My husband and I did The Grand Tour of South Afric...

My husband and I did The Grand Tour of South Africa with Ilios between November 20th and December 5th.. It was a wonderful experience with a great variety of activities and visits. I would have given 5 stars except for us not being booked in to Perry's Bridge Hollow on the 21st after a very long day travelling. Our guide had not been informed about this so he was not at fault. It resulted in us having to continue our journey for another 40 minutes to get to Caster Bridge Hollow and we were very tired as were the guide and driver.

Lutendo and Jabu were an excellent guide and driver with a fund of knowledge which enhanced our experience of everywhere we went. They were both very friendly and entertaining and we knew we could rely totally on them.

For the second half of our tour our guide was Tracey (and Henry on the one day Tracey couldn't be there) and both were excellent with a wide knowledge of the area physically and politically. Tracey was very efficient and good humoured. Ashley, our driver, was also excellent and was kind and considerate.

With the exception of both Radisson hotels - Port Elizabeth and particularly Le Vendome in Cape Town - the accommodation was excellent with very friendly, efficient and attentive staff. It was great to have such a variety of places to stay which added also to our enjoyment. Breakfast was excellent in all of those places (again with the exception of the Radissons) and dinner in those where we had dinner. I think an excellent selection of accommodation has been chosen. I do suggest, however, that Ilios rethink its choice of the 2 Radissons, in particular Le Vendome where we had a number of unpleasant experiences which were not well dealt with by staff. The worst experience for me was a burn on the final morning sustained when I opened one of the heated containers to get bacon. This was dealt with very badly and unprofessionally by the staff.

In general I cannot praise Ilios highly enough for the excellence of their guides and drivers and for the breadth and variety of experiences offered to us. I would recommend this tour.