Imagemine Loc: St. Louis USA

Has anyone out there ever used Pangolin Photo Safari Co. ? Would appreciate any reviews thanx

Rongnongno Loc: FL

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johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

Google is a wonderful thing, this took me about 30 seconds!!

https://www.pangolinphoto.com/

Opsafari Loc: Roodepoort South Africa

Pangolin Photo Safari Co. is an excellent company catering for photographers but not a cheap operator. They also can supply camera bodies and zoom lenses as far as I know for free. Saw them operating on the Chobe River in their own boat which is well equip for photographers only (with their touring friends) you don't share their boats or vehicles with other tourists. Can recommend them.

Collhar Loc: New York City.

I believe he was asking for a personal experience.

Opsafari Loc: Roodepoort South Africa

My personal experience are: saw them in action on the water, their accommodation in Kasane and their vehicle operated in Chobe, they have exclusive access to a bunker at a waterhole in Chobe. In South Africa they are highly recommended, have communicated with them regarding a possible tour with them but it's out of my pocket range! They are no fly-by-knight operators even their guides are photographers!

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

It is my honor to suggest https://peterswildlifesafaris.com, Peter is concerned about conservation and the Masai people. If you want the best experience please consider this highly motivated conservationist.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

This looks awesome. Wish I had seen this a week ago. I just booked a safari this week for December. I worked with several companies before I made my selection. It can be confusing if you are not knowledgeable about Africa, and I am not.

I made a safari in Zimbabwe in January of 2000 and have wanted to return ever since. One of my biggest mistakes Then was taking an 80-200mm lens with a 2x teleconverter instead of a longer lens. (I had just gotten my first Nikon D1!) That won’t happen this time although am trying to decide which bodies to take with me. D5, D850, Z7 are all in contention with Z7 at the bottom of the list. Mind the weight considerations as internal flights limit weight to 33 lbs per person unless you book extra. My camera bag without my 189-400mm and Z7 is 31 lbs.

This trip will be Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar.

Based on my experience, I found a lot of tour guide operators and local (US based) tour guide sales people who are not in Africa. They need to coordinate availability with their African counterparts, which takes at least overnight to confirm, sometimes longer. That’s not necessarily a problem, but when you leave planning a trip like this for 5 people until the last minute and international flights are far and few between, it becomes an issue.

I was most impressed by Erin Cotton of Kensington Tours. She has been there many times and knows the area very well. She is extremely pleasant to deal with and very professional. I would recommend her without hesitation. Happy to provide her contact details. You can mention my name if you reach out to her.

The other operator I worked with was Brian Blatt of ATR. Also knowledgeable but varied in opinions as to where to go. Both Brian and Erin were very knowledgeable and extremely responsive. They both provided web based interactive presentations to illustrate the trip.

I ultimately made my decision, booked my trip and am extremely excited to go. Will report back with results in January.

Make sure you do not leave your vaccinations until the last minute. If you need yellow fever, it is somewhat scarce in the US and for US based travelers, you will need to find it by going to the CDC.gov website.

It is not cheap, more than I typically spend on a December holiday for my family, but I am justifying it as a new experience that we will remember forever.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

Check out Hunt’s Photo. They’re running a photo adventure tour to Tanzania with an instructor (who I’ve worked with and think highly of) through Thompson’s. I think they have a few spots left for their tour in a few months.

philo Loc: philo, ca

I checked out Hunt's tour and they want $9000. for 10 days and 9 nights. sounds like a great deal???

Fotomacher Loc: Toronto

We went to South Africa and Botswana in September 2016. We started our planning too late and as a result the Pangolin rep had to struggle to find us accommodations since most had been fully booked. We did manage to put together a good trip but without prior experience, we felt that we were one day too long in Botswana and one day too short in South Africa. We started our excursion with a 2 day stay at the Ursula Camp in the Stanley & Livingston Private Game Preserve. Pangolin arranged for a photographer to meet us at Victoria Falls to shoot the sunset and the next morning to shoot the sunrise. Lesanne Dunlop was excellent but the area is so well laid out that a guide is not a necessity.

From there, we were driven to Botswana to spend three days with Pangolin guide, Charl Stols on the Chobe River before flying to Okavango Delta where we spent two more days photographing. And then we ended our trip with 2 days in Cape Town and vicinity. Our guide, Lisa was extremely well organized and had a shooting schedule that she followed meticulously. She knew exactly how to to spend at each location. It was great!

The equipment on the Chobe River was fantastic. Boats with gimbal camera supports attached to chairs with 360 degree mobility. Charl is very experienced and his advice was invaluable. One highlight (lowlight) of their trip was when I dropped by D810 with a 300mm prime lens attached. The lens survived, but the bayonet mount on the body broke off. Since Pangolin also caters to patrons who don’t have their own equipment, Charl sold me a D7000 from their loner pool and SD cards for a reasonable US$250. Same battery as my D810 so I was back in business in 15 minutes.

Last comment - when we got back home, and processed our images, my wife and I had a 240 page book printed by Blurb. The images document our trip and include pictures of 3 reptiles, 17 mammals and 33 birds.

I give Pangolin 5 stars.

Imagemine Loc: St. Louis USA

thanx much just the kind of review I wanted to hear, will make my arrangements early. Valuable info.

David in Dallas Loc: Dallas, Texas, USA

I just got back from 10 days in Kenya, set up by Holiday Vacations. Their package includes everything, air fare, tips, accommodations, game drives, full time tour guide. All accommodations had wi-fi and were very nice. Game drives were fruitful. I have posted a topic here a few days ago with a few of my photos. I had a great time!