DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great 4-day safari with Lawrence!
We did a 4-day safari in September and everything was awesome from start to finish. They picked us up at the airport, took us to the hotel, and drove us back to the airport at the end of the trip without any problems.
The safari itself was super cool. Our guide Lawrence was amazing — thanks to him we saw the whole Big Five and so many other animals! Also big thanks to our chef Allen, the food was really good and he cooked great meals every day. Everything was just super. Thanks so much Lawrence and Allen!
BR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tiyani it was a very attentive and cautios driver
Tiyani guided us pretty well throughout all the 5-hour travel
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
BR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well done 👍🏼
All our transfers happened exactly as expected: in the right time, good comfort and kindly drivers (Tiyani was one of them). Thanks!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Safari Link Hoedspruit to Johannesburg
Tiyani, very nice. Bus Reliable, clean. Leg room could be better
ES
35-50 years of age
Excellent and comfortable
Our driver, Tiyani was very helpful.
It was a pleasant and comfortable journey 👍
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Professionalism and expertise at your service
Aggrey organized our safari perfectly, with exceptional precision and speed in accommodating all our requests. Kelvin was a fantastic guide throughout the parks, always professional yet friendly and fun.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great trip and at an affordable price!
Jade put together an amazing experience for us. We had two full weeks to visit Namibia, did not want to break the bank, needed to have some down time in between locations, wanted to self-drive but never more than 5 hours a day, had to see the Skeleton Coast (!) and have outdoor adventures! Jade listened to our requests and tailored the trip for us. She met us at our hotel, walked us through the entire trip and was there for support during the trip. Professional, honest, and friendly. I Highly recommend Great Explorations. Our two-week trip:
1) Windhoek (Protea Hotel - our choice not Jade's. Do NOT recommend. We switched to the Hilton for our return to Windhoek. The Protea is sad and creepy - needs a facelift and the breakfast is, well, icky.) Dinner at Stellenbosch Wine Bar - great vibes, food, service and of course wine.
2) Drove to Sossusvlei thru Solitaire - had the apple "Pie" (NOT a pie but it is a delicious crumble - must do) and took pics. Look for the "influencers" dressed to the nines getting their cool pics taken. Stayed at Little Sossus Lodge - adorable, enjoyed it. Had the BEST time on the Sossusvlei Excursion! Climbed Big Daddy, guide was terrific, got the required pics of Deadvlei.
3) Drove the worst road on the planet to Swakopmund - and we have driven some pretty dreadful roads in our trips to 99 countries, but this one was a doozy! Stayed at the Swakopmund Sands - meh – tho it did have a good breakfast, and it was very clean - also nice staff. But it was super cold in Swakopmund and the tiny heater in the room heated - well - nothing. So we bundled up. But to be honest the hotels there are $$ so to have gone up a level would have been another $$$. The town is cute and safe and quiet. We did the Catamaran cruise + Sandwich Harbour Combo Tour – super fun! Pelicans, dolphins and a nice boat ride. Then the Sandwich Harbor tour – unbeknownst to me – included climbing all the dunes in a 4X4 vehicle. Absolutely bananas fun! The champagne and oysters on the beach 😊. Also did the Living Desert Tour, which was VERY informative and a must do. Hope you don’t get the guy we got – he threw in a LOT of opinions (not germane to the tour) and a side dish of cringe-worthy grandpa jokes and misogyny. Stick to the lizards buddy. Anyway…. We had great cocktails at Bar Zonder Naam (hip vibes), dinner at the Tug (meh dinner was OK, great service, - in ALL these places they NEVER give couples good tables. The good tables on the balcony, overlooking the water, etc. are ALWAYS for tour groups ☹), very nice dinner at Toni’s Fachwerk, beer at Brauhaus (NOT much variety but a chill place), and beer and lunch at Brewer and Butcher.
4) Drove to Twyflefontein Country Lodge. Immediately on arrival we got a flat. They helped change it – thanks!! Only for us to find out when we called Sani Sixt that there is a Sani Sixt tire service ON the property! (Why didn’t the check-in receptionist know this? More on her later). Room and lodge is very nice, buffet dinner is OK, very good restaurant service. But the lack of attention to detail for our tour that we had scheduled was baffling. We were supposed to do an AM - Guided Hike 7-Platte and a PM-Rock Engravings + Damara Living Museum. The Guide, George, who used to be the barman and it showed – zero training/certification – Starts the tour with “OK let’s walk.” ?? There was no intro, My name is, what is your name, where are you from, what you will see on the tour – nothing. I could see this was not going to go well. So I said, “Hey George, please tell us about the area, the geology, anything.” He said, “It’s not that kind of tour.” Um… the write-up about the tour says it is….Then he proceeded to complain about the tour, saying it was boring, the other hike is better, etc. We were confused. He then decided ON HIS OWN to change the course of the hike and go up this 300-meter hill. He is not a trained guide because he would scoot up the hill and abandon the group – I had to yell to find out where he was! Um… If I have to yell George, you are too far away. We had no idea what was going on or where we were going. He did show us the rock carving (very cool!) and proceeded to tell us that they were 300 million years old (The SIGN said that they were 5,000 years old) and said some other nonsense about the carvings – nonsense because it made NO sense – and took us back down the hill. My knee hurt for 4 days. Turns out he had completely messed up our walk – we were supposed to do a different walk and then go to the UNESCO Heritage site and the Damara Living Museum – Both of which are Must-dos! All he – or the receptionist – had to do was check our booking. But We loved the Heritage Site and the living museum – because someone else was the guide 😉. They are unorganized at Twyfelfontein and obviously will let anyone with a pulse do a tour. We were going to do the desert elephant tour with them but pulled out because we had zero confidence in them. If you end up staying there – you are forewarned. Again, Lodge is cute.
5.) Drove to Camp Kipwe. This was our little “splurge” and WORTH it!!! HIGHLY recommend. Built into the rocks in the landscape with the greatest sundowner spot on earth, Camp Kipwe greets you at your car ou can feel the 5-starness of it all. We did a morning safari with Werner – excellent guide – and made friends with the others in the safari truck. We did not want to leave ☹.
6.) Drove to Toshari Lodge in Etosha – Great lodge, room, food, and personal service. Jade told us to book our safari at the lodge. They said, “Unfortunately, they are all booked up.” I said, calmly, “That cannot be, since our travel arranger spoke with your colleague and was told that we must book upon arrival.” She found us a guide😉. Mariah was our guide – only in the biz 5 years and still working out the kinks. Very knowledgeable about the animals etc, and a good driver, but when she stopped for the bathroom before heading home, I told her, “I’m going to the bathroom and the Curio shop (next to each other).” She acknowledged. I came out of the Curio shop 10 minutes later (No timetable was established) and she was GONE. Gone – with the other couple who were on the tour with us. ?? We are pretty chill travelers but imagine if someone were not? We walked all over the parking lots, walked around buildings – nowhere to be found. There was a lodge so I went to the office to call OUR lodge to let them know that we had been left. Luckily a few minutes later Mariah showed up. She said “I didn’t know where you were. And we just drove over to the watering hole.” SMH. Did you try the bathroom and curio shop, where we said we would be? Mariah received a less than 5-star tip and got a small lecture from my saintly husband about professionalism and responsibility. This wasn’t poor training – this was poor thinking.
7.) Drove to Omaruru Game Lodge. Adorable with the restaurant right at the watering hole where zebra, elands, and Rhinos (!) come up and drink. Great food and service – cute room. We were supposed to do a game drive and cheetah feeding but the cheetah had passed away a year ago so instead we did a very fun elephant feeding. The next morning we went rhino tracking. Guides were excellent.
8.) Now time for another splurge – Avenir. This was supposed to be a 5-star luxury experience. Hmmmm….. Our room was definitely 5 star, as was the lodge – but that was it. Service was 2.5 stars at best. They were friendly but hopelessly poorly trained and understaffed. The friendly chef Linus checked us in (No one else works here?). It was rainy and icky but there were only two places to sit outside at the lodge and a family with their two small kids took over the whole area. If the lodge had any trained staff, they would have seen that we had nowhere to hang out. They also would have taken in the cushions on the lounge chairs by the pool so that when it stopped raining there would be somewhere to sit (instead they were sopping wet and no one offered to towel them off – also all the towels were wet ‘cuz they had left them out too) They offered coffee – but no coffee spoons to stir the coffee. No tissue boxes in the bathroom – had to get tissue from the toilet roll. I’m lactose intolerant – which they knew – so while my husband enjoyed a delicious crème brulee with cream – they served me CANNED fruit salad. But they had cut up fruit at breakfast? So awful it was funny. There was other stuff too – in summary, NOT a 5-star experience but we paid the 5-star price ☹. I never blame the service worker when it is clear that the training was sub-par.
9.) Drove back to Windhoek to stay at the Hilton – which we recommend. Good gym, good breakfast buffet, nice spa, good cocktail lounge on the roof for sundowners, excellent executive lounge, good location –but not a strong check-in experience. I had to remind them that I had upgraded to executive lounge etc. but we worked it out. Jade recommended a tour co to give a city tour (Bwana). Maybe someone else in their company does a good job (?) but we got Joe – who looked and acted like today was his first day. He didn’t know anything about the city, the history, why some statues were important, the current political situation – just nothing. When I asked him about his experience and credentials he said he took a German class. I don’t speak German, but good for you Joe! So they put an untrained and uncredentialed tour guide in charge of our day. Side note - I specifically said I did not want to visit Katutura – the Soweto of Windhoek. I’ve been to Soweto multiple times and I wanted to focus on the history - So he didn’t take us there; he took us to a place just like it but had a different name! He regaled us with stories about the red dust bins they pick up every two weeks, and how to get money from the machine so that you can clean the public toilets, etc. So I know all about dust bins and public toilets and nothing about the history of Namibia. Again, so bad it was funny. We asked him to drop us at the National museum. We had a lovely lunch in their roof restaurant. Then went to see the “museum.” Oh my. Did 3rd graders put this together? No chronology, no emphasis on particular events – just a bunch of pictures on the wall with captions underneath all out of sequence and zero context. I was hoping to get the history here – but no. Admitting defeat – I am destined to get my Namibia history from Google – we went back to the hotel. At least they didn’t charge us for the terrible tour; we did appreciate that / we did appreciate that 😊.
Despite the hiccups I would totally do it all over again because it was an amazing trip and Namibia is a magical place. The nature and Skeleton Coast are unparalleled. Next time I would:
• Not book at the Protea
• Pay attention to details and clearly communicate all tours. Establish that we require an experienced guide.
• Skip Avenir (not worth the price tag)
• Request that our safaris be booked in advance – would have gotten a better guide than Mariah.
• Pack lighter 😉
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Brilliant organisation and communication
We had a great trip with Gazella Tours. Everything was really well organised and went according to plan. We were provided with paper and interactive maps as well as trip details with links to all the lodges and relevant maps. They didn’t miss a thing, with great communication and back up information, we’d happily recommend them to anyone planning a trip to Namibia, in fact we are already planning out next visit.