Guides & Their Toys
Go Touch Down Travel & Tours
- Offices In:
-
United States
Canada
Australia - Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Mid-range & luxury)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $300 to $800 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Ambitious but needs some fine tuning.
Just returned from two and a half weeks in South Africa. One week around Capetown and the east and west coasts. Second week was spent north of Johannesburg on safari.
South Africa is a beautiful place and having our time organized by Go Touch Down was a huge relief. It’s a busy place and a logistical nightmare if done on your own. The tour guide around Capetown, JP was knowledgeable, friendly and made us feel safe.
The safari week did not disappoint. So many opportunities to see wildlife in a natural habitat. Truly amazing. However, two game drives a day got to be a bit much, in the end. The safari week did have more free time between game drives, thank goodness. It’s nice to recharge when on vacation.
If I had a criticism it would be that the days were too jam packed and busy. Very little time to relax and unwind. A few things could have been omitted and it wouldn’t have affected the experience.
Also, I think it would be important to mention some level of physical fitness is essential. A lot of older or physically limited folks struggled getting into the jeeps for safari or couldn’t walk down to see some places.
Additionally, nothing was mentioned about “load shedding”. South Africa’s idea to save electricity. Entire grids of electricity are shut off for hours at least twice a day. It was an inconvenience and a nuisance. There has to be a better way.
CA
Email Dave | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Cape Town and Safari was wonderful, although intense, entirely memorable and good value.
Our group of six who have travelled together extensively, enjoyed the Cape Town and Safari tour immensely. The sights in the Wester Cape and especially the safari were great. The meals, as promised were first rate - a bit simpler on safari but given the limitations with the locations they were fine. The guides were top notch. Every one of them - and there were several counting rangers and one day tour guides at the different sites, was excellent. Really the most satisfaction that I can express was with the quality of the guides. Knowledgeable, safe, dependable, adaptable.
The safari sites were amazing. Especially interesting was Humala even though the wildlife viewing there was less than Tshukudfu and the incomparable Kruger. Humala was a delight in its remoteness, and the land was out of this world uniquely beautiful. Our guide there could answer every question except concerning the geology - a personal and perhaps quirky interest, and to this she admitted the void in her knowledge. Can't be expert in everything but not faking it, as she did is the best approach. The value for us was great - maybe even better as we paid in full in 2019. Very possibly the price has increased since then. If we had paid more for our tour my satisfaction would still be high. The only comment that I would like to provide to GTD concerns marketing. Many who I spoke to came to GTD and this tour through some sort 'limited time half price deal' - in fact every guest that I discussed this with did. It struck me, and others that I spoke to as inauthentic. That and my observation that some guests were ill prepared for the rigours of the this travel; safari vehicles and long days etc. Nevertheless bottom line: great value, great experience
US
Email Simon | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fabulous safari experiences
We had a fantastic experience from the moment that Thabo our guide picked us up till the time we left. We were a group of 6 strangers at first, but became good friends almost immediately, and we stayed together for the entire safari. The stay at Humalo Lodge was great with fantastic service from the staff, and the food was amazing. The tent experience is really up to individual likes. The animals and the game drives were fascinating and productive. Then we moved to Tshkudu about a 6 hour drive, but we stopped and saw some amazing countryside, and enjoyed a good lunch. Tshkudu was another great experience, with great staff, food, accommodations and of course great game viewing. We then transferred to Livingston and stayed at the Avani Resort, right next to the Victoria Falls, what a great resort, it is in a game reserve, and animals walk and graze freely on the property. GoTouchdown has really vetted their properties and guides and does an amazing job.
Our only concern, really was with the communications regarding plane flights Relying on the internet with electricity outages and poor internet service caused a lot of angst amongst all of us. However, their contacts do respond quickly when there is service. One big recommendation is to provide easier to follow itineraries, one where the flights and transfers are separated from the location details, so that it can be easily sent as a pdf file, not uploaded to a difficult to access web page.
CA
Email Diane | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Simply the best. Would highly recommend Go Touch Down for an amazing trip to Africa.
This trip has always been a dream of mine. Booked in 2019 for 2020. Finally made it in 2022. This trip did not disappoint. The accommodations were great. Couldn’t complain about the food. The staff and guides at the lodges, went out of their way to make the experience truly memorable. Safaris were up close and personal to the Big 5 and numerous other wild animals. The second half was spent in and around Cape Town. This too was a remarkable experience. If you’re thinking of going to South Africa, DO IT!
Email Sue | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Brilliant, a fabulous tour with great guides
I had a wonderful trip to South Africa, 7 days on safari and 7 days in Cape Town. The whole experience was first class from the knowledgeable guides to the accommodations and delicious food.
US
Email Bryan | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Dana was extremely busy. There were questions we had that we needed an appointment to have answered.
We were met at the airport by Joseph, who was very professional and friendly. Our accommodations at Seasons were nice and included a wonderful breakfast.
Humala lodge was a wonderful adventure with good food, excellent staff, and our game driver Tandy was excellent! The Boma Zulu dancers were really fun!
James transported us to Tshukudu via the Panorama route and was very helpful, answered questions and took care of transfers and accommodations questions for us for our Victoria Falls excursion.
Our Tshukudu cabin was nice, but there were ants everywhere. The food was excellent! Our game driver Tyler was excellent as well.
Our accommodations at Victoria Falls at the Ilala Lodge was magnificent! Beautiful room, excellent food and wonderful staff. Lucky picked us up at Victoria Falls airport and transported us to Victoria Falls and the Chobi river package. He was excellent and very helpful.
Our Victoria Falls accommodations only included breakfast. We were surprised that we had to pay for lunch and dinner!
US
Email Marvene A. | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent! Detailed oriented.
Go Touch Down did an amazing job in coordinating our vacay to South Africa, from the excursions to the accommodations to the restaurants to the entertainment. To say we enjoyed the whole adventure is an understatement. Our tour guides were par excellent-Fabian, Thabo, Tony, and JP. They were so knowledgeable and always wore patience. We have gained a lifetime of memories from a once in a lifetime trip. Thanks
US
Email VW | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Super accommodating and makes sure everyone is having a great time
Our experience with GoTouchDown has been great! We're the type of travellers who don't typically work with multi-day tour operators just because we prefer to explore on our own with a flexible schedule, but when we decided on South Africa as our "big trip", GoTouchDown definitely helped made it a huge success. We didn't know much about South Africa, but from reading online travel guides about the country, we knew we needed local experts to ensure we had a safe and memorable trip. The ground staff in the US were professional and had helped us a lot in providing the necessary documentations when we had to apply for visas to enter South Africa. Our local tour guide, Tabo, was with our small group of six 24/7...from Day 1 of when we started our trip in Johannesburg to Day 7 for when we depart from Hoedspruit back to Johannesburg, he made sure everything was good in our group, and tried to do as much as possible if we had any issues. He was super knowledgeable, friendly and professional, and a great personality that made the long drives a very enjoyable one! The rangers that we had at Songimvelo Game Reserve - Tandi, and at Tshukudu Game Reserve - Tyler, were both super knowledgeable and entertaining, and they were going the extra mile to make sure our group's wishes of seeing certain animals was fulfilled. Hands down, I would say the lodging at Humala was one of the most comfortable and luxurious "glamping" experience, and would definitely love to stay there again to unplug and be with nature.
Possibly because of all the things that happened in the last 2 years with the pandemic, the changes that was made to our initial booking (which was back in 2020) could have been communicated better and could have given the travellers more choice on what we wanted to do with the upgrade vs original itinerary. Sometimes the ground staff in the US was a bit hard to get to when we had questions in regards to visas and getting some help on documentations. I would say the tour may be a little bit expensive for travellers who don't want to splurge. Otherwise, if you want to know that you'll be well taken care of, don't want to worry about planning for the next day's activity and just have a great time, we would definitely recommend GoTouchDown.
US
Email Lisa Ashton Mattioli | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exceeded expectations
Our South African adventure was way better than we expected it to be. Johannesburg is amazing and our tour guide James helped us navigate what we wanted to see and showed us how the locals enjoy their city as well. Our guide Bill took us everywhere and shared stories about each amazing destination. There were stops on the tour that were simply incredible and really showed us how diverse South Africa is. The Humala and Tshukudu game lodges were beautiful and very clean. The food is very good and they offer food for everyone's tastes. The game drives were more than we expected and we saw everything. Winter is a great time to visit because the animals are easier to see. Our guides and hotel team were like family and were equally excited for us for seeing so many species. Special thanks to Blessing at Humala Lodge and Shaddy at Tshukudu Lodge. Wonderful. We finished our trip in Cape Town where Jonathan, our guide, was simply amazing. He was knowledgeable, fun and made our tour of Cape Town so memorable. We cannot wait to return. Go Touch Down Tours did a great job helping us have the adventure of a lifetime worry free. We saw everything including the Big Five, we visited Kruger National Park and so, so much more. Excellent vacation for sure.
US
Email Grace Baylor | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our tour operator was very knowledgeable, answered all questions and left nothing unturned.
This was a trip of a lifetime! We had such a remarkable time each day, each adventure, each meal, each safari, each sight seeing tour we took.
We were busy from the rising of day, until dusk most days. Oh, the shopping was an adventure all of its own:) It was breath taking.. We are planning to return.