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.
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
Hi Maurice
It was a nice surprise to meet you too in Arusha, I wasn't expecting to see you but it's always good to put a face to a name. Thanks for coming to meet us. I was extremely happy with the communication from you prior to making my booking. You always responded promptly. You also went out of your way to tailor a holiday to suit our interests and budget. Both of these factors encouraged me to book with your company. You seemed professional, your website appeared professional and you offered to Skype. Your attention to detail and promptness was reassuring. Our driver/guide was excellent. We were very happy with his knowledge and expertise in finding the animals and providing information. He was attentive and looked after us well. He was a safe and competent driver and we enjoyed his company as he spoke good English and was clearly experienced. All these skills and factors added to the enjoyment of our trip. The standard of the accommodation was excellent and service good wherever we stayed. We were lucky enough to get upgraded from Tloma to Kitela Lodge which was a pleasing and lovely bonus! I would certainly recommend your company to friends and family. I certainly hope to come back to East Africa again and would use your organization if booking a safari or activity holiday. Our trip exceeded my expectations in terms of standard of accommodation, service and enjoyment. I would like to thank you again and wish your Organization every success for the future. Please let me know if this is the feedback you require and whether you have any further queries. Many thanks again.