50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
All we hoped for and more.
Our Kenya holiday was everything we hoped for and more, thrilling fascinating breathtaking emotional and beautiful.
The thrills came from spotting the many different animals we were lucky enough to spot on our game drives and a visit to our lodges floodlit watering hole by a family of Elephants as we got ready for bed.
The Kenyan way of life was fascinating from the villagers earning a living by selling water and goods in the middle of the road to the crazy traffic zigzaging around the streets in both Nairobi and Mombasa.
The clear view of Mount Kilimanjaro from our tent at Kibo safari camp in Amboseli NP gave us breathtaking views as did the vast savanna plains of Tsavo west opening up in front of us as we entered the restaurant at Kiliguni lodge.
The sight of baby orphaned Elephants racing out of the forest to recieve giant bottles of milk from there handlers and several Lion cubs playfully wrestling with there mothers on the roadside in Tsavo East were both emotional spectacles.
The colourful floral grounds and white sands that were washed by the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean at Diani sea resort was a beautiful setting for our journey to end and
the final mention goes to our safari tour operator Transtrek safaris who made it all possible and there guide James who was an exceptional host.
If you are reading these reviews to decide if Kenya is a worthwhile place to visit, stop and book it now. It was an amazing experience.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
fantastic!
To say that it was a pleasure to work with Yvonne is an understatement. She handled the details of transfers and gave us personal attention and service. She worked with my budget and made our time at Victoria Falls relaxing, fun, and memorable. I am sure that I will be back in a few years. It's so nice to know that Yvonne can handle all the logistics.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Tamela
Nice stop on your way to Ngorongoro area. The lions and elephants are great to see.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Ngorongoro Crater by Tamela
To see the lions that rule the crater is incredible. We love this area and hiking around the area to the elephant caves as well.
SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great service and helpful
The travel arrangements and itinerary suggested by Laurette (Pembury Tours) was excellent. The communications & response from Laurette was always prompt. She is patient and resourceful too; ensuring that our travel plans (with 2 young kids in tow) was well organised. I left an expensive jacket at one of the accommodation lodge and Laurette made all the necessary arrangements for it to be returned. Well done indeed!!
Our stay at Lalibela Game Reserves was excellent and the safari guide (Andrew) was enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Our room was well adorned and all the meals were tasty too. The staff at Lalibela were courteous, friendly and thank you for making the trip a memorable one.
DE
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Ethiopia is awesome and allurung. The contry offers a varity on scenery and remarkable churches.
Our guides showed us their country from its best. I really enjoyed my trip to Ethiopia. The people were very frindly and did their best to show us the highlights of their contry. The trip was well organized and the guides gave us ample time to photograph the world famous churches of Lalibela and others and scenery. Some accomodations were better than other ,but that is normal on circle tours. Weather can not be influenced, but all in all the weather was not a disturbing factor.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Arusha National Park by Tamela
Too many other cars to enjoy the wildlife
A great adventure
It was very well arranged. The drivers were punctual and very polite. The driver guide at Arusha was very skilled and very highly knowledgeable; the information he shared on the animals and roads were very helpful and accurate. His English was commendable and his enthusiasm was contagious.
The lodging at Serengeti and Ngorongoro were very good, clean rooms, excellent services, good food, although better at Ngorongoro that at Serengeti. The people were very friendly, polite and very helpful. The only issue I had was with the quality of the lunch box food that Serena Serengeti offered us. The lunch box included a piece of chicken and a piece of bread, among other things. However, the chicken, which was the main meal for the two following days I spent there, was extremely dry, left over from the night before and totally inedible! For the good service they provided, that issue was a shame!
The car that we drove was very old and needed a few repairs, and even though it was a strong car, yet it broke the muffler on the way at Ngorongoro, and the driver left me at the information center for the hour it needed to be repaired.
Despite the above, I thought the trip was excellent, well organized and the guide did a very fine job.
Thank you for your efforts.
Regards,
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
excellent tour of Nairobi national park
I had a great experience with Africa travel waves. My driver/guide Tom was extremely knowledgeable about the animals and knew how to find them. Their pop-up roof Jeep was great, I had an awesome view of all the animals. Tom radioed with the other guides in the park and as a result we saw 4 lions, which was incredible. I can't recommend Africa travel waves highly enough. They were also more reasonably priced than the other options I researched.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Rwanda is a hidden gem for wildlife observation
Our group of three pretty active seniors (63 ,66, 72) were traveling to Rwanda to observe mountain gorillas and do a more traditional safari. Two of us were birders, so naturally we focused on avian creatures a lot, but saw plenty of other wildlife. We like to go to sub-saharan Africa in January or February, which is what they call the emerald season. This is the time between two rainy seasons, where plants are lush and blooming and plenty of water is available for animals to drink. It is considered "off season", because it is not the time the big migrations happen. But we were not interested in that. We like to see the African landscape alive and blooming as well and with a good guide and from a safari vehicle that sits quite high it was easy to see wildlife. And an additional plus of the emerald season is that it is cheaper.
It has not always been possible to travel to Rwanda safely, since they had gone through a horrific genocide in 1994. In the 100 days of slaughter almost one million people, mostly Tutsis, were killed by Hutus. But today, Rwanda is an amazing country and completely safe to travel. The country is re-building itself from the genocide and its destructions. Comfortable roads and infrastructure have been put in place in cities and throughout the country. Government support helps people plant crops and bring them to market. Health insurance for all makes medical care available for everyone. Environmental laws such as the ban of single use plastic bags in 2008 have been passed. As a result the streets of Rwanda are some of the cleanest I have seen anywhere. Rwandans live peacefully with each other no matter what their "ethnic" background. So we were happy to support with our tourist dollars a country that does such an amazing job with its recovery.
We went to two different regions in Rwanda. The first one was the Akagera National Park at the North-eastern end of the country. Our transport
by van from Kigali took about four hours of driving through the country and getting a sense of the people that live there. They seemed very content with their lives and were very friendly and welcoming towards visitors. We stayed at Magashi camp during our stay in this area. This camp was pretty new, I think only one or two years old, and very well run. The staff was super friendly and emanated a warmth that was very pleasant. The food was outstanding, and they paid close attention to some dietary restrictions (allergies) one of us had.
One huge advantage of the location of this camp is that it borders a lake that is inhabited by about 500 hippos. During the day they mostly come up and grunt, but at night they come out of the water and even walk in between the cabins to feed.
The cabins were luxurious and of course very clean and well kept. Because we traveled in the emerald season (low season), we had a safari vehicle that could seat 7 or 8 people easily all to ourselves. We also were able to have the same excellent guide for our entire stay. He knew that we were very interested in birds and geared his game drives towards that as well. We had a fantastic time observing not only lots of different species of birds, but also the big mammals like lions, giraffes, elephants, cape buffalos, hippos, zebras and of course lots of gazelles. Our guide drove us into the area where the Eastern Black Rhino Conservation program is enacted. It was wonderful to see those animals getting re-introduced into the wild.
What made Magashi camp really special for us was the fact that they also did safaris on the lake from one of their small boats. Again, we were just the three of us and the guide in the boat and drifted along the shores of the lake. We had really close views of lions, buffalos and Crocodiles that did not even seem to notice our boat drifting by. And then of course there were the hippos in the water and the birds flying in and out of the reeds. So, Magashi was definitely a place we would recommend for safaris.
After our stay in Akagera we travelled back to Kigali and then on to the North-western corner of Rwanda, to Volcanoes National Park. We stayed at Virunga Lodge, a very nice "old-school" lodge with very friendly staff. The morning wake up call and delivery of tea or coffee to the cabin was done by a staff person singing in front of the cabin door until we opened up to take possession of the goods delivered. We had a lovely young woman with an angelic voice and we loved being woken up by her. Though the lodge was about a 45 minute drive from the meeting point for the gorilla expedition, it was well worth the drive.
Volcanoes National Park is a high elevation mountain range, where 60% of all mountain gorillas live. Dian Fossey made the area famous when she did her studies there. Because of successful conservation programs the population of these primates is actually increasing. One of the driving engines of this conservation program is the large financial input of a tightly controlled visitation program. For a pretty steep price ($1000 per person), eight people can trek into the mountains with trackers, guides and porters to spend one hour observing a family of gorillas up close and personal. Depending on where the gorilla families are on a given day, the trekking can take anywhere from a couple of hours in the morning to a whole day. It can be a very easy excursion of the toughest thing you have aver done. It all depends on where the gorilla families are and whether they stay put.
Our gorilla family called Amahoro group had 22 members with two silverbacks present. When we reached them they were still warming up in the morning sun and munching on the local plants for breakfast. There was a tranquility and serenity emanating from them as they slowly stripped plants of their leaves. They were fully aware of our presence as we were standing in the open just a few feet away, but they seemed undisturbed by us. We watched them for a full hour, and that included not only their eating sessions, but also mothers moving past us with their babies on the back, or youngsters playing chasing games over our feet. It was an experience like not other.
The next day we ventured into the same region, but this time to see another primate species, the golden monkeys. This is an old world monkey species endemic to the high altitude forest of Volcanoes National Park. Our trackers and guides found a family of them within an hour walk up the forest. They feed largely on bamboo leaves and fruit. Unlike with he gorillas there was no tranquility at all with these creatures. They were a lively bunch leaping from bamboo branches, frolicking on the floor and munching incessantly on bamboo leaves and other plants. The young were very playful and inquisitive, often jumping around our feet. It was pure joy to observe them while being completely ignored.
So, to wrap it all up. We can definitely recommend Rwanda as a great place to travel and explore wildlife and culture. It feels good to support a country that has its priorities right and has so much to offer.