Matswani or Cruiser Safaris

Will22

Will22

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My son and I are planning a hunt in June 2026 in South Africa. This will be our first trip to Africa. We have narrowed our outfitters to Matswani or Cruisers. Does anyone have a recommendation between these two or recommend any others? The species we are looking for are Kudu, Nyala, Eland, Wildebeest and Impala.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hey will,

How did you go about choosing those two operators?

I see Matswani is in Limpopo - their price list has Kudu listed as priced by the inch. Also ($400 dollar baboon, and 4,400 dollar eland fee). These are both absurd

For me that is a no go so I would be moving on.

If that doesn’t bother you I would just ask how big the properties they hunt are on average. They say have combined 50,000 acres.
If that’s two 25,000 acre ranches that would be fine! But maybe it’s 10 properties of varying size. Best to find out.

I can’t get much info on cruiser. They are also in the Limpopo. Website has no price list. Only select packages
Their social media has been quiet since 2023
Most likely they have a centralized lodge and you will be hunting other property’s from there. (Driving around instead of hunting)

These two hunts would probably be about the same experience.

I would maybe start fresh and talk to some folks on here! There are Limpopo operators on here you should speak to. Good Sponsors on here and highly rated

You should also look at Eastern cape in SA (and elsewhere) And definitely Namibia. Those two places usually are more wide open spaces and I’ve noticed priced better than maybe some northern SA operators.


You did the right thing coming on here to ask and I still think you should do a lot more digging! Don’t just narrow it down to those to operators. I wouldn’t hunt with either. Not because they are bad people or you would have a bad time. I just think there are better options for you!
 
Last edited:
dchum said:
Hey will,

How did you go about choosing those two operators?

I see Matswani is in Limpopo - their price list has Kudu listed as priced by the inch. Also ($400 dollar baboon, and 4,400 dollar eland fee). These are both absurd

For me that is a no go so I would be moving on.

If that doesn’t bother you I would just ask how big the properties they hunt are on average. They say have combined 50,000 acres.
If that’s two 25,000 acre ranches that would be fine! But maybe it’s 10 properties of varying size. Best to find out.

I can’t get much info on cruiser. They are also in the Limpopo. Website has no price list. Only select packages
Their social media has been quiet since 2023
Most likely they have a centralized lodge and you will be hunting other property’s from there. (Driving around instead of hunting)

These two hunts would probably be about the same experience.

I would maybe start fresh and talk to some folks on here! There are Limpopo operators on here you should speak to. Good Sponsors of the sight and highly rated

You should also look at Eastern cape in SA (and elsewhere) And definitely Namibia. Those two places usually are more wide opens spaces and I’ve noticed priced better than maybe some northern SA operators.


You did the right thing coming on here to ask and I still think you should do a lot more digging! Don’t just narrow it down to those to operators. I wouldn’t hunt with either. Not because they are bad people or you would have a bad time. I just think there are better options for you!
Click to expand...
Thank you. Matswani was recommended by a reputable broker that had hunted there and Cruiser was recommended by a friend of a friend that hunted with them in 2024. I will keep researching especially this site to ser what other outfitters I should be considering!
 
Will22 said:
Thank you. Matswani was recommended by a reputable broker that had hunted there and Cruiser was recommended by a friend of a friend that hunted with them in 2024. I will keep researching especially this site to ser what other outfitters I should be considering!
Click to expand...
Ya! look at the deals and offers section on here.

You will see that 4,400 dollar eland fee can go a lot further and even offer a more free range hunt.

I think the two outfitters you listed are priced so high because they are not hunting their own land and thus not their own animals. They have to pay for it, and then you have to pay on top of that. So it adds up.

Hunting with a land owner in Namibia or East cape will give you larger properties and cheaper trophy fees.
It’s a win win there.

My father took me on my first safari - a father son hunt will be special. And planning it is part of the fun! You will keep leaning more about the industry and thing will become more clear to you.
 
I think @dchum is giving you some very good advice. There are lots of good outfitters that are sponsors here on AH that I truly believe will give you a much better experience and pricing than what it sounds like these two may offer. The Matswani trophy fees are definitely on the high end. My first safari was with Motsomi Safaris who are not sponsors here on AH but it was a quality trip and many AH members have hunted with them in Limpopo. I met them in person at SCI before I booked with them.
I would be somewhat leery of a “broker” recommendation as they have a financial interest in who they recommend, doesn’t mean the outfitter is necessarily good or bad but that may be increasing the outfitter fees as they are paying the broker to market for them versus doing their own marketing at shows etc. I would put out a request on AH for outfitters to contact you with the animals you want to hunt and see what they offer. I can think of a dozen sponsors on here that I would happily hunt with that you will have a great hunt with and pay more reasonable trophy fees
 
As has been stated 4400.00 for an eland is the highest priced eland I have ever seen, and I've taken 6 of them. Another thing you need to be asking is........am I hunting just one property, or am I driving to various nearby properties to hunt. I had a very good friend go to Africa this spring, he took 8 animals on 7 different properties, one of which was a 3 hour drive each way. For me, I want to unpack, and hunt right out of camp.

Hopefully, you will get some nice offers from sponsors of this site, or someone who has hunted SA multiple times with multiple outfitters.
 
I suggest you go to the “hunt reports” section and do some research there. There are hundreds of reports to sift through and check out the operators that interest you the most.
 
Cruiser Safaris has been around for many years.
They have a big property of their own, and like 95% of all operators, they'll have concessions too.
I also know that return clients make up most of their annual bookings.

Haven't heard of Matswani, so can't comment.
 
My two sons and I hunted with Cruisers back in 2016. They were a first-class outfit. A number of AH members have hunted with them since then and I don't recall any negative comments.
 
Shootist43 said:
My two sons and I hunted with Cruisers back in 2016. They were a first-class outfit. A number of AH members have hunted with them since then and I don't recall any negative comments.
Click to expand...
Thank you.
 
Will22 said:
My son and I are planning a hunt in June 2026 in South Africa. This will be our first trip to Africa. We have narrowed our outfitters to Matswani or Cruisers. Does anyone have a recommendation between these two or recommend any others? The species we are looking for are Kudu, Nyala, Eland, Wildebeest and Impala.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
I just got back from a ten day package with Cruiser Safaris and am writing an extremely long winded in-depth hunt report. Feel free to ask me any questions. I have not hunted with Matswani so I cannot compare but I can tell you that my time with Cruiser was absolutely amazing. They used to have their full price list on their page but I suspect they are updating it due to inflation. I spoke with Pieter Lamprecht about this personally that price transparency is key for him and he never charges by the inch. If you get a whopper, you get a whopper. Got some amazing Kudu while we were there and hunted in the mountains and in scrubby bushveld. I really felt like I saw a lot of different biomes and country. We did spot and stalk, a little bit of blind hunting. The amount of game and the quality was phenomenal and we absolutely loved our PH. We do plan to return to Crusier soon, it was that good.
 
Regarding your target species, Kudu were tough hunting have very few and fleeting encounters but we had plenty of opportunity on Eland and Nyala. My dad got a very fine wildebeest and a good impala is almost a guarantee. That being the case, you will be hunting hard. Nyala, Kudu and Eland are similar difficulty in that they are all very sneaky. Dad and I just barely squeaked out Kudu. They made us work for it, which a good thing I think. Make sure you plan a hunt with plenty of time.
 
Hunted with Cruiser in 2014 and 2017. First class operation. A couple from Canada were also hunting at the same time as us and it was their 5th hunt with Cruiser. Peter owns a lot of land and also hunts neighboring properties. Great accommodations and great food. They a have a pretty good trophy list. I did the 10 day daily rate package and just took whatever animals we came across. I took eland, blesbok, bushbuck, nyala, hartebeest, impala, zebra, steenbuck, waterbuck and 3 warthogs. My son took a nice 52” kudu and several other animals.
 
SwampTrooper said:
Regarding your target species, Kudu were tough hunting have very few and fleeting encounters but we had plenty of opportunity on Eland and Nyala. My dad got a very fine wildebeest and a good impala is almost a guarantee. That being the case, you will be hunting hard. Nyala, Kudu and Eland are similar difficulty in that they are all very sneaky. Dad and I just barely squeaked out Kudu. They made us work for it, which a good thing I think. Make sure you plan a hunt with plenty of time.
Click to expand...
If you want a really big kudu bull, you need both time and timing.
The more time you can dedicate to glassing and quietly scanning the bush, the better your chances of spotting a whopper.
Timing is important. Either early season during the rut (April-May), or late season when the bush is very dry. Always as close to new moon as possible.
The rut is the only time of the year that the super bulls get stupid and take chances to get with the ladies.
Late season, they’re forced to move looking for food and water, which makes spotting them easier.

The fun starts once that big bull has been spotted.
There’s no guarantees that you’ll even get a shot and sometimes you’ll find them in such an impenetrable place, that you simply have to move on and look for another one.
 
My first Safari to Southern Africa was in 2012 with Cruiser. They met or exceeded all my expectations. I took all the animals on your list plus many others and all were above average. Pieter runs a pretty tight ship and will go out of his way to see you leave happy. Please let me know if you have any questions.
 
Will22 said:
Thank you. Matswani was recommended by a reputable broker that had hunted there and Cruiser was recommended by a friend of a friend that hunted with them in 2024. I will keep researching especially this site to ser what other outfitters I should be considering!
Click to expand...
Have you compared with some of the outfitters with packages such as Frontier Safaris as an example? Many others as well so I'd keep looking. I suggest making a spreadsheet to make comparisons with what is important to you on the hunt and what each outfitter charges.
 
I enjoyed my 2018 hunt with Cruiser. Pieter understands hunting and hospitality and his crew does too.
 
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