Martin Smith, Managing Director
Kingfisher Safaris
- Office In:
-
United Kingdom
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- Botswana Guides Association
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $1,500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
Email David Walker | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An extraordinary adventure in a beautiful country with wonderful wildlife and fantastic people
The safari was absolutely brilliant and Gibson was a fantastic guide and superb host. Temptation is a brilliant cook/chef and Kantake was really helpful. Everyone was so friendly and there is nothing even slightly bad we can say about our experience apart from air botswana not being very accurate with their flight times so we got there quite late but that was part of the experience. The organisation from Kingfisher Safari's end was first class. Hope you can pick up from this that we were really happy and would definitely do it again.
Email Felicity Roe | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Outstanding mobile camping trip to Botswana with an exceptional safari guide.
I'm used to sorting travel independently but chose to use an agent for this trip to the Okavango delta region. I couldn't get what I wanted from some 'big name' agents so turned to Kingfisher. What a fantastic decision that was. Kingfisher are small but hugely knowledgeable and responsive. Martin was a bush pilot in Botswana and Pilot (the Botswanan Guide) is probably one of the top two or three guides in the country. The 9 night mobile camp trip utilised camp sites only available to Botswana Guides Association members and they were in superb locations with just one group per site - so you really were 'in the bush'. The tents were comfortable with bucket showers and long drop loos. The food was excellent and the staff hugely willing and friendly. All the game drives were in a well converted Toyota Landcruiser. Pilot was an exceptional guide with superb tracking skills and a deep knowledge of the parks and the animals that meant that time and again we arrived in the right place at the right time - it was not by chance. Having found a Cheetah one morning Pilot said - we'll go to that termite mound as he'll stop there... And he did. No zoom lens needed. This was a case of an experienced professional guide adding huge value to anything we could have done on our own. In terms of booking and organisation Martin was responsive and patient and the pricing seemed very fair. On the ground everything ran smoothly and the transfers after the trip to and from Vic Falls were professional and comfortable.
I will be using Kingfisher and Pilot again for any adventure we plan for sub-Saharan Africa. They have a local knowledge that will turn any trip into something extraordinarily special.
Email Katharine | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Tailor made once in a lifetime adventure!
We had an absolutely incredible time in Botswana on a 9 night tented safari. From start to finish everything was perfect, Pilot our guide was one of the nicest people you will ever meet and he worked tirelessly to make our trip so enjoyable. We were blessed with big cat sightings on nearly every drive, a highlight watching a leopard chase a cheater away from its kill! Pilot was hugely knowledgeable and always seemed to know exactly where to position the jeep for the best sightings, the animals seemed to simply walk right over to us! The food at camp was delicious, we all wish we could have taken the cook home with us to the UK.
All the airport transfers ran very smoothly and the entire trip was hassle free. We hope to be back in the near future.
Email Adrian Roe | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Holiday of a lifetime! Pilot is an exceptional guide.
A really wonderful holiday - Pilot looked after us from start to finish delivering a blend of wildness, comfort and utterly memorable close encounter after close encounter with a huge range of wild animals.
From the moment we walked through arrivals at Maun airport to the moment 10 days later that we parted company, Pilot was focussed 100% on giving us the best holiday possible. The food was lovely, the campsites both genuinely wild and picture perfect and the game drives struck the right balance between making sure we had outstanding views of the animals while giving them enough room to feel we weren't encroaching. What a wonderful series of locations with a warm, knowledgable and fascinating guide.
We are already planning our next trip with him!
US
Email Magdalena Kovacsovics | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Perfect tour including Victoria Falls and a safari in South Lusngwa
Very personal service. Martin was very easy to reach and understood very well our needs
Email Russell | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Outstanding - Highly Recommended
My family (my wife and I and two young adult daughters) have just returned from a safari tour organised by Martin at Kingfisher Safaris and cannot recommend the service that he provided highly enough. From our very first email contact with Martin he was always incredibly responsive and extremely helpful. He first took the time to understand who we were and what we wanted so he could help to set out and book the perfect itinerary for us. Martin answered every one of our follow-up questions over several emails and phone calls amazingly quickly and effectively. He is clearly both knowledgeable and passionate about what he does.
We spent 5 days/4 nights at andBeyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa, followed by 4 days/3 nights at andBeyond Benguerra Island in Mozambique. The staff, service, food and accommodation in the three lodges were simply amazing; and most importantly we had spectacular game drives in Phinda and incredible activities on Benguerra Island. We very much like the philosophy of andBeyond - their support both for the local communities and for the environment is very apparent. As guests, we also like their style - relaxed but unobtrusively attentive to your every need. They aim to "go beyond your expectations" and I can honestly say they are one of the few companies that I have experienced that actually achieve this. We were frequently genuinely surprised (and delighted) by the things they did for us.
Because of our choice of locations, our itinerary required several transfers and internal flights in Africa and every single one worked perfectly - thanks to Martin who planned and booked everything for us.
We have had an amazing experience, and Martin played a key role in making it all work so well and so smoothly.
I have no hesitation in highly recommending Kingfisher Safaris to anyone who is interested in exploring the beauty and wonder of Africa.
IT
Email Elisa Cei | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Recommended
Kingfischer Safaris organized a 10-days safari in Zimbabwes for us in April 2019. Martin is a professional and very correct person and above all available to clarify all matters. The correspondence is very fast. Tented camps and lodges are charming and equipped with every comfort; the staff are really welcoming and helpful, i felt like i was in family; great food anytime and anywhere. (Fantastic experience was celebrating Easter lunch in Hwange NP with a big table in the middle of the busch all together with guests from other camps, really a beautiful surprise!)
Kingfischer safari organizes your trip in detail, for this I recommend this for your next trip!
IT
Email Roberto Fattori | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Professionalism and efficiency for a fantastic safari
We went on a safari in Zimbabwe last April and we have to thank Kingfisher Safaris and Martin in particular for the experience we experienced. Martin and his agency are of a kindness, a willingness, a seriousness and a truly unique professionalism. We visited the parks of Northern Zimbabwe, the Mana Pools NP, the area adjacent to Lake Kariba and Hwange NP. We stayed in fantastic tented camps and in really excellent lodges where the quality of food, service and staff were superb. We were also quite lucky both in terms of quality and quantity of sightings, especially in Hwange NP. In conclusion, we strongly recommend choosing Kingfisher Safaris to anyone who wants to experience an intense, true African experience in contact with uncontaminated nature.
Email Warren and Emma | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing tour and fantastic service from start to finish
My girlfriend and I recently did a 7 day camping safari in the Delta which we organised through Martin at Kingfisher Safaris. When booking some months ago, we found Martin online and were immediately impressed by his responsiveness and helpful and accommodating service in planning our trip. Once we booked our safari, Martin also assisted us in booking our own self drive camping trip in Namibia beforehand, providing some great tips and knowledge for our planning, but also making arrangements for us on the ground which meant we had the piece of mind and backup of his 'on the ground' support network. This was invaluable in making our trip efficient, practical and safe.
Our Delta safari was run by guides Charles (for 3 days) and then Pilot for the remainder. Both of them are fantastic, super knowledgeable and experienced (which you can tell by the way they are respected by other guides in the park) and are perfectionists in making the safari experience as perfect as possible. Right up to the day we started our safari, Martin was available by email to answer any question. The assistants on tour are equally helpful and friendly. We had an amazing and unforgettable experience through Kingfisher and highly recommend it. We look forward to one day hopefully being able to do it again.
Email David | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Superb
My girlfriend and I booked the 3 night tamarind canoe safari with Martin from Kingfisher Safaris and we absolutely loved it. We started at Chirundu and canoed around 70km to Mana Pools (only an average level of fitness is required) with nights spent on sand islands in the middle of the Zambezi river. As soon as we set off we were greeted with a large pod of hippos and then a herd of elephants on a sand bank ahead of us. That was the start of an incredible experience viewing so much wildlife including gliding just 5 yards away from a 14ft crocodile sun bathing on the bank! There were hundreds of hippos, many crocodiles, elephants, birdlife and also zebras, impala and waterbuck viewed on the banks to name a few. The feeling of being in a canoe sat 6 inches above the water and feeling so close to the animals was amazing and something we’ll never forget.
Since I booked the trip Martin has been first class in his rapid response to emails (mostly within an hour/couple of hours) and arranging extras not even part of our canoe trip such as charter flights and transfers. His fast and helpful replies really put my mind at ease, he is so well organised and always contactable if you have any problems or questions so right away the stress of waiting for a response is removed.
We certainly recommend people do the tamarind canoe trip as we had an unforgettable experience, and without doubt I would advise people to book with Martin of Kingfisher Safaris, I can’t recommend him enough.