Nick van de Wiel of Tailor Made Safaris
Tailor Made Safaris
- Located In:
-
Netherlands
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2009)
- Member Of:
- FGASA, TKZN, MHCTO & EDTEA
- Tour Types:
- Self-drive mid-range & luxury tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $1,590 to $6,955 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
For the fourth time in South Africa with Tailor Made Safaris and, as always, great!
The Big-3 from Rooi - for the fourth time in South Africa with Tailor Made Safaris and, as always, great!
This year we came back for the fourth time to Tailor Made Safaris and we chose KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, finishing off in Kruger.
We started in Pongola in a lodge with a very nice view. Here we enjoyed rhino tracking on foot, which was very impressive!
Then Hluhluwe - iMfolozi in an unfenced camp. During the braai on our first evening we were visited by a hyaena and on the second night, a bushpig. Exciting! We saw our first wild dogs, as well as buffalo, lions, many birds, rhinos, elephants and more.
We couldn’t leave out a few days in St Lucia. There we enjoyed a boat ride, horse riding, good food and a drink once in a while. Of course we were very curious about the famous Sushi Safari. Well..... it did not disappoint. Highly recommended! We went on our first night drive and what an experience in itself with a great driver who saw everything in the dark.
Then on to Mkhuze and beautiful accommodation. At the waterhole we enjoyed the coming and going of many different animals. This is never boring.
And then Tembe.... nice and luxurious. We stayed in tents in the park and had been warned of the elephant iSilo who occasionally broke through the fence to visit the camp and yes, on the last night we heard a lot of noise and there he was! He then walked through the gate back into the reserve. This was a beautiful gift.
Furthermore, we had Ndumo Game Reserve and Mlilwane, Swaziland still on the programme. Ndumo with its many birds and Mlilwane with its great markets.
Finally, Kruger National Park. We had seen most of the Big 5, with only the leopard remaining missing in action. That had to happen in Kruger. On both of the last two days we managed to see leopard, both times lying on a tree branch. The second time it even had prey!
We were happy to have seen the Big 5 again.
This holiday was great. We saw a lot and also enjoyed good food and a drink once in a while!
NL
Email Herman en Elly | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A holiday celebration with Tailor Made Safaris ....... an amazing experience!
We enjoyed our three week tour in South Africa which started with two days in Johannesburg where we visited the Apartheid Museum. This made a great impression and we did need the entire day for it. The next day we enjoyed a bike ride through Soweto, where we visited a nursery with a Dutch couple. This Dutch gentleman dressed as a clown to surprise the children of the nursery. Then he stepped got on the bike in his clown suit ....... result: a lot of attention and contact with the population. This provided beautiful pictures. That evening Nicholas Uys (our guide) arrived at our guesthouse to meet us.
Day four: Swaziland
Nicholas taught us how to look for animals and birds, as well as the many different species of animals and birds. We learnt a lot. Our time in Swaziland included sleeping in the beehive huts, a day off walking in the nature reserve and a visit to a Swazi village where we could see how people live in the villages.
Day seven: Tembe Elephant Park
A wonderful place to learn to look at the tracks of the animals because of all the sand paths. Game drives in the morning and evening, with time spent relaxing in our accommodation in between. We saw elephants, a lion hunting, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, rhino, wildebeest, lots of birds and many species of antelope. A beautiful property with cheerful and welcoming staff.
Day nine: Kosi Bay
From a boat we viewed ancient local fishing methods. This was a wonderful trip and we saw kingfishers, flamingos and a beautiful sunset. We snorkelled for the first time..... what a wonderful world it is underwater. Nicholas knows a lot about the mangrove forest and we learned more and more.
Day eleven: Mkhuze Game Reserve
Nicholas taught us a lot during game drives, a lot about the birds but also the trees and flowers. We also spotted a lot of game including kudu, rhinos, warthogs and hippos. Nicholas is also good cook, therefore the braai was good. The weather during our Fig Forest Walk was not easy and there were few birds to see but the walk was beautiful. On the way back we even spotted a black rhino.
Day thirteen: St Lucia
A quiet place to walk around and move freely. We visited the Butterfly House and Crocodile Centre.
We walked along the sea and estuary and later saw the estuary by boat where we got to see a lot of hippos. We enjoyed a bit of local culture by visiting a Zulu village and a shelter for cats. On the way to Cape Vidal we saw many birds and waterfowl. A night game drive was a real experience, with a guide who knew where to find the animals and knew their behaviour. We followed a leopard while it was hunting and even a small chameleon got the attention of the guide.
Day twenty : On to Hluhluwe - Umfolozi Game Reserve
Here we met the vervet monkeys; you have to watch your food! The warthogs grunting at night under the platform of the safari tent. In the evening the hyaena came to see what we were eating. We encountered many rhinos, even with little ones, a lion with prey surrounded by trees full of vultures waiting for scraps. In the clear evening we enjoyed a beautiful starry sky.
Day twenty-three: on the way to the airport in Durban
While leaving the park it seemed that all the animals come out to say goodbye! Giraffes, buffalos, zebras, elephants, rhinos, a crocodile, various antelope species on the road ....... a fine ending to a wonderful, relaxing and educational trip.
Therefore: Nick, Freya and Nicholas.... our thanks
NL
Email Family van Brunschot | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An unforgettable self-drive family trip! We highly recommend.
We (a family with two daughters aged 13 and 15 years) spent the first three weeks of July 2013 on a self-drive safari. As advised by Geert (Nick), our route included Johannesburg, Drakensberg, Kwazulu-Natal, Mozambique and Swaziland. It was fantastic. Never have we experienced the beauty of nature in such an amazing way. Drive to the left instead of to the right and you find yourself standing face to face with two rhinos. We had to be careful not to let the monkeys steal any of our braai’d meats or bananas from the cooler. We had trouble only with finding lions but a quick text message to Geert and it was handled (or maybe it was coincidence?). Apart from all the animals and beautiful birds, the whale safari in St Lucia and swimming with dolphins at Ponta D' Ouro gave us something to remember. And in South Africa the night skies are really dark. Look up and you can see the immense galaxy. This was new for us.
In short, we had an unforgettable holiday. Geert and Freya, thank you for that. We will probably meet again at the next holiday fair.!
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
What a wonderful experience! Our trip was well taken care of from A to Z!
We enjoyed our wonderful trip to South Africa. From A to Z we were well looked after and you tailored everything to our needs and budget. The highlight of our trip was swimming with dolphins in Mozambique. Both times we saw dolphins and, on the second day, the dolphins really wanted to play. Nature was absolutely brilliant every time. The people we met were all very friendly and the luxury end of our trip in Tembe was really super! Twice a day we enjoyed game drives with a very funny and knowledgeable guide. I thought spending six hours a day in a bumpy car would be boring but it's actually exciting every minute. You never know whether you will see a lion or leopard.
It was nice to meet you in St Lucia, your personal approach and empathy with your guests’ journey makes it very special. We found the country beautiful and had a wonderful holiday which was a wonderful gift to give our children. We will definitely come back!
Email M Weaver | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Family Weaver - Tailor Made Safaris absolutely delivered!
This was our first trip to Africa and importantly it was an opportunity to see our son Ollie for the first time in 8 months. He is studying in KwaZulu-Natal to be a field guide so we were keen to have a well organised, exciting and interesting vacation where we could learn new things, see and experience the sights and culture of the country that Ollie has fallen in love with and that would stretched and add to his knowledge through our guide.
Tailor Made Safaris absolutely delivered!
Despite having a hiccup at the start of the holiday when we missed our connecting flight to Richards Bay (through no fault of ours or Tailor Made Safaris!), Nick and Freya kept in touch, dealt with our frustrations, offered solutions and worked round the problem while assisting us with communication our son who was patiently waiting to be collected.
When we did eventually arrive, Freya our guide slipped into our family unit with ease while retaining the necessary professionalism and excellent hosting skills. Being British, I confess that the prospect of sharing much of every waking hour with a stranger in a strange country was daunting…I should not have worried. Freya put our mind at rest saying that if we wanted time to ourselves to just say and arrangements would be made.
The attention to detail regarding our interest, our needs, our food preferences was first rate and it did not go un-noticed that Freya altered plans without even a blink when we changed our minds, no fuss, no drama, it just got done.
It is very hard to come up with a favourite part of the holiday, there were so many but here are some…
Tembe allowed me to cross of my bucket list “To see a leopard in the wild” which I was absolutely thrilled about.
Seeing Ollie’s face when he came back from a diving trip while we were at Thonga Beach Lodge where he saw turtle, white shark, whale, dolphins and heard whale song. He was totally buzzing!
Seeing Isilo, the elephant with 2.7 m long tusks, at night in the camp at Tembe.
Stepping out of our chalets at Mkhuze and iMfolozi and having game just 10 feet away.
Seeing a bull Elephant walking down the road at Mkhuze without a care in the world and being given insights into these magnificent creatures by Freya while she drove backwards down the road to allow our tusked friend to go where ever he wished…which was to follow us for ¼ mile down the road!
Seeing how much Ollie has learnt about the wildlife in Africa in such a short space of time and to have an expert on hand to further test his skills and fill in any gaps.
The first sight of the Indian Ocean and the beach at Thonga as we crowned the last dune before our decent to the resort was breath taking.
All were fantastic but these are just some of the experiences!
Tailor Made Safaris created a diverse, interesting trip with plenty to see and do, good quality accommodation and importantly fantastic game viewing.
The mix of basic “in park”, luxury safari tent, lodge and hotel accommodation was a great introduction to vacationing in South Africa.
With any holiday of this type there are two important questions
1) Would we pay good money to go again?
2) Would we recommend the guide company to friends and family?
Our answer in both cases is a resounding yes!
Thanks Freya for being a fantastic guide and for putting up with us and thanks to Nick for drawing up and proposing such a great vacation (and for entrusting your wife to us Brits for two weeks).
To further emphasise our commitment to this level of adulation, we have recently booked to return to South Africa and to again use Tailor Made Safaris. I should also add that this time we return with my mother and father, my daughter and her partner!
The Weaver family
Worcestershire, United Kingdom
NL
Email Marian | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable
What an amazing trip I made with my daughter through Tailor Made Safaris.
At the Vakantiebeurs in Utrecht I was investigating if and how my daughter and I — two blonde women (59 and 32) — could safely travel on our own in South Africa, and that’s where I met Geert. His story, and especially the feeling I got from him as a Dutch person living there himself, immediately gave me a sense of trust. And that feeling only grew during the preparation and throughout the trip thanks to Angela, who also lives there with her family. She really knows what she’s talking about and reassured us when people back home questioned whether our trip was responsible.
Our trip of just over 2.5 weeks — a mix of hiking, wildlife, nature, culture, and moments of doing absolutely nothing — was summarised in a beautiful, handy little book that felt like unwrapping daily gifts over and over again. It guided us through each day, knowing that Angela was in the background if needed.
How wonderful it was to receive a South African phone at the airport, to have all the taxis arranged for us in Johannesburg, the transfers to and from the Apartheid Museum, the guided cycling tour in Soweto, and the transfer to our rental car. It felt good not having to explore those areas on our own. Everywhere we went they knew about our arrival and our arrangements — everything was organised incredibly well.
With our comfortable rental car we continued our journey to the beautiful Drakensberg, Ithala, Kosi Bay, Tembe, St Lucia, and as the grand finale, a stunning lodge in a truly spectacular spot in the Makongo Hills. Wow, what an experience — the animals, the beautiful accommodations (each one more beautiful than the next, and we knew that beforehand), the views, the game drives, the food, and not to forget the warm hospitality of the people. And if you get a flat tyre, you simply call Angela in your own language and she talks you through everything. And how special it was when she visited us during the trip with a cake for my birthday, sharing stories from her daily life in South Africa.
We didn’t always manage to reach our daily travel-times because of potholes, speed bumps, animals, and traffic, which unfortunately cut into our “relax-and-do-nothing” time here and there. So adding an extra day at beautiful spots is something we would definitely recommend. There’s still room for improvement when it comes to route marking for self-drive game drives or walks in the reserves compared to the Netherlands, and we experienced the helpfulness of the locals and lodge staff when we got stuck on a sandy road or didn’t dare to cross a flowing river. They truly help you solve it. Such kindness — and most importantly, we never once felt unsafe during the entire trip.
In short: we had an unforgettable journey with an exceptionally wonderful travel organisation.
A perfect way to feel free while everything important is well-arranged and prepared. If we go again, we will definitely book through them. Highly recommended!
CA
Email Marie-Claude | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful family road trip to South Africa
We booked a trip with Tailor Made Safaris through a travel agent based in Canada.
Positive elements:
- We had excellent service before and during the trip. They always answered our questions quickly.
- We really appreciated getting such a nice book of our upcoming trip.
- The reception at the airport was also flawless.
- We appreciated that they gave us a phone for the duration of the trip.
- The itinerary made us visit a good chunk of the southern part of South Africa (including places that we would not have picked ourselves).
Less positive elements:
- Looking back, the travel agent made us buy the plane ticket first, and then looked for an itinerary and accommodations. In the end, we ended up spending more than we had planned and staying in 1-2 places (out of the 6 where we stayed) that were below our expectations. It would have been preferable for us to reduce the duration of our stay under those circumstances.
- We quickly ran out of airtime for the phone and it would have been appreciated to have been given the opportunity to buy airtime ahead of time.
- The itinerary did not fully consider what would be open and closed around the Christmas holidays. We would have appreciated more guidance on that.
- The itinerary mostly focused on expensive activities and not so much on budget-oriented ones (assuming most people do not have an unlimited budget, especially families with multiple children).
Overall, we really enjoyed our trip to South Africa and are happy to have used the services of Tailor Made Safaris, as it gave us the opportunity to discover wonderful places we probably would never have been if we had designed our own itinerary.
Reply from Tailor Made Safaris
Posted on Feb 22, 2019Hi Marie-Claude,
Thank you so much for your valuable feedback, both positive and constructive. We will discuss this with the travel agent you used. I think it is important to clarify that you booked through a travel agent, and we were the 'ground handler' or tour operator for the travel agent. We acted on direction from the agent, and believe we gave them the same valuable information that we give directly to our clients, but obviously we have no way of knowing if this information was passed on to you in its entirety.
Booking with a travel agency instead of directly with us brings many benefits, but unfortunately, it means that we do not get to communicate directly with you until the day you arrive in South Africa. It means we have no control over the amount of pre-trip advice passed on to you, regarding flights, the itinerary, type & quality of accommodation you receive. Due to the nature of the service we offer, we create the tour as per your travel agent’s instructions, which means we are reliant solely on his communication to us.
You have highlighted for us a crucial flaw in our dealings with a third party agency and will seek to improve on that moving forward. I am truly sorry that you experienced some less than positive elements to your South African trip and hope that I have managed to clarify where we believe the potential problem has arisen from. We will be in contact with the agency you booked with to ensure we improve the process of passing on important pre-flight information to our valuable guests.
With best regards, Nick van de Wiel, Managing Director Tailor Made Safaris
NL
Email Sjef Wierink | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beautiful trip in South Afrika
In the preparation we got all possibilities to make an individual trip. It was well organised. We got a lot of information in advance. The guides and tours were on time. The guides told us many interesting things about the country, animal, the people, etc.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Enjoyed the experience with similar minded, keen photographic group.
It was their first tour group to Namibia, their home environment is Kwazulu- Natal. I found that the team was caring, involved and energetic. Communication and service was good.
NL
35-50 years of age
The most amazing trip I made in my life!
During our safari drive in Tembe Park there was an elephant coming at us in a threatening way, while we were sitting in the jeep. This is one of the most impressive moments of our trip. The elephant stopped at only 2 meters away form us, observed us for a while, and then turned around to proceed what he was doing. It’s amazing to see an elephant from this close! We’ve seen lots of animals during this safari at the beautiful wildlife reserves. We’ve visited fantastic destinations, like Kosi Bay and Drakensberg. This is the most amazing trip I made in my life; thanks to Tailor Made Safaris!