purplefish

Hi. I'm interested in doing a fly-in safari in Botswana. I read one post in this board that mentioned your can get better rates by doing the booking thru a local operator. I'm interested in booking the following lodges:

Jack's Camp
Mombo Camp
Savuti
Tongabezi

Can anyong recommend a reputable and efficient tour operator based on Botswana/South Africa that I can use to do bookings for accomodation and transfers.

Thanks.

Roccco

9841182,

The only "dissatisfaction" that will likely be had will be if purplefish were to book with an American tour operator and then be grouped on a game drive with someone that booked with a Botswanan tour operator. Upon sharing notes on tour operators, the one using the American tour operator will likely discover that they paid 30%+ more than the person who booked with a Botswanan tour operator.

The only thing that the American tour operator is going to do for one of their customers is subcontract it right out to a Botswanan tour operator...oh, and give them a baseball cap or a tote bag with the name of the American tour operator on it. Whoooppppeeee!

If you want to save a tremendous amount of money and you have your own customized itinerary, it is a 99% certainty that you are better off booking with a tour operator that is local to the country you are visiting.

hlphillips2

9841182, I'm curious to know where you had an issue with a tour operator. The people on this board have traveled with many tour operators based overseas and the issues and complaints seem to be almost non-existent. In my own circumstance, I've only twice had an issue with a tour agency, and the U.S. office made the mistake while the overseas office did whatever they could to make amends.

Purplefish, Wilderness Safaris of course runs two of those camps and would be able to manage at least a portion of your trip. It looks like Adventure Safaris might be able to accommodate your request for specific lodges, though I have no firsthand knowledge of this. Perhaps others can provide better direction.

LizFrazier

www.e-gnu.com posts the rates for all camps in Southern Africa. You can figure the costs and use that as a quide to what quotes you get. They are located in South Africa and have very good rates. They will put together a trip for you with all the connections, etc. I haven't used them but I did get a quote from them one time and thought it was as good as any others I could find. They also have the Wilderness Camps on their site. I didn't take the trip though. Liz

Karin01

Hi there,
local operators would also be
www.botswanaholidays.com
and
www.safaris-botswana.com

Wilderness Safaris is one of the biggest operators in southern Africa and very reputable. You cannot go wrong with them. The companies I mentioned above are smaller safari companies only specializing in Botswana safaris.

Have a great trip!
Cheers

Clematis

Karin01 - perhaps it would be ethical for you to reveal that you are advertising your own company here. It also seems misleading to state that your company is a "local" operator if they are in Germany.

Roccco

Karin,

I agree with Clematis. Unless you are based in Southern or Eastern Africa, then you really do not qualify as a "local tour operator."

Is it not true that your company, like most every other European or American tour operator will just turn around and subcontract to a true local tour operator in the country of travel?

I do appreciate your contributions to this board, as surprisingly you have only made one or two pitches and have mostly contributed to the threads with only a couple mentions of your company (other than in your attached email address). Your posts and insight is most welcome and appreciated but if you are not truly a local tour operator, then I do think you should state such.

Lastly, and here is the million dollar question, does your company sell hunting safaris or subcontract to other operators that do engage in hunting safaris?

Thanks and I look forward to your continued posts.

Karin01

Very sorry, only scrolled down and saw the replies today.
I apologize for advertising my company and will not do so in future. The company is based in Botswana, for technical reasons I am working on the site in Germany right now but will be back in Bots and Johannesburg shortly.
I am not involved in the hunting business at all. However, I don't quite agree with everything that has been mentioned re hunting safaris. It is a very big contributor to the Botswana economy. But that should be discussed on a different threat and I don't really want to get into it.