Cuckoo Safaris

Simon was great!

I found cuckoo safaris during my research when starting to plan this trip. They were super responsive and accommodating to making changes in the itinerary that we wanted. I think it’s important to know that cuckoo is not with you the entire time they have partners in different countries such as Botswana. I had no idea that we would be passed off to some other company so it was a bit nerve racking when you are not familiar with the country. We were with cuckoo for 6 nights and 7 days and here are our pros and cons. Pros: everyone is on time for pick ups and drops off, the variety of activities provided is a great mix, AC vehicles for long drives or transfers, bottled water is supplied daily, the price was within our budget compared to different operators, the game drives are very long days but you get to see all the animals which is a very unique experience. Cons: all the hotels except the one we stayed at in Victoria falls were just okay (even with researching prior they were rated 4 and up on Google but just didn’t really fit/meet our expectations) good thing is you can ask for a higher tier, and biggest CON was the food was absolutely terrible. On long game drives they pack you a lunch but it’s a boiled egg, some deli sandwich and randoms snacks that have been sitting in a open door SUV from 5am in the morning not refrigerated or the drivers have food like rice and a meat just chilling in the trunk for long periods of time. You feel bad saying no thank you because these people are working incredible hard but I do not trust food that requires refrigeration at home to just be in the back seat of a car when it’s 100 degrees. I would highly advise bringing a bunch of protein bars, jerky and snacks to get you thru the day. Even at some hotels the breakfast buffets had under cooked eggs or meat or flies swarming a huge bowl of yogurt. I find it better to not have open food buffets in areas with lots of insects.
We did have a good experience and very glad we saw Zimbabwe and Botswana but with the amount of money you pay you would hope that there would be better food during long days. But unfortunately the food goes across the board for many tour operators as you see several different companies throughout your trip.