NZ
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Masihambe Afrika exceeded our expectations in all aspects!
Erika and Eugen want to thank Jude and our most competent guide Anthony for leading us to and through an unforgettable Namibia experience in July/August 2015. Masihambe Afrika is just excellent value for money spend! Hope we can go back to Afrika with Masihambe in the near future.
DK
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great experience as allways
In september 2015 we had a fantastic trip again with Cul Tours and Safaris. It is the 10th time in the last five years we use Stevens company to get around in Uganda. This time we visited many craft groups and had a gamedrive in Murchison Falls National Park and were lucky to see a lion family. We can only recommend using Stephen and Cul Tours and Safaris as organizers, whether you plan your trip yourselves or let him do it. You can rely 100% on him. We come back next year.
Jette Mellgren - Denmark.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great all-round and last-minute camping safari
Last September we decided we wanted to go on a last-minute safari. We found a great one with lodges with another tour-operator, when Marjon from Caracal emailed me with an offer we couldn't refuse; A three day safari with tents. No lodges, no big tented camps, just small iglo tents on a campsite. As I had already experienced that my preference goes out to these kinds of safari's the choice was an easy one, we chose Caracal! We were picked up by one of the owners of the company and handed over to our very good guide, Max. Max did a very great job in making the trip "holistic". Of course we excited to see the big five (and so we did), but Max also teached us a lot about the less popular flora and fauna of the different national and conservation parks we visited. Along the way we saw many bored safari guides who just pointed out the umpteenth Simba or Tembo, but Max showed us the whole ecosystem, and every one of them with great energy and cute little anecdotes! Best. Safariguide. Ever.
Afterwards, Max dropped us of near Kilimanjaro. What a service!
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing adventure through North Tanzania with Northern Circuit Adventure
We had 6 amazing days during our trip with Northern Circuit Adventure. Micheal, the owner of the company, welcomed us on our arrival. Then we left for six days with our perfect crew made of Freddy, well advised and falcon eyed guide (with a diploma of Tsé Tsé fly hunting, you are safe with this guy !), and Sweetbart, our lovely and gifted cook. We completed the Big Five and met Masaai. The nights in the campsite inside the parks were very comfortable and full of surprises. We totally advise you to go for an adventure with them !
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful camping safari
The safari was really great. Our driver Elias was a very good driver and guide. He was very skilled at spotting animals and knew all of them, including all the birds, which was very impressive! Sweetbart, our chef, was a very nice guy and cooked some delicious meals for us, even when we were at very remote places. The car was very spacious as we were supposed to be with 2 others, but they got delayed for some reason, so we had the whole jeep for ourselves! The camp sites were basic, but were at nice locations, a real wild life experience!
Michael, the manager, was also a really nice guy. He picked us up personally and really wanted to make sure that we had a nice trip.
We would definitely recommend Northern Circuit Adventure to anyone looking for a camping safari!
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Adventure of a lifetime!!!
Michael was incredible! He personally picked us up from Arusha airport and after the safari, he arranged for us to be dropped off at a different airport that was an HOUR away (all complimentary)! We did a 5 day/4 night safari to Terengire, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro Crater. The guide, Dennis, was incredible and very knowledgeable! The cook, Rodrick, was super sweet and made great meals! It was a bit colder in the morning than expected, so we recommend all future explorers to bring warm clothing. It gets really warm during the day though.
Overall wonderful experience and definitely the adventure of a lifetime! There are a LOT of safaris out there, but THIS IS THE ONE TO GO ON!!! :)
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
serengeti-great migration-lake natron-ngorongoro 9 days camping/budget safari
We spent 9 days with our guide/driver Felix around northern Tanzania, for a total amount of 1152 euros.
The first night he picked us up in Kilimanjaro airport and took us at his home place. the next 4 days we have been in Serengeti NP, 2 in Seronera public campsite and 2 in Lobo Public campsite (which I liked the most, being much less crowded and truly wilder than Seronera!), accompanied by Felix and Gaspar, the cook (who was so kind to cook separate vegetarian meal for me every day). from Lobo we moved to Kenya border to see the Great Migration of the Gnu..which we were so lucky to spot: it was amazing. Afterwards we traveled by car to Lake Natron, where we spent 2 nights in a peaceful and beautiful campsite, enjoying the waterfalls, the Masai villages and a visit to the lake, where the flamingo breeding season was going on, guided by a friendly local guide. The last two days we moved to Ngorongoro Crater NP, sleeping in a small guesthouse in Karatu, together with 4 other friends which joined the safari just for the NgoroNgoro trip. While this accommodation in Karatu was small and uncomfortable, the trip to Ngorongoro was really worthwhile, most of all for the sightseeings. During the whole safari we had the chance to spot almost all the most wanted animals of the savanna: lots of lions, a leopard, a few jackals, ienas, thomson gazelle, antelopes, Topi,zebras, giraffes, a couple of Rhino from faraway, other herbivores and lots of different birds.
despite we broke and changed the tire for three times during the first single day,moving from Arusha to Serengeti, Felix proved to be an experienced and good driver in the following days, driving us safely along the dirt roads of the parks. We finally ended our tour in Moshi, together with the 4 friends who joined us the day before.
Unison safari proved to me to be a good and safe budget option to visit Tanzania.
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We had to get the bus back
First I would like to point out that out driver was Brilliant the whole way through. He could not do more to help us (his 7 month pregnant wife picked us up from DAS bus station to take us back to our hotel.
Booking was very easy and effective, the booking agent came to our hotel on the morning of pick up to collect the money from us (I think it is expensive, especially with the quality of car we were provided with).
The car was ancient (it never made it back from the trip) we got a flat tyre 2 hours into the journey (fine, it happens) then another few hours in, the car breaks down and take 2+ hours to fix (meaning the journey ended up taking 10 hours to reach the safari).
Lunch on the way to the Safari (not the modern looking stop) was lovely. It was a traditional buffet lunch.
The hotel at the safari was basic but clean and quite close to the Mikumi National park.
The safari was a great experience, our guide was knowledgeable and made the safari a lot of fun. The guys could not explain things enough and went out of their way to make sure we saw as much as possible.
Unfortunately, our trip back was a disaster!!
Our car broke down again in pretty much the same spot it had been fixed the day before. Except this time we were taken to the local mechanics place (off the main road) and were left in the car for 3 hours only to be told it would be $90 USD to have someone else drive us back or we could get the bus or wait another 4 hours for another car to pass on its way back to DAS.
We were not offered any refund from the company and I suspect that much of the cost of getting us back fell onto our driver (not the company we had paid $400USD EACH to). Both these point I find unprofessional and unacceptable. Only when we demanded did the company offer us a 'free' taxi back to the airport the next day'.
So all in all our experience was tainted (but not completely ruined) by poor quality transport provided by an expensive safari provider!
I hope the driver was not punished for the mishap (I suspect he was).
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best part of safari is the guide
I compared about 10 different safari operators and I picked Siku Njema because of Benson's willingness to work closely with me to plan a customized safari. Each time I sent a list of questions he carefully answered each one and this made me feel comfortable as we developed a plan. In addition to seeing Amboseli, Tsavo East and Tsavo West national parks, Benson added the following based on my personal interests: Masai Village, Kinondo village, primary school and sacred forrest, David Sheldwick elephant orphanage and drive through Mombasa. In addition to learning about the animals of East Africa, I wanted to learn about the people. I'm glad I chose a Kenyan guide who could translate Swahili and who could also engage deeply in conversation about our similarities and differences. Additionally, we lost our luggage and Bencon took us shopping to replace what we lost and worked every day toward recovering it for us. He just took care of us, whatever the need. I found this safari to be the most competitively priced while still staying in comfortable accommodations and I believe we got much more out of this experience than we would have if we had gone with a larger, more expensive tour operator. I added an extra person to the safari at the last minute and Benson was willing to make that happen at an extremely reasonable rate. It felt great to support someone who is self-made and had the courage to start his own small business. The smallness provided the flexibility we needed to truly make this experience our own. I can't imagine a safari without Benson leading the way.
NL
A great experience again !
This trip was again a great experience with Tailor Made Safaris. The accomodations, vehicle, safaris and guides of Tailor Made were well organised again. We visited Drakensbergen, Ithala, Mkuze, St. Lucia, Hluhluwe and Kruger National Park. In Thendele Camp - Drakensbergen and Ntshondwe – Ithala the view from our lodge was incredible. The whole journey we have seen a lot of wild animals and birds. The service is excellent. It is realy a tailor made safari !