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Wildlife Tours & Cruises

Get up close and personal to incredible endemic species and experience breathtaking one of a kind encounters on a wildlife tour or cruise. From the plains of Africa and the rainforest canopies of Borneo to the wilds of Alaska and the shores of the Galapagos, there are 504 wildlife adventures to choose from for your next exploration of our incredible planet.

Popular Trips View all

21 Days Arusha to Nairobi

Operator: Bunnik Tours

From 20,194
Save 509

16 Days Cape Town to Johannesburg

Operator: Cosmos

From 7,725
Save 265

12 Days Cape Town to Johannesburg

Operator: Globus

From 9,140
Save 176

14 Days Victoria Falls to Victoria Falls

Operator: Explore!

From 6,356
Save 774

Discover Popular encounters and experiences on a specialist wildlife tour

Polar Bears of Churchill

Polar Bears of Churchill

Join an expert naturalist guide in the heart of Canadian polar bear country and keep an eye out for these beautiful creatures and other amazing Arctic wildlife.

Borneo Wildlife Adventure

Borneo Wildlife Adventure

Travel through Sabah on the lookout for proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants before melting into the big brown eyes of the orangutans at the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre.

Spot the Big 5

Spot the Big 5

Set off in search of the Big 5 on a safari adventure through the wilds of Africa. Queue the goose bumps as you get up close to incredible species in their natural habitat.

Trek to the Mountain Gorillas

Trek to the Mountain Gorillas

Take a small group hiking adventure into the forests of Rwanda and Uganda to share an unforgettable moment with the gorilla families who call them home. A truly breathtaking experience to observe to these magnificent primates.

Island Hop the Galápagos

Island Hop the Galápagos

Discover incredible biodiversity as you island hop this beautiful archipelago on the lookout for species on land, in the sky, and beneath the surface, from marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies to sea lions and giant tortoises.

Recent Reviews What our clients are saying about their wildlife tours and cruises

Amazing South Africa     , VIC, Australia, Oct 2024
The trip was absolutely amazing. Most of the accommodation was fantastic & the hospitality staff were so friendly, they bent over backwards to give us the best service we've ever had. Our guide was absolutely wonderful & my fellow travellers were a great bunch, made up of Australians, Americans & Canadians. I would definitely travel with Collette again ...read more & I would have no hesitation in booking through Global Journeys again.
A tour in 2 parts   , QLD, Australia, Jun 2024
Much to my surprise, this "tour" by Travel Marvel was in fact 2 subcontracted tours to local African providers and appeared loosely "co-ordinated" by Travelmarvel. As such, it was more like 2 distinct tours, with 2 different companies, one for southern Africa, the other for Kenya and Tanzania. The latter part was wonderful - Albatross Tours in Kenya ...read more and Tanzania did a wonderful, fully professional job with an outstanding knowledgeable guide and drivers, well crafted plans, excellent communication and implementation. Accommodation was excellent and transport also great - although there were some VERY long days (8 hours+) in 4wd's on dreadfully rough tracks which were tough on all of us and saw many of the older, less fit members of the group having to miss sections of the trip due to fatigue. Albatross would easily gain a 5 Star revue for their share of the trip.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Giltedge Travel who were responsible for the first part of the trip from Capetown or Kruger to Chobe River. Our Giltedge tour leader was a poor communicator, disorganised and not a good ambassador for Africa. After introducing himself to we 3 who joined the trip in Kruger he said that everyone on the original trip was sick with vomiting and diarrhea and to stay away from them! What a welcome!! He constantly criticised everything about Africa and expressed his strong desire to leave. His true interest was in photography and he spent most of his time in game parks taking photos for his own photographic business. Itinerary plans were clumsy at best - with large amounts of time devoted to standing around and waiting, or travelling back across areas we had already travelled.

Starting the tour in Kruger was a particularly awkward (and expensive) starting point, and should have started in Johannesburg when the rest of the group flew via there to Kruger. On day 2, after joining the group in Kruger, 3 of us were told we could not travel with the group to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and would, instead travel on our own to Zambia - NOT Zimbabwe!! Our tour leader was unable to tell us the logistics of how we would be able to get from Zambia to Zimbabwe to meet up with the rest of the group and "assumed" it would all be OK. The 3 of us were extremely stressed and anxious by the whole concept of splitting the group and us having to make our own way.

On enquiry to Travelmarvel about what was happening we were told not enough seats had been booked on the flight for the whole group - despite the fact that we had booked more than 12 months in advance. Travelmarvel argued that the itinerary is a "guide" and that they reserve the right to alter it if necessary. We would never have believed that the small print meant being split away from the group and sent to another country - where we were not even covered by our travel insurance. Travelmarvel blamed Giltedge, Giltedge blamed Travelmarvel! In the end, we were met in Zambia and assisted by 4 different locals, across 3 different immigration borders and with 3 different means of transport in a long and arduous journey. When we finally got to meet up with the tour director, he told us to hurry and catch up with the group who had already started to walk around Victoria Falls. His instructions to us were to keep on the path and meet him at the coffee shop. The "path" turned out to be 4km long and an hour walk through some difficult terrain - guess he couldn't be bothered to walk - or tell us anything about the Falls. He'd already told the other group who travelled with him and couldn't be bothered to let the "stragglers" know.

The one highlight of the southern part of the trip was the 2-night stay on the Chobe Princess - an extra well worth the $$$. The time on the boat was wonderful, fabulous accommodation and food, an outstanding crew who listened to our interests and tailored the sightseeing to our wishes. They too had nothing to do with Travelmarvel but were operated by a separate company again, fortunately a FAR superior company to Giltedge - or Travelmarvel.

Our changeover from the southern part of the trip to the East African part was also a total mess. We were picked up from the Chobe Princess at 10.30 supposedly for our flight to Nairobi. We were taken to the lobby of a hotel in Chobe township, from where our tour leader left to fly back to South Africa, leaving us to wait .... A coach finally arrived for us at 4pm (5 hours after being dropped off in the lobby and after our tour leader had left!) We arrived into Nairobi, on time, as scheduled, at 10pm. A very slow transfer to the hotel, plus briefing and necessary re-packing of bags, saw us able to go to our rooms at 1.30am before an 8am departure for our Kenyan section of the trip.

It was a long, and expensive, tour to Africa. Africa never failed to disappoint, Wonderful, warm, helpful people, magnificent scenery, and amazing encounters with animals - especially in the East African section of the trip. Would I return to Africa - YES- definitely! Would I travel with Travelmarvel - NO - definitely not. Africa is a difficult area to travel in and the need for well planned, communicated and implemented plans is a must. Travelmarvel didn't demonstrate any of these qualities. Even their briefing notes attached to the final itinerary provided misleading, inaccurate and contradictory information - about luggage, currencies, health requirements, items to pack. Fortunately, there are many other companies that travel to Africa and they would certainly be where I would look again in the future. Many thanks to Georgie of Global Journeys who tried to help us with Travelmarvel. It was much appreciated - even though Travelmarvel's response was not!!
Fantastic Trip     , NSW, Australia, Jun 2024
We went on the Travelmarvel 15 day tour - Cape Town to Chobe Adventure . The tour was well balanced, providing time in Cape Town, where we went up Table Mountain, drove around the coast road for some stunning scenery and saw penguins at Boulder Beach, then we went to Victoria Falls which were spectacular and had the opportunity of going on safaris ...read more in Kruger and Chobe. It was such a thrill to see elephants, lions, giraffes, buffaloes, hippos and numerous animals close up. Highlights were watching a pride of lions stalk a buffalo and seeing elephants rolling and frolicking in the mud. We also saw a cheetah just walking next to our vehicle. The accommodation was of high standard. Only thing I would recommend is not paying for additional tours through Travelmarvel as they were cheaper if you booked them yourself. I booked the tour using Global Journeys ( this was the second trip through the company). A big thank you to Georgie who saved us quite a bit of money by telling us to wait for The Black Friday sale. Nothing was too much trouble, all my questions were answered promptly and I would definitely recommend Global Journeys to other travellers.
A New Experience Every Day     , QLD, Australia, May 2024
Our trip to the Galapagos Islands was one that was long planned and eagerly awaited, and proved to be everything we had hoped. We had decided that, since we were only going to be there once in our lives, we should spend as much time as we could. I wondered whether the 10 nights on the Grand Queen Beatrix might prove too much, but it was fantastic, ...read more and every day brought a new experience. The wildlife was spectacular and much of it incredibly tame. The opportunity to snorkel every day had us swimming with sea lions, penguins, white-tipped sharks and a huge variety of colourful fish. The unique land and marine iguanas were impressive and birdlife was prolific. Every island was somewhat different and beautiful in its own way.

Intrepid’s Grand Queen Beatrix was a lovely small ship and we were pleased that we had booked one of the balcony rooms. It allowed more air into the cabin and a place to dry wet clothes. The rooms did not have a lot of storage and we ended up with one of us living out of a suitcase, but that worked fine and was not a problem. The crew were wonderful and the guides excellent, food was delicious, healthy and plentiful, which we needed because the high level of activity every day meant increased appetites. We were only filled to capacity (16 pax) for a few days of the trip and our fellow passengers were great company.

The tour included one additional night both before and after the Islands in Quito at Le Parc Hotel. We also booked 2 further nights before and 3 after at Le Parc and made good use of them doing the hop-on/hop-off bus and day trips with to the Mindo Cloud Forest to see hummingbirds and tucans, and Mitad Del Mundo where the equator passes through the outskirts of Quito. We did all these tours with the Quito Tour Bus (quitotourbus.com) which proved good value for money. We also went up the Telerifico Cable Car with expansive views down over Quito and spent a couple of hours in the wonderful Botanic Gardens just one block from the hotel.

I had originally thought I might book a different hotel in the “old town”, but was very glad I had not. Although Le Parc was some distance from the old centre of Quito, it was a comparatively safe area and very cheap to get anywhere by taxi.

For anyone contemplating going to Galapagos Islands and Ecuador, my advice is to do an Intrepid cruise for as many nights as you can afford, and add a couple of extra nights in Quito, where there is much to see and do.

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