African Dawn Bird & Animal Sanctuary

What a fantastic place! We came here with nothing else to do on a rainy day and it far exceeded expectations. It’s got a huge variety of animals, all either being rehabilitated or living out their days at the sanctuary. Staff are super friendly and informative, even the animals are welcoming we had an adorable puppy following us around, birds asking for kisses and a mongoose that REALLY wanted to cuddle we did the combo sanctuary and self driving safari and it was such a good value for the cost - plus you’re supporting a good cause. Highly recommend passing a few hours here!

We were a group of 10 adults and 4 kids. Entrance fee is R100 per adult which is expensive considering that 80% were birds. There’s a long dirt road leading to the sanctuary and impossible to go with just a car. One star because of the picnic spots, we had a lovely lunch surrounding by the music of the birds. Self drive game drives available but we did not try it out

The place exceeded my expectations and wowed my whole family, including kids. Great outing for young and old, any age. Amazing birds and animals and a great vibe! We were surprised at how big it actually is. Will definitely visit again and highly recommend. Would be nice to come with a picnic. There are benches and tables everywhere.

We had a beautiful experience there, the variety of the animals there is amazing, from the snakes, to the birds to the game drive. If they may just maintain the paths in the game drive section more frequently to allow small cars to move around without owners having to worry about the bushes scratching under the cars also,I think adding a non-self drive game drive would be an amazing idea.

What an amazing sanctuary Just need better signs as the GPS took us off-road almost got stuck

One of the loveliest sanctuaries I've been to in SA. Whether you're interested in birds, reptiles, buck, or small mammals, you'll find something that tickles your fancy here. We did the sanctuary walkthrough and it was well worth the money with way more to see than we were expecting. Most of the enclosures are spacious and you can see the animals are properly cared for. The menu looked a bit strange at first, but the food was genuinely great. Can't wait to come here again with my partner.

Mostly birds, not much else. Facilities are not great either. Seems to be more of a zoo than a sanctuary. Very sad to see so many birds in such tiny cages, they looked distressed. There are no guides or signage. A wasted day. Definitely nothing like other sanctuaries I have visited. Give this one a skip and rather visit Addo National Elephant Park which is the same price and a larger variety of animals in their natural habitat.

If you need a place to stay that is peaceful this is the place, Guest House welcoming, animal lovers would love the animal sanctury and game farm. Jeffreys day is near enough if you need the sun and sea on a sunshine day Book now for your December holiday

Saying "Hello" to strangers is easy, but saying "Goodbye" to friends is one of the hardest things. I want to say thank you for the possibility to work with animals, travel alone and also to be safe as a woman in South Africa. However there were moments when unfortunately it wasn't that what I would liked or what was promised. There is a lack of gratitude, warmth and joy on the part of the owners to us, the volunteers for financing this project/the Sanctuary in our free time, our vacations. Sometimes we are/were just seen as workers and not as volunteers. I am also sad that there were at my time just a few volunteers. Would be nice to know this before arriving. Instead of spending the free time together we had off days alone. It was a way to accept doing things alone in south Africa - not always that safe - how it was promised to choose the off days and having them together with other volunteers. Though I don't want to let the negative things take over. I learned a lot about animals. How to handle different kind of animals like birds. I felt in love with colorful birds, duikers and spent a lot of time by playing with dogs, Robin and Clyde. I want to say thank you to the people who where there for me, went through the same thing as me. Thanks to Merril and Kaya for holding this project together. Unfortunately and cause of that they had not really the time to spend with volunteers. Thanks to the volunteers Sandra, Lisa and Malo for making feeling like a family during the time. All the biggest thanks to my non-stop-working-girl Erin, my wife and soulmate. You making a great job girl, I hope they tell you one time! However how good and bad the time was. At the end I loved it and made friends by heart in another country far away from home. Thanks also to all the friendly workers, important to my best cooking girl and mum from another world - Liezel. All of you making a great job, I hope your work will be appreciated once more. Also payed more. I will miss the place and all the people who making this colorful Sanctuary alive. In love Iris from Austria. Note to future volunteers: find out how many other volunteers are there at your time. Otherwise it won't be such a great time that you can also use as a vacation. After all, we count enormous amounts of money I accepted it, but it's far too expensive for the little thanks you get

Amazing place to take children to see small animals Very creative with all the personal names they give the animlas The info board is very helpful on each cage I would suggest going on a rather cool day, when its hot most of the animals hide in the bushes and you wont be able to see the cheetahs Not really made for small cars There is about 3km of offroad There is a tuckshop to buy snacks for the walk I suggest you bring a hat and track shoes