Different kind of well planned trip…
We are very happy customers of Safari Royale and highly recommended them for anyone who wishes to visit Africa for a memorable holiday.
We live in Los Angeles and met Mark Preston who is their representative here. He did a excellent job showing us what is available at different price points and helped us put together a holiday plan that included the famous luxury train ride from Johannesburg to Cape Town. He explained the many options their company offered for safaris and accommodations and designed a two-week vacation (from June 13, 2019- June 29, 2019) for us that encompassed all we envisioned what an African vacation would be like.
We started in Johannesburg, and Rob van Blerk took the trouble to fly there to greet us, he made sure we were settled at the hotel and spent a few hours with us walking us through the entire two-week itinerary; it was obvious that every detail was well thought out and our vacation would go as smoothly as possible.
I find the best way to judge customer service is based on how the folks in charge deal with a problem when it occurred…and a major problem occurred on our trip from the get go. On the train ride, which was super luxurious and enjoyable, I felt unwell and ran a high fever. My wife contacted Rob from the train and he sprang into action right away; first he contacted the train conductor to alert them that I was not well and for the staff to take care of my needs, he made arrangements for an ambulance to be at the station to take me to the hospital, and he contacted the hospital to alert them of my situation. He kept in contact with my wife till the late hours and assured her that he would stay close to the situation as we were in a foreign country where we were not familiar with healthcare issues and how to proceed. I was rushed to the hospital as soon as we reached Cape Town and the doctors diagnosed me with double pneumonia (bacterial and viral) and I needed to be hospitalized for at least 10 days. Rob stayed in close contact with my wife throughout this time to answer questions and made sure I was under the best care possible. He made arrangements for my wife to stay in Cape Town while I was in the hospital, helped explain how the system worked and how we can file for certain refunds due to cancellations of the rest of our trip - all the while making sure that our brother-in-law and his wife (our travel companions on this trip) were well taken care of as they continued on the trip on our insistence.
Rob did not miss a beat and stayed helpful to us throughout the ordeal, even after we returned to the States, to help us get through the paperwork for refunds and other issues related to insurance, etc..
I cannot recommend highly enough the outstanding service Safari Royale provided us throughout this unfortunate and unexpected turn of events, and we fully intend to re-visit Africa with them since the only wildlife we saw was a photograph of a giraffe on the wall in my hospital room.
I give Safari Royale and its owner Rob van Blerk an A+++, and would highly recommend the company to anyone interested in touring Africa. Rob’s heart is in the business and he genuinely cares about his clients’ wellbeing and how they enjoy their African holidays. Our brother-in-law and his wife thoroughly enjoyed their safaris and accommodations and they told us it was the experience of a lifetime. I also want to credit Mark Preston, Safari Royale’s agent, for his excellent planning for the trip and his follow up when we returned; he was most helpful.
Robert Wang
25 September 2021
Unprompted review