The Matoke Tours Team
Matoke Tours
- Located In:
-
Netherlands
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2002)
- Member Of:
- ATTA, AUTO, SGR, UTB & UCF
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $300 to $750 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent
We had a personal recommendation from a friend who had been on a tour last year. We were very impressed. Lovely accommodation choices and we had a great time.
CH
Uganda 2014 - Matoke Tours
Fantastic trip - Everything was perfectly organised, the hotels were great! I ve got to say the driver was fantastic throughout - he really knew the places well and even when our plans changed (eg we decided to do another chimpanzee hike in kyambura gorge last min), he was happy to help us.
They paid attention to all the right details and made the trip one of the best we have ever been on!
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Perfect organised safari in a wunderful Country
We booked a two weeks privat tour in Ugande with matoke. Because we have already made many Safaris in Africa, we had exact images like ours travel through Uganda should be. The communication and tips from Matoke while planning the holiday was great. Most of our wishes could be made by them. Special thanks to Anna Grodzki for good service, quick answers and always be there if we had another question.
Our driver/guide was Mussa. He was able to maneuver his Jeep trough the 'massage' roads and the wildlife in order to get us the best spots. He knows exactly the behavior of each animal, he gave us a very professional explanation and many information about live in Uganda. And ,not least, we had a lot of fun with him. Many thanks to Mussa, he did a great job! The accommodations we selected were all very good. The best of all Gorilla Safari Lodge at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
Only in the hotel Birds Nest at Lake Bunyonyi we have something to complain about. Here we lost our booked room and got a bad room (smale sized without a balkony) because a big group was expected. So this hotel is not recommended for individual travelers. But Matoke also tried to solve this problem so that we could change the second day in a very nice room.
All in all we can recommend Matoke as a tour Operator.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very Well Done!
An excellent trip with a very friendly and knowledgeable guide. Highly recommended.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Thanks for marvellous Experiences in a real pearl of Africa!
We went as a couple with our driver Mugabi as an individual tour. The communication and tipps from Matoke while planning the holiday was great. Most of our wishes could be made by them. It was our first tripp to Africa and we were a bit afraid to book with an african Travel Agency. But it all was so well organized and our guide managed all for us perfectly. So we can enjoy a spectacular holiday with so many fantastic and impressing moments. We saw all kind of wild animals so close to us. A real safari feeling!!! The accomodations had been placed inbetween with great jungle noises in the night, spectacular views and very nice stuff. Our highlight was the stay at Queen Elizabeth safari Lodge and Mihingo Lodge with outstanding nature experiences by car, boat, feet or only sitting and watching. Also the meeting with the gorillas at Bwindi NP we will never forget! Thank you Matoke Tours and Mugabi for this great holiday!!!!!!
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Matoke Tours.. All just EXCELLENT
We made a private tour to Uganda with Matoke Tours. Two weeks in different lodges..
We found Matoke Tours on Internet and also from family who traveled with them last year..
The information in the website is very good and also by email. Good service, quick answers and always there if we had another question.. All the lodges were so special. We will never forget this..
And.. the day before we went to Uganda, Matoke called us if we were " ready for take-off" and to wish us a good trip.. Were do you find this personal service in " internet-times?".
If we go to Africa again, we call or email Matoke!!...
Thanks Matoke for making this trip so special for us.. Uganda has a special place in our harts (thanks to you too).
CH
Good organized 13-day private safari
We enjoyed our stay in Uganda - thank you very much for the part you contributed to the experience.
With Albert Henry we had a very friendly and reliable driver and guide. Especially impressive his knowledge about birds.
The Gorilla Trekking was an absolute highlight but also the other places impressed with the variety of landscapes and wildlife.
The lodges and hotels you suggested / provided were mostly a good choice:
Especially to mention Mihingo and Kyaninga Lodge which were among the nicest places we have been in Africa.
The only a little disappointing place was Paraa Lodge where we missed privacy and atmosphere (to big with negative side effects - especially in high season).
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A great once-in-a-lifetime experience
We had an even better safari than we expected. For 9 days we experienced 5 National parks and we did a village-tour and a hunting with the Bushmen. And slept in all super lodges.
It was perfectely built up. The first park (mt. Meru) he saw Giraffes, two kinds of Monkeys, zebra's en some Buffels (1)en exotic birds and the shit of elefants(2), so they where there but we didn't see. Then the next park (Tangarine) we finally saw the first elefant far away then closer and closer Meanwhile we saw the lion (3). The first lodge at the mountain Meru was beautiful but the second (Roika) was beautiful and really in the bush. We were only allowed to go to our tents (=huts) accompanied by Masaai warriors with spears ! Nights we heard all kinds of game , like Hyena's , wildebeasts, elefants and other grass-eating animals. We were in the middle of it !!
Then one day walking in the village (Mto wa Mbu ?) where we had a local meal, a kind of rice table in the middle of the locals.
Then we went to the Serengeti Park via the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater. what a beautiful journey and what a wonderful African massage (roads !!) we all had, me my wife and my daughter (12).
this is a huge park where we constantly looking for game and always saw them everywehre. Our guide Manuel, who was with us during these 10 days, was perfect. He gave us all kind of information on the animals, on the vegetation, on Tanzania and it's history and so on and he had the eye of an eagle. He saw more than the 3 of us together. And he didn't drive too fast like a lot of Jeeps do!!
Although the roads sometimes were terrible I think it should never change because you're more in the bush , more in the safari.
And at these two Parks we came across he leopard (4) and the Rhino (5). So the big five was complete.
Then one morning at 7 o'clock the thre of us went hunting whith the Bushmen and we (=they) hit a squirle and a dikdik, which we ate on the spot after making a campfire . Wow how those people live ! Primitive to the basic.
Then the last night we arrived in a the most beautiful lodge (Karama) at Arusha and we realised how quiet all the other lodges were: NO TRAFFIC ! the only sound at the other lodges was the sound of nature !
I've done a 3 days-safari about 20 years ago in Kruger Park, which impressed me already but "living for 9 days in parks really is the way to do a safari."
After this we went to Zanzibar for 5 days to rest and to process all the impressions from the days before.
Matoke tours, thanks for the impeccable organisation (and for giving us Manuel as our personal guide) and we would recommend you to anybody who would go on safari.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great and unforgettable Uganda trip with Matoke
Had a 21 day trip to explore en enjoy Uganda. What a beautiful country! Matoke organized everything great. From the start at home untill even after coming back from the trip. Accomodations are as expected and booked. Next time please no bush elephants so the chimps will come down out of the trees :-)
Great and careful driver, thanks Kenneth! And enthousiastic en involved guide, thanks Bram!
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
20 days in Uganda, including Ruwenzori hike
First of all, we were very pleased with our driver / guide: sociable, friendly, humble, non-intrusive, flexible, humorous, AND a cautious driver. Nothing but good about him.
lodgings:
Recommendations:
- Mutanda lake resort near Bwindi Forest, for its pleasant restaurant, nice location, although still an hour away from the starting point of the gorilla tracking, but very good food.
- Bush lodge near Queen Elizabeth NP for the quality of the accommodation, beautiful location and cuisine.
- Kibale Forest Camp was also fine.
- Kontiki hotel was clearly a place of transit .... Ok, but not more than that.
- Bwana Tembo near Murchison Falls was ok for a middle class logde, but I suspect that some tourists do not appreciate that bats can enter the room ...
- Rwakobo Rock: Ok, if you absolutely want to visit Lake Mburo ... Nice and pleasant dining room, good kitchen, but the maintenance of the huts leaves something to be desired ....
THE disappointment: Cassia Lodge: an outdated hotel with no charm, no personality, with furniture that has seen better days, leaking plumbing. The only thing this hotel offer is the view on Kampala. How much we would have preferred staying in the excellent Boma Guest House in Entebbe ...
The local transport: 7 people in a 4x4 van, that was OK. But why are the windows with black plastic embezzled?? This complicates the visibility, requires even more to drive with open windows, but when sitting where the windows are overlapping each other, forming two layers of blackplastic, the visibility is close to zero....
A cooler (coolbox) would have been welcome: for a sundowner 'en route' fot excemple.
The program put well together, we enjoyed it, the wildlife in Murchison Falls, the hike in Ruwenzori Mountains, the chimpanzees (in great shape!), the gorillas. ..
However, surely not insignificant downsides:
- In Murchison Falls was a boattrip foreseen on a fairly large boat, in the afternoon, and the boat was nearly full. We could have done with it: on chairs put in the middle of the aisle (with limited visibility) or put in the hot afternoon sun. Instead we took another boattrip the next morning. The boot halts, to return, just far enough from the falls, in order not to be impressed. We have seen that, if arranged in advance, you can leave boat and continue walking to the falls... Unfortunately we were not informed of this possibility.
Queen Elizabeth NP: Safari in the morning was a complete fiasco. Never seen so few animals during a safari. The guide said that this was because of the drought. Well, normally this is known in advance....So why was no other part of the park visited? The southern part of the lions hanging in trees for example (we afterwards heard many good things about)? The boat trip in the afternoon was worthwhile.
Lake Mburo NP: The walk in the morning was definitely interesting. But in the itinerary was another boattrip foreseen, and it was mentionned that elephants could be seen. Well, Matoke should do that homework better again because in that park there are absolutely NO elephants. So that boat trip was really a letdown.
Overall it was a nice trip, with beautiful scenery, friendly people everywhere, good food, generally good lodges, but I am a bit disappointed: when working trough a tour organisator, I expect better, acurate and complete information.
For further info (I refer to a question I asked you during the preparation of the trip) for the 6 day hiking in the Ruwenzori Mountains, the carriers prefer rather backpacks rather than the common travel bags.