Royle Safaris Reviews 

My husband and I had a wonderful time in Borneo, Malaysia with Royle Safaris. The local guides were excellent and very knowledgeable on the rainforest and its inhabitants. We had some great sightings of enigmatic wildlife and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend this trip.

My recent trip to Uganda was my 9th trip with Royle Safaris, and they never fail to deliver. As usual, Royle attracts really fun, interesting people to their group trips. I had a blast with my new friends! The "usual" Uganda wildlife such as elephants, lions, chimps and gorillas all put on spectacular shows, but where Royle really goes above and beyond is with the more difficult animals to find - like the African golden cat (we saw 2!). It can be a logistical nightmare trying to get access to productive areas for some of the more underappreciated animals of the world (clouded leopard, Pygmy hippo, Caspian seal), but Royle always amazes me with the experiences they line up. Field time looking for animals is maximized both day and night. You will likely see and learn about animals you have never even heard of ... it happens to me on every single Royle trip. I always feel like I have made authentic personal discoveries on each expedition ... and with the best comforts available in any given region.

Several of my trips were solo trips I requested to chase some of my personal interests. Martin and the Royle crew went to great lenghts to bring me face to face with many of my dream animals, and no detail was sacrificed simply because I was a solo traveler.

The guides for every trip are truly local experts who know the wilderness, know how to find wildlife and know how to manage regional complications. Feel safe - you will be in good hands. Also, I love how Royle supports locally run businesses with their hotel choices and such.

Final notes: I already have several trips lined up with Royle for 2026 so my above comments are sincere. Royle is my "go to" wildlife company. I recommend getting on their mailing list as that is the best way to know what trips are upcoming, and sometimes opportunity knocks with fairly short warning.

Royle Safaris is THE premier company for rare, elusive wildlife. This company has worked miracles to get me access to some of the hardest places to get to and I've been fortunate to see some of the most amazing wildlife on earth because of their services. Giant Pangolin, Giant Panda, Sumatran Tigers and many other amazing trips! Thank you Royle Safaris!

My group tour to Uganda and Namibia was my third adventure with Royle Safaris, having used them twice before on private bespoke tours to Nepal and Brazil. All three were handled with the utmost professionalism from planning all the way through execution. Finding rare mammals in their natural environments can be challenging, but Martin is very passionate about wildlife and uses guides who share his passion and make sure that the clients have great experiences.

Royle Safaris provided an exceptional opportunity for a small group tour to see a wide variety of mammals including snow leopards in their natural habitat of the Tibetan Plateau in China. The company uses local guides who know the area well, provide a professional yet personal approach and are committed to ensuring the group has the best spotting opportunities for the often elusive animals. We couldn’t have asked for a better pair of guides as the number of animals spotted was well beyond expectations. The guides took excellent care of all members of the group ensuring individual needs and interests were served. The company kept all well informed and responded quickly to any questions or concerns. I highly recommend Royle Safaris and look forward to another tour with the company.

Royle Safari is THE specilist for naturalist trips focused on rare mammals. We had already 2 trips with them : Vietnam especially for monkeys, and Sichuan for central China mammals. Thanks to the excellent knowledge of their guides and a perfect organisation, we managed to see some of the most difficult and endangered species of mammals.
We hope to go again with them for other exciting mammals trips.

We have been on 22 wildlife safaris, in 2024 we visited Kenya, Brazil and Tasmania. We will not be using Royle Safaris again because we are not a good fit for their style of safaris. Our advice is, to do your research thoroughly, use a wide range of sources, do not rely solely on the information provided by the tour operator.

Last month I went with Royle Safaris to Gabon, having communicated with Martin Royle on and off for three years about the importance this trip had for me. Having planned the trip since 2014 this was the first time that I had someone organise the trip for me rather than me organising a holiday myself. Gabon would be my 22nd trip to Africa so I knew what to expect and I also realise that things can go awry - it is just part of the adventure.

Having splashed out the cash equivalent of a brand new small car for a trip not even two weeks long, I was expecting great things but, oh, this took the biscuit:

Firstly there was the guide. In line with the statement made on the company website, Martin Royle Safaris had promised a naturalist/zoologist to guide our small group of five (all extremely well travelled!!! and very knowledgable where wildlife was concerned). The guide who was provided introduced himself to us as a "specialist in mammals". It soon turned out that he was a dog walker with no formal qualifications whatsoever, let alone in biology/ecology or wildlife. He arrived on the trip with a list of animals HE wanted to see and for the entire tour all we would hear would be "I want to see the yellow-backed duiker". He never once asked for any interests we might have. There was a British lady in the group whose specialist interest were birds. The guide did not know the name of a single bird, knew nothing about amphibians or reptiles - nothing!!! Whatever animal did not interest him, we would speed past! Now, you would think that his knowledge of mammals would be excellent but far from it, all that matter to him was that he had seen the animal. He provided NO information about feeding habits, gestation periods, role of the animal within the ecological context, nothing!!! What's more, in French-speaking Gabon he was soon stuck. As the only member of the group with very fluent (read: excellent) French, I soon found myself sequestered into his services to translate. As I use my languages at work every day it not only made me feel as though I was still at work but worse still, the guide used me as his mouthpiece to put his often unreasonable and sometimes dangerous demands to the local guides "I want to go into the forest at night. Why can we not do a night tour in the forest" (well, there are 100000 forest elephants in Gabon, so it is plainly DANGERIOUS). I could see in the faces of the local guides that they were taken aback by our guide's demands and I felt increasingly uncomfortable.

M Royle outsources the safari to locally based providers, in this case to a couple of Spanish guys one of whom lives in Cameroon and who runs a company called Middle Africa whom our trip was subcontracted to by M Royle Safaris. As part of their trip organisation they organised for us to go on a train to Lambarene. One of the Spaniards was terrified that we might miss the train that we were pulled from a safari truck and did not have any afternoon activity even though the train would only be departing at 11 pm at night. One other member of the group and I had verified this independently but the guide was so convinced that the train would be leaving at 7 pm that he would not listen, thus we were left kicking our heels for most of the day. What's more the train broke down after thirty minutes and we were stranded for a full eight hours leaving us arriving at Lambarene at 1pm the next day exhausted, stressed and overtired. When I raised my concerns with Martin Royle I initially got glib replies. He eventually promised not to use the guide again that I had complained about but Martin Royle does not knowledge vet any of his guides so there is nothing to protect future guests from having a similarly bad experience to the one I had. There are plenty of people purporting to have knowledge where there is none and who are looking to ride on the coat tails of others in a bid to get a cheap holiday for themselves without actually bringing something to the party ... Eventually M Royle offered me a five hundred pound discount on any next trip I would be doing with him but I have no faith in his services so will not be using him again ... next time you want to go on a safari to Gabon, do ensure that you independently verify the academic credentials of the guide on offer so that you get a good learning experience out of the trip ... or buy yourself a brand new small car instead. I had paid just over £8000 for the trip and found it wanting at every turn. Overall I am deeply disappointed in Royle Safaris and can categorically not recommend them.

Date of experience: 29 July 2024

I utilized Royle Safaris for a trip to Gabon in July. Normally, I organize my own holidays but realized that Gabon was a destination where that was next to impossible. Royle Safaris did a good job navigating a destination that literally has no tourism infrastructure. While we had a few travel issues that were outside our control (Gabon railway), the company's experience in this environment lead to quicker resolutions than those of travelers attempting to navigate on their own. Royle Safaris made sure all guests were safe and comfortable and had an enjoyable experience. Anyone visiting this destination should be an intrepid traveler who understands a measure of patience and a sense of humor go a long way toward making a successful holiday.