Travel reviews by Mr A F from Vietnam

"Top class experience - thank you very much for a great organisation - it worked really well. As with our trip to Namibia two years before the only things that went wrong were entirely our fault!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Can you expand to the rest of the world?

The only serious question is about mobile safaris - both times you have arranged trips for us, the options have been 99% fixed camps (the only exception I can really think of is the Skeleton Coast fly-in safari). Yet on both occasions, when on the ground, I have realised that there are mobile safaris that sound quite interesting (this year we heard about a 3 day mobile safari arranged out of Jack's Camp to Kubu Island in the Makgadikgadi Pan). We would be very interested in top quality mobile safaris but wonder if your lack of coverage indicates that you think there is a lack of quality generally, or that they are too ad hoc for you to cover them (but you would arrange if people were interested)? I know you have a sister organisation that is more mobile oriented, but my impression has been that this is not really targeted at the high-end/time constrained traveller - am I wrong?"

Feedback response

We do offer mobile safaris. That we didn't give this traveller more information about them is really an oversight on our part! It is our experience that not every traveller likes the idea of a mobile safari and so we might only offer it if the opening in conversations comes up or someone specifically asks for it. This feedback reminds us that if we dont mention it, travellers may not know to ask us about it, and so we will certainly keep that in mind when planning future trips for travellers.

We offer a variety of mobile safaris and just about all of them can be booked on a private basis if that is your preference. Some are fairly luxurious and include all the comforts you might need on safari. The safaris offered by Jacks Camp are of that ilk with the only concession to roughing it being a bucket shower which is filled with warm water as required. They not only travel to Kubu Island in the Makgadikgadi Pan, but also offer mobiles into the Okavango Delta, Central Kalahari Game Reserve and to an area west of the Kalahari to visit Bushman communities. We also offer mid-range mobile safaris where guests sleep on camp beds in a large dome tent. Each tent has an en-suite bathroom with bucket shower and short drop bush toilet. For groups that want to get involved with camp chores there are also much simpler participation camping safaris, and guests typically sleep on thick mattress in sleeping bags when on these. A similar range of mobile safaris are offered in Namibia both to the popular highlights and some that travel into the more remote and wild regions of the country.

We also have the option of mobile camping safaris to Northern Tanzania for travellers wishing to visit the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyara National Park. Our sister-programme, www.wildaboutafrica.com, lists most of these mobile safari options but that doesnt mean that we are limited to those or that travellers who plan a holiday staying at fixed camps cant also include a few nights or more on a mobile camping safari as part of the experience.