US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I cannot say enough positive things about E&H and Erasto: the best experience of my lifetime
Erasto and E&H were well prepared, well planned, fluent in my language, helpful, full of interesting information and stories to enhance the safari experience, polite, savvy, sophisticated, kind, skilled and always accommodating, nimble in adjusting to circumstances with the goal of making it better and better, and the best tour operator I've ever had. I'd do another tour with him any time!
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
it was just perfect efficient professional and kind
Everything was perfect ,we were upgraded to Rattley's .
The food was really good,the staff was great ,the accomodation wonderful
The safari was unforgottable
We jusy had a big problem with Fereral Airlines because we were late for the plane,they knew perfectly our arrival time and they pretented to wait for us...and they did not.
We were obliged to take a small plane for30000 dollars and ,they refuse to give us any amount of money back.
Andy Saidi did much more than his best but they refuse.With Andy we found someone very professinal ,caring about the customers just like if we belonged to his family.So I asked Andy to organise the trip of our son who is now flying to SA.
I must say that the organisation,the accomodations the itinery,alorsthe things he did for us was just PERFECT!!
he was so nice and helpful that even with our bad experience(and expensive!!) with Federal Airlines ,the memory of this trip is great !!Thanks to him!!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The incredible experience of East Africa
For going on a first time safari, I thank Enchorro Tours and Safari team, especially Japhet for answering my many questions before the Safari and making the trip a success by helping us meeting our expectations.
Our guide, Mike was full of knowledge and answered any questions we had about anything. It was incredible to listen to Mike explain what a certain animal is about to do and then watch the animal do just that. For example, Mike would explain that a male and female lion would mate every 30 minutes (up to 70 times a day) when the female is on heat for around 4 days. He also explained that the female is the one that has to initiate it and sure enough, it happened exactly as he had said.
Mike would drive us into the best position in order for us to take amazing photos and was so careful on the road, one time hitting his brakes so he wouldn’t run over a baby turtle.
We chose the luxury camping, which was glamping and this was truly amazing. The tents were incredible, every night as we were out for dinner, they would put chocolates on our pillows and hot water bottles in our beds. As we opened the tent in the morning, the hippos were in the river and there were giraffes on the other side of the river.
It was a really magical experience.
They really define adventure...!
I would recommend this company to anyone planning to visit East Africa.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing safari honeymoon
We chose to spend our honeymoon in Tanzania, booked with Simon at Mwema Safaris, and it was amazing.
Simon was always on hand throughout the planning and budgeting stages to help with recommendations on where to stay and what to see and do. He was able to offer various accommodation options, according to our budget, and we opted to stay mid-range rather than go to budget or 5* extremes, and we were very happy with our choices. Simon arranged all our transfers, accommodation, meals, park entries and we had an internal flight.
We opted to do a 4-day private safari and visited Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara (we are sociable people, but would totally recommend a private safari so you don't have any other group members to worry about!).
Our guide was aptly named Goodluck, and he was very friendly and knowledgable about the areas we were visiting and the animals - he was definitely our good luck mascot, as we were lucky enough to see 4 out of the Big 5 (no leopards in sight, but we did see tree-climbing lions, which was pretty awesome!).
We would definitely recommend Mwema Safaris and hope to be able to return and book with them again.
Thank you Mwema for making our honeymoon memorable!
BG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They made me very happy :)
I (a girl) went by myself on my first safari in Africa. Expectedly, I was very worried in terms of safety. Thanks to Grassrootz and my tour guide David, I felt very safe the whole time. Uganda's people are very nice - always smiling and welcoming.
The communication and organization of the trip was easy and quick (we did all in 2 weeks). The whole trip went very smooth and David was punctual the whole time (European punctual). He is a safe driver and I felt very calm and comfortable in the car. He was spotting animals quite well while driving even out of the parks.
All of the lodges were great (I went for mid-range, mostly tented eco camps). Please, note they are in the middle of nowhere so there is only solar power for charging batteries and water is scarce. But this way you feel and appreciate where you are even more. Food was provided by the lodges and it was plenty (not the most delicious but okay and they were trying their best).
During the 7 day trip in Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi and Lake Mburo, we saw:
*Mountain Gorillas (my main purpose of the safari)
*Baboons
*Colobus monkeys
*Blue monkeys
*Chimpanzees
*Grey-cheeked Mangabey
*Red-tailed monkeys
*Vervet monkeys
*Lions (twice - once on a cactus and once on trees)
*Elephants
*Uganda Kobs
*Warthogs (Pumbaa) - they are so funny
*Giant Hogs
*Red-river Hogs
*Waterbucks
*Bushbucks in two parks
*Eland antelopes
*Impalas
*Topis
*Buffalos
*Giraffes
*Zebras
*Nile Crocodiles
*Three-horned chameleon
*Mangoose
*Hippopotamus
*lots of pretty and ugly birds of all sizes
Probably I am forgetting something...
We didn't find hyenas and leopards but nature is not a zoo so it is due to luck sometimes (David tried really hard to find leopards for me). Actually none of the tourist I met have seen leopard, and just one saw hyenas on the road.
I highly recommend Grassrootz. Just be very clear what you want and expect and they will make it happen. I'm glad David was my tour guide and now I would say my friend.
SA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect organization
Thank you Diana about your arrangement
Every things was excellent and the price was good.
I very like the trip in Kenya and Tanzania with you.
Also the drivers were nice and cooperatives
I will come back again also i will send my friends to you to arrange a plan to them.
I appreciate your arrangement and it was perfect
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An unforgettable experience!
Booking the two days safari in Mikumi Park with Hello Tanzania was the best investment I did in my short vacations to Tanzania. I've decided to do the safari suddenly, only had time to do it the following day and I was travelling solo. All this little troubles didn't mind to Mwajabu. She made it happen!
She listened to me and answered all my questions and doubts, waited for me to decide and organized me a perfect 2 days Safari. The driver I had was very professional, my Safari guide incredible (I've learnt a lot about animals!!!) and Camp Bastian (where I slept and had dinner) was above expectations: location, staff, commodities were just perfect and the food was delicious.
I would recommend Hello Tanzania to everybody that are looking for an amazing experience and friendly service.
IE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A flawlessly organised trip for our group of 9
We used Etrip for our 6 day trip (9 adults total - extended family and significant others). We looked at a number of companies but ultimately chose Etrip due to their useful advice on tailoring our trip and the detailed price breakdown they provided which gave us a lot of comfort on the price we were paying.
We were coming from Zanzibar and wanted to squeeze as much as possible out of our time in Tanzania so on Aurelie's suggestion we flew to Seronora airstrip. While not cheap this proved an inspired decision as it avoided the need to retrace our steps and meant we saw something new every single day.
We were met at the airport by our guides David and Aladdin who were with us for the full six days from the Serengeti through ngorongoro, lake manyara and Tarangire. I'm not sure I could appropriately describe the quality of these two gentlemen. David was our guide (we had two jeeps) and was a wonderful companion on our trip. David had endless knowledge of the areas we visited and the behaviour of the animals. Time and again he found interesting experiences for us to enjoy and we never felt rushed. He is a very gentle soul who clearly is very popular with the other guides as he was met with smiles everywhere he went. Your guide is in my view the most important part of your trip (you'll ultimately spend almost every waking hour with them!) and Etrip have two very special ones here.
Vehicles were excellent. Given the hard life they live in the Tanzanian "roads" having new well maintained vehicles is essential and etrips stacked up extremely well (we saw the vehicles of almost every company and these were right at the top end).
Accommodation was solid throughout and we had no complaints. Although for anyone planning a safari I would say that in hindsight, I would rank accommodation as a lower priority. The high end camps are lovely but when you're out all the day you only get a very limited chance to enjoy them. Therefore if you want to manage your budget, I'd still recommend putting the money into a quality tour guide / operator like Etrip and maybe downgrade the accommodation.
We were flying out from Kilimanjaro airport at 2 o'clock on our final day. Helpfully Etrip offered us access to their hotel guesthouse in Arusha to shower, rest and eat before our flight. Our group found this to be a lifesaver (it's no fun getting on a 12 hour flight sweaty and hungry after a day's safari!). For anyone flying out of JRO airport, I'd rank this as a huge advantage.
One last thing I should comment on is the company's lack of presence on TripAdvisor. This originally caused us a lot of concern. Sending a large deposit is nerve wracking when the recipient isn't on the worlds standard (for better or worse) review site. While I wouldn't necessarily agree with their approach from a business point of view, their rationale is explained on the company's website. All I can say is that our experience with them was uniformly excellent. Guides, transport, logistics and accommodation were top notch and I would strongly recommend and will be travelling with them again.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent treatment. Totally recommended
Our experience with this travel agency was perfect. Andy attended my requests very quickly and helped me in everything I needed. I recommend them 100%
CO
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This safari was absolutly wonderful, easy and well planning
It was very easy and clear to programme the tour and to pay for it from our country. The information that the company brought us was precise. All the plan was fulfilled. The places for lodging were confortable with variety of well done food. It got over our expectations. The driver-tour guide was very solicituos. Because of his knowledge of the places, we could see many animals, including the big five, in only three days. We enjoyed this tour as one of the best in our traveling experience.