African Big Cats Safaris
- Offices In:
-
United States
Australia
Canada
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2013)
- Member Of:
- Tanzania Tourist Board
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $380 to $600 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
IT
Email Carole | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Seriousness and discovery.
We went on a 5 day safari in Tanzania with African Big Cats Safaris company. It was an unforgettable experience. The company immediately proved to be serious, precise and helpful. Our guide Eddy allowed us to discover the wonders of the Safari. He was very helpful, serious, well organized and never intrusive. All the lodges we stayed in were wonderful, clean and welcoming. It was an experience that I recommend to everyone.
Email Natasha Peters | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our Dream Honeymoon!
Where do we start?
From booking the 5 Day 4 Night Luxury safari, throughout our trip and beyond, the communication was amazing. Any questions we had, we had a reply super quickly (within 24 hours).
We arrived at Kilimanjaro Airport and our transfer was ready and waiting. Everyone who we met along the way was super friendly and kind.
Our operations Manager (Emanuel) came and spoke to us the evening before our safari, giving us an in detail itinerary and answered any questions we had. This made us super excited (more than we already were!)
The next 5 days were nothing but EXTRAORDINARY. The safari exceeded all of our expectations. Especially having Ernie as our guide everyday.
The animals that we encountered and how close we managed to get to them just made it that even more special.
We have learnt a lot about the animals at each national park due to the 20+ years Ernie has been doing safaris.
The food throughout our trip was beautiful. I am a fussy eater but there was nothing that I didn’t like!
And not to mention the accommodation - breathtaking. Please look through my photos and see for yourself!
If you are considering African Big Cats Safari then our experience is enough to encourage you to go with them! They are incredible.
Thank you Ernie and the team - you made our honeymoon the best we could ever imagined!
NL
Email Suzanne | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing 5 day safari
We did a five day safari with the combination of luxury and comfort hotels. Big Cats Safari helped us really well with our itinary and were very quick with communicating. The safari itself was amazing and did not dissapoint. Our guide Khalid was really good at spotting the animals and made sure we saw everything we wanted. We even saw the big five 5! The hotels (Kitela Lodge and Embalakai) both were amazing and we had the best time. Thank you so much for this unforgatable experience!
US
Email Lynzie Rockett | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Lack of communication
Complete lack of communication. Had us pay for a person that wasn’t even there! If a deposit means something different in Tanzania than America it would have been nice to know. African Big Cats advertises one lodge on their website but downgrades last minute to another. The downgraded lodge is on the complete opposite side (East/West-of Zanzibar) and rooms smell terribly of mold/mildew. Two safari days were not needed (the first and last). Those need to be removed from the itinerary completely. Note that most of these safari companies go to the same exact spots. As evidenced by the massive amount of jeeps at every stop and animal sighting. Skip African Big Cats and go with one of the MANY other companies. Our guides (Zab and Jumma) were good!!
Reply from African Big Cats Safaris
Posted on Sep 7, 2023Dear Lynzie, Thank you very much for your review, and i am very sorry to hear that the trip wasn't to your satisfaction.
I want to take a moment to address some concerns and provide clarity regarding your recent safari experience with us. It's essential for us to ensure your understanding and satisfaction.
First and foremost, regarding the issue of a participant who couldn't join the trip at the last moment, I understand how frustrating this can be, especially when plans and expenses are already in place. Originally, the safari was booked for seven people, but just two days before your arrival, we received notification that one person had to cancel. According to our policy, cancellations made within 15 days of travel would result in a 100% loss of the trip cost. However, recognising that this situation was beyond your control, we decided to deviate from our policy and charged only 50% of the cost. This decision still resulted in a loss for us, but we wanted to accommodate your circumstances as best as we could. We genuinely wish we could have offered a full refund, but unfortunately, we couldn't pursue this option due to the policies of the accommodations involved. Please know that we tried our best to assist you in this matter.
Concerning the accommodations themselves, we want to clarify that we never altered the options we initially quoted. When the trip was booked in January, it was based on a pre-made tour that Crystal, the person who booked on behalf of your group, selected from our website. While we do provide the flexibility to change accommodations, Crystal opted to stick with the original itinerary. Upon confirmation, we sent a comprehensive itinerary, which included the accommodations she had chosen. However, in the low season (April), our website underwent renovations, which involved changes to some itineraries and accommodations. One of the affected itineraries was the one Crystal had selected. The accommodation in Zanzibar was changed from Amaan Bungalows to Nungwi Dreams. We were unaware that Crystal was using the website itinerary as a reference for your entire group instead of the final itinerary sent to her via email. This miscommunication led to the belief that you were to overnight at Nungwi Dreams instead of Amaan Bungalows, as per your original quote.
Lastly, regarding the duration of the safari days, it's important to understand that the length of the safari significantly influences the quality of the game drive. Your arrival flight on the first day was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon, making it impossible to arrange any game drive on that day. Furthermore, your subsequent flight directly to Zanzibar meant that you could only accommodate a half-day game drive at Manyara on the last day. Given the limited number of days your group had, extending the safari was not feasible. Please note that the duration of the safari directly impacts the quality of the experience, as more extended periods allow for better exploration of the parks and more private game drives, as our guides have the opportunity to venture beyond the standard routes.
I sincerely hope that this clarifies the concerns you had about your recent safari experience. We greatly appreciate your feedback, and I apologise that the trip did not meet your expectations. Our commitment is to continually improve and ensure the best possible experience for our valued clients.
Email Naseem | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Amazing Amazing. What an experience!
We contacted big cats safaris for our honeymoon. We told them the dates, our budget and what we wanted to see. They formed an itinerary from there. The accommodation they booked for us was truly outstanding. The service they provided was fantastic. Moses our driver was so fun, knowledgable and friendly. He worked around us and made sure we were always ok. I couldn’t recommend big cats safaris enough.
DE
Email Daniel | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing service
African Bigcats took care of everything. They adviced us well and responded quite fast. The guide was very experienced and explained everything well. The food was very tasty. Accomodations were clean and comfortable. Staff was very friendly.
Nothing to complain about.
Thank you very much.
Email Zoe | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An incredible and unforgettable experience
We had such a brilliant time. First of all our guide Zadlon Sunday, was the most amazing guide who showed he absolutely loved his job and the animals we were looking for. Every day we would wake up, have some breakfast and then make the journey to the next park. He was always ontime, always keen and so kind and happy. On the safaris themselves he would always be on the look out for animals making sure we could see as much as we could. Also if there were certain animals he would always ask whether we wanted to stay longer or go and keep looking for other animals. Thank you for the best honeymoon. The manager of the company met us before to run through everything and then again after the trip to check everything had gone well and that we were happy with the hotels, service and safari. Thank you!
CA
Email George C. | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a lifetime in Tanzania
African Big Cats Safaris organized for us the perfect Tanzanian experience! The company staff we interacted with during our planning, booking and actual trip was professional and helpful. During the months before our departure, Naomi and Justice answered all of our (many) questions promptly and in detail. Emanuel met with us in person both for a briefing before the start of the safari, and at the airport just before our departure, to collect our impressions. And Venance, our guide and driver for the six days of safari, was extremely knowledgeable, friendly, accommodating, and competent. He truly was one of the main reasons this trip will stay with us for the rest of our lives. In addition to all this, we really appreciated the accommodations selected for us by the team. Maramboi Tented Lodge, Kubu Kubu Luxury Tented Lodge, Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge and Kitela Lodge – each offered something different and special, either in terms of the design and comfort of our lodges, or the environment they were situated in, or the magnificent views from our deck or balcony. We recommend strongly African Big Cats Safaris.
Email Bina | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing safari experience!
I researched many tour operators for a 5 day, 4 nights safari in Tanzania and finally chose African Big Cats Safari as their itinerary was a good fit and appeared to be value for money.
They were very quick on answering any questions I had about the tour. They changed the itinerary to make it most suitable to our needs and provided really good accommodation options which we were great stays.
The actual Safari more than exceeded our expectations. Our tour guide Zablon was fantastic at spotting animals and helped us see the Big 5. He had great knowledge of the parks (Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire) we visited. As we are vegetarians, he was always mindful that we had our lunches sorted.
The owner Emanuel came and visited us on our first day to explain what to expect in the coming days and also came to visit us on our last day to see how things went.
We felt really taken care of during our Safari and had the best time. I would recommend this tour operator over and over again.
DE
Email Carsten | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
professional, client orientated, very friendly, reliable
We (family with 2 adult children) booked our trip locally with African Bug Cats. 4 days safari (Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti) and then 3 days in Zanzibar. We were looked after very well and very professionally right from the start – we had many questions that were answered quickly and satisfactorily. The selection of lodges was very good – we regularly left something 12 and then got it back again and again.
We were also very excited that everything went without delays or changes in plans. Starting from the pick-up at the airports, the reservations at the lodges, the flight to Arusha-Zanzibar, etc. It was as agreed in the offer of African Big Cats.
Our guide Khalid brought us closer to his country in a wonderful way. He had a lot of knowledge about the country and its people, which he used to shorten the time between game drives. Thanks to him, we were able to observe countless animals – he was familiar with the parks as well as the habits of the animals, so that we often stood alone without other jeeps in the immediate vicinity of cheetahs, leopards and elephants. It was absolutely impressive and we were very grateful that we were able to experience it that way. One more word about Khalid: he was not only our omniscient guide, but also a safe driver on the sometimes very narrow gravel roads – even after more than 10 hours of driving.
In the days on Zanzibar at Nungwi Dreams we were able to process our impressions and chill out – the hotel is great right on the beach, everyone is very friendly there, the food is good. Only the tour to the dolphins and snorkeling we could have saved, because there are simply too many boats/people there.
