35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An Amazing Trip....A Safari Company
Hi, we are an Australian family (mum, dad, boys aged 15,13 & 11 and 2 grand parents) that have just completed a 10 day safari with Safari Infinity. We visited Tarangire, Lake Maynara, central and western Serengeti and Ngorongoro national parks. First, I would like to say that the Safari was everything we expected and more. The Tanzanian people proved to be most hospitable. We saw the Big 5 and much more. The geography amazed us on how different it was between all the national parks.
We are so grateful we chose Safari Infinity. Lucia promptly responded to my many emails over the organisational stage, far better than any of the other companies I contacted. This was one of the main reasons we went with them.
Once the safari started we were in a 8 seater jeep. Our driver was Eric who basically became part of the family. He had great temperament in dealing with people, always smiling. His ability to position the jeep for prime location happened time and time again. His ability to find the animals and read their direction was incredible. We witnessed one live kill by a leopard, 2 failed attempts by lions, and found 3 other all ready completed kills. He was patient with our 1million photo shoots.
We stayed at the following accommodations (mix lodges and camps) and were very happy with them all, Lake Duluti, Oliver's Camp (Tarangire), Escarpment Lodge, Lemala Explorer Western Serengeti, Mbalageti Safari Lodge, Lemala Ewanjan, Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge, and Mount Meru Arusha.
Thanks again Safari Infinity for the trip of a life time!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
OMG, I had one of the most unforgettable experience of my life.
First time travelling on my own, I had some apprehensions but after speaking to Mark Cahill, prior to the trip, put me at ease. From the moment I exited the airport and saw someone holding a sign with my name on it and then greeted with a big smile, I knew I was in good hands. Erusta, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable. The resorts were fabulous. Being with your first Safari of the season, I didn't think I would see much via animals, but OMG, there were animals everywhere. This trip was something I will talk about for a long time to come. I will tell those that I know to put it on their bucket list and that they must book with Odyssey Safaris.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I am excited for you George, because you proved to me that you can guide people professionally.
Congratulations George, on your new company. I saw great things in you when we were on your safari in 2013. You are a topnotch thinker and I am not surprised that you moved up in the world. You treated us with the respect of fellow human beings, very nice; actually, all of Africa treated us well while we were in your care, George. You guided us very professionally, George, except maybe the one afternoon when you said, "tomorrow I'll show you a million wildebeasts." The next day we drove many, many kilometers in a herd of wildebeasts, but George, you were four short of a million. You owe me four animals. I might have to come back to Tanzania and collect.
Thank you George, for a wonderful time on the Serengeti.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Exceptional Safari Experience
Working with Viewpoint Adventures was an exceptional experience. This was our third and very best trip to East Africa. Viewpoint gave us sample itineraries, but also allowed the four of us to customize our journey. Idi, (co-owner, guide/driver) was one of the best tour leaders we've ever had on our travels in Africa. He was personable and had a great sense of humor. His knowledge of the land, wildlife, and history of the region was remarkable. Idi was able to take us to less crowded and remote areas of the parks to locate animals, which is very important as the parks have become more crowded in recent years. Viewpoint's choice of lodging was fabulous with wonderful food and service throughout our trip. With Idi's guiding expertise, we saw 86 lions and their cubs in three days in the Serengeti along with hundreds of other animals and birds including elephants, antelope, giraffe, zebra, cheeta, leopard, vultures, and others. One in our group was an avid birder and she was thrilled with Idi's knowledge and ability to find them. When we go to Africa again, we will definitely use Viewpoint Adventures.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A personalised experience with a dynamic guide! Uganda is such an underrated Safari destination!
I went on two tours with Safari Wildz, the first of which I met my guide Cosmo who took myself and two others on trip to Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi. His knowledge and enthusiasm made this trip. I have a super inquisitive mind and he was able to answer most questions (even if there weren't about wildlife!). He was so insistent on us to see what we could, that we took the safari late into the day -which was worth it! The second tour (again with my mate Cosmo) was down to the Murchison. This was a larger group, with an additional guide. We were met by lovely staff and great food at the campsite only to have our little bridge washed away the next day by the rains. This didn't stop our guides, they, with the help of myself (I carried a couple of rocks) and others put together what we could and managed to drive over the creek and set off for the tour! I had a blast with these guys, I was able to see Uganda and meet some of its great people safely, comfortably and enjoyably!
PH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Most Amazing Family Vacation
Thank you Kathi Simon for our amazing, unforgettable family vacation. It was just the kind of vacation that we needed. It's been 2 weeks since we've been home and we are still talking about our vacation like we just arrived yesterday. I'm writing to you because my family and I would like to thank you for making our vacation a truly unforgettable experience. We love South Africa, we love Cape Town (we didn't even get to visit Table Mountain) and Arathusa Sabi Sands was just a different kind of experience. We have probably seen most of the animals at zoos but seeing them in their natural habitat, its just awesome. We even joked amongst ourselves that we should save so that we could buy a property in Cape Town. :) Well maybe we'll just email you and book another trip again someday. Reese was a great guide, took us to places where we could take great pictures and buy some african art souvenirs aside from being very knowledgeable. And at the safari our ranger Brandon and tracker Roy were also very accommodating, friendly and knowledgeable. Thanks again Kathi and it was nice talking to you on the phone.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Memories of Amazing South Africa to last for a lifetime! Best travel agent experience ever!
Planning a trip from the other side of the planet is not always easy! Furthermore, having total confidence in a company you have never dealt with is even more scary! From the moment we sent an e-mail to African Welcome Safaris to start planning our dream vacation to South Africa and the initial response we got from our wonderful agent, Kathi, we knew we were in good hands! We provided her with our interests, budget and she managed to put together the trip of our lives! We will forever cherish the memories African Welcome Safaris put together for us! We will certainly recommend African Welcome Safaris to our friends and family! Thank you for everything!
JP
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The absolute best
We had to plan our honeymoon less than a month in advance, due to issues with our work schedules, so we started to email several safari operators in Tanzania about 4 weeks before our planned departure. We were undecided about whether to visit both Kenya and Tanzania or only one of them, we had a bit more than 2 weeks in total for our trip and definitely wanted to see Zanzibar, so we asked for some options. We had never been to Africa before, so we were asking for advice on what we should not have missed, how to distribute the days between the safari and the time in Zanzibar, which parks would definitely be a must etc.
Out of all the replies we got, Lucia and Simon from Safari Infinity managed to beat their competitors by far, in terms of precision, extreme rapidity to reply to our emails (I forgot to mention that we live in Japan, there are 6 hours difference with Tanzania), kindness, willingness to help create a perfect plan for us, patience, professionalism and friendliness. We exchanged a lot of emails on a daily basis with them, asked tons of questions and always got precise answers, and eventually managed to create an itinerary that we thought would fit our needs perfectly. All of this during the peak season, so I guess it must have not been easy for them to book accommodations and internal flights with such a short notice. In about 2 weeks we decided our itinerary based on Lucia's suggestions, we got all our accommodations booked, all the internal flights booked as well, considering that these had to match the times of our flights to/from Japan. A few more emails to get some advice on vaccinations, visa, currency etc and we were all set to leave. And then our dream became true.
I do not have words to say how satisfied we are with this trip. It was the trip of our lifetime, it was our honeymoon, it was the most expensive trip we ever booked, it was ALL worth. For days after we came back I have been trying to find even one small tiny thing that went wrong during this trip, but I couldn't find any. I am not making this too big, the guys at Safari Infinity totally deserve it. I never heard about them before, I simply contacted them because of the excellent feedbacks they have on the internet. And now I am here to say it myself, they really are the best of the best. They genuinely care about making your trip a success, everything is cured in any detail, the guides they choose are excellent (more about this later), the accommodations are fantastic, and the entire organization is super. We have always been picked up and dropped off at the airports or other locations on time, we have even been given a local phone to make calls or send texts in case we needed it.
We arrived at Arusha airport where our guide, Kelly, picked us up. Not even 2 minutes after we landed we were given a great welcome with a very nice surprise. I do not want to spoil it here, go and find it yourself :) Kelly is possibly the nicest guide/driver I have ever met in my life, if Lucia and Simon were responsible for a superb organization and planning Kelly was responsible for a perfect delivery of the package. We spent 8 days with him from early morning to late evening, I have never seen him unhappy or tired. Kelly really enjoys what he does, sometimes he was even more enthusiastic than us when we spotted animals in the parks! He never ever ever loses his smile, he is calm, very knowledgeable, professional, customer-oriented, and a very fun person to be with. Kelly was definitely the person who made our safari an unforgettable experience, who made me take 43 GB of stunning pictures, who was always patient when I asked him to move the car to take a particular picture, or when we waited the entire day for the wildebeests to cross the river, the most beautiful picture I ever took in my life. Never did he lose his smile. He knows about every single thing that lives in the parks, he drives in the parks (god knows how he does that - in most areas there is absolutely nothing but bushes and trees) and is able to spots animals who are very far away and knows well the spots where it is more likely to spot animals. Also he knows the best places in the parks where to stop for a break with magnificent views and without other cars around. He is always calm, easy to deal with, but the best thing as I said is the fact that he really likes what he does. If you are on a safari with him you will immediately realize that.
Thanks to Kelly we had a lot of "private" safari shows (without other cars around), such as lionesses at a very close distance feeding their cubs, mom and baby rhino, leopards, cheetas and more. We saw all that we could possibly see, lots of close distance action and lots of excitement. We could not have asked for more. And sleeping in the parks with all those animals around.. it was such an amazing experience.. All the tented accommodations were fantastic, very comfortable and always with great food.
The second part of our trip was in Zanzibar, 1 full day in Stonetown (highly recommended) and 4 days in Nungwi, on the northern part of the island. In Stonetown we booked the city tour and the spice tour. Again, Safari Infinity put us in the hands of an excellent guide, Hamis, who made our short stay in this magic town very enjoyable. Hamis is a very friendly person, he smiles a lot (!) and knows everything in Stonetown and Zanzibar. I wish we had stayed a little longer in Stonetown, I loved the colors, the atmosphere and the crazy market. The spice tour was also a lot of fun, they are both half day tours. The Coffee House hotel in Stonetown was great, I loved the atmosphere so much. Finally we headed to Nungwi, always under the directions of Safari Infinity and their perfectly planned drivers and guides. We stayed at Hideaway Nungwi with an all-inclusive plan. White beach, new resort with beautiful rooms, a lot of relax and.. excellent food. The buffet was really excellent, plenty of choice and lots of variety. Great pool to relax and we loved the shisha bar after dinner. Relaxing on the beach was really the perfect thing to do after the safari experience.
I would recommend Safari Infinity to everyone, I am sure they are able to create the perfect itinerary for your needs. We appreciated their extreme flexibility to adjust things to our crazy last-minute schedules, their rapidity in responding to our emails (this is critical when you have such a short time to arrange everything), their precision and attention to the details (nothing, not even the smallest thing was left unclear), and, last but not least, their friendliness. Lucia and Simon are a beautiful couple, we met them when we arrived in Arusha and were so happy to see how friendly and pure-hearted they are. They made our honeymoon perfect, there were so many things that could have gone wrong or just "not perfect", but they did all they could to make our dream come true. And they did it. Thank you Lucia, Simon, Kelly and everyone at Safari Infinity, we will never forget this.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Honeymoon
A truly amazing honeymoon touring around Northern Tanzania. Safari Infinity was great at helping me plan the trip, Lucia was super quick to respond to questions and helped narrow down the best accommodation for our budget. Our guide was extremely professional and knowledgeable about wildlife and we managed to see the big five! I wish I could go on vacation with Safari Infinity right now!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic personalized Kilimanjaro climb and safari - Highly recommended.
My brother, father and I worked with Kambona in 2012 to put together a combined Kilimanjaro climb and safari to Tarangire, Lake Manyara, and Ngorongoro Crater. I'm a biologist with a good bit of experience in Tanzania, so I'm picky and I had specific goals in mind for this trip - in short, I wanted an honest and down-to-earth outfitter who would put up with lots of special requests (e.g., a slower hiking pace so we could spend more time looking at plants and birds) and pair us with guides who knew their natural history. Kambona was recommended to me by a knowledgeable friend who organizes high-end adventure travel trips from the US. He had partnered with lots of Tanzanian climbing and safari outfitters, but Kambona was his unambiguous recommendation. This worked out fantastically - our trip was exceptional.
Kambona's approach to preparation set him apart from the beginning. Kambona skyped with me over half a dozen times in the year leading up to the trip to work on customizing the experience. He spent a lot of time discussing alternative options and making sure our plan would give us the best chance of summiting Kilimanjaro, as well as seeing what we wanted to see on safari. He made sure we had an appropriate 6-month training plan in place for the climb, and helped us choose the right gear.
This paid off in Tanzania. The Kili climb was a huge success - we reached the summit and learned a ton about the mountain on the way up and back. Our climbing guide was Faraja Mwaijande, who has been leading trips regularly since the 1990s, and we took the Lemosho Route, spending 8 days total on the mountain (highly recommended for both acclimatization as well as the additional time in these amazing ecosystems). Kambona put together a very reasonably priced package for what we got - we had a personalized 3-person outfit for about the same per-person price as some of the massive group climbs. The gear and food were very good, and the guides and porters were great companions.
The safari was also a success. Our driver Juma was knowledgable about all of the wildlife at the three parks we visited (long stay in Tarangire, short visits to Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater), and was willing to entertain all sorts of odd requests (e.g., seeking out the best places to see lizards, or drab birds). We spent most of our time off the beaten track (i.e., on the less-traveled park roads) and we came across several pretty amazing animals when no one else was around (e.g., a leopard, and a small group of wild dogs!!!).
Most importantly, Kambona is trustworthy and will do anything to make sure you're satisfied with your trip. He's a genuine and incredibly nice person and is easy to communicate with. He has decades of experience in this line of work, and he's very attentive. If you're looking for an ultra-luxury trip with expensive silverware, etc., you should probably look at other companies, but if your goal is a personalized experience in the East African outdoors, you can't do better than Kambona.