SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.

Cheers

jimcoddington

Great reviews in the post, greatly appreciated.

We will be staying 5 nights in March 2019.

We fly into Victoria Falls Airport (VFA), which as you know is on the Zimbabwa side, then our Protea hotel is in Livingstone, Zambia, any suggestions on how to get from VFA to the Protea Livingstone?

We would like to go to from Victoria Falls through Kasane, Botswana to Ngoma, Namibia, any suggestions if that is possible? Best to rent a car at VFA airport, or hire a driver?

The_Bouncer

I'm going to follow this as I'm seriously considering a trip to the falls next winter.

jimcoddington

Does anyone know if Dennis still provides this service and is still in the area? I have e-mailed him a couple of times with no reply.

SanDiego1K

I used him in August. I believe he uses WhatsApp as well as email. Perhaps send him a message on WhatsApp and see if you get a response.

plazc

Curious if anyone has a more recent update on the Protea and on Dennis' services or another driver in the area. We'll be visiting in November for one night to see the falls.

beofotch

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good driver in the Victoria Falls or Livingstone area? Someone that could do airport pickups, driving around to some of the tourist highlights? I have read on Trip Advisor and above here a man named Dennis was highly recommended although emails and whatsapp messages to him went unreturned. Does anyone have an independent drive they can vouch for?

neony77

Were you able to find one? Any recommendations appreciated!

neony77

One question for the folks who have stayed at this hotel - is the maximum occupancy per room 2 even when there are twin queen beds in the room? We are traveling with two children under 12 - do we need to get two separate rooms?

LAX_Esq

Based on recommendations on FlyerTalk and TripAdvisor, we booked Dennis Munsaka ( [email protected] ) as a private driver for three days in Livingstone. All the details are below, but here is the TL;DR version: Dennis had a stroke and is no longer able to drive; without our knowledge or consent, he subcontracted the job out to a sleazy and incompetent driver who was a complete disaster. As such, Dennis is unethical and unreliable and travelers are now urged not to book with Dennis.

Prior to our trip, I messaged extensively with Dennis over WhatApp and spoke to him via WhatsApp voice. We arranged for him to be our private driver for four "segments" over our 3 days in Livingstone: 1) airport to hotel transfer on Day 1, 2) hotel to/from Zam falls on Day 1, 3) hotel to/from Zim falls on Day 2, and 4) hotel to/from Livingstone Island dock on Day 3. Dennis gave me a price for each segment, and told me that unlimited waiting time would be included and he would be at our disposal.

When we arrived at Livingstone airport on Day 1, we were greeted by a young man, holding a sign with our name, who did not look anything like the photos we had seen of Dennis. The man told us his name (we don't remember it, so I'll call him Driver X), but we were confused who he was. He told us to wait, went to the nearby parking lot, and drove over to us in a van. Dennis was sitting inside the front passenger seat, and introduced himself. Driver X, with Dennis riding along, proceeded to drive us to the hotel. As we departed, we were very confused as we had no idea who Driver X was, why Dennis wasn't driving us, why Driver X was along for the ride, etc. As we got closer to the hotel, Dennis disclosed to us -- for the first time -- that he had a stroke several months ago and is no longer able to safely drive a vehicle. Dennis said that he Driver X would drive us, and he would ride along.

We found the situation rather odd and disconcerting and we thought about "firing" Dennis at that point. However, we decided to proceed with Dennis and Driver X because we figured that Dennis would be in command and trusted that, given his very good online reviews, we would be in better hands with him than starting over and taking a chance with random taxi drivers (who could very well be sleazy).

When we arrived at the hotel on Day 1, we agreed with Dennis and Driver X that we would take 30-45 minutes to check in and freshen up, and we would meet up at 2:30pm to proceed to the Zam falls. We appeared in the parking lot at the meeting time, and Dennis was there -- but Driver X and the van were nowhere to be found. Dennis appeared frustrated, and told us that Driver X would be here soon. Driver X did not appear, and Dennis was not able to reach him by phone. We expressed our frustration to Dennis, knowing that Driver X's lateness was cutting into our limited time to see the falls before sundown. While we were waiting, Dennis told to us that he had never worked with Driver X before and he didn't know what was going on and that he didn't even know why Driver X left the hotel. At nearly 3pm (a half-hour later), Driver X eventually showed up.

The short drive to the Zam falls was uneventful. We visited the falls, and exited after sunset. Driver X and Dennis were waiting for us at the exit, where there were tons of annoying touts and junky tourist trap gift shops. We shooed away the touts and quickly got in the car. Driver X made several aggressive attempts to persuade us to get out of the car and go shopping, even after us firmly telling him "no shopping." Clearly, Driver X was looking to collect a commission from us buying some overpriced junk. (As any seasoned traveler who has used private drivers knows, a good private driver is there to shield you from the annoying touts -- not to be their accomplice and help you get ripped off so they can collect a commission.) Very frustrated with our refusal to get back out of the car to get scammed, we were driven back to the hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel, we arranged for Dennis and Driver X to pick us up the next day (Day 2) at noon to take us to the Zim falls. The next day, we proceeded to the parking lot at noon, and Dennis and Driver X were talking to another tourist. Driver X told us that the other tourist was also going to the Zim falls, and the other tourist would be coming along with us. We obviously balked, and said that we hired Dennis as our *private* driver for a specific price and it's not fair for him to "double dip" and collect a second fare off an additional person. Dennis and Driver X seemed to get the message that we weren't going to fall prey to this shenanigan, and there was a bit of a stalemate. I then proposed to Dennis and Driver X that, if they wanted to take the other tourist along with us, they should give us a discount off the cost of the segment since they would be collecting money from the other tourist for the trip. Dennis and Driver X refused to agree to that. The stalemate continued. I then suggested that the other tourist pay us directly for 1/3 of the cost of the segment (i.e., my wife and I pay 2/3 of the cost, and he pays 1/3 of the cost), and Dennis and Driver X were fine with that. I think they agreed to that arrangement (receiving no additional money from the other tourist for this segment) in order to secure the other tourist's business for the 2 additional days he had the Livingstone after we departed. The other tourist was certainly happy with the arrangement, as I'd essentially negotiated for him to pay 1/3 of the normal price he otherwise would have had to pay. The other tourist turned out to be a nice young Swiss guy, and we had a good time talking to him on the ride over and back. The rest of the journey to the Zim falls with Dennis and Driver X was uneventful.

On the way back from the Zim falls, we went over the already discussed plans for Day 3. On Day 3, Dennis and Driver X were to pick us up at 6:30am to drive us to the Livingstone Island tour and wait for us, we would finish the tour at 8:30am, and Dennis would immediately drive us back to the hotel, where we would meet our safari company's driver for a transfer across the Zambia-Botswana border and on to our bush flight departing from Kasane, Bostwana. We were on a very tight schedule, and Dennis and Driver X were well aware of the circumstances.

At 6:30am, Driver X picked us up, and -- for the first time -- Dennis was not present along with Driver X. This was rather concerning to us given our tight schedule, and we couldn't get an explanation from Driver X as to Dennis's whereabouts. When we arrived at the Livingstone Island dock, we made it very clear to Driver X once again that time was of the utmost essence and that there was no being late. Driver X assured us that he wouldn't be going anywhere and promised us that he would wait for us the entire time in the parking lot.

We proceeded with our Livingstone Island tour, and returned to the parking lot at 8:30am. Guess what? Driver X was nowhere to be found. The Livingstone Island tour guides were well aware of our tight schedule and, additionally, had overheard our conversation with Driver X. The guides were shocked that Driver X was not present, given that we had literally discussed everything with him. Desperate, I asked the guides if we could pay them to give us a ride back to the hotel, and, thankfully, two of the guides agreed to do so.

We we very fortunate and grateful that the Livingstone Island guides took time out of their busy day to bring us back to the hotel, as there are no taxis around and it would have taken a while to call a taxi and to wait for it to arrive. On the drive back to the hotel, the guides explained to us that Driver X was nowhere in sight, as there is one road in and out, and they would have seen him on the road if he was even on the way back to the dock site. We got back to the hotel, collected our luggage, met up with our new driver, and thankfully made our flight in Kasane.

But if not for the awesome Livingstone Island guides who saved us, we likely would have been totally screwed by Dennis and Driver X and very well could have missed a day of our safari.

In sum, DO NOT USE DENNIS. It's a sad situation: Dennis seemed like a nice guy (unlike Driver X) and probably was a very honest and reliable driver that provided excellent service to other folks who posted good things about him. It's tragic that he's in his 50s and had a stroke and can no longer do the job he'd been doing, and he obviously lives in a very poor country with no social safety nets (disability pay, retirement / social security) and presumably doesn't have very much (if anything) in the way of savings. I get the maxim that "desperate times call for desperate measures" and that people in very poor countries need to do anything they can to survive. When Dennis got an email from me, he probably couldn't fathom the idea of passing up what was surely a handsome sum of money. Unfortunately, despite his very tragic predicament, it was simply not ethical for him to do what he did, i.e., without our knowledge and consent, subcontract the job out to a sleazy and incompetent driver he had never even worked with before. If Dennis is no longer able to drive and wants to add value as a middleman, he needs to do it in an ethical, honest and reliable manner.

I make this post not to ruin Dennis's livelihood, but to prevent other travelers from making the same mistake we did -- hiring Dennis based on his very good internet reviews. Folks who come across the good reviews of Dennis Munsaka should know that he is not to be trusted as a reliable private driver in Zambia.