50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Be careful!!!
Overall the safari was an amazing experience. Our driver Tony was always punctual and went out of his way to ensure we saw plenty of animals and always from the best vantage points.
However, we specifically booked this tour to stay on the game reserves, but at the last minute, the accommodation was changed to a substandard hotel in town. We spoke with the office about this and the woman there wouldn’t help and was extremely rude, yelling that we should read the small print. There were also issues with the final payment , and despite sending proof the payment had been made, the same woman again yelled down the phone demanding to be paid again and threatened us with the police. Not a pleasant experience.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bumpy start but great execution
The trip started as planned. I received help straightening out my flight and required documents for 30 dollars a person. The transfer ride was on time but cost 15 dollars coming from a few minutes outside of Nairobi (a rip off). When we arrived at the bus, it was filled completely and somewhat squished but as expected. Before leaving, the tour group notified me that I had an unpaid balance and when going to pay my 75 dollar balance (flight help for two people and a transfer fee), I was told that I owed an additional 50 dollars because they forgot to add a surcharge on the credit card I originally paid with. Arguing over this delayed the start of the trip by about an hour and left everyone frustrated. After leaving, everything was smooth again. The guide was friendly, made sure we were comfortable and had everything we needed. We stopped for self serve lunch at restaurants and were provided food but not drinks. When arriving at the park everyone’s passports were collected and taken out of sight for over ten minutes for check in. That was alarming, but worked out. Our tented cabin was double layered and did surprisingly very well keeping out bugs and rain. The room had a full sized bed and a twin bed, both canopy styled with netting to also keep out bugs. We had a bathroom with a flushing toilet, but the shower nozzle didn’t work. Also coming during a rainy season meant black outs and inconsistent WiFi access. Our things seemed to be left untouched when leaving for the safari run. The guide was enthusiastic and dedicated to finding all the interesting scenes. He made sure to get as close as possible and made sure we had the best angle to see everything and get good pictures. He gave brief synopses on the animals and answered all our questions. He was a fantastic driver and knew his way around the park and how to get through the muddy patches without getting stuck. I would definitely go again but I would pack tons of my own snacks and liquids, and I would pay for everything in cash and refuse any additional services.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional and helpful, Tanzanian side not very good!
We had a 11 days private Kenya and Tanzania safari. Silas is very professional and helpful. He was in his car in the carpark when we arrived. The flight arrival was delayed by one hour but after contacting him on the phone he promptly arrived to get us to our hotel.
The Kenyan part of our safari was excellent. The driver/guide Samuel is a very knowledgeble and a nice guy. But the disaster started the moment we crossed over to the Tanzanian side. We were made to pay $50 each to get the yellow fever certificates at the border. The person just took cash in Euros and filled in the yellow booklet. No vaccination was given. Upon asking for a receipt they gave some vague reasons saying that the internet was not working and that we shall get it by email, which, of course never happened. A Tanzanian driver received us and we started our Tanzanian journey to the Serengeti park. Within about one hour the left rear wheel of the rickety Toyota Land Cruiser just came off while we were driving! Luckily no one was hurt. We were in the middle of nowhere on a village road. The driver managed to change the wheel with the help of few villagers and we resumed our journey. After every 15 minutes of driving the driver had to tighten the screws of the wheel. This happened a few time. Then suddenly that newly changed wheel had a flat tyre! The driver just could not change it. He had to arrange an alternative private transport for us from the nearby village, who was kind enought to take us till the Serengeti gate. In the process we lost many hours. Ultimately we could reach our camp site after 8PM, eight hours after the border crossing!
The new Tanzanian driver gave a very unprofessional and unfriendly impression. The game drives in Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater were excellent. On our fourth night in Tanzania we were dumped in an extremely low level hotel near Lake Manyara. A very depressive place indeed. Certainly the lowest level of acommodation we had during our entire trip. The driver did not know that we needed to make a game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. There was no time for that any more. The next day we had to leave for Tangerine National park. The only solace on the Tanzanian side was that the national park game drives were really worth the trouble.
We had a sigh of relief after crossing over to Kenya without much trouble. The last two days in Kenya were very good with game drives in Amboseli, and transfer to Nairobi for our return flight home.
I requested Silas to reconsider his contract with his Tanzanian partner "Seven Wonders Safaris" in Arusha, Tanzania, which prompted him to end his contract with them. Thank God.
I hope this small review is helpful.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A Mixed Experience
The company was easy to communicate with before the tour, and they met me on time. The price was competitive and that’s what I cared for most. This was my first safari and overall I loved getting close to the animals. The driver got us right up to some lions and I could hardly believe that we were just next to them! The negative is the guide watched a lot of videos on his phone when I wish he could have told me about the animals.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Private 16 day Best of Kenya and Tanzania reduced to 15 day for airline covid schedule
Our Tour was a private 16 day Best of Kenya and Tanzania that was modified 2-3 weeks before departure due to Flight being cancelled due to airline Covid schedules.
Twinkle modified itinerary and removed Lake Victoria from safari.
We visited Samburu, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Lake Nakuru, Masai Mara, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Amboseli National Park.
What Twinkle Star Tours doesn't mention anywhere on there site is that they sub contract Tanzania portion of tour out to a Tanzania company. I would suggest if travelling both countries to do more research. Lucky for us Tanzanian guide from 7 Wonders was Excellent.
We went from Sept 8 to Sept 22 2020, we had booked last year and were uncertain with all the Covid travel bans, Kenya opened up August 1 to international travel and they have done a great job with all the covid protocols.
The driver wore a mask all the time, all the lodges had masks, sanitizer, hand washing stations and plated service.
The Safari itself was really good, lots of wildlife, the lodges were all excellent, the food even with a condensed covid menu was all really good.
I would modify itinerary and remove Lake Nakuru and spend that day in the Mara or Ol Pejeta , the Sweetwater tented camp is amazing there.
I would skip Lake Manyara its flooded and about 4-5 m higher than normal and add a day to the Serengeti due to its sheer size .
The Safari would have been a 4-5 star rating except for some things that detracted from everything that was great overall.
The driver/guide Willie took us to a convenient Masai village near the gate , I think there are better examples of a Masai Village available.
The driver/guide Willie was inconsistent in his driving ability, sometimes too slow on highway and too fast in the park, he also seemed to use same path twice in some parks and struggled with time management. Willie was very friendly and chatty and always pointed out all flora and fauna and birds and all species of animals we passed.
James the Owner/Manager of Twinkle Star promised us a $ 350 refund for dropping Lake Victoria off the Safari which was very nice due to the last minute changes beyond both our control.
Unfortunately he didn't deliver on that promise and gave a bunch of excuses before finally giving us a third of what was promised.
He doesn't understand the way to be successful in a service industry is to Never Over Promise and Under Deliver... Always Always Under Promise and Over Deliver and you will have Happy Customers.
Date of experience: September 2020
TW
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Overall, it was a good safari experience!
We had a 7-day journey in Kenya, including 6 days on a safari tour.
First, let me share why we'd chosen Bluerange Connect Limited as our safari tour operator. After we had been victims of Mr. Otieno's fraud (Kenya Walking Survivors Safari company), we were looking for a reliable tour operator. It was our priority. At that time, Bluerange Connect Limited had a private tour we could afford since we decided to have a private tour vs a group tour. Plus, they could make adjustments to our itinerary and the price negotiations went smoothly and fairly. Secondly, Willis (the founder, I guess) responses were clear and in a professional way. Thirdly, it's easy to check the company's background. They combine safari tours with logistics which gives you the idea that the company has another source of revenue. If reliability and safety is your priority, IMO I think they're a very good choice.
Our first 3 days had lots of fulfillment in terms of sightseeing and game drives and it was full-day itinerary (until the dinner time: 5-6 pm). The rest of safari days were just ‘half days’; everything was over around 2 pm. Most of the times, we just stayed in our hotel. I suggest everyone who’s traveling to Kenya to confirm the details about every single day of their itinerary including the time when their drivers are off. That way at least you’ll know that you’d have to spend your whole afternoon in a camp, hotel or somewhere in a nearby town (which is better to do accompanied by a hotel employee.)
On the very first days, I’d noticed some contradictions between what the itinerary price included and for what we actually had to pay. For example, on the first day, we had a city tour and the itinerary price included all three meals; breakfast, lunch, and dinner but we paid for those ourselves. Also, according to our itinerary, on the second day, the visit to Masai Mara village was included in the overall price of the tour and I took a screenshot of that fact in order to inform the office about that. We got a phone call with apologies about the confusion but we had to pay for the visit ourselves. I suggest anyone who’s going to have a safari tour confirm this kind of payments with tour operators beforehand. And for tour operators, they should put more effort to avoid this kind of contradictions as it doesn't give an impression of professionalism.
On our fourth day, we’d suddenly learned from our driver-guide that they were changing him and the vehicle. He said that the company scheduled the vehicle inspection for tomorrow so he had to go back to Nairobi. We found that weird because that meant that the company didn’t know he was on the safari with us? And so we asked this question and he couldn’t explain anything as he was a freelance driver-guide. We were quite upset because
not only the guide was changed but also the hatch top van was gone which meant we could not do proper drive games. The office neither informed us in person; nor they brought any apologies. So I’d suggest safari travelers to avoid this kind of situation by making sure that the company you’re traveling with.
As our new driver-guide arrived we asked him if he had water for us. He said he didn’t have any water for us as the office didn’t wire money yet but they were going to do so. When we asked when (because we were thirsty and the water in the hotel was sold like 4 times more expensive) we were told to go to our room and wait for it. As we thought the water would arrive in several hours or so we decided not to walk to the town to buy some in a supermarket. We were waiting and waiting until dinner when we saw our driver-guide who told us that he didn’t buy water because the office didn’t wire him money yet. So we had to buy our water from the hotel as it was already late to walk to the town. This is one more perfect example of bad organizing and service.
On a positive note, overall, it was an unforgettable experience as a safari traveler. I hope my review is useful somehow. Thanks for reading it. Cheers!
SE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not themself drive in Tanzania
Communication with Simon prior booking was good, clear and fast. We booked a small group midrange safari 6 days Tarangire, lake manyara, ngorgoro and Serengeti national parks starting from Arusha.
While on site, we could not find their Arusha office. (The hotel listed on their website had never heard of the company.) The night befor the start of the safari a man from another safari company met us at the hotel, said he talked with Simon and would operate our trip. Overall we got what was agreed on in the itinerary, but days and accomodanditon was shifted with out any prior notice until the very last minute everyday. We would have appreciated to get a new updated itinerary befor we left. The driver/guide was really just a driver and did not tell us much about the parks or animals.
We are overall happy with the trip! Saw a lot of animals really close, an experience of a life time!!
It is hard to give a fare review of Wild Race Africa cause we have not met any of them.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do your own research
The main lesson I learned having booked a Tanzanian trip with EA is do your own research too.
When we arrived in Arusha, the accommodation was well below average. We have traveled all over India and are familiar with accommodation in an under developed country, however, this was quite shocking. We managed to upgrade to a nicer room at no extra charge, courtesy of the hotel.
We decided to travel by road throughout our trip so we could see the countryside, however, the vehicle was a rust bucket. The air con didn’t work and we were unable to close our windows for protection against the elements, mud and tsetseflies. The car seats had no cushioning left which, given that most of the trip was off road, made for an extremely uncomfortable ride. It also felt like the shock absorbers were shot too. The vehicle had done in excess of 380,000km all of which were off road. We all ended up with sore backs as a result. Just to note, some of the game drives took over 6 hours with no toilets around. It’s ok for guys, but I wasn’t comfortable going behind a bush for rest stops. It’s not something you are told prior.
A big part of our trip was to see the migration of the wildebeest. We had been warned by other travelers that the migration was delayed and all the animals were still at the Wester Corridor, so we should tell our driver so he could make alternate arrangements. He was very reluctant to do so. By the time we got to camp, the wildebeest has just started to arrive, but the other big animals had not. We spent hours and hours each day for nearly three days searching for signs of lions, elephants and other large animals. We finally insisted that we move to where other travelers had advised us to go. Reluctantly our guide agreed. We managed to see leopards, lions (many), hippos, crocodiles, wildebeest, zebras, hyenas many different antelope, all in one day. However, because of this earlier reluctance to move, we only managed to stay overnight. It was wonderful and we wanted to stay longer, agreeing to pay the additional costs associated with it. It was refused and we ended up moving very early the next day to stay at a hotel, which was not ideal. Another 10 hour drive in a sub standard vehicle.
Our driver could not be contacted the next day so we missed out on the morning game drive. So we spent over 24 hours in a hotel room. Not what you want when you pay big $$ to see wild life.
After missing out on seeing the migration, it was extremely disappointing that we were forced to leave the one place that had all the action we were searching for.
There were many enjoyable moments and the guide was extremely knowledgeable and a superb driver. Just make sure you do your own research. Check hotel reviews. Ask about the age and condition of the vehicle you will be traveling in. It will make all the difference when traveling through this stunning country. Africa is amazing. The people are warm and welcoming and the animals are breathtaking. It truly is an experience of a lifetime.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wouldn't use again
I did the 52 day Southern Safari trip with Absolute Africa traveling from Nairobi to Cape Town. Highlights include rafting along the Zambezi river, Spitzkoppe and of course all the amazing animals we saw on safari (Serengeti, endangered rhinos at Matopos, Etosha). Some driving days were long (we covered a lot of countries in 52 days), tent equipment was good quality and food was usually plentiful (unless people in your group want to eat breakfast before breakfast time and they don't save you enough food). For the first 10 days our tour leader Kip/Edmund was great, he had a positive attitude and he was really patient. Then we joined another group and had Martin as our tour leader. Whilst Martin was really informative in the beginning about the daily itinerary, with time i felt he became less informative. It was also clear to some people that Martin favoured certain individuals in the group. I understand that there will be people (even tour leaders) that get on with certain people more than others but as a professional i expected him to treat the group as a whole and listen to us as a whole, taking control of the group during more difficult situations when needed. There were certain situations where Martin acted quite childishly to certain members of the group, a few times he did not respect people's confidentiality by talking to certain members of the group about other people. One particular incident he publicly ridiculed someone in front of the whole group during dinner for not helping cook dinner one night because she was tired. You wouldn't expect this from someone who's been a tour leader for 20 years.
Some of the optional activities i did i felt like it wasn't worth the money, for example we spent 3 days in the Okavango Delta and one day had 9 hours of free time where we had to stay in the bush camp or swim in a pond. Our tour leader didn't tell us this so some people didn't bring things like books etc. Absolute claim that they send you the most updated information (itinerary and optional activities list) however they included activities that haven't been running for years or they don't even run. We went to Antelope Park, Zimbabwe a private reserve home to a lion conservation programme with the aim of breeding lion cubs from captured lions in order to release them into the wild. Since 2005 they haven't released a single lion. I read articles by National Geographic and Africa Geographic that questioned the ethicacy of the programme and there was also speculation about whether the park involved itself in Africa's lion industry (look up Blood Lions for more info). Animal conservation should never involve animal-human interaction or breeding and these do/use to do both these things e.g. cub handling and lion walks.
Correspondence with Absolute prior and throughout my trip was thorough and professional. After giving feedback about my experiences there was an obvious lack of accountability and ignorance. Overland tours are a great way of traveling to so many African countries and overall i really enjoyed most of the activities i did and the people i traveled with. However there are quite a few African overland tours and I am unlikely to use them again.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great Trip but ....
First, I can't emphasize enough how beautiful and scenic landscape and wild-life watching is! Our Tourguide showed us great places. Since all tour operators do more or less the same (travel plan, camping sites, food) its maybe important to know how Trip Advisor Safaris works: Its not an operator, but it provides your booking to sub-contractors. For example, the woman who took our payment was from Seven Wonders Safari, other people in our group booked at Hekima Safari... I don't say it's not good or bad, it's just not transparent and you feel that it doesn't matter at all which organisation you choose (at least in this price range). We definitely got a good deal with Trip Advisor Safaris, since they charge less than other organisations.
What I didn't like so much was the communication. Before we paid the deposit communication was fluent, after having paid, questions weren't answers anymore. This doesn't raised my trust but in the end everything worked out well and we were picked up at the airport as promised. The second thing I didn't like that much was our tour guides attitude from time to time. On our first day Umar guided us. He was really great and told us a lot interessting things. Unfortunately, he had to leave after the first day (for personal reasons as he told us) and was replaced by Amani. For my impression, Amani seemed a bit rude and not very motivated. One day he had our binoculars in the trunk and refused to get them for us even if we pleased him several times. As you can imagine... being on a safari without binoculars is not that helpful ;-) The worst thing for me was when he got off road once to get closer to a group of cheetahs (in his defense, a member of the group coerced him to do so) but it's forbidden to leave the trail and the protection of animals should weigh higher than annoying tourists. I know, a lot of tourist want to get as close as possible to the animals but Serengeti is not a zoo and I expect guides to follow the parks rules.
Even if I complained a lot it was an unforgettable trip and I can recommend strongly to do it - no matter with which organisation. By booking Trip Advisor Safaris you get the same quality as by any other organisation as long as your willing to deal with some intransparencies.