Our staff was part of a Fam trip to Ngamba Island
Achieve Global Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2011)
- Member Of:
- APTA, AUTO & USAGA
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $30 to $900 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
LU
Email Couple | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Would repeat, will recommend
The whole experience has been amazing. Big thanks to the people in every single place, who made us feel like home. Thanks also and especially to Abudallah, who take good care of us :-)
We'll certainly recommend your company to friends.
We have some advices to take the experience a bit higher; please do not consider these as criticising, far from our intention. We just want to improve it even further for future guests (and friends!). For example, giving a fabric bag with a few useful or nice things, like the latest program printed (with some info about the new lodge, e.g. Bakiga Lodge), urgent phone numbers or even an already stamped postcard to send home. A sim card loaded with $5.
Maps! Including a queen Elizabeth park one. Another idea for game drives: let a book about the animals to be seen to the guests. You can add those some 20 dollars to the whole account and leave an immediate good impression.
By the way, bringing us dollars turned out to be expensive and not at all useful for us: the change everywhere was very disadvantageous, we were always requested 1 usd per 2000 ugandan shillings. Much better to bring any currency and change to shillings at the border.
On the other side, congratulations on the choice of lodges: we loved all of them! And furthermore, food was delicious everywhere!
That's all: thanks again!!!
Email Steve Clayton | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a lifetime 8 day tour Uganda
Communication was quick and informative with Joli, Jon our driver /guide was excellent throughout the tour and added to our experience with his detailed knowledge of the country and animals. The accommodation was very good exceeding our expectations of mid range, and the food the same level. It was a well structured tour covering two national parks and two treks with chimpanzees and gorillas, two wonderful boat trips as well. We saw all the wildlife you could imagine and it was a humbling experience being with the Ugandan people who have little but are so proud of ther country.
Email Mathieu | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great 12 days, just tiring a little bit but awesome driver and beautiful country of Uganda.
Great communication, was really simple to trust the organization.
Email Peter | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing experience in Uganda
I took a 10 day Safari in July.
Firstly our guide - Patrick. What a lovely man. His knowledge of the animals, environment and the park rangers was remarkable and seemingly never ending! His experience as a ranger enabled us to meet more people and have a continuously engaging journey
Accommodation. I selected mid-range. This was fine. I usually do 4 or 5 stars and it was not at that level, but I was happy and had only a few minor, very minor issues. Don't forget you are staying in the middle of National parks!
Transport. We did have a few issues with the vehicle, but Patrick dealt with them really well. We did not miss out on any part of the itinerary.
Wildlife. So many animals to see! We were so lucky to see so many. Certainly, Patrick's knowledge was a great help. of course, the animals roam as they choose! the gorilla's are incredible.
Achieve as a company. My contact was Jolie. She is so patient and answered all my questions promptly and nicely.
A good company all round!
Email Jana | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
our trip to Uganda was amazing thanks to Achieve Safaris!
A big thank you to Jolie and John from Achieve Safaris. Booking with Jolie was easy and pleasant and whatever was wanted or needed for the trip was easily arranged.
John hosted us on our 6-day tour and it was absolutely incredible and we could not have asked for better. He was very friendly, welcoming, informative and insightful. Our favourite thing about John was his passion! We’re convinced that there is no one more passionate than John when it comes to providing his guests with nothing but wonderful memories from Uganda and we want to thank John for making our trip the best it could be, it was amazing!
US
Email Stacey | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing opportunity to see the wildlife in East Africa!
This trip was well planned from the beginning. Jolie was extremely prompt and clear with all of her emails. Every time I asked a question she would get back to me within a day. The final itinerary included everything we wanted to do and see. Jolie worked with us to add a few extra activities and was very accommodating.
As far as the trip goes, we were in the car for very long periods of time, but it was definitely worth it in order to see so many different amazing things!
Dominick was our driver/guide in Kenya. He was very patient and accommodating as our group seemed to be late every single time we were supposed to leave. He always made the trip all about us and never seemed to mind. He was very knowledgeable about the roads and where to see the animals while on safari. Masai Mara was the most incredible place to see basically everything except for the rhino. Luckily, we also got to visit Lake Nakuru and saw the rhinos there.
After Kenya we met our guide Tom who stayed with us during our time in Uganda and Rwanda. I can’t say enough nice things about him. He is so kind, caring, and made us feel safe at all times. He was extremely encouraging and reassuring of our group and helped us with any information we needed or any reservations we might have had. There were less animals on safari in Uganda, but we were lucky enough to see everything in Kenya. Our main focus here were the tracking experiences (golden monkeys, mountain gorillas, and chimpanzees), and they did not disappoint. Seeing the silverback gorillas was the highlight of our entire trip and made the difficult hike worth it.
Overall, all members of our group highly recommend traveling with Achieve Global Safaris as they are extremely reliable. We all felt safe throughout the entire trip. If you have the time and can handle the car rides, make sure you go to all 3 countries as they all offer unique experiences.
BEWARE OF SCAMMER / LOW QUALITY
I am glad that I did not book with Achieve. I saw their van while in Murchison and it wasnt nearly as nice as the 4x4 with a pop top that we enjoyed for a better price with Uzuri (https://uzurisafaris.com/) instead.
I had originally planned on booking with Achieve, but their email account was hacked and I sent a wire for $3,140 USD to scammers. The owner Polly Kamugisha took zero responsibility even though I took steps to verify the fake instructions sent from their email account. I even messaged an Achieve employee on whatsapp to "confirm the email with updated instructions are legit? Just wanna make sure nobody sent a fake message from your email account" (see screenshot).
I wouldnt normally air my dirty laundry like this but the world should know that the business owner's response to the incident was that I should seek help from the police... not only is he ignorant about the likelihood of a recovery via law enforcement, but I am still shocked that he doesnt think Achieve has any responsibility for the instructions sent from their compromised email account. Wouldnt even agree to split it.
Probably would have been more victims if I hadn't separately reached out to a 3rd party lodge in my efforts to verify the suspicious instructions sent from Achieve's email address. They called Polly to make him aware of my concerns before I sent the wire.
Don't expect Achieve to be there for you if anything goes wrong! Have the time of your life with Uzuri or any number of better companies out there!
US
Email Sheri | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect three day trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
I was concerned with making this commitment from around the world sight unseen and I could not be more delighted. Jolie helped work out the details and money exchange, Tom was the guide and driver for the whole trip, knowledgeable and entertaining. I saw both life in rural Africa and animals in the park. Tom went above and beyond to make this a great trip!
DE
Email Brunhilde | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Four-days gorilla safari tour in the Bwindi National Park- Uganda
We booked via internet a four-day gorilla trekking tour with two permits - Nkuringo and Rushaga in the Bwindi National Park in Uganda. Julie our tour consultant from Achieve Global Safaris was excellent. Always extremely helpful and fast with her responses. We arrived in Kigali the night before (organized on our own). Next morning Tom who drove from Uganda to Kigali (Rwanda) picked us up - with some delay and we were quite concerned - but he had a good reason since something broke down in his car. After that everything went perfect and he was a very friendly and helpful guide, always in time and we had no problems with the care despite very difficult and bumpy roads in Uganda trough the Bwindi National Park.
We left Kigali at around 11 a.m. driving towards Uganda to reach our first lodge Ichumbi Gorilla at around 5 pm. At the border, it took about 1h without any good reason, but we had all the time in front of us, without any commitment so we took this as an African experience.
The Ichumbi Gorilla lodge and especially the view was marvelous. Lydia the owner of the lodge was there to take care of some very special guest- the daughter of the 1st Lady. Lydia is visiting the lodge only occasionally.
We got a hand massage when we arrived, a welcome drink and then we got our beautiful rooms. The dinner was excellent and the entire stuff very helpful and pleasant people.
The second day we went to the gorilla trekking tour in Nkuringo to see the X-Christmas gorilla family. Seven guests with the guide and the porters (extremely important and helpful for those tracks) were on the track. My porter Bryan is a Batua (the evolutionary oldest and small people on our plant) and he was so gentle, helpful and kind. I was very happy that I have chosen him; he was the only Batua among all porters. The three trackers left about 2 hours ahead of us to spot the gorillas. After a 2 h trekking tour up and down on quite slippery ground, we reached the gorillas. We saw 3 gorillas: the silverback - 22 year-old, a female gorilla and her baby. We got quite close to them 5-7 m. It was a fantastic experience.
Coming back, we were allowed to take a shower in our room and to chill out on the terrace with coffee and tea and again the fantastic view on the surrounding mountains.
At 3:45 pm we were sad to leave the first beautiful lodge to drive to our second lodge Ichumbi. But the Ichumbi lodge turned out to be an amazing place too. Each of us got an own little beautiful cottage. The administrator of the lodge was a very open-minded, visionary, professional and perfectly organized person, originally from Rwanda. We enjoyed a lot to talk to him and to hear about all the history and experience he went through. Impressive!!! We hope all his dreams will become reality one day.
Since it was my birthday they organized a nice Donate-cake with a candle and flowers, they song and dance for me. This was so touching and wonderful: many thanks in case you ever read this report. The entire experience in Ichumbi was great. The food was delicious, the stuff very friendly and helpful, the place beautiful and very clean.
The 3rd day we went to our 2nd gorilla tour in Rushaga and visited the Mishaya gorilla family. This was a really jungle tour crossing 7x a little river until we reached the gorilla family (after about 1.5 h).
We saw seven of the nine family members and they were extremely well habituated to people, so they passed about 1.5 m between us, fully ignoring us and weren’t afraid of us. We got fantastic photos of them.
The 4th day we had to get up at 4:30 a.m., had breakfast at 5: 00 and left to Kisoro the fly back with a small plane to Entebbe. The flight back was incredible it was like a taxi-flight (hop on - hop off). The plane had three additional stops to pick up quests or to get off guests at different little “airports”. We flew over beautiful landscape and saw a lot of the country in this way without having a 9 h drive. I would do it always again in this way.
In Entebbe, Patrick, the driver waited for us and drove us to Kampala, were our scientific meeting started.
These 4-days were an incredible and wonderful experience in East Africa. Expensive but worth to conserve the mountain gorillas on our planet.
US
Email Jill | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best Safari in Uganda
Everything about this safari exceeded our expectations! Jolie was easy to work with, scheduled everything for us, and was great! Once we got to the airport things got even better. Our guide, John, was the absolute best! He knew so much about Uganda, the history, the wildlife, the environment, and different cultures in the country. John did everything to make our experience as perfect as possible. He was so thoughtful and went above and beyond. He recommended great local food that we loved, took us to the best craft markets when we told him we wanted to get traditional wood carved masks to bring home, and was really fun to be around. We feel very lucky to have had such a wonderful experience. John saw to our every need and we are extremely grateful for everything he and achieve did for us!