Jungleroam Safaris

Mixed experience - really depends on your guide

I have to give a bit of a mixed review. I was on a group 4-day safari in Maasai Mara and Nakuru, which I booked specifically because it had good reviews.

For the first half of the trip, I had an amazing experience. My guide was Sir Charles and he gave us a lot of information about what we were seeing, scouted out where animals may be, and tried to get us the best views of everything. I think you really couldn't ask for more in a guide and the park itself really exceeded my expectations. I think we saw pretty much everything except a leopard and I had a lot of fun as well.

After Maasai Mara, I was the only one from the group not going back to Nairobi, so I was passed to another guide for the end of my trip in Nakuru. The other guide (Andrew) unfortunately did not seem to care much. He didn't give us any information and when we asked questions, only gave one-word answers. He was not looking for animals. If we wanted to see something, we had to spot it ourselves and then yell for him to stop. He also did not have water, which was supposed to be provided. He generally seemed to not care about our experience and the entire group was pretty upset. Still very cool to see rhinos and such, but it put a bit of a damper on the experience.

Overall, I think your experience really depends a lot on your guide, and it seems you have no control over this. I guess all these small companies are beneath one larger umbrella company and they pass customers around from vehicle to vehicle based on where each car is going. Overall, Maasai Mara is amazing, but I wish there was a bit more transparency about what we booked and who we would be with.