CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional, knowledgeable, friendly and great service!
Go2Africa made my trip to Tanzania so memorable I would highly recommend them. They can customize a vacation to any budget and offer great advice. Two single females traveling; they understood safety was our main concern and I never felt safer.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Tanzania by Winfried
the services they offer are awesome and the people are friendly especially the guides.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful 5 day safari to Kruger National Park and Game Preserve
We had a fantastic time and the excellent service was complete and portal to portal from our B&B's in Johannesburg. Anthony our humorous guide was an indefatigable driver, a sharp game spotter, and a knowledgeable naturalist with a great love of the African outdoors which he conveyed to us. Since he had served in the Johannesburg fire department as both a fireman and paramedic, we felt we were in great hands in this our first time in Africa. And we photographically bagged the Big Five. Highly recommended.
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beautiful country, amazing & awesome wildlife experience in Tanzania, we love to come back again
We fell in love with Tanzania, it's such a stunning beauty, everything was perfect.We had an awesome, splendid, wonderful time viewing all the beautiful animals at the parks, it's just like magic & so amazing.You'll feel more close to nature when in Tanzania, it's simply beautiful & magnificent out there. Many thanks to Kiliholidays and the safari team for making our first family safari a very memorable experience.We can't wait to come back again soon. We appreciate your hospitality & great service!
NZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Kruger safari sept 2013
Our travel agent was Madelein Norvel. She was by far the best travel agent we have encountered. Prompt, detailed communication. Every detail/request was thought of and taken care of and our holiday was perfect. We found go2africa to be a proffessional company with great value for money, quality holidays and would not hesitate to use again or recommend to others.
US
Zanzibar
This review is only about Zanzibar - see Mwema review elsewhere (and maybe a different Tanzania review).
We had a short visit to Zanzibar prior to a Serengeti safari. Zanzibar was everything I imagined and then some. The weather, dry season period, was terrific, not overwhelmingly hot. Lots of clouds, came and went, maybe a little night rain one night. The old city, Stonetown, is a small maze of narrow streets, Arab-Indian-Swahili architecture, and small "squares". A guided tour is useful, but it won't help you much orienteering - you will get lost on your own (but so what). The tour, tho, helps sort out the architecture - who brought what, and why they built it - and helps fill in the details. We also took a spice farm tour - we could've extended that, there was a lot to learn there. I envy one of our friends who took a spice compounding class at another place. We also had a too-short snorkeling trip to Mnemba island. Several more days of this would've have been fantastic. There is evidence of coral bleaching on the reefs there - sad. There are turtle reserves here and there on the island - we didn't know that until too late - if you go look into this and see if you can include a visit. We didn't have time to visit the south part of Unguja island or the Jozani forest.
The bad side of Zanzibar - it's a hustling town. It seemed like every time I stopped to look at something or opened my book, someone would show up to sell me a tour or a souvenir. Our guide said that many of these people just take the money, buy drugs, and live rough on the other side of the Creek road; on the other hand I met a few Somali refugees who'd clearly had a terrible struggle. Nevertheless, the constant interruption gets tiring. There's also a hustle at the airport - as soon as your cab shows up, a porter shows up and your bags are whisked into the gate. He's as demanding as NYC cab driver for a good tip, and one for his girlfriend running the probably fake security check before the gate. Oh well. He did get us to the right gate - things are very informal and low information at the Zanzibar airport, so sorting that out was worth something.
A note about Tanzanian visas - we got them on entry at Zanzibar airport. But unlike what we were told prior, and what others experienced elsewhere in TZ, this port of entry is credit card only, no cash!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a lifetime!
We recently returned from a 16 day safari though Zohar African Safaris. From our first contact with Zohar, we felt our needs and questions were responded to clearly and quickly. Lily, the owner, asked many questions about our interests. I had not realized at the time how well she could translate this information into a 16 day itinerary that completely reflected what I had shared with her, making the safari feel like a personal experience throughout our East African adventure.
Our itinerary was designed so that we did different kinds of activities each day. This was great, as it kept us alert the entire time, balancing animal viewing with recreation and cultural events. This also gave us the opportunity to stretch and exercise after long game viewing days. Every accommodation and the foods we had surpassed all our expectations.
We thought Africa would be spectacular on its own, but had not realized how having a fabulous safari guide would enhance our experience. Our safari guide, Sammy Sikombe, was one of the most likable, informative, talented (and humorous) person I ever met. He was flexible and seemed to care about every aspect of our safari.
To give an example how the itinerary worked, after our first day viewing the wildlife (Tarangire National Park) we had a bike ride in Mte wa Mbu and then did more wild life viewing at Lake Manyara. The next day we had the amazing experience of spending time with the Hadzabe bushmen hunting game and getting to know their way of life and why they live as they do. Our cultural safari guide and translator, Musa, was great. When I asked the Hadzabe chief why they still rub sticks together each time they wanted to make a fire, given they could just use a match or lighter, he said you never know when you will have a lighter or match available, so they keep the skill of rubbing sticks together by doing it for each fire. This practical response made a lot of sense to me. I just could not believe I was having this kind of conversation(translated by Musa) with a caveman in the 21st century !
The next day we did a walking safari in the Ngorongoro Highlands with its big and wide panoramic views and then visited a Maasai community that rarely had tourists visit them. We let Lily know we did not want our cultural visits to be in places that were over-touristed and canned performances and she said all the Zohar cultural visits were with groups that received few visitors , which made them personal, unique and spontaneous. All our cultural visits had the high quality we were looking for. This was how our safari continued for our entire time.
Our trip ended with 4 incredible days in Zanzibar, staying in one of the old palaces of the last ruling Sultan. It was located ideally and the hotel was magnificent with the most welcoming, helpful staff.
The combination of Lily’s efficiency, Sammy’s warmth and knowledge and a well designed itinerary taking us to high quality and unique settings made our safari perfect.
NL
Review about South Africa by Dirk Huitzing
It is a very beautiful country with large wild animals and a lot of birds!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda
We went with Umubano Tours for our Rwanda Gorilla Trek. They were absolutely wonderful! Our guide, John Bosco was a delight - as was the owner, Herbert.
They came highly recommended from a friend who used them a year earlier. I would definitely use them again and recommend them to others without hesitation.
US
Review about Botswana by Mark
Everything was perfect about this safari, except the season. We've been there at the end of still wet season, with too much water around and too tall grass to hide for wildlife. Did not spot big cats at all. However, a lot of hypos, zebras, giraffes, elephants, different kinds of antelopes, beautiful birds.