... ATI Holidays (Africa Tourist Info) is perfectly placed to arrange your ideal holiday. After leaving the UK almost 20 years ago, David Cartwright & Charlotte Bond have worked and travelled extensively in the region. Their experience includes managing lodges and safaris in Botswana, flying commercially in South Africa and developing environmental management projects in Namibia. David & Charlotte took over ownership of the company in 2002 and have enthusiastically grown & developed, adding new and exciting lodges and destinations whilst always maintaining their principle of personally visiting every area offered. They continue to run the company in conjunction with their enthusiastic, well-travelled and professional team of consultants.

Let us offer you competitive prices, excellent personal service and the most up to date local information required to tailor the perfect safari. We meet every client arriving in Windhoek to provide a thorough briefing and we offer all our guest marked route maps, free of charge mobile phone & cool box hire in Namibia, detailed itineraries and local 24 hour emergency support as well as Emergency Accident Evacuation & hospitalisation cover in Namibia, optional 4x4 instruction, satellite phone or GPS hire.

We offer a variety of self-drive safaris and tours, fly-in holidays and safaris, guided tours and tailor made safaris. We cover the highlights of this diverse region from the Namib Desert of Namibia, Sossusvlei & Sesriem, the Skeleton Coast, Etosha National Park, Fish River Canyon and Kaokoland to the wonders of the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park and the Kalahari Desert. We also organise beach holidays and honeymoons to Mauritius, Seychelles & Mozambique as well as exhilarating walking safaris in Zambia or holidays through the Garden Route, Kruger National Park, Drakensburg Mountains or Cape Town in South Africa.

• [?]David J. Cartwright: Managing Director

  David arrived in Southern Africa 17 years ago and initially trained and worked as a commercial pilot in the Eastern Cape before moving north to Namibia. Here he was lucky enough to meet his future wife & business partner, Charlotte. After a couple of years working in aviation and safari management they headed off to Botswana and the beauty of the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park where they ran and built lodges together for four years. The conclusion of their time in Botswana was marked by their marriage at Camp Okavango, after which they decided to return to Namibia and set up home in Windhoek, its capital city. The couple purchased shares in what was then 'Africa Tourist Info.' and just under two years later bought the remaining holding of the company, and ATI Holidays as we know was born.

  Subsequent to that, they purchased Rivendell Guest House and today provide employment for 16 Namibian members of staff. David lives with Charlotte, two children Alex (7) and Jasmine (3) and a silly old dog called Tessa. He is usually to be found drinking tea at his desk and is always available for travel advice and support for clients in country. (David is the one NOT wearing the yellow ribbon)

• [?]Charlotte J. Bond: Financial Director

  Charlotte first arrived in Namibia from the UK in 1997 shortly after completing her degree in Environmental Science. She worked for a while on a guest farm west of Okahandja and a bird rehabilitation centre outside Windhoek. After meeting David a few months later they moved together to Maun, Botswana. Here they ran Oddballs Camp in the heart of the Delta before moving to Desert & Delta Safaris where they worked at a number of different lodges in their capacity as relief managers. During this time they spent evenings trying to persuade elephants to move out of camp, they rebuilt lodges in the heaviest rains for 20 years, fended off inquisitive lions late at night in Savuti and generally had an amazing bush experience. In 2002 Charlotte & David decided to focus on building their own business somewhere a little more sedate, and moved back to Namibia to buy a share in ATI Holidays before taking over sole ownership in early 2004. Charlotte remains passionate about her background in environmental education and management, and these beliefs are at the heart of ATI's sustainable tourism vision.

• [?]Margo Bishop: Marketing Manager

  Margo was born into conservation and tourism, spending her formative years living in various National Parks around Namibia, including The Fish River Canyon and Etosha National Park, moving to a proper 'town' for the first time just before she started school.

  After completing high school and her studies; Margo spent a number of years travelling across South Africa and Europe, working in the golfing and insurance industries before returning to Namibia and, making a complete career change by joining the tourism industry about 7 years ago.

  Margo heads up the marketing department, working closely with both David and Charlotte and is actively involved in growing the ATI Holidays brand internationally and when she is not in the office, she can often be found hiking in the bush around the capital or planning the next trip in her beloved old Land Rover!

• [?]Wendy Openshaw: Senior Consultant

  Wendy has been working at ATI since October 2008, but has in one way or another been involved in tourism for the past 10 years after returning from a stint in the UK.

  She has travelled extensively through Namibia as well as parts of South Africa and Zimbabwe – and with a very long travel to-do list would prefer being on the road than between four walls!

  Being fairly grounded by the demands of two energetic young children though, she is quite happy to share her love and knowledge of Southern Africa with travellers looking to broaden their own horizons.

• [?]Mureal van Rooyen: Consultant

  Mureal was born in Walvis Bay but grew up in the city Windhoek. She has been in the industry for about eight years and still loves it. Mureal joined the ATI team on a part-time basis while Wendy was on maternity leave in March 2011, but has made such an impact that she has been offered a permanent position on staff!

  She loves music, singing, socialising with people and travelling and speaks three languages. Like the majority of our staff members, she has travelled quite extensively around the world and loves experiencing new things.

• [?]Lerize Benade: Junior Consultant

  Lerize hails from the small town of Rehoboth, situated 89 km south of Windhoek; she enjoys interacting with people and getting to know them.

  Lerize joined the team at ATI in 2009 and still loves every moment of it, or so she tells us! She assists the senior consultants in the office by arranging the information packs for clients who are arriving, reconfirming flights and requesting rates from suppliers. Lerize is growing into the role of junior consultant and has started taking on the task of handling her own agents, she also helps the walk-in clients who come into the office from the guesthouse.

• [?]Angela Kutako: Runner/chef

  Angela has been working for our sister company, Rivendell, as the guest house breakfast chef since 2005 (and she makes the best Bacon, Pork sausages and HP sauce sandwiches in Namibia) and for the last few years she has also been assisting ATI Holidays with flight and National Park reservations as well as taking charge of our stationary purchases.

• [?]Christine Thirion: Reservations Manager

  Christine was born in Cape Town and grew up in a small town called Molteno in the Eastern Cape. Her love for the outdoors is why she decided to pursue a career in tourism.

  Christine completed a diploma in Travel and Tourism at the Cape Technical College as well as her Western Cape tour guiding course and is currently busy with her Bachelor's Degree in Business Management.

  In 1996 Christine moved to Walvis Bay and worked for a small company doing city tours and transfers and a year later she relocated to Windhoek, joined Wilderness Safaris Namibia as a tour consultant and worked her way up to a Lodge Manager, Operations Manager and Market Unit Manager.

  Christine joined ATI Holidays in January 2012, and after a baptism of fire emerged, still smiling, to lead our team of consultants

Local projects supported by ATI Holidays: ATI Holidays has chosen to support a two local projects working towards the development and security of Namibia's youth. We are confident that donations to these projects go direct to Namibian based ground operations as neither project has large administration costs and as such we are happy to support these smaller organisations rather than larger, foreign based aid projects. If you would like to join us in helping either of these projects, please see the donation section at the bottom of our booking form.

The Windhoek SOS Children's Village was established in 1984 in the suburb of Khomasdal and offers a home to around 118 orphaned children aged between 3 & 18. In addition, SOS supports the local community to help children who have lost one or both parents to be cared for in their own extended families wherever possible. Africa Tourist Info offers assistance to the Windhoek based SOS Village in conjunction with our guest house, Rivendell. We currently collect donations of food, clothing and other necessities from our guests and deliver these direct to the Village. In the future we will provide direct cash donations from the company and our staff plan to implement projects to raise further funds.

Sekolo Projects is a non-religious, non-profit corporation that trains African teachers in HIV AIDS prevention, and the related issues of stigma, treatment and care for people living with HIV AIDS. Its primary function is running the national 'Our HIV ABC' teacher-training project in Namibia. Africa Tourist Info offers assistance to Sekolo Projects in the form of rent-free office space & postal, phone, fax & internet facilities.

In addition to this ATI Holidays is also proud to be affiliated with the Cheetah Conservation Fund:
The non-profit Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF)'s focus is on research, conservation and education. CCF is located 350kms north of Windhoek, in the magnificent Waterberg Plateau area.

See conservation in action. Learn about cheetahs' habitat and issues of conservation directly from CCF's scientists and educators, with an opportunity to see some of the resident non-releasable cheetahs (~50 cats on average - numbers vary). Take a standard tour or choose additional activities like watching cheetahs run, a cheetah safari, or even meeting CCF's Cheetah Ambassadors. Limited overnight accommodations are available at the luxurious and spacious Babson Guest House. Please visit CCF's web site for more information.

And remember, for every confirmed booking you make through ATI, a donation will be generated towards CCF's great work!

We also invite you to support the Catherine Bullen Foundation. Roger and Linda Bullen started this Foundation following the tragic passing of their daughter, Catherine, on the 23, August 2002, two days after embarking on a safari through Namibia.

The charity was founded in Catherine's name, with the following aim:
'The relief of poverty, sickness and distress and the preservation of health in rural Namibia, particularly but not exclusively for the benefit of the Omhaturua Primary School and the inhabitants of the village of Otjimanangombe in Eastern Namibia, by the funding of community based projects including the provision of fresh water supplies, medical and educational facilities and such other facilities as the trustees shall deem necessary with the object of improving the conditions of life of those persons who may have need of such facilities.'

By working with local community based organisations in the country, the trustees are ensuring all funds go straight to the nominated projects where a relatively small amount of money makes a big difference to improve the quality of life.

Find out more about the charity, and Catherine here: www.namibia-aid.org.uk