I searched the forum, but can't find any updated info. For those of us wanting to do overland in Africa in 2009 - 2010, what are the currently best rated operators? What are the best budget/values?If you know of one, and can provide a brief review, please add to this thread. About me: I'm thinking of going in mid 09 , most likely Cape-Nairobi or reverse. Climbing Kili and Cairo is also on the list.Cheers, J

Someone else interested in hearing opinions on this! My sister and I are looking at overlanding from Cape-Vic Falls for sure, maybe further if we have time for it, around July 09. From my own research Acacia Africa seems to be pretty good.

i did a short 2 weeker with kumuka tours through egypt, syria & jordan. their reputation is a less party-hardy version of contiki.. UK based. my friend and i were the first americans the guide had. our group ranged from people in their 20s to early 40s, but all pretty active since that trip (actually, i think their tours in general) all kind of go rough.

my middle east trip was only $760 at booking and an additional $200 to the guide for our meals and everything else. mostly hostels or camping. they ask that you participate in cooking/cleaning/setting up camp, which is fine given how cheap the tour was. they do a lot of longer overland tours all over the world.. yo ushould look into it.

WE have recently returned from a three week tour through South Africa, Namibia and Botswana with a stop in Livingstone, Zambia. Kiboko, the tour company, reached at kiboko.com, did an excellent job at what seemed to be a reasonable price. They have a variety of tours and are willing to cater for small groups.

I like this idea for a thread:

Summary so far:
Acacia Africa (ok -- research only)
kumuka tours (ok -- direct experience)
kiboko.com (excellent -- direct experience)
exodus (good - direct experience)
dragoman (ok -- research)
tusker (ok -- research)

I did a 3 week trip with Nomad. They were fantastic...by far the best company to do an overland trip through Southern and Eastern Africa!

Eppyboy wrote:I did a 3 week trip with Nomad. They were fantastic...by far the best company to do an overland trip through Southern and Eastern Africa!

They seem to be twice the price of most other tours???

ok so here is the deal...that MAY be the case but with the other tours the food isn't as good and they get with you making everything you do NOT included...Nomad includes most of the activities, sure there are side excursions that aren't covered but if you look at what nomad does and other companies it isn't comparable...the tents are better, the equipment is better and things like national park admittance and other things ARE included.

Listen if you want to spend 400 bucks on a crappy tour that doesn't include anything and you see african from a trunk then by all means go...also consider that nomad actually pays decent wages to local guides from africa while other companies I have heard pay very little and mistreat their employees.

Nomad is by far the best overland company to do southern africa...now if you want to do other parts of africa they might not be the best but they sure as hell offer the most trips through southern and eastern africa...i have known a lot of people to use nomad and everyone has had a positive experience...if you want a discount book a trip through detour africa (google it) it is a local cape town travel agency that can get you a 5-10% percent discount on top of the reduced prices already from nomad trips.

check it out!

Also, what about Oasis Overland, Truck Africa, GAP, Geckos, Exodus, Explore...