AMS Directors and Tour Guides
Amazing Memories Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- ASTA, KATO, AMREF & Eco Tourism
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $130 to $500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
IT
Email Dario | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Private 10 days Safari in Kenya: astounding!
After spending a lot of time deciding among many tour operators we have chosen Amazing Memories Safari for a 10 days private Safari: Amboseli National Park, Ol Pajeta Conservancy, Samburu, Lake nakuru and Masai Mara.
Immediately our contact person Anne was available for our needs, from booking to logistics.. and the holiday was fantastic! James is an exceptional guide and went to great lengths to make our first safari a unique experience!
I absolutely recommend Amazing Memories Safari for your next trip to Kenya! This was our first safari, but it won't be the last!
US
Email Daytona | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My dream vacay!
What an amazing experience! My trip was originally planned for June 2020. Unfortunately, due to Covid, it was put off and postponed to June 2022. Anne was helpful every step of the way for 2 and a half years. Emails were answered in a timely fashion. When I was ready to rebook my trip (which was totally different than my original 2020 plan) she answered all my questions and gave recommendations. We went with 10 days in Amboseli, Lake Naivasha, and Maasai Mara. James M was our guide and he was excellent! Funny, polite, knowledgeable and informative. He provided info on the animals, birds, trees, and even the towns we drove through. We stayed at Serena Amboseli, Naivasha Simba Lodge, Ashnil Mara Camp and Keekorok. I look forward to visiting again and I highly recommend using Amazing Memories to plan your trip!
US
Email Sona | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Amazing Family Safari Experience!
Hotels, excursions, guides, and Anne our tour operator were all AMAZING. We are a family of 6 with 4 young children ranging from 10 to 1 year old. The entire team was superb. They ensured that we were safe, comfortable, and well fed. The experience is unforgettable. If you are thinking about doing this safari you absolutely should. It's so worth it and you have a lifetime of memories. Anne is the best and completely understands how to plan a trip with children. Our itinerary was Amboseli x 2 days, Lake Navaisha x 1 day, Lake Nakuru x 1 day, Masai Mara x 3 days, and Zanzibar x 4 days. We loved all the places we visited and would have stayed in Zanzibar longer if we had extra time. This was a lovely vacation - just go and enjoy it!
US
Email Jackie & Bill | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome Safari in Kenya!
We began planning our African Safari 9 months in advance. In looking for a tour company to use, we found Amazing Memories Safaris and we are very glad we chose them! From the beginning the quotes, correspondence, answering countless questions etc was all done in a timely manner and everything was well explained. We were given great choices of hotels based upon our budget and in the end we loved all of our accommodations. We had specific places we wanted to see and stay, and Anne made sure we were able to see them all and fit everything in. Our driver James Magi was awesome. He was a wealth of knowledge with all of the animals and places. James made sure that we were comfortable, had cold waters for us each day and knew great places to stop for bathroom breaks. He was able to find all the animals for us and we saw the Big 5 and much more! We highly recommend Amazing Memories Safaris if you are thinking about a trip to Kenya. Booking with them takes the worry out of all the planning and you can focus on having fun!
US
Email Leah | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
THE BEST SAFARI! Request Joseph, bring water
Amazing Memories Safaris will leave you with truly amazing memories! We made contact with this company through safari bookings.com and was met with a response within a few hours. Ann was happy to help us plan the trip we really wanted to go on, and was fast to respond to any questions. Her communication was very clear and friendly, and I could tell she wanted us to get exactly what we wanted out of the trip, I really appreciated that.
The cost of our trip was very reasonable compared to other companies, for this specific itinerary:
Day 1: pick up from hotel and drive to Amboseli, evening game drive (this was amazing!)
Day 2: full day game drive in Amboseli — our favorite park! There is so much to see here and it is a bit smaller than Masai Mara, so you don’t have to drive around as long to see stuff. It’s all right there! We saw so many elephant, a pride of 12 lions, warthog, zebra, wildebeest, hyena, lots of hippo, and plenty of birds.
Day 3: drive to Lake Nakuru for an evening game drive. — This was also amazing! We saw rhinos at a very close distance, and even witnessed a pride of lions eating a zebra. It was so amazing. I regret not booking another full day in Lake Nakuru.
Day 4: drive to Masai Mara for an evening game drive. This is where we got up close with two cheetahs! Soooo cool!
Day 5: full game drive in Masai Mara. This park is huge, and you have to drive very far, but this was the only park we saw cheetah, and 3 male lions with full mane. We saw wildebeest cross the River, big crocodile, and LOTS of hippo. Masai Mara has it all, but it is a lot of driving, and after 5 days of driving on Safari, it gets a little tiring. But thats what it’s all about!
Each lodge was really great. You have to realize how incredible it is that these lodges even exist out there in the wild. The beds are clean, the washrooms are basic but very clean and functional, everywhere we stayed provided PLENTY of food. Some meals were better than others, and some lodges food was better than others, but yet here is always something good to eat. If you have to eat rice and beans (these were always delicious) for a few meals, do it, because it is incredible to be there.
We stayed at the AA Amboseli, Eagle Palace Hotel in Nakuru, and AA Mara Lodge. Each were 5 stars in hospitality.
PLEASE READ: the drinks are not free. The water is not free. Your driver will provide you water for the game drives and car rides, but outside of the car, and in the lodges, no water is free other than the two small bottles in your room. Water for purchase is expensive. 300 shillings for a 1.5L bottle really adds up $$$. I would suggest buying 5L bottles from a supermarket ahead of time if you drink a lot of water. You can buy a 5L bottle for around 250 shillings. We brought 2, and it wasn’t enough. Our guide, Joseph Mwaniki (the best of the best) was gracious enough to let us stop at a supermarket to buy more water in Lake Nakuru.
Also, your driver is important. A senior driver will know a lot about the park, which roads to take, and how to navigate so you can see what there is to see without getting lost. I highly recommend Joseph Mwaniki as a guide. When we return for another safari one day, we undoubtedly will request him. He was so nice, and so knowledgeable about each park. He made us feel safe and welcome at all times. He wanted us to see everything, and we did! More saw more than what we thought would see. He is now a friend, and we cannot wait to return to see him one day.
Another thing to mention.. the van. The van was GREAT. It was so comfortable, more affordable, and was able to handle the safari roads BETTER than the “cool” Land cruisers or 4x4 jeeps. The roof pops up so you can see everything you need to see. Go for the van. Save your money!
Day 6: The last day we included a hippo boat ride in Lake Naivasha. This was also a great experience. It was a small private boat, not the big hippo boats you see other groups do. I recommend it.
They also provide you an AMAZING Safari hat which was very useful for keeping my hair out of my face while we were standing up and driving through the parks.
Everything was amazing and it left us with so many amazing memories. We can’t wait to go back.
US
Email Vivian | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
HANDS-DOWN, AMAZING MEMORIES ARE EMBEDDED IN MY MIND!
We were living on the edge and booked this safari a few weeks before our trip to Kenya. Probably not the best way to do it, but we were able to get absolutely terrific accommodations. We booked a 4 night/5 day itinerary.
Anne was so helpful with the millions of questions I bombarded her with. She was always a text away on Whatsapp and tailored the trip to our needs.
We decided we only wanted to stay at two lodges, and picked the parks we wanted to see. We ended up staying at Lake Naivasha Sopa (had the most beautiful pool area and manicured gardens, the architecture was beautiful, and our cottages were spacious) for two nights, and Sarova Mara Game Camp for the other two nights (luxury tents). Our game drives were in Lake Naivasha, Lake Nukuru, and the Mara.
Peter was our everything—driver, guide, and FRIEND. He went out of his way to find "nice" restrooms for us on the way to all our destinations, and he was just the sweetest person.
All in all, we had the best experience with Amazing Memories Safaris. We have been telling all our friends about them, and would definitely use them again in a heartbeat!
IN
Email Anil Jhawar | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Memories are just Amazing!
We had an amazing experience with amazing memories in our Masai Mara and allied trip.
Highly professional and personalised services.
Ms Anne is so friendly and cooperative, she never said No to anything.
Guide cum driver Mr Peter was just outstanding, he was very cooperative and always went out of the way to make our trip memorable.
Keep up the good work!
US
Email Grace | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly recommended tour and reliable tour operator
I booked a nine day safari with Amazing Memories Safaris with a goal of seeing the great migration, and many different parks throughout Kenya. Our trip was a major success. Anne (my contact at the company) was excellent at making a custom itinerary. She always responded to my questions right away, and provided detailed information. I am a pescatarian (dietary requirement), and that was well received and handled by all of our safari locations. Eliud was an incredible guide. He provided lots of helpful information about the animals and Kenya. We told him we loved birds, so he made sure to point cool ones out to us and teach us the names. If he didn't know the name of one, he would look it up for us. He is very knowledgable and answered our incessant questions. Eliud is funny too - our group really bonded with him. We hope to stay in touch!
Our favorite stop was Amboseli and Masai Mara, but we also enjoyed that Samburu had a "special 5" - 5 unique animals only found in that particular park. Looking back, I wish we visited less parks and spent less time in each location. We were at a new park almost every day, and the drives in between were around 6 hours. The drives did fly by - I am very grateful we paid extra for a more comfortable SUV. That upgrade was well worth it. I was shocked by how few mosquitoes there were too. I worried a lot before the trip about about getting bug bites and I came home with zero. (There are less bugs in dry season, but we still took precautions.)
The only things I didn't like about the trip: I had wanted to visit Ol Pejeta Conservancy, but by the time we booked, the lodge there was full. Anne emailed us to ask if we approved of a different lodge and we said yes, but I didn't realize that because of the lodge change, we would no longer be visiting the Ol Pejeta Park. I wish that alteration was made clearer. I should have paid more attention to the revised itinerary because we were disappointed to have missed that park. We also opted to add on Masai Village - I loved the village itself where a local villager showed us how people in his village live, but I regret looking at the jewelry at the end of the tour. Our village guide made my group feel bullied into buying jewelry from each of the twenty vendors which left us with a very sour taste.
Everywhere you go in Kenya there are people banging on your windows trying to sell you jewelry, it's exhausting. But at the village, our guide said that he wouldn't harass us into making purchases so we agreed to take a look at the jewelry. While he showed us around, he made forceful comments like "This vendor is my wife. You need to buy from her. Why aren't you supporting my family?" when we decided not to purchase from every person.
All in all, we loved our trip and loved the tour company!
US
Email Seal, KC | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Experience of a Lifetime!
This was our very first African safari for me and my wife and Amazing Memories made it indeed memorable! Masai Mara was simply amazing. We also went to Naivasha and Amboseli. Naivasha/Nakaru was nice and Amboseli had the Kilimanjaro and the elephants, but Masai Mara was definitely the jewel of the crown.
Anne, who handled all the reservations and correspondences, was beyond fabulous. She walked me through all the steps, responded immediately (even at 1:30 a.m. of her time) and made sure that we had an incredible experience.
Steve was our guide and he was fantastic. Incredible eyes for spotting animals! We came so close to a family of lions and cheetahs that we could have petted them!
Accommodations were fabulous as well. We stayed in Ashnil in Masai Mara, Naivasha Simba Lodge in Naivasha and Ol Tukai in Amboseli. All of them were simply top notch with customer service, food and locations! Ashnil was on the Mara river and we could see hippos from our room, Naisvasha Lodge had incredible opportunity for bird spotting and Ol Tukai had a view of the animals and Kilimanjaro from the room and dining area :-).
The price for the 10 day trip seems to be reasonable. I did not compare with other operators though because this company was highly recommended by a friend of mine who used them before! Keep up the good work Amazing!
A few quick suggestions for improvements (to make the experiences even more awesome for your future customers):
1. Please ask the guide/driver to clean the car a bit on a daily basis because it gets very dusty.
2. For the whole day game drive, it will be nice to have some folding tables and chairs to have the lunch instead of sitting on the ground.
Thank you Amazing Memories:- you made our first African Safari an experience of a lifetime!
Email S&D L | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing
We had a private tour through Kenya and Tanzania our guides were Brilliant, food fantastic and our whole tour was truly amazing.
Anna was excellent, making sure we had the right tour for us and everything was going to plan.
Big thank you
