Encompass Africa
- Located In:
-
Australia
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2009)
- Member Of:
- ATTA, CATO & ATAS
- Tour Types:
- Custom luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $228 to $1,951 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email robert | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
very efficient and great local knowledge about the parks visited and accommodation available
couldn't recommend Encompass Africa highly enough. First class service ,very prompt in returning emails and phone calls with answers to any questions you may have in regard to your safari. Great locations to visit ,superb game viewing and great accommodation
Email Kerri | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Knowledgeable, Informative, caring and an effortless process to plan our trip to Africa
Although we planned where we wanted to go in Africa, it was Encompass Africa that put together the trip, with their knowledge and expertise making this a memorable and fuss free process. We were always well informed and all staff were helpful and efficient. Our trip was amazing, from being welcomed at the airport to all our accommodation, food, service and onward transport. We always felt warmly welcomed. Even receiving an email whilst we were away to make sure all was going well was a lovely touch.
We had an amazing holiday. Spending time at Amboseli National Park, Samburu National Park, Masai Mara, Northern Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire National Park, all different and all offering diversity. We espeicially loved Elephant Bedroom Camp at Samburu, stunning country. We look forward to returning to Africa and when we do, we look forward to dealing with Encompass Africa again.
CA
Email Meg Carter | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our best vacation/adventure yet!
From our first encounter with Encompass Africa to after we returned home from our vacation, everything went perfectly and above and beyond our expectations. Our agent with Encompass Africa was Bronwen. We cannot give her enough positive feedback. She was extremely attentive , thorough and dedicated to making our vacation perfect for us. After much deliberation, and back and forth between Bronwen and ourselves we decided on a safari in Tanzania. Bronwen was always readily available and very flexible and accommodating to our ever changing itinerary. She was able to guide us and give us the information we needed to successfully choose our first Safari. After booking our trip and arriving in Tanzania, Bronwen and Encompass Africa remained very much part of our adventure. They were readily available if we needed anything and ensured our special occasions that we were celebrating were recognized. We had our best vacation to date thanks to Bronwen and everyone at Encompass Africa.
I happened upon Encompass Africa by chance on the internet and we are both so happy that I did. We cannot give this company enough praise. Their knowledge, expertise and professionalism went above and beyond our expectations. We have and will continue to recommend Encompass Africa to our friends and family! Thank you for such a wonderful vacation. Encompass Africa made, what could have been a very stressful and difficult vacation to book, extremely easy and effortless on our part. Thank you!
Email Sarah | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Magical Madagascar with Encompass Africa
This trip to Madagascar which we organised with Encompass Africa was quite a complicated one and very bespoke. Danica and the rest of the team were fantastic. They really listened to our ideas about where we wanted to go, accommodation we liked the look of and things we were not so keen on and then gave us honest and excellent advice about what to do, how much we could fit in, travel times, road conditions, accommodation etc. This was greatly appreciated and important as Madagascar is not a simple place to organise travel and their excellent and honest feedback on our ideas was incredibly valuable. After our discussions they came back to us with a number of possible itineraries from which we picked the one we wanted and they went ahead and organised everything from flights, accommodation, guide, driver, vehicle, park entry fees and guides etc. This all went very smoothly and we were kept up to date with changes during the months after we had booked and before we left. Danica even let us know when a room became available at a place we wanted to stay but which had been fully booked when we tried to book it and changed us into the one we had wanted.
As can happen with Madagascar there were issues beyond their and our control with the Air Madagascar flights as the airline staff went on strike and all our internal flights were cancelled. Danica and the team swung into action and reorganised our trip just a few days before we left so that we were able to do everything despite the flight cancellations which was amazing and we were so grateful!
The trip itself was incredible, wonderful in every way. The places we visited, wildlife we saw, our guide and driver, accommodation and the food were all even more amazing than we had imagined and everything went very well.
We visited Zombitse National Park, Isalo National Park, Anja Reserve, Ranomafana National Park, Morondava, Baobab Alley, Kirindy National Park, the Grand and Petit Tsingy, Andasibe National Park, Antananarivo, Fianarantsoa, Antsirabe, and a heap of other places on the way. This was simply an awesome trip and we absolutely loved it.
We were meant to finish in Masoala National Park but unfortunately bad and dangerous weather conditions led to the cancellation of our flights so Jono from Encompass Africa (with no notice and in record time!) organised for us to go back to South Africa (the same day!) and spend the last few days of our holiday in the Sabi Sands at the incredible Savanna Lodge. This was all done within a few hours of our letting him know what had happened and asking if he could organise us an alternative in South Africa, unbelievably amazing!
Absolutely top class service, knowledge, organisation and genuine care about you having an amazing experience. You could not ask for anyone better to organise a trip to anywhere in Africa and we will continue to use Encompass Africa time and time again (this is already our 5th trip with them!).
Email Claire | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
50th Birthday Trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana
We had a very positive experience with Encompass Africa from start to finish. Our holiday exceeded our expectations. We enjoyed every minute and we are still gaining pleasure from recounting the memories. Danica was a most attentive agent and was able to interpret our brief, demonstrating an excellent understanding of our desires and concerns. She also made some useful suggestions about activities that we had not considered or didn't even know about. The tour itself was a great adventure with something new and inspiring happening every day. The holiday provided a great variety of experiences and the camps were all very special. Food and accommodation were excellent. Whilst we were away we were contacted by the African agents both by phone and in person at the airport. Nothing went wrong, but it was nice to know that if needed, help was at hand.
Email Sandy & Andrew | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Encompass Africa planned and delivered our dream African holiday.
When we first met Jono & Danica from Encompass Africa at a travel expo in Adelaide we were impressed with their approach and their obvious passion for and knowledge of Africa. Jono is from South Africa and travels back there regularly so you are dealing with a company that has local knowledge and that gave us confidence that we would be getting expert advice.
When we were ready to plan our trip Jono spent time talking to us on the phone, providing detailed information and options and taking our budget into account. A personalised package was then put together for us.
Before we left for Africa we received a detailed itinerary including contact details for the places we were staying and the travel partners in Africa. We travelled independently and it was reassuring to know that we had private car transfers organised to pick us up and get us to our hotels/ lodges/ the airport/etc.
We were very happy with all aspects of our trip including flights, accommodation & transfers. The highlight of our trip was a wonderful 3 night safari experience at Kapama Buffalo Camp in South Africa.
In all of our dealings with Encompass Africa we have found the travel consultants to be friendly, helpful and efficient. Upon booking we were given a timeline of when final payments were due, when our travel documents would be provided and a very comprehensive guide with information on the countries we were visiting, luggage guidelines, foreign currency, what to pack, etc. This was really useful & very much appreciated and ensured we felt as prepared and ready as we could be leading up to our departure.
We would definitely recommend Encompass Africa when planning & booking an African holiday.
Email Ann | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very knowledgable, and professional company. Listened to our brief and created an amazing itinerary.
Our African Safari was an amazing holiday thanks to the planning done by Encompass Africa. The guiding company (Wayo) they are associated with and the accommodation they booked for us in four different camps was of a very high standard. Our itinerary also offered the diversity we required (culture, game driving, variety of different landscapes etc) when travelling with three children as well as ensuring we were taken care for when transferring through the airports to our hotels before arriving in Tanzania. There was not a day on our safari that we would of changed and this was also attributed by our fantastic guide Alloyce.
MX
Email Alejandro | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great Company
I went on Safari for 15 days and everything was impeccable. Great attention and fair value for your money. Many Safari operators try to charge higher costs than what you can get online, however, Encompass was very fair with the rates.
Highly recommend this company to book your Safari
Email Sarah | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Another outstanding African trip with Encompass Africa
We cannot thank Jonathon and Danica Wilson at Encompass Africa enough for organising yet another fabulous trip to Africa for us! It has taken us a while to get around to visiting Tanzania but boy was it worth the wait! We were completely blown away by this amazing country, its beautiful landscapes, wonderful people, warm hospitality and incredible wildlife. The trip completely exceeded our expectations and I am sure that this had a lot to do with Jono and Danica's careful choices for us of what local companies to use, camps to go to, locations to visit and careful planning. Jono and Danica knew that one of our reservations about going to East Africa was the potential for lots of vehicles and especially lots of vehicles interfering with the wildlife and their behaviour. Their advice on when and where to go and with whom made all the difference. We had an absolutely amazing experience which was so far from the busy and touristy experience we had feared, even in the very popular Ngorogoro Crater, so we are so thankful to them for understanding our concerns and using their expertise to make sure we were not disappointed!
Mirko had an amazing climb up Kilimanjaro with Summits Africa. They were absolutely fantastic and took such great care of him, I was incredibly impressed! What an awesome experience it was and the care taken by all the team to make sure the climb went well contributed so much to the positivity of the experience.
The camps in the Serengeti we visited were all great, well situated, set up, appointed and managed with great teams of people in each who were warm, welcoming, kind, helpful and hospitable. I must make a particular mention of Rodger and Annabel at Sayari who were just the most wonderful managers, professional, warm, hands on, very respectful to their teams and they made such a huge effort to make our stay special, with amazing birthday treats for Mirko and even a celebratory private candle lit dinner and champagne the night we got there to celebrate Mirko's successful Kili summit!
Our guides were fantastic, very respectful of the wildlife, knowledgeable, passionate, and great company. Kevin, who was my guide for the week I was on my own was just wonderful and made sure I had an absolutely fabulous time.
I also want to especially mention Joseph who was our guide at Sayari - he was such a lovely young man, intelligent, professional, knowledgeable, motivated, driven, with a great sense of humour, kind manner who was great to spend time with and very passionate about the bush.
Travelling on my own was not a problem at all, I felt safe, welcomed and cared for all the time, both out and about and in the camps. Everyone was incredibly friendly and kind to me.
Asilia is a fantastic company and I am so glad Jono and Danica recommended them to us. They really walk the walk, not just talk the talk! Eco-conscious and eco-friendly, great conservation and community initiatives, great guides, respect and care for the environment and wildlife, very supportive of their staff and providing great career progression opportunities, as well as great camps in great locations with wonderful wildlife.
We had so many amazing sightings that I cannot list them all but a few highlights were a cheetah and her 3 small and adorable cubs, lost of cheetah, 2 servals, an African Wild Cat, tree-climbing lions, seeing >100 lions, a pride of >25 lions all together, a female leopard and 2 playful young cubs, the migration, black rhino and calf, morning tea in a herd of 70,000 wildebeest and so so much more! Cant wait to share stories and photos!
We couldn't have asked for more and as always Jono and Danica and the Encompass Africa team have exceeded our wildest expectations! We are already thinking of returning to Tanzania.....as well as visiting some more countries on the beautiful African continent! Cant wait to book our next safari with Encompass Africa!
Email Tony | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The Australian travel agency that really knows Africa
This was our second trip organised with Encompass, the first in 2014 to Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. The second this year was to Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. Encompass work with you, finding what interests you then puts together suggestions and work with as a partnership to end up with an itinerary that suits you and your budget. This could happen quickly or take some time, Encompass are happy yo take phone calls, emails, etc., to reassure you. Having a representative on the ground in Africa is another assurance for the first time traveller. Very professional and personable family travel agency, great people to deal with.