African Budget Safaris Reviews 

When I first contacted African Budget Safaris I sent them a few options of their site which I was interested in. My trip got delayed, so I got back in touch several weeks later.

When I contacted ABS (African Budget Safaris) again, I asked which options would be available on the date I specified. I got one which was quite expensive. I asked for alternatives and got one. These were very different tours and the itinerary of the more expensive one was more appealing.

It was more costly than I planned for, but since this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me, I decided to go through with it.

ABS is an agent which shows options from other operators. The tour I booked was operated by VIVA Safaris and I sincerely regret not booking directly with them.

I departed with a small group which I got along with quite well. On the second day I found out I got separated from this group and went to a more luxurious lodge. There I was on my own while the rest of the group would be enjoying their tours and dinner together.

I had another shared day afterwards and after some information sharing I found out I was paying about 6000 ZAR more than one of the others. This was all money going to my expensive lodge, which I never asked for. In fact, when I booked I told ABS I was fine with camping, so I feel they were very negligent in providing me with information regarding my lodging options.

I immediately contacted ABS during my stay, to let my objections be known. I was told I was provided options and this was the one I chose. While technically correct, I was not given different accommodation options. Another argument I heard was that all options are provided on the website. But I did not look on the site anymore, since I was naive enough to believe I would receive a decent level of service.

ABS has a lot of positive reviews, so I expected them to offer a service in picking the right tour. Instead the approach was to do the minimum amount of work for the highest possible commission.

All contact I had, from the very start was nothing but defensive. I decided to phone again. Harriet was my contact and instead of trying to help me resolve this situation reasonably, I was literally shouted at. Harriet was only being helpful and hiding behind the fact that I was given options (2 exactly) and that all options are available on the website.

I remained calm, told her about my expectations from an agent and that I would like to move to the less expensive accommodation with the other people from the group and hopefully get some restitution for the difference in price.

By the end of the call Harriet told me she would find out what she could do. All this took place in between my tours where there often was poor reception and no chance for contact outside of office hours.

The end result was that I could move to the other, cheaper, accommodation, but it was not possible for me to get a partial refund.

I feel I was taken advantage of and gouged by a greedy and unhelpful person who only had her eyes on the highest commission rate.

I do not recommend African Budget Safaris to anyone. They are not budget, and any difficulties you may encounter will not be resolved as they will point to the operator. If you read this, take some additional time and find a direct tour operator, or an agent with a reputation of being service oriented.

Edit and update:

After submitting my online experience, Terry, the manager contacted me. He was on leave for and was not informed about what happened in his absence. He let me know that my complaints were just and he addressed them in the best way possible at this point in time.

I am impressed with his communication and handling of the matter which makes me believe my experience was an incident which ABS will prevent from happening again.

From dealing with Harriet in the office to meeting and being looked after by our guides I cant fault this trip in any way.
I booked for a big birthday celebration and people thought I was mad going so far for only 3/4 days but the trip I booked was perfect. AFB gave me a taster of Africa, the beautiful countries of Zimbabwe and Botswana, its people, its wildlife and it has made me want to go back.
Thank-you to all involved for making this big birthday an extra special one.

We just returned from a 4 night trip to Kenya organized by ABS and had a fantastic time. Communication with Harriet, our ABS representative was always prompt and clear and the camps they organized for us were better than we expected and we had a great time. Would definitely recommend!

Harriet was easy to work with and even though we had a 10 hour time zone difference was prompt answering questions and taking care of any requests.

From our first enquiry, we had prompt, professional and personal service from African Budget Safaris staff. We very much appreciate all of the patience, suggestions and ideas from Harriet who we worked with and together planned a most exciting and very memorable seven week trip through southern Africa, from Cape Town in South Africa, through Namibia and Botswana to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Following this, we were back in South Africa for a fabulous week on safari in Sabi Sand-Kruger! African Budget Safaris provide an excellent service in planning, coordinating and reserving tours and adventures that are of high quality, visiting important places and parks and all at a reasonable cost. From home in Canada, we always had quick e-mail responses from Harriet and could easily reach her by phone when needed for a discussion. we certainly will recommend this company to friends, and already have!

Had an excellent safari experience with Viva safaris booked through Harriet at African Budget Safaris. The treehouse camp was particularly good value.

We booked a Safari trip with ABS in Botswana. We were helped by Harriet Purser in chosing the right formula and were very happy with the service provided. We had a few payment isssues (with our bank) and are thankful for the understanding and patience shown by Harriet.
We have had a wonderful holiday. We were impressed by the way everything was organised and experienced the trip of a lifetime. We saw an abundance of wildlife, created lots of unforgettable memories and have taken tons of photos.

Our guide Eddie was extremely knowledgeable, humoristic and friendly.
The food was well prepared (maybe a bit too much meat but that’s apparently part of the local culture) & the group we travelled with was more than ok.

We have travelled quite a bit already in different continents and can safely say that this was the best holidays we have had so far. It was basic in terms of comfort but it was enriching in terms of life experience.

I decided to book a last minute safari with African Budget Safaris(ABS) and I have to say Harriet made it happen. She was incredible in arranging everything at the last minute.

In regards to the actual safari it was a fantastic trip with great accommodations and incredible food. Oh and we did see the Big 5! A trip of a lifetime.

Kudos to Harriet at ABS for being a last minute miracle worker!

African Budget Safaris put together an excellent program for our family of 12 holiday in South Africa. Harriet Purser, who was our agent, always responded quickly to any questions and acted in an extremely competent and professional manner. She worked within our budget and tailored a program suitable for both adults and children. Finding the right company who has the expertise in the country you will be exploring is perhaps the most important part of arranging any trip and for this reason alone I would have no hesitation in recommending African Budget Safaris.

We booked a 4 day, 3 night safari experience in Kruger park though africanbudgetsafaris and had an amazing time. Harriet arranged everything for us including transportation, accommodation, and game drives and it all went super smoothly. She was very quick to respond when I had questions and made sure we were all set before and after the safari. Thanks again for a wonderful time!

Contact with Harriet and Glynis prior to my holiday in Mozambique was both efficient and helpful. I liked the option to have a 'Green Seat' to offset my Carbon footprint. The 8 day coastal safari tour was great. The start and end point is at the Southern Sun hotel in Maputo. A wonderful place to stay! There was a good balance of travelling by truck and the relaxing stay in each of the destinations. The accommodation was varied and each place to stay was spacious, well located, had plenty of hot water and was clean. These places would have been hard to find if I had been travelling independently. The crew members on the Nomad overland truck were well informed, friendly and good company. The tour was not overcrowded and there was ample space to move around on the truck. The highlight of my tour was snorkelling with a whale shark off Barra beach. I have recommended Mozambique as a destination and African Budget Safaris to friends and colleagues.
Thank you for a good trip.

I used African Budget Safaris for 2 tours in South Africa last month. Harriet was my point of contact and she was great, she made everything so simple from start to finish. I would definitely recommend them and i will be using them again for my next visit to SA next year.

Highly recommend!

We were looking at safari holidays but all seemed to be way out of our budget. After finding African budget safaris, I was excited at all of the different options you can choose from, with varying locations, durations and activities. I was a little nervous as we had never dealt with overseas payments before but after reading the great reviews on trip advisor, decided to book a 6 day treehouse safari near Kruger National Park. We dealt with Harriet at A.B.S's and she was most helpful. She answered all of our questions and was very patient with us. Harriet sent us the itinerary and a list of what to bring and we found that the whole safari went fantastic and was exactly what we expected... And more! I look forward to using them again and hope it's not too long before we can.

Really excellent!
This safari was super easy to book, I gained personal responses to my questions, and my emails were answered quickly and carefully. I wasn't sure what I wanted, and Harriet really helped me work out which package to book. It was easy to pay online, and I would absolutely recommend this site. The actual safari was superb - we had a private car, lodge and guide, and we felt very well looked after. Our guide, Eric, was amazing and knew all about the animals and birds of the Mara, as well as where the best stops are. Book this safari!

After having been on safaris to Krueger, Sabi Sands, Pilanesberg, Central Kalahari, Okavango and Chobe we wanted to visit Tanzania.

We prefer booking with companies from the region because they know their business much better than the big global operators. We visited the websites of several companies and finally we decided to book with African Budget Safaris.

It was a very easy booking process with great support from Harriet. The payment via money transfer was easy and hassle-free (some people might be first suspicious but I have used it several times without any problems). But the value of a good company shows only when you have something outside the normal process. My wife's Dad passed away and we had to go from London to Australia for the funeral and immediately afterwards from Melbourne to Arusha for the start of the safari. Harriet managed this perfect and made me even aware of wrong dates I had written in my mail.

The tour was operated by Predator. Everything went very smoothly from pick-up at Kilimanjaro airport to the safari itself and final drop of at Arusha airport. Robert was a fantastic guide/driver. Very friendly, very knowledgeable in finding the animals and telling us about them and he went really the extra-mile to make this safari a unique experience.

While in Serengeti he proposed to get up very early the next morning and to drive 6 hours to the northern part of the park. It was a long drive but it provided us with the highlight of our safari: wildebeest crossing the Mara river. It took them nearly three hours to decide to cross the Mara but it was worth the drive and worth the wait. We saw more or less all the animals we wanted to see. Among them 55 lions, 4 leopards and 2 cheetahs. Only the black rhinos we could not tick off our list. But you can’t have everything.

The Serena hotels we stayed in had in general the standard you would expect from this chain and we would recommend most of them. Only the Serena Serengeti failed to impress. The service was mediocre, slow and sometimes even unfriendly. Shower gel and shampoo dispensers in the room where empty during the whole stay but the worst failure was that they simply forgot my wife's birthday. They are in clear need of a better management team.

After the safari we went for a few days to Zanzibar. Pick-up was very friendly and on time. They also organised a great tour for the two of us to Stonetown and to the Spice gardens. We also can recommend the Bluebay Beach Resort. A great place to relax for a few days. Nice and clean rooms, great restaurant with different themes every day and a very good service.

Thanks a lot to African Budget Safaris and esp. to Harriet for all your help in planning this great holiday for us. We can highly recommend you and we will approach you when we plan our Namibia trip.

Africa Budget Safari set up our families flawless Madagascar tour
I contacted several companies about a vacation in Madagascar. I knew from my first contact that African Budget Safari was the company I would end up working with. My contact was Harriet. I cannot say enough about how helpful she was in setting up my vacation. She set up everything and even provided me valuable information that I would not even have thought of when traveling to Madagascar. The trip was flawless and the family had a great time in Madagascar. My next trip to any part of Africa or areas around that part of the world will start by contacting Harriet at African Budget Safari.

Professional and friendly!
African Budget Safari has been a discovery for me. I've been looking for a 2 and half day safari in Kruger in a private game reserve. They have been able to clear all my doubts and answer all my questions. Harriet has been more than professional. The trip was easy because she offered us all the transfers needed to make our holidays perfect, with no stress at all. We stayed at the Outlook Lodge in Johannesburg where we got all the help and useful tips needed apart from and excellent breakfast and dinner! Finally she helped us in the choice of a lodge for the safari which was a very a nice and environmental friendly lodge which have fulfilled all my dreams: The Greenfire Game Lodge in Balule. Thank you for everything, Harriet!

Highly recommended
We are very happy with how Harriet organised our five day safari in Tanzania. The booking process was so easy and she quickly responded to my queries. Harriet arranged for us to add hot air ballooning to our trip and saved me the trouble of trying to fit it in. Our safari was through Tanzania Experience and it was amazing. Although the price was "budget" and the best price I could find, the quality and luxury of the accommodation and food was outstanding. Highly recommended.

African budget safaris were great to book with. Harriet in the office was so helpful, answering so many questions that I threw at her before and after booking. She gave great advice and the documents they provide give so much insight into what to bring, how to deal with money on the trip, what to expect etc etc. the payment was simple and it really was an easy process. The safaris they offer are great and we had a wonderful trip. Would highly recommend booking with Africa budget safaris.

I was overwhelmed with the number of search results when I first started researching African safaris. We've traveled a decent amount without the help of travel agencies, however, I'm so thankful to African Budget Safaris for helping us organize the trip of a lifetime from halfway across the world. Everything was so seamless and professional from the booking process, airport transfers, pre-tour accommodation, and most of all, pairing us with the most awesome safari tour company that I'm not sure I would've found by myself! Harriet was very helpful and quick to respond to our questions, especially when it came to helping us understand the differences between such similar sounding tour packages. Thanks again African Budget Safaris!