NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tailor Made Safaris is the best operator for your South African holiday!
Everything was excellent and I would recommend Tailor Made Safaris to anyone.
On their website you can find a lot of information which helps you to choose an area and the activities. Tailor Made Safaris will make sure that trip is well put together. The selfdrive pack is also great: they really thought about everything.
And surprisingly I did not find it very expensive. But if you do find it expensive, believe me: it's worth every penny cause you surely get value for money.
CA
A magical safari experience
Finally found the time to sit down and right a review of the Safari camps that we visited in September 2015.
The whole experience was wonderful, well planned by Yoga Safari and the trip was flawless. If I ever have a chance to recommend Yoga Safari to friends or acquaintances, I will give it an outstanding recommendation and recommend that they get in touch with you.
Now with regard to the Safari sites, they were all five-star out of five-star as for as we were concerned.
Seba camp was nicely situated looking over water, had lovely accommodation and the food was outstanding. The host-managers were very social as all of the staff. Our guide was excellent in finding game and pointing out various plant features. One of the highlights of the stay was the guide finding a leopard that was tracking a hyena that was dragging the remains of the leopard's kill. We spent probably an hour following the hyenas and the leopard and took all kinds of pictures. A large bull elephant did come into the camp and just outside our cabin started to shake a palm tree for the fruit. We had the impression that the area felt a bit like a park and did not have an overwhelming number of animals.
Selinda camp was outstanding and had the most variety of animals and didn't seem that you were in a park, a true wilderness. It was a long distance from the airstrip but this is a minor drawback. The camp was fantastic, and we especially liked the accommodation of tents with no running water and bucket showers. The number of animals was outstanding: herds of elephants, male and female lions, lion cubs, wild dogs, leopard, and various antelopes as well as hippopotami and birds. It is a Safari camp that no one should miss if they are going to Botswana. The food was excellent; the staff was friendly and helpful. Our guide was terrific and had to be one of the best trackers as he used his skill to find lions on 3 separate occasions. If you want elephants, this is the place. There is a river at the front of the camp, and on one occasion a group of elephants took a refreshing bath in the river, elephants also entered the camp, also an injured hippopotomus spent time on the bank of the river. The manager was a young woman who was friendly and pleasant. But we had one of the weirdness experiences in that for whatever reason when we were together with a young Australia couple, she completely ignored us and talked only to them. It was as though we didn’t exist. This was off putting and someone needs to instruct her on how to be a proper hostess.
Shinde camp was very upscale. It had a lovely dining and meeting area, excellent food and personable staff. The accommodation was first-class. It accommodated the most guests and there were about 18 visitors at the time of our visit. Our guide was once more excellent. Ecosystem is interesting in that it has many types of antelopes in fairly large groups that are quite approachable. Again we were lucky in finding a leopard in a tree and a small group of lions. There were other small animals such as Jackels. On one of our half days we did a boat trip, which was enjoyable and a change from the Toyoto Land Cruisers.
Jacks Camp was the most magical and had a unique ambiance. The tents with the Indian decor gave an impression of being in India. After 5pm at night the lanterns provided light for the tents and dining area and gave a warm transformational aura. This was a completely different ecosystem that should be experienced by anyone going to Botswana. We were there at the end of the dry season so we saw large herds of Zebra and Wildebeest coming to the water holes every morning and afternoon in front of our tent. This was the only place where we saw large herds. Also surprising we saw many birds (ostrich, eagles and vultures) that we had not seen previously. As well we saw a different species of hyena with young at the lair. The salt flats were amazing. Once again the food was outstanding, the staff warm and friendly, and our guide worked hard to find animals and birds to see. This is a camp that should be on everyone's itinerary if they are doing safari in Botswana. However, it is clearly important to time the visit as I am sure weather conditions can have a great influence on what is seen. It was very hot but dry so it was tolerable and in an absurd way fun (40 c). Meerkats are found here, and you get to interact, and they are well worth the visit. Only saw one bull elephant on one occasion, so if you want to see elephants this is not the place.
One other point of interest is all the flights into and out of the different Safari camps were always precisely on time. And Yoga Safari has to be commended on organizing the different companies and flights that worked so perfectly.
I hope this review will help you direct your future customers and once again we thank you for setting up such a fabulous experience.
Happy New Year
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent Safari
Staff was very friendly and helpful. We saw all big 5 in Kruger.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
7 day private camping safari was great!
We did a private safari with Northern Circuit in December, visiting Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro with a stop at Oldupai Gorge. Our guide (Elias) and chef (Sweetbart) were fantastic. The meals were tasty and the chef proactively adjusted meals based on our preferences. Our guide had some good itineraries planned and he handled all the tough mudding with aplomb. He was also very knowledgeable about the animals and was very good at spotting and naming all the different birds we encountered as well - we ended up finding about 25 different kinds.
Our tour vehicle was a little older but perfectly functional (standard safari car with pop-up roof), and it had seat covers with nice seatback pockets for stowing gear during the game drives, and it also had an inverter with a universal power strip for charging whatever electronics needed charging - these made life much more pleasant on the trip.
Our only complaint was that the tent was a little old and musty. It didn't rain much while we were on the trip so we could leave the flaps open to air it out and it was fine, but if it had rained more it might have been problematic, and that's why I said 4 stars.
I would recommend this tour operator to friends and family.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a lifetime
Great communication from my initial enquiry, through payment and confirmation with Vaycay.
The safari and accommodation at the Explorians Mara Rianta Camp were better than we could ever of dreamed of. Everybody we met through this trip were so friendly, they went out of their way to add the perfect finishing touches to our honeymoon. It was an experience we will never forget. Thank you David.
we had wonderful time with msafiritravels especially the kids like the vacation
Everything was well coordinated from picking us from the airport to our hotel because we had to spend the night in Tanzania and the following morning we used the shirp to zanzibar we had wonderful time .looking forward for another trip during easter time
CH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Ten extraordinary days with the big five
We are very happy with this safari and the organization was perfect. Tom, our guide did his job to our satisfaction. A journey of 10 extraordinary days without any mechanical problem or other. We can only recommend It Started in Africa, reference agency!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Kikwetu Paradise
Kenneth the agent we used was very helpful and has excellent customer handling skills. Relaxed atmosphere, the beach is nearby & good swimming pools. Upgrading needed especially the kitchen (Cooker, utensils, fridge), try check on the guests in case there are issues to report. Overall it was worth the spend.
GR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable 4-day experience!!!
We are a young couple and we have just come back form our trip to Tanzania, including a 4-day safari with It started in Africa. We can hardly find words to describe those 4 days! It was an amazing, unique experience and we are very happy that we did it with that company. We were convinced about their professionalism from the first day we contacted them, but when our trip came a reality they exceeded any expectation! Every employee we met was extremely helpful and friendly. Our guide Joel was fantastic and we really spent our best 4 days with him, driving in the endless plains of Serengeti and in the unparalleled Ngorongoro crater! He was always eager to answer our questions (and thy were many!), he was informative giving as interesting information, being at the same time very pleasant and enthousiastic although he has done the same trip hundreds of times. We managed to see every animal existing in the parks visited and to take advantage fo every moment spent during our safari.
We also had a great cooker who offered us extremely delicious meals everyday!
We could never imagine that a company would be so careful and helpful, finding a solution in any matter we had. We were really impressed when we forgot our battery charger at the hotel in Arusha after our safari and with just one phone call, they arranged to get there, take it and send it to our next station!
We highly recommend It started in Africa with no second thought!
Thank you for the unforgettable trip!
Eleni-Manos
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Once in a lifetime trip, safaris were amazing, transfers were perfect and the lodgings were superb
We went on a 3 country 9 day adventure. Our trip involved 4 light aircraft transfers, one regular flight, two road transfers, one of which was a road to ferry to road transfer. Every single one of them occurred smoothly. The one hotel and two lodges we were booked at were fabulous and first class. The two sets of safaris we went on were once in a lifetime adventures and in both locations we saw the big five (once in one drive!) plus numerous other animals. Ute Sonnenberg was there every step of the way before we left with immediate answers to the numerous questions we had. She planned an amazing trip.