Part of the happy Pembury team having a laugh!
Pembury Tours
- Office In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 1996)
- Member Of:
- Southern Africa Tourism Services Association
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $2,000 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
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Email Claire Anderson | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Lifetime Memories in African Safari and Rwandan Gorilla Trekking
I had an amazing trip with memories to last a lifetime. I have recommended Pembury Tours to many people I met along my time spent in Africa. I always felt very safe and taken care of and my itinerary was superb! I appreciate their assistance and timely replies every message I sent. I will use them again in the future!
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Email Megan | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Utter Perfection
This trip has been my on my bucket list for as long as I could remember. I had always wanted to go on an African Safari. I reached out to Pembury tours and Kerry took care of everything for us. She created multiple itineraries based on our wants and desires allowing us to pick which one we felt like we would most enjoy. Plus she was willing to adapt to any requests that we had. We communicated everything via e-mail and she was quick to get us answers or just let us know that things were being worked on. Right before the trip Kerry reached out with her WhatsApp information so that we could communicate quickly while on the trip. She was also kind enough to check up on us partway through to hear how everything was going.
We did run into travel issues (flight cancellation) getting to South Africa and had to let Kerry know that we wouldn't make it the day we were supposed to. She was great to rearrange things to allow us to do as much as possible with the loss of a day in Cape Town.
Our trip was absolutely amazing! It honestly surpassed all of our expectations and I don't think we could have hoped for anything more. Out of the 3 different safari areas, our favorite was Simbavati, but that might have been due to the fact that it was our very first safari ever, we were able to see all of the Big 5, AND we were lucky enough to see the wild dogs (twice!) while there. Inyati had unparalleled viewing of leopards with them being so comfortable around vehicles and we were even fortunate enough to witness leopards mating. We were able to see all of the Big 5 here as well. The Hide had the best viewing for elephants with herds coming to the watering hole every evening, it was so fascinating to see the group dynamics of different elephant herds, especially from the 'hide' that they have that allows guests to get close to the watering hole using an underground tunnel. It was here that our safari vehicle was charged by a bull elephant (talk about an adrenaline rush), but the guide had everything in hand and was able to de-escalate the situation.
Cape Town was stunning and we wished we would have been able to spend 2 days there, but travel issues happen and we were just so happy with what we were able to fit in during the single day.
Victoria Falls was breathtaking. We had seen pictures, but no picture could do it justice and we were so pleased to be able to spend time there and see the falls. We really enjoyed both the dinner cruise and the tour of Victoria Falls.
Absolutely all of our accommodations were perfect and the food was delicious. We didn't notice any staffing shortages and were very well taken care of at each location. In fact, we feel like we lucked out because it appeared that most things were back to normal, but there weren't as many people, so we got to enjoy everything with smaller crowds.
I've told all my friends and family that if you're looking for a perfect experience, to use Pembury tours. All transfers and rides were set up for us so we never had to worry about any of that which just made the entire trip so much easier to enjoy.
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Email Irene | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome
My tour operator was great. She listened to my travel preferences and tailored my tour the way I wanted it. She was always open to my suggestions and very patient to answer to my questions. I highly recommend Gail and Pembury tours.
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Email Cristina& Family | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Outstanding tour in Southern Africa
Anya Visser organized our once in a lifetime, last minute vacation to Victoria Falls and Botswana. This was our first trip to Africa and I couldn’t have asked for a better person to help me with this. Anya hits all the points: organized, nice, professional, good listener and the best was the personal touch. It truly felt as she was planning this for someone she knew. The itinerary gave us a good understanding of the country, flora and fauna and time she allotted for each destination was perfect. She even wished happy birthday to my husband and son and communicated with the lodges about having cakes! We are thinking already about our next trip to Africa and I know who will be helping me plan this. Thank you Anya for everything!!
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Email Hilda | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Trip of a lifetime - thanks to Kerry Ririe !
I wanted to take my daughter to South Africa and Zambia in 2020 to celebrate her being accepted by a Master degree program. We had to cancel because of COVID, planned again in 2021, canceled it again and, we finally went in 2022 to celebrate her graduation along with her best friend ! Over the two years, Kerry was so patient, understanding, informative. We changed the dates a few times to accommodate everyone's schedule, altered the itinerary, requested restaurants reservations to be made.....Kerry accommodated every single request with good advice and most wonderful attitude. And when she said we could call her whenever there's a need, she meant it ! One of us left the phone in the car on the way to Nelspruit Airport, without knowing the driver's number, we called Kerry for help. She picked up the phone right away.....it was before 7 in the morning.....and just like that the driver returned to the airport in less than ten minutes and we got the phone back....whew ! She also arranged COVID test for us before we left Zambia to make it so much easier on the way back. So, not only Kerry crafted an itinerary exactly to what we wanted, she also took great care of us during the whole time. We highly recommend Kerry to anyone who wants to see Africa. We had a trip of a lifetime not only because of her excellent work and expertise, but most of all is because she cares !
For reference, we went to Cape Town (4 nights), Sabi Sand Game Reserve (3 nights), White River (1 night), Victoria Falls on the Zambia side (3 nights), we also went to Zimbabwe side on the day we left.
BEST TOUR OPERATOR IN AFRICA (AND POSSIBLY THE WORLD)
If I could give Kerry at Pembury Tours ten stars, I would. I don't know if I will ever be able to fully express how grateful I am to Kerry and her team and just how much we appreciate everything they've done for us. Kerry has become more than a tour agent- I think she'll be a lifelong friend!
My husband and I had been planning our South African and Zambian safari for our honeymoon and we were originally supposed to travel June 2020. Our itinerary was Cape Town, South African Bush Safari (Umkumbe Safari Lodge), Chimp Eden (Nut Grove Manor) and Victoria Falls (Waterfront Lodge). Due to COVID, we had to postpone our trip and pushed it back to June 2022. Throughout the entire planning process, Kerry was not only extremely responsive and helpful, but she was truly on our side and had our best interests at heart. She took the time to answer all of my questions (even all of the long and rambling and repetitive ones that I would think of in the middle of the night and shoot her an email) and reassured me that our trip would still be just as great regardless of having to reschedule. She scoured every possible option in terms of what was available within our price points, what made the most sense logistically, what would give us the best experience, and made the entire planning process smooth, easy and feel like it was a collaboration between our vision and her planning. I pride myself on my traveling and itinerary making skills, but Kerry truly goes above and beyond and her attention to detail and thoroughness is on a completely different level. Especially with all of the new and ever-changing restrictions due to Covid, she laid out everything so nicely for us so that our travel was seamless. Even when we had a false-positive scare while we were in South Africa, Kerry was immediately on the phone figuring things out so we truly did not have to worry at all and just got to relax and enjoy ourselves.
One of the biggest hurdles we experienced throughout this entire process was because of United Airlines (the worst). We had initially rescheduled our trip from June 2020 to June 2021. When we arrived at the airport to check in to our flights because we weren't able to online due to having to show a negative PCR test, United apparently had outdated travel requirements for South Africa and would not let us board. We exhausted all of our options at the airport to try to get them to let us go since we KNEW Kerry had provided us with the CORRECT information. However, we left the airport frustrated and angry and in tears, feeling like our entire trip and years of planning had just gone down the drain. When I arrived home, I contacted Kerry immediately and she worked tirelessly the next few days with her director who then got the South African tourism departments involved and got everything rebooked for us to go a few weeks later. I have traveled extensively my entire life and never had I felt so defeated. But Kerry would not give up and I absolutely credit her for getting us through this. It is now three weeks after we've returned from our trip and Kerry is STILL working on getting us a refund from a flight that had to be rebooked because of this. She won't let these awful airlines get away with cheating their paying customers anymore than they are already able to. Her ability to respond quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively to issues that come up unexpectedly is unmatched.
In addition, all of the accommodations, tours, and excursions Kerry planned were also absolutely stunning. This was a trip of a lifetime that my husband and I will NEVER forget. We truly could not have imagined a more gorgeous first trip to Africa and we will absolutely be back and be using Pembury Tours for all of our African travel needs in the future.
I know I'm forgetting so much and will never be able to thank Kerry enough for everything she's done for us, but I hope this review helps encourage more travelers to use Pembury Tours and ask for the incredible Kerry! We love you! <3
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Email AC | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Outstanding
My partner and I had a 6 day/5 night safari including a layover in Johannesburg on our way home planned by Anya Visser and our trip was exceptional. During the planning phase, Anya was incredibly prompt and responsive with communications. She took time to really understand what we were looking for with our trip and every aspect of our itinerary was clearly well thought out. This translated into a very smooth vacation at amazing lodges. It was one of the most memorable trips we have ever taken and we are so grateful to Anya. Highly recommend Pembury tours for your safari planning.
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Email Christine | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
African Vacation
Kerry did a great job organizing all the details of this 3 week trip. We visited Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar. The accommodations were outstanding. Everyday we experienced a different safari adventure. Everything was done for us and we didn’t have to worry about a thing so we could enjoy our time at each spot. This is the second tour I have booked with Kerry at Pembury Tours and it won’t be the last.
Email Sam and Rachael Saunders | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect 2 week honeymoon.
We booked our 2 week honeymoon through Anya and from start to finish she was so kind, helpful and gave an all round excellent service - we couldn't recommend her highly enough.
We had a vague idea of a route through the Eastern Cape to Western Cape in mind but Anya recommended places to stay (and reasons why), activities to do and was on hand to answer any questions we had very quickly, including changing plans last minute. She even sorted extra bits for us such as arranging to have someone collect us in Johannesburg to help transfer us to our next flight, she recommended several places for NYE and booked a restaurant for us and even managed to get us an upgrade on our car.
Our luggage was lost from leaving London (through no fault, except the airline) but Anya made sure we were sorted and OK, even though she was on her own holiday outside of South Africa.
All of our accommodation was excellent (we're rating them all 5*) and the safari was simply incredible.
To be honest we were slightly anxious about booking with a local company, but we can't recommend the company and Anya highly enough.
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Email Laetitia | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great Safari - Great atmosphere - Great Pembury
In a very short time and with a limited budget (for a safari), Tammy organisez us a beautiful trip in The Kruger NP. In one week, we visited tree very different places with each one its particularity and its own environment. We all loved them. As always with Tammy, the organization was perfect and we had nothing to do but take pleasure.