Royle Safaris Reviews 30

Sichuan Mammal Tour 2026
The joining instructions were full of information easy understand and the tour was well planned out while also being flexible enough to allow for changes - which were needed on this tour due to local weather conditions.

The tour took us to the best hotspots to look for the main mammal targets, The Red Pandas, Golden Snub Nosed, and the Giant Panda which was obviously the main highlight of the tour and was seen very well. The knowledge of the local guides also took us into the heart of the Chinese Mountain Cats territory with great sightings.

The dinners were quality throughout the tour, breakfast and lunches were much simpler and often while out on the road looking for wildlife but still good and there was always more than enough. The hotels were also very good, clean, warm, with good showers. We travelled in three comfortable 4x4 vehicles with three pax in each vehicle.

Well planned, researched and an all round excellent tour. Thanks to Royle Safaris and the excellent local guides it was successful in finding many iconic mammals, and birds!

Martin flawlessly organised a 2 week family wildlife experience for us to Costa Rica. It was very important to us, that the holiday concentrated on eco friendly accommodation and eco tourism and that our children (and us) really got a feel for the natural world in Costa Rica. And my goodness we absolutely did! It was truly unforgettable and one of the most awesome and biodiverse places we have ever been. The transfers between hotels was perfect and we met many knowledgeable guides who made our experience very educational. Totally recommend this company for any wildlife adventure.

Royle safaris organised our trip to the Valdes peninsular in Argentina to fulfil a long held desire to witness the spectacle of Orcas beaching themselves in pursuit of sealion pups. We can honestly say that the holiday exceeded our expectations in all respects. The guides, organisation and flexibility were all faultless. Martin will go out of his way to ensure your particular wishes are catered for and always replies to e-mail queries very quickly, we couldn't have been happier.

It’s taken me some months to decide to write a review and in doing so I decided because of future customers safety. An important fact others must be aware of I had considered over many weeks communicating with Martin Royle a promising future for my several specialty wildlife travels were solved. Not so. I travelled to an extremely remote area in Tibet and there was no transport whatsoever in the Himalayas apart from our 2 vehicles. The group of 8 was given an options because of the tours transport problem which occurred to leave the mountains a day before the tour ended. Myself and another accepted. I informed Martin Royle with many lengthy emails the transport problem as well as the difficulties due to the tour leader and his group members favouritism. To my complete shock Martin Royle put in writing via a email that because I had left the tour voluntarily it was my responsibility to return to England. Be aware of this clause together with the company’s callousness to desert a fully paid in advance customer alone in a remote area in the mountains of the Himalayas in Tibet

We had an excellent and incredibly successful trip to Western Sahara with Royle Safaris. Two separate Sand Cat sightings, each providing prolonged views and outstanding photos! Thanks to the Royle Safaris team for organizing an incredible trip!

I have taken two trips to Africa organized by Royle Safaris and can report that they have both been first-class experiences. The itineraries for Gabon (2022) and Ghana (2025) ensured that we saw an extraordinary variety of wildlife, with experienced guides and fixers. Somehow Martin figures out how to get his clients to where they need to be and keep them fed and safe, even in logistically complex countries like Gabon. For me, these were trips of a lifetime. I would highly recommend Royle Safaris

A well organised trip with lots of nice animal sighings.

I have been on 3 group tours with Royal Safaris, to Gabon, Sichuan and Qinghai and 2 private tours, to Ecuador and Spain. All have been excellent and have had astounding wildlife encounters. The company is very responsive to emails and Martin Royle is incredibly knowledgeable.

I have been on close to 20 trips in over 10 years with Royle Safaris. The principal of Royle Safaris, Martin Royle, specializes in organizing trips which seek out rare and hard to find animals. He organizes trips with the help of local guides, he has vetted himself, who know the area intimately and are often successful at making sightings of rare animals possible.
Through his trips, Martin (Royle Safaris) has made it possible for me to see a large number of rare and magnificent animals I had previously thought not able to be seen in the wild.
I continue to go on trips with Royle Safaris because it offers new and exciting trips every year for different animals and I can count on trips hosted by Royle Safaris to be: well planned, organized and fun.

We had a brilliant holiday in India seeing many different species of wildlife. Royle Safaris arranged everything perfectly and came up with an itinerary that exactly suited our needs. I would definitely recommend this company.

I have been on 5 tours organized by Royle Safaris (India, China, Ecuador, Borneo and Sulawesi), from which 2 were lead by Martin Royle, the owner of the company. In my opinion, it is THE tour company for specialist mammal tours, simply because there is no other tour company with such a wide variety of tours that target unusual mammal species. Many of the specialist tours they offer you wont find on any other website. All tours I have been on were well planned, led by great people and were generally successful. Martin himself is a great guy and very knowledgeable, that also helped me at times with information outside of his trips.
I always keep an eye out for new itineraries by royle safaris and for sure will be on more trips in the future.

Local guides and our tour leader were excellent in spotting the wildlife and the trip was well organised.
Interestingly all the other people on the tour with me had travelled with Royle safaris before which was a good recommendation

I have used Royle Safaris for multiple group and private trips in the past. I keep coming back to use them for many reasons.
1. They are super quick to answer and get back to you. A high level of professionalism goes along with this.
2. They use some of the best local guides in the mammal watching business. Some that are tried and true and know the best locations to find some of the harder to see species.
3. If it is a species or a thing they do not offer they work to find a way to make things happen.
They also work in some of the more remote area of wildlife watching, but keep in tune with customers needs. Definitely a company to use if you are interested in mammal watching- both the more unique species and the usual suspects!

Trip was well organized with a great local guide. Everything was efficient, with good communication, and pickup times and I saw everything that I wanted to see.

We have been on multiple trips with Royle Safaris. Martin is always incredibly helpful & patient. The trips themselves have been awesome. We did Japan in Winter (2019), Namibia (2022) & Yellowstone in Autumn(2023). On each occasion the guides were brilliant - very knowledgeable & did their level best to get you the wildlife shots you were after. We got some wonderful pictures and stayed in some really nice lodges. We also got the majority of our target species on each occasion. To clarify that the Aardwolf and Brown Hyenas were a bit of a stretch & Martin did tell us that at the time so they wee more nice to have.

This year Royle have sorted us out with a trip to Brazil to look for Maned Wolves & River Dolphins I am soooo looking forward to it

We are both very well travelled wildlife enthusiasts. This was our first trip with Royle Safaris, we were attracted to the trip by the impressive itinerary which covered most of Vietnam's wildlife hot spots and on paper could give us sightings of up to 15 species, most of which are critically endangered. In actual fact we secured 12/13 primate species. (Does a tail only count?). 26 mammals recorded including the rare Annamite Muntjac, 131 bird species without trying and 6 reptile species including the Siamese Crocodile.
The quality of guiding throughout the trip was exceptional, Luc worked very hard to secure sightings and had an excellent knowledge of where to find them. He was one of the best and most committed guides we have ever had.
The accommodation was also of a high standard with one manageable exception, the food was generally good to excellent throughout.
We did one internal flight and did quite a lot of road miles which gave us the opportunity to see a great deal of Vietnam. Our vehicles were always comfortable and safely driven. Group size was 5.
We did the Cat Ba extension which I would recommend.
Generally this was an excellent trip and we loved Vietnam the scenery particularly in the north is exceptional.
We would certainly use Royle Safaris again and recommend, infact we have booked a private rare mammal trip to SA for early next year with RS's.
Communications with Martin who is clearly very busy was very impressive, all queries were dealt with quickly and effectively. A very enjoyable and successful trip all round. We did think for us it also represented excellent value for money. J & A Weir. Sept 2025.

Ultimate primate tour to see Mountain Gorillas and Chimpanzees and other primates in Uganda and Rwanda, Excellent guide and driver who made the experience more memorable, 2 different countries with different primate experiences with Mountain Gorillas and Chimpanzees. With some opportunities to experience other animals and birds including some other primates.

The two tours we have done with Royle Safaris both have been simply amazing. The first tour was to Brazil and the second to the Western Sahara. The guides have all been wonderful with lots of enthusiasm. We love the way these tours immerge you into the local way of living, such as the provided food. The tours also give freedom to your personal preferences. We asked about the bats in the Western Sahara and M. Royle immediately tried to contact somebody whom has bats roosting in his house. In Brazil we indicated that we liked the idea of spotlighting, and lo and behold, next we know we were spotlighting multiple nights in a row. Both tours were with amazing wildlife sightings. I am an ecologist by profession and the tours of Royle Safaris totally fit my idea of "dream safaris". I cherish my memories of our experiences during the tours and can't wait for our next tour. Some countries can be quite dangerous to travel to, but we have felt save and at ease at all times.

Great wildlife trip to the Dominican Republic. We saw every endemic bird and mammal in the country, as well as many Caribbean endemics. On top of that we saw many non-endemics new to us as well as reptiles including rhinoceros iguanas. Well run trip and very satisfied.

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.