Trip was excellent. Tour consultant, Lyndal Montgomery, organised a very balanced trip for a first time to Africa. All experiences, accommodation, connections and personnel-excellent. It was a truely amazing trip. We will definitely return to Africa with Bench Africa and I will highly recommend the company to all my friends. Thank you.

Our family has just returned from the most amazing holiday organised by the wonderful people at Bench Africa. In the beginning, my wife and I had absolutely no idea about where to go and what to do. We were also traveling with our two children (aged 11 and 13) so it was important to us that the trip was safe and planned to take their ages into account. Julie from Bench Africa took exceptional care of us and planned the whole trip in meticulous detail. She took the time to understand what we wanted to experience and planned the most amazing itinerary for our family. It wasn’t until we were in the midst of our African adventure that we understood the time and effort that Julie and the staff had gone to. Bench Africa didn’t just plan us a holiday, they planned us an experience. One that we will always remember. I cannot recommend the people at Bench Africa highly enough. We will certainly be using them in the future.

We were extremely happy with the advice and assistance that we received from Maria. Our trip was organised perfectly and we had the most amazing time.

In July 2019, we went on the Botswana Wildlife tour (15 days/14 nights) booked through Bench Africa and organised locally by Jenman Safaris. This was an absolutely outstanding experience. Many things contributed to making the trip such a pleasure, notably (1) the assistance from the folks at Bench Africa during the booking phase, as well as the subsequent support (2) the outstanding Jenman guide, for whom nothing was too much trouble. We had a very friendly group of 12 people who got along from the outset, which certainly helped, and were exceptionally fortunate in terms of seeing a very wide range of wildlife (e.g. we saw lions, a leopard, many types of antelopes, dozens of giraffes and zebras, hundreds of elephants and buffaloes, as well as an endless variety of birds). The local guides who supported our Jenman guide were consistently excellent. We stayed at several different lodges/camps during the trip. A'Zambezi Lodge at Victoria Falls and Chobe Safari Lodge at Kasane were clean and comfortable, with all tourist facilities. Camp Kwando in Namibia was a delight, with instant access to the river for a pre-dinner exploratory cruise. Guma Lagoon Camp in the Okavango Delta had an excellent location and was also quite good. Mankwe Bush Camp in Moremi Game Reserve was a fairly basic stopgap arrangement that nevertheless worked very well. Indeed the wonderful smiling staff at Mankwe gave us an impromptu concert after dinner on the second night! Nata Lodge was a pleasure for an overnight stop. We finished the tour staying at Elephant's Eye Lodge in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, a luxurious collection of tent chalets with amazing food. There's a lot of road travel (over 2500 km) and we were out of our comfort zone some of the time, but it was all very worthwhile because of the range of experiences on offer: the tour is a genuine adventure for people of any age. The add-on scenic flight over the Delta in a 4-seater Cessna was special! We unhesitatingly recommend Bench Africa to anyone considering a trip to that wonderful continent.

I had been dreaming of travelling to Namibia for almost a decade, and my Bench safari lived up to even my most wild imaginings. From my incredibly knowledgable local guide Nestor, to the detailed itinerary covering all the highlights and some hidden gems too, to the excellent accommodation choices (Shipwreck Lodge and Hoanib Valley camp were highlights), it was faultless from start to finish. Dreaming of my next Bench trip already.

We were a party of 4 (2 couples )who travelled to Egypt in March 2019. Our trip was organized by Julie at Bench Travel.Julie had organized our trip to South Africa & Botswana ( for 8 people) in 2018 & I was most confident in booking through her once again.We began our trip in Cairo , staying at Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel. Great position overlooking the pyramids , very clean , lovely breakfast buffet & helpful staff .Our private guide & driver picked us up promptly the following 2 mornings for our day tours . They were helpful , friendly & knowledgeable. The next four days were spent on a 4 night Nile Cruise on The Sonesta Star Goddess cruise ship , in a Beethoven Suite. Everything about this cruise was amazing, from the crew ,the service , the wonderful variety & presentation of the meals & just sitting on our private balconies or on the lounges on the upper deck watching the Egyptian way of life, on the banks & on the river. All transfers throughout the trip were on time & everything went to plan. We would all definitely recommend booking through Bench travel for their knowledge & efficiency .

Superb and knowledgable service. Advice on trip, timing, planning was very very good. They arranged essentially a private tour for us that fulfilled and exceeded all our expectations at almost the same cost as a group tour. Special thanks to Karen. Dave and Erica.

Wonderful first hand knowledge of Southern Africa which meant that all advice was honest and reliable. Maria, my travel consultant, was friendly, professional, so prompt in responding to my queries and knowledgeable. I really liked that they didn’t try up sell anything and understood my budget parameters. Highly recommend Bench Africa and especially Maria.

Great experience - great service from Hank

From the time of contacting Bench International, their service and delivery was impeccable. I travelled with my family from Australia and my children and grandchildren met me in South Africa for this family reunion. Every detail was taken care of and we had a memorable holiday at Bakubang Resort and at The Palace at Sun City. Well done to the Bench Team