Maurice, Your Personal 24hrs Safari Consultant
Africa Safari Classics
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2008)
- Member Of:
- ATTA, ASTA, NTA & FTA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $250 to $450 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Jenna | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful time, can't wait to go back!
My sister and I went on an East African 9 day Safarai in Kenya and Tanzania with Africa Safari Classics and have finally got around to doing a review (almost a year later, whoops)! We had a great time - loved the people and the environment. We'll attempt to give you a brief, or not so brief summary.
First night we stayed in EKA hotel in Nairobi, which was lovely, clean and had good food. Maurice, our contact for Africa Safari Classics met us at the hotel the morning of departure for safari and went through everything with us again, prior to introducing us to our first guide, Mackenzie, who looked after us very well in Kenya and taught us our first Swahili words.
The next morning we headed to Maasai Mara reserve, where we stayed for 2 nights at Basecamp Mara, which was amazing! We were blown away by the welcoming staff, fantastic accommodation and mass amounts of food (delicious, but a bit too much for us - 3 courses 3 times a day). Grounds were beautiful, 'tent' was amazing, loved the eco side of things and the positives for the environment. Also note Obama and his family stayed at Basecamp Mara too. We were warned to lock our tents to stop the Baboons 'taking our passports' and going through things. Basecamp is mostly fenced, however one sides boundary is 'fenced' by a river that also backs onto the reserve. You can often see animals passing through the reserve from the camp grounds. The Maasai staff also danced for us one night too, which was great to see their culture. Reflecting back, I think Maasai Mara was the best animal viewing we had. We managed to get up close to Lions, Cheetahs and many others. We managed to see a small crossing at the Mara River also, and Mackenzie did a great job getting us good spots while not interrupting the animals or other viewers. I liked the accessibility of Maasai Mara - there were a lot more tracks that meant you could get to other spots more easily if you saw something in the distance.
Day 3 we drove from Maasai Mara (Kenya) to Serengeti (Tanzania). This was a very long day of driving, including through the boarder and immigration. We joined a small family and their guide for some of this day, who had booked with the same company. At the boarder we found our new driver, Abdul. Abdul, like Mackenzie, is a veteran at tour guiding and was a pleasure to be with. He joked with us and answered our many questions.
We arrived in the Serengeti with a little game drive and arrived at our accommodation at Serengeti Tented Bush Camp. Upon arrival it looked like a bunch of canvas tents in a field, but the tents were simply amazing! My sister was actually speechless. We had the most comfortable mattresses there compared to everywhere else on our entire trip (including Singapore). We each had a double bed to ourselves, accompanied by a writing desk and sitting chair with footstool. The ensuite had a flushing toilet, but you need to give notice when you want a shower so they can fill it for you. Worst shower we had, but they made up with everything else, plus what else can you expect in the middle of the Serengeti?! The staff were very friendly and loved teaching us Swahili around the campfire. The food was lovely, but not quite as great as Basecamp Mara. Most of our stories are from our time in the Serengeti. We loved just being with the staff, learning the language and seeing the animals pass through the field. This accommodation is not fenced at all and we loved it! The first night I saw our guard chase away a Hyena over dinner. The second night I woke to hear a pride of Lions killing something right outside the staff tent (roughly 150m away from us), then heard all the Hyena's calling and fighting the Lions for the carcass. Hence why many of our stories come from that time.
Day 5 we left Serengeti and headed to Ngorongoro Crater in the hope of finding a Rhino. The Crater is worth a look as it's quite fascinating. We did see one Rhino from afar, plus many other animals. We stayed at Bougainvillea Lodge, which wasn't the best accommodation we had, but still quite good.
Day 6 we departed for Lake Manyara National Park. Lake Manyara was probably the prettiest park in my opinion due to the rainforest-like trees. Despite being the most beautiful, unfortunately it had the least animals and was quite anticlimactic at this stage in the trip. It's worth noting that we apparently did the cheaper route - Kenya to Tanzania, rather than Tanzania to Kenya, but therefore meant the smaller parks were at the end. We didn't see Lions in trees, which is unique to this park. We were told this is reasonably uncommon to see; not rare, but uncommon, mainly due to accessibility of cars. We stayed at Manyara Wildlife Camp, which was gorgeous once again!
Day 7 we headed to Tarangire National Park, which was quite pleasant. Stayed at Lake Burunge Tented Camp, which was fabulous! We had time to relax with a swim. The staff sang a version of happy birthday to someone, which was joyful, cheeky and simply beautiful!
The only day I felt unsafe was the day we crossed the border. I found the people, it was mainly the children we noticed, were less friendly than in Kenya. Of course some were great, but others yelled at us as we drove past and seemed angry we were there. A few matters later dawned on me. Basecamp Mara in Kenya works well in conjunction with the local Maasai people, and many Kenyan's have experienced the good of tourists and missionaries, and realise the good it brings to their country. However the roads we travelled on our first day in Tanzania went through many secluded villages. The tour cars travel on these dirt roads, generally varying 60-80km/hr, which creates mass amounts of dust and disruption, while the locals are just trying to live a simple life and move their herds from one place to another (generally on the roads).
I would definitely go back (if I ever save the money). The people are fabulous - kind and funny. The culture is fascinating and the animals are marvellous. Thank you, Maurice, for a wonderful time!
[Flights: We flew Melbourne to Nairobi (Kenya) with Qatar Airways via Doha. Loved Qatar Airways - so polite, give you everything you want and free care packages! We left Mt Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), also with Qatar, and flew to Singapore for a relaxing stop over (not realising how relaxing Africa would be).]
Email Rikki | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Safari fun
We were very happy with our choice of Safari Company with Africa Safari Classics. Maurice was on the ball from the start, helpful and prepared to go the extra mile in transporting a box back to Nairobi by road when we had luggage restrictions.
The guides were knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. The Lodges comfortable with delicious buffet meals in 2 of them. While the other had a set menu but the food was just as good.
We didn't see as much wildlife as we had expected (not without our guides trying their best). As we had been on safaris before we put it down to the time of year. Tsavo West is a great place to get bird shots.
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Email Harry and Clark, Albany, Oregon USA | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
November was a great time of year to go on a safari in Kenya!!
We have been back home in Oregon for six weeks now following our remarkable and completely satisfying Kenya safari experience, which we had booked with Africa Safari Classics last spring. It marked our first trip ever to the African continent, and we have returned home determined to venture back to Africa at some point in the next few years, as we clearly would like to see more! All along, we had consistently pleasant, timely, helpful and highly professional communications with Maurice, the company's sales director, over a span of several months. We chose one of the company's exciting 9-day set itineraries ("Wildlife in Style"), which began and ended in Nairobi and took us to five national parks and game reserves. This company had some of the most affordable rates for their package tours that we have seen in more than ten years of keeping an eye out for such a travel experience. Maurice even upgraded one of our bookings, due to low season special rates, to the Maasai Mara Basecamp, where the Obama Family had stayed ten years earlier!
As others have shared on this site, we could not have been happier with our driver, Boniface (a.k.a. Boni). He was an absolute delight the entire nine days we spent with him. He had incredible vision, which led to numerous animal sightings that the untrained eye would easily have missed! We covered great swaths of the country, including a few 5- to 7-hour days of driving, and Boni answered our many questions about various cities, tribes, and Kenya in general. He also has a great sense of humor, and our days with him were filled with multiple rounds of hearty laughter. He apparently has been a safari tour guide for nearly 20 years, and he clearly knows what he's doing and where to take his passengers in each park and game reserve. When we make it back to Kenya, we definitely hope to have Boni as our driver and guide once again!
We had little idea that traveling to Kenya in November was an absolutely ideal time of year to visit! It marks their “short rains” season, following the long, hot dry season. It was like a spring-time trip, with temps in the 70’s or 80’s F, intermittent rains generating new greenery everywhere, and new water holes for the animals to play in. Most days started with brilliant, blue and sunny skies, puffy white clouds floating by, and occasional singular afternoon thunderheads floating over the plains. No problem for us rain-battered Oregonians, as we only wore our raincoats ONCE, for about an hour, the entire trip. It’s considered low season in November, so there were relatively few fellow tourists to contend with; usually no more than 10-20 other guests staying at each lodge we visited. (During our night at the Treetops Lodge in the Aberdares, we were the only registered guests, and got the full royal treatment of the staff!) We had not understood that many of the animals bear their newborns in Sept., Oct, and Nov., so we got to see LOTS of babies in every park we visited. We also did not know that Kenya has outlawed hunting of wildlife all across the country, which seems to generate a climate where the animals are not particularly bothered by safari vehicles and tourists. We had more “close encounters” than we could count, getting to within 15 or 20 feet of many animals, without them being spooked, including one instance of being right in the path of a stampeding herd of wildebeests. Boni took us out on anywhere from one to three game drives per day. We had countless opportunities for great photos and videos of the animals, likely getting enough footage and material for generating a new, amateur National Geographic documentary! We could not have been happier with the animal sightings we experienced, despite being in Kenya officially outside the annual migration season.
I should also add that we were extremely pleased with ALL the lodges and accommodations Maurice had booked for us throughout our time in Kenya, in Amboseli, Aberdares Treetops, Samburu, Lake Nakuru, and Maasai Mara. The food was consistently good and tasty, and the service was consistently outstanding. We had no stomach problems at all. I might add that most of the lodges we stayed at were a good distance off the major highways, often a good hour or more down fairly rough and poorly maintained dirt roads. Boni warned us of when we would be getting "good back massages" from the bumpy, bouncing drives along the way. This was the only aspect of our trip that was a bit of a downside. In all other ways, our trip to Kenya exceeded our wildest imaginings!
On our last night in Nairobi, before starting our long flight to Seattle (via Dubai), we insisted on taking Boni out to dinner, and Maurice was able to join us as well!. It was a very fitting and pleasant ending to what was likely the single greatest adventure my partner, Clark, and I have ever taken together! We have spoken so highly of our trip to many friends and family members, and we hope to be able to generate some more travel clients for Maurice as a result, in addition to making a return visit ourselves in the next few years!
DE
Email Tino | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
great 7 days/ 6 nights Safari
Hello,
we (me and my girlfriend) did a 7 days/ 6 nights Safari with Africa Safari classics and had a great time (last week in September 2016). we visited Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti & Ngorongoro.
the game drives have been really good and we had enough time for the observations of all different kinds of wildlife. we never had the feeling that we are in a hurry and also took ways offsite the crowds of jeeps. our driver guide (Athman) was telling us many things about the animals and also about the cultural background of the people of Tansania.
All accomdations have been clean, in good coditionts and with friendly staff. we stayed in Lake Burunge Tented Camp, Manyara Wildlife Camp, Serengeti Tanzania Bush Camp, Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge and Migunga Tented Camp.
the only thing we would change: spend more time in Ngorongoro crater. We just had half a day there and would recommend to stay there for at least a full day.
best,
Tino
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Email Darla | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
African Safari to Kenya and Tanzania with a stop in Zanzibar
Service from Africa Safari Classics was excellent, I never had to wait long for a reply and no question was too small to get an answer. The booking and payment were also easy.
I can't say enough about how great our safari experience was! We loved all of the accommodation, food, game drives and abundance of wildlife. We saw the big five in each country, and each country had very special moments (baby elephants in Amboseli and a leopard close up in Serengeti). Accommodation at the Dongwe Ocean View hotel in Zanzibar was beyond excellent! The staff took such great care of us and the food and room were wonderful, definitely want to visit there again!
Boni and Saidi our safari guides were both fantastic, we really bonded with Boni in Kenya and he went out of his way to find us the big cats, even staying out later than the majority of other guides, so that we could find the leopard in Maasai Mara. We really enjoyed Boni's sense of humor and he fit in so well with our family. We'd love to do another Kenyan safari with him.
Saidi, our guide in Tanzania was excellent too, he was very friendly and knowledgeable and was excellent at finding the animals, he took us out an extra time to see cheetahs after everyone had left so we could get better pictures. Both drivers were very security conscious and took measures to make sure we were safe at wash room and banking stops and Boni went through the border checkpoint to Tanzania with us to make sure we were safe.
We are already planning our next safari since we had such a great time on this one, we're thinking of Uganda and Kenya for next time. I would definitely book through African Safari Classics, we felt so taken care of. It was so great to see you, Maurice, at the hotel and talk to you at points throughout the safari, we knew we could reach you at any time if we had a problem, although we had no issues.
I would highly recommend Africa Safari Classics for your safari. I always include the excellent service we got from you in my safari stories. Book your trip with Maurice at Africa Safari Classics and sit back, relax and enjoy your safari!!
Email Luke Sadler | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The safari was far above and beyond what we had expected
Hi Maurice,
I just wanted to say a big thank you for everything, the trip was amazing and I couldn't say a single bad word. In relation to the different aspects you mentioned:
The service provided by yourself prior to the safari was of the highest quality from the moment I sent the first enquiry. You were always very quick to reply, extremely helpful with anything I had enquired about and managed to put together the perfect itinerary based on our requirements. The payment process was nice and easy and you confirmed payments had been received very promptly.
The safari experience - The safari itself was an amazing experience. We had expected that it would be exactly this, and that we would see some amazing wildlife, but it was far above and beyond what we had expected. We saw too many amazing sights to list but I have to mention getting to catch the end of the annual migration was a particular highlight. The accommodation was of the highest quality and the staff at each property made sure we had a great time and we had everything we needed.
Our Driver - I could not express just how happy we were with Tony and how much he made the trip for us. From start to finish he was absolutely brilliant. He couldn't have been any more helpful with anything that we asked for and his knowledge of each of the areas we visited meant that we were able to visit certain places and see things that others we had talked to did not get the chance to see and we are extremely grateful to him for this. He was always polite, friendly and happy to talk about anything with us. He was also very considerate of the fact I had my elderly grandmother with us and always made things as easy as possible for her. In terms of initiative he was excellent - quite a few times he made small changes to the itinerary that allowed us extra time in places we were particularly interested in visiting.
I definitely intend to return to Kenya - I would like to visit Tsavo & Amboseli next time - and would not consider booking with anyone else as I had such a great experience.
I would most certainly recommend your service to anyone I knew he was interested in visiting Kenya for a safari trip and in fact my sister has actually recommended you to someone looking to organize a trip soon so they should be in contact shortly.
Thanks again for everything and please pass on our thanks to Tony.
HK
Email Kit | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
“We Highly recommend Africa Safari Classics”
Hi Maurice,
We have back to the reality world and start our work as well. Everything is fine. It was a very memorable time for me and my wife with you and Boniface when we are in Kenya.
As I told you before, we have enquired several travel agents from the Kenya Tourism Official Website and your Company is the fastest one which gave us the feedback, and of course, the price is reasonable when compared to the other agents. We are much appreciated that your Company gave a lot of advices to us by emails which made us have more information on our mind.
The safari is good and Sunbird Lodge is a very good accommodation with lovely scenes, delicious food and facilities. The room is also very nice as we can look at the lake when we woke up. If we have more times, we can spend times in the Sunbird lodge and walk around the surrounding and have some times on enjoying the sunbath and swimming. It should be very nice then.
I would like to give Boniface a thumb. He always keeps the car clean as well as himself. We wanna say a big thanks to Boniface for taking us to the places, he is very good at spotting the animals and he drove us to watch many animals, with the help from Boniface. We are very lucky that we could watch the BIG 5 in the first 2 days trip. Boniface told us many animals’ information like the features of the animals and how to distinguish the male and female carnivores and herbivores. Boniface is very on-time, patient person who take care of us very well, he reminded us every time to safeguard our camera when we crosses some lakes and roads. When we started our first game drive in Masai Mara National Reserve, Boniface brought us to an area where a dead Thomson Gazelle’s was on the tree, suddenly Boniface told us the Leopard was heading towards the tree and he drove on the underbrush and let us see more clearly. The Leopard climbed on the tree and started its meal, it is a very precious moment as Leopard is hard is find and we can watch the whole process from climbing to eating.
Overall speaking, the Kenya Trip was a very good experience and memory for me and my wife and we will never forget the scenes we saw during the safari. As we back to work, we still not have too much time to sit down and share the nice photos with our friends, but we are very sure that we will highly recommend the Company, and the tour guide to our friends. Hope we can back to Africa and see with you guys in the coming futures. Cheers ^^
Regards,
Kit
BE
Email Evelien & Erik | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A lovely holiday
We just got back from our holiday in Kenya and are still smiling from the wonderful experience this was...
We contacted several companies to arrange a safari but had the best feeling with Maurice from Africa Safari Classics. Every question/demand we had, he answered and gave suggestions, ending in a 9 day safari which was completely adapted to our needs. Especially his professionality and speed of answering, as well as his competitive price got us to choose his company.
Arriving in Nairobi we got the sad news that one of our bags had not made it with us on the plane. When Maurice heard about this, he took over all the communication with the carrier and arranged for my luggage to be waiting for us in one of our lodges along the safari, which was great (thanks again Maurice!)!!
Our driver and guide Boniface had years of experience and that was very clear from day 1. He knew the parks like the back of his hand and when an animal was spotted by one of his colleagues he made sure we would be able to see it as well by finding the shortest route. He gave us information about the different animals along the way and tried to answer every possible question we had. We visited different parks on our trip and Boniface tried to spot as many different animals for us as he could. He also looked for the best angle to take our photos of all the wildlife :) The accomodations during our safari were great, from a tent next to Masai Mara, to a fancy hotel room next to lake Naivasha, we liked all of them, as well as the very helpful staff there.
It was such an overwhelming and beautiful holiday and we are very happy it was organized by Africa Safari Classics! We would highly recommend contacting them if you are looking to go on a safari holiday!
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Email Jonathan WashingtonDC | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A Well-Run Safari Outfit That Surpassed Expectations
Traveling with my parents and a friend to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday, I wanted to make sure the Tanzania safari part of the trip was perfect. Africa Safari Classics Ltd ensured that every detail was fantastic, that our trip went smoothly, and that everyone had an epic trip of a lifetime. They surpassed my expectations and I highly recommend the company for anyone looking for an adventure on safari.
From my first outreach to the company, the sales director, Maurice, was very professional and quick with replies to tailor-make the trip to the parks in Tanzania we wanted to visit. When the airline lost my friend's on the way to Tanzania, we assumed we would never see it again. Imagine our surprise while on a game drive in the middle of the Serengeti, another vehicle popped up and handed over the bag! This is the kind of customer service that made Africa Safari Classics stand out!
Our driver guide Athman was exceptionally knowledgeable and professional. He went out of his way to make sure that we had an amazing experience and anticipated our needs before we even needed to ask for anything. He's also a really good and kind person, with a great sense of humor-- which is really important when you spend a week with someone. He knew the parks like the back of his hand and where to spot all the animals we were searching for. His knowledge of the animals and information about the parks was extensive, and he also told us a lot of interesting information about the people and towns that we drove through between the parks.
We saw the Big 5! We visited Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire parks-- all filled with so much wildlife. Highlights included a cheetah playing with her four baby cubs, hippos wrestling, and a herd of buffalo standing down a pride of lions. Tanzania has some really beautiful national parks, and, having visited the parks in Kenya before, I highly recommend visiting the parks of both countries.
The accommodations we stayed at in each of the parks exceeded expectations with beautiful views, incredible wildlife, and amazing customer service. We particularly enjoyed the un-fenced tented camp in the middle of the Serengeti.
10 out of 10, I would highly recommend Africa Safari Classics Ltd to organize your safari!
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Email Lynn & Andy | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very professional & organized safari operator
When looking to book a safari in Kenya I reached out to several different safari companies. It became evident very quickly that Africa Safari Classics was in a different class. Not only was Maurice extremely responsive, he also understood exactly what I was looking for & catered the proposal to my request. Before we left, Maurice came to our apartment to give my family a rundown of what to expect on the safari & answer any questions that we had. He also was there the next morning to introduce us to our guide/driver and make sure everything was good before we left. This was not something that I expected but it was much appreciated & showed a high level of customer service. The safari was amazing - we saw more animals than we thought we would, had a very knowledgeable guide & stayed in really great camps. If I was to book another safari, I would absolutely book with Africa Safari Classics.