Meet the Team - eTrip Africa
E-Trip Africa
- Located In:
-
United States
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- ATA, IATAN, IGS, KPAP & CODE
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $200 to $1,500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
ES
Email Eva | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Helpful and reliable
Ben was extremely helpful and patient trying to accommodate all our requests during the preparation of the trip. Our guide, David, was excellent: good driver, wise guide, and enjoyable company.
The car was in good condition, although we had a small problem with one of the tires.
The lodges and tented camps were correct and very convenient, in good locations. The Researchers' Rest in particular is an unpretentious B&B which had everything we needed for our first night in the country, comfortable and very good value.
The safari was short and well optimized. David planned every day carefully and helped us to identify the animals and birds we found. He really enjoys his job and makes it enjoyable for the customers!
When we returned to Arusha at the end of the safari Ben took us to the rental company where we had booked a car, and made sure everything was in order before leaving us.
We find it very important to find someone reliable in a country like Tanzania, which is not easy for independent travelers. And the staff of E-Trip Africa are reliable people.
The only reason to give 4 stars instead of 5 is that we found the package a little overpriced, and we didn't liked too much the tented camp in Serengeti (Nieleze), although this is not E-Trip fault! Apart from that everything was really good.
US
Email AJ Slater | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazingly great service and safari
Ben and Aurelie are incredibly helpful. I screwed up my travel plans a couple times, (entirely my fault) and they made every effort to accommodate me and provide me with a great experience. I can't stress enough how helpful they were.
My friend was able to go on the Safari while I was not and she had nothing but great things to say about the guide, lodging and experience.
Highly recommended.
ES
Email Ada | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
E-Trip was perfect! They took care of every detail, and made sure we had a great time!
Everyone we dealt with was amazing. My partner had all sorts of trouble with his flights to Tanzania and Ben continuously stayed on top of it all and made the changes necessary as they came up. We had emails letting us know what to expect and how to prepare for the trip. The accommodations were great and had already been vetted (i.e. the food is handled properly so you don't get sick, mosquito netting, etc.) They've been doing this a long time and you can tell, everything was very well organized.
My Safari guide was also very good. He knew were to go to find the animals I wanted to see, always made sure I was in a good position to see and photograph them and was happy to be flexible with our schedule. He never rushed me when taking photos and would stay out later than scheduled or go out early when there was something specific I wanted to see. He made sure I didn't miss anything with his Eagle Eyes!
Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better experience and had I known ahead of time, I would have had E-Trip schedule the Zanzibar and Kenya portion of the trip as well. I really can't say enough about how well we were treated, how well organized they were and most importantly how they responded when things went wrong on our end! I highly recommend them.
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Email Monica Noon | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Could not have asked for a better safari plan. E-Trip Africa covered all of our needs and then some!
Aurelia and Ben responded quickly to all communication and were able to accommodate our needs. We were already in the country for work and had people arriving and taking off at different times, but they were able to get us airport transfers to fit our schedules. They also extended a lot of information that would have been suitable to prepare for first time travelers in Africa while having ample experience to keep veteran safari goers entertained as well. We were fortunate to stay at the Researchers Rest which offered excellent accommodation and delightful meals.
On the safari itself, we were taken across Lake Tanginyire and stayed within the beautiful park. We were hesitant to stay within the park due to our limited budget, but drinking coffee while overlooking the valley was an amazing way to wake up to be ready to set off for Lake Manyara. We ended the trip in Ngorongoro Crater and were impressed by the concentration of animals in the massive crater. Within 3 days we saw so much wildlife and diverse habitats in NW Tanzania. We had a great time with the guide; he was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor. I think he especially enjoyed our rendition of "Jambo bwana".
It was also great to chat with Ben, as conservationists working in Africa, about his wealth of knowledge of development and conservation in Africa, and to share some old Peace Corps Stories. I would certainly travel with E-Trip Africa again should I return to the region in search of a safari company as it is a small, well organized company dedicated to the happiness of both their clients and staff.
FR
Email Sheryl Praktish | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Hakuna Matata - no worries when working with Ben and colleagues and our awesome driver, Eli.
We chose E-trip from other very highly reviewed companies because of their quick, professional response. Ben and co. had specific information available in response to all of our questions - they had been to each location and could speak from personal experience.
All of our accomodations were beyond our expectations - we were very well taken care of. Our driver and guide, Eli, was an expert at finding, identifying and elaborating on animals in the parks. He accommodated any request we had without hesitation. We would do it all again!
IE
Email Niall | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A flawlessly organised trip for our group of 9
We used Etrip for our 6 day trip (9 adults total - extended family and significant others). We looked at a number of companies but ultimately chose Etrip due to their useful advice on tailoring our trip and the detailed price breakdown they provided which gave us a lot of comfort on the price we were paying.
We were coming from Zanzibar and wanted to squeeze as much as possible out of our time in Tanzania so on Aurelie's suggestion we flew to Seronora airstrip. While not cheap this proved an inspired decision as it avoided the need to retrace our steps and meant we saw something new every single day.
We were met at the airport by our guides David and Aladdin who were with us for the full six days from the Serengeti through ngorongoro, lake manyara and Tarangire. I'm not sure I could appropriately describe the quality of these two gentlemen. David was our guide (we had two jeeps) and was a wonderful companion on our trip. David had endless knowledge of the areas we visited and the behaviour of the animals. Time and again he found interesting experiences for us to enjoy and we never felt rushed. He is a very gentle soul who clearly is very popular with the other guides as he was met with smiles everywhere he went. Your guide is in my view the most important part of your trip (you'll ultimately spend almost every waking hour with them!) and Etrip have two very special ones here.
Vehicles were excellent. Given the hard life they live in the Tanzanian "roads" having new well maintained vehicles is essential and etrips stacked up extremely well (we saw the vehicles of almost every company and these were right at the top end).
Accommodation was solid throughout and we had no complaints. Although for anyone planning a safari I would say that in hindsight, I would rank accommodation as a lower priority. The high end camps are lovely but when you're out all the day you only get a very limited chance to enjoy them. Therefore if you want to manage your budget, I'd still recommend putting the money into a quality tour guide / operator like Etrip and maybe downgrade the accommodation.
We were flying out from Kilimanjaro airport at 2 o'clock on our final day. Helpfully Etrip offered us access to their hotel guesthouse in Arusha to shower, rest and eat before our flight. Our group found this to be a lifesaver (it's no fun getting on a 12 hour flight sweaty and hungry after a day's safari!). For anyone flying out of JRO airport, I'd rank this as a huge advantage.
One last thing I should comment on is the company's lack of presence on TripAdvisor. This originally caused us a lot of concern. Sending a large deposit is nerve wracking when the recipient isn't on the worlds standard (for better or worse) review site. While I wouldn't necessarily agree with their approach from a business point of view, their rationale is explained on the company's website. All I can say is that our experience with them was uniformly excellent. Guides, transport, logistics and accommodation were top notch and I would strongly recommend and will be travelling with them again.
FR
Email Robert | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent 3 days safari, organized as fast as possible
Everything was ok, nothing to complain about! Eliamini has been a perfect driver/guide for us, and Ben provided us good advice.
US
Email Bob | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very professional, knowledgeable, courteous, and accomodating
We were very impressed with the professionalism and attention to detail of the staff of Etrip Africa in
planning as well as executing our Safari. Ben and Auriele were very accommodating to ask us for our desires and interests, and they
went above and beyond to meet all our requests. We were completely satisfied, and highly recommend Etrip Africa!
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Email Cara | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
You can count on E-trip
E-trip consists of a couple who live in Arusha. With such a small operation you get to know the people well and get excellent service. We exchanged dozens and dozens of emails planning the trip. They answered every single question we asked. They made us feel comfortable and prepared for our first trip to Africa. When we had a hiccup with an airline (NEVER fly Precision Air) Ben was immediately in action on the phone trying his best to help us with Precision customer service. It was great to have someone to call whenever you needed help. E-trip offered competitive pricing and was the only company we spoke to that provided a detailed break-down of costs, which we appreciated because we knew what we were paying for.
We got to meet the E-trip family when we stayed at J&J Guesthouse. They live upstairs and the bottom floor, a very nice, British style home, is a bed and breakfast, where you can also eat dinner with the other guests. We got to talk to the other guests about their trips and we were able to talk to Ben about our trip and ask any questions we had about the upcoming safari. The house and grounds were very nice and we enjoyed staying there. The home-cooked meal was very good.
We spent almost 1 week in Uganda with our guide Milton. He is the best guide you could wish for. He speaks very good english and so we were able to learn a lot about the culture and the parks. He took very good care of us. We did chimp trekking as well as gorillas, which is not to miss. We highly recommend going to Uganda, because of the wildlife and culture, but also because Milton took such good care of us and was so interesting to talk to. In addition, he is passionate about animals and the environment and has worked at the National Parks. Your guide is with you about 12 hours a day and is critical to a successful trip. Make sure to tip well. They work so many hours and give such great service.
Our guide in Tanzania was David. David has been a guide for 20 years and so he knows the parks very well. The wildlife distribution depends on the time of year and he knows exactly where to look for each animal. If we were self-driving we would have seen 10% of what we saw with David. He stopped for as long we wanted for any animal. As soon as we stopped he turned the car off so we could take good photos.
Amazing trip. We will be sending our friends to E-trip.
7-day Serengeti Safari
The drivers were great. The accommodations were very nice. The safari was amazing. Given that my only complaints are a so-so sack lunch on a couple of days and the unfilled desire (rightly unfulfilled) to safari drive into the night, I think it is safe to say that I HIGHLY recommend E-Trip.