Robert Mark Safaris

4 reviews
Reviews: 4
Tour packages: 0 tours
Private, custom tours
Main focus: Luxury
Established: 2014
Headquarters: Hong Kong
Languages:
English


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About Robert Mark Safaris
Specialists in luxury safari travel to Africa, headquartered in Asia. We will tailor-make a safari experience that's just for you. And memories to match.
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"Excellent planning and service!"
Safari enthusiast
Australia Australia
2 kudus
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Did not go on this tour Reviewed: Nov. 16, 2020

We used Robert Mark Safaris for our gorilla trekking trip to Rwanda and Tanzania. We've travelled to Africa quite a bit and have been to Tanzania before, but was our first time in Rwanda - I had no idea how beautiful this country was. We were really surprised and impressed with the scenery and the friendliness and hospitality of the people.

Robert Mark Safaris themselves were excellent form start until finish - our itinerary was perfect and we avoided crowds and hassles along the way nicely. All arrangements worked smoothly throughout our trip with small details very well taken care of, starting from when we first contacted them until after we returned home. Very easy to plan with them, they were knowledgeable and understood our wishes well and executed arrangements very well on the road. Well worth the trip!

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Countries visited: Rwanda Tanzania
2People gave this
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Australia Australia
Countries visited: Botswana Kenya Namibia Rwanda South Africa Tanzania Zambia
Visited: Sep. 2019
Reviewed: Dec. 19, 2019

2People gave this
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"Unresponsive and unreliable—once they have your money; you're on your own."
Safari enthusiast
United States United States
9 kudus
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Reviews (1)
Did not go on this tour Reviewed: Oct. 28, 2020

We were a party of 3 adults traveling from the USA to Africa in October 2019. Our goal was to see the gorillas in Rwanda, witness the Great Migration in Kenya and Tanzania and visit the Ngorongoro Crater. I chose our accommodations which included Bisate, The Giraffe Manor and the andBeyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. The andBeyond property in Kenya was booked so Tanya recommended the Cottars, which was wonderful.

I wired funds for a 50% deposit on July 19, 2018 and I had to send two requests before I finally received confirmation from Tanya on August 11, 2018 that our funds were received. This deposit was necessary to hold our accommodations, even though the domestic flight schedules were not yet available for booking. I thought this was strange, as the deposit was non-refundable
We heard nothing from Tanya and only after inquiring about the kidnapping of an American tourist on a gorilla trek in Uganda did we hear from Natalie Dent that Tanya had "moved on" and Natalie would be handling our booking.

Generally, when we emailed questions we were reminded to look at the RMS app for answers. This was inconvenient at times since I travel quite often and access to the internet was often spotty.
Natalie emphasized that we were only allowed to take soft sided bags with no hard edges (she even sent pictures of sample bags), with maximum weight of 15 kgs. We complied and were surprised to see that Micato Safaris provided rolling duffle bags to their guests which clearly had hard edges around the wheels and weighed more than 15 kgs. Other tourists had Rimowa bags and spinner bags that they were permitted to take on the small planes.

The RMS app also provided a packing list for the gorilla trek which included garden gloves, gators and rain jackets. Bisate provided all of those items for us. This may not sound like a big deal, but when limited to 15 kgs, every piece of clothing counts.

I specifically asked Tanya to arrange the best route and flights to maximize our two weeks in Africa. Unfortunately, the itinerary resulted in continued stress as we traveled from one place to the other. We spent an entire day and evening traveling from Rwanda to Nairobi, Kenya and spent 8 hours at the Giraffe Manor--6 in which were sleeping as we arrived at the Manor at 11:00 pm and had to leave at 8:15 am the next day. I specifically requested a 2 night stay, and instead of suggesting we skip the Manor because there was nothing available for 2 nights during our time in Africa, Tanya assured me we would have enough time to enjoy the property. Of course one cannot predict flight delays, but we could have taken a morning flight out of Rwanda instead of the 5:30 pm flight that left at 8:30pm. I wrote to Natalie Dent at RMS to request a refund for our stay at Giraffe Manor but her "management" said that since I reviewed and agreed to the itinerary, no refund was warranted.
We flew on SafariLink from Nairobi, Kenya to Cottar's Safari Camp and according to our itinerary, we were supposed to land at Cottar's airstrip. SafariLink does not fly to the airstrip and landed at another airstrip 2.5 hours away from the lodge. Another day lost.
When we left Tanzania to fly back to Nairobi, our itinerary said we were to fly from Lake Manyara airstrip to Nairobi, via Coastal Aviation. Instead, our flight flew to Arusha. We looked everywhere for our connecting Coastal Aviation flight to Nairobi, but there wasn't one. Fortunately, we were able to pay a porter to find a flight for us (no one spoke much English) and we discovered that we were actually booked on SafariLink. We barely made our flight back to Nairobi, where we spent the evening before departing for our flight back to the U.S.A.

Needless to say, I was so disappointed in RMS and learned never to trust a travel company that does not have a presence in the country in which I am traveling. RMS was recommended by a friend in South Africa and I have several friends in South Africa who said the company is reputable. I will say RMS provided us a driver for the afternoon on our last day in Nairobi and offered a $165 refund out of the $50,000+ spent on our trip for poor service at the Nairobi airport. Hardly satisfying.

Rob’s response is hardly a consolation. We agreed to the itinerary because we relied on their travel specialist. Whilst we understand one cannot anticipation flight delays, there is no excuse for posting the incorrect airport and airline for our transfers to and from Kenya and Tanzania. We count on, and compensate, the travel agent to check that all information on the itinerary is correct and the routes are reasonable. Unfortunately, RMS’s agent did not perform and while she was terminated, we paid the consequences.

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Countries visited: Kenya Rwanda Tanzania
9People gave this
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United States United States
Countries visited: Kenya Rwanda South Africa Tanzania
Visited: Oct. 2019
Reviewed: Oct. 30, 2019

9People gave this
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"Highly recommended - Excellent service in creating the trip of our lifetime"
Safari enthusiast
Canada Canada
5 kudus
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Reviews (1)
Did not go on this tour Reviewed: Sep. 07, 2020

We used Robert Marks last month for our trip to Botswana and we had a beautiful and amazing time. We traveled from Okavango to the marsh at Linyanti and to the Kalahari and then saw the Meercats at the salt pans and everything was really very much above our expectations, especially with those activities that we did which was much more variety than expected and very interesting, too. The team we worked with were very friendly and the organisation was good, so everything worked well and I think they made a big difference to the success of our trip so thank you really, we look forward to our next visit in another year sometime soon.

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Countries visited: Botswana
5People gave this
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Canada Canada
Countries visited: Botswana
Visited: Oct. 2019
Reviewed: Dec. 14, 2019

5People gave this
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"Kruger National Park with the family"
Safari enthusiast
Hong Kong Hong Kong
11 kudus
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Reviews (1)
Visited: Jun. 2014 Reviewed: Jan. 14, 2017

Robert Mark Safaris organised a holiday for us in the Kruger National Park with our two girls.
It worked out really well, we went to three different lodges, all of which were great even though a bit different to each other.
The first was a little simpler but great for the kids anyway, then we moved to a slightly different area where the game and big 5 sightings were even better, and we topped it off with two nights in a very luxurious lodge in Thornybush, at their suggestion.
Robert Mark gave us advice on where to go with the kids because we weren't sure how they'd enjoy the whole thing, and the girls in the end had a ball.
So, thanks so much for your help!

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Countries visited: South Africa
11People gave this
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Hong Kong Hong Kong
Countries visited: South Africa
Visited: Jun. 2014
Reviewed: Sep. 11, 2014

11People gave this
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YAScore: 55/100
Based on 4 reviews

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