Our Kenya and Tanzania guides smiling to a photo
Oakland Tours and Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2009)
- Member Of:
- Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA) & Kenya Tourism Board (KTB)
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $130 to $320 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email James Williamson | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An Outstanding Experience
I went for a 5 day safari with Oakland Tours and I had an amazing experience.
Felistus was very quick to reply to emails and organised the safari perfectly.
My driver, Patrick, with 20 years of experience managed to not only find the big 5, but also a wide variety of other wildlife sightings. In total 40-50 lions, 10 cheetahs, leopard, many elephants, hippos, giraffes, buffalo and even 2 rhinos.
Overall i was very impressed by Oakland Tours and would highly recommend them.
Ask for Patrick! You won't be disappointed!
FI
Email KariB | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
A Christmas tour to remember
Everything went smoothly and in friendly spirit right from the beginning. We had a long e-mail exchange with Felistus long before our actual booking. She gave her replies promptly and to the point. She never showed any irritation, even at times we might have asked a lot of alternative programmes and some further questions based on these alternatives. This e-mail exchange helped us to sharpen our thinking about what we are actually looking for. Then this Christmas 2016 we finally had our family safari (Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru). Patrick was an excellent guide for us and with us. With his friendliness and expertise, he could guarantee us a holiday we will never forget. The parks visited were fantastic for spotting wildlife, too.
We are very thankful to both Felistus and Patrick for their excellent service to us!
US
Email Sushma | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent experience. Would highly recommend
The arrangements for hotels and for the safari at Masai Mara were excellent. Penina was our main contact and she was excellent - she went out of her way to make sure that all logistics were taken care of and all expectations were met . The safari tour itself at Masai Mara is a once in a lifetime experience. Also enjoyed the Elephant Orphanage, Nairobi National Park and the Giraffe Manor
They are efficient,professional and do follow up to ensure that the customer is satisfied.
Their communications were up to date and detailed, they also have friendly staff who provides the customers with the information effectively. I must stay I was happy during my safari and stay all through. I got the value for my money and I can't complain.
US
Email Ella | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent safari in Kenya and Tanzania
We had a wonderful experience with Oakland Tours from beginning to end! All the drivers/guides were extremely professional and made sure we had fun! Felista - manager was very helpful and accommodated our every need from pre-planning the trip to last minute hotel change when we were there. All her staff is excellent, trying to make sure that you enjoy every minute of your trip! We saw all Big 5 and so much more with their professional guides! They also planned extra trips to Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Mountain Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar for a beach get-a-way. Thank you Felista, Ruth and all the guides for an unbelievable trip! Ella, Alex, Sofya and Sasha
Excellent day tour of Nairobi
Excellent day tour of Nairobi. No problems at any point. Many thanks!
NO
Email Andreas | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Flexible and good safarioperator
Oakland Tours and Safaris helped me to arrange safaries to Lake Nakuru, Hells gate, Masai Mara and Samburu/Buffalo springs. They were very helpful and flexible in arranging safari tours for me and they were very easy and nice to communicate with. They tried to do their best to find good solutions for me in accordance to my wishes, my economy and my time table. For example did I very much want to go to Samburu/Buffalo Springs. While other safari operators dismissed any option for these parks if I was not willing to pay a really high price, Oakland helped me to find and arrange a solution that made it possible for me to do this safari within my budget.
So to some comments on each park:
Hells gate: I really liked this park. You can do the safari by yourself by bicycling or walking in the park. It is really different felling than being in a car. It is a unique experience to watch animals from the ground with no fence between. I had for example zebras just 6-7 meters away and a giraff just 15 meters away. The landscape is also special and very nice: it is like walking in the movie Lion King. The price for doing safari here is also much lower than in other national parks. I saw a lot of common zebra and warthogs, a big heard of buffalos, in addition to baboon, hyrax, thomson's, grant's, eland, impala, hartebeest and giraffe.
Lake Nakuru: It is a nice park - epesially the view from the baboon Cliff over lake Nakuru is stunning. Because the van i was going with started from Nairobi in the morning and would continue to another place in the evening the time we got in the park was in the middle of the day. To see especially the carnivors it is probably better to be there in the morning and evening. But just before we were to leave we saw both lion and striped hyena. We saw also animals like rothschild's giraffe, buffalo, waterbukk, zebra, impala, eland, hyrax, thomson's, grant's and baboons. White rihno did we see far away. There were unfortunately also very far away.
Massai Mara: Unfortunately I was there a little bit to late to see the big migrations. But even though, we saw a lot of different animals. We saw 10 different species of antilopes/gazelles and in total 22 different species of Mammals. The hightlight was probably to the lions and cheetahs just some meters from the car. We saw several different groups of lions - many of them moving around. I had 3 days for this safari, including transport to/from Nairobi. But the first and last day we just did a couple of hours with game driving because the transportation to/from Nairobi took so long time. So it was mostly the second day that was the day of time for game drive. The park is also quite big and therefore it takes a long time to transport between different parts of the park (for us for example the mara river was very far away). I would therefore suggest to focus on getting whole days in the park, rather than just morning/evening drives. We were also 8 people in our minibus, which in my opinion was too many becuase it gets quite crowded. I would therefore suggest that one ask to not be more than 5-6 people in the minibus one is traveling with. The second day we also got away from our camp late because the lunch we were going to have was not made ready.
Samburur/Buffaloo springs: A very nice parks that have a landscape and nature that is quite different from the more popular southern parks; it is much more dry. I saw all the "special five" (grevy zebra, oryx, gerenuk, reticulated giraffe and somali ostrich). Not at east the gazelle called gerenuk is very faschinating: it has very, vey slim legs and neck and it stands on just its hind legs and eats from bushes and trees. I also saw the lions very close to the car (these male lions have just a very tiny mane because of the heat) and a lot of elephants. Can really recommend to do a trip to these parks in the northern parts of Kenya.
Email Onsongo | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
World Class service as always
The hotel that was recommended to me by Oakland exceeded my expectation. The booking was seamless and I enjoyed the experience of having all the billing and booking handled by Oakland. The communication was timely and complete and assisted me in planning my trip.
Email julius | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
it was smooth and on point.
they exceeded may expectation despite me making last minute changes to the trip.
AE
Email Karen | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Felistus arranged our tour on very short notice.arrangements were good n gave us a good deal.
I would say Felistus n the entire team did a fantastic job. And exceeded our expectations, n made Mum n me have a wonderful n memorable holiday. I would certainly recommend Oakland tours to friends n family.