Northern Star

Traveler Reviews

• 

  Nathan

  November 3rd, 2019
  3.5
  STAFF Not sure if this is normal, but we had two guides. Although not a local, Natasja was professional,...
  STAFF Not sure if this is normal, but we had two guides. Although not a local, Natasja was professional, experienced, and very knowledgeable about the wildlife we encountered. A Kenyan, Kip was very good at his job, laid back, and I felt we were in very good hands. Can’t comment on his knowledge about wildlife because he was in the cab the whole time and never back in the truck, which is understandable since there’s really not anything to see on the truck between Vic Falls and Arusha. Big shout out to Steve and Patrick, our fearless drivers. They did an amazing job and were a joy to have around the campground. FOOD Natasja and Kip were excellent cooks. Generally the food was pretty good and adequate arrangements were made for special diets. There was a little redundancy—lots of rice and pasta—but this should be expected on a camping trip. EQUIPMENT All the camping and cooking equipment was high quality and more than adequate for our needs. TRANSPORTATION Like guides, we had two trucks:Johannesburg to Victoria Falls and Victoria Falls to Arusha (they basically issue a bus ticket from Arusha to Nairobi) The first bus—Silverback—was supposedly the latest and greatest. It was adequate and the table at the back was very nice to have. Our second bus—Pluto—was more of the first generation. There were no windows, only large canvas/plastic tarps that could be rolled up. This may be fine for wildlife watching but we didn’t do any on this truck. At highway speeds this setup simply doesn’t work, especially when it rains. And the first time we opened the tarp my hat went flying out the side. Neither had air conditioning so with the windows open it was VERY loud. Not much of a chance to have a conversation with fellow travelers. Both trucks had refrigerators and power sockets allowing for charging electrical devices. Nice features. Although different, both were well designed to hold the equipment. ITINERARY Above all, this tour was incredibly BORING. There was lots of downtime and most time was actually spent riding on the truck. There were several days in a row when we rose just after sunset, had a quick breakfast, spent the whole day on the road, arrived at camp around sundown, had dinner, set up tents, only to do the whole thing all over again. 33 days seems like it should be enough to make the long journey but it really isn’t. Especially when you consider there’s quite a few days just hanging out in Victoria Falls, Lake Malawi, Zanzibar (or Bagamoyo if you don’t want to spend extra) ABSOLUTE AFRICA As others have noted, they’ve had trouble accurately describing this tour online. Hopefully they’ve fixed this by now. Although advertised as a 33-day tour, \it was really more like a 24 day tour with optional (and expensive) add-ons at the end for Zanzibar and the Serengeti. Dar es Salaam was also highlighted as a destination. Much to my disappointment, we didn’t go there. Until they get their act together on this tour, I can’t recommend Absolute Africa. If you want to cross a bunch of countries off your bucket list and save money, I’d suggest going to Victoria falls and taking a few day/side trips and then flying to another country like Tanzania and/or South Africa. OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES I didn’t go on the rhino trek, but those who did saw some rhinos. Most of the worthwhile activities seemed to be in Victoria Falls and geared toward adrenaline junkies. None of these were cheap. The only real chance for a cultural experience was in Malawi. It was cheap but we all get a hard sell for donations and souvenirs. Snorkeling on the lake was a joke. The Zanzibar “ferry” was very misleading. I had to take my shoes off just to get to the small boat. Three hours with no amenities except a broken toilet. That said, Zanzibar might be worth the money for some. I probably didn’t need three days on a beach with redundant (non-included) food, but we stayed at a nice place. I didn’t splurge on the ridiculously expensive Serengeti/Ngorongoro Crater “Safari”. I don’t know much about the area and thought Tour Radar / Absolute Africa’s description including “a chance to see the Serengeti” meant we’d at least drive through or near the famous place. TOUR RADAR I would never book with company again and reported them to the Better Business Bureau for their misleading advertising and outright lying to me about how that came to be. They also personally insulted me and refused to apologize or admit any mistakes on their part.Show more
  Traveled in September 2019
• C

  Christopher

  September 18th, 2019
  3
  Not what I thought. Our original Tour guide and Driver were fantastic as individuals. Both provided everything...
  Not what I thought. Our original Tour guide and Driver were fantastic as individuals. Both provided everything that was needed and quoted for with the original trip. The Truck “Whiley” was big and old, but was around what was promised. This is until the whole plan changed. I know the saying is TIA (This Is Africa) but when you pay for a provided Tour with an agreed set of standards of travel- this is what you expect. But, this did not happen. Within the first week we had our original Truck massively downgraded, and we had our Tour Guide and Driver taken away and instead given just a driver for the following four days....... (almost left to our own devices) The Truck we were given as a replacement was something out of the early 80s with seats that felt like wooden church pews designed for elves, and these badly sun-damaged roll-up plastic blind widows that were about as clean as a glass ashtray. Where we had to stop regularly and make running repairs to stop them from disintegration while travelling. It had a fridge that barely worked, and a battery recharge and power outlet that continually didn't charge and flattened the Truck batteries. It was like booking a 2-star hotel for four nights and then being downgraded to a 1-star room with no windows for the same price…but breakfast was still included :) I mean there is TIA (to a point) but this is mainly in regards to how the African countries are run, and most people go along with this and understand that when you are travelling in a Truck throughout Africa there are always bumps, bruises, delays, extra costs and the last minute alterations. But then there is also providing a basic or a close version of the product and facilities that have been promoted and promised by a UK company and paid for by the customer. Thankfully with this we had a small but good group of people on the tour to bind together and get on with it. I am sure the Tour would have gone really well if our Tour had retained the original Guide, Driver and Truck. But when you are involuntary downgraded during the Tour- for the sheer benefit of the company, and it's left to “us” the customer to face the consequences of disorganisation and cutting costs- you are left feeling a little disappointed. There was also the extra costs that added add up to this being a relatively expensive tour in the end. The final costs of the added (larger) tours “Zanzibar and the Serengeti Ngorongoro Crater” seemed to be withheld until after the original tour was purchased (Read Carefully). And these “add on tours” really tip over the cost of the original and make it not such great value anymore. Both Zanzibar and the Serengeti are exceptionally amazing but are expensive expensive add ons……. Next time I would do a slightly more expensive tour with another company. Where you get a more definitive price of the overall tour and the add on, and a more reliable and an up to date Truck (where it can be a little more bearable for ten-hour drives where you are dirty, tired and confined) and hopefully a Guide and Driver that are consistent and provided throughout the duration of the tour.Show more
  Traveled in August 2019
• K

  Kylie

  September 14th, 2019
  3.5
  I have mixed feelings about this tour. I loved the overlanding and camping aspect, and parts of the itinerary were...
  I have mixed feelings about this tour. I loved the overlanding and camping aspect, and parts of the itinerary were really well executed. But if I were to do this trip again, I don't think I would go with Absolute Africa. First of all, I don't think there is total transparency of information. For example, nowhere (that I can find, in the documents that I received) does it state that if you choose not to do the optional extras to Zanzibar & Serengeti/Ngorongoro, you are responsible for your accommodation costs on those days in addition to your meal costs. So although the tour takes place over 33 days, not all of those nights are included in the price of the tour. Not only that, but the $625 Serengeti/Ngorongoro add-on apparently has to be paid in cash USD. Even after our guides were told that many people on the tour were not carrying enough dollars with them for the whole tour, there was no real plan formulated to solve this issue. I also was originally told to research vaccination info on my own, and I did so. According to everything that I could find online, as well as my travel doctor, I wouldn't be required to have yellow fever documentation unless and until I hit Kenya, but as I was planning on finishing up in Tanzania, it shouldn't have been an issue. However, two weeks prior to my departure, in the final tour update, Absolute mentioned that yellow fever documentation might be required for Tanzania (in spite of the fact that we weren't coming from yellow fever-endemic countries). In fact, it was required at the border crossings in Malawi and Tanzania, as well as passing over to Zanzibar on the ferry from Dar es Salaam, and according to our guides, it has been this way for a while and Absolute should have known full well that this was the case. Yet they didn't warn us about it until it was too late for me to do anything about it, so I got to worry my way through multiple border crossings trying to convince the immigration agents that it didn't matter that I didn't have the paperwork since I hadn't travelled to any endemic countries. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't been able to cross any of the borders because the feeling from our guide was basically that we were on our own there. In terms of guides and drivers, I understand that there can be changes necessitated mid-tour, but it seemed very strange for us to have both our guide and our driver replaced for different reasons. In the case of the guide, it was apparently because another of Absolute's guides didn't have a valid visa for one of the countries he was supposed to visit during the tour he was guiding? Seems very strange that a company would operate like that, even if "this is Africa". Our new guide seemed entirely disinterested in getting to know us or in helping us out at all. Neither did he seem to know the itinerary well -- we had to correct him using the paper itinerary that was printed for us at the start of the tour, and he never seemed to know if there would be either time or places to stop for lunch along the way. I also thought it was very strange that he threatened to leave behind a member of the group in Zanzibar when she was "running late" for the transport (in actual fact, her instructions on where to meet us were unclear). At the time, he didn't even attempt to call or message her or to otherwise determine what the situation was. It just seemed to me that for the final half of the trip, there was no point in even paying for the services of a guide. We would have got by just the same with only the driver. So although there were aspects of this trip that were great, overall my experience with the company was lackluster. There are plenty of other companies running similar iterations of the same trip, and from talking to some of those groups at the campgrounds, their trips seemed to be nowhere near as chaotic and slapdash as ours. Once you factor in all the "optionals", or the money you're spending on accommodation and meals if you opt not to do the add-ons, price difference between this and other similar trips are negligible. At the end of the day, this "budget" safari option is not exactly the deal that it appears to be. I'm glad that I had this experience, but I think it could have easily been a much better one given just a little more organization from the company.Show more
  Traveled in August 2019
  

  Reply from: Absolute Africa

  Thank you for taking the time to leave your review, Kylie. We are disappointed to hear you feel we haven’t been transparent with our costing, as this is something we do pride ourselves on. We’ve taken a lot of time over the years to prepare detailed pre departure packs specific to each tour we offer and this includes a wealth of information such as suggested vaccinations, budgeting advice, lists and prices of all optional excursions. We also include the number of days that are included camping with the truck in the Money and Budgeting section, and also make it clear here that personal spending money is calculated to cover those times when you don’t eat and sleep on the truck. This document is sent out upon booking and we can see you received this after your booking came through from Tour Radar. With regard to Yellow Fever and other vaccinations, we do always recommend you seek the advice of a travel health professional when doing your trip planning as they should have the most up to date information as to what is necessary world wide. However, Yellow Fever does top the list of our “Suggested Immunisations” in the Health section of the information pack we send out and so we are surprised you only noticed this in the final letter which is just designed to go over important points and to confirm pre tour accommodation and transfer bookings. Zambia is considered a country “at risk” of yellow fever and so other countries you travel to afterwards may well ask for a vaccination or exemption certificate. We are sorry that you were not aware that the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater tour had to be paid in USD cash - again we do emphasise in the initial pre departure information that the majority of optional activities are payable in USD cash and we also recommend that clients take a considerable amount of USD cash with them to cover visas, local payment and optional activities. On the matter of your crew, we are concerned by your feedback regarding your tour leader for the last section of your trip and will be talking to him in this regard for further information. All staff have undergone thorough training and the tour leader has been in our employment for a number of years, so we are unsure of why he was not clear on the itinerary. Please be assured we will be following this up. The need to change your crew was partly due to a new regulation that Namibia has just introduced regarding work permits. We do ensure our crew have the correct visas where necessary, but immigration departments can and do change their rules with very little warning and unfortunately this impacted on your trip, as we needed to reallocate crew so that all trips could continue on their routes. We understand that it can be disrupting to have a change to your crew and we always try to keep this to a minimum. We do though have to be flexible and accommodating when it comes to working with the authorities and keeping trips running smoothly. Absolute does brand itself as an affordable overland company, but it is important to note that all overland companies operate within the same framework. The background of overlanding is that you work as part of a team with your co-travellers and the crew to create your own journey through a number of countries. As well as having key highlights included in the tour price, additional optional activities are an aspect of all overlanding trips - whether “budget” or more upmarket - and this allows individuals to pick and choose from the highlights they are most interested in. It also means that more money from travellers is put straight back into the local economy and to those working on the ground in Africa. We are glad to hear that you did enjoy the overlanding and camping aspects of your tour of this fascinating continent and trust that Africa has given you some great memories to take away.

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• M

  michael

  December 14th, 2014
  5
  JB and Vailet were an amazing duo!
  Traveled in January 2014
  

  Reply from: Absolute Africa

  That's great to hear thank you!

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