US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An expert Kenyan
Elisha and I met 5 years ago when he was a guide for a larger outfit that trekked all over the wonderous beauty that is east Africa.
This time, it was exciting to see a man who knows Kenya like the back of his hand push forward with his own company. My girlfriend and I asked for a city tour of Nairobi. What we received was a tour alright; including shops, food, mobile money exchanges (haha), encounters with rowdy buses begging us to climb onboard— all with the combination of fun, knowledge, and safety that makes excursions like these worth every footstep and shilling.
Highly recommend. You’ll make a friend and you won’t be disappointed. Top of the line service.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari, an incredible experience
Amazing experience ! Our guide and chef were very professional. We felt safe and comfortable. Thank you !
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible experience Drive Tanzania Ltd, safaris not as agreed on at all.
We had a very bad experience with Drive Tanzania Ltd. The safari was not as promised at all. First of all, we had agreed on 4 hour gamedrives on the both first and the third day. Both these days we only spent only 2 hours in the national park. Secondly, our guide did not interact with the clients at all and did not treat the animals with respect. He went off road very often, which is prohibited, and disturbed animals by getting extremely close. Third, our 'semi-luxury camp' had no electricity and no running water most of the time and if there was, the water had a brown color.
When we emailed Yoeni Japheth to express our disappointment after our safari, all he did was offer us to go with his company again on our next trip, which is something I would never do again. Yoeni Japheth said he mixed up the itinerary of a private and a joined safari, however, the itinerary he sent us before was named joined safari and he had confirmed about lengths of the gamedrives after I had specifically asked him. When we insisted on a partial refund for missing out on half of the safari time on two days, Drive Tanzania Ltd simply ignored this and stopped replying.
I won't recommend anyone to ever use this company for a safari.
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bet trip ever!
Was my first safari, this guys took care of everything. Everything was more than expected, lodges are out of this world. I saw all the big animals is africa, ask for FRANK as a driver! He’s the best, that man know what’s he’s doing. Planing my second one to the Serengeti in December. Super recommended!!!!!
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very good orgnized gorilla trecking in Bwindi NP
Let´s go travel Uganda is a very reliable and good organized tour operator. We have
booked a 5 day flight Gorilla Safari from/to Entebbe. From the pick-up at the airport,
the transfer tot he hotel in Entebbe as well as all transfers and flights to and back from
fantastic Bwindi Impenetrable NP – staying at the incredibel Buhoma Lodge - and last but definitely
not least the well organzide Safari itself!. To see Gorillas in their natural enviroment is one
of the best experiences in life and if organized so good it becomes worth every dollar.
Thanks again to Alfred and his Team !
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
We had a fantastic driver/tour guide. He was extremely knowledgable and became a good friend.
The experience was great. Our tour guide John Wanjau was extremely knowledgabe and very concerned about my wife and myself having a joyful experience. John does an excellent tour. I would highly recommend him as a guide. The only negative we experienced during our 9 day safari was the tent camp where we stayed in Amboseli could have been better.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great!!!
I arrived in Nairobi on sunday after a long trip, and Vincent was there to wait me. We went with my driver to the decasa hotel and then I did a small tour in Nairobi. The hotel is easy but ok. The day later my safari started masai Mara and lake nakuru. It was like a dream. Vincent is a great person and he has done everything to be my safari SPECIAL!!!!
PT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent -- fun, efficient, and no-frills -- safari, and tour operator + guide
We (couple of 41-yr-olds) travelled to Namibia last April. We booked our safari with Wild Wind Safaris. All was arranged with no fuss, fully accomodating our must-sees. Philip (the tour operator owner) knows his craft, and he earns the excellent reviews! We did a 6-day tour to Sossusvlei, Swakopmund, and Etosha. And finally when the day came... we missed our arrival flight. Nevertheless Philip was there to meet us, truly friendly service with a smile. Our driver/guide was Elvis, who was very professional, courteous, non-intrusive, knowledgeable, considerate, and proved himself to be a master safari guide - both on the road and in Etosha, spotting animals that could barely seen by binoculars (!), checking where they here heading , and meeting them somewhere they crossed the paths - nothing short of magic. This being said, this was quite a trip - crossing the deserts to see the famous sand dunes, then again to the quaint and pretty town of Swakop, to Etosha where despite being the wet season, we managed to see a lot of different animals (highlights: lions, elephants, black rhinos), quite up-close (thanks again to Elvis). By coincidence, there were no other fellow travellers on 2/3 of our trip. The transport was comfortable and sturdy, quite suitable, and the food throught the safari was good; the accomodation near Namib-Naukluft Park (Elegant Desert Lodge) was quite good, in Swakop (Stay@Swakop) was OK, in Etosha (Halali Lodge) let's say that unfortunatelly the resorts are state-owned, and run-down. We returned home with a great experience and good memories. Overall I strongly recommend Wild Wind Safaris, and will reach for them next time I'm in Namibia!
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
A life-changing experience, beautifully planned and executed by Transtrek Safaris
We are giving Transtrek a five-star rating because our experience - ten days in Kenya - was so exciting, beautiful and memorable. We asked three tour operator to send us offers. Not only was the offer by Transtrek the most varied and interesting, Dan even called my mobile phone within an hour of my posting the request, to check and ask us what we really wanted. Our safari took us to the highlands north of Nairobi as well as to the Masai Mara in the West. Each day was more exciting than the previous one and we actually saw a couple of Cheetah kills that were absolutely stunning. Our guide, Peter, was superb at finding interesting animals and we saw all the Big Five. He is also an excellent driver who managed to avoid hurting our necks and backs (we were a senior group) by carefully negotiating all major bumps and tranches. A few minor complaints: We should have skipped the Chimpanzee sanctuary (sad and a bit boring) and the tame, blind Rhino at Ol Pejeta (you are supposed to be able to pet him but he never showed up) and used the time to do more game drives. The Balloon Ride was hellishly expensive but really worth the experience. The Masai Village visit was exploitative of tourists and we felt pressured to buy gifts. In the Mara, we thought Ashnil Camp was somewhat dated and decaying, with a dilapidated swimming pool, but Eagle View was fantastic! You have to pick and choose your Camps with care. But overall an outstanding experience and Transtrek are the ones to go with!
CA
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing and everything I was looking for.
After many years of dreaming about returning to East Africa, on October 2017 I was searching the web for a special trip to East Africa, I had so many choices of companies that all sounded great, finally narrowed it down to 3, then the real work started with such a big investment of not only time but money we wanted to make very sure that we were doing the right thing.
I finally decided on East Africa Wild but certainly being the type A person that I am I wanted to speak with the owner Alym Bhanji personally.
Alym and I connected by phone in October 2017, I immediately felt comfortable and you know what they say “go with your gut” this certainly felt good to me.
My Husband and I made the big decision and proceeded with many phone conversations with Alym as this was not only a trip of a lifetime we were planning but a very special revisit to the land I was raised in 60 + years ago.
I wanted to make sure we covered all the territory of my childhood along with it being the first time experience for my husband we were adding on a trip to Victoria Falls and Trekking with the Gorillas in Uganda.
Alym was always available by phone to plan this with us also along with becoming a new Father during these months.
Our trip was finalized with all the details for July 2018 and there were many of them, we were covering flights to Victoria Falls, tour of the falls, Sunset cruising on the Zambezi river with a 3 day stay before flying on to Entebbe. By the 5th day we were trekking with the Gorilla’s in Bwindi forest.
Moving on to Kenya via transferring through Nairobi we arrived at Amboseli National Park for a 3 day stay with our first of many game drives. Then on to Nanyuki the town I lived in for a memory lane trip along with an emotional goal of spreading my fathers and younger brothers’ ashes in a river coming down from MT Kenya and some on the plains on Ol Pejeta at sunset.
After an already very full schedule of 12 days we were now on to the Masai Mara for a wonderful 6 days of game drives with our wonderful and as far as I am concerned, the best guide ever, Newton Njane.
Newton actually joined us in Nairobi on the 8 day of our trip and was our full time guide for the following 2 weeks. While we flew conveniently from one place to another he actually would drive for hours to carry our excess luggage (I imagine not really in his job description) but between him and Alym they were out to accommodate us as very best they could.
All the accommodations were arranged for us and were very lovely but our most favourites were in Amoseli National Park, Kibo Safari Camp, in Ol Pejeta, Sweetwaters Tented Camp and on the Mara, Mara Sarova Game Camp and Ngenche Safari Camp (Last one was our absolute best) right by the Mara River with the hippos and absolutely first class service. Many thanks to Camp Manager. Paul Maina, his excellent staff and warriors that kept us safe at all times.
We finished up our trip with 2 days in Mombasa, did not enjoy this but it was also on my memory lane list as my family vacationed there with us in 1959. Many changes, very busy and dirty, I would not recommend this.
We arrived home after a wonderful and physically challenging 21 day trip exhausted (10 lbs lighter) but oh so delighted with lots of great memories (and more than 4,000 photos). We made the right choice picking Alym owner of Ease Africa Wild, you can well imagine the coordination and time it took for him to get this itinerary together for us and it all went off without any hiccups.
We would highly recommend Alym and his company along with his chosen guides for us, Jason Japan in Uganda who had a favourite saying as we rattled and rolled through the countryside “Everybody OK?” This we quoted often in remembrance of his wonderful character. Our many shorter term guides in between our transfers were wonderful to us and our very special guide, Newton who immediately knew what as a photographer I was looking for, we traveled many miles together on many full day game drives and saw just about every animal Kenya has to offer us.
We do want to repeat this trip again providing our age or money does not deplete us first and the very first thing I would do is phoning Alym and getting ‘OUR’ Newton for our guide.
Thank you Alym for our lifetime experience and as we have discussed recently, we will keep in touch and possibly enjoy a visit while in Vancouver next July.
Gerry and Steve Atkinson
Canada 2018
