IT
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The best trip you can do in that area
A few years ago I was involved as tour guide in Africa for an italian travel company(Viaggi Voltaire).I have been traveling all over Africa (with adventure safaries ,trekking etc..)visiting most of its countries.In other words I have some experience in African trips.This is to say that travelling with Tailored Made Safari was above my expectations.
We were two couple in their 70th who did not want to join organized travels and in the meantime not to have too much adventure.I think that the approach of Tailor Made Safari was what we needed.Everything was excellent:communications,service,assistance and a little adventure.Very good job.
HK
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful and interesting 8-days safari and 5-days Mt. Kilimanjaro mountain trekking
Safari - thanks to our wonderful driver and chef! Wonderful and interesting people. Driver (he was also the guide) is good at finding the best spots for photo-shooting. He has good eyes and see animals far away and hence drove to the best spots for watching. Chef gavve us a lot of pleasant surprises in delicious food, especially made a birthday cake for one of our members during the safari trip and it was afreat surprise to her as well as others taking dinner in the canteen of the campsite. Will miss them.
Mountain trekking - Great crew of 9 members to serve us (two). Without the encouragement by our two great mountain guides, we would not be able to make it to the summit! Just one minor comment, for food and especially for our Chinese/asians, it might be nice (to have a better appetite in high attitude) to have some sort of congee or soup noodles for our meal as it is easier to swallow and digest. Anyway, it's our fault not telling our great chef about this earlier for them to prepare the materials before the trekking.
Overall : Mr. Hamad, the responsible person of Face of Africa Adventures is a very responsible man and he visited the campsites several time to make sure that we were satisfied with the service. He also went with us to the start point of our trekking and met us at the gate when we finished the trekking. We whole-heartedly thanked him for his service. Overall, Tanzania is a loverly country, with great places to visit. You can see all that you want to see in the safari (the Big Five) and reach the top of Africa (almost exhausted)! At least once in a lifetime experience.
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.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very professional!
Everything was better than I tough. The Hippo Camp, the food, the driver and the service overall.
Everybody I met was really professional and is definitely the cheapest option to have a great safari!
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great fun! Amazing experience!
Everything went really smoothly. From dealing with Tom Ocharo in Nairobi, to the driver, the van and the camp. I did a Masai Mara + Nakuru 4 day in total safari, so I had to change van and driver, as the first group I was with were returning to Nairobi after visiting Masai Mara. The drivers coordinated really well though, so things were smooth. In terms of the Safari itself, I got to seeing many wild animals, and all but the elephant out of the big 5. That just boils down to a question of luck I guess, because our driver was really good and really did his best to get us to see as much as possible. Overall, for a budget Safari starting from Narirobi, I strongly recommend this one.
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
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 ($40).
Overall, I will highly recommend Absolute Safari. David is very reliable and highly professional. I will give them a 5 star rating for making our tour so memorable.
DK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic experience, but a horrible, bumpy ride.
AbsoluteHolidaySafari offers safari trips where you get a lot of value for your money. We chose a 3 day safari in Maasai Mara, and really looked forward to it. We were picked up at the airport and driven to our hotel on our first day in Nairobi, which saved us a lot of hassle finding taxis at the airport. They also picked us up on the first day from the safari and to the office where we met up with the others we were sharing a car with.
I was expecting like a range rover safari van, but when the trip is as cheap as ours was (300$ 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.
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
So exciting and grateful travel！
Patrick is very good tour guide and friends, funny, a lively, talktive person. Driver Guide Rashid deserve our respect！he is a professer！！！in safari he konw everything！！！I'm very happy in the pass 9days！I hope I can visit Kenya again^_^ I do love that magic place！！！
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience
Matoke tours was exceptionally professional from start to finish. Ilse was amazing with all contact to answer many questions. We travelled Uganda and Congo with a personalised individual tour which exceeded our expectations daily and everything was perfectly organised and safe. Matoke tours gave us the fortunate opportunity to vist Congo and experience amazing adventures off the beaten track. We visited the volcano and both mountain and lowland gorillas in congo and could recommend all highly.
We were so lucky to have our tour guide Anatoli who gave a wealth a knowledege, was super friendly and made our trip more memorable.
All accommodation was fantastic and felt very spoilt.
Thank you so much for an amazing unforgettable adventure