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
US
Email Dale and Nancy | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great guide, with customized agenda, from an operator who knows Africa and cares about your safari!
With hundreds of tour operators to choose from, what’s important? Your guide, your agenda and an operator who truly understands Africa and cares about your individual adventure. E-Trip delivered a life-time experience! Explore with them.
Your guide is a make-or-break factor, who must speak your language, understand what you want to see, be experienced and capable to find what you want to see and be able to alter the program to meet your needs. E-Trip’s David, with an education in conservation and over 20 years of experience, exceeded our expectations. We urge you to work with any operator on selecting your guide (from profiles and ratings) before you book.
E-Trip provides complete flexibility to tailor your agenda to what you want to see and where you want to go, priced accordingly. You are not “stuck” with a fixed set of packages or combined with strangers. We wanted to see the herds, which are far in the north during September, and E-Trip made this happen. When you are planning, understand that the National Parks (Tarangire, Ngorongoro,…) keep a strict 24-hour window on entrance and exit time, so if you want to be there longer, then plan for more than one day. Ask questions, because every month is a little different in Tanzania. E-Trip provides for a legitimate guided cultural tour of a Tanzanian town, which may include a Masai village, but will also incorporate family living and African cuisine (if you’d like). This can be a longer, or shorter experience, depending on you. Avoid those many artificial Masai village tours!
Although this was not essential for us, E-Trip can also provide a safari that spans multiple countries, if that’s what you want to do.
Ben and Aurelie are westerners who have spent years in Africa, and live in Arusha. E-Trip is their company. They fully understand the land, the people and culture, and the game areas and animals, so they are fully equipped to provide knowledgeable, personalized advice as you plan and customize your safari. Ask questions and pose options – they will help you build your dream safari.
US
Email Zac | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
E-Trip Africa paired expert trip planning with exceptional guiding for the perfect Tanzanian safari
E-Trip Africa was exceptionally communicative and made the entire booking process a breeze. They provided options with clear price breakdowns that added insights into our trip that were not available from other safari providers. The accommodation, vehicles and guides were exceptional. We have been on 15 to 20 safaris and this by far the best. I would highly recommend them to anyone considering a safari in East Africa.
CA
Email Renee | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience that exceeded expectations.
Ben was prompt in replying and relaying all needed information. He set us up with the best possible guide (Joachim) for our trip. Joachim made the trip what it was. The animals are there but quite often you need a trained person with an eagle eye to find them (especially the tiny ones). Joachim was THE BEST! He was intelligent, courteous, genuine in his love for doing his job and really seemed to enjoy himself as much as we did. It was the perfect match. I cannot say enough wonderful things about both Ben (E-Trip) and Joachim.
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.
US
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.
US
Email Jeff | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
8 day Kilimanjaro and 10 day safari
Fantastic experience. They coordinated both my solo trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro via the Lemosho route as well as a 10 day group safari afterwards. Aurelie and Ben were responsive via email with answering questions prior to the trip and made some very valuable recommendations that made the trip even better.
The support crew for the successful trek, led by the guide Ignas, did a great job and I couldn't have asked for more. Everyone was very friendly, supportive and hard working.
For the safari our guide David was amazing. We started calling him the animal whisperer as he seemed to know where the animals were going to go before they did. He always seemed to know exactly where to drive or park the vehicle to get the best view of the animals.
US
Email Carol B. | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Reliable, efficient when planning/booking the trip while listening to our wants and delivering!
E-Trip was very transparent in cost and a very trustworthy company. We booked a wide arrange of destinations with several different types of accommodations with our requests and with their suggestions and guidance. Our safari drivers were very informative and accommodating. Everything was upfront and detailed in the itinerary. They were able to book us our Kigali city tour and Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda and 3 safaris in Tanzania. They also setup flights and transportation to and from the airports for us within the countries. I couldn't have been more pleased with my adventure in Africa with E-trip Africa.
NO
Email Karl & family of 7 - age 5 to 70 years | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Incredible, unforgettable lifetime experience !
It's a risky task choosing a tour operator from all the options out there. The email exchanges with Ben however made it easy to choose E-Trip Africa. He and Aurelie was extremely responsive, dedicated and professional. We felt they would go the extra mile to make sure everything would work ut to fulfill our desires and satisfaction.
The tour became a success - to a large extent thanks to David and Eliamini, our two drivers. Two wonderful, friendly persons and excellent, knowledgable guides which we and particularly the 3 children got very fond of - they will be missed .
Ben, keep up the great work of transparency, humility and care that was extended to us throughout the safari.
I do not hesitate to recommend Ben and E-Trip Africa to friends and others.
US
Email marissa | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We can't wait to go back and will obviously travel with E-Trip
I've been to S.A. a few times on luxury safaris. This was our first time to the Tanzania/Kenya region. Because there are so many operators, the most important factors for me in choosing a company were: price transparency, having a local office, and knowledgeable/responsive. Payment via online invoice was an added bonus.
We chose E-Trip Africa because Ben and his family are local (but he is ex-pat from US, so communication is much easier), and he was always prompt at responding, listened to what we asked for while sharing his insights, gave the price breakdowns for everything, and was obviously knowledgeable about the circuit(s) to give great recommendations. His correspondences were by far the most organized, and that carried over to our trip. Everything was planned perfectly and he met us for breakfast in Arusha. He obtained SIM cards for us ahead of time and even lent us a tripod when I left ours behind.
A lot of operators decline to show it, but line by line cost breakdown helped me choose our lodgings and transfers more effectively to stay within budget. We chose a mix of budget and luxury accommodations between Tanzania and Kenya and a small part overland and the rest fly-in and were thrilled with the trip. A lot of operators didn't want to quote both countries because of our time constraints (9-10 days) but our itinerary was a good pace for us and we were able to experience hiking around Ngorongoro, the greenness of the central Serengeti, and all of the perks of staying in the Mara North Conservancy. For first-timers, I think 3 areas was a great way to determine our favorite parts (but really they end up all being favorites) to concentrate on when we return. I do not hesitate to recommend this company to others.
US
Email Scott heller | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
More than I ever Dreamed of....
We struggled getting answers from so many companies until we found Ben. He listened to all our needs and set us up on a trip of a lifetime! We are seasoned travelers and everything he said we would get came true. He set us up with super reliable venues and hand picked our guide. He was smart, clear and so full with info on every animal and bird. We chose to fly to South Tanzania and Ben actually met us at the airport to assure there was no confusion. Seamless, hassle free, super high quality. These characteristics were just what we want when spending a lot on travels in a maze of questionable operators! THe best we could have dreamed for.