The Southern Safari

7 Reviews

• QY

  Qin
  Written on November 25, 2018

  3.5 - Good

  I did the 52 day Southern Safari trip with Absolute Africa traveling from Nairobi to Cape Town. Highlights include rafting along the Zambezi river, Spitzkoppe and of course all the amazing animals we saw on safari (Serengeti, endangered rhinos at Matopos,... Read more

  

  Absolute Africa commented on this review

  Thank you for leaving your feedback. We are glad to hear that overall you had an enjoyable tour and got to see all the fantastic wildlife and more that you would hope to see in Africa. At the same time we are disappointed to read your assessment of aspects of your tour and experience overall. The staff of Absolute Africa are a small team that do all work around the clock endeavouring to deliver tours that enable our clients to enjoy and appreciate all the wonderful highlights on the overland route in Africa. In regard to Martin, your tour leader, he has been working for us for a long time. We know that he does care very much about how his trips go and that each client gets the very most from their trip. He can bring a lot to a trip having such an extensive knowledge and experience developed over years. We know that during your tour he was endeavouring to work through some issues arising with the group dynamics on tour, and he was doing what he could to encourage teamwork and good relations. Staff were also looking to support him with this as well. Tour leading though is a very demanding job and we are concerned where his manners and demeanour on tour may not have been as a mature professional tour leader should be. Where Martin’s actions didn’t reflect the caring professional tour leader he can be, this is a real disappointment, and we are looking at how this came about and where we can learn lessons. We continually need to assess how our team are supporting each other to ensure all are able to work to their best ability at all times and to help each other as much as we all can to meet the challenges that arise on tour. You also mentioned your issues with some optionals. We provide a list of optional activities in the pre departure information and depending on the length of the tour the list usually provides a good number of choices. The same list is on display in the vehicles tour after tour. As explained with each list, the lists are a guide only, there being many reasons why an excursion may not be available or have changed. We endeavour to keep our information as up to date as possible. Particularly in regard to the core big highlights as well as the pricing we know accuracy is very important for our travellers to really enjoy their trips. Given the number of options that are available en route and the very changeable nature of the places that we visit it is though always a challenge to stay up to date with every option that can arise. To this end we receive reports back from each trip and are in constant contact with each trip as it progresses as well as maintaining regular contact with our operators.That being said, we are looking at instances where there has been some mixed/conflicting information about optionals and/or a serious lag in information coming through or information being assessed after the office receives it, resulting in some changes having slipped through unnoticed. Clearly then we need to work harder to keep communication lines open with operators, and ensure crew and office staff get the time needed to provide detailed feedback after the tours, as well as time to accurately inform clients where changes have occurred where possible. And we do apologise if there was an activity you were considering doing that was not available on your tour. We appreciate this would be disappointing. As mentioned also we are making itinerary changes for 2019. Currently exploratory visits are being conducted to alternative destinations including to replace the visit to Antelope Park. Changes involve taking a fresh look at different aspects of overlanding, with itinerary adjustments being made in direct response to feedback we receive from our clients. These reflect our commitment to creating itineraries that allow clients to get the very most from their tour in Africa. We are sorry if our last email was wanting and if you felt we weren’t wanting to be accountable following your feedback email at the end of the tour. We did attempt to speak to you by phone several times last week, leaving messages to invite you to come back to us to discuss your concerns directly. We do take our obligations as an African tour operator very seriously and wanted to take the time to discuss with you the elements of the tour you were unhappy with in person rather than via emails. Please feel free to get back to us if you would like us to follow up with a call about any aspect of your tour.

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• BK

  Byungjoon
  Written on August 12, 2017

  4.5 - Excellent

  My wife and I spent wonderful time with Absolute Africa. All of crew and people were nice and kind. I shared every single moment of this trip on my SNS.

  

  Absolute Africa commented on this review

  Thank you for your review Byungjoon. Its good to hear you both had a great time on the safari with us, and would love to welcome you back again with Absolute Africa should you return to Africa.

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• C

  Charlotte
  Written on November 8, 2016

  5.0 - Excellent

  This trip was incredible from start to finish. I was worried about travelling alone, however there were plenty of other people on the tour who were all lovely and we became like a family during the tour and I have made life long friends from this. Our tour... Read more

  

  Absolute Africa commented on this review

  Thank you for your comments, Charlotte. It's great to hear that you have had such a fab time on your tour and made the most of being in this special continent :)

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• 

  Philip
  Written on February 25, 2016

  4.5 - Excellent

  This was the first African trip my wife and I have done, and what an incredible trip it was! The organisation of absolute africa was fantastic and we enjoyed every single day with no booking issues at all. An extremely exciting tour my favorite one of all... Read more

  

  Absolute Africa commented on this review

  Thank you for your comments Philip, its great that you had such an enjoyable trip!

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• 

  Gráinne
  Written on December 22, 2015

  5.0 - Excellent

  What an absolutely amazing trip I had with Absolute Africa! This was without a doubt the trip of a lifetime. Troy, JB and David took amazing care of us. I cannot recommend this company and this tour enough. Will definitely be going back to Africa with... Read more

  

  Absolute Africa commented on this review

  Thank you for your comments Grainne and lovely to hear you had such a fantastic time on your trip.

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• 

  Neil
  Written on May 15, 2015

  4.5 - Excellent

  What an incredible trip! Highly recommend the Southern Safari to everyone! Extremely good value for money, and also had amazing drivers and tour leader! Especially JB and Philippa! Both of them were always helpful and positive despite the stress that comes... Read more

  

  Absolute Africa commented on this review

  Thank you for your kind words, we are so please to hear you enjoyed yourself!

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• 

  Esther
  Written on December 13, 2014

  4.5 - Excellent

  Our guide was our mentor and friend and always put us first. She was very approachable and knowledgeable of all the places we stopped at. She made sure we were having the best time possible and helped us whenever we had issues. I value the effort put it by... Read more

  

  Absolute Africa commented on this review

  It's great to hear such kind words about our tour leader Vialet, we're glad she made your trip special!

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