IE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful holiday in Zimbabwe
Jamela Africa took care of everything. From booking our seats on the Blue Train to flying home via SAA. The attention to detail was faultless as well as . We were comforted by the knowledge that no matter where we were they were always reachable if a problem arose.
Sheilagh has a great understanding of the African bush (having grown up in Rhodesia) and her love of wildlife is evident in the lodges she booked for our stay. We were well taken care of each step of the way. All the lodges were excellent value with great game viewing opportunities. Transfers between venues were comfortable and reliable in spite of the fact some of the roads have not been well maintained in certain areas. I look forward to returning to Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana in the very near future.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It was an overall fantastic experience, starting from the booking until stay and activities.
I had an excellent communication with the operator to find out what really will meet my expectations. Also the provided documents with all booking details and additional information were quite appetizing the future travel. At the lodge they offered a very warm welcome, fine accomodtion far out in the bush, good meals and service. The game drives with the well experienced tour-guides where really amazing, brilliant sightings and interesting information about flora and fauna. I can highly recomend it.
A Wonderful Experience
In April 2015 our daughter (we live in Australia) enjoyed a holiday in South Africa, the majority of which was organised by Wild Wings Safaris. On hearing of the enjoyment she experienced we decided to plan a similar holiday and also chose Wild Wings as our organising company.
We have just returned from our trip and cannot speak highly enough of the quality of organisation, support and service provided by Wild Wings. We dealt directly with Clare, whose attention to detail was faultless and ensured that we had a most enjoyable experience. The highlight of our trip was Kruger National Park where our guide Frank provided us with one of our most memorable holidays. We fully recommend Clare and the team at Wild Wings to anyone contemplating a South African holiday.
Pam & David Glover - Melbourne, Australia
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A 3 day safari through 3 national parks.
We were met by Foot Slopes' Gabriel upon arriving in Arusha. He was immediately warm and friendly, and very helpful. He gave freely of his time, even spending an evening out in town with my husband and myself and another couple. He helped us navigate the troublesome banking system, and advised us of a bus we could take on our way out of Arusha.
The 3 day safari was a little different than we expected, in that we were shuffled around into different groups with different drivers for each of the 3 days, however we understood that this was the most effective way to use drivers and vehicles to the maximum. We saw many animals and very much enjoyed the tour. The food was plentiful and dining with the large group of tourists in the evenings was very enjoyable.
US
Better than we dared to hope
A thoroughly magical experience - the best holiday we have ever had. We fell in love with Africa and the African people that we met.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fun local guide
Chacha is great. Good for a laugh, and very knowledgable about the tour. Highly recommend Chacha to anyone.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Extremely professional
I used Luciano Tours to book my day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana, Devils Pool High Tea at Vic Falls and Cheetah experience. My driver, Thomas, was extremely knowledgeable, an excellent driver and went out of his way to help me with any request, always on time - waited for me all day at the border and collected me after the High Tea on Livingstone Island, which I didn't expect. The other drivers who collected me through tours I organised through Luciano were always on time. I can only give a high recommendation to everyone to use them. I used Wild Horizons for one of my Horse safari bookings and was not impressed by them - they arrived late, took me for my ride at 10am instead of 9am consequently I finished in the heat of the day and would never use them again. I am sorry I didn't use Luciano Tours for my Horse Safari booking
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent experience!
I had a great experience with Northern Circuit Adventures. From beginning to end, Michael, Elias and Musa were professional, knowledgeable and fun. I did a group-join six-day camping tour to Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro and had a fantastic time. There was so much to see, so much to learn and it was the experience of a lifetime. Highly recommended!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The very best of the Kenyan tourism industry!
We organised through Charles at Afrikenya for 2 days of guiding in Lake Nakuru National Park. Before the trip I found Charles really nice to deal with and I was much more confident about this part of our trip than the Masai Mara safari we would be doing after it (booked with a different company).
Our guide, James (also goes by Jimmy) was really nice and friendly when we first met him and things only got better from there. James was determined to give us the best experience of Nakuru and found everything we wanted to see including Black and White Rhino, Lions and other rare sightings like striped hyena. He was respectful of the animals, he was interesting and engaging with some great stories and facts about the animals and most importantly he was a great person to spend a couple of days in a car with.
All of that would be enough for me to leave a 5star review, but our experience didn't end there. On the night of the first day of our safari we had it confirmed that our Masai Mara trip (with a different company) would not be going ahead - the company had most likely gone bankrupt and had taken our money and would not be giving us a safari. This was our honeymoon and a trip of a lifetime and I (the groom) had booked it and felt terrible.
The next morning as we told James what had happened he was straight on the phone to organise a different trip for us, so that we could still go. He then changed the original plan and arranged for him to stay on another night so that he could take us back to Nairobi. He took us straight to the company he had helped us to get on a tour with, we were able to pay for the safari with them and then he came with us to the Nairobi Central Police Station to report the incident with the other company.
I would be happy to never set foot in that police station again. Reporting a crime was like an interrogation and the police officer in charge clearly did not like the idea of helping mizumbas (white people - his words not ours). Without James' help and charm I'm confident we would never have come out of that station with a crime report (giving us some hope of claiming the money back). Honeymoon saved!
We experienced the worst of the Kenyan tourism industry but in James and Charles I can happily say we also experienced the absolute best!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Better than we could have ever imagined
We came across Beacon safaris while going through the Safaribookings website and decided to use them based on the multiple positive reviews the company had. I'm very glad we did. From the first email I sent, Robert was very responsive and very very helpful. It was our first trip to Kenya so we were very appreciative of his guidance and recommendations. All we had to then do was finalise and provide the confirmation and Robert organised everything for us. When we arrived in Kenya we were met by our safari guide John. It is very important that you have a good guide and John is one of the best. His manner, his knowledge and his humour were brilliant and our safari was made so much better because of him. All in all I highly recommend Beacon Safaris if you are thinking of visiting Kenya and I can guarantee that you will get excellent service. We loved it so much that we are already planning our next trip their and will be asking specifically for John as our guide.