The Matoke Tours Team
Matoke Tours
- Located In:
-
Netherlands
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2002)
- Member Of:
- ATTA, AUTO, SGR, UTB & UCF
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $5,205 to $13,013 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Julie/Yasmin | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Trip of a lifetime!!
We have just returned from the most amazing week in Uganda. Our holiday from the start of booking with Matoke Tours was completely stress free and communication was very quick and efficient. As Uganda seems to be so under marketed in the UK we were a little unsure what to expect we certainly need not have worried, Our driver/guide Antoli met us at the airport with a huge smile!he was friendly, so knowledgable and a pleasure to spend our week with. We feel we have learnt so much about the country from him. A credit to Matoke.
The itinerary of our tour was perfect for us,the diversity of where we visited was astounding and the gorilla trek was magical. The sometimes long drives in between each location we were staying were both really enjoyable and seemed much quicker as there was so much to see and talk about.We felt very safe and completely at ease throughout our trip.
We could not have asked for more and would certainly book with Matoke again. Thank you all so much!
Email Michael | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Well planned and wonderfully executed custom-built 12 day tour
From my initial enquiries about the tour through to the end when I said farewell to my driver and guide I can honestly say that it was all a marvellous experience.
I started out by asking about group tours as I thought a customised tour for me, as a solo traveller, would be too expensive. My communications with Lionel in the office were always very constructive and together we developed a tour that was perfect for me and for the costs I had in mind. In the end I paid significantly more than I had originally expected but the trip was worth it. The payments were all processed very smoothly and my special requests were attended to by Ilse, the manager.
On the tour itself I was fortunate to have been assigned a freelance tour guide and driver; Confidence Matsiko. He was very professional, knew the job well and he had a number of contacts, some of whom he called upon to ease the minor challenges that cropped up. Confidence has a good knowledge of birds and was keen to learn more; so with our shared interest we never tired of conversation. My tour however was to focus on the larger primates and I can honestly say my close encounters with both chimps and mountain gorillas were way beyond my expectations.
I'm so glad Lionel persuaded me to go for the Chimp habituation rather than chimp tracking. My full day with the chimp group enabled me to experience them successfully hunting a Colobus monkey. The insight into this aspect of chimp life would not have been possible had I been tracking them for just 2 hours.
The Gorilla experience was equally rewarding. Confidence had managed to put me into the group that was to locate the Bitukura group out of Ruhija. His friend was to be the lead ranger for the eight-person group. The Bitukura group were known to have silverbacks and youngsters in them so, when we finally located them after quite a tiring climb up through the forest, I was thrilled and delighted to find a huge silverback male with two young playing and tumbling with each other on his back. He was completely ignoring them until the babies moved off to join their mum after which he set off to find some more food to fill his enormous belly. To watch all of this and to experience the smells and sounds as well as the sights was just fantastic. No TV film could ever match the reality of sitting so close to these wonderful animals.
The choice of accommodations used was also entirely appropriate for me but next time I think I would opt for more homestays rather than the less-friendly lodges.
The only aspect that I offer as a helpful comment is to make customers aware of the journey time between locations. The 12 hour trek between Murchison Falls NP and Kibale was exhausting and I hadn't realised how long it would take. Perhaps in the itinerary some indication of travel time would help clients appreciate what is required and thus prepare themselves accordingly.
I'd like to thank Matoke tours for enabling me to enjoy such wonderful wildlife-filled experiences. All the other game-viewing and birdwatching days of the trip were equally enjoyable and I reckon that I managed to identify, with the help of Confidence, nearly 230 species of birds despite not really working hard for them. If you choose Matoke as your tour operator I think you will almost certainly be very happy with your experiences. Having travelled extensively across Africa I think my Ugandan trip was one of, if not, the best.
