Are you interested in DR Congo for safaris and tours? Find a list of experienced Congo Safari Operators & Travel Agencies for your next adventure. These Congo travel agencies offer very price sensitive tour packages to different national parks that are open for tourism such as Virunga national park and Kahuzi Biega national park. Gorilla trekking tours in Congo are one of the best experiences in Africa.
Congo Safari Operators & Travel Agencies
Africa Adventure Vacations
Email: info@africaadventurevacations.com
Website: https://africaadventurevacations.com/
Phone +256752974500 (WhatsApp)
Gorilla Trekking Uganda
Email: info@gorillatrekk.com
Website: https://gorillatrekk.com/
Bwindi Uganda Gorilla Safaris
Email: book@bwindigorillapark.com
Website: https://bwindigorillapark.com/
Visit Rwanda Tours
Email: info@visitrwandatour.com
Website: https://visitrwandatour.com/
African Birding Trips
Email: info@africanbirdingtrips.com
Website: https://africanbirdingtrips.com/
The above travel agencies and tour operators offer DR Congo safaris with pick up from Kigali international airport Rwanda. Trips to Congo can be extended to other East African destination such as Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The recommended companies organize both budget and luxury gorilla tracking safaris in Congo and other gorilla trekking destinations.
Choosing the best Congo Safari Operators & Travel Agencies for your next safari
Travelers planning for a trip to DR Congo must consider a number of factors before choosing safari operators & travel agencies for their next tour. Look out for the following;
Experience
Trips to DR Congo is a very unpredictable and experience of the operator matter a lot. Your travel agency should be experienced enough to plan your safari to Virunga national park, Kahuzi Biega and other travel destinations in Congo. An experienced tour company should be able to guide you on the best routes, handle security checks along the way and give proper travel distance accurately to handle your trip without issues.
Travel package offered
This is a major factor travelers consider before settling down with an agency or operator to arrange a safari to Virunga national park and other destinations in DR Congo. A good tour package must have less driving time, more time for activities, price friendly, at least standard facilities and provide the best memorable experiences.
DR Congo is a very big country; however most exciting tours are carried out in the eastern part more so in the Virunga conservation area. Other travel destinations are far apart from each other and the driving distances tend to be long therefore if your safari isn’t planned well, you might end up spending more time driving than carrying out activities or you will drive for long hours and feel tired to carry out activities. The driving distance should always be short to enable guests to be in good shape for your next adventure activity.
Pricing
Always avoid being cheated for Congo travel packages that cost less. Pricing a package is not as easy as you may think and it takes time and experience. Therefore, the cost of the package should favor your travel needs and preferences with value for money.
Inquiring with multiple travel agencies will give you an insight of the price range for a safari in DR Congo otherwise it is hard to determine how much a package can cost when you inquire with one or two Congo tour operators.
Customer Care
How respondent is the Congo travel agency you are booking a safari with? How do they respond to your inquiries? Is the communication perfect or rather just like any other normal business communication? Customer care portrays itself right from your first inquiry to the time of confirming your trip. Therefore, you should take it seriously.
The assumption is, any company that communicates with you is more likely to offer the very best service during your travel in DR Congo. Some guests interact with tour consultants to the extent of asking them to accompany them during their safari.
Affiliations to Travel Associations
Is the Safari Operators & Travel Agencies you are dealing with affiliated to any travel associations in the country or outside the country? Currently, the most powerful travel association in Uganda is Association of Uganda Tour operators (AUTO), Association des Tours Operateurs et Agences de Voyage en RDC (ATOAV-RDC) in DR Congo, Kenya Association of Tour Operators (KATO) in Kenya, Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) in Tanzania, Rwanda Tours and Travel Association (RTTA) in Rwanda among others.
These local travel associations guarantee you financial security and have a list of guidelines for travel agencies & tour operators which help to maintain a list of only credible operators as their members.
It’s very uncertain to hear that a member of any association has engaged into a wrong activity.
There are some circumstances when you feel comfortable with a nonmember of any association. Do not rule them out because they lack the affiliation because they can still offer you a lifetime safari experience at friendly costs. Simply look at their past reviews and make a decision.
Is the Congo Safari Operators & Travel Agencies fully registered?
There are a number of ways to find out if a safari company is registered and incorporated to operate within the laws of their respective countries.
First of all, make deposits onto the company bank accounts (only registered companies get company bank accounts), You can also check for their membership in any local based association (Before becoming a member, travel associations request for original company registration documents before approval and listing companies on their websites) and checking for their membership on Safari Bookings (They also request for scanned original company documents before listing members).
There are many other ways to find out if the agency is fully registered to run safaris however, we have listed for you the easiest way to track.
However, making deposits to company bank accounts and checking for membership of the company in any association is the best way so far. We don’t highly recommend Safari Bookings option because anyone can forge documents and get listed.
What if the travel agency or tour operator you are dealing with is registered in another country? This happens so much! The only way is to make deposits on the company bank accounts. The above list is made up of only fully registered travel agencies based in Uganda and run safaris in the entire East African region.
What does Tripadvisor or Safari Bookings say about Safari Operators & Travel Agencies in Congo?
These platforms are very important to travelers planning for a trip in Congo and they tell a lot about a safari company or agency. They host reviews from past guests which can help you identify the bad and good safari companies to deal with. Visit them, look for reviews and if you come across any bad reviews about a Congo tour operator that is related to financial problems, we strongly advise you not to book with that company. Your best travel agencies in DR Congo or any other destination in East Africa should have at least a 4.5 plus review rating on TripAdvisor and Safari Bookings.
Google Business Verification
This may not matter a lot however; it helps you locate the exact offices of a tour operator on a google map. Most reputable Congo travel agencies and safari operators have their businesses verified on google maps and this can be confirmed by looking right of search results on Google’s Knowledge Graph.
How to Make Safe and Secure Payments for your Congo Travel Safari and Tour.
We would say not so many payment methods are supported by majority of safari operators in DR Congo and Africa in general however, we have managed to list down some of the most common and safe methods you can use to make payments for your trip to Africa.
- Bank transfer (EFT)
Currently direct bank transfers to company bank accounts is the safest way of making payments for your African safari to Congo and any other destination. This method commonly known as Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), wire transfer or whatever you may call it. Funds transferred via this method normally takes 4 – 7 working days to reflect on the tour operators’ accounts.
Pros; Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) are supported worldwide and is very effective especially when it comes to trust. Wiring money onto the company bank accounts is one way of possible ways to know that you are dealing with a fully registered travel agency because such accounts are only offered to registered safari tour operators and travel agencies. All tour operators in Congo and East African region support EFT, hence, the coverage is quite high compared to other methods of payment.
Cons; The charges associated with Electronic Funds Transfer, is usually high depending on the bank you are sending money to. In an incident where the operator mistakenly provides you with a local currency like UGX account instead of a USD or EURO account, the money would be converted to the local currency automatically at the bank rate which is quite low compared to the normal rates in the market for example 1 dollar may cost about UGX 3500 from Forex Bureaus but UGX 3100 from a bank which is quite a low exchange rate. Always confirm with your travel agency if you are sending money to USD / EURO account instead of a local currency account.
- Pesapal
Pesapal works pretty much the same like 2CheckOut however, 2CheckOut is more powerful, well established and supports most countries around the world. Through Pesapal, you can securely make payments using a credit card (VISA & MASTERCARD) direct to travel agencies’ account through an embedded form that should exist on their respective websites. Pesapal normally sends a notification through your email with a payment confirmation link as a verification measure.
Pros; Pesapal is very easy to use and is definitely one of the most reliable ways to make credit card payments to Africa. A few operators have point of sale machines (POS) in Congo and within East African region therefore; most agencies use Pesapal to process card payments. Another advantage is the low surcharge of about 3.5% of the total amount to process your payments.
Cons; At tines the system of Pesapal isn’t yet stable and up to standard. You might not feel the weight on your end but several travel agencies & safari operators in Congo complain about their services. Their customer care is not that standard and you can’t be guaranteed that they will charge your credit card, we have had scenarios when correct details fail to be charged via Pesapal and allow to be charged via a POS machine with same details. We would say that their system isn’t yet up to standard but it works just well.
- Credit card
Yes, you should provide your credit card details to only trust worthy Congo travel agencies and safari operators. A few agencies have point of sale machines and are able to charge your credit card directly if you provide them with valid details.
Pros; Transfers done using credit cards are very quick and can be initiated easily irrespective of where you are. Bank processes are bit complicated compared to credit card payments hence you can save yourself from a lot of hustle making payments through credit cards.
Cons; Very few travel agencies / operators have POS machines. Most of them rely on Electronic Funds Transfer / Wire Transfers hence making payments using a credit card might be hard if a company lacks a Pesapal account.
Methods to avoid
You can make safe and secure payments for your African safari travel and tour using any of the above-mentioned methods however try as hard as you can to avoid transferring money on personnel bank accounts, use of Western Union, MoneyGram, Skrill (MoneyBookers), Payza, cryptocurrencies, PerfectMoney among others that we haven’t recommended. Many scammers use such payment platforms to process their payments therefore, always think twice before making any transactions through them unless you are very sure of the safari company you are dealing with.