Freindly Reservations and Great Service Guaranteed
African Coast Travel & Tours
- Located In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2004)
- Member Of:
- ZTA, SOAZ, ATSA & SATSA
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Mid-range & luxury)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $290 to $1,200 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Helen | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unsafe, unprofessional and extremely expensive - do not use!
We paid almost as much for an overnight trip to Hwange as we did for a 10 day trip with Nomad and got little for it, as it was little more than 29 hours all up. You would be better to hire a car and drive to the park, as it is quite safe, and use the safari options at any of the lodges in and around the park.
Our issues started from at pick up. Mr Moyo emailed he would pick us up, then sent a young driver who was lovely, but no tour guide, and he did not seem to know what was happening or when (but was keen to find out how to get a girlfriend - and visa - in Australia)!
On arrival, our safari truck was broken down and the contracted provider was clearly struggling. A replacement was found after an hour, but both vehicles had clearly been in significant accidents / rollovers. We cancelled the safari the following morning trip as my partner (a mechanic who owned a garage for 15 years) said the vehicle was too unsafe. Pic avail.
The guide was also lovely as was the lunch, but he was an inexperienced driver and needed more training in guiding. Unlike our highly professional Nomad tour guides and day trip guides, we generally stopped where the guide could see the game but our view was obscured by bush! Each time we had to ask for him to move the vehicle, which resulted in a lot of revving and an overshoot back and forth. By the time we could see, the game had often left! We were also rushing to a schedule, and not following the game. On three occasions we left a spot with game and went to another empty waterhole and waited.
To top it off, we also found that dinner had not been specified, and had to get the hotel to call to get this sorted. All up, it was a truly disappointing and very expensive experience. Given the professionalism of all of the other operators we dealt with in a month in Africa, this was definitely an outlier. Go somewhere else.
Reply from African Coast Travel & Tours
Posted on Oct 29, 2018Dear Helen
Thank you very much for your review and yes i really appreciate it, please note that i have taken note of your disappointment, you experienced, my humblest apology, as we value every review we receive and we take it serious as in your case i was seriously concerned and did my investigations, i then discovered that for sure the guide whom you went with was a new guide, and though he was newly engaged with us he was engaged without my knowledge with the operations manager on the ground in Hwange as he was also given the opportunity also, and i am really sorry for this happening, he was trying him but unfortunately he did not deliver, so we have made him become a supply driver only on Camps instead of going into the park with guests, and i hope this will not happen again, starting from now on wards we then come up with a new system of having specific guides, not any guide who will take our clients into the park, as happened in your case.
coming to the vehicles our vehicles are open 4 x 4 game drive vehicles and non have rolled over as they operate in the park and there is no one time when you can drive more than 120km in the park with these vehicles, also adding on to that these are 2016 Vehicles and brought in as new and still under 100 000km warranty, they receive full service, i understand that vehicles can have a breakdown anytime and we have a back up vehicle always at standby to cater for such unforeseen circumstances,
Coming onto our transfer driver his duty is to make sure you arrive on time and safe, i also investigated and asked why was he keen on advising to get a Visa or girl friend he said it was a joke with you, but i then advised him to avoid talking nonsense as much as possible,
but above all on be half of the management team, my Humblest apologies to you of these sad developments, we are hopping that we will make sure that we are on top of the situation especially when selecting guides as much as possible, i failed to go with you as i was in Namibia with other guests, and that's why there was that sudden change, and i know you would wanted to go with me but unfortunately it was impossible to be everywhere, i hope you understand my position.
i would love to host you again in the near future and i will say try us again we have learnt our lessons, and we will make sure and promise better and great Game drives again in Southern Africa
Yours Faithfully
Joseph Moyo
Operations manager