NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari Pilanesberg (1 day tour from Joburg)
Great safari and really impressive. Also, guide (Jason) tells a lot on the animals seen and lot of other useful info. Also, he takes the time to see and stops at places if desired. Seen 3 of the big 5 and a lot of other wild life and nice colored birds.
Thanks again to you Jason for a perfect day!
Best regards,
Harry
BR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Pilanesberg Game Reserve by Almir Yeijo Tahira
We did one day safari only. We did not find the felines. We could see other big animals like Rhino, Giraffe, Elephant, zebra, etc..
My little girl became really astonished.
I recommend it!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Hillman Global Marketing Africa made my travel arrangements very easy and the interaction was great.
The prompt communication lived up to my expectations.
NO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good service, well on time and quick response despite poor internet coverage.
Good service, well on time and quick response despite poor internet coverage. Good views of a number of animals, especially lions, leopards, elephants and rhino but fewer bird species than expected. According to the tour operator this could have been due to different reasons. The accommodation and other facilities are of a high standard too. Thank you Above & Beyond Photographic Tours we are already planning to go back to Arusha this year.
FI
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari experiences in Masai Mara and Ol-Pejeta
We had amazing 3-day safari in Masai Mara with super-guide Joseph. We saw lot´s of animals, for example four of the Big Five. Stayed at Basecamp which was also nice experience as we slept in a tent and that is really the way of experiencing nights of Africa. Didn´t get enough of animals and ordered one more safari day in Oj-Pejeta where we finally completed The Big Five. We can warmly recommend East Africa Safaris. Great customer service and professional work. Thank you for unforgettable experience in Kenya.
CA
Excellent gorilla safari
I arranged our 4 day gorilla safaris or 7 people over the Internet via their website. Our guide Bosco was excellent. He was waiting at the airport for us as promised. His vehicle was excellent and he was always punctual.
The service was excellent throughout the safari and I would book with Umubano Tours if I were to return to Rwanda.
At the end of our tour my daughter left her trip journal in the Land Rover when we said good bye to Bosco at the airport. I assumed that we would never see it again but Bosco found it in the vehicle and rushed back to the airport to return it to us just before our flight departed. Needless to say she was overjoyed.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Couldn't have been better!
Hadn't been planning on going to Tanzania but all of a sudden a business opportunity appeared. As soon as it was confirmed that i would be going to Tanzania, a friend said it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to take a safari and that i should take my kids with me. Before I knew what was happening, my 23 year old daughter had agreed to accompany her dad although her two older brothers were uninterested. So, we had like three weeks to decide on how we were going to do this over the hectic Christmas vacation into early January..
I started to negotiate with one company but when it came down to making a significant payment, I all of a sudden became concerned about Internet scams and started to look for another company that had more reviews on the SafariBookings website. Although I subsequently was advised that all of the companies listed with SafariBookings are reputable and reliable , my search lead me to East Africa Wild Adventures, primarily because they had an office in Vancouver with a number I could dial and a person I could talk to. That person was Alym Bhanji who picked up the phone right away and made me feel he was a person I could trust. I asked Alym to review an itinerary I had been offered and to give me a quote. He was very knowledgeable about the safari business and quickly offered me a range of itineraries from which to chose. After a bit of mixing and matching and asking Alym for advice with respect to which combination of accommodations was best, we chose to stay two nights at the Sopa and two nights at Serengeti View mobile camp. The Sopa was a wonderful way to start while Alym felt that the mobile camp would provide a more "in Africa" feel to the safari. I felt very comfortable following his suggestions. They seemed to make sense.
Now, these safaris aren't cheap but when you come to realize that the lodges are pretty much 5 star hotels in the middle of nowhere with what must be astronomical provisioning costs, you start to understand, The camps are not as high class although the permanent camps have running water and electricity but all of these have to have everything hauled in over the Serengeti Super Highways which were little more than mud tracks and rivers in many places when my daughter and i were there in January.
Anyway, our itinerary had us flying in from Dar es Salaam where my business meetings took place to Kilimanjaro where we were to be met by our guide Hasan. Never having flown to meet a stranger before, I must admit i was a bit apprehensive but Hasan was standing outside the arrival area with a sign that had our names on it. He smiled and laughed when we met, grabbed our bags and led us to our safari vehicle and we headed towards the Serengeti. Now, it's a bit of a drive from the Kilimanjrao Airport to the Ngorongoro and Serengeti National Parks but you do get a marvelous first hand view of rural African life on the way to and through Arusha and beyond. On this drive we also saw countless zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and buffalo. We were awaken at about 6AM our first day by about eight elephants having breakfast right outside our hotel window. Over the next four days, we saw lions, cheetah and leopard (4 of them!) all with kills. Warthogs, tortoise, crocodile, jackal, impala, dik dik, gazelle and enough hippos to make your head spin along with numerous birds of prey. Our guide, Hasan, had the eyes of a hawk. He noticed all of the leopards up in trees and all about 100 metres away from the road. He would slow and stop and point without the help of binoculars while i would scour the country side for minutes before locating the leopard. Without his keen eyesight, we would have missed an awful lot of animals and without his skillful driving, we may still have been stuck on the serengeti waiting for someone to rescue us!
Before this safari, if you had asked me if i ever planned to go to Africa, I would have answered "Not likely" but now that I have been, i have already told Alym that I want him to help me plan a return visit for next year! When I think of the short period of time I had to plan this safari, I don't know whether there are many operators who could have made it happen. Alym somehow was able to communicate with all the necessary people to make arrangements for what has to be the most interesting vacation i have ever taken. He was also able to make an excellent suggestion for a hotel in downtown Dar es Salaam for the night we returned from safari since our flight out of Dar was scheduled for the next day. It was relatively close to the airport which is a bonus when you take into account the ridiculous traffic jams that are a feature of driving in Dar.
The next most important person is your guide and Hasan was absolutely amazing. When you go, make sure that your guide has a well maintained vehicle and that they know how to drive it 'cause the going can get tough!
DK
KM Safaris Kenya = top professional, great service and lots of local knowledge
KM Safaris Kenya gave us a truly unique experience during our visit in April – May ’15. We always felt in safe hands, were treated very professionally and the team is highly experienced with lots of local knowledge about Kenya and African culture and traditions, which makes the travel experience very special. Kirstine & Martin (owners) are friendly and kind and always willing to go that extra mile for their customers, explain things, change things etc. The fact that it’s a small family run business makes you feel more like family/friends than a customer and – I believe – the general service level higher. We cannot recommend them highly enough.
IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent experience with knowledgable guide!
We recently visited Lake Nakuru, Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha and Amboseli with them on a private safari for two. The vehicle (landcruiser) and guide provided were excellent. Noah is so quick to respond and was so catering to every little query I had which was what first attracted me to hiring them. Our driver and guide Eustace was very experinced and a bag of fun! Ours was a very last minute trip inspite of which they booked decent places and made sure everything was perfect. i will definetely plan my next tour to east Africa with them!
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Safari with a committed operator
We spent a 5 days safari with Joseph and James in Oldupai, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Tarangire, and it was great. We ended up our vacation in Zanzibar to enjoy some days of relax on the beach. Despite the difficulties that inevitably arise during the organization of such complex itineraries, BlueOcean Safaris shown a great committment to fix some minor troubles and at the end to make our vacation truly successful.