Falcon Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2002)
- Member Of:
- ZTA, ASATA, ZNTBS & MARS
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $1,736 to $10,415 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
We never got to experience our life long dream of visiting the Vic falls
Between the travel agent who booked our flights and Falcon Safaris who booked our night at The Royal livingstone neither of them informed us of yellow fever certificates to enter Zambia so we got turned away boarding our plane. Therefore we never got to experience our life long dream of visiting Vic Falls and still had to pay full price for our very experience night booked at Royal Livingstone. All in all a terrible let down and bad service.
Reply from Falcon Safaris
Posted on Jul 11, 2014Dear Kate,
Thank you for the feedback. It is unfortunate and we sincerely apologize you missed your one night stay at The Royal Livingstone since you were not aware of the yellow fever condition if coming into Zambia. When Falcon Safaris make hotel bookings in most cases clients are informed when purchasing flight tickets into Zambia or by the agents who process their tickets of the yellow fever certificate requirement when flying into Zambia. In most cases all clients arrange this prior to booking their flight tickets and when they come through to book the hotels in most cases they are already aware.
On the day of the incident the best we could do was offer alternative accommodation in any Sun International Hotel in Johannesburg for the night but since you indicated you had sorted that out Sun International went on to charge 100% cancellation fee.
Because of this incident we have since included a clause on all our emails to make sure this does not happen again.
PLEASE NOTE:
That anyone arriving at any Zambian Airport - including Livingstone - will be required to show a yellow Fever certificate. Similarly, anyone flying from Zambia - including Livingstone into any South African Airport will also be required to show the Yellow Fever Certificate.This new requirement only affects people traveling directly between Zambia and South Africa. We would strongly advise you to visit your Doctor or Travel Medical Center to obtain the vaccination, and accompanying certificate.
Once again we apologies for the inconvenience caused.
Patrick Manyika
For and on behalf of Falcon Safaris
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Chaotic
We booked accommodation at the Royal Livingstone Hotel through Falcon Safaris. We received confirmation from them and were asked for payment details. We then booked our flights to Livingstone. We were then told that the Royal Livingstone did not have any rooms available after all but it was too late to change our flights. We landed in Zambia and had to pay $100US for visas even though we were going straight over the border to the Victoria Falls hotel. This would not have been necessary if we knew we would be staying at the Victoria Falls Hotel as we would have flown straight into Zimbabwe. We also needed Yellow Fever injections which cost R575 each because we were going through Zambia. We were not told by the company about this and only found out by accident the day before we were due to leave. Luckily we found someone to do them at 6.30pm the day before our departure or else we would have not been allowed on the plane. When we were dropped at the hotel we were told the company would phone our room or leave a message of the time we were going to be picked up on the day of our departure. This never happened.
Reply from Falcon Safaris
Posted on May 8, 2014Dear Paula,
We extend our sincere apologies for the unhappy experience you had with us. Please note that the issue with room unavailability was a system issue with Royal Livingstone reservation system. They canceled the provisional bookings without any notice. It is their right to do so for any provisional bookings. This could be due to immediate paid bookings that were received or availability updates. I also understand that you paid for Victoria Falls Hotel after you were advised that Royal Livingstone was not available. We are sorry that you were not able to reschedule your flight to Victoria Falls. There was nothing we could do as we are not in control flights.
We understand that re-booking you at Victoria Falls Hotel was a last resort option and had its disadvantages because you had to pay for visa into Zimbabwe as well. Our apologies for the unplanned payments you paid. If we knew that your booking was unsuccessful in time we would have advised you in time as well to give you time to reschedule your flight to Victoria Falls. I also learnt that our consultant, Patrick came to meet you at the border on your transfer to Victoria Falls Hotel to offer apologies for the whole ordeal. Unfortunately he was not able to refund you VISA payments since they are gazetted by the government and are a requirement beyond our control.
Please note that a phone call was made to your hotel room while you were out. The message was left with guest services. The phone call was meant to advise you of any changes in regards to your transfer. Fortunately there were no changes and you were transferred to Kazungula border as scheduled.
We hope other travelers will understand that we were victims of the hotel system, flight schedules and stipulated visa requirements which was beyond our control.
Regards.
Benedict Nyathi
For and on Behalf of Falcon Safaris Team
Email Melvin & Irene Ida (Hawaii) | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Custom luxury safari designed for you at $$, not $$$$. Reputable & reliable.
Very responsive, excellent recommendations... Like a dear friend developing an itinerary, not a safari consultant. The execution of the itinerary was excellent... The hotel-5 stars; the pick ups were timely; guides friendly and accommodating; and the tours awesome! The wife and i, without hesitation, would use falcon safari again, and encourage our family and friends should they desire to visit south africa to use them.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Professional. Patrick went out of his way to assist us with preparation and whilst on tour.
Very happy with Falcon Safaris level of personal assistance and professionalism throughout our recent tour. Patrick and other staff assisted us promptly and immediately...always with a happy smiling face. More than happy to recommend Falcon as a Tour Operator. Prompt, efficient, professional AND personal caring service. Excellent.
Email Gav D | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Experience of a lifetime
What a fantastic trip.
Beforehand, we were expertly helped in organising our stay at Chobe Safari Lodge, and activities, by Takudzwa.
Thanks to flight delays we missed our connection to Kasane but he organised our collection the following day. Staff at check in were lovely, and immediately the Activity Centre staff were able to juggle our trips so we could fit our 4 days into 3. so much so, that within an hour of arriving we were looking at a croc on the river.
All of the guides on the safaris, and Vic Falls trip, were expert, and took note of what we were interested in (Kawana has eyes like a hawk!). They all made special effort to make sure we saw all we could.
Both the river cruises and the game drive were excellent with so much wildlife (yes, the big cats showed), and birds. (FIVE types of kingfisher!). As someone said to us on the flight "Chobe always delivers"
The lodge itself is beautiful with lovely staff. We even managed to see the resident wildlife and spend a little time in the pool.
Not the cheapest of holidays, but the value for money is superb. Genuinely, an experience that will stay with my family forever.
Thank you.
p.s. special thanks to Taku who managed to get our "lost" items couriered to us in Gabs!
Email Penny & Mike | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Superb service in every way.
Falcon Safaris are highly commendable. The drivers always turned up on time and the guides were very knowledgeable. The company exceeded our expectations and we were made to feel very special. The safaris were amazing, as we saw far more animals than we expected to. The tour of the falls was spectacular and our guide did not rush us, we always had plenty of time for photographs. All in all a magnificent experience.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
everthing was on time with great service.
they did a great job moving us through the boarder.
HK
Email Sunny S | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very responsive on whatsapp, organized everything well at short notice
We found Falcon Safaris on searching SafariBookings. We had very few days to plan our Safari trip to Zimbabwe and Taku at FS was very prompt and responsive. Given very few reviews on TripAdvisor we spoke with him on whatsapp and felt good to go ahead with the trip. FS are affiliated with Africa Bush Camps and helped put together an itinerary for Mana Pools, Hwange and Vic Falls.
Taku was excellent in all respects - very easy to communicate with, very responsive on whatsapp, helped book the sunset cruise, boma dinner, lunch at Lookout cafe, suggestions for restaurants etc. Brian helped drive us from Hwange and in Vic Falls - his brother Gilbert helped us navigate the open market for souvenirs.
We had a great experience with Falcon and readily recommend them. Cheers.
PS - i asked one of the camp managers re how to identify if a tour agency is genuine if they dont have too many TA reviews. He suggested looking for them on Google Maps. If they have an office then they're genuine..
Email Lilla Venning | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Dreadful
Thank you for your reply to my son Mathias regarding his review. In response, I have every email and communication between me and Falcon Safaris and am more than happy to go public with them.
1. When I booked the days at the hotel, Patrick Manyika confirmed the booking. Fact. I confirmed when I had paid and asked you for confirmation that you received payment. You did NOT request proof of payment at this time. Fact. You did not reply to my email of 12/12/17 that you confirm receipt of payment. Fact.
2. I recontacted you in July to check all was well. Fact. The first email I got back said that all was ok with the booking. It was 2 days after this you said that you could not find the payment. By this time we were in Zimbabwe with no ability to contact my bank in U.K. Fact.
3. We have been the ones that have done all the leg work in this. Gertrude has simply responded to emails. We have provided proof of payment, more than once. Fact. Our bank has contacted your bank, your bank has not responded.
4. I have more than once requested your formal complaints procedure details and these have not been provided. Fact. This is why we have gone public because Falcon Safaris have made no proactive effort to resolve this issue.
5. You have just hoped we would give up and go away and accept an over £1000 loss. Not going to happen. We paid once in full and then had to pay again to ensure a booking.
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Five stars service
Dear Vimbai,
This email to thank you again for your assistance and diligence in making our stay in VicFalls a memorable holiday.
We really appreciated the 5* service provided for every activity.
We enjoyed the Boma dinner (a good start for feeling the African atmosphere) as well as the dinner at the Ilala Lodge.
The Chobe full day safari in Botswana was a tremendous and unforgettable trip. The morning river cruise and the game drive in the afternoon, including the lunch at the Raft (on the river!) offered us a touching scene of the wildlife just a few inches from the boat or the 4x4 !
We won't tell about the beauty and the magic of the Falls which were the reason of our coming to Zimbabwe. Everybody shall come there and visit once in his life !
Playing golf at the Elephant Hills remains a must for any golfer travelling around (impalas, kudus, monkeys and many other hosts joined us at each hole). We thank Honest and his colleague for their precious advices when caddeying for us.
At last but not least, the dinner with a special menu at the Victoria Falls Hotel was an excellent opportunity to feast and enter the New Year.
At the end, the schedule has been a little bit tough. Fortunately, we did the heli flight, not without some stress but with a lot of pleasure and emotion. We could not have left Zimbabwe without saying a last goodbye to the Falls....from the sky !
Thank you.