The Team Behind Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris
Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2003)
- Member Of:
- Eco Tourism & Kenya Wildlife Services
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $64 to $490 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
IN
Email Mohsin Khan | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent Service with Trip of a Lifetime
We booked 3 days package includes Pickup drop from airport, 2 nights stay in Maasai Mara, 3 times meal, jungle safari, little nairobi tour & Naivasha tour.
Owner Mr.Otieno, Driver Mr. Zakaria & Cook provided us excellent service. They were always helpful & at my service.
Everything was above the expectation.
Price was cheapest comparing to all companies.
Special thanks to the cook, we got delicious 3 times meal.
Great experience of Maasai Mara Safari Tour. One whole day in jungle safari was trip of a lifetime.
Accommodation at Mara Springs was decent & Adventuress. (You will only get 3 hours of electricity in a day).
Naivasha tour was good but you have to pay 30$ extra for one hour boat ride, but its worth it. Spend few hours.
Nairobi City Tour was okay because there are not much to see in Nairobi. So you can avoid Nairobi City Tour and do little extra Safari Tour Instead.
Nothing negative just a suggestion to travellers: If you are travelling with family or with a lady then upgrade the room with one which has door. Even though you have to pay little extra. The room we choose was good & adventuress. But my family was bit scared because it was having a ZIP not a DOOR.
Overall value for money and Highly Recommended.
Amazing excursion with Kenya Walking Survivors Ltd.
Thanks a lot Mr. Otieno and your Staff for served us. We had visited the place like Amboseli, Lake Nakuru, Lake Bogoria, Lake Naivasha, Green Crater Lake walk, Masai Mara. Our journey was smooth and beautiful, as per contract Otieno did every thing for us. In connection with wild life, it was beyond our expectation, we had seen all big five and many more.
Special thanks to our guide Mr. Benson, for his soft and kind behaviour. Yes Benson you are excellent, I like you and love you, best wishes for you.
Many thanks to our cook Mr. Samuel Omondi for serves us hygienic and tasty food.
Once again thank you very much OT. Best wishes for your Kenya Walking.
Then see you very soon in road once again.
-Soumitra Sasmal
Calcutta, India
US
Email keneth | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent service and great value
The two of us went on the 17 day safari by KWSS stretching from Nairobi To the Masai mara,Crossing into Tanzania and Exploring the Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater.From our research online,were pressed to find a trip a tour that covered this much in Kenya and Tanzania with comfort in acomodation that we were looking for.KWSS provided great value for money and they certainly delivered on their promise.
Their customer service was largely handled OT who was quick to respond,answer our many questions on itinerary and generally a very helpful and courteous person to interact with.Thus from a management perspective ,KWSS was able to meet our needs
We were lucky enough to meet SHEM , a professional and seasoned driver /guide in Kenya and David in Tanzania.Accomodation was at level of comfort we expected and booked.The Tented campsites in masai mara covered our essential needs at least.All meals were covered in the tour price and ranged from decent to delicious.we were happy with our safari as we had breathtaking experiences.
Lastly if you wish to enjoy your safari i would be happy to recommend KWSS as an operator that gives you great value for money with good people working them altogether delivering an excellent service
Excellent service. Professional tour planning and guiding
Kenya Walking Survivors really excellent in all parameters: planning, guiding, service, honesty, accommodation, safari
Email Michael | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Absolute highlight of Kenyan adventure.
(3 day safari to Amboseli and Tsavo)
I was a little unsure about this company but I trusted the reviews and have no regrets for doing so. This safari was the opening three days of our Kenyan trip and was so worth it.
Joseph was always on time (even when we weren't!), hugely knowledgeable, chatty and especially accommodating. He really went out of his way to show us everything he possibly could and to teach us as much as possible.
We had a huge open top car between the three of us so plenty of space. The camps and lodges we stayed at were lovely (check Kibo camp), and the price was comparatively very reasonable. I would have happily have paid more, I will certainly return to KWSS for another Safari in the future.
CH
Email Tobias | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unsure solvency of the company - Definitively not a care free safari!
First of all: this review has nothing to do with the beauty of Kenya and Tansania nor our personal tour guides or cooks (they have been super helpful)! Both countries are beautiful and their people have been exceptionally friendly and accommodating!
However, if you want a carefree safari tour in which all bookings/reservations/parking fees are payed in advance (as discussed and payed for) then we suggest to book with a different company. We cannot express how disappointed and frustrated we were in regards to the organizational skills of Kenya Walking Safari's (KWS) management. It caused us many nerves/patience and most of all time during our 10 day safari.
In order to be fair with KWSS we would also like to say the at the end of our tour KWSS compensated us with approx 5% of the tour price for lost time and wrong calculations.
Anyway we would like to explain what happened:
We booked our safari tour in April 2016 for our trip in August 2016. We had extensive contact with KWS which gave us confidence because they were always very responsive and answered all of our many questions. We payed well in advance (a good amount of money!) and expected that all accommodations/services/park fees would be payed/booked for us in time for our arrival.We are very well aware that we can come across unforeseen circumstances and that flexibility is required. However only to a certain extent.
During our tour we encountered four issues which we would like to explain for others in more detail:
The first issue we encountered was during our first lodge in Maasai Mara. Taking KWS's suggestion, we swapped 1 day in our tour due to ongoing animal migration in the region (adding 1 day in Maasai Mara and take 1 day off from our Tanzania tour).This was a good idea because we were able to see the river crossing. However, we didn't receive the same standard room we booked for originally.We wrote KWS a mail to see how to proceed (since there was a clear down grade on our room).They didn't reply to us until the end of our safari tour.
Second issue:after wonderful game drives in Maasai Mara and a great time at Lake Navaisha we headed off for a very long drive (8h) to Amboseli National park. According to our itinerary (which was reconfirmed verbally and on print during our face to face briefing in the Nairobi office) we were booked at the Kibo Lodge (high class safari lodge). We were then surprised to hear from our tour guide that he had just received a text message from the office saying we would be spending 2 nights in the AA lodge instead of Kibo (another down grade as they have different room rates). Apparently Kibo was fully booked due to government officials.We decided to see for ourselves and were more surprised to hear onsite from Kibo lodge that they did have available rooms and no government officials! We of course did not take the room in the AA lodge and insisted on taking a room in Kibo (according to our tour program we had payed for). We then found out from the hotel manager that they no longer accept KWSS clients because the company has outstanding payments. We (including our tour guide) tried to call the KWSS office many times (including the "hotline number") because this was a situation we were not going to accept. We were not able to get the manager of KWSS on the phone and waited 4 long hours until we reached someone from the office.They suggested that we pay the 2 nights ourselves (400$) and we will get a refund. Obviously, after all that we had heard and experienced we were not ready to pay ourselves. Due to the kindness of the Kibo hotel manager and our persisting tour guide we were able to check in at 8.30 pm. KWSS had promised to send the money to Kibo the next day, which they then did the next afternoon.However, low and behold,we encountered another group from KWSS on the second night at Kibo. They had the same problem! Unfortunately they weren't as lucky as we were and had to go to another lodge.
Third issue: after transferring from Kenya to Tanzania,we slept a night in Fanaka lodge to be ready early morning to go to the famous Ngorongoro crater.We were supposed to depart at 8am.However, our tour guide told us that there was a problem because KWSS had again not yet sent the money for our accommodations and park fees for Tanzania. KWSS's Tanzanian business partner, contacted us and suggested we pay 440$ and KWSS will refund us as soon as the money has been wired (apparently there was a technical problem so money transferring was not available). As you may guess, this was not an option for us.KWSS's credibility was non existent. So we called the KWSS office and were surprised that they actually picked up the phone. However this wasn't very helpful and the Tanzanian business partner had to borrow the money from his relative (!) so we could go on with the tour.We waited for almost 3 hrs until we were able to leave.
Fourth issue: after all that had happened, we decided to cross check our past accommodations and realised that KWSS had double calculated the first hotel night in Nairobi. By the way: don't accept a booking at Henessis Hotel.This is a shabby hotel which by far did not meet the standards of our other accommodations. This could have been an honest mistake but we decided to list all the issues we had during our tour for full transparency.
To come to an end: After many emails and involvement of a 3rd party, KWSS management was cooperative and quick in refunding us (after we finished our tour) for wrong hotel accommodations and lost time (several hundred dollars in total).
In short:
- If you want to do a safari tour do it definitively in Tanzania and Kenya - people (incl. tour guides and cooks), nature and food are amazing!
- If you are looking for a carefree package KWS is not the best option
- If you insist and put pressure on KWSS you probably will get refunded for issues, however we believe this only worked for us because we involved a third party
CA
Email Grace | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Trip- Not to be Missed! (10 day Kenya and Tanzania)
We had an amazing 10 day trip to Kenya and Tanzania courtesy of Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd. Mr Ot was kind and so good with responding to my million questions. Our guide Richard was funny, courteous, knowledgable and an amazing guide. Sam our cook was fantastic! I never realized food could taste so good... We saw amazing things like flamingos flying in a swarm, a cheetah and her cubs, lions in a pride feeding on a kill, biking through Hell's Gate, and so many fun things. Our guide in Tanzania Abas was also great and the service impeccable. I highly recommend booking with Kenya Walking Survivors Safari Ltd., you will not regret it and have the time of your life!
NZ
Email Girish Rege | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable African Safari Experience
We had wonderful experience in the wild. We had been told to be careful in Kenya, but we only found kind, helpful and co-operative people. OTL (owner) was all beaming with a smile when we visited him. Our driver Charles was very patient and had good knowledge of Nakuru and Masai Mara. We saw all the Big 5 (Elephant, Rhino, Lion, Leopard and Buffalo) at very close quarters albeit almost touched them. Lots of birds and other animals as well. There was never a dull moment. Nature unfolds right in front of you sometimes bit cruel when you see a kill in action. We were 1 day in Nakuru and 3 days in Mara and everyday we saw a kill. It was thrilling and very exciting life experience.
I would recommend Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris a) They are reasonable in price. b) They promise and deliver. c) The jeep you are in is sturdy and safe, has walkie talkie (just in case). d) The driver is knowledgeable.
Great experience & Good Coordination
A 12 days trip to Kenya , Me and spouse alone . Private tour and the best part of the tour is our Guide /Driver Mr Shem, a Knowledgeable and very humble person . Mr OT was excellent in coordination . Met him at His office and from the next day the tour started . Tsavo _, Amboselli , Nakuru , Naivasha & Maara . Mr Shem was very cooperative and made us feel very comfortable . Everything was well organised . Baloon safari was awesome - a lifetime experience , pl do not miss it . Have patience in Massai Mara ,Natures Unfolds at its own course and our Guide was very patient and even suggested us to few locations where get to see Lions and Leopards very close . If it had been a 4X4 vehicle Mr Shem would have felt comfortable and he was at its best in driving with the Vehicle given to him . An wiressless Radio would have been a added advantage which was Missing.
We are planning our Next trip to Massai Maara very soon ..., of course with Kenya walking .., Mr OT - will meet you soon .., Keep it Up team.
BR
Email Carol Moreno | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect safari
I had a perfect safari with these guys! For a whole week we visited the main parks in Kenya (Masai Mara, Amboseli, Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha), and it was amazing! The guide, Peter, is very experienced, and he knows how to follow the right tracks to put you face by face with the Big 5! We saw so many animals and beautiful places, it was an unforgettable experience!