Experience the best of Southern Africa over the holidays!

Planning ahead is one of the best ways to guarantee that you will have a fabulous holiday however; last minute holidays are also always a blast! Planning in advance gives you the whole year to build up the excitement, start writing and re-writing your packing lists, boasting to your friends and getting all the camera equipment ready!

So, thinking in advance, where will you be for Christmas and New Years? No idea? Us neither... But...

Imagine spending Christmas and New Years discovering Southern Africa? Picture Christmas day with presents, of course, followed by magical canoeing down the Orange River (from South Africa into Namibia!)... Then, how about spending New Years celebrating with your family and friends in a traditional Himba Village followed by a celebratory night in the famous area of Kamanjab, Namibia?

This is all possible now that we have just released a brand new departure date for one of our favourite safaris, our Northern Experience (Cape Town to Victoria Falls safari). Leaving on 22 December 2011, this is our first ever departure to run over Christmas and New Years and we expect it to be our busiest. Priced from USD 2499 / EUR 1785 per person you will be able to travel through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe!

** Don't forget that you can make your Christmas and New Years holiday even more memorable by getting involved in our Grow Africa project: Voluntourism! Take part in 3 very special socially responsible projects: In Zimbabwe learn about the importance of anti-poaching and spend some time tracking snares & helping the anti-poaching unit. In Namibia become part of a fire-protection and educational program... a lot of villages' definitely need your help with the combating of fires that "can" be prevented! And finally, spend time in Cape Town at a school in Khayalitsha with Earth Child learning about worm farming, doing some yoga with the kids or even take part in story telling - something that will make them smile for days! This is a totally socially responsible program for an add on of ZAR 1500 pp - all money goes directly into the projects!

Spread the joy over Christmas and help some families, villages and animals that need a little bit of help especially over the holiday season! Click here to read more or contact us on info@jenmansafaris.com

Click here to see a video about our Northern Experience safari, something we found online that one of our happy clients, Tash, posted: (it's such a lovely video, if you need something to make you smile - please watch it...)

Where will the Easter Bunny find you this year?

It's almost time for the Easter bunny to do his rounds and drop off some yummy treats! The best thing about the Easter Bunny is that no matter where you are - he will find you! And with Easter around the corner why not whisk your clients away for an Easter holiday that they will never forget?

Do something completely different this Easter by taking your family to Kenya... your children will be enthralled by this fascinating destination! No other trip provides such an array of day-to-day activities to satisfy every member of your family, be it an inquisitive young child, an energetic parent or a grandparent wanting a little more relaxation. Travel between 1 April and 31 May and you will save USD 85 per person! Priced from USD 2 440 per adult sharing and USD 1 395 per child sharing with parents. Click here to see the website offer or contact us on info@jenmansafaris.com.

Botswana Untouched Mobile Safari... Untouched by price competition?!

Yes, you read this right! Our popular Botswana Untouched Mobile Safari has the most exceptional value for money. So much so, that it has become totally untouched by any direct competition. And no, we didn't name it 'untouched' because of this... Well, maybe we did!

Our safari is a fully accommodated tour through all the main National Parks of Botswana which, if you know Botswana, is very rare as most tours have to incorporate camping at some point which we don't have to ... Add to this the fact that we are also able to provide our fully accommodated untouched safari to you at a camping price?! What? Yes, you read that right! Our untouched price allows you to travel in extra comfort for the price of camping! Gives a whole new meaning the word 'untouched'...

Our popular 12-day safari (also available as a 9-day option) has such a unique itinerary that we haven't seen anything like it anywhere (and definitely no prices similar). You will start your adventure in Johannesburg and then move to the Tuli Block followed by the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, Makgadikgadi Pans, Maun, Khwai River (stay in our own Khwai Bedioun Camp!), Moremi and Chobe National Park & then finish in Victoria Falls. As you can imagine this tour has the best of everything... our itinerary is unique and specially designed to meet all the highlights that our travellers want in Botswana!

But, the most important factor about this is the price! We have worked exceptionally hard to offer you our tour at an affordable, value-for-money, untouched price; USD 2515 / EUR 1795 per person for the 12-day option...

Click here to see our detailed itinerary and read more about the mokoro excursion, meals, game drives, a sunset cruise and other included extras!
** We are so proud of our untouched price that if you find the SAME tour for less (which would completely surprise us) we will match it! Contact us for more information.

LIVE Online Availability!

We have just launched our LIVE online availability! Previously, we would ensure that our scheduled tours (availability) were updated weekly with available, pending and booked seats but, as time went on, and with lots of requests we decided to make it an automatic system that updates daily (a few times a day in fact!). The last update is just before our offices close.

So, if the Jenman offices are closed, you can check online & know the exact availability and can offer the seat to your client!

One of the great things about this is if you or your clients have your eye on a specific tour and departure and you are still making up you mind, you can track the tour progress to see when you need to make your final decision by! But, always feel free to contact us directly about any tours, departure dates and availability.

We hope you enjoy this new feature on our website!

National Geographic votes for Namibia, one of our favourites!

National Geographic recently released their top 20 holiday destinations for 2011. As you can imagine the competition was fierce and the finalists were handpicked by their very own well-travelled and talented National Geographic editors!

Number 10 on their list was none other than Namibia; we are somewhat biased and think this should have been higher on the list... but, with Namibia being the only place in Southern Africa and East Africa making it on the list - we can't help but feel very proud!

In this article they raved about the amazing wildlife found in the Etosha National Park (click here to read more) which we totally agree with. The wildlife is truly amazing there, from hundreds of flamingos to lions, zebras, herds of elephants and plenty of other species... Etosha has it all.

So why not take National Geographic's advice and spend some time at Etosha National Park? Our Pure Namibia (13-day camping or accommodated safari) includes 3 whole days in Etosha where you will spend your time on exciting game drives spotting wildlife and capturing the most amazing pictures... and, of course, finding out why National Geographic voted this as one of the best places to visit for 2011! Our Pure Namibia safari is priced from USD 2045/ EUR 1460 per person. Contact us about a safari to Namibia.

A road though the Serengeti? The update!

A while ago we featured a story about a planned road that would run right through the Serengeti and create havoc, problems and potentially destroy the famous migration. This caused outcry and shock amongst the world. If you haven't heard about this, then please click here to read the article on our blog...

A press release was sent out, below are some snippets (to read the full 'press release' please look at the comments section on our Serengeti blog post):

(...) "There has been so much unnecessary confusion about this issue. Let me give you my assurances that we will keep the Serengeti intact. We will not build a tarmac road through the Serengeti National Park. We will only build a road around the park to ease very serious transport challenges facing the poorer communities around the park." (...)

"While we will continue protecting our Serengeti seriously, we will also make sure that, as Government, we meet our responsibilities to our people. These people living in the northern side of the park were removed from inside the park itself as part of our conservation efforts. It takes about eight hours of very rough travel to reach their area from Mto wa Mbu town, and it is only 170 kilometers stretch. They have no road. They have no water. They have no power. We will be doing huge injustice if we do not move to correct these imbalances. If they perceive that we don't care about them, they will easily become enemies of the park and that will be harder to deal with." (...)

To read the whole release in the comment sections, click here:

- DIRECTORATE OF PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA PRESIDENT'S OFFICE, THE STATE HOUSE, DAR ES SALAAM

Meet Joanne - Our Wild Child, Afrikaans extraordinaire...

Joanne has been with Jenman Safaris for almost a year and works in the fast-paced and sometimes crazy Operations department. When Jo isn't at work or training for the Argus (famous cycle tour race) you will often find her and her husband as well as their beloved dog swimming at the Silvermine Dam or walking on one of Cape Towns' beautiful beaches. Having said that, it's no surprise that Jo has her sights set on joining one of our dhow trips; she would love to swim with whale sharks, fish off the dhow, explore the unspoilt beaches and soak up the sun...

She also said: "A perfect evening for me would be spent with friends - eating good food and maybe playing a board game... I'm such a wild child really!" Some of those board games have a tendency to become... um... somewhat 'interesting'... maybe you are actually wilder than we all realise?!

An interesting and quirky fact about Joanne is that even though she is South African she lived in the UK for 9 years and, because of that she has completely forgotten the Afrikaans (South African local language) language! Knowing this, our workshop manager, Frans has instituted 'Afrikaans week' for the Operations department where her close colleagues can laugh at her 'terrible' attempts to speak "die verlore taal". (Which means 'the'lost' language'; she had to ask Frans to translate that for her...!)

Last month we realised that a lot of our staff members have great music talents (singing, writing songs and playing the guitar)... Now, we are wondering if Jo would be willing to sing an Afrikaans song for us...?

Things you should know...

1. Park fees in East Africa: The proposed park fee increase for the Mara Reserves is to be postponed up to 30th June 2011.Until then, the current park fee (USD 60 for ANR) shall remain in force for all visitors to the Reserves. With effect from 1st July 2011, the new gazetted rate of USD 70 (for properties inside the Reserve) and USD 80 (for properties outside the Reserve) shall come into force.
2. Visa fees at the Vilanculos Airport have increased to USD 95, per person with immediate effect. (Visa fees do vary according to entry point). Visitors from UK  are advised to obtain their entry visa in advance to avoid delays at the airport. The visa fee if obtained from the High Commission in London for example, taking 3 days to issue, is GDP 40. If this is not possible, visitors are advised of this increase to ensure they have the correct amount available in cash USD, to obtain their visa at the airport.

World Wide Reservations
South Africa
Toll Free: 0861 JENMAN (0861 536 626)
USA and Canada
Toll Free: 1866 487 4323
Australia
Toll Free: 1800140 835
United Kingdom
Tel: 0871 284 5010 Fax: 0871 284 5011
New Zealand
Toll Free: 0800 528 101
Rest of World
+27 (0)21 683 7826

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