Absolute Holiday Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2006)
- Member Of:
- Ministry of Tourism Kenya & Kenya Tourism Federation.
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $600 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
RU
Email Artem | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Well organized, punctual, honest, attentive, and surprisingly cheap.
I was looking for a safari tour to the best national parks in Kenya on SafariBookings, and the 6 days safari MaasaiMara-Naivasha-Nakuru-Amboseli seemed to be the most interesting and availiable. The tour offered by the AbsoluteHolidaySafaris could start any day, it was possible for a single traveller to join the group, and it was the cheapest on the SafariBookings. Besides, the agent made me a discount! I did not even write to other operators. The guides met me on my arrival, gave me prescious advices about my stay in the country, arranged the transfer to Malindi after the safary & back to the airport. All the guides were extremely attentive, polite and honest. They spoke English excellently & were perfect drivers. Due to them the very safari was realy great - we could see almost all the animals we wanted. The groups are quite small - up to 6 persons in a car, but the last 3 days I was alone with the driver and the chef, who were doing everything I wanted. They dropped my extra luggage to Nairobi and were waiting with me 3 hours for my bus to Malindi etc. I travel a lot (Europe, South America, Asia), but I have never met such a honest and attentive tourist agency, which does not just want to earn money on you, but really wants to get you pleasure and save your money!
Request David for having Stanley as your driver/guide
First of all, the price they offer is unbelievably cheap!!!! Though the accommodations & food are very basic, but we never mind on those little things. We were there to cherish the biodiversity of Kenya and Absolute Holiday Safaris enriched us with lots of lifetime memories.
We had an 8 days' package in Kenya including Masai Mara,Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasa & Amboseli. Though they usually offer a 7 days' package in this circuit, but we requested for an extra full day in Masai Mara & David arranged accordingly. We were clubbed with different co-travelers on different national parks, but everything was on time & we had not to wait a long time for anybody in anywhere. David is a very kind & really helpful guy. 'Now our office is not you tour operator's office. It is your home in Nairobi.'- He said on the last day. And it was really that! Our trip with them was ended on 8th August and our return flight was on 9th evening. On 9th morning, we checked out from our hotel, kept our luggage in David's office & went to visit Nairobi National Museum. Though it was not included in our package, but David arranged a car for us to the museum & later dropped us on airport. And this entire arrangement was 'absolute'ly free of cost!!!
From the 3rd day of our trip, we got Stanley as our driver cum guide. He has immense knowledge & insight about animals & birds. He has good spotting capability and knows exactly when & where to stop the car to capture great wildlife photographs. Our one & only one complain about Absolute Holiday Safaris is all other drivers are not as sincere & efficient as Stanley. Having a good driver/guide in any game drive matters a lot. If any fellow-traveler is planning to book Kenya trip with Absolute Holiday Safaris, I will suggest him/her to request David for Stanley as your driver/guide.
IN
Email Kapil Thapliyal | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great Safari. Saw the Big 5
We had an overall wonderful experience. The guide was active and spotted well. The camp is basic but good for a short stay. They can work a little on service quality. The whole package is very good value for money.
IN
Email Sonam | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Absolute Holiday Safaris are one of the best in the industries
Completely lived up to my expectation. The team was very helpful and accommodated all our requests. We had to change our dates and also one of our friends had to cancel and David was helpful in this regard. Overall experience was very good with David and his team. Very professional and friendly and experts in the industry.
However I have only one disappointment regarding the last day's morning safari. We were taken directly to the place where big cats were seen and we spent around 30-40 minutes there and came back, just to finish the time. I think the itinerary should clearly mention the specifics otherwise it's very misleading.
Overall a good experience. I highly recommend anyone and everyone to experience once their hospitality and services. Thank you David and to your team at Absolute Holiday Safaris.
DK
Email Cecilie Lykke | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic experience, but a horrible, bumpy ride.
AbsoluteHolidaySafari offers safari trips where you get a lot of value for your money. We chose a 3 day safari in Maasai Mara, and really looked forward to it. We were picked up at the airport and driven to our hotel on our first day in Nairobi, which saved us a lot of hassle finding taxis at the airport. They also picked us up on the first day from the safari and to the office where we met up with the others we were sharing a car with.
I was expecting like a range rover safari van, but when the trip is as cheap as ours was (300$ pr. pax) we had to settle for a Toyota van with 9 seats. And trust me, the trip to Maasai Mara and during our safari was horrible. If I could choose again, I would spend a little more money to get a better car, but we made the best out of it.
The safari in general was amazing!! We had Richard as our driver, and he's sort of the veteran of all drivers. He really gave us a nice experience and we got to see so many animals. We saw cheetahs 2 times, which we learned was very rare, and a lot of lions, elephants and other animals. You really get to see all the animals you want to on this trip, and if you're going on a safari to see animals and not for luxury, I would highly recommend this trip.
The beds are hard, the facilities are on a low standard, but not too bad. The food was okay, but as others have written here, there can be quite long gaps between every meal, so you should bring some snacks. And remember to bring water, you only get 1 litre per day, which is NOT enough...
We really enjoyed our trip and got to know some really nice people during our stay at the camp. If it's your first time on safari, this is a very nice tour that is affordable, where you still get to see so many animals.
Email Rajeev Kumar | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
overall experience was very good
we are a family of four ( 2 adults and 2 children)and first thought of going to Kenya in June 2016 when, after searching online, I came across this company and contacted them first via email and subsequently via whatsapp. David, company owner, is extremely helpful and was always very quick to reply to any emails/whats app messages that I sent. I called him via what app several times asking for advice and guidance and he was always very polite and professional and gave me all the necessary information.
We took 5 days tours (Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha) in August 2016 (started on 8th Aug) and as planned David sent a driver to pick us up direct from Nairobi airport at 8 am. The tour was all good although the lunch on day 1 on the way to Masai Mara was in Narok in a restaurant called Dream something (I cant remember the full name but the first world was Dream) and the food here was not good at all with rather poor hygiene and we hardy ate anything as we did not want to risk our health on first day of our trip.
The tent accommodation in Masai Mara was excellent and food was freshly cooked with good choices (we are all vegetarian). The accommodation in Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha was of reasonably good quality and they offered us good vegetarian food.
One problem we had was that in Masai Mara they merged us with another group of tourists in the same van who were going to take ballon safari on the last day which meant that we had to wait an extra 3 hours for them in Masai Mara on the last day of our Masai mara tour which would have meant a very late arrival to Lake Nakuru as travel time from Masai Mara to Lake Nakuru is good 7-8 hours. However after we made some noises and after some arguments they finally made arrangements for us to depart from Masai Mara at 9 am (otherwise we would have had to wait until 12 noon for other group to arrive from their ballon safari).
Driver Ben was very quite and did not give us much of the information other than telling us few things when asked directly.
Other than this small hitch, everything else was excellent. I will certainly recommend taking Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha. Although you see many of the same animals in Lake Nakuru but the ambience is very good. Its a proper national park and well looked after. There were no flamingoes there when we visited. The gorge in Hell National Park is definitely worth seeing and boat ride in Lake Naivasha should certainly be done (we negotiated a price of $50 for the boat).
We were picked up and dropped back at the Nairobi airport which was very convenient and meant that we did not need to go to Nairobi town. We flew from Nairobi to Mombasa and David even arranged a taxi for us at the Mombasa airport to take us to diani beach at a reasonable price ($40).
Overall, I will highly recommend Absolute Safari. David is very reliable and highly professional. I will give them a 5 star rating for making our tour so memorable.
Email Kennedy | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Trip to the Mara
The rough roads makes reaching mara such a taxing and burdensome exercise. Please lobby the national and county government to tarmac the same
Email Eee | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
budget safari
We had combined safari Kenya-Tanzania. Everything was great at Kenya site, super driver/guide Stanley (I really recommend this guy!), accommodation, organisation - 100% satisfaction.
Tanzania - 100% disaster. Company which organised our safari - Arusha Center Inn Tourist total mess; the director Abraham - liar, conditions at camps horrible; we had paid for tents with beds and bedding - we got used sleeping bag and no beds; sanitation at the bathroom/shower - 100% bio-hazard, awful; driver/guide Freddie - avoid him, very slow not at all organised and with small knowledge about nature and animals - waste of time and money! Avoid this company!!!!!
So I really recommend safari in Kenya but I cannot recommend Tanzania - it was horrible 4 days.
TN
Email Haifa | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A great tour and a great guide
The tour was great, Masai Mara was everything we expected it to be and more: Wildebeest, Antelopes, Cheetah, Leopards, Hippos, Elephants, Lion cubs, sunrise over the hills... Lake Nakuru was also lovely.
Gibson, our guide and driver was perfect
Safari Kenya - Tanzania
By the end of June I travelled for 11 days with Abolute Holiday Safaris to Kenya and Tanzania. First half - 6 days in Kenya was absolutely amazing. We had a great guide, he told us that his name in Swahili means animal and we should call him John (Onejohnny?). He knew very interesting facts about all that we saw, he knew every animal, he knew a lot about the culture and politics of Kenya and he could find the animals very quickly. We had a lot of interesting experience during the journey. Unfortunately, after the end of the Kenya tour, the problems began. First, the trasfer to the Tansania border in the end turned up to be a public transport transfer. I spent several hours in a bus full of noisy kids and ill people travelling with a lot of stuff. I walked alone the Tansania border and I was met by an agent in the bus station in Arusha. He drove me to the hotel in Arusha - in this matter everything worked OK. In the morning our 5-day tour in Tansania started. The conditions of the accomodation and most of all the guide were not great at all. His name was Good Luck. As a driver, he did a good job. But as a guide it was a total disaster. He was arrogant and lazy. He did not speak about almost anything at all. Because of him every day of our tour was destroyed for me. This is the reason why I gave four stars - five stars and a + for Kenya, and three stars and a minus for Tansania. Tours offered by Absolute Holidays Safari in Kenya are amazing. But they should pay more attention to choosing their partners in other countries.