About Wild Wings Safaris

Long before Wild Wings existed, Africa's wild places were already an important part of Onne and Simon's lives.

The brothers grew up in South Africa in a family that loved the outdoors, with regular trips to Kruger National Park. In 1990, after finishing high school, Onne took his 14-year-old brother Simon on a camping safari through Kruger. They spent more than three weeks exploring the park from north to south, deepening a love of wildlife and the bush that had begun years earlier. They only headed home when they ran out of money. 

Simon took that connection further professionally, becoming a safari guide and gaining the practical bush knowledge that comes from spending years in the field. Onne followed a different path, developing the organisational, writing and planning skills that would later become equally important to the business.

In 2005, the brothers joined forces, and Wild Wings Safaris was born.

Wild Wings didn't begin by trying to sell the whole of Africa.

We started with Kruger National Park because Kruger was what we knew.

Simon knew the bush from guiding it. Onne understood the destination from years of travelling there and began building the business around detailed, practical safari advice. The early Wild Wings focused on guided Kruger safaris and helping travellers make sense of a destination the brothers understood from personal experience.

As new team members joined and Wild Wings expanded beyond Kruger, our safari experts travelled through Southern and East Africa on educational trips, visiting reserves, inspecting lodges and camps, testing routes and building relationships with the people on the ground. First-hand knowledge remains central to how we operate and how we recommend safaris.

Twenty years after those early Kruger safaris, Wild Wings Safaris has grown from a small Kruger safari operation into a specialist African tour operator planning tailor-made safaris across South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania. 

Our South African team is based on the Garden Route, while our own guided safari operations keep us closely connected to Kruger National Park and the safari experience on the ground. We also have a UK presence serving travellers who prefer to book through a British company. 

Although the company has grown, we've deliberately remained a specialist safari operator. Africa is not one region among many that we sell. It is what we know, what we travel and what we continue to learn about.

Wild Wings has always grown through people.

Our Africa Safari Specialists bring years of destination knowledge and travel-planning experience. Our safari guides bring the bush to life through wildlife knowledge, interpretation and storytelling. Behind them is a dedicated team handling the details that help turn individual bookings, transfers, flights and safari experiences into one coherent journey.

Different personalities are very much part of Wild Wings. We're professional about the work, but we've never been particularly corporate about the people doing it. Humour, curiosity, shared educational trips and a genuine enthusiasm for Africa have shaped the culture of the company over the years.

Some team members have been with Wild Wings for many years, former colleagues still describe their time here as being part of a family, and many guests return to travel with the same Africa Safari Specialists and guides. The relationships formed along the way have become as much a part of the Wild Wings story as the destinations we sell.

Read what our guests say about travelling with Wild Wings → Guest Reviews

Meet the people behind Wild Wings, from the Africa Safari Specialists who plan our guests' journeys and the guides who bring the bush to life, to the team working behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly → Meet the Wild Wings Safaris Team.   

A safari is a significant investment, not only financially but also in time and expectation. We believe our responsibility is to help travellers make good decisions about that investment.

That means recommending the safari that is right for the person, rather than the safari that is easiest to sell. Sometimes the best choice is not the most expensive lodge or the most ambitious itinerary. Good planning means understanding what matters to you, explaining the trade-offs honestly and using our experience to help you decide where your budget and time are best spent.

We also believe that first-hand knowledge matters. Africa is complex, and two lodges that look similar online can deliver very different experiences. Our Africa Safari Specialists and guides bring together personal experience, destination knowledge, long-standing relationships and feedback from thousands of travellers to inform the advice we give.

Above all, Wild Wings remains a people-led business. Technology has changed enormously since we started in 2005, and we use it where it helps us work better. But the judgement behind our recommendations, the planning of your safari and the responsibility for looking after you remain human.

Kruger National Park is more than one of the destinations we sell. It is part of the Wild Wings story.

It was family trips to Kruger that first sparked Onne and Simon's love of the African bush, and when Wild Wings began in 2005, guided Kruger safaris were at the heart of the business.

They still are.

Wild Wings operates its own guided safaris in Kruger National Park, giving us a direct connection to the experience our guests have on the ground. Our professional safari guides spend their days reading tracks, interpreting animal behaviour, sharing their knowledge and introducing travellers from around the world to a place we have known and loved for decades.

Running our own safari operation also keeps us close to the practical realities of safari travel. We see how seasons change the experience, how wildlife movements vary, what makes a good guide, what travellers value and where expectations sometimes differ from reality.

Wild Wings has expanded far beyond Kruger since those early days, but we haven't outgrown our roots. Kruger remains part of who we are and a reminder of the principle on which the company was built: know the places you recommend.

→ Explore Our Kruger Safaris

The people behind a safari matter to us, including those our guests may never meet.

When we choose lodges, camps and other safari partners, we look beyond the location, rooms and wildlife experience. We also pay attention to how a property is run and how it treats the people who work there.

On educational trips, our team talks to people across the property, from guides and trackers to housekeeping, kitchen and garden staff. How long people have worked there can tell us a great deal. When staff have stayed with a lodge for ten or twenty years, it often says something meaningful about the culture behind the guest experience.

We value owner-run and independently operated businesses where there is a genuine connection between the people, the property and the surrounding community. We also choose to work with safari partners whose approach to their staff, wildlife, conservation and local communities is compatible with our own values.

One of the most tangible ways we support local communities is through education. 

In 2011, members of the Wild Wings team established the Wild Wings Educational Trust, a separate non-profit organisation created to improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in South Africa.

The Trust supports educational initiatives including scholarships for talented children from disadvantaged communities and support for a local crèche in Thembalethu, near our South African office in George.

Wild Wings also encourages guests who would like to contribute to support the Trust. We match guest contributions up to 1% of the cost of their trip.

→ Learn More About the Wild Wings Educational Trust

Wild Wings Safaris has changed considerably since two brothers started a small Kruger safari business in 2005. The destinations we cover have expanded, our team has grown, and the technology available to travellers and travel companies has transformed the way safaris are researched and planned.

What hasn't changed is our belief that good safari planning depends on people who know Africa, listen carefully and are prepared to use their judgement.

We embrace technology where it helps us work more efficiently, share our knowledge and make safari planning easier. But we don't believe technology should replace the human expertise behind the decisions that matter. Our safari recommendations, itinerary planning and advice remain in the hands of experienced people.

As Wild Wings continues to evolve, that's something we intend to protect: the knowledge, judgement and personal relationships on which the company was built.

The right safari begins with the right people.

Tell us what you have in mind, and one of our Africa Safari Specialists will help you explore the options.