US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Service, perfect organization!
We organized the safari tour with the Hoedspruit office (South African Dream Tours), and we could not be more pleased!
Excellent offers, service, price. And more than that we appreciated the effort and willingness to customize the tour for us, attention to the details, the kindness and courtesy. 5 stars : )
HU
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tanzania - One of the jewels of the Earth
At the beginning of July 2022, we took part in a four-day safari organized by the Safari Soles Tours office.
We discussed everything by email months before the trip and got exactly what we agreed on.
During our trip we visited Tarangire National Park, Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. The safari was a shared budget tour, but we got maximum experiences for reasonable costs. Our guide took us through the various locations in a professional manner. We saw all the big game except the extremely rare rhinoceros. Our chef prepared delicious meals for us, and during the tour we received not only water, but also beer and soft drinks. We slept in tents for two nights. It was exciting to see the animals walking around the tents. Our car broke down on the way to Serengeti, but they quickly helped us out and we continued with another car.
We became good friends with our travel companions during the safari, and after the tour we relaxed with them in Zanzibar.
We experienced one of the greatest adventures of our lives in the National Parks of Tanzania, thanks to the help of SafariBookings and Safari Soles Tours.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful Short Holiday
We only had 4 days of holiday and from the point of pick up from the airport till our transfer back to the airport, it was simply wonderful. Well planned and organized with attention to detail. We will certainly have Big5 plan our next holiday with family.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Spectacular country in so many ways - amazing variety, wildlife, and people
We spent 3 weeks in Tanzania, starting with a week of diving in Zanzibar, moving next to a weeklong safari out of Arusha, and finishing with a multi-day climb to the summit of Mount Meru. The variety of experiences that Tanzania offers is truly remarkable. The beaches, the diving, and the culture in Zanzibar are rich and beautiful. And the highland experience out of Arusha is lush, wild, and high-elevation all within 200kms. It was warm at the beach and cool in Arusha.
We saw amazing wildlife in our safari which took us to Tarangire, Ngorongoro, and both the Central and Northern Serengeti. We saw loads of wildlife, including the great migration crossing the Mara river in the north and a pair of cheetahs rocketing out of the tall grass to make a kill right in front of our safari jeep.
And if you like climbing and are looking for a unique, high elevation experience, check out Mount Meru. It clocks in at just over 4500m and is an amazing 3 or 4 day supported non-technical climb. Where else can you see giraffe and warthogs on an alpine ascent?
The people throughout were friendly, helpful, and genuine. It’s a place to slow down and savor.
In Zanzibar we dove in Matemwe with Eagle Ray divers which is a locally run shop that does dives out on Mnemba atoll. And in Arusha we worked with Safari Soles who booked our safari with Freddy and our climb of Meru with Sam and Eli. All were fantastic and I’d highly recommend them all.
IL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience.
In Tanzania the safari feels like a trip inside a National Geographic movie, very nice people, breathtaking views. amazing experience. We traveled with a guide from the Lion King company, Emanuel, who was a charming, smart man, knew how to find the hidden animals, told us a lot about them and made sure to make our trip perfect. Staying in the tents in the Serengeti was also a wonderful experience, something we will remember forever.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Knowledgeable Company, Wonderful Staff = Magnificent Safari
In July 2014 my husband, two very good friends and myself left Milwaukee WI for an adventure of a lifetime in Tanzania/Zanzibar Africa. We began our planning process in January 2014 developing our itinerary and sketching out the places that we wanted to stay. We then submitted our itinerary to approximately 20 tour companies. During the process of elimination we considered a number of important factors, responsiveness to our endless questions and changes, suggestions for improvement to our itinerary, our confidence regarding the tour operator to deliver on its promises, the quality of their equipment, the experience of their personnel and price.
Easy Travel & Tours won our business by meeting or exceeding these criteria. After our decision to engage Easy Travel as our TO our relationship continued to grow and develop through ongoing communication via email and Skype. We met personally with Musaddiq Gulamhussein, Director of Sales and Marketing on our first day in Tanzania. He reviewed our itinerary with us again and took care of any last minute changes or concerns that we had, assuring us that he would look into a couple of issues and communicate with our tour guide, Emmilian Matay during our safari. We were soon to learn that Emmilian, a seventeen-year veteran, was one of the best guides in the business. Musaddiq told us to trust Emmilian, advice that would prove to be monumentally valuable throughout our trip. Musaddiq also told us to have patience, which also proved to be good advice.
Our itinerary was as follows:
July 25, Arrive Kilimanjaro International Airport
July 26, Arusha National Park
July 27, Tarangire National Park
July 28, Tarangire National Park
July 29, Depart to Mto wa Mbu visit and Masai Village visit
July 30, Lake Manyara National Park
July 31, Lake Manyara National Park - travel to Ngorongoro Crater
August 1, Ngorongoro Crater
August 2, Travel to Serengeti stopping in Olduvai Gorge and shifting sands in transit
August 3, Southern Serengeti
August 4, Southern Serengeti
August 5, Travel to Northern Serengeti
August 6, Northern Serengeti
August 7, Northern Serengeti
August 8, Fly to Zanzibar
August 9, Zanzibar
August 10, Zanzibar
August 11, Travel home
We would not have changed any of the itinerary as planned. We thought the time at each location was just right and that our travel plans from one park to another was well timed with one exception, the travel day from Ngorongoro Crater to the Serengeti. We had to leave the Crater before the time we checked in 48 hours earlier or Easy Travel would be charged another whole day park fee. That meant we were in a hurry until we checked into Serengeti National Park. It was the most difficult travel day, with roads being what they are in Tanzania. It also meant that we did not have enough time in the Olduvai Gorge. However we did briefly stop at the Shifting Sands, which were mystical! If we were to do it again we would have adjusted our starting time with Emmilian.
The key to a superior African Safari is your guide and Emmilian gave us a magnificent experience. He was able to position us to see tens of thousands of wildebeests, many elephants, zebras, giraffes, cape buffalos, hippos, baboons, lions, crocodiles and hyenas, ten cheetahs, six rhinos and three leopards. In addition we saw hundreds of bird species and other small mammals. We were able to see a cheetah killing a Thompson gazelle and witnessed other kills such as lions eating wildebeest, zebras and impalas, a leopard eating his prey in a tree, cheetah and her cub eating an impala and a pack of hyenas eating a cape buffalo. We also saw zebra, hippos and wildebeest mothers nursing their young and a hyena carrying a hyena cub.
Two highlights, for us, were seeing not one but six rhinos and to see the great migration of the wildebeest over the Maru River. We could not believe our luck in seeing a black rhino in the Ngorongoro crater. Our guide knew the park rangers in the crater and asked them if there had been any rare sightings of the rhinos in the area (there are only 35 rhinos left in the crater due to poaching). The rangers were able to point us in the right direction and were lucky enough to have a rhino come very close to our vehicle. We also saw a mother and baby white rhino in the northern Serengeti and finally we saw another mother, baby and male rhino in the Northern Serengeti. These last two sightings we were totally alone with no other vehicles around. We were often the only one witnessing an event because, I believe, of the experience and patience of our guide Emmilian.
Musaddiq Gulamhussein, Director of Sales and Operations warned us that we had probably missed the Great Migration at our meeting with him in Arusha. While we had planned our trip around the "typical" migration season nobody notified the wildebeest of our desire to see them migrate. We were told that the migration had started in late June so there was probably no chance we were going to see this epic event. Emmilian thought this too but we waited by the Mara River one morning for three hours and by gosh we witnessed a crossing! What a thrill. Then after a lunch and potty break we returned to the river and saw another crossing. We couldn't believe it!
As most Americans, we thought we knew best when we arrived in Africa, when we left we knew that you should listen to your guide's advice, be patient and remain flexible. Emmilian used every resource he had available to him, his intelligence, knowledge of the terrain and animals, his relationships and communication skills, to provide us with the best trip we could have ever imagined.
We found, especially, in the Serengeti that one early morning game drive, starting at dawn to about a two pm was better than two game drives, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Through this arrangement we were able to cut down on travel times and increase safari time. An added bonus, the animals were more active in the mornings.
While I won't list all of the accommodations we chose here, we were either very satisfied or generally satisfied with them all. There were restrictions on electricity, hot water and heat in most places, but you adjusted. Some accommodations were pretty remote to our daily game drive destination, however, we would not have seen the mother and baby rhinos and a leopard close up if we had stayed at other places.
We were sad to say goodbye to Emmilian at the end of our safari. We were glad that we had made arrangements to fly to Zanzibar from the Kogatende airstrip through Arusha. Some of our fellow travelers faced a difficult two-day trip by vehicle back to Arusha. After taking the roads to our final destination in the Serengeti in bits and pieces it was not at all appealing to think about experiencing those roads again in a two-day marathon.
Easy Travel arranged for our tour guide, Zamir, to pick us up at the airport and transport us to our accommodations in Stone Town. During our planning some, in our party, wanted to skip Zanzibar and Stone Town, we were glad we didn't. It is so culturally different than Tanzania it is hard to believe that they are the same country. While you can arrange to stay in a resort type hotel we were happy that we decided to stay at the Kisiwa House in Stone Town. We took advantage of eating in some great diverse restaurants for the two nights we were in Stone Town. On the first day in Zanzibar we arranged for a day of sailing and snorkeling in the Indian Ocean! What a contrast to our safari. The second day, we had an extensive tour of a spice farm and Stone Town. Learned a lot about the tragic slave trade that sold the African people to eastern countries. We visited a local market and walked many miles through Stone town.
To wrap up, we would highly recommend Easy Travel for your African Safari for the excellent staff, knowledge guides, reliable and comfortable equipment, superior coordination of all aspects of our safari, exceptional communication and reasonable pricing.
P.S. In the middle of our trip i was notified that my brother had suddenly died. Emmilian did everything he could to help me get in touch with my family and was personally very supportive. Musaddiq was ready to help us make arrangements to get us back to the States. We felt a real genuine out pouring of sympathy from the people of this company. One more reason to engage Easy Travel for your Tanzania safari.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing
Welcoming. Beautifull, pleasant, We enjoy the safari to Masai Mara, lake nakuru.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing!!!
Trevor our guide from Elephant Herd Tours was amazing!! He had terrific high energy from start to finish!! 10 stars!!! We saw the big 5 and had so much fun spotting all of the animals!! Highly recommend!!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Hwange National Park by BiJian Fan
Hwange NP has a landscape of typical African savanna, it is rather easy to find animals at the waterholes in dry season.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A great safari tour in only 5 days
We heard about Tailor Made Safaris from our dutch friends who live in Kaapstad, they told us the had great experience with them, and so did we. Their name "Tailor Made", the every right to use it. We only had 5 days, but they made it possible for us to have a great time. From the time the picked us up at they airport until they the dropped us there again. We had the privilege to have a privat guide, which was perfect for a first time safari. We spent 2 nights in the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park, which was unique and we spent 2 nights in St. Lucia, at a very nice guest house. I can recommend everybody to book their Safari with "Tailor made Safaris" because they do what they promise and wil make your stay unforgettable!