Wild Dog Safaris

Only go with Elias if you can!

I found from the tours I did it was very guide dependent.

If you got a good guide it was a great tour.

I think the problem I saw with the tours were :

Time management, I think some of these trips need to leave earlier and have their supermarket shopping already organized on the first day so you don't spend most of the day shopping and then when you make it to the attraction then it is rushed, especially end of day game drives.

I think in the Northern the craft market and supermarket should disappear, and the bus should go straight to Africat, and then a proper game drive through its premises should occur, before a trip to the Leopard. People fly from across the world and the 1st day experience isn't good and compares badly to the Southern tour. Otherwise drive straight to Etosha and spend more time there instead. Its way too slow and boring compared to say the Southern tour.

For eg Africat, we arrived way too late at this attraction, then we had a rushed game drive where the local guide spend 15min talking about the game park we were not going to (why not arrive earlier at this place and go on a proper game drive through the premises as it has heaps of cool animals), then spend 30min talking about 2 termite mounds while the sun keeps setting. On the way to the Leopard, there were heaps of amazing animals and they refused to stop for pics!! The leopard was a bit of a zoo attraction which was rushed and the Cheetahs were old and in bad condition. Then my top went "missing" from the game car when in the visitor centre. The camp site was way too far from where all the animals were as well.

The next day to Etosha we also arrived late and had a rushed game drive. Its was more about scoring points on animals sighting then enjoying the park.

The next thing which I thought was unprofessional, was the tour guide slept with one of the clients on the 2nd day in the tents near us!!! It was then I couldn't really take the tour seriously anymore.

Optionals were pumped hard, as they receive commission for it and 2 out of the 3 tours were really focused on it too much to the point of obsessiveness. Especially pushing high price ones, which I was not interested, in the end I just booked it myself as the guide wasn't interested in booking the one I wanted.

On 2 occasions, when lunch was in the itinerary I received no lunch at all. So I had to go buy my own lunch.

The Botswana Delta visit is a nice place, but there are not actually many animals there, its a fishing lodge. I think a better location should be selected.

I think the tour company should focus more on delivering animal and national park experiences, if it calls itself a "Safari" company, it is more of the tour company.

The HQ are very polite but I think some of the guides are bit out of control and need some management. Apparently a lot of the younger ones just pick and choose which tour they want in which would give them the most tips and optional bonuses and use excuses to cancel tours they don't like.

I think they should be doing it because that's what they love to do, and you can see that come across in certain guides clearly.

I think the best tour they offer is the Southern tour. The Northern ones need some work. I would select another route for Botswana from what I experienced sticking to the National Parks. We added a bit more of the national parks and it made that tour a bit better because we were a smaller group.

I think if some of the things didn't happen on some of these tours which I mentioned I wouldn't be as critical...