35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Wonderful trip with excellent guide
The safari was excellent. The booking of the trip was very efficient and response rate was fast. Much effort was made to organise the safari we were looking for. The booked 3 day safari to Murchison Falls was excellent for our family of four. Our guide Ben was great. Very knowledgeable, attentive, friendly and helpful. He made every effort to show us the animals we wanted to see.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
You won't find a better safari company!
We booked two safaris through this company. The first was a four-day safari to Masai Mara in a 4x4 Land Cruiser; the second was a one-day safari to Hell's Gate & Lake Naivasha in a mini van. Both bookings were completed entirely online, although we made phone calls the day before the safari to ensure that there were no issues. We did not book the Hell's Gate safari until we returned from the Masai Mara trip.
The booking staff are quick to respond to emails, professional in providing details of the proposed safari, upfront about extra costs, and helpful in terms of special requests--we had two vegans in our group who were anxious about having their needs met. Payment was not directly through my credit card but through a PayPal like system called Pesapal. It worked without an issue. Duncan organized our Mara safari and Michelle the Hell's Gate safari.
For the first safari we requested George Mbugua, who turned out to be excellent. Not only was he great at spotting the animals, including a kill on our second day, but he was professional in respecting the animals. We saw everything except a rhino, (no one seemed to see one as they are rare and elusive), including numerous cheetah and lions. One lion was in a tree. We saw a leopard close up. However, we noticed some other companies' drivers interfering with the animals' movement. George clearly was opposed to such practices, as were we. George was always early for any meeting, and took steps to ensure our safety and comfort throughout the trip. We met other travellers with Natural World who reported similar experiences with their drivers. The 4x4 is worth the extra cost for game drive experiences.
We stayed at Enkorok camp in Masai Mara. It was an excellent budget choice, reviewed separately.
The trip to Hell's Gate was guided by Mike Kioko. This was in a minivan, as the trip didn't include game drives in a vehicle. Instead, we rode bikes through the park, hiked through the gorge, boated on the lake, and walked on Crescent Island. Essentially, Mike had to ensure we arrived at the designated times and arrange things with the other guides. He did so perfectly. Again, safety was most important. Note that on this trip you should bring some money to tip at least two additional guides.
We would highly recommend this trip. It gives you a chance to be active, although the hiking and riding might be too strenuous for some people. We saw a variety of wildlife on bike or foot, including giraffes and zebras crossing our paths very closely. Lunch at the Sopa Lodge was fantastic. The trip took a full 12.5 hours.
Natural World was an excellent choice. I can't really compare it to other agencies, as we didn't use them, but we have nothing but praise for this company. They even called after both trips to ensure that our safaris were great. The end of safari "gift" was very welcome icing on the cake of two fantastic experiences with this company.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very personal and outstanding
We worked with the Chalo Africa team Sangeeta, Malvika, Smita and Tanvi to plan our Tanzania visit. They had been recommended by our friends. Found the whole experience very personal to plan out the various details and very responsive. Their knowledge comes from personally leading expeditions and a true love for Africa. That showed in our itinerary. Our experience was very very good. Even during the safari, they had opened a Whatsapp group to keep in touch and made sure that we were taken care of.
Highly recommend them.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Horrible
We had been wanting to go to Rwanda to see the gorillas for a few years. We chose Rwanda over Uganda due to the conservation efforts of the country. A trip like this costs a lot of money so we had to really plan it out. We have traveled all over the world and have been to Africa many times including Tanzania, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya and Botswana. In March 2019, from online research my husband, Chirag Amin, contacted the company, Gorilla Trek Africa, working with their senior consultant Nelson. Chirag asked them to create a luxury package as we were travelling without our children after many years.
There were some things my husband wanted to do such as go to Congo while we were there. He threw out some ideas but wasn’t really guided one way or another to say whether some of those things are plausible. Eventually we had an itinerary. So comes July and we are ready to go, we confirmed multiple times that this was a luxury package as we were paying luxury package price. We packed everything on the list that was provided by the agency. We flew from Tampa to DC to Brussels to Kigali. Before we had even landed and started our trip we got an email from Nelson saying
We previously told you that the balance can only be paid in in cash in
>
> new USD bills or by card/ bank not later than a week to the start of
> the
> tour. It is very disappointing to hear that you want to pay by card at
>
> this late hour.
We weren’t sure why he was disappointed, I guess they want cash but we wanted to pay by card. It wasn’t even the cash/card issue it was the tone the email took as soon as he learned we were paying by card and we hadn’t even landed yet. I told my husband this does not sound good, so we managed to half the balance in cash and the other half by card not to make HIS disappointment worse.
Night 2, we got to our first hotel which wasn’t bad but were told by multiple people it is a 3 star even for Rwanda. We figured we will address it later, let’s see how things go. The food was to be included in the package so we went for lunch. The menu was extensive and looked pretty good. I asked for a salad, they didn’t have lettuce. Fine, I asked for a sandwich, they didn’t have cheese. Fine, how about some pizza? Again no cheese. That narrowed the choices to soup and meat and rice. This wasn’t an issue as it was one of our first meals. However, by meal 3 we had eaten the same thing 3 times. The shower was slimy but the bed was comfortable.
Our second day we went to go see chimpanzees before we were to leave for Goma/Congo. On our tour we met many people and told them about our plans and where we were staying in Goma. One of the gentle man was from Germany living in Kigali, a journalist that has traveled all over that area. Him and his companion as well as our driver advised us the hotel in Goma is maybe a 2 star. Our friend on the tour said you won’t be able to stay there, its barely $40 a night. Chirag contacted Nelson and expressed his concern, Nelson said he can change the hotel as there are other options but it will cost us 300$ USD to change it. First, a hotel that was 40$ a night was booked for a luxury package while another option was available and then we were charged $300 to change it!! Nelson’s email even said the hotel in Goma is just OK. We also expressed out concerns about the hotel we were currently staying at. In response, Nelson said our expectations and African reality were no matched. He further went on to say
Once you lower your expectations, you will have a great trip experience
just like what others always get
I see you are just being so picky and complicated and this will
compromise your trip experience.
We asked for a luxury package, paid for a luxury package to not only receive sub par accommodations but unprofessional, rude and unacceptable customer service. We were asked to LOWER our expectations. This made Chirag upset as believe me we paid a lot of money for this trip. He told Nelson that this was upsetting in return Nelson said
We are all human!
Just the way you get pissed off, i as well can get pissed off!
Let us not make an issue out of this
We need to cooperate if we are to have a good trip, otherwise threats
won't make any good for any of us
You either enjoy your trip or ruin it, the ball is entirely in your
hands
So my over all review, if you want to pay luxury prices, then receive sub par accommodations and even worse treatment, book with this agency. We encountered many tourists that were staying at nice hotels so it has nothing to do with the African reality. This agency hopes that you are a naïve traveler and won’t know any better so they can charge for a luxury package but then treat you like crap once they get your money. Why book a hotel that $40 a night 2 stars and they say oh there is a better option, it will cost you $300 to change it. Why was booked to begin with? Chirag never gave Nelson a ceiling for the price of the package so he charged A LOT but delivered nothing and then HE was disappointed when we didn’t’ bring cash. The email excerpts are just the tip of the iceberg. He never apologized and even stopped contacting us to fix anything. And if you say anything they will get pissed off and cut off contact. This is highly unprofessional, so forget about the money, book with this agency if you want to be treated badly.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The Pearl of Africa was amazing and peter the Guide was pefekt... a dream came truth
Peter is a perfect guide, he feels in the customer. he is flexible and also organizes quickly when something has to be. Peter shows you the africa, off the tourist trails when you want. I appreciate the closeness to the locals, it is inspiring and warming the heart. The food you get on the way in the home restaurants is delicious. have the courage, you will be amazed. For me, Uganda is always worth another trip. Thank you Peter for your friendship... i only can say... thank you peter :-)
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Warm as a family, very punctual and patient every day
On this trip, the five of us stayed together with our guide and enjoyed ourselves as a family.The guide worked very hard every day, waiting for us in advance, driving for a long time, patiently answering our questions and meeting our needs.This trip was completely beyond my imagination, very happy and a very unforgettable memory.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well planned and executed safari with great accomodation and a guide who worked tirelessly.
Family of four with older children. Our first safari experience lived up to expectations. Kenya was amazing as was viewing so many animals from the safety and comfort of a well specified land-cruiser. Highlight was the numerous animal encounters in their fantastic habitat. Our driver and guide, Dixon, worked tirelessly - sometimes driving for 8 hours a day. We always felt safe, even when being 'encouarged' to back-up by agressive elephants!
Our only negatives were self-inflicted; we sometimes travelled for 6 hours a day, before spending two hours on safari and then heading off to a new location the next morning. Bear in mind the distances between various locations and that the travel times will be long and road and traffic quality poor in many places - we had one 70km treck down an unmade road which was a real bone-shaker and very tiresome. Also of note was traffic in Nairobi is a *nightmare* and the location of our first hotel meant our first day had an extra 2 hour's drive time as we stayed on the wrong side of the city and needed to negoiate the rush-hour traffic just to get back to the airport we landed at... One of our stays did not have the promised swimmingpool which was missed and had on-going building work which ditracted a bit from the ambience. We'd definately happily use Classic Journeys again as the trip was organised and executed well.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Fantastic self-drive to Mana Pools, hassle free. Thank you Ant!!
From the start Ant was extremely helpful and always happy to answer any little queries I had. As the organiser of an all women and not regular camping group, using Mana Pools was the perfect choice. Their vehicle was well equipped, Ant's advise was great and when we hit an unforeseen snag Ant and his team stepped up and made sure our trip went on as if nothing had happened.
I would recommend a self-drive trip to Mana Pools for anyone who would love to see this amazing part of Zimbabwe. We picked up our vehicle in Vic Falls did a couple of nights in Hwange National Park, sailed Kariba Dam overnight on the Ferry, drove to Mana Pools and had a wonderful stay in this most magical area, ending in Harare and flying back to Cape Town. All in all a fabulous adventure. Thanks again Mana Pools Tourism Services
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
We can fully recommend Leopard Tours.
We were wonderfully accompanied from the arrival to the departure by the staff. The reception at the airport, the transfer to the Hotel Arumeru Lodge, the first day safari in the Arusha National Park by Barack: all perfect.
Then we spent eight exciting, fun and interesting days with our German speaking guide Michael on safari: Tarangire NP, Serengeti NP, Ngorogoro Crater and Lake Manyara NP.
Michael accompanied us profoundly with his extensive knowledge of land, people and animals through this entertaining holiday. It was a caring and informal atmosphere but always with the necessary distance.
A warm "thank you" Michael.
DK
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Truly amazing safari
My family and I just came back from a great 5 days safari experience with Amazing Memories Safaris (AMS) in Masai Mara.
We were picked up at our hotel in Nairobi and brought back to the same hotel exactly as planned.
The AMS staff was very service minded, and they even made a stop on the way back to Nairobi allowing us to shop in a nice shopping center.
The accomodation was very comfortable and the food delicious.
During the game drives we saw more wild animals than we had ever expected including the "big five".
The driver had great skills in tracing the animals, and the first 3 days we saw a leopard every day, both in trees and on the ground.
We highly recommend others to take advantage of AMS' expertice and good service when planning their next (or first) safari.