spacious. And, once it’s time to sleep, you can make a double bed out of the two seats. The crew is happy to provide turndown service to place a mattress and covers, and they will even include extensions to fill up the gaps between the seats.

Finally, the food and service are also top-notch. Expect the food to be of restaurant quality, plated for you on the plane, and even customized to some extent by leaving out ingredients on demand (though that may not always be possible!). I also much enjoyed the champagne and wine, which were good quality and very tasty. The service was kind, professional and very generous. Crew was always happy to bring more food it drinks or help out when necessary.

If I had to give criticism, my two points would be that the Qsuite doesn’t have all that much storage, and, while the service is stellar, the crew isn’t necessarily all that personable. So in that sense, I still feel that Singapore Airlines provides the best service in the sky.

DOH-JNB: Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 Business Class

We had a 6-hour layover in Doha, which we spent at the two Qatar Airways Al Mourjan lounges. We started in the North ‘Garden’ lounge, and then visited the South lounge. In my mind the North lounge is certainly the winner, with a nice, open design, a la carte dining and beautiful facilities.

Our flight to Johannesburg was on Qatar’s Boeing 787-9, with a reverse herringbone business class seat. After Qsuite, you suddenly realize that these seats are quite a bit tighter, though still plenty comfortable. It’s just a little mroe snug, with the seta being a little less wide and the side console and TV all being. abit closer. On the flipside, it was easier to find places to store my stuff, and the seat has more modern tech, including a place to ‘clamp’ my phone to charge wirelessly. Overall, still a very comfortable seat, but after Qsuite it felt a little more low-fi.

The food and service were just as good as on our flight to Doha, and this showed to me that even with the high service standard at Qatar Airways, there is some difference in the quality of the service provided by the crew, The attendant serving my section of the business class cabin did a stellar job, and was actually a lot more personable then the attendant on the flight to Doha.

Overall, this was another great flight! Full review to come.

JNB-SZK: Airlink E135

We stayed one night in the Protea hotel by Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport, before heading back to the airport the next day to catch our flight to Skukuza Airport, which is in Kruger National Park. We were flying South Africa’s domestic/regionaly airline Airlink. While I’d generally heard positive things, I was very pleasantly surprised: the airline provides full service with snacks and drinks, including beer and wine, ona. flight as short as 45 minutes. You also get a free checked bag (20kg) and free seat selection. Also, they were bang on time with each of our flights! Honestly, I can’t say all that about any North American or European airline these days…

Five days in Kruger: why would anybody want to leave?

Once in the Kruger Park we rented a car to drive around the park on a combination of self-drive safaris and game drives organized out of the camps where we were staying: Skukuza, Satara and finally Lower Sabie. I’d say that these bungalows are somewhat like staying at a two-star hotel. You have your own bathroom and towels, linens and a bar of soap are provided. The bungalows are perfectly fine for a night or two, just don’t expect any luxury. And of course, if you pay more, you can get a nicer bungalow as well. Below is roughly what we stayed.

The main event is of course the animal viewing, and we definitely saw many of those! Elephants, zebra, giraffe, hippo and such were frequently seen, but we also saw quite a bit of lions, and a few rhinos and a leopard. I’l llet the picrures speak from themselves:

Ultimately, I can’t understate how wonderful of an experience this was. I thought the combination of self-drive safari during the day, and then the guided game drives at sunrise or sunset was a winning combo. I love the independence that the self-driving gave us to go and do whatever we wanted, while still providing us a framework of spotting shyer animals at sunset with the game drives. At the end of our 5 days, we were both sad to leave, and even now as I sit in my New York apartment, I wished I was back in Kruger… Indeed, we are planning our next safari already!

The Garden Route: if California and Hawaii had a baby

Our journey out of the Kruger park and onwards to Port Elizabeth (where we would start our drive along the garden route) first brought us to Kruger Mpumalanga Airport (MPQ). Though next time we will fly out of Skukuza Airport. One benefit of MPQ, though, is the lounge: South Africa has its Bidvest Premier lounge network, accessible with Priority Pass and which we found to generally be quite good, with lots of food options of rather good quality. Such a lounge was also available at MPQ, so we visited it before our flight to Johannesburg departed.

Our flight to Johannesburg with Airlink was very pleasant and, again, entirely on time. After a layover of about an hour and a half (which we spent at the Bidvest Premier lounge JNB), we departed, on time, to Port Elizabeth. Here we rented a car and started driving the Garden Route for the next three days or so, terminating in Cape Town.

We stayed at the following towns:

• Plettenberg Bay: A rather hip beachtown with a main street full of trendy shops and coffee places, as well as nice restaurants.
• Mossels Bay: A bit more of a town vibe, on a small peninsula. We actually stayed a little further out, along a gorgeous stretch of beach with a great view of the mountains on the other side of the bay.

• Oudtshoorn: A semi-arid region north of Mossels Bay, here we did a Meerkat Safari. This was certainly the highlight of the trip! The Meerkat are insanely cute and it was very cool to see them from close by. Also, the hotel we stayed ay was beautifully designed and appointed.

We had a lovely time along the Garden Route. It is a very beautiful drive, and the best way I can describe it is ‘if California and Hawaii had a baby’. The dramatic mountains, beach town vibes, ocean, and rapid transitions from coastal to inland climates are beautiful and interetsing. That said, I feel that we did everything we wanted to do and are unlikely to return, because… well, we can always go to California or Hawaii (though it’s 2-3 times as expensive as the Garden Route!)

Cape Town: Visiting the Mother City

In Cape Town we stayed at the Hyatt Regency. We booked this a while ago for the ridiculously low price of 3500 World of Hyatt points per night – for a room that otherwise seems to retail for over $600 per night! By this time we were excited to stay at an actual hotel, rather than bungalows or B&Bs. A day or two before our arrival, I received a message from the booking manager asking for my preferences, which I thought was odd, but. ancie surprise. After all, I don’t even have elite status with World of Hyatt. Well, when we arrived we found out we had been upgraded to a full suite on the top floor. The staff also couldn’t have been lovelier: courteous, professional and very kind and friendly. It was a great stay!

Cape Town itself proved to be a fun destination as well. However, I’d argue the best thing about Cape Town is more so the surrounding areas than the cities itself. It was exciting to see Table Mountain, which is any bit as beautiful as you’ve heard, and we enjoyed strolling around the V&A Waterfront and the Malay neighborhood of Bo-kaap.

Other than that, the best of Cape Town is outside Cape Town, including the lovely Simon’s Town, the penguins at Boulder Beach, and the awesome Chapman’s Peak Drive. It’s only because we were here two days that we didn’t do more. So, I’d say there is a reason to return for more day trips to locations north and east of the city, including the wine country surrounding Stellenbosch, for example.

The Return Flight: Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Business Class

For the return journey we flew Ethiopian Airlines business class from Cape Town to New York-JFK with an overnight layover in Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Airlines is the biggest and most global airline in Africa and I was curious what their ‘Cloud9’ business class had to offer. First, we visited the two Bidvest Premier Lounges in Cape Town’s international terminal. Both of these were nice with a good food selection, but I’d recommend to visit the one that’s close to the B-gates. It’s bigger and more spacious then the one near gate A3 and passport control, making for a better overall experience.

Flying with Ethiopian, I wasn’t expecting much. Ethiopian’s seats are mostly in a 2-2-2 configuration with little consistency between planes and the airline also isn’t known for serving amazing food or anything. But, I came away very pleasantly surprised. I thought the seats, even though they were in 2-2-2 configuration on both legs CPT-ADD and ADD-JFK, they were comfortable with good legroom and big entertainment screens. The main drawback is a lack of storage, and, if you’re not traveling with a friend or partner, your seatmate could make or break your flight given that you’d be seated right net to them (with a small privacy partition).

The highlight for me, though, was actually the service. Throughout the two flights, totaling a staggering 26 hours enroute, the flight attendants were friendly, professional, and very kind. I loved the Ethiopian cultural touched that were provided primarily on the flight departing ADD to JFK, including an Ethiopian food course and Ethiopian coffee as one of the welcome drinks (all served and poured at your seat). I love it when airlines add such cultural touches! I was also impressed that dishes and cutlery, as well as salt and peper shakers and olive oil were placed directly on the table, and I was invited to taste the wine before it being poured. I felt the crew was trying to provide a restaurant-style experience in the air.

Lastly, I did want to mention the layover we had in Addis Ababa. If you have a layover between 8-24 hours, then as a busines class passenger you’re eligible for a complimentary saty at Ethiopian’s Skylight hotel. You have to get a voucher at your point of origin, and then you can show this to staff at ADD who wil lguide you step-by-step to the hotel. For award ticket, you’re only eligible for a stay at the standalone hotel, whereas those paying cash for a full fare (not upgrades) cna stay in the in-terminal hotel. And I have to say that it’s a greta hotel with beautifully designed and appointed rooms! While it lengthens the trip, a longer layover like this that allows you to sleep in an actual bed does add to the comfort and rest you get over the course of the journey.

Concluding: these are the reviews I will be publishing

To summarize, let me just list all the reviews you can expect based on this trip. All in all, it should amount to a whopping 14 reviews:

• Qatar Airways A350-900 Qsuite Business Class, JFK-DOH
• Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Lounge (North ‘The Garden’) at Doha Airport DOH
• Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Lounge (South) at Doha Airport DOH
• Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 Business Class, DOH-JNB
• Bivest Premier Lounge at Johannesburg OR Tambo Intl Airport JNB, Terminal B
• Airlink E135 Economy, JNB-SZK
• Bidvest Premier Lounge at Kruger Mpumalanga Intl Airport MPQ
• Bidvest ORT Lounge at Johannesburg OR Tambo Intl Airport JNB, Terminal B
• Bidvest Premier Lounge (Gate A3) at Cape Town CPT, Intl Terminal
• Bidvest Premier Lounge (B gates) at Cape Town CPT, Intl Terminal
• Ethiopian Airlines A350-900 Cloud9 Business Class, CPT-ADD
• Ethiopian Airlines Skylight Layover Hotel at Addis Ababa ADD
• Ethiopian Airlines Cloud9 Lounge at Addis Ababa ADD
• Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-8 Cloud9 Business Class, ADD-JFK

It will take some time for me to get through all of these, but stay tuned…

Summary

We just came back from a fantastic 2-week vacation in South Africa. From Kruger to Cape Town and from Qsuite to Cloud9, we loved exploring the African Savanah and bustling Cape Town alike. The beautiful nature, imposing animals, and then the luxury of our flights truly made for a special trip. We were very excited to finally try Qatar Airways famous Qsuite business class, and it did not disappoint! And while Ethiopian’s Cloud9 business class is not up to Qatar’s standards, it also was a very pleasant experience that I’d be happy to fly again. Overall, this trip will lead to 14 reviews, so stay tuned for my full thoughts!