US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
We just returned from a wonderful 2 week trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe/Zambia.
Safari Online planned the major portion of our trip for us. Walter Kohrs is great person to work with! Safari Online is based in Cape Town, and Walter obviously knows the safari and southern Africa tourism business well. He listened to what we wanted, came up with great suggestions, and was very willing to modify plans when requested. He responded promptly to all emails, answered every question, and was very straightforward about the financials.. The trip more than met our expectations. If we are ever fortunate enough to return to southern Africa, I would contact Safari Online without question. We highly recommend this company.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Wonderland Tours was wonderful
I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows that Wonderland Tours was wonderful. My wife, our 10 year old son and I just came from a 6 days safari in Tanzania; the trip was a one in a life time vacation.
Everything was perfect with Wonderland Tours
My wife and I did the 10 days trip to Tanzania and Zanzibar for our honeymoon. We spoke to 10 difference safari companies that did tours in Tanzania, but when we came across Wonderland Tours, we were immediately interested with their quick replies and reasonable price, so we finally decided to book through them Once we booked, we felt very confident that everything was going to perfect on our trip. We were absolutely right! Everything about the trip was absolutely incredible -- it exceeded all of our expectations. Everything was perfect: the hotels/lodges/tents were beyond our wildest dreams, the parks were magnificent.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Wonderland Tours is the best, we recommend it, highly.
Me & my family have just returned from a private trip to Ngorongoro and Zanzibar and used Wonderland Tours to book our tour. Vehicles were superb and our drivers were the best, especially safari driver was an expert driver always getting us to the small airports on time, helped us with our shopping, and when we needed medication for some itchy mosquito bites, he found it. I recommend this company to all.
fantastic
All was perfect and great. Peter can be trusted. See in tripadvisor for my full review.
SG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Worth Every Penny!
My best friend and I joined the 4 days safari tour (Lake Manyara, Serengeti & Ngorongoro). We are extremely happy with Sunny Safari. They are extremely professional and answered all our questions (very prompt reply - emails). When we reached Sunny Safari office at Arusha, we were greeted by Jesca. She helped out so much on arranging our lodging in Arusha and replied all our emails patiently (it was out 1st trip to Africa - we were quite nervous). The driver/ guide (Mr Abbas) was extremely helpful and showed us so many animals (we even saw cheetah, leapords and rhino). While our cook Marcel (Dr for the stomach - that was how he addressed himself) was really amazing. Who would have thought of sugar coated popcorn at a safari campsite? And not to mention the hot ginger tea. We really love it. If I have chance to go to Tanzania again, Sunny Safari will definitely be my choice. Thanks guys!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It was a wanderful tour
Me and my girlfriend did a 6 days camping group safari with WONDERLAND TOURS and it was wonderful. I reccomend this company to all.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Let down by easily fixable problems
We did a five-day, four-night budget (camping) safari with World Tours and Safari in December 2014, visiting Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara national parks.
Let’s start with the good:
1) this really is a budget safari – from our conversations with other travellers, you’re likely to pay $700-1000 more for a very similar itinerary with many other operators out of Arusha.
2) we saw a great many animals, and had some very exciting sightings – more lions than we could count, a leopard (!), a lion-buffalo showdown (the buffaloes won), lots and lots and lots of hippos, hyenas, jackals, owls, vultures, even rhinos in the far distance in the Ngorongoro crater (etc etc). The places we saw are jawdroppingly beautiful, and all in all, just being there is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
3) a couple of the (freshly cooked) meals were very tasty.
4) (though this is by chance) we had great company, getting on very well with the couple who were in the Land Rover with us – which made the trip so much better than it could have been.
HOWEVER:
1) While Richard’s communication had been fast and informative when we were booking our trip, he firstly made us change our initial leaving date, with a story of us joining what we suspect to be a fictional couple (since our eventual companions had been told exactly the same story) and secondly, he then changed our itinerary the day before the start of our safari. Make sure to check that you’re still spending the same amount of time in each park as initially agreed upon, and be firm about getting exact details. Also, when planning, stick to what you want, and when you want to leave.
2) Our guide and cook were both very nice and friendly men, who both appeared to be trying their best. However, their English was quite poor, which made communication and planning for the day difficult. Our driver did know a lot about the bush, and clearly loved (spotting) animals, but it took time and patience to draw it out of him, that you don’t always have, and he didn’t volunteer information very often. In other words, he was much more of a driver, than a guide. This led to frustration from both sides, and made some meal-times (when it is the custom that the guides always join the clients) quite awkward.
3) Our Land Rover was old, and stalled and overheated a number of times – the worst of which was for about 45 minutes, as it was getting dark, on the way to our third night’s camp.
4) The tents are very old. The worst however was the camping equipment, all of which was very old and dirty. The mattresses are okay, but the sleeping bags and pillows are downright disgusting. Bring your own!! We also really didn’t like that the guides had a much worse tent than us (!), and lower stools (which broke) rather than proper chairs. More (easily avoidable!) awkwardness.
5) As above, a few of the dinners and the one lunch that was freshly cooked was tasty enough. However, the packed lunches were all the same, and not very palatable (dry fried chicken for the third day in a row, anyone?). Take the menu on the website/in your itinerary with a very generous pinch of salt, and be prepared to bring your own snacks along to supplement meals, particularly fresh fruit, nuts etc.
To reiterate, we were on a budget safari, and the result was – the incredible scenery and wildlife aside! – a budget experience. What is disappointing though is that many of these things could be fixed quite easily, and at minimum cost (or perhaps by increasing rates only slightly). The cook needs a bit of training and some new ideas (make a chicken mayo sandwich on the third day! Add fresh tomatoes to your lunch menus!). And fresh safari uniforms for both men would also go a long way to make the operation look more professional. Give your customers and your guides a detailed itinerary for each day, and impress upon your guides that they need to stick to it as far as possible or communicate any changes to your customers. Fix your vehicles!
Weighing it up, we probably wouldn’t recommend World Tours and Safaris. Rather go on a shorter safari with a more expensive (and professional) operator.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Mara!
My 4-day trip to Mara was one of a kind and our driver Lenny was just the perfect guide of all time. Tayiai safaris arranged a trip for me and my 3 pals and we really enjoyed every bit of it; from game drives, to the accommodation to our knowledgeable guide. Thanks Tayiai for this trip!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience!!
We just returned from a 10 day trip through Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, the Serengeti, and Zanzibar which we worked with Maturaf at Regional Tours and Safari’s to set up. The trip was amazing! It exceeded all of our high expectations. We customized the trip substantially and Maturaf was extremely helpful throughout the process.
When we were planning we continually e-mailed Maturaf with changes, most of the time he’d respond within a day, which I think is good given our time zone differences. Occasionally he would need to confirm availability which could take longer, but he always came through. Once the trip was finalized we made a deposit through wire transfer, which can be a little nerve-racking for some, but after much independent research we were confident we were in good hands.
The e-mails slowed down after the deposit. It would have been nice to receive independent booking confirmations from our hotels/camps; however I don’t think that’s common practice for remote lodges which often have power by generator and some have no internet service (Serengeti). So don’t take the reduced communication as a bad sign; we did receive confirmation e-mails when they were available such as our flight from Arusha to Zanzibar.
Logistically everything went off perfect! They picked us up on time, meals were all included like listed in the itinerary, accommodations were just like we booked, and the safari vehicle was private, clean and in great shape. Absolutely 0 issues. Our itinerary noted that water would be included on the game drives; we asked before we left Arusha and were told otherwise, so we stopped at Nakumatt (supermarket) on the way out of Arusha and got some. We found that our hotels often provided water in the rooms which may have been what our itinerary was referencing. Either way we spent $5 and had more water than we knew what to do with.
We were very impressed with our Safari guide, Johnson Eliyuko was amazing! We were able to see every animal we wanted to, and then even more. In fact we saw so many lions we eventually just asked to continue driving on past some of them. In Zanzibar, Omar leads a few tours and did an awesome job showing us around.
I’ve recommended Regional Tours to several people already and will continue to recommend to anyone!