Tour Price (Per person): USD5,000 (GBP3,851 * EUR4,400 * AUD7,141)
Pricing notes : Tour price estimate based on a minimum group size of 6 guests. Please contact our Tailor-made team on tailormade@rockjumper.com for more details and accurate costs.
Referred to as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean, the island of Socotra is a biodiversity jewel with almost 700 endemics species of flora and fauna. Our weeklong tour is designed to enjoy a wide variety of habitats to find all the principal island endemic and potential future endemic birds. Along the way, we are sure to find several interesting reptiles and plants, as well as enjoy the idyllic and rarely visited landscapes.
This tour is made available through our Tailor-made tours department. To explore this offering further for pricing, precise day to day itinerary, inclusions & exclusions, or to tailor the tour to your personal requirements, please contact our Tailor-made team on tailormade@rockjumper.com
Persian Shearwater; Masked Booby; Socotra Cormorant; Socotra Buzzard; Sooty Gull; Socotra Scops Owl; Socotra Warbler; Socotra Cisticola; Socotra Starling; Socotra White-eye; Socotra Sunbird; Socotra Sparrow; Socotra Golden-winged Grosbeak; Socotra Bunting
wadis, lagoons, beaches, mountains, scrub, gravel plains
tropical desert, high temperatures year round with light rain possible
reasonable, some longer days in the field. Walking is mostly easy with a few moderate walks over uneven ground can be expected
comfortable
mostly easy with a few tricky species
Dragon's Blood Tree (Dracaena cinnabari), very rarely visited island
good to excellent
I really enjoyed having Lev as a tour guide, he was very knowledgeable and helpful and great at giving directions to see "hidden" birds in the jungle.
This was a great tour and exceeded all my very high expectations. Having both Glen and Dušan as leaders was like having two olympians on your high school basketball team. As usual, the vehicles were too small for me, but Glen kindly allowed me to ride in the seat with the most legroom when possible. I have subsequently found out that I am definitely an outlier as far as client size is concerned. The tour was well planned, the schedule and guides flexible enough to work around complications, and the logistics aside from a glitch picking us up at the airport well executed.
Note that some of the comments I made regarding the Thailand extension apply to the main Thailand tour. I liked the sequence of sites visited; it ensured the Spoonbill Sandpiper was seen early on and then designed to minimize travel. Staying multiple nights at one site is always appreciated and seemed to be done as much as possible. The guides made special efforts to see bird species sought by the group; we saw more bird species than I expected. The drivers were excellent and also one of them, Jaime, was a good birder who helped the guides track down some species; it was an asset to have internet while in the vehicles. The drivers also produced an excellent video of the trip - a nice touch; they also did an excellent job with mid-morning breaks. I especially enjoyed visiting a hide all morning early on in the trip - it gave us a chance to see some elusive species but also several species very well. One morning was spent looking for a rare duck; I would have rather spent the time looking for a variety of Thai species. Quite a bit of birding was done along roads - it might have been better to bird trails etc. if they are available and afford good views of birds pointed out. Food was excellent (Uthai selected great dishes for the group) and accomodations were good. It was an enjoyable trip with rewarding looks at many of the bird species seen.
While the birding was more difficult, the guides knowledge on where to search for some of the key species. Helped the group find a number of very interesting species of birds.
Paul brought in his wealth of experience. He worked well with Ashoka to make sure nothing was lost in translation. One member sustained an injury on day 1, probably because he declined the extra help offered on a slightly slippery walk. Paul and Ashoka took charge of the situation immediately, made sure the rest of the group was comfortable while getting help. It was incredible that the injured person managed to complete the trip with a walker. Ashoka is a highly experienced local guide. He went out of the way to accommodate our birding and non-birding (request to try local food) requests. Both Paul and Ashoka were always calm and very pleasant, paying individual attention to every person and ensured we had a memorable experience.
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