Encounter Africa Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2009)
- Member Of:
- Association of Uganda Tour Operators
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $50 to $300 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
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Email Professor Kelly Phelan | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
A Tourism Professor in Uganda- I couldn't have asked for better!
I am a professor of Tourism. I have traveled to over 50 countries and taken 100s of tours over the last 30+ years. I was so impressed with Encounter Africa Safaris. I have recommended them to countless friends and hope I will have the chance to go back and take another tour with them. Tolbert (our driver-guide) was excellent. He stopped every time we asked and was very patient with our many requests and questions. Tolbert made sure we went with the best guide when we were doing our gorilla tracking tour. Also, everyone in the office was so helpful when we were planning our trip. Honestly, we could not have asked for a better experience. I wrote several posts on my blog about my experience with Encounter Africa Safaris. Here are is a link if you would like to see a few pictures and read a little bit about it: http://drphelanipresume.blogspot.com/2013/11/gorilla-tracking-part-2.html
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Email Nature Enthusiast | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best experience with a travel agency ever.....
As a woman travelling alone to two new countries – Uganda and Rwanda – on the continent also quite new to me, I spent a lot of time looking for the right travel agency to organize my trip. More, I had two weeks to spend there flying from faraway (the U.S.) and I wanted to see “absolutely everything”, setting my expectations very high.
Encounter Africa Safaris in Uganda was an excellent choice! The Agency answered my numerous questions, advised me on the destinations, and at the end even reversed the order of the trip I wanted to take to accommodate my schedule. I took my trip in October’14 during the time when some tourist were cancelling their bookings in fear of Ebola, but I discussed that issue with the Agency and educated myself to be assured that there was no reason to postpone my trip. There was none.
It was the best trip of my life! I don’t expect to ever be able to top my meeting with the mountain gorillas in both Uganda and Rwanda with any other experience in the future! It was very thrilling and humbling at the same time! I spent most of the two weeks in Uganda, which is a beautiful country full of wildlife and gorgeous scenery.
Tolbert Guma, my guide from Encounter Africa Safaris who also drove me the entire 1760 kilometers did all possible so I could indeed see “absolutely everything” I wanted and even more than that. I got to know him as a very knowledgeable guide, an excellent driver (on both sides of the road!), and as a wonderful person with a great sense of humor.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Really wanted to like them, left some things lacking
I went on a 3 day Rwanda gorilla trek with Encounter Africa. While I really want to like them, there are a few things that were lacking.
Pros:
1. The driver was nice and friendly. He also spoke good English and very helpful.
2. The car was good and comfortable for the two of us.
3. Accommodations were but clean, safe and hotel staff was friendly.
4. Price: The price was fair.
Cons:
1. Communication troubles: Not sure what it was but the office was extremely responsive at first via email which I why I wanted to go with them initially. But then fell radio silent. So I followed up on skype and had some challenges getting a hold of them. They said that there were issues with their email, so may that is fixed?
2. Quoted a price, and then told us that they didn't have any more availability at the lodging and then wanted put us in a lower quality hotel. Ended up paying the original price for a lower quality hotel. The hotel was fine, but the experience of that change was frustrating.
3. Finally, the biggest issue was that the driver was 2 hours late for the initial airport pickup! This was extremely inconvenient because we did not have Rwanda phones and had no way of contacting the driver. For a minute, I thought we had been completely scammed. He came in the end, but this resulted in us driving back in the hills in dark, getting to the hotel extremely late, and missing a proper dinner (that we had paid for in our room/board).
However, what frustrated me most was they claimed that it was the Uganda / Rwanda time difference that caused the delay. However, Uganda time is 1 hour ahead, so of anything, they would have arrived an hour later rather than 2 hours late. When I mentioned this to them, they then said that it was because they had to pick up the permits. If that were the real reason, then tell the truth the first time. Do not lie or try to pull one on me.
So all in all, I'm mixed on this group. While the rest of the experience itself was incredible (highly recommend the gorilla trek to anyone), there were logistical things that were a lacking and the lying about being 2 hours late was a huge detractor.