Tour Price (Per person): USD5,000 (GBP3,825 * EUR4,405 * AUD7,167)
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
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.
Our trip to Madagascar was wonderful! Rockjumper did a great job with tour logistics, lodging, etc. Best of all was our guide! Lev Frid is an amazing birding/nature guide. He is incredibly good at not only hearing, identifying and finding the birds, but Lev is also able to quickly (and patiently) help all the tour participants get on the birds. In addition, he is just a really fun guy to be with. His sense of humor kept us laughing and his wealth of birding stories kept everyone interested and engaged during the trip. It was amazing to see the wildlife of Madagascar and having Lev as a guide made our experience that much better.
Stu is a personable, helpful, and organized guide and was a pleasure to travel with. He was ready to help not only with finding and identifying birds, but also with little problems that popped up during our trip, as they so often do. Our local guide was likewise consistently friendly and helpful. My main concern is that on this trip, as on past Rockjumper trips, there doesn't seem to be any effort to vet the physical ability of potential group members, and as a result those of us who are prepared for the experience are held back by those who are physically not ready for it. I know that trips are rated on the website in regards to the level of exertion required, but this does not seem to help -- I have been on multiple tours with people who are not physically capable of maintaining a steady level of exertion while birding. This is not fair to those of us who are.
This tour group was very eclectic but really worked well together. The leaders including the van driver did an exceptional job.
The tour structure and arrangements were first class. Leaders were very good and quite knowledgable. I thought Paul was energetic a d really on the birds. Would gladly travel with him again. It was great fun and we got nearly every endemic on the trip. Great fun!!