JOCKY TOURS TEAM
Jocky Tours and Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2002)
- Member Of:
- AMREF & KWS
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $50 to $200 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
DE
Email Sebastian E. | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
a beautiful 7-day Safari
Big kudos to Jockey Tours and especially to our safari guide and driver James! Jockey was the only safari agency (and we requested many) to send us a detailed itinerary of the safari in advance. The contact with Jockey was smooth, courteous and professional. We paid $100 USD in advance and the rest on the spot in Nairobi at the Jockey Tours office. We had chosen a 7-day safari (Masai Mara, Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Hells Gate, Amboseli) in a small (up to 8-person) group with the 4x4 jeep - and the decision was absolutely right, because the different national parks differ not only in the animals you encounter there, but also show you how incredibly diverse and breathtaking the beauty of nature in Kenya is. While Masai Mara is like a steppe, Nakuru is a green oasis at a lake that reminded us of a jungle. Hells Gate shows itself as a canyon and in Amboseli there is a swamp area at Lake Amboseli where birds and of course a myriad of flamingos find their home. Our guide James did an absolute TOP job. He was able to give us a lot of knowledge about the animals as well as about the vegetation and background of the parks. His first words were: "On the next 7 days we are a family and I am the Mom & Dad" - and that's exactly how it felt, like a great family trip with a multinational group with whom we all got along wonderfully, laughed a lot and gained great impressions. In addition, James and his colleagues at Jockey helped us with further travel planning and ticket booking for the train from Nairobi to Mombasa - free of charge!
From us therefore a 5 out of 5 rating and we unconditionally recommend Jockey Tours and James!
Email Antonio | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Less than 3h of Game Drive for a 2 day tour in Masai Mara - Avoid it!
Terrible experience. I absolutely recommend against the 2 days 1 night tour to Masai Mara as the total game drive was 2.45h for both days. It's simply unacceptable. I have been to daily safaris of 5-6h of game drive.
Some good things though: My guide was great, the accommodation and food were good for being a budget safari.
Tour happened as follows:
Day 1: pick-up at 7am in Nairobi. Departure at 8am. Arrival at camp at 3pm. Game drive started at 5pm. It finished at 6.30pm.
Day 2: pick-up at 6.15am. Game drive starts at 6.45am. Game drive ended at 8.30am. I arrived at Nairobi at 3pm.
The drive from Nairobi to Camp will never be less than 6h and it can be up to 8h,
Take at least the 3 day tour or don't do it!
For respect for your time and well-being it is a brutal waste of time, money and energy don't do a 2 days 1 night tour. It was so frustrating to have ended a 2 day tour at 8.30am! I was shocked.
They never offer to refund partially or offered a discount for another safari.
I cannot recommend Jocky Agency. Avoid them!
Reply from Jocky Tours and Safaris
Posted on Nov 28, 2022Hi Antonio
Its very unfortunate that you are putting the blame squarely on us, its should be known that you had booked a 3 days 2nights safari with us, which you later reduced to 2 days 1 night on short notice. We explained to you the pros and cons of joining a 2 days safari and even gave you an itinerary to go through which you subscribed to and agreed to proceed with a 2 day tour over 3 days tour.
We talked over phone about this while on safari, but you never brought forward a compensation claim but instead you told me it was your own fault on reducing your stay by 1 day. Its amazing that you have gone forth to write an official negative complaint even though it was your own idea on reducing your stay.
Regardless, we would like to pass our apology for not being able to convince you enough to drop the safari all together if you couldn't manage a 2 days Private safari or the initial 3 days group safari, which for sure would have offered you more time in the wild and would have been more relaxed safari. We apologize for any inconveniences caused.
IL
Email Dana | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing
Our guide, Mozes, was great! He knew where to find all animals, their names, knew to answer about everything and if we had a problem, he took care of it
US
Email Steve | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Amazing Safari
Best Safari I've been on out of at least 20 others. Our guide Jeff did an amazing job of driving, both getting to the park and driving thru the park. He was able to find all Big 5 as well as a cheetah, hundreds of giraffes, zebras, hippos, wildebeest and all kinds of antelopes, all in the same day! The accommodations were fine with a good hot water shower. However, the power is only on for a few hours in the morning and evening.
US
Email Steve | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Safari
Best Safari I've been on. Our guide Jeff did an amazing job of driving, both getting to the park and driving thru the park. He was able to find all Big 5 as well as a cheetah, hundreds of giraffes, zebras, hippos, wildebeest and all kinds of antelopes, all in the same day! The accommodations were above average with a good hot water shower.
I also enjoyed my visit to an authentic Maasai village on the 3rd day. I’d recommend Jocky Tours to anyone interested to have a great Safari experience at Maasai Mara.
AT
Email Philipp and Cathrin | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Friendly, patient tour organziers with a gem of a Tour guide
We went to Kenia the first time and it was also our first safari. We booked flight and safari tour separately and nagged the tour operators with dozens of emails. They always responded quickly and we very helpful. Since the booking process is very lean and all done via email we were not sure if this was all legit, but in the end we took the risk and booked the safari with a small deposit… it seems this is how safaris are booked.
Even though the safari started a bit bumpy (our driver was about 1h late) all worked out well in the end. We were taken to the office to pay the remaining amount and as a next step brought to our tour guide Jimmy who was already waiting with some other safari guests for our group safari. We booked a 7 day safari starting from nairobi: masai mara, nakuru, amboseli, tsavo ending at our hotel on diani beach.
The accomodations were all as described in the emails and even though we booked the budget variants, the camps and lodges were all nice and much better then we expected.
Among the tour itself the highlight of the safari was definitely our tour guide Jimmy. He speaks flawlessly english, is always friendly and helpful and knows an answer for even the dumbest questions. He knows his ways around all the parks and knows a bunch of rangers, drivers and park employees which helps a lot when searching the rare animals in the parks. Within 3 days we have seen Leopards, Lions, cheetahs, Elefants, rhinos and also the common animals like zebras, impalas, etc. I suggest you take Jimmys recommendations concerning the right time for the game drive seriously. Even though getting up at 5:30 in the morning hurts sometimes, we always got compensated with beautiful sceneries ( flock of gepards right beneath the jeep, lions feasting a zebra, etc). If you are looking for a driver with several years experience, he is your man.
If you you are also planning a tour as we had, i would recommend to skip lake navaisha as the boat tour is pretty expensive… maybe the walking tour is nicer, but we did not do that due to lack of time. So far masai mara and amboseli are our favorite parks.
RU
Email Marta | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Cool
It was great
(automatic translation from Russian)
Email Frankie | under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great routes and really friendly guides
My tour guides alex dennis were really friendly and, knowledgeble about the safari, animals and happy to answer any questions.
They really welcomed us and made us feel like a family.
Would strongly reccomend to anyone interested in going on a safari.
Email Roman | under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Chill, fun , considerate individual that was more than happy to help with problems along the trip
When we first arrived in Nairobi the Jocky Tours and Safaris staff were welcoming and friendly.
Our tour operator Jimmy drove us around the Masai Mara, Lake Nakaru and Amboseli all of which was an amazing experience. Jimmy was fantastic at navigating the Safaris, allowing our group to take the best pictures possible. Jimmy is a great personality conversationally and assisted with any problems that we had.
US
Email Jen | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Experience!
I had an incredible safari experience that left me in awe. Sir Charles, our guide, had so much information about the animals; I learned so much from him. The landscapes were breathtaking, and visiting the park for sunset was an unforgettable and breath-taking. I really appreciated how attentive Sir Charles was to provide us a great experience. The resort accommodations were also great. Everyone was extremely friendly. I would highly recommend others to take this tour.