20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
1 Day Manyara, 1 Day Ngorogoro, 2 Day Serengeti
Benson Safaris was very professional. Benson himself picked us up from the airport and introduced us to our guide - Dennis and chef - Charles for the 4 days. The knowledge and driving of the guide was great, and so was out food, always plenty of food. The trucks were great, with the pop up roof.
Before coming on the trip we discussed many itineraries and Benson was able to help us in was seemed to be an unbiased opinion. Although the description for Manyara still included the flamingos which were really not due for another 7 weeks. However this is hard to predict months in advance, and we saw 30 or so Elephants instead. We saw all the big 5 plus many more. Really engage with your guide to have the best trip. We used tents, and found all the gear to be great.
They even dropped us off at our next destination!
A great tour company, I would book with them again.
Lots of wildlife in a beautiful setting
Amakhala game reserve is set in beautiful surroundings. We had four game drives where we saw many of the big 5 animals. We particularly enjoyed seeing a lioness with her cubs. A highlight of our safari was a bush picnic as the sun was setting over the reserve. Highly recommended... particularly as there are very few other vehicles around
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
This is a great place to see wild life.
We visited this park last year and I was pleasantly surprised with the beauty of nature and its animals. We stayed in the park accommodation and we found them to be clean, comfortable, spacious and well equipped. What a pleasure. The parks shop has all that one needs when visiting a park and the public ablutions are clean and modern.The restaurant is geared for good food and the menu has quite a variety of South African dishes.
Concerning the wild life, this is a green park with lots of animal and you will see elephant. You can do your own game drives or use the Sanparks open vehicles. There are picnic spots that are well maintained but always remember that your are in a national park with wild animal and please be careful.
We will visit this park again in 2015 as we take in tour groups and we always enjoy this park.
Everything was very good
THE communications was very nice and friendly. Good car and friendly driver . He had a lot of knowledge about Uganda . Also about animals . In the Queen Elisabeth Parc was no ranger disposible, but our driver told us many interesting things . We stayed in een perfect Lodge ( Papaya Lodge ) And also our stay in the Bush Lodge was very nice.
We enjoyed our chimp walk. Good guides and many chimpansees!!
We had a wonderful time.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good service, immediatly answering email and very good advices were given by them ,
we were only for a short trip with them travelling after 4 weeks working in a small hospital in Rakai. the driver from Matoke picked us up at the beautiful Villa Katwe in Massaka and then we travelled at the direction of the border with Congo and Ruanda....At the beautiful Lake Mutanda we stayed in Mutanda Lodge and it seems to be the end of the world... Beautiful view on the Volcanos and the lake and after two days rest we were taken by the driver of Matoke at the gorilla tracking....Wonderful and once in a life time experience.....Thank you Matoke tours!!
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Booked a 4-night stay at Chobe Safari Lodge via Falcon and had no problems.
Firstly, the 4-night stay at Chobe Safari Lodge was absolutely fine - excellent accommodation, meals and facilities - no problems at all. Transfers to and from Kasane Airport on arrival and departure were smooth and well organised - not sure how much of this was attributable to Falcon Safaris or Chobe Safari Lodge itself.
The package included several Game Drives and River Cruises and all of these were well organised and thoroughly enjoyable. On arrival at Chobe, I also booked a 1-day Fly-In to the Okavango Delta (Pom-Pom Camp) via the Lodge's own Activities Centre. This also was well-organised and well worth doing, though I did feel the cost was a little on the high side.
As I had already booked my own flights from Johannesburg to and from Kasane, Falcon's main involvement was the accommodation package at Chobe Safari Lodge. The booking process was handled entirely via e-mail between myself in the UK and Falcon in Victoria Falls. Replies to my various questions in the early stages of booking were handled courteously and promptly and enabled me to reach a decision about the booking without hassle.
In my view, the weakest part of the booking process involved the rather slow responses after money had been transferred. On a couple of occasions, I had to send an email chasing confirmation that the money I had sent had been received and requesting an updated invoice recording the payment. Where money is involved, and particularly an International Transfer, I think Falcon should be more acutely aware of the importance of reassuring the client(s) that their payment(s) has been safely received. It should not be necessary for the client to chase confirmation. Closer liaison between the Admin and Accounts people would help to ensure that the client is kept fully informed of his/her booking's status.
In my case, nothing went wrong and there were no problems, but I still needed to know as soon as possible that the money had arrived safely, without having to chase a response.
Overall, falcon handled things well and my trip was a great success - the comments above are (hopefully) constructive and will enable Falcon to fine-tune its procedures to provide an even better service to its customers.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Excellent wildlife viewing at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi...elephants galore!
I've been to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi 2 years in a row while staying at a lodge nearby. It's a fantastic park with lots and lots of roads to explore. The traffic isn't light, but it's not super crowded, there's definitely places where you can find animals/birds on your own and feel like you're completely isolated.
I was able to watch the large herd of elephants moving through the park one morning for 30-45 minutes. I saw maybe 200+ elephants all together.
BE
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Ngorongoro Crater by Mieke Verschueren, Belgium
Good but not excelent.
Review about Kruger National Park by Amy
We had a great experience in Kruger, especially due to our oustanding guide, Simon. We stayed in the rondavels in Skukuza, which were very clean and comfortable. Skukuza camp has everything you need and is very pleasant.
Review about Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve by Andy
This is a great reserve to see Rhino. The roads aren't great but worth the effort as the scenery is beautiful.