35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Knowledgable, friendly staff in uk
Staff were helpful and had travelled to Kenya so could answer questions and advise and were always good on email as I booked my trip at work. After making our payment we heard nothing more from Somak which was not a nice feeling especially as they a local UK Company it was almost as though we might change our mind if we spoke again!!! On arriving in Kenya we loved every minute
We stayed four nights at the Ashnil Mara Lodge and enjoyed every one of them. The whole experience from arriving and being driven from the airstrip to waking up in a four poster bed with a still warm hot water bottle at 6:30am for the game drive. We imagined it would be riding in terms of Somak churning people in and out of the camps however during the time we stayed we were relaxed and felt like the only ones there despit it being full for dinner one night.
Our guide/driver Edward who works for the lodge was very knowledgable of the area so made light work of the vast Mara when driving through the rivers to cross into Rhino or Cheetah territory. We saw 7 giraffe who lived just outside the gates of the camp and saw them in the mornings and evening on their way back home brilliant memories. 52 lions on the last count, a kill and many many young animals
Masai Mara is wonderful. The landscapes, the river and the wildlife. You definitely have to enjoy all these to visit and if you are lucky enough you will see wildlife as it should be. You feel bad being there wishing you could see it without intruding on their territory, seeing the animals behave naturally is amazing.
Lions fighting over territory, mating and hunting. Elephants are huge and yet graceful. There were so many babies we saw and it made us happy to know there is continuity in the great Masai Mara. We saw Zebra, Hyena, Ostrich, Giraffe and Warthogs and birds. It is a wonderful wonderful place
The food was excellent, fresh and tasty every time, with salads and veg options not repeated in the time we stayed. Authentic Kenyan food with spice just what you expect and need after the early starts
All the staff were very helpful and friendly and always interested in your day and had lots of stories to share with other guests
The tents are very spacious and the bathrooms clean and modern and still a tent!! Terrace in room 30 was great as we could see the river and baboons but not the Hippo, the best place to see these would be at reception although you can hear them all night and day, such a wonderful experience
Would have been 5 stars however they charge for wi-fi which is only on a few hours in the day and is very poor in signal. If you are going to offer a service and charge for it at least make sure it works as it should, having said this we would definitely go back as safari is not about the internet connection
I and my wife we booked our safari with Africa budget tour online in 2 month in advance and when
We arrave in kenya we got Mr. Fred the representative of Africa budge tour waiting for us in airport he breve us about our safari and we went to our hotel for night and in the morning we picked by driver guide for Africa budget tour he was Avery exprinced driver guide and safari it was very wonderfully and well came again for another safari next year I recommend to others
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Thank you Matoke Tours !!
We have enjoyed our 2 weeks trip through Uganda from the beginning to the end - it was perfect! We went home with memories of unforgetable moments and impressions!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Lake Nakuru and Bogoria, nice private Safari with a good, accommodating guide
The booking was very easy and Erik was very accommodating with our wishes. The safari-minivan is new and well maintained. We went to Lake Nakuru, where we were very lucky with seeing many animals - probably also thanks to Erik. He had binoculars in his car so we could see the rhinos close. He could anwere all our questions. We stayed in a very nice Hotel (Golden Palace Hotel) where we had a nice lunch buffet. But for dinner they gave us warmed up leftovers what was not so nice. Lake Bogoria was also very awesome with the flamingos and Erik did his best to show us the hot springs, too, but the road was under construction. For your next customers you could probably take sandwiches for the road for lunch since it is kind of far ;). Overall a very nice short trip. I would use sunsplashsafaris again!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great safari but the driver and car could have been better
I went on a three day Masai Mara trip and the Masai Mara is just awesome. But Tom, our guide: 1) had a pretty old minivan, what made it bumpy sometimes, 2) was distracted on the phone many times instead of looking out for animals and 3) everyone was promised a window seat but we were 9 people the last two days so the van was very crowded.
I know there are other more encouraged drivers with better cars at big time safaris. I would not recomend a safari with this guide (ok maybe he had a bad week... but still...)
HK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice safari, can catch all big five, accommodation and meal can be improve.
The guide are professinal, show us lots of animal as he can, also the big five. In general, the accommodation and meal can be improve, special the lunchbox when we need to take a long transportation, only biscuit, cake, banana.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
I have used Francis and his team for 12 years. Thousands of missionaries sent, IMPECABLE service.
I am 59 yeears old, a health care provider accustomed to excellence. Frate Tours ranks with the highest organization in all my life. NEVER have our missionaries complained about any aspect of their service. Safe, reliable service with immaculate vehicles. I can say that the goal of Frate Tours is to please the clients and offer the best service at reasonable cost. I have sent 3000 missionaires to Kenya and all have traveled with Frate Tours. I am available for questions. Steve James CRNA (ret) Kenyarelief.org. Alabama USA.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Phantastic Africa experience
This was my first trip to East Africa, as well as my first Safari trip. Knowing that travelling on your own and seeing all the amazing wildlife in Tansania is almost impossible to achieve, we have selected Kanuth as organizer, driver and tour guide.
He managed everything in a phantastic way and gave us furthermore insight into daily life in Africa. It was a groundbreaking experience which can hardly be achieved without such a passionate experience. Many thanks for that!
NL
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
It was amazing. Wonderfull land, nice people. Everything was great.
The service was very good. Nice lodges and the place from the lodges was perfect. Nice views. Good food.
We have a very nice and a good tourleader. Matoke Tours is a good touroperator.
Thanks for this nice trip.
CZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Uganda is an interesting safari destination but its wildlife is obviously under a great pressure
I think Uganda is not for someone who suppose to have just one East Africa safari tour in his/her life.
For such people Kenya/Tanzania are better options.
Uganda is about some special animal (shoebill, chimps, gorillas, other primates, birds) and special landscape (lakes, Virunga, Ruwenzori, a margin of Congo rainforest basin) targets.
We knew that, we are strongly oriented to wildlife but anyway - Uganda was a partial (with the focus on PARTIAL) disappointment.
When I was a child the classical Ugandan national parks like Murchison Falls and Queen Elisabeth were symbols of the African wildlife beauty. They are still here but obviously under a great poaching pressure and some parts of QE (esp. Ishasha sector) are simply dying ecosystems. Without any change in NP management Uganda can expect even further decrease of safari visitors.
There were also 2 and 1/2 disappointments with the activities which were expected to be the Uganda safari highlights:
* Disappointment 1 : chimpanzee trekking in Kibale - IMO this is a cheat from definition - this is no trekking but cca an hour of standing in a dark forest and staring at a chimpanzee back high and far in the trees. I can understand it is made as it is possible but with all the marketing and for the price (a half of the gorilla permit) ... ? But I do believe that for chimps is Kibale a good place to live. Which is a good message.
* Disappointment 2 : tree-climbing lions in Ishasha/QENP - we saw just one older cub which was seriously and repeatedly injured (the older injury from poacher snares, the fresh new injury - as we were told - made by an aggressive male lion ). Add the evening/night shooting at elephants (to keep them out of the crop fields) and the fact that one half (really) of Ishasha sector is completely burnt down. A depressive place.
* 1/2 of Disappointment : gorilla trekking in Bwindi - this is no cheat (compared with chimps trekking in Kibale), it is a real rainforest trekking crowned with gorillas observation from a close distance - we spent a half an hour with a female and cca 10-month-old baby (nice) and we could hear other group members (incl. silverback) in the undergrowth nearby. But when the female with her baby was leaving we were told by our leader guide we could not to continue in observation because of a wasp nest (it was really there but it was there all the time and could be easily bypassed when trying to follow gorillas which were apparently nearby). So we finished our session after a half an hour and returned to the base where we were waiting another half an hour until the "easy group" returned (we were the "medium group"). I suppose the gorilla trekking is no cheat from definition (as I suppose the chimps trekking in Kibale is) but we simply had a hard luck with our leader guide. You didn't travel so long distance and didn't spend so much money to skip a half of the activity for such a vague reason.
But there were also very good points in our Uganda safari tour :
* shoebill in Mabamba swamps
* rhinos trekking in Ziwa RS
* Nile delta boat cruise (private small boat)
* giant forest hogs close to Buffalo lodge/QE
* Kazinga channel boat cruise (private small boat)
* Golden monkey trekking in Mgahinga NP (by far best of the primate trekking)
* Lake Mulehe birding (private small boat)
* Lake Bunyonyi birding (private small boat)
* birding !!!
And the trip organization by Africa Adventure Vacations was excellent. The tour was discussed and planned with Robert and we were guided with Ceasar and Daphne. I can highly recommend all of them, the tour organization was simply great and we would like to thank them once more at this place.
To sum up - I'm far from being sure to visit Uganda again but if we do that we'll ask Africa Adventure Vacations (Robert, Ceasar, Daphne) to organize our trip again.