20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Helpful, organised, knowledgeable, quick to respond to queries
From the start, communication with Amos was easy and prompt. He answered all of our questions and was knowledgeable about the details of the national parks we wanted to visit. We met our driver Noel when we reached Arusha who was also excellent and talked us through the plan for each day. Noel expertly drove us around the 4 northern national parks and helped us spot several different animals, including several of the big 5 up close. He was professional and on time everyday and made our trip an unforgettable experience.
All the accomodation booked for us was of excellent quality and run by kind and helpful staff. The food provided was also fantastic and they were able to accommodate that we were vegetarians with no issues.
Overall, we had a great time and felt that we got very good value for what we paid. We would highly recommend Migration Venture Africa for safari trips.
MX
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great !
Super great ! Guide was amazing.
Unfortunately we didn't see lions, but we see elephant, zebra....etc.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Skilled, experienced, welcoming, fun
We had a lovely 4 day safari with our tour guide Augustin. We felt like he knew alot about the animals we saw and was overall very experienced. Our chef, Miriam, cooked the best meals for us. We had the best time and thought everything was very well organised.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Friendly, personalized, reliable, and prompt service: the way to arrange the trip(s) of a lifetime
We took a family trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana last October. As expats, living in Africa for a few years, this was not our first safari trip, but was the first to these countries. Initially, we tried to book through another agent at another company, but we got embroiled in a dispute over pricing and policies. The lodges we wanted to stay at were advertising multiple discounts that could be combined, yet our original travel agent was claiming that she could only get one discount, but that we had to book with her, even though we had not signed a contract or paid a deposit.
At that point I happened to contact Pembury Tours to arrange another trip, based on their excellent reviews online. Anya responded promptly and helped me out with the new reservation, but she also provided me advice and moral support for the dispute about the Zimbabwe and Botswana trip. Not only did she help me resolve the matter with the first agent, but she ended up arranging our trip, got our combined set of discounts, and she became a good friend in the process.
This review is about the trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana we took based on Anya’s arrangements. I mentioned the rocky start already, but that was followed by another round of troubles. One of the lodges Anya had booked for us was partly destroyed in a wildfire (after we booked it). That lodge had to close for repairs and would not be able to honor our reservations. As soon as she found out, Anya called us proactively with news of the fire damage. She offered suggestions, then took our preferences, negotiated with other lodges in the area, and managed to get us to stay in a more upscale lodge for no additional costs.
Once the alternative lodging was secured, Anya followed up with information about the trip logistics, offered advice about activities at each of the three lodges, the transfers between locations, tipping guidelines, packing checklists, and the visa and health requirements. We felt very confident that we were in good hands with Anya: she had the information we needed and was very prompt and reliable in providing it whenever we needed it.
The trip itself was amazing. Anya’s advice was invaluable, and her arrangements made for smooth and reliable handoffs from each lodge to the transfer and to the next lodge, whether the transfer was by car, air, or a combination of the two. We had selected the lodges ourselves, but Anya confirmed that they would offer quality accommodations and food, which they did. Because the lodges were in different types of environments, we saw a wide variety of wildlife, land-dwellers, water-dwellers, and an incredible variety of birds. Going from Victoria Falls to the Khwai Private Reserve to the Okavango Delta, we felt transported from one amazing environment to an even more amazing one. The guides provided by the lodges were immensely knowledgeable, friendly, and very generous in sharing their knowledge with us. We could not have asked for anything better.
Following this trip, we have reached out to Anya with additional requests for travel and we have recommended her and Pembury Tours to all of our friends. There was a time when I was thinking how nice it would be to have a close friend or relative working on the inside, in the travel industry. My wish has come true: Anya is that friend, and our African travels are so much more rewarding and effortless thanks to her.