Gondwana Tours & Safaris on safari in the Okavango
Gondwana Tours & Safaris
- Offices In:
-
United Kingdom
Portugal
Germany
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2008)
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $1,200 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Kelly Foster | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Serengeti
We added a short, 3 night safari in the Serengeti to our holiday , after spending 10 days in Zanzibar in September this year.
All ideas for camps and lodges were made by Gondwana Tours & Safaris. We found all their suggestions spot on and had a fablous time.
Olakira Camp in the north Serengeti was, in short, fantastic! Pascal, the camp manager, and his team were wonderful, polite, well informed and amazing.
We saw more wildlife than we expected - thanks to very knowledgeable rangers who drove us around. We saw the Big 5 nearly every day! the river crossing was quite an experience too! The meals were absolutely delicious - them taking into account of different dietary needs.
Sitting around the camp fire, having sundowners along the river beds (with crocodiles and hippos wallowing nearby!), adventurous and exciting game drives, resting in the magnificent tents, sitting in the communal lounge area - each and every experience was priceless!
We could not have asked for a better experience, and would recommend it to anyone.
Thanks to Gondwana Tours and Safaris for making all the arrangements for us. They all worked perfectly without any delays (except for our friends from Fastjet on the day we left Zanzibar).
A trip of a lifetime!
Thank you again to Gondwana Tours & Safaris
SG
Email Kin | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Knowledgable, responsive and overall very effective. Excellent value!
We decided to do a last minute safaris trip to Botswana during the peak season. We reached out to several tour companies, but not many responded. Mark Hathaway at Gondwana responded and proposed an initial package that has largely met our requirements. He was very patient in answering our questions and adjusting the itinerary accordingly. Email communications were responsive and effective. Able to find us good camps at a last minute and at a very reasonable price. I would definitely recommend Mark and Gondwana....
Wonderful experience in the Okavango Delta, Chobe and Victoria Falls
This was an amazing tripped booked by Gondwana Tours. Considering that I was a bit tardy in booking and didn't have the largest budget, it is remarkable how fantastic our experience was. No doubt the trip's success was due to Mark Hathaway of Gondwana Tours' excellent attention to detail and perfect communication. Honestly, not one thing went astray. Our trip involved bush pilots, land transfers across borders, connecting with other members of the party and fabulous game drives. The properties selected by Mark were wonderful -- again, completely exceeding expectation. I would highly recommend Gondwana Tours and Safaris.
Email Trish | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Outstanding service and great advice
Mark Hathaway organised our wonderful week in Botswana and Vic Falls; all our accommodation was really great (particularly Kwara, an old favourite of mine). Mark responded quickly to all my questions, and proactively made some very helpful suggestions to help make the most of our time. He met us in Maun on our way back to Joburg, which was lovely. I left my Kindle at Vic Falls and was then incommunicado at Kwara so the hotel contacted Mark; he arranged for the transport of my Kindle from the hotel to Kasane airport and then via the pilot to Kwara. You don't often get service like that! We were thrilled with every aspect of our trip, and will be in touch with Mark in a year or two to arrange our next safaris.
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Email Randi | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Top of the service - everything went smoothly
Gondwana Tours & Safaris helped us personalize our tour. All of the accommodations that they provided us as options were excellent. GT&S really helped coordinate our whole trip so we didn't have to worry about anything. I can't say enough great things about Gondwana Tours and Safaris and would give them my highest recommendation to anyone! Thank you so much for a great trip.
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Email Alan Z | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
A trip of a lifetime
We planned an African trip of a lifetime to see wildlife. We chose Gondwana Tours & Safaris in Botswana because of their reasonable prices, great reviews, an office based in Botswana and their willingness to customize a tour to suit our needs and budget.
Wow did they deliver! Mark Hathaway worked with us for almost a year, answering our questions with a reply usually within 24 hours. Their itinerary took us to four different safari camps through Botswana, followed by a lovely two-day cruise up the Chobe River by houseboat. The trip ended with a stay at Victoria Falls, which was the perfect way to wind down before heading home. We ended up finding and photographing 41 mammal species and saw hundreds of species of birds. Thanks to Gondwana's planning, everything went off smoothly. The camps were ready and waiting for us, and transport was where it needed to be, and precisely on time. The camps themselves were delightful, with good food, a reasonable number of other guests, and eight hours a day in the field. We did not fully appreciate all the planning Gondwana did until we saw it all in action.
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Email Becky | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We took 2 safaris and also visited Victoria Falls.
The entire trip was flawless. There was not one thing that was not done to perfection! From our arrival at the Victoria Falls Airport to transportation to and from each lodge, each leg was without a hitch. Especially helpful was being greeted as we flew out at the end of our trip because the Maun Airport was a bit chaotic and our flight to Cape Town was a fairly new one. The bush flights that were arranged by Mark on Mack Airand came off without a problem.
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Email Aimee | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect trip and mix of activities for solo female
Just as I was booking my Botwswana trip, my traveling partner canceled on me. I didn't want to spend as much money as we were going to spend if I were going alone, so Mark came up with a great trip for me. It was a great combination of types of safaris and geography (Khwai, Inner Delta, Chobe) and the places I stayed I was very happy with, the guides are very knowledgeable and well-trained, the hospitality was ideal, and the food was very good (and there are a lot of things I don't eat which they all catered to). I needed to end in Chobe because I was meeting another friend for Victoria Falls, but if I hadn't needed to take his schedule into account or the zambezi river level, I think it would be best to start with Vic Falls and then Chobe, Inner Delta, Khwai. I like Inner Delta in the middle because you can do walking safaris there and it was good to have that as the middle activity between the game drives you do in Chobe & Khwai. I also would have stayed a 3rd night in the Inner Delta instead of just 2 because the walking safari was my favorite. But considering my schedule needs, what Mark arranged for me was perfect. It was so shocking to get just a few meters away from a lion with nothing but the car door between it and me (no glass and only a very high roof), but then it became normal and later when lions are "only" 10 m away you are like oh those lions are kind of far away. The transfers and flights all worked seamlessly and my whole job was to show up at the right time, which made that part very relaxing and the animals made it exciting.
Email RobLaine | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beyond Expectations of a Tour Operator
By the time Mark had discussed our options, made the bookings and sent us his background information and FAQs, we felt supremely confident that we had booked with the right organisation and that all would work well. Now we are back in the "real world" (??) we can say that it was a wonderful experience from start to finish. We had one hiccough at the last lodge but that was outside his control and he is following up.
Thanks Mark. It was great!
Email Norah Lewis | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Safari - as we like it!
We booked our "once in a lifetime" trip with Gondwana in October 2015 to celebrate my husband's significant birthday in May 2016 - Botswana being a destination that we have both wanted to visit for years. We researched on line and felt that Gondwana offered the best value for money, took care of all issues eg: transfers and did not pressurise us into doing anything we did not want to. Their knowledge of lodges and game viewing was much better than we could ever have managed; they have sourced suppliers that are not necessarily mainstream and therefore keen to guarantee customer satisfaction. Communication with us was good, very detailed information pack that included inoculations etc. When booking on line there is always the risk of payment without delivery and Gondwanda did not disappoint. All accommodation was of a very high standard, staff friendly, knowledgeable without being patronising and with a good sense of humour. We recommend Gondwana to our friends and would certainly use them again.