Kate & Darren Humphrys with Henry, Olive and Hume
Compass Odyssey
- Located In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2006)
- Member Of:
- Southern Africa Tourism Services Association
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $300 to $1,000 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
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Email Anna and Marcie | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The tour operator should be given kudos for hiring our tour guide, Elvis. He was the best.
I would and have described this trip as rugged. A major portion of the trip was spent in our vehicle on rough roads, which are typical for viewing the sites in Namibia. Thank goodness for Elvis, our guide who kept it entertaining and made regular stops. I'm not sure that on a couple of those days, flying in a bush plane wouldn't have been a better option. Obviously, adding to the cost. The only real complaint that I have is the vehicle which was rented for our trip. They often say, know your audience. We were 4 women, 2 in their mid-60's and 2 in their mid-70's and short. We all were challenged getting into the vehicle whose first step was sitting at least 3 feet off of the ground. Eventually, Elvis bought a stool which made it much easier to get into the vehicle. Having been on safaris in the past, I know that there are All Terrain Vehicles that have easier boarding methods. Communications with CO was great. They responded timely and thoroughly. I can't say enough great things about our guide, Elvis. And, everything ran smoothly both due to CO and Elvis. We never had to wonder what was going on. If I were to rate this tour on a scale of 10, I would rate it an 8 out of 10.
Reply from Compass Odyssey
Posted on Oct 4, 2022Thanks for your review, Anna and we're glad that Elvis was able to help make the long driving days bearable. We do mention in our detailed itineraries that the days can be long in Namibia...such is the price for travelling in this vast, open country. Elvis has kept the magic stool for future travellers who travel in that larger vehicle and my apologies that it took a few days before this simple remedy was obtained. We only use this vehicle when there are 4+ travellers. We use a 5-door SUV 4x4 for 1-3 travellers and could offer it to four travellers like yourselves but this would mean three of you sitting on the back seat together, which surely wouldn't be comfortable.
Thanks to your suggestion, we have recently received fares from a local charter airline and will offer this option to our travellers in the future...though the costs are considerably above our usual travellers' budget plus this would also mean that we wouldn't be able to offer Elvis as the sole guide because he obviously can't get between point A and Point B at the same speed as the plane.
NZ
Email Alan and Andie Ramage-Brown | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Superb attention to detail
Right from the start of our contact with Compass Odyssey, Darren and Kate were incredibly helpful, professional and we felt like they adopted us as friends. Their communication was extremely prompt and clear. The thorough information supplied about every aspect of our week in Botswana was on point. They went above and beyond giving detailed info regarding aspects of our African trip that we had booked independently from CO. Botswana was a dream. Loved our time in Chobe, especially time spent on the boats. The Chobe River Lodge was perfect for a two night stay and the meals were superb. Mma Dinare Camp in the Okavango Delta suited our budget and the staff were very attentive. Everything went perfectly according to plan with no hiccups along the way. A massive thank you to Compass Odyssey for helping making our African dreams come true.
Email Cathy and Nigel | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Professional, honest, generous team….dreams come true
This is not a short review but please bear with me…..
I first got in touch with Compass Odyssey after reading a number of reviews way back in 2019. Their bio was encouraging given that Darren and Kate are both Australian expats with travel, tourism and nature based backgrounds. My background is travel and tourism and Australian so I knew what i was looking for in an agent to handle our booking (namely good knowledge, great level of service and efficiency). What I discovered very quickly was I had found exactly the people upon whom I could trust.
Initially the plan was to visited South Africa in March 2020 …… and we all know what happened that year!
Granted I had some ideas of what we wanted to do for our trip but Darren spent time (over email) getting an even deeper understanding of our style of travel (independent), standard and type of accommodation we preferred and how we saw the trip unfolding all of which was evident when Darren presented the initial itinerary to me. Not much changed from then in terms of itinerary structure which looked like:
3 nights Cape Town, self drive along the Garden Route to the Eastern Cape and the Drakensburg Mountains to Hoedspruit for 2 weeks (approx 3500 kilometres), 3 nights our at a private game reserve in Greater Kruger, flights to and from Victoria Falls (2 nights) and 3 nights back in Johannesburg ….just a little over 4 weeks.
Things were ticking along nicely and the nasty little bug called COVID-19 struck, Australia closed its international borders on the day we were due to depart! This is when Darren and Kate really earned their stripes with us. Our travel insurance was problematic, we still wanted to go to South Africa and we’d paid in full. What to do? Darren and Kate negotiated with the various accommodation properties whom agreed to hold our monies until late 2021. Excellent! But our borders remained closed and more negotiating saw monies being held until the end of 2022.
Our borders opened at the end of 2021, I changed our dates to Aug/Sep departure, Darren weaved his magic with the operators and we have just completed an amazing 4 weeks in South Africa. Granted a few places had closed their doors due to the pandemic but Darren was able to find same for same in most cases so there was some out of pocket but it could have been a whole lot worse.
Compass’ communication is professional, timely, courteous and efficient. No question is too small or silly and in fact is encouraged throughout the process.
Compass’ product knowledge is excellent.
Compass’ customer service is outstanding ….nothing I’ve not experienced in many, many years.
Compass’ final documentation to you is unbelievable….everything you need to know before you go.
Compass Odyssey are not about churning the customers through but rather befriending them and really getting to know and understand expectations with genuine care and understanding.
Whilst in Sth Af Darren communicated with us a few times to see how things were going, making sure the accommodation properties were expecting us. Again I’ve never experienced this level of service.
The trip was memorable, so well planned and executed….they even timed a nice luxury 2 day break in the middle of what was a very busy trip….so well timed and appreciated.
Even though the pandemic delayed our trip for 2.5 years the end result was so well worth the wait and I’m so grateful to Darren and Kate for everything they did to ensure that this was possible.
You can’t go wrong in using Compass Odyssey as your African travel agent and yes I have already recommended them to friends and will use them again should we venture to back Africa (there’s so much more to explore!)
5*+++
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Email Eduardo and Nancy Vazquez | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Respect,care,integrity and a very true genuine dedication to fulfill your safari experience
From the very beginning,communication and true desire to please your requirements were paramount.Darren is one of a kind individual whom forever I will be grateful for putting together a childhood dream trip of mine.My concerns and questions were always addressed with the most respect and urgency.I am a very,very!!!!!!!!!happy customer along with my wife for having with,Compass Odyssey the most wonderful,fascinating and delightful travel experience ever.Everything went exactly as told and described.I just got back and I am preparing already for a return to the most wonderful country in the world with of course,the most wonderful travel company I have ever work with.To future travelers to the South Africa countries involving safari adventures,Compass Odyssey is the one to go with.Trust me Darren and his team will treat you like family from beginning to end✈️
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Email Janet and Waylon Coy | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Outstanding professionals creating a memorable experience
Darren organized an amazing safari holiday. The safaris were fantastic with knowledgeable guides and amazing animal sightings. The lodges exceeded our expectations and the transfers were seamless. We've used Darren twice for African holidays and recommend for Compass Odyssey to coordinate yours!
kudos compass odyssey
darren and his wife did a magnificent job of setting up our safari trip....every detail was thoroughly presented in a written record to guide us on our travels.....the camps that we used were top notch....this was our 2nd trip back....even though we covered the same areas we felt like it was a completely different experience..for a one of a kind trip let darren and his wife set up a custom trip through compass odyssey....
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Email Erin and James Flowers | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly experienced operator that focuses on what the customer wants to see and do.
If I could give this company more then 5 stars I would, Darren and Kate are awesome. The communication from start to finish was impeccable, he checked in with us through out the trip and if something needed to be changed he informed us before hand. Our guide in cape town was Garth and he was amazing, so informational and loved hearing all about the history. Garth was very knowledgeable and helped us plan out four days there, he even hiked with us up Lions head which was so awesome. Our guides in Victoria falls were great, Motimer and his wife are so nice and helped us plan out our couple days there. Our safari lodges were amazing, Senalala was definitely our favorite we loved eating with our guides and it felt like we were a big family. The place was absolutely beautiful and being able to watch the animals at the waterhole between our drives was great. The guides Geena and Johan were awesome and worked hard trying to find us the predators and soon to be guide Taya were great. Our lodge in Botswana was amazing all the staff there were so nice and accommodating. It was right on the river and there was a hippo and her baby that came around dinner as well as a monkey and a warthog that frequent during the day. The food was outstanding and so was our guide. Our guide Teo was amazing, he does photography which was great because he a always tried to get us the best picture and always got us as close as he could to the animals. We already have Africa blues and want to go back again. We already asked Darren about coming back for the mountain Gorillas and he already sent the info! we are also planning on make another stop at Senalala again soon. You will not find a better company to work with, there's nothing worst then paying money for a not so good vacation. There was not one person we encountered or place that we didn't like. Thank you Darren and Kate for an awesome vacation and we will be back to Africa in 2024 for those mountain gorillas.
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Email Ryan and Faith Pinkerton | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Compass Odyssey Exceeded All Expectations!
I was skeptical at first when I read all of the 5 star reviews. The other reviews sounded too good to be true, but I was 100% wrong! Compass Odyssey gave my family one of the best run and managed trips I have ever been on. The amazingly high level of communication from Darren never left us guessing about a thing. The guides we had were fantastic and the knowledge every one of them had was incredible. We hit 4 countries including South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana and had someone to guide us at almost every moment other than when we were on our flights or separate excursions which were worked into our itinerary so smoothly. I have already recommended Compass Odyssey to my own friends and will use them again for any future trips to Africa!
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Email Ms. Terry Soerens | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Communication, made it very easy for us
We could not have chose a better trip or Safari. The accommodations were excellent and the games drives were amazing. We were able to capture all of The Big Five plus many, many more. The memories will last my lifetime as will the wonderful people I met along the way.
Thank You Darren and Kate
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Email Urvi Pikle and family | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very professional, responsive, detail-oriented, reliable, flexible good suggestions/recommendations
I recently visited South Africa with my husband and 2 kids (12 yrs and 9 yrs old) via trip booked with Compass Odyssey. I researched a lot of different itineraries with various tour operators but decided to go with them due to 5 star rating/reviews. From the time we decided to go with Compass Odyssey, they have provided us with immaculate service. Darren is very proactive and responsive and helped us come up with the best customized 11 day family-friendly itinerary that covered Cape Town, Kruger, Panoramic route(Blyde Canyon) and Jo’burg. Throughout the tour we had a great experience, visited very scenic areas and had a thrilling Safari experience. 5 days of Cape Town was amazing, beautiful and saw whales in Hermanus and did wine tasting in Cape Winelands area. It would suggest staying at both these places. Baobab ridge in Klaserie reserve is a great hidden gem and we got to see Big 5 on our game drives in 3 days. David who is the tracker/safari guide was amazing and made sure we saw lions in each drive. Compass odyssey packages are very competitive and reasonable and provides great value which includes private guide/vehicle at each destination. All our guides (Garth, Phillip
and Johan) were amazing, friendly, trustworthy and knowledgeable and made our whole experience memorable especially Garth, our guide in Cape Town. He is fantastic and engages even with kids to make it super fun. Darren would constantly check with guides on how we are doing which shows great customer service and care even after paying for the whole trip before arriving. We would highly recommend Darren and team if you are planning any trip to Africa!! Compass Odyssey is the best and hope to book another trip with them soon!!
