Muir's Tours

A Selection of Our Client's Feedback

The Namibian Budget safari from Muir's Tours is quite possibly the best value safari in the world, but do not just take our word for it.

Here are some of the comments by previous travellers who have experienced it.

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Service in general from our main agent

How was the service in general ? Excellent or Acceptable or Poor

Comments… Excellent, everything ran very smoothly 

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Airport Meet & Greet Service

How was the service ? Excellent or Acceptable or Poor

Comments… Acceptable, someone was there to greet us when we arrived. 

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Driver / Vehicle for the cross country drives / Safari
Was the standard of service acceptable?                  Y or N
Comments… Yes the guide was also the driver and coped very well with the gravel roads.
Little bit disappointed with the vehicle - there were only 7 in our group so rtaher than one of the safari vehicles which looked great with huge open windows, we had a small van with some windows which did not open making taking photos tricky, seats with no headrests and was pretty rickety on the roads. However it did not detract from a great experience.

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Activity Leader (i.e. Trekking Guide or safari guide)
Was your guide special ?                      Y or N
Comments.. Yes he was great. Made you feel welcome, safe and secure, and was knowledgeable and helpful as well as good fun. The camps were great, especially when we had the site to ourselves in the middle of nowhere and he made great campfires and cooked good food.  

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Accommodation / Food - Gateway City / Town
Was your accommodation as expected ?                        Y or N
Comments… The guesthouse in Windhoek was probably better than expected..it was lovely. 

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Accommodation / Food - Main Destination
Was your accommodation as expected ?                   Y or N
Comments… The tents were good and camping added to the experience. Probably preferred the tents to the chalet we stayed in on the coast[Linda O'Neill], which was pretty basic but in a nice site. [Linda O'Neill] The food was good. 

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Pre-departure information
Did you have enough pre-departure info from us?            Y or N

Please outline what else would have been helpful…

Comments…Yes  
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Will you consider travelling with Muir's Tours again ?       Y or N

Please elaborate  Yes, Mo was very helpful as always and the safrai trip fantastic. The actual trip was good value too, it was just the flights that were a bit more expensive than expected. Only thing that might have been helpful was perhaps a little bit more information and confirmation of the booking earlier. 
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Volunteer Options
Would you consider volunteering your time on a suitable humanitarian /
environmental project ? Y or N

If yes, what type of project is your ideal ?  Yes I heard of another company which has the clients helping to do something for the community for 2-3 days of the trip such as heloing with building a school but would consider anything which would be helpful to the kids /families in Nepal or Africa or South America.

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Any Other Comments…
Was it the best ever ?  It was definitely a holiday to remember. Hard to say it was the best ever simply because I have had the good fortune of many great experiences of a different nature e.g. trekking in Nepal. However would definitely recommend it to friends and loved my first taste of Africa, its people and of-course, the animals. We were exceptionally lucky with some of the sightings we had. Watching a herd of elephants at a floodllit waterhole only 40m from our campsite and looking into the beautiful eyes of a cheetah, just a few feet away, are experiences hard to beat!

Linda O. Scotland

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I just wanted to say thank you for such a fantastic holiday. Namibia was amazing and the tour was great.

Special credit should go out to 'Ronny' our tour guide, who was with us
for the whole 10 days. He was amazing, never tired and worked so hard, a brilliant man.  I
would be grateful if you could pass on my thanks and comments to the team in Namibia.

I hope that I will be able to book another holiday with you soon!    Vanessa C. France

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Just a quick note to say a big thank you for arranging our holiday. We all had a brilliant time. Our guide, Elias, was just what we needed - helpful, amusing, knowledgeable and we were extremely well fed. On day 10 we suffered a broken tow bar and a bolt went missing from the spring on the trailer, this meant we couldn't get to our next site on time so your local agent arranged for us to go to a hotel for the night in Helmeringhausen. It was a lovely oasis and at about £30 per head dinner b&b was a great stopover. 
 
The safari through Etosha National Park was all we wanted it to be, although we'll have to go back to see a leopard!!
 
We all enjoyed the activities in Swakopmund, 2 went sand boarding, 2 went quad biking, and the rest of us went horse-riding.
 
Adding the three days to go down to Fish River made it a long tour but we wouldn't have missed it. It was stunning!
 
Although we knew it was cold at night it still took us by surprise how cold it did get by 4 o'clock in the morning.
 
Anyway, the trip was truly memorable and thanks again for all your patience and help.
 
 
Catherine, John, Charlotte and Joe - UK

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Just got back from the Namibian Explorer tour on Friday. It was a lot of fun, saw a lot of wildlife and scenery, and did some sandboarding on our own near Swakopmund. The guide and food were great, and all the guests bonded as friends. You might want to recommend Rivendell and Cardboard Box as places to stay, they both have a lot of strong points.

Ted & Karen USA  September 2004
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Accommodation
Was the standard as expected?      Y       
Comments…

 Cardboard Box was absolutely brilliant. Real family atmosphere, particularly welcoming for independent travellers. It was helpful to have a travel shop and tours purchasable on site too. Lovely bar/restaurant and pool- although pool freezing and no-one but me appeared to get in it sober!

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Sightseeing Guide

Comments…

 All guides on day trips and on the safari were excellent

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Activities
Did you get good overall service from our supplier?       Y       
Comments…

 The tour quality was very good.

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General
Did you have enough pre-departure info from us?    Y    overall


Please outline what else would have been helpful…

Overall I was more than happy with the support provided and the time given to answer my pre-trip questions by Muirs Tours. Certainly it was  by far the most expensive holiday that I have purchased but I was content with the value of it and the quality of service throughout. It was a truely marvellous opportunity. Thank -you.   Gen S. Scotland  2003

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As I'm sure Margaux told you, we had the most wonderful time, everything we hoped for and more. Namibia is amazing, a seemingly endless expanse of nothingness, splendid and desolate, and at times I was overcome by it all, notably at Sossusvlei amongst the dunes. If only we'd booked longer!

Please find my feedback below: as you'll see, we'd be very pleased to do a tour with you again: Pension Moni was very chilled and delightful also.

Fond Regards, Jessica

> Please give as much information as possible and

> where only a 'yes' or a 'no' is needed please delete 'Y' or 'N'.

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> Air Travel

> Did it all go according to plan ?            Y       

> Comments...

As far as the flights were concerned, both British Airways and Air Namibia were

very satisfactory, BA staff being particularly pleasant.

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> Accommodation

> Was the standard as expected?      Y       

> Comments.

Pension Moni: Lovely room, very clean, friendly helpful staff, a nice little

pool, excellent breakfast buffet  

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> Staff at the Hotel

> Was the standard of service acceptable?          Y       

> Comments.

(see above)

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> Sightseeing Guide

> Comments.

Paul, our guide, was absolutely great: assured and confidence-inspiring to us rookies as we joined the party, a good driver, an excellent cook, and by the end of our trip Margaux and I thought of him as a friend. We learned a whole lot, and only wish we could have met more local people from the coloured communities, but it meant a lot to me to have a black driver (I don't know if it's OK to pass this info on, perhaps it might be misunderstood, but I was glad to be travelling with a black African as our guide, it had a different resonance for me). He made us feel very welcome, and in very safe hands. We heard from people who had been on trips with other tour companies that the food was much better and more varied with Paul than they had experienced elsewhere

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> Activities

> Did you get good overall service from our supplier?       Y       

> Comments.

The dolphin cruise was very good, Haki being friendly and very hospitable, providing copious amounts of food, drinks and information. When we went to the office to pay afterwards however, we were informed that it was to cost us N$400 instead of the N$350 we thought it was going to be before the trip. Margaux went on a quad-biking trip in the afternoon and had a whale of a time (she is an experienced motor biker).

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> General

> Did you have enough pre-departure info from us?    Y  

> Please outline what else would have been helpful.

Rather too cautious on the info front, Mo: as we were in the minibus all the time whilst animal-watching, we didn't need to have dressed in the sand-coloured clothing and most people wore t-shirts and shorts. I went the whole 'Out of Africa' bit to much amusement, but I didn't mind! The weather was warmer at night than expected, but it can be bitter in the desert so I wasn't sorry to have played safe with the fleeces, maybe 1 thick, 1 thinner would have been enough. Too many clothes (4 t-shirts, 2 shirts, 2 trousers, 2 shorts - we could have had half that, but having said that, we didn't have rain, and if we had been caught in showers, may have needed the extra dry clothes) - I would say 2 L/S shirts, 2 t-shirts, 2 trousers, one pair shorts. Wide-brimmed hat - YES! and hankies useful for dusty roads. Water-purification equipment unnecessary - the campsites are sophisticated, bottled water readily available, and most tap-water in Namibia is treated. The vehicle had a first-aid kit although it's always good to have one's own; travel-sickness pills a good idea for those who have a problem. Despite my best efforts with serious repellent etc. I still got bitten like I was the last meal on earth !!! 

> Any Other Comments.

Next time, we'll stay LONGER! Thanks so much for a great trip, Mo, you were fab. Jessica L London. xxxxxxxxxx

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