Makasa is owned & managed by Selma and Ngomi Kamm
Makasa Tanzania Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2009)
- Member Of:
- Tanzania Association of Tour Operators
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $300 to $2,000 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
NL
Email Michele | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excelent service
Makasa arranged my transfers and a Safari. Always right on time, friendly guide and driver. Great lunch. Seen a lot of wild animals. Superb!
Email debbie baird | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastically well organised trip...amazing safaris and variety of accomodation, simply brilliant!
I was attracted to the prompt and helpful initial communication with Selma having googled safari companies after failing to get the holiday I wanted from UK based tour companies.
With my wishes and her knowledge we came up with an amazing package, visiting 3 national parks and 1 conservation area plus a stay in Zanzibar at the end, to make a 15 day holiday. From beginning to end, everything ran smoothly, we had our own superb guide in Jamal who made our safari experience so memorable. Our accommodation along the way was varied in location and type which was interesting, always the staff were friendly, professional and helpful and generally the food was very good. The tented camp in the Serengeti was just a wonderful experience. I added a balloon safari to my itinerary last minute before we left the UK, which again was well run and great fun and probably a must do.
When we arrived in Zanzibar, the hotel upgraded us to a chalet near the beach and facilities as I had mentioned to Selma that I'd had recent knee surgery.....what a kind and thoughtful gesture. We wanted a good hotel here to relax in at the end of our holiday and this came with Selma's recommendation...it was stunning, beautiful and so well run. The food and ambience were simply exceptional.
I would definitely use Makasa again and recommend to anyone wanting that special holiday with that special touch.
Email Bert Cassidy | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great friendly service, went to a lot of trouble to meet my needs.
Had a great trip to Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater. Ally our guide was knowledgeable friendly and flexible.
Accomodation supplied was first class.
US
Email J Almond | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Makasa's flawless planning & perfect execution exceeded our high expectations
Tanzania Northern Park Circuit: Sept. 22 to Oct. 6, 2015 (14 nights)
Summary: From our initial email to Makasa Tanzanian Safaris to our (oh, so sad) drop-off at Kilimanjaro Airport (jro), we were delighted. We consider ourselves experienced travelers with high expectations. Makasa's flawless planning and execution gave us delights and experiences we didn't dare hope for. We give Makasa our highest possible recommendation & would never consider any other operator should (when!) we return to Tanzania.
Operator Selection: George, age 61, & I, 56, had talked "safari" and googled options for 4 years. Finding Makasa's great reviews & fairly priced sample safaris on Safaribookings.com (& Trip Advisor) inspired us to finally act. The "hands-on" owners' backgrounds meant they quickly became our choice among the many operators we researched. As almost-fit middle-aged Americans on our first trip to East Africa, we were reassured by 1) Ngomi Kamm's family background in safari tourism, his German heritage (stereotyping yes, but I trust German's to deliver on high standards!) and his college time in the U.S. and 2) his wife & partner Selma's background as a Dutch nurse raising two little ones in Moshi said to us that she'd know how to keep clients safe and healthy in the wilds. Also, Makasa's sample itineraries on Safaribookings offered tremendous value for totally customized trips (just two of us with our personal guide going precisely where we wanted). From our first email contact, Selma's prompt professional responses exceeded our every expectation. She was patient & so helpful as we continued to add days to our trip, only possible because Makasa was offering such great value!
Guide: We've read many reviews about how kind, knowledgeable & professional all Makasa's well trained English-speaking guides are & that was repeated by several Makasa clients we encountered with various Makasa guides at crossroads during our safari. That said, we still can't say enough good things about our guide, Humphrey. He has remarkable eagle eyes, and we learned much from him about every animal & bird & culture we encountered. (We frequently said "It's ok we don't have Internet access now. We don't need Google; We have Humphrey!") He was wonderfully accommodating to our every idiosyncrasy (yes, George needed 50 shots of every bee-catcher & Humphrey wouldn't let me apologize for needing to tinkle every 30 minutes; he was happy I was following his wise recommendations to stay hydrated). He shared so much knowledge of our beloved Serengeti enroute that we were calling it "Humphrey World" before we got there. It would have been the trip of a lifetime if that were all there were to Humphrey but that's just the beginning! We were kinder, happier people because we were with Humphrey: He urged us not to boast at lodge lunch & dinners about our remarkable wildlife encounters (and there were many!) because it could make other safari clients, regardless of their operator, less content with their day or guide if they had missed something. And my, how we laughed. Big clowns ourselves, Humphrey's intelligence, quick wit & cleverness means we'd love spending time with him anywhere.
Itinerary: Our main objective was the Northern Park Circuit wildlife, but our trip was even more enriched because we trusted Selma to guide us on other experiences: cultural, philanthropic & more. We asked for an easy first day around Moshi, and were thrilled with the informative Chagga Village Cultural Tour & the phenomenally beautiful Marangu Falls. Makasa's in-town guide Theo was a wonderfully knowledgeable host and ambassador of Tanzanian culture. Olpopongi Maasai Cultural Village overnight was a life-time experience -- comfy & accommodating to western standards, yet a genuine education on how a renown people continue to live & honor their culture. We loved the Mama Clementina Foundation Kilimanjaro Lodge, first stop in Moshi from Kilimanjaro Airport (jro). Yes, our other lodgings were more modern & polished, but this clean comfortable lodge gave us a glimpse into a school that's uplifting and educating girls in a country that's trying hard to catch up on women's rights. Like every accommodation booked by Makasa, we wish we could have stayed longer to enjoy the delicious meals, our gracious host Ruth and her sweet students, training to work in hospitality. The lush mountain setting for Rhotia Valley Tented Camp, also supporting a school, took our breath away. We're also delighted that Makasa's good value package and our flexible timeframe gave us a day Lake Manyara & about 3 at Tarangire national parks.
Accommodations: All Makasa's picks exceeded our expectations, with gracious managers & staff, beautiful settings, comfy to luxurious accommodations and very good to fantastic food. I'll review, eventually, Maramboi (Tarangire) & KatiKati Tented Extra 1 (Serengeti) -- both are Tanganyika Wilderness Camps properties, Endoro Lodge (Karatu) and Ngorongoro (Crater) Sopa separately. Summary: We would have loved to stay longer every place Makasa booked us.
Wildlife: We embarked on our safari knowing that the landscape, people, culture & any animal sightings would be new & exciting to us; we were determined not to worry if the rare black rhinos or cautious cheetahs decided not to come out for us. What follows are major highlights among hundreds of sightings. Serengeti: two huge male hippos fighting above ground, multiple cheetah sightings, including one very close to road eating Thomson gazelle, herd of 18 elephants crossing road to waterhole, and lion, hunting, crouching, stalking, using nearby jeeps for cover. In transit, Serengeti to Crater: Caracal hanging by roadside; Ngorongoro Crator: 4 different black rhinos sightings, one very close and one of mother & child, herd of zebras, with one or two at a time, rolling in dirt about 20 feet from jeep and then surrounding jeep, Manyara National Park (a favorite for me for its intimacy & forest setting!): hundreds of pink flamingos, small herd of elephants (about 10) surrounding jeep as they crossed road. Tarangire National Park: 2 lion brothers finishing up a kill & much, much more. As for the total number of lions, I stopped paying attention to the guys' count around 90, spread among all the parks. We're so delighted that our abundance of time & Makasa's value pricing meant we got adequate time in all these parks. We had great experiences in every park.
CH
Email Natalia Stauffer | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Dream Safari with Makasa!
My husband and I would like to thank Selma for a perfect organization of our safari trip in July 2015! It was easy and pleasant to communicate with Selma who was very patient, professional and took her time to create our individual programme up to details. We were very lucky during all our trip and our luck began when we decided to book with Makasa :)
When I was asked upon arrival what I would like to see during safari, my answer was - to see lions and gepards hunting :) Believe me, we saw this and much more! Our guide Humphrey made our safari an unforgettable experience! We were happy to explore Tanzania with Humphrey from the beginning till the end of our trip. Humphrey is a professional, knowledgeable, positive, friendly guide with good sense of humor. What we liked very much is that Humphrey was as excited by the process of looking for animals as we were :)
What is very important is that Humphrey was a very skilled driver! When you go on safari, you will find out how it is important to have a good driver on a bumpy road. The car was clean, comfortable and had no a single problem during our trip. We saw some broken cars in the middle of nowhere and the clients had to wait untill it got repaires and loose time. That is a great pity to loose time during safari.
We were 100% satisfied with the work of Humphrey and we will never forget the time and fun which we had during our trip. We had a feeling as if we were together with a good friend. Humphrey was always in a good mood, positive and greeted us every morning with a big smile :)
Parks Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro were amazing! But most impressive were Serengeti and Ngorongoro!
All the lodges which Selma offered were simply wonderful! They all were very different and had different landscape. We didnt have a single complaint about accommodation!
We saw “Big Five” and “Ugly Five”. We saw a cheetah with 2 cubs approx 30 m from our car who later started hunting a gazelle passing by our car (thanks to Humphrey). Later on we saw cheetahs again. We saw 10 lions who decided to hunt gazelles and all this hunting process was happening right next to our car. Later on other lions decided to rest in the shade of our car and one was lying right next to the wheel of our car! We also saw leopards twice and a black rhino walking about 50 m away from our car.
Apart from that we were very lucky to see a serval cat hunting, buffalo, giraffes, elephants, zebras, different kinds of antelopes and antelope KUDU! We also saw antelope gnu fighting, hippos, crocodile, strauss, baboons, chacal, hyena and some other animals, names of which I don’t remember any more as well as a lot of birds.
Dear Selma and Humphrey, THANK YOU very much for the safari of our life!
NL
Email Jori & Fien van de Spijker | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An experience we will never forget
What a wonderful holiday we had! Selma and Ngomi are very nice people (we met them at the start of our vacation) and they had set up the perfect trip for us. Everything was well arranged and the lodges and other accommodations were great. The buildup of the safari was ideal, starting at the Olpopongi Maasai village, moving to Lake Manyara, Serengeti and finally Ngorongoro. It was fantastic to see everything we hoped for (Big Five, hunting cats, etc.) and truly living the wildlife experience. After that, a very relaxing week at the amazingly beautiful beach of Zanzibar.
Special mention goes to our guide Humphrey, of which we cannot speak highly enough. He is a great host, always having his clients' interest at heart. Also, he is very knowledgable about wildlife and nature (we didn't call him Humphreypedia for nothing). Finally and most importantly, he is a truly great guy and fun to be around.
Overall, an experience we will never forget and something we wish for anyone to have!
Thank you so much,
Jori & Fien van de Spijker
NL
Email jacobijn | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
wonderful holiday
Summer 2015, we have made a 3-week trip to tanzania and zanzibar with the family (two parents / 3 children 17, 14 en 12) We booked by Makasa. Our holiday was very well organised, the program was exciting and the Makasa personel very dedicated. Many compliments to David, our driver, who drived safely and spotted so much wild animals! Communication was optimal, program was flexibel. Lodges, hotels and excursions: all arrangements very good. A one-night stay in the Masaai on the third day was giving a very special start: at that moment we felt really that we were in East Africa.
NL
Email Floor Molkenboer | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful experience- such friendly and helpful people
We travelled with two children age 6 and age 8. Makasa organized our trip to 5 parks. We had marvelous safari experiences there and a great driver/guide was with us all the way. Then we visited Zanzibar and Pemba and had good times there. Everything was so well taken care of. We really recommend Makasa!
NL
Email Alexander | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great experience in Tanzania with Makasa Safaris
We, a family of 5 (children's age 18, 17, 15) just returned from a two and half week Tanzania trip and all of us had a great time. After climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and meeting with the Masaai, we enjoyed a wonderful safari in Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro. Our safari guide Ali impressed us by his knowlegde about the wild life and led us to beautiful spots. He was very professional and responsive to our needs and interests.
All perfectly organised, professional, helpful and personal.
Thank you, Selma, Ngomi and team! We feel lucky we found you on the internet and met you and your team in Moshi!
CH
Email Natalie Bold | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Super company! Super holiday!
We found Makasa via google amongst other tour operators. I contacted several of them (about ten) and Makasa was the fastest, most reliable and efficient in responding. Also, they were not only fast but to the point, they completely understood our needs and requests and wishes. We also skyped and Selma really took time to assure she understands us (family of four with two fairly young boys) in order to prepare our dream holiday. And what else can I say? She achieved it to the fullest!
We would also like to particularly thank our guide Victor who analyses very much how his customers are, what they want, what they like and (re-)acts accordingly. He was good fun too! I am sure there are many other good guides at Makasa but we were very happy with Victor.
I would also like to mention something "basic" which however is not always done by other companies: Makasa is one of the few that I have seen that never had any issue with the car. They service the cars like crazy!! Sounds norma, but it is not! We saw so many with punctures, shocks were gone or other things that can really ruin or at least delay your safari and you do not want that. It is as simple as that. So, we found that Makasa was slightly more expensive than others, we also found it was worth it to the last penny, because it meant safety, security, efficiency, reliability and above all a great holiday. Thank you Selma and Victor!