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Apodiformes Adventures
- Office In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2017)
- Member Of:
- Kenya Tourism Regulatory Authority, AFRICA TOURISM ASSOCIATION & FRIENDS OF NAIROBI NATIONAL WILDILIFE CONSERVATION
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $75 to $250 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
Apodiformes Adventure is just great!!!
We would like to express our many thanks to Silas of the Apodiformes Adventures for the organization of our 13-day private safari. It was a great tour!!! Our guide Tom in Kenya and Emanuel in Tanzania are both very experienced and tried their best to let us see what we would like to and we do appreciate it very much.
SG
Email Boon | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good at first but turning bad at the end
We have our tour at the end of July 2024. We have been in contact with Silas all this while for the arrangement. His response is very fast and even like midnight hour for him, he still can give you a response. At first before we settle and confirm the tour package, he always able to give fast response and show his enthusiasm. We have made good discussion, to settle down with our itinerary based on our flight schedule.
At one point in time, our flight got canceled, Silas also tried to accommodate our requirement, where he awaited us to give him confirmation of our next booking of flight. He also quickly responded and re-arranged our booked accommodation as well after our flight was confirmed. Although our request and questions were too lengthy and troublesome, he was still able to make time to explain. But somehow, when nearer to the date, his responses were getting shorter.
On the day Silas and the driver Ken were already there on time to pick us up from the airport. They also took us to get a sim card and buy packs of water for us on the trip. Ken was our driver and guide for all the game drive. We went to Nakuru then go to Maasai Mara, and last go to Naivasha. Overall, during the drive, from one place to another, and also during the game drive, Ken been on his phone always, only on and off will put it down. Even during the game drive, he was on the phone, and we thought that this might be his way to get information on the game drive. We didn't interfere much on this, as long as he driving safely.
Ken is a good driver, an experienced driver, but not a good guide. The problem is Ken shares only the bare minimum information with us. I am not requesting too much on this, but we felt that we were only briefed on the basic information. Most of the time we needed to prompt him with questions before we can get the answers, if we didn't ask or say anything, most likely we might not have given more information. There is a point where another vehicle broke down, and Ken offered to help fetch them together as we were staying at the same place. During this short trip, Ken was also on and off on his phone, where one of the passengers tried to do a video recording on the animals, he had to tell Ken to quiet down so that he could do his video recording on the animal. At which, we had been tolerating him on this, while we also did video recording, but we didn't so harsh on this point to make him stay silence at all.
When we visited the Maasai Mara village, we were asked to pay for the entrance fee, even though the itinerary plan stated it was included. 2 adults ws 60, and 2 kids were 30, so a total 90, where we only had USD100. At that point in time, we just paid first and without getting any change. It is later after communicating with Silas, and then he returned the 100 back to us. This shows the poor communication between him and the driver Ken.
On the journey, I had to find the topic for our communication with Ken, but every time it just went silence after a while. During the end of the trip, we were told that another freelance driver will pick us up, at which this driver Jidraf was able to talk more and introduced us to more information about Kenya this country, even sharing with us the lifestyle, the language, the towns, all those details that seem to be not important, he was able to share with us and tell us the background of that. This gave us a big comparison and noticed how little we got to know on our first 6 days of the trips. We were basically brought from lodge to lodge, and animals to the next animals only by Ken on our initial 6 days drive.
The problem with Ken also less communication with us, first incident is from Lake Nakuru to Maasai Mara. We were never told that we would be going to a souvenir shop and have lunch there. He just drove there and told us on the spot, he could have told us beforehand, we also understand that visiting a souvenir shop is part of a guided trip like this, but don't give us a surprise since it is all planned out.
2nd incident is about visit a Maasai Mara village, Ken could have briefed us on how it is going to be the routine on visit a village, or introduced some background, but nothing was said. Whether to put it before or after the Maasai Mara game drive, it was also not told until we asked.
3rd incident is when visiting the Hell's gate, where we needed to get a bicycle, we are family with young kids, and the young ones still don't know how to ride a bicycle. As an experienced guide, isn't it your responsibility to pre-alert us on what going to happen in Hell's Gate, and what is the plan for that. As a guide, you could have told us how much the price would be and told us to arrange for a bicycle with a children's seat, or a kid's bike with 4 wheels etc. But none was told, only until we reached the bicycle rental some distance before the entrance to Hell's gate, which is USD30 per bicycle. But what we have googled on the website the rental of bicycle only needs less than USD10. If we had not been careful and done our research before, we would have been scammed by the locals there. When we asked why the price hike, then we were told that it was peak season. But, when we reach the entrance of the Hell's gate, and we confront to Silas, only get to know, it is actually can get less than USD10, then we only offered to get the bike at this rate. At that point of time, we really don't know who to trust, neither Ken nor Silas. For those that are going to Hell's gate, please take note there is a guidance fee as well, if you don't pay for that, you don't have a guide inside, and you going to roam by yourself in which you might not know where to go, nobody gives you direction, and nobody brief to you the background of that.
4th incident was after Hell's gate, we were told Ken could no longer fetch us to airport on the next day, also our last day plan was to go to elephant orphanage and giraffe center. (Ken told us his car was faulty and needed immediate repair, but no one knew the truth). They arranged a freelance driver, who knew nothing about our next-day itinerary. The driver was only responsible for fetching us from Naivasha to the airport. Again, all of these was not well arranged and we were not told in advance. I thought the driver going to pick up the rest of the day up until drop us at airport, but after picked up then only knew he only responsible to bring us go to Nairobi and change another driver and vehicle. The elephant orphanage was supposed to be pre-booked one week in advance, and lucky enough my wife mentioned this, only they amended their mistake and booked it like 3 days before. Else I think it will be screwed up and end up we only left with giraffe center to go for.
5th incident is about the departure time from Naivasha to Elephant orphanage, we are foreigners and know nothing about operating hours. We thought visiting can be any time. But in fact, it is only 11am to 12pm. A day before, Ken suggested picking us up at 8am, but we told Ken to pick us up at 9.30am, since we did not have much plan for the rest on the last day. Ken did not tell us about the operating timing when I suggested 9.30am, but after that only he message and told me it will be close at 11am that's why needed to depart at 8am (also this information provided by him is wrong). Then he was like it's not his responsibility anymore, because he was not going to pick us tomorrow. Only then my wife double confirmed the time with Silas, only mentioned we must depart at 8am. Still the driver due to traffic came at 8.35am.
Luckily enough we managed to reach in time for the elephant orphanage. We do understand some hiccups on the itinerary happen, not everything goes to plan well, we only hoped it could be well communicated with us in advance about all the arrangements made. As a tour and guide expert, you should provide sufficient information about those entrance fees, travel duration needed, etc. I surely can google myself for all this information and do my own arrangements, but I trusted you to bring me the best experience. I do have a few persons who enquired me about this trip, but now I hesitate to give them your contact, as I don't know how trustworthy you are after this experience.
Still, I do recognize the effort from Silas, his fast response to requests, only it turned bad at the end of our trip. For Ken, he really a good driver, where he can drive out of the muddy place in a very bad situation, and he helped a few fellows to get out of those terrible situations where their vehicles were stuck. He is helpful whenever someone needs help.
PL
Email Wiwiana | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing "life yourney"
Trip to Kenya was on my Bucket list since many years. Silas did a fantastic work arranging our 12 days trip to Kenya, combining 7 days safari and relax on a beach.
We visited 3 parks: Masai Mara, Nakuru & Amboseli. Our guide Wilson, did an icredible job to show us and provide valuable information of the Kenyan wildlife. Thanks to his passion, knowledge and experience we learnt a lot and saw the Big Five, Ugly Five and many, many more! Apart of sharing his knowledge and being fantastic Masai guide, Wilson took care of us and was a great companion, everyone of our family appreciated his way of communication, sense of humour and care.
After safari we went to Diani, to relax few days at the ocean. The hotel we stayed was perfect.
Overall we are very happy with all the arrengaments. Silas was very responsive, patient with all my questions and queries and very flexible. The guide, Wilson, was the best! Tha all other drivers who picked us in different places were also very helpful.
I recommend Silas and his team to anyone who want to experience an amazing life journey. The memories and emotions will stay in our hearts and we took thousands of pictures and films, so we will have them also in our album to get back to the memories whenever we want and get back to this amazing time we had in Kenya.
Thank You Silas!
Wiwiana
CN
Email Simone | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Everything we'd hoped for and more
We recently had the great opportunity to embark on a 7-day Safari, and our experience was truly unforgettable, thanks to our safari guide, Denis. We'd never been on safari or to Africa before so we didn't entirely know what to expect, and we were very happy with the outcome.
Our trip itinerary was as follows: Day 1-3, Travel Nairobi to Masai Mara, Day 4 Lake Nakuru, Day 5 Samburu, Day 6-7 Amboseli, and Day 8 flight back to home.
Denis was great. From start to finish, his expertise for the wildlife and attentiveness made our adventure both thrilling and reassuring. He was tireless and enthusiastic, admirably drove us many many miles for many hours over incredibly rough terrain and still was keen to take us out on a game drive the same evening, he was very receptive to our questions and taught us a lot about Kenya. Of course though one of the best things about Denis was his knowledge of all the areas and was very patient with us. He always found the way to get the best angle of the scene for us to witness and take photos.
Our trip was a private tour, and so it was just my best friend and I with Denis in the vehicle. We had loads of space and it was great this way because we had the freedom to do exactly what we wanted, like go out on an epic 9-hour game drive (well done Denis). It also meant that everything was done at our convenience, we could choose what we wanted to see and also always have the best views out the vehicle. The roof was open on the van for game drives so you could stand and look out, which was great fun and the breeze was lovely.
We saw some absolutely incredible sights while we were in Kenya. We saw all the animals from the “Big five” and not only, lots of lions, including some mating and hunting, and the tree-climbing lioness with her cubs looking up at us from the bushes in Lake Nakuru. We saw loads of hyenas with prey in their mouths. Samburu was also so picturesque, we saw different species of zebras and giraffes. In Amboseli we saw lively herds of elephants bathing in the sand and swamps as well as different species of birds. And of course the most prized sighting in the Masai Mara: we were treated to the sight of wildebeests running through the grassland and huge male giraffes watching us from afar as if they were standing still in the morning mist, and great herds of hippos in the river. On the border between Kenya and Tanzania, the sun is slowly setting, and in the distance a herd of elephants is slowly making its way towards us. The wind blowing through the African savannah at sunset feels like an eternity.
We really had such a fantastic time with Denis, he also arranged a picnic lunch for us in the wilds of the Masai Mara. It was wonderful just knowing that everything was taken care of for us, and we had absolutely nothing to concern ourselves with during our trip, except having an amazing time and learning about the beautiful Kenyan wildlife.
The only disappointment was that when we chose our hotel no one informed us in advance that our accommodation in Amboseli was outside the park, which meant that it would take more time to get there and back, and that we wouldn't be able to get to the park early enough to see the sunrise. Also, we would have liked to have been told beforehand about the time we would need to spend on the road and other details so that we could understand our options and better tailor our itinerary, otherwise the long drive would have been exhausting for both the guide and us. Other than that, everything's just perfect.
Asante sana, Kenya.
See you next time.
Simone
AE
Email Ankur Mehta | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Professional, helpful and quick response.
Silas is very helpful and genuinely a good person. We had a great tour of 10 days with him.
Please ask for Gibson. He was our driver/ tour guide. He was a superstar. They can actually make or break your safari.
Gibson ensured we enjoyed to the fullest and see the big 5.
We replanned our safari to see the the great migration on guidance of gibson! And he was right and we followed his advice amd we saw the great migration too! He helped us load unload bags and took care of my parents too! Thank you.
These guys are the best!!!!
I did a tour with Silas and his company and I am currently in Nairobi enjoying this magnificent tour.
The tour was very well managed by Silas and his amazing tour guide Gibson.
We covered Amboselli, Tsavo, Nakkuru, Naivasha and Masai mara.
Silas and Gibson changed our itinerary on landing and made the best decision of our lives.
We had Masai Mara as the first stop but Gibson recommended to keep it as the last stop as Migration had not started in full swing.
We were very excited to see it and Gibson made sure to make us witness a beautiful natural process.
He explains everything really well and has a lot of knowledge.
We saw big5 and saw them multiple times.
We highly recommend them!
They were extra kind and helped us with extra car twice to accommodate our luggage.
Gibson is so patient and he is a lovely person.
We highly highly recommend these guys.
There are thousands of agents in Africa but if you want a tour guide and a company that will make sure you remain safe and have the best trip of your life, go with these guys!!!
Thank you Silas and Gibson.
US
Email Cheryl | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best tour ever
Silas answered every question I had and I had alot! He went above and beyond for us. Our guide Isaiah was very knowledgeable about the area and the animals we saw. He made a memorable trip into an amazing one! Thanks for giving us a trip of a lifetime that we will never forget!
AE
Email Peter Rubai | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing!!! 5 stars ⭐️ “ Apodiform”
Honestly the trip was outstanding. We came from Dubai for our honeymoon , Frederick our coordinator did a great job for us, he is super honest , everything he promised us it happened , and honestly it was over our expectations, big big 5 stars ⭐️ for you fred , also i want to thank Kim our beat guide ever , he was sooo nice and he knows everything about wild life and animals , he was so flexible and helpful , his english is super good , he was enjoying with us as well .
GUYS! Honestly from our heart , Apodiforme is the best , big 5 stars ⭐️
US
Email Elle | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a Lifetime - Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Amboseli, Tsavo East, Diani Beach
Booked the trip of a lifetime with Silas in December for my mom's 70th birthday. He quickly responded to my texts and the few edits I made to the original itinerary based on the animals we wanted to see. Any time I had a question from booking to leaving, he was quick to respond via WhatsApp. Very happy to report that everything went as expected - the camps that were booked, the start times, the transportation. We were picked up at the airport by Silas and another driver and dropped off at our Nairobi hotel. We did two nights in Nairobi so that we could go to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphange which only has one 11A entrace daily. Be sure to book early if you want to go!
We started our safari at Maasai Mara with Dickson, who picked us up at our Nairobi hotel ready and waiting before our agreed start time, without whose perseverance and excellent driving skills we would *still* be stuck in the mud. "Turn back? No! We are adventurers!" On our first drive we saw giraffes, cheetahs, lions, ostrich, hippos, and many more with Dickson on his walkie with the other guides to find out where the animals were. Unfortunately, a broken-down jeep forced us to part with Dickson on our third day, but we were saved within the hour by the lovely Ben and traveled on to Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Amboseli, Tsavo East and Diani Beach. Each place was gorgeous, and we had such a great time on our drives. Not every camp was luxury, which we agreed to, but all camps were clean with good food and lovely staff.
I reached out to many tour companies researching this trip, and Apodi was the best value based on cost and average TripAdvisor reviews of the lodges on our itinerary. Would book with them again, no question.
Agree with the earlier review about small bills for tips. Everyone gets a tip in Kenya, so having only large bills onhand made things difficult. I typically bypass money exchanges and get local currency at an ATM once I land, assuming there's always an ATM at the airport, but that was semi-difficult to do. Recommend exchanging some of your larger home currency at the airport since it might be awhile before you find an ATM.
US
Email Brooke | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Courageous
We really enjoyed our driver Ken! He did an incredible job anticipating where the animals would go and did an amazing job getting us up close whenever he had the chance! We stayed at Jambo Mara and all the staff was wonderful as well.
