Tanzania Safari Supremacy topguide; Julius Nassari
Tanzania Safari Supremacy
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Member Of:
- Tanzania Association of Tour Operators
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $180 to $1,800 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
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Email Richard Jensen | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a Lifetime that we will never forget, can't wait to do it again.
We were exploring the internet looking for a safari operator when we found Tanzania Safari Supremacy. We looked first at another operator, but found some bad reviews on them. WE then found Elvice and immediately felt very comfortable, having found good reviews. He just seemed to be very reliable in our first communication. I must admit we were a little nervous when we wired the money in advance of our trip. BUT everything came together on our arrival in Nairobi, we could not have been more pleased from the first meeting with Nico (guide/driver in Kenya),to the last day in Arusha with Gilliard. We were treated like ROYALTY the entire safari. Elvice arranged a private 2 week safari through 7 national parks through Kenya and Tanzania. Nico was a superb ambassador, guide, driver for the week in Kenya. We changed drivers at the Tanzania border. WE absolutely loved Gilliard, who had an "Eagle Eye" for not only wildlife, but knew every species of birds and flora and fauna. Both gentlemen were world class guides. We had 5 star accommodations in all lodges and never encountered any problems or issues. In addition, Elvice was in contact with our drivers daily. We simple can only give rave reviews of the service, experience of wildlife sightings, immersion in the native culture with a visit to a Masai Mara village. We saw a lot of other operators with their Land Cruisers with 6 to 8 passengers. We were on a private tour with Nico and Guillard and felt like the Queen and King. If we are ever lucky enough to come back, it will only be with Tanzania Safari Superemacy
Elvice's safari exceeded our every expectation. Absolute no disappointments with this company.
Email HR | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Disappointing attitude
I wouldn't recommend TSS to anybody considering a safari in Tanzania - we didn't find them to be very professional at all and overall they handled our trip poorly. Firstly, their representative was late for our pre-safari briefing, and when we tried to call them their number was disconnected. As our hotel receptionist said she had never heard of them we found this a little worrying. When they did arrive we were told that due to reports back from Lake Manyara (where we were supposed to go on our first day) that there wasn't much wildlife being spotted, we would be going to Tarangire instead with a different group. This wasn't really a problem, but it would have been better to be told in advance rather than just before departure as we would have had more time to consider our options.
On the safari itself, our second day took us to Serengeti. As we were driving into the Serengeti the car had a fault, causing us to then be stuck at the gate there for 3 hours while it was looked at. This meant we missed a lot of game drive time, and arrived at camp having to set up our tents in the dark without any assistance after eventually being picked up by a different vehicle just before sunset. While we understand that faults like this happen, the way the situation dealt with was really not good enough - we repeatedly asked what was going on and were not given any information or any sense that there was a proper procedure to follow in incidents such as this.
After returning to Arusha at the end of our safari, two members of our group went to the operator's office in person to request a partial refund due to the time missed on safari, which they were given ($100 each). As we were leaving that day we didn't have chance to do so ourselves, so decided to email Elvice at TSS afterwards. The attitude we received when telling him what had happened and requesting the same refund as the others was appalling and completely unprofessional. He implied heavily that we were lying, and that the others had no such refund (they did, I maintained contact with them and checked this several times), then this changed to him telling us that the others had a refund because of problems in Kenya beforehand (they hadn't even been to Kenya).
The final straw was his attempt at emotional manipulation in telling us that they only offer group safaris to help people and they don't make a profit on them, so this refund would have to come out of his own pocket and would destroy years of hard work and that they'd have to consider stopping group safaris, that he'd have to beg to borrow it from a friend etc etc. At this point I gave up - I am not interesting in bankrupting anybody, and frankly found the whole thing ridiculously unprofessional.
There are plenty of other safari operators available and I would advise avoiding Tanzania Safari Supremacy if possible.
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Email Rebecca | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Better than expected - trip of a lifetime!
I booked Tanzania Safari Supremacy online with Elvice for my family traveling from the US with 5 children ages 10-20. The guide met us at the airport and took care of us until the very end when he waiting with us for our plan out of the serengeti. The Toyota landcruiser was a highlight. We loved driving in it. Our driver cleaned it and organzied it every morning for our family. There was a charging station inside for our camera and phones and an electric cooler full of water. He was knowledgable and tailored the safari to our family needs. The accomodations were amazing. Elivice booked us at the Crater Lodge and then a tented camp in the Serengeti. The wildabeast migration came through our camp. Our driver took us out on overlanding trips near our camp and we saw big game every day. I felt safe, pampered and each member of the family enjoyed every moment. Elice communicated very well and kept the communication going as I started planning the trip but was unsure of many things. He also organized a school visit where our kids were able to bring school supplies to the Masaai children. It was a worry-free trip and I highly recommend Elivce and Tanzania Safari Supremacy.
IE
Email kylie | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
not what was advertised
Tanzania Safari Supremacy is a complete rip off. Simply put, what they advertise and what they set out in their itineraries are not what they will provide. I travelled with them in July 2015 and was utterly disappointed at the service they provided.
Firstly, when we were picked up from our hotel in the morning the operators demanded that we pay the balance in cash. This was never mentioned to us in any correspondence beforehand, which it clearly ought to have been given the size of our group and the amount of cash we would therefore need to have on hand. We had expected to be able to pay by card, but instead lost an hour that morning travelling to the airport to access an ATM – a terrible start to the trip, a waste of our time, and no apology from the company. Unfortunately this was only the beginning of our problems.
We had opted to use this tour operator as they claim in all their materials that the drive to the park is 4-4.5 hours from Dar es Salaam (there are other parks in the region but they are a longer drive so we chose Mikumi as we had limited time available to us and wanted to maximise our time in the park). The drive took 6 hours. This wasn’t due to traffic as there wasn’t any significant traffic and the journey time was the same on the way back to Dar from the park. This delayed not only our arrival on the first day but also meant we would not have time to make use of our final morning on safari as we had to ensure we would make it back to Dar in time to catch the ferry.
The itinerary for the first day was to arrive by midday and immediately start on a game drive. Instead, when we arrived the driver told us that the plan was not to go out on a drive until 4:30pm! This was a loss of over half a day of driving for absolutely no reason.
At this stage we were very annoyed by the situation. We asked the driver to take us out at 3pm so as not to lose so much time and, reluctantly, he agreed. We also asked at that stage for the driver to get the manager, Elvice, who we had corresponded with by email beforehand, on the phone so that we could discuss the issues that had arisen. The driver did not get him on the phone.
On the first evening the driver (allegedly) checked what time breakfast would be served at, told us it would be 6:30am and initially suggested picking us up at 7:30am to go on a drive. As anyone who has been on safari before will know, it is best to go out as early as possible as the animals move around most in the mornings before it gets too hot in the middle of the day. Thankfully, we knew this so insisted that the driver pick us up at 7am and he, again reluctantly, agreed.
Later that evening the catering staff (who are entirely separate to the safari company and did a fantastic job and were most helpful) told us that breakfast is not served until 7am (a fact I have no doubt the driver was fully aware of). They tried to contact the driver for us to tell him that we would instead go on a drive earlier and return for breakfast later in the morning but they were unable to get through to him.
The following morning the driver did not turn up until 7:25am. When we were eventually able to speak to Elvice much later that day he claimed that the driver was delayed as he had had a flat tire. The driver never mentioned this so I fully believe this was just a story concocted later on to try and cover himself. He didn’t apologise at all when he did arrive late and when we made it clear that we were very unhappy with how we were being treated he again offered no apology.
As an aside, the driver showed very little in the way of knowledge about the animals. If we had not asked him questions about the animals I don’t think he would have said a word the whole time and when he did answer questions it didn’t seem like he knew very much about the animals. When we did come across animals it seemed very much like just a matter of chance rather than any skill exercised by the driver. Even if all the other issues had not arisen, I think we would have left the tour feeling quite disappointed by the drives because of this apparent lack of knowledge.
Returning to the main issues. When the driver arrived late that morning I insisted that he call Elvice as the group was so appalled at the service. He instead got another middle man, Philbert, on the phone who refused to listen to our complaints (which were expressed in a calm fashion) and began to scream down the phone at me, called me crazy a number of times, and then hung up the phone on.
We asked the driver again to get Elvice on the phone as he was, as far as we knew, the person in charge. The driver claimed that he did not know who Elvice was, he only knew Philbert. We told him that we were not happy to speak to Philbert and insisted he get Elvice on the phone and the driver said he would.
We eventually went out on our morning drive and by the time we returned for lunch we still had not received a call from Elvice (although we are quite confident that the driver was speaking on his phone to someone from the main office, he denied it when asked about it). At that point we again insisted on him calling Elvice. Again he claimed he did not know who that was and that he only knew Philbert so he put Philbert on the phone again, who claimed that Elvice could not be contacted as he was ‘in the bush’. When I said that that wasn’t acceptable and that we must speak to someone in charge he again started to shout at me and ultimately hung up the phone.
We again explained to the driver that we had to speak to someone in charge and that we wanted that phone call to happen now. 10-20minutes later we eventually got a call from Elvice. Unfortunately, all Elvice offered us were excuses, such as the phantom flat tire. He refused to acknowledge that the itinerary he had sent us was very different to what was proposed when we arrived and ultimately could offer us no solution. I asked that he consider the situation and call me back within an hour to offer some solution to the problem but, unsurprisingly at this stage, the call never came.
That evening when the driver dropped us off, we asked him to call Elvice again. At first he tried again to claim that he didn’t know who that was or how to contact him, but, obviously, this didn’t stand up and he eventually got him back on the phone. This time Elvice was much more hostile. He tried to claim that we had caused very issues and that we had tried to not pay for the safari (absolutely baseless claims), he offered the same nonsense excuses, and ultimately, when I insisted that there was no excuse for providing a service so different to what was advertised, he became completely frustrated and (judging by the sounds) hurled his phone against the wall.
Do not use Tanzania Safari Supremacy. There are so many companies offering safaris in this region, try any of them other than this one. They don’t provide what they promise, their driver showed no expertise, and their customer service is despicable.
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Email Maria | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Experience of a Lifetime!!
My fiancé and I returned last month from our trip booked through Tanzania Safari Supremacy.
This trip marked our first trip to Africa, and was also our first safari experience - One we will never forget!!
Elvice was extremely responsive throughout the booking process, answering all of my many questions and providing excellent guidance and advice. He walked us through each step of planning our itinerary until I was confident that we'd laid out the trip that we'd been dreaming of!
Our itinerary ended up including a short safari in Selous Game Reserve, staying at Zarafa Tented Camp, our home away from home! Followed by a week at the lovely Z Hotel in Zanzibar.
When it finally came time to make our journey, we were met at the airport by our guide, Msafiri. We learned so much from him - about life in the region, as well as about the animals that we saw along the way. He made sure that we got to each stage in our journey safely and smoothly, and he did an excellent job of locating wildlife for us to see and photograph on our game drive, always making sure to maneuver us into a great position for pictures.
We are so thankful to Tanzania Safari Supremacy for making sure that our trip was enjoyable from start to finish! We would certainly recommend them to those looking to visit Tanzania.
HK
Email Daf | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A fascinating close encounter with wildlife with very knowledgeable and helpful driver guides
The communications and service with Tanzania Safari Supremacy (TSS) was good, although we were a bit shocked by the sudden imposition of 18% VAT for parks entry. After arriving at Kilimanjaro, TSS meeting us at the Airport, the rest of the 9 days trip went smoothly and well. Our adventure covered Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Nigorongoro Crater and Serengetti National Parks and we saw many animals (giraffes, elephants, zebras, wildebeest, warthog, hips, ostriches, buffalos, even lions, cheetah and leopard). Lodging and meals arranged by TSS were decent. From the north of Serengetti, we took a domestic flight back to Kilimanjaro which was nice planning. All in all, the 9 of us fully enjoyed our private safari experience.
Email Julia | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful safari experience
Our safari was very organised from booking from home to the actual trip itself. Our guide (Ibra) was superb, friendly & knowledgable, our cook (Joshua) was excellent too. We were extremely well fed!
Safari vehicle was very comfortable, camping set up was all arranged for us & also comfortable. Game drives were excellent, we were very happy with what we saw.
I would highly recommend Tanzania Safari Supremacy.
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Email Peter Crowley | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
airport to airport excellence
Elvice did a great job organizing our safari by email so we felt pretty good before we left that it was going to be a great trip.
Although we had people arriving on different days, our guide Laizer (pronounced Liza, like Liza Manelli) picked us up from the airport and everything went smoothly. Kenyan airlines lost my wife and my checked luggage, but the Safari Supremacy team worked with the airlines to find our bags and get them delivered to our hotel. They went out of their way to make sure we had a great trip.
We went in the "off-season" which meant that we saw the same animals, paid less, and stayed in fabulous hotels instead of bush camps. I personally would have preferred the bush camps, but I got out voted by the rest of my party.
We had 5 days and saw everything we wanted to see, including all of the big five. I didn't understand what that was until we got there, but it's s big deal to the safaris. I'm glad we got a chance to see leopards and rhinos as they are scarce and we might not have seen them otherwise except that they are in the big five and worth the effort to track them down.
Everyone we met from Tanzania was very pleasant. Our guide spoke English and taught us a few words in Swahili. The hotel staff were multilingual and spoke English Spanish German and I think I heard Japanese or Korean as well. I was impressed it was so multi National. We could tell the cars of Japanese by the huge zoom lenses on all their cameras. HUGE. FYI, I had a small point and shoot that I kept in my pocket and was fine. The animals are so close that you don't need a huge zoom.
It was amazing and we would definitely go again. We are already planning to go back and climb Kilimanjaro. We would use this safari operator again without hesitation.
Amazing adventure
Thanks to Elvice, we managed to organise a safari trip remotely (exchange of emails only !). He paid close attention to our requirements, has been very available and quick to answer! It's not easy to put our trust into someone you have never met, but here, just good surprises : everything was perfect from our arrival to our departure. Our driver Laizer was very kind, accomodation and hosting were great, and the safari was amazing !
We are very satisfied so we re thinking to come again in a few years with Tanzania safari supremacy !
SG
Email Mariam Ali | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome service for fuss-free holiday.
We are a grp of 4 pax on safari and beach holiday. All arrangements by Elvice were top notch and we had a wonderful time. We will recommend TSS to all who wants a fuss-free holiday!