The Matoke Tours Team
Matoke Tours
- Located In:
-
Netherlands
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2002)
- Member Of:
- ATTA, AUTO, SGR, UTB & UCF
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $300 to $750 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great and unforgettable Uganda trip with Matoke
Had a 21 day trip to explore en enjoy Uganda. What a beautiful country! Matoke organized everything great. From the start at home untill even after coming back from the trip. Accomodations are as expected and booked. Next time please no bush elephants so the chimps will come down out of the trees :-)
Great and careful driver, thanks Kenneth! And enthousiastic en involved guide, thanks Bram!
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
20 days in Uganda, including Ruwenzori hike
First of all, we were very pleased with our driver / guide: sociable, friendly, humble, non-intrusive, flexible, humorous, AND a cautious driver. Nothing but good about him.
lodgings:
Recommendations:
- Mutanda lake resort near Bwindi Forest, for its pleasant restaurant, nice location, although still an hour away from the starting point of the gorilla tracking, but very good food.
- Bush lodge near Queen Elizabeth NP for the quality of the accommodation, beautiful location and cuisine.
- Kibale Forest Camp was also fine.
- Kontiki hotel was clearly a place of transit .... Ok, but not more than that.
- Bwana Tembo near Murchison Falls was ok for a middle class logde, but I suspect that some tourists do not appreciate that bats can enter the room ...
- Rwakobo Rock: Ok, if you absolutely want to visit Lake Mburo ... Nice and pleasant dining room, good kitchen, but the maintenance of the huts leaves something to be desired ....
THE disappointment: Cassia Lodge: an outdated hotel with no charm, no personality, with furniture that has seen better days, leaking plumbing. The only thing this hotel offer is the view on Kampala. How much we would have preferred staying in the excellent Boma Guest House in Entebbe ...
The local transport: 7 people in a 4x4 van, that was OK. But why are the windows with black plastic embezzled?? This complicates the visibility, requires even more to drive with open windows, but when sitting where the windows are overlapping each other, forming two layers of blackplastic, the visibility is close to zero....
A cooler (coolbox) would have been welcome: for a sundowner 'en route' fot excemple.
The program put well together, we enjoyed it, the wildlife in Murchison Falls, the hike in Ruwenzori Mountains, the chimpanzees (in great shape!), the gorillas. ..
However, surely not insignificant downsides:
- In Murchison Falls was a boattrip foreseen on a fairly large boat, in the afternoon, and the boat was nearly full. We could have done with it: on chairs put in the middle of the aisle (with limited visibility) or put in the hot afternoon sun. Instead we took another boattrip the next morning. The boot halts, to return, just far enough from the falls, in order not to be impressed. We have seen that, if arranged in advance, you can leave boat and continue walking to the falls... Unfortunately we were not informed of this possibility.
Queen Elizabeth NP: Safari in the morning was a complete fiasco. Never seen so few animals during a safari. The guide said that this was because of the drought. Well, normally this is known in advance....So why was no other part of the park visited? The southern part of the lions hanging in trees for example (we afterwards heard many good things about)? The boat trip in the afternoon was worthwhile.
Lake Mburo NP: The walk in the morning was definitely interesting. But in the itinerary was another boattrip foreseen, and it was mentionned that elephants could be seen. Well, Matoke should do that homework better again because in that park there are absolutely NO elephants. So that boat trip was really a letdown.
Overall it was a nice trip, with beautiful scenery, friendly people everywhere, good food, generally good lodges, but I am a bit disappointed: when working trough a tour organisator, I expect better, acurate and complete information.
For further info (I refer to a question I asked you during the preparation of the trip) for the 6 day hiking in the Ruwenzori Mountains, the carriers prefer rather backpacks rather than the common travel bags.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fanastic!
My boyfriend and I went on holiday to Zanzibar on one of the matoketours packages and we couldn't have hoped for a better trip. The resort and hotel we were booked into were amazing; rich in history and very friendly and hands-on staff. The staff of matoketours were quick to handle any bumps in the arrangements and at the end of it all, we wished we could stay longer! We will definitely use them again for our next vacation.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent trip!
We had an amazing 3-day safari trip to the Murchison Falls with Matoke Tours! Great guide, beautiful lodge with delicious food and quick communication when booking the trip. I would definitely recommend Matoke Tours!
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Everything was perfect
Every day was a new experience. Stephens Bukoma, our gide was great! Of course the environment en animals. I came for the gorilla's and chimps but I was really surprised bij the boatride With all the Hippo's, elephants etc.
And last but not least, the hotels were very good! I travelled a lot With groups and very often the hotels are very poor. But not With Matoke!
BE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
a very well organized all included journey through uganda!
we had a very well organized trip in uganda, with the best guide you can have, we didn't have to do anything except enjoying and relaxing everything.
also the hotels/lodges and the gamedrives were excellent!
NL
Email Ton Rentier and family | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Overwelming experience !
I went with my family on a 12 day round trip through Uganda with Matoke tours and the whole journey was beyond expectations. What a beautiful country, excellent driver/guide (big Sam) and perfect itinerary from Matoke tours. All the highlights of Uganda and more were presented to us. Everything was arranged perfectly and big Sam did a wonderful job in sharing his knowledge and experience about this beautiful country and it's wildlife. With the Gorilla encounter as one of the amazing highlights ! Thanks to everybody at Matoke tours for this wonderful experience.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Super Tour with super lodges and Super Sam (our guide;-)
Everything was great!!! Communication (even in German), the safari (we saw more tree lions than any other person we talkend to, thanks to Sam!), the beautiful lodges in breathtaking scenery, etc. I can absolutely recommend Matoke-Tours! And don't miss Ngambe Island - it's worth it in spite of the vaccinations needed!
Service of Matoke is excellent
Our guide gave us a lot of information during the safari's and drove very well during our visit. He's that passionate in his job that he's the perfect guide.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We had the adventure of a lifetime!
They allowed us to customize our tour and answered all of our questions, before and during the tour. Our guide took wonderful care of us and helped us make the most of our time.