Martin Smith, Managing Director
Kingfisher Safaris
- Office In:
-
United Kingdom
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- Botswana Guides Association
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $1,500 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
Nightmare Honeymoon
So much went wrong in this 15 day trip I don't even know where to start. I am at the point where I think all the other reviews must be fake. It was sketchy from the very beginning and I would have surely cancelled if it weren't for the large deposit we had already paid. This was our honeymoon. The suggestions we were given were poor and provided little to no information. There were huge miscommunications between the travel agent and the local guide - honestly I don't understand how they can do business together. We were supposed to have a full serviced 15 day 'luxury´ camp, but on the last days of the trip WE ENDED UP SETTING CAMP AND THE TENT OURSELVES including cleaning the tent and DIGGING THE TOILET HOLE!! because they just abandoned us in a horrible island without any staff except for a chef. We were told there would be 2 games drives EVERY day, it turns out that on the day we changed camps there was no game drive at all because even though those drives were supposed to be considered game drives, the driver was not even stopping for us to have a look at animals. The evening drives on those days weren't even performed. We ended up having 6 game drives less than promised. We were not served alcohol due to COVID restrictions - which we understand- but the agent didn't provide us with any warning whatsoever beforehand, surely because he didn´t want to loose us as customers. Imagine finding out you won't even be able to have a glass of wine during your 15 day honeymoon once you get to the first camp and are in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go. Additionally, no other activity or extra service to compensate for the price of the alcohol that wasn't bought was offered, so they basically stole 300 USD from us. The guide kept promising 'we will see rhino and wild dogs GUARANTEED in the next few days' and then we never saw them. Really, how unprofessional can you be? We never had the expectations of seeing them in the first place, but we did after his empty promises. When we asked to make some changes to the trip, the guide came with a ridiculous price, which didn´t make sense at all....yet another excuse to steal our money. On a couple of occasions we asked the guide to go check out specific things (like a dead elephant in the area) and he would say no because he just wanted to go chase whatever he felt like, thus we missed out on amazing sights. On more than a couple of occasions we were told to meet at a certain time to leave for the game drive, and they left us hanging for 30 min or more. The guide would sit with us every dinner and wouldn´t even talk to us, he would only talk to his staff in his language. Why even sit with us and ruin our dinner in the first place? All in all, it just felt like they manipulated and lied to us to take our money. And so many things more. Feel free to contact me and I can share more info and or photos of the disastrous camping setup. We felt and we feel robbed.
Reply from Kingfisher Safaris
Posted on Sep 30, 2021Thank you for the review. Unfortunately this review does not reflect the experience our guide and booking agent had with these clients. They were determined from the outset not enjoy their safari and find ways to somehow complain about everything and it started from the moment they arrived in Botswana.
Firstly i communicated with our guide throughout their stay via satellite phone and an internet connection (whatsapp) at the national park gates. I was in constant contact with our guide. At no point did they have to set up their own tent and at no point dig their own toilet, it is simply untrue.
They booked this trip through Safari Bookings and were well aware our mobile safaris are described as 'Budget', and at no point was the word 'luxury' used for these mobile safaris. They are still very nice and comfortable, however.
We decided to have them collected from Zambia in the morning to get them to Botswana as early as we could as we had no idea what the border would be like and how long it would take to cross due to the covid situation. This led to a slight delay in Kasane as the shops only opened late on the Sunday. They sent an immediate email asking for compensation, not the first time this would happen.
To address the alcohol claim that we didn't inform them or compensate them, this is untrue. They were informed prior to departure and made NO complaint. Whilst on safari they wanted 'compensation' for this and we offered a 2 hour Motorboat Cruise on the Xakanaxa Lagoon, which was rejected as they had already been on a boat in Victoria Falls! I have Whatsapp messages and email messages should you wish to see them that prove this.
To address the game drive comments: these clients decided that they wanted to be out in the vehicle ALL DAY and while this is fine, we're happy to compensate, it was they that did not listen to our guide, of 35 years experience in Botswana, and instead effectively forced the guide to follow sightings of others travellers who claimed to see things in other areas, thus chasing sightings, sometimes which were two hours away and the day before. In the end our guide decided that he would just follow their instructions and the result is they still saw lots and lots of wildlife just not the African Wild Dogs they wanted to and were desperate to see, despite their comments. Unfortunately they had unrealistic expectations and no guide in Botswana or anywhere else would GUARANTEE a sighting, that is patently ridiculous and they DID receive all game drives they paid for and were on the vehicle much, much longer than most clients on some days for 12 hours which is 4 hours more than we would normally expect.
I also need to address the 'change in itinerary' which would have meant heading to the Kalahari, a 6 hour drive from the Moremi where they were. Everything in their trip had already been paid for, national park fees, food, campsite fees, fuel, vehicle permits, all of which at that point cannot be refunded or recovered, thus the price we quoted was the same price as booking a new trip as all the same costs are associated. The idea were trying to steal, again, is a malicious attempt to do damage to our business and totally untrue.
Sightings:
The suggestion they had to put up their own tents and dig their own toilet is simply untue, i have no idea where this idea comes from.
They refused to pay a tip, which is fair enough they are not mandatory but decided that it was up to me, the booking agent to pay this instead as they hadn't chosen to do the Motorboat Cruise and have then made threats as follows:
"I'm giving you a last chance to confirm (the Chef) has received her money. I want a confirmation and evidence she has received it.
If I don’t get an answer I will make all in my power to make sure no one books from you again."
As you can see from these comments that the client emailed to us it is her intention to destroy our business, which is premeditated and despite me offering to match the funds if she offered to pay the tip, she has decided instead to try and ruin a business, which is owned by local people in Botswana who have suffered greatly due to the lack of travellers from abroad.
Please see all our other, independently verified, reviews as these are a true reflection of the level of service we offer. To be clear they received exactly what they paid for and got much more than that besides but they were determined to be unhappy right from the start and it's sad to see this kind of response when our guide did everything he could to make sure they had a great safari.
Here is part of the sightings report from our guide and you'll see they saw plenty:
Morning drive 10/08/2021 we saw:
African serval, kudus, impalas, gnus, zebras,
Afternoon drive we saw:
hyaenas with pups by the den, ostrich, steenboks, dwarf mongooses, Banded mongooses, white tailed mongooses, lots of birds,
Morning drive 11/08/2021 we saw:
15 lions on the kill gnu, I big male lion on the road, one female lion with 2 young cubs 2 months old, Black baked jackals, Giraffes, Ostrich, warthogs,
DE
Email Daniela | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very mixed experience with a lot of downsides
It took me very long to write this review, but I think it´s just fair not to write only positive reviews which is of course much nicer. But we would like to let others know what we have experienced. We have been many times to Africa on all kind of safaris from budget to high-end luxury, but never left with this unhappy feeling. So lets start...
I found kingfisher safaris on this website announcing a "private" mobile camping safari operating in Botsuana. Meanwhile they changed the announcement in "shared", thats what we ended up but expecting a private safari . I still have got a screen shot of the original advertisement to proof it.
But already the beginning was difficult. We were picked up late, Pilot arrived than eventually in a hurry, the car packed up with food, equipment up to the roof etc. There was no excuse. Instead he told us, that due to a late arrival of the trip the day before he had to pack new. At this time we were still fine. But as he stopped a little later at the main road offloading us with two chairs and a cooler box, he drove quickly away. My bag with everything like passports, money was still at the backseat and could have fallen off easily from the safari vehicle. We had no idea how long it would take and where he drove to. This was the first time I felt very unhappy. The rest I will write in keywords.
First the positive aspects:
- The staff was extremely nice and welcoming. Pauline the chef did a wonderful job. Elena the host, was such a warmly and attentive person and Collin did everything that the campsite was in a perfect condition.
-The locations of the campsites were magical.
-All the equipment was good.
- Our unexpected co-travelers turned out to be very lovely persons and we appreciated their company a lot.
Now the negative aspects:
- Guiding was less than mediocre. (here I have to be more detailed) I'm pretty sure that Pilot knows his stuff, but didn't show it to us. At Khwai Privat Concession he was only at the radio and driving us from sighting to sighting which others told him. He never was reading any animal tracks, always the windows closed never listening to alarm calls etc. At Moremi as there were just a few vehicles he had to work a bit harder. We wished he would have explained us more about the unique ecosystem of the Okavango Delta and all the connections between fauna and flora. Pilot almost never stoped for birds, mangooses etc. We felt racing from lion sighting to lion sighting, but none of us four was so extremely interested in them. Once I asked Pilot to stop at the zebras which have been in a wonderful light (we are photographers) but instead he was driving to the next lions. He never really attended to our requests. Maybe the worst was, that he was teasing animals , which is an absolutely unethical behavior. For example he provoked a male hippo to attack the car several times. Another example was playing hyena calls from the mobile to a lion family with tiny cubs.
- Logistic is not the strong side of Pilot. We tried to help and let him know before what kind of beverages we like to avoid buying useless drinks. Didn't work. The first evening we were offered an already open bottle of Merlot and I did write before that the only the wine we don't like is Merlot. After half of the time he run out of gin, and to mention we are not heavy drinkers. In the end no tonic water, no Coca Cola, no white wine, no red wine..... and no excuse.
- Driving style of Pilot was fast, sometimes reckless. We had to use the seatbelts first time on a safari. Pilot general did not respond well to criticism or suggestions. In this case when we asked to drive more carefully, he reacted grumpy and kept driving almost the whole afternoon without stopping and talking to us.
Summarising this was unfortunately our worst safari experience so far even though the magical nature of Botsuana and the wonderful staff of Pilot were hard to beat.
Reply from Kingfisher Safaris
Posted on Mar 28, 2023I'm really sorry to hear you had a poor time on safari, it is certainly not the result we would like. Firstly this client did NOT book through the Safari Bookings website and at no point during the booking process did they tell us that they had seen Safari Bookings or that they were expecting a private trip and nowhere on our website does it say that our Mobile Safaris are private where it says there can be up to 6 people on each trip, as it does on Safari Bookings too and always has and we had no way of knowing this was their expectation, they simply did not tell us. It is very tricky for us to convey this message if it has not been read correctly as they booked directly with us, through our website where the description is clear, so for that we have learnt from the experience and now make sure this is 100% known before any trip begins that we have up to 6 on any one trip and to be sure they have read the terms of the trip before committing.
Sadly I believe their mistake has tainted this review and their reaction to this did not engender them well to the guide from the start as it seems they were unaware until they arrived and were thus not happy with the guide who it was that told them after i spoke to him when he collected them from the airport. To be clear they had 3 nights to themselves at the start of the mobile safari plus two nights prior to the trip in a lodge. They were joined by another two on this itinerary for the remaining 6 nights who had a different experience and are already planning a second trip with us, although they haven't booked yet.
We even offered them a private vehicle which was the one they were already using so that the other clients who joined them could have a different guide and vehicle but they refused for an unknown reason, so they could still have had a private trip, so I am really confused about some of these comments as we did everything we could to offer them the private experience despite us not knowing beforehand this is what they wanted and this would have been at our own expense, they would have paid nothing extra.
It is not my experience or the experience of our clients that our Guide, Pilot, will not stop at any sighting where he is asked to do so and with over 35 years of experience with lots of happy clients, it may just be that there was a language barrier as his first language is not English and sometimes he may struggle with accents that he is not familiar with.
It is normal for all guides in any lodge, super high end or basic, to use the radio for sightings from other guides as most people travelling on safari want to see the predators in particular and I would disagree that his driving style is reckless, he holds all the requisite permits and licenses for driving clients in Botswana and undergoes annual tests, I do not believe he would drive like this, as you can see from all our other reviews. I've known and worked with him for over 15 years and i know he will do everything within his power to make sure clients have the best possible time.
Once again I'm sorry to hear you had a poor experience but to reiterate the other clients who joined this itinerary for the last 6 nights had a very different experience and thoroughly enjoyed their safari. We did offer you an extra, private vehicle and I believe we did everything we could to accommodate you but you decided against our offer. We have implemented changes because of your comments to us privately and I thought because of that we had resolved the issue as I made it clear last year that you had never told us of your need or expectation of a private trip so I am disappointed to see this poor review some 6 months later. We will keep trying to improve our service.
Professionally organised trip, good lodges, excellent wildlife guides
Kingfisher Safaris arranged our trip in a very professional manner, with no communication glitches, and with excellent liaison with the local Zambian tour company. We stayed in two lodges in South Luangwa National Park. The lodges were actually situated very close to each other and game drives from each covered the same territory, but we saw different wildlife on each drive, so this was not a serious drawback. The lodges were very well run and the time was organised in a very efficient manner between rest, daytime safaris and night drives. The lodge staff were friendly and professional, and our wildlife guides were excellent.
Email Paul | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Excellent organisation delivering exactly what was promised
Martin understood immediately what we were looking for from both a budget and experience. The trip he suggested exceeded our expectations and was very good value. We went firstly to the Okavango Delta - the camp was a very authentic Safari Camp and the game viewing was brilliant- we even saw a very rare Pangolin and also our guide took us for a night drive and found a Aardvark!
The other 6 nights were Mobile Safari with a wonderful guide Pilot together with his team who could not do enough to make the trip so enjoyable! 2 different locations the Mababe and Moremi Parks. Pilot managed to find us 20 Lions who killed 7 Buffalo and 29 Wild Dogs together will numerous other excellent viewings. A perfect Safari!
CA
Email Melissa | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exceeded our expectations! 10/10
Martin who arranged the trip responded quickly to our inquiry. We told him what we were looking for/ budget and he put together an itinerary that was perfect. We did a 9 night mobile safari at 3 different camps in Botswana. As outdoorsy people, we're used to camping but we were pleasantly surprised by well organized it was and the excellent service we received at camp. The food was delicious and they we're happy to accommodate my lactose intolerance and made me separate meals when necessary which I really appreciate. We had the larger tent which was really nice when we had downtime in the middle of the day and to spread out our luggage. Pilot, our guide, went above and beyond to make sure everything and everyone was take care of and his expert knowledge of the area and animals was what made the game drives so special, we saw all the animals we wanted to and more. He was also very respectful of the animals space and made sure we felt safe the whole time. We finished the trip at a hotel in Victoria Falls and they had all the transfers arranged so we didn't have to worry about a thing the whole time. Overall 10/10, great value for the money and we loved our experience in the bush.
PS. it's colder in the mornings in the open vehicle than you might expect so pack some warm clothes, I wore my wool hat almost every morning
CA
Email Rose and Les | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Martin is prompt and efficient; a pleasure to work with.
My partner and I have taken many safaris in East Africa but this was our first time to Botswana and we loved the country and our safari. Sleeping in the tents on the mobile safari was thrilling with the sounds of hippos and lions at night. The food was varied and excellent. We seemed famished after a morning of photography and fell on the skewers of beef and potato salad like hungry leopards. Everything on the tour was well organized. This was our first mobile safari trip and we were astounded at the value and high level of guiding. Pilot, Kingfisher’s chief guide really throws his heart into searching out unusual wildlife sightings. He knows the landscape of the Okavango Delta intimately.
Email Marilyn and Kathy | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Outstanding. Far exceeded our expectations in every aspect. Staff, helpful, friendly, food amazing.
Everything amazing. Cannot fault. Value for money.
DE
Email Lo | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Honest and very helpful
Martin is the guy who you will write emails with. He responded very quickly and gave us an answer to a lot of questions we had. He was also very open and honest about the rainy season and our concerns.
He works together with the tour guide Pilot which we really really can recommand to everybody. Pilot is very friendly and eager to show you all the animals out there. We even sometimes had to tell him that we were very happy with the day and that it is fine that we leave now. He once got the tip that there are lion babys and we went to the same place 3 times and than the last time he really found them in the bushes.
Email Sheila Cosford | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Everything worked like clockwork
extremely happy with the organisation and the time spent in Botswana.
Organisation was faultless. We can recommend Kingfisher Safaris.
US
Email Jim S | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Extraordinary Tour by Kingfisher Safaris
Martin at Kingfisher Safaris developed a fantastic 3 camp Botswana safari for us on relatively short notice. Each of the three camps (Delta, Linyanti Expedition, and Khwai Leadwood) were different, enjoyable and unique in their own ways. All three were relatively small with warm, hospitable staff and superb safari guides.
What impressed us about this overall experience was the excellent and prompt communication with Martin. He responded with choices in the itineraries and once formulated proceeded to completion quickly and efficiently. I hope to travel in the future on a trip organized by Kingfisher.