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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
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Email Kelsey | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly disappointed in our guide!
My partner and I hired Apodiformes Adventures as our guide group for our 5 day Safari in Kenya during the end of July through beginning of August, 2024. Overall our experience with the company was ok, but there were a number of things that came up during our trip that were less than ideal. I have never written a critical review before but felt obliged to do so after reading the review from a group that hired Apodiformes a week or two prior to us, which mirrored our trip to a near uncanny level. As a point of reference, this is my tenth trip to Africa, second trip to Kenya, and I’ve spent a cumulative 8+ months working around the continent. The challenges of running a tour business are not lost on me, but there are certain items that could be easily remedied, and tour guides should be held to standard.
First, we had outstanding communication with the company during the planning process of the trip and were very pleased with the level of attention to detail provided by Fred who handled our booking. We received notice of the name of our guide the day prior to arrival and arranged a pickup at 7:30 am. Our guide assigned was Ken who picked us up and took us to the parking lot of a nearby shopping center 15 minutes from our hotel to meet up with the representative from Apodiformes and pay the second half of our fees in cash. This is something that could easily have been handled in the hotel lobby from the standpoint of making things feel more “professional” but not a big deal. We then started traveling to our destination of the Masai Mara where we were anticipating a half day game drive to start the trip. When we were first picked up from the hotel I noticed that the back tire of the vehicle was very low, but not fully flat. An hour into the drive, we pulled over into a side street and a guy began to change the tire. During this time, Ken never mentioned that we needed to get the tire fixed or even that we would be stopping. While this only took about 45 min to an hour, this cut into the time of our game drive and is something that easily could have been remedied the day prior to pickup since it was clearly noticed, or at least we could have been notified of when we first started the day and we would have been very understanding. These vehicles take a beating and things often break, it is understandable.
On the way to the Mara and throughout the vast majority of our trip, Ken was continuously on his phone with various calls and texts to the level that if I were to ask a question after he got off the phone, his phone would ring again before I could even get the question out. I’ll not belabor the point, but Ken would answer questions when directly asked (at times with a one word answer) but would very rarely offer information, guidance or discuss plans unless we brought it up first. This was the theme throughout the course of the trip.
Eventually we made it to the Mara and had a great evening drive. To his credit, Ken is an incredible driver. He was always able to get us right in the action, was able to communicate well with the other drivers, and could find us a variety of wildlife. I really appreciate his efforts in making all that happen and led to us overall having a positive experience on the various game drives.
Our first night stay we were told that the lodge we were to be staying at overbooked and that we would be moved to a new lodge – not a big deal however this was not communicated until we were almost at the replacement lodge. Overall the accommodations were good and seemed to be of similar quality to the intended location, but just raised an eyebrow. Either way, the accommodations that night were ok.
The next few days followed this general course with limited communication from Ken minus a few good conversations we were able to engage him in with some prodding. We were never really asked about our preferences, what we wanted to do/see, but when we directly asked he was accommodating and was generally good natured.
On our 4th of 5 days when we arrived at our last lodge we were told that we could have lunch and then go on the intended boat ride. Of note, the boat tour included a 45 minute walking tour through a preserve off-trail which neither Ken nor the staff let us know about. Thank goodness we wore boots rather than the sandals we were considering wearing because it was a “boat tour”. When we met up with Ken for the boat ride he told us something about a “terrible problem” that had happened to the vehicle and that it would need to be in the shop, meaning he could no longer drive us. He arranged a driver the following day to “take us back to Nairobi in the morning,” not mentioning the fact that we were planning to go to Hells Gate for a tour before returning. Because we had assumed we were getting back in the vehicle after lunch we had not fully cleaned/removed our goods from the safari vehicle, I thought that I had left my hat and asked him about it. He said he would give it the the driver for the next day and though I found the hat in my bag the following day, he never messaged or communicated that he did not find it in the vehicle. Given that the previous group on the review boards experienced the same “sudden vehicle trouble”, this is either a habit of Ken or Apodiformes in order to free the vehicle up a day early.
The driver who picked us up the following day was AWESOME. Great guy, very personable, super helpful. Went out of his way to help us have a good experience and even drove us around Nairobi looking for fabrics. A+ overall. Of note: His vehicle was a standard hatchback van and not a safari vehicle, so if we had planned on a driving safari through Hells Gate the following day rather than opting for a bicycle tour, this would have significantly diminished the experience. Finally, we had been told on the first day that the rep from the company would meet with us back at the hotel when we returned to Nairobi to close the loop, but never heard from them again after the first day. I was hoping to provide this feedback to them in person but did not get the opportunity.
My purpose of posting this review is to note that overall, we had a good time because my partner and I enjoyed each other’s company in the beautiful natural wonders that Kenya has to offer, and all of the lodges and parks we visited had outstanding staff that were exceedingly warm and welcoming. It seems that Apodiformis Adventures has a few quality improvement points to work on with their team. While I much prefer to provide feedback directly to companies rather than posting on a public forum, the similarities to the previously posted experience tell me that this is something systemic that needs to be addressed.
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Email Jon | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Communicative but does make changes to itinerary
Dickson was an great guide that respected the animals and pacing of the trip. He was patient and flexible with our scheduling. I would highly recommend him as a guide.
In terms of the company we worked with Syprose who did make some changes mid trip but took care of things like our lost luggage and items.
Ultimately be careful with what lodges and activities they book or change to as they may make changes after the original agreement is made or not as ideal locations.
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Email Diana | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great planning with wonderful experienced driver/guides for both Kenya and Tanzania
My mother and I did the 12 day golden safari tour of Kenya and Tanzania. Silas did really great booking everything and Lio our Kenya driver/guide and Vincent were both really experienced amazing guides and drivers.
We went in early July and if I had done more research I would have booked for mid-august or so for our tour since the migration can take place anytime between July and October and the beach weather was cooler and a bit rainy so I didn't get as much beach time as I was hoping.
I was surprised to find that we had the entire vehicle to ourselves so be aware that you can work with Apodiformes to change any itinerary before you book everything. Also if you have a larger party take smaller items since there is not a lot of space to put luggage in the vehicle you will be traveling in. You will mostly just be riding in a vehicle all day so you do not need to be in shape at all. I for some reason thought we would have nature walks, but it was really about getting up early and going out all day to see the animals.
I recommend googling every park and time of year to see what is more the peak time to go depending on your interests. If you go for the migration and visit the Serengeti I would make sure you get one night in northern Serengeti since most of the zebra's and wildebeest will most likely be up there and depending on where you stay the travel time from masai mara to serengeti can be quite long. We went Amboseli and it was amazing, watching the elephants cross the road at night or early in the morning was such a wonderful site, however in July Mt Kilamanjaro is mostly cloud covered to my understanding so take these into consideration. And of course the animals will do what the want, if it is a nice sunny day you will have a great game drive, if it is colder and cloudy or too hot and you might not see much. Also I thought lake Nakuru was the most beautiful place I have ever seen and the only place we got a good view of rhinos (the flamingos had left for better food sources) and we were only there for a little over 4 hours because it just takes a while to get there from Nairobi so think about what you really want to see to spend more time at one place. It is hard to say what I would have changed other than the time we started our trip, but 12 days was a long time to sit in a vehicle so I think maybe it would have been good to do 4-5 days of safari then beach time and then maybe switch it up to go see chimpanzees, but when you travel so far (we came from the California) it is hard to know what to cut out since it all sounds amazing. I guess you just have to decide what you want to see the most. For me I would probably stick with Nakuru lake, Masai Mara and/or Northern Serengeti, and Amboseli but I love the beautiful trees, lakes, and birds. In any case you can't go wrong with Apodiformes, although I recommend you request Lio to be your guide and driver.
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
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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
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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.
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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!
