Rainbow Tours Reviews 

Absolutely amazing trip to Madagascar - custom itinerary based on our interests - Derek was fantastic. The local partners were amazing and our guide - who was with us for the trip - Lionel - was extremely responsive and modified itinerary on the go as needed. Particularly impressed by coordination of team in dealing with travel delays and issues - proactively found solutions and alternatives.

We had the most incredible honeymoon to Kenya and Mauritius, organised by Craig at Rainbow Tours.

From our first enquiries over a year before departure, Craig was on hand throughout and was able to plan a bespoke holiday itinerary for us, working within our budget.

With his extensive knowledge of East African Safaris, Craig recommended “Kicheche Valley Camp” in the Naboisho Conservancy. This was a beautiful, traditional safari camp in a secluded valley with just 6 tents. The staff at the camp were superb - with attention to detail, amazing food and above all, genuine kindness and hospitality. The camp was peaceful and we felt so relaxed throughout our stay.

The game drives exceeded all expectations and our driver/guide (Vivien) was knowledgeable and experienced. Highlights were lion sightings almost every day, giraffes, elephants and one sighting each of the elusive leopard and cheetah (which we were not expecting). We also completed a balloon ride over the Masai Mara which was truly a once in a lifetime experience!

Following the safari, we had one day in Nairobi where we visited the Kazuri Bead factory (great for souvenir shopping), the giraffe centre (great value giving the opportunity to hand feed giraffes) and a visit to the Fairview Coffee Estate for an informative, fun guided tour.

Onto Mauritius, we had a relaxing week at Cannonier Beachcomber Hotel. I would recommend other travellers consider all inclusive here, which was good value and provided a variety of food options and cocktails. I also took full advantage of the on site scuba diving school (Diving World Mauritius) - well priced diving with experienced guides.

When the flights changed slightly between booking and going on the trip (beyond the control of Rainbow Tours), Craig was able to help us adjust our itinerary accordingly while allowing us to stay within our budget. This involved changing hotel bookings and adding additional activities, Craig sorted all of this and it caused us no disruption at all - in fact it enhanced our experience as we were able to do activities in Nairobi which we might not have considered.

Overall an extremely positive experience and I would thoroughly recommend Rainbow Tours to anybody looking for a bespoke wildlife holiday to Africa!

We had a fantastic time! The suggested itinerary (Tortuguero, La Fortuna, Monteverde & Manuel Antonio) was excellent—well thought out and full of great experiences. That said, we were really glad we added a rest day at the end to unwind, especially since the location and hotel were so lovely.

All the transfers went off without a hitch—drivers were punctual, friendly, and professional. The same goes for the activities and guides, who made everything easy and enjoyable.

If we were to tweak anything, it would be to swap out one of the nature hikes for something with a bit more adrenaline, especially for our teenager—something like an adventure activity in Arenal would’ve been a fun addition.

The hotels were comfortable and offered a variety of breakfast options to suit all tastes.

Overall, a well-organized and memorable trip! We would happily recommend Rainbow Tours.

Rainbow Tours excelled when sorting out our holiday of a lifetime on Safari in South Africa and Mauritius.
Nikki was excellent. She was extremely helpful answering all of our queries and giving good advice where we needed it. She helped accommodate our different needs within the family, negotiating tweaks with our accommodation, which was very much appreciated. Our holiday exceeded our expectations. All the flights and transfers went smoothly and our safari lodge and hotel in Mauritius were outstanding. All The staff were very friendly and went out of their way to make us feel welcome and looked after. I could tell that the hotels had been personally checked out by Rainbow tours and everything about them was perfect for our needs. The food was amazing in both places and the locations were stunning. Thanks so much Nikki and Rainbow tours for giving us a wonderful time with beautiful memories. I highly recommend you and will be using you again.

Awesome company with unmatched experience and knowledge of the areas covered. Coordination with local operators is flawless. If you want a special trip with no stress or worry it’s Rainbow Tours 100%

Craig from Rainbow ensured our itinerary fitted our aspirations, we stayed at little governors which was just perfect, exactly the right balance of adventure and safety
We saw the big 5 across the 3 days, waiting an hour for the Rhino to show herself and when she did we had the additional treat of a baby Rhino too! Giraffes Elephants and a zebra in abundance, quite a few lions too. Plus 2 leopards and a cheetah. The staff at the camp were terrific, helpful, friendly and genuine.

We dealt with Craig from Rainbow having previously used them for a trip to Costa Rica. Craig was superb we wanted to do Gorilla trekking then a safari finishing with some beach relaxing time. It was a very special trip for our family so we wanted it to be just right. His patience with us was incredible as we constantly were asking to tweak the itinerary (we got there in the end!) I can not praise Craig highly enough the trip he organised was flawless and it was so nice to switch off and know that everything had been taken care of. We loved everywhere we stayed and have literally just had the best family holiday of our lives. I wish there was more than 5 stars that we could give Craig. Thank you so much!!! Would not hesitate to recommend him and Rainbow and we are so so grateful for everything.

Rainbowtours' suggestions and assistance made our Mexican holiday a memorable one for all the family, offering the right mix of history, culture, adventure, wildlife, natural beauty and relaxation. Their guidance on, and booking of, excursions, adventures and sight-seeing fit our needs perfectly, as did their choice of hotels, flights and connections. Reliable local guides offered insightful information & made our holiday hassle-free and enabled us to enjoy every minute of it

We have just returned after having an incredible time on a 6 day drive safari from the Ngorongoro crater through to the central Serengeti and then upto the north. The crater was breath taking . We saw so many different animals and the landscape was just beautiful and so varied . The drive through the Serengeti was another experience in itself In the central Serengeti we saw so many lion cubs, giraffes, elephants and many antelope species and much more On route from the central to the north a migration of around 2000 wilder beast and zebras passed in front of our jeep An experience we will never forget ! In the North the highlight has to be coming across 2 herds of elephants who passed metres from our jeep, cheetahs and seeing a leopard in a tree . The vastness of the Serengeti is just breathtaking .

The accommodation we stayed in was also very very special We stayed at the Namali Central Serengeti and the Aurari camp in the north The staff , their level of service , attention to detail and food was beyond 5 star At both of these camps the staff really couldn’t do enough for us We were treated like royalty.
The 6 days drive safari was truly a magical experience .

This incredible drive Safari would not have been so if it hadn’t been for the professionalism and commitment from Rainbow tours representative Craig Haufman . His knowledge , enthusiasm and commitment for ensuring our holiday ran smoothly and met our high expectations was truly exceptional Even more so as the evening before we were due to fly through Doha, the airspace was closed . Craig worked relentlessly for 7 hours working through the options to enable us to fly via an alternative route . The positive outcome ensured our holiday took place without further delay. We really cannot thank Craig enough .

In addition , a big thank must go to Takim holidays who organised all the ground work for the safari and a special thank you to Filbert our guide for the 6 days He as so knowledgeable and a very friendly thoughtful person which made the drive so enjoyable. Again a very professional company who are set up to please their customers.

Our final destination was the Neptune Pwami hotel in Zanzibar where we were able to chill and reflect on what was truly an amazing holiday

In summary , this truly was a very very special holiday all round .One which we will never forget

Thank you Craig and Rainbow tours You are highly recommended and we look forward to booking our next holiday with you .

Great from Start to Finish!
From the moment I reached out, the experience was seamless. Excellent communication, professional service, and everything delivered exactly as promised. Highly recommend!

We've just returned from a great holiday in Madagascar, going first to Andasibe then touring the northern circuit before spending an interesting day in Tana before flying home. The guides and drivers were excellent and we liked all the different hotels/lodges we stayed in, ranging from the rather more rustic Akiba Lodge (Black Lemur) through to gorgeous Eden Lodge (fabulous beach/location/food/staff). Needless to say, we saw a very good range of wildlife, both diurnal and nocturnal. The only slight travel blip was when our Madagascar Airlines plane was unable to land at Diego Suarez due to very high winds and we were diverted to Nosy Be. Rainbow's reps on the ground were brilliant, arranging overnight accommodation for us in Nosy Be then transport back to the mainland and on to where we should have been. Thank you Rainbow - we loved it!

The company listened to what we wanted and helped us sort out everything they gave us great ideas and advice. Craig was extremely supportive and had great knowledge. We would definitely recommend them. Well done guys.

It was an absolute pleasure to book our holiday with Rainbow Tours, we had the most amazing trip and I can't thank Rainbow enough for this. I first stumbled upon Rainbow as I was trying to find a travel company that organised trips to Madikwe (as this was our first safari holiday we wanted to travel to a reserve that was malaria free and so Madikwe was somewhere we were keen to visit) and Rainbow had plenty of options in Madikwe. I called Rainbow and spoke with Louise who was very accommodating and answered my million questions. This was our first safari holiday so naturally we had a lot of questions and concerns about what a safari holiday entails. Louise pulled together so many different holiday packages and had lots of ideas and ultimately we decided to go to Madikwe, Eastern Cape and Cape Town in our trip. We had a jam packed trip with lots of flights and transfers and it all went so smoothly. We had the best service with Rainbow and they made sure I had the most amazing birthday trip. I would 100% recommend Rainbow and will definitely be booking more trips in the future.

If you want professional service, helpful advice and fair prices then I would recommend Rainbow tours. We have travelled with them a lot and they have never let us down!

Have used RT for a few trips so returned for this one to Ecuador and Galapagos. The itinerary was great. Very flexible for changes I wanted to make. Gave good advice for a first time visitor to the country. We thought the process was reasonable too. Thank you.

OMG, our trip to South Africa & Zimbabwe exceeded every single one of our expectations. We worked with Nikki, the Rainbow Tours Africa specialist, to get exactly what we wanted and she was super-helpful. From the minute we landed in Jo’berg we knew this was something special. The driver who took us to the hotel was great fun and the hotel was just gorgeous with a super restaurant. Our flight to Timbervati Game Reserve (Bataleur Safari Lodge) went smoothly and the lodge was incredible. We saw EVERYTHING, the big 5 and much more and we loved the relaxed atmosphere and friendly people. The high standards of service continued as we transferred to Summerfields Rose Retreat at Hazyview for two nights. We didn’t want to leave! Every driver we had was lovely and always on time. Finally we flew to Victoria Falls and the gorgeous Ilala Lodge. More luxury and lovely people and stunning views of the falls. Absolutely nothing could have been better. We are already looking at a trip for next year.

Derek Schuurman planned our tour of Madagascar. He is so passionate and knowledgeable and did an excellent job. He listened to our preferences and arrange a superb tour. We would not have changed a thing. We are well-travelled and used many companies, but this service stood out. We travelled in October 2019 and made a recent enquiry to which Derek showed the same enthusiasm.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in South America. The comfort of knowing transfers, hotels and tours were all taken care of meant we could throw ourselves into the holiday completely relaxed. This was our first time heading to the continent and it was incredible. Peru was amazing! Condor Travel who we were with in Peru were great at informing us of upcoming timings and who would be meeting us. The tours were interesting and detailed. The only issue we had was that the itinerary from Rainbow did not match what we actually did. Rainbow had stated in Lima we would be visiting the coastal park in Lima and the salt flats in the Sacred Valley which we were looking forward to. However, the itineraries did match what Condor supplied to us on our arrival bar the walk to the ruins Ollantaytambo where we ran out of daylight.
Machu Pichu was one of the highlights of the tour. We were incredibly lucky to have beautiful weather the first day which meant we got to see all the incredible views. The only downside of this time was that we were booked onto the same your when we had discussed doing another route. Luckily, we were able to swap tours ourselves by talking to the manager of the site on the day. Our tour guide on day was brilliant and shared with us what we would see on day two, so we knew the route and the highlights to look out for.
The Peru section finished with a tour of Cusco that was amazing. The tour guide added in an alpaca sanctuary which was a great bonus. Our last day was a trip to Rainbow Mountain. It was a difficult walk but such an incredible achievement for us. Thankfully, it turned out we were not on the tour mentioned in the Rainbow itinerary but on a shorter walk which was a blessing in disguise. We went through all possible weathers from snow, rain to beautiful sunshine. The team again kept us feeling motivated, supported and kept us laughing throughout the walk.
Argentina was great. Our Buenos Aires tour was informative, and La Boca was a wonderful place to wander around. The tour was missing the Recoleta Cemetery mentioned on the itinerary, so we had to return at our own expense later. Iguazu falls was spectacular. We enjoyed both sides of the falls and were lucky enough to get onto the boat rides (low water levels meant they were not running the day before and morning of our visit).
Rio was a fabulous end to our trip. Time to see some world-renowned attractions and get some well-earned R&R. We were a little sceptical about Rio before going but the area we stayed meant we could wander from our hotel both in the day and evening areas and felt safe throughout. Our tour guide did all transfers and tours which was great. He seemed to have a fantastic relationship with the hotel and gave some excellent local recommendations for a Churrasco restaurant and the perfect sunset viewing spot.
Overall, the hotels we stayed in throughout our stay were great, all our tour guides and transfers were fantastic, and the tours were spectacular even if they did not quite match as advertised. Our contact with Rainbow in the build-up was really good. Using Rainbow was absolutely the right way for us to travel to South America for the first time and we would recommend using them.

A few tour companies do a very similar South America tour, but we went with Rainbow due to better value for money, personal service and some friends had a good experience with them too. Pleased to say they didn't disappoint. Some minor changes made to hotels, tours and experiences ahead of the trip but all communicated well by Jake who was incredibly helpful throughout. Four different countries with four different local tour companies, but every single pick up, drop off - of which there were many - were on time making it so easy for us. Many of our tours were private and felt like real VIP's being driven round and given a personal service. If you prefer to be bussed around with the same crowd and get to know people, then maybe go elsewhere, but if you want a personalised service, amazing experiences with friendly, professional and experienced tour guides and organisers, then Rainbow is for you. Thank you so much Rainbow, we absolutely loved our South America Tour.

My third African trip with this company. Excellent planning and administration. Good trips that included the must do’s and see’s
The accommodation was varied but all excellent, the transfers and internal flights worked without a hitch! A safari in Botswana with Rainbow is highly recommended. You will not be disappointed.