NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A great 3 weeks of birding and nature exploring
What a great trip did we have!
Communication before the trip was great, very nice and friendly people and proper English most of the time.
Paul himself was our guide and responded before the trip on every email quite fast after sending it. In the field when we were out he probably did the same; great for his new customers but a little less great for us at that time. My advise would be to try to do this when you're not out with clients.
Paul is a great guy, he has good knowledge about the wildlife, the areas (he knows Uganda by head) and especially about the birds, although there is still room for improvements eg. when waders and swifts concerned. A lot of bird calls remain very difficult but I can't blame him because it is quite difficult indeed. I think we might have missed some species because of that but you can't know them all. On a number of occasions we were accompanied by some great guides who were a nice addition.
I think we really did not o.k. at Semliki birdwise; we missed too many birds so you might be more clearer to future clients only 10 to 15% of the birds mentioned are likely to be seen (in 1 or 1,5 days of birding). But luckily we did see some good birds and I appreciate the persistance Paul showed from time to time to find some good birds for us!
We had a really good car, we had no troubles with it whatsoever and Paul was always willing to put the rooftop up. He's a very careful driver and doesn't take any unneccesary risks. He knows how to handle the car when we wanted to take photographs and he is very friendly to fellow traffic users.
His equipment is o.k. and his eyes are really great; he sometimes saw more details with his bins then we did with our swaro's. Sharp eye!
When you're a hardcore birder with the aim to see as much birds as possible (no matter what) you should hire Paul together with Raymond (the royal Mile), Roger or Gordon (to name a few)... that's a combination which is great!
At the end we had a fantastic birding trip with a lot of nice mammals on the side. We saw 520+ bird species which is a good number in November I think. I'll have to come back in July to try to see some Broadbills, Antpitta and Semliki goodies. I definately recommend Paul and Terrain Safaris and probably hire them myself as well. Thank you Paul and Terrain Safaris for this wonderful experience! I wish you all the best!
Vincent
The Netherlands
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
GREAT AGENCY.
We had great time on our one week tour to Tanzania. Dahlia Team did an amazing job in organizing our tour at very high level. Hotels were perfect. Our driver was very informative and entertaining. Our guide Godfray was the best guide we have ever met. He was very funny and a great photographer. He took beautiful pictures for us. Local village trip was different experience. There were no issues happened during our 7days.Everything went smoothly and we had a wonderful trip. We strongly recommend this safari organizer.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Trip to Mbala, Zambia for Centenary Ceremony for the end of World War I in Africa
Our trip to Mbala was for five days with the principal event being the 25 November 2018 Ceremony marking the Centenary of the World War I surrender of German East African forces to British Forces which took place on 25 November 1918. We also visited other significant locations in Zambia’s Northern Province.
Our tour guide and driver was James Tembo from African Vacations. We left Lusaka at 4:30 am to avoid the traffic and headed north, reaching Kasama that night. We visited the Lettow Vorbeck (the German Commander during the War) Memorial on the way.
Day two and we visited the Chishimba Falls which are amazing, then headed north to Mpulungu on Lake Tanganyika where we visited the port (hum ho) then the old stone church (very interesting). Unfortunately, the accommodation in Mbala that night was not satisfactory, however we endured it with some sympathy for James who had been badly let down by the Lodge owner.
Day three was the Centenary Ceremony which was fascinating. All appeared to be chaos shortly before the Ceremony, but somehow they managed to pull together an impressive event with the Zambian President, Ambassadors, Generals and von Lettow-Vorbeck’s grandson all laying wreaths at the Mbala memorial. In the afternoon we visited the old jail (which needs work), the pioneer cemetery (interesting), and Mbala’s Museum (very impressive). There is a surprising amount to see in Mbala, but you need to know where to look.
Day four and we headed north to Kalambo Falls where a torrent of water falls 235 metres into the gorge below. An absolute must if you are in the area. We then headed south to Kapisha Hot Springs Lodge where we camped the night in the tents James had brought with him. Kapisha is definitely the place to stay in this area. We woke early for a swim in the hot spring then headed off to Shiwa House which is a grand English style country house and estate. Also a must see. James then drove us to home in Lusaka.
It was a great trip. We had no preconceived expectations, and the disappointing aspects of the trip were outweighed by the hidden gems we found. James did a good job organising then running the trip, and we’re sure he is now wiser for the experience.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Spectacular South Africa Honeymoon
We were blown away by ROAR Africa. The pre-trip communication for our honeymoon trip to South Africa was outstanding and included a custom app that included our itinerary and helpful information, such as tipping guidelines, clothing recommendations, etc. We were met at the Johannesburg airport and whisked through passport control (while watching others stand in queue). The Roar Africa guide in Cape Town became a good friend. The resorts - Cape View Clifton in Cape Town; La Residence in Wine Country and Mikanyi Private Game Reserve in greater Kruger were all totally over the top. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend ROAR Africa to anyone contemplating a luxury trip to Africa.
AT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Cycads and especially the tour guide ASHADU are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On our 2 weeks tour all our expectations were exceedet, because Ashad was an excellent guide and safe driver and he took care of us like a father! He was always in time, friendly and he never got tired of informing us about everything we wanted to know and making game drives several times a day and he always made the best places on our boat trips!
(Steven, the guide on our very last day was also very nice!)
All of the lodges were great, the food was excellent and everybody spoiled us!
So thumbs up for Cycad/Thürmer Tours (Germany) and ASHAD!
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
wonderfull!!!
is low cost safari, so you cann't wait a confortable room or luxury meals, but safari was great!! the most important thing are the animals, and see lot of them
FI
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari trip tuo Masai Mara was amasing. Hole trip was very good organized and we were very pleased.
Trip was very good organized. We have very good young man as a quide. Althought it was a budget trip, accommodation in Mara Lenchada Tourist camp was good. All our expectations was good.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Cheap price but overall a pretty average, stressful experience
We had a very mixed experience on our 11 day Kenya/Tanzania safari. We booked with Explore Africa Holidays but never met anyone from that company – seems to be another trading name for Baboon Budget Safaris. In Tanzania they contract out to 7 Wonders Safaris.
Pros:
- Overall we had a great time - got to all the parks we had planned and saw incredible wildlife. All the Big 5 in both Kenya and Tanzania; views of elephant families in front of Kilimanjaro a definite highlight at Amboseli!
- One of our guides in Kenya was fantastic – Isaac. He was from a different company called Jocky Safaris that we’d been handed over to for the day
- We really appreciated the opportunity to stay at Masaai-run camps in Kenya & chat with the guys working there (Miti Mingi Eco Camp & Kimana Amboseli Camp)
- In Tanzania the camps were extremely basic (more below) but on the plus side was really cool to stay right inside/very near the national parks, with visits from elephants, hyenas and zebras in the night
- Kenya/Tanzania border crossing was managed pretty smoothly, though communication could have been better. We just trusted the random people who presented themselves to us which might be stressful if travelling by yourself.
- Price is very cheap compared to other operators
Cons:
- In Kenya we had 2 different guides for the 3 parks we visited (Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru & Amboseli), plus another driver at various points. This meant changing vans every single day and a lot of time spent on logistics that often felt very disorganised. On our third day we waited 2.5 hours for our pick up to go to Lake Nakuru. We hadn’t expected to be with a different group and different guide almost every day and ended up feeling like cargo being passed around impersonally. The constant change made it hard to relax into the trip as we were never quite sure who we’d be passed to next, what our group would be like, if we were going to miss out on something we’d planned to do.
- For the third Kenyan park we were placed in a car that wasn’t a safari vehicle. The windows didn’t wind down and were tinted so it was completely unsuitable for game drives (I’m not a tall person and would have had to sit on cushions to see out! :-)) When we asked about this it was resolved and we were able to do the game drive with another company (Isaac with Jocky), which we appreciated.
- Our first guide in Kenya, Josef, didn’t volunteer any information on our first game drive and talked the group out of doing an early morning game drive in Masai Mara on the main day there. Thumbs down.
- We were told we’d be met off the bus in Arusha and dropped off at our hotel however the person (Sayid) didn’t show up. Luckily the lovely bus driver seemed familiar with 7 Wonders way of (not) doing things and dropped us at their office. There we were quickly briefed by the manager of 7 Wonders, Evelyn, who informed us of multiple changes to our itinerary including a different Arusha hotel (Stereo – absolutely fine), reversing the order of parks and a different campsite for Ngorongoro. When I asked why we hadn’t been met off the bus as arranged Evelyn dismissively said she didn’t know anything about it. Very poor first impression.
- In Tanzania we again had 2 different guides for the 3 parks we visited but much less chopping and changing. Had one of the guides for 3 days in a row, Florian.
- During the whole time with Florian we felt there was a lot of cutting corners and general lack of service/professionalism. To his credit he made sure we saw lots of amazing animals in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater and was mostly happy to answer questions when we asked. However the biggest negative for us was that he rushed through every single game drive – our group was always first back to camp (by an hour or more), a couple of times we saw male lions or elephants he told us there was no time to stop, but each time we passed through a park gate we had to wait 45-60 minutes (we could see there were no queues at the ticket offices; we suspected it was to make it seem we’d spent longer at each park than the actual allotted 24 hours). Florian and the chef Ibrahim also spent a fair amount of their free time flirting with the one single woman in our group.
- The Land Cruiser safari vehicles in Tanzania were far more comfortable that the converted Toyota vans used in Kenya, however on our second last day the safari vehicle stalled on the steep road out of Ngorongoro, we had an uncomfortable 10 minutes while Florian tried to stop it rolling backwards and get it started again. Luckily another vehicle came along and gave our group of 6 a ride to the top while Florian drove up ahead & park rangers had also arrived quickly. We imagine this is probably a common enough occurrence as the road out of Ngorongoro is very steep. Having said that, our guide didn’t seem very familiar with driving on mountain roads.
- The camps in Tanzania were not of an acceptable standard. We were fully aware we’d booked a budget safari and are not precious, but if you’ve paid for a tour we think basics like drinking water and toilet paper should be provided (or at the very least a heads up from the guide to remind everyone to stock up before leaving a town). We stayed at Jambo Lodge near Manyara, Pimbi in the Serengeti and Simba near Ngorongoro.
Couple of other pieces of info that might be helpful: in Kenya fixed camps are large canvas tents, often with a private bathroom at the back (though very basic we had decent mosquito nets in each place); in Tanzania camping is actual tents with bed rolls and sleeping bags, you are expected to help set up your own tent and the overall experience is fun. Food in Tanzania was much nicer than in Kenya (except for the lunches which were all pretty awful). Kenya/Tanzania border crossing: driven to Namanga, met at Immigration office & helped to navigate departure/entry process (very simple), directed to public bus which then drives you on to Arusha (we waited about an hour).
We hope this is useful information if you are thinking of booking with Explore Africa Holidays or Baboon Budget Safaris. Overall we had a fantastic time in terms of unbelievable wildlife but would not recommend either Kenyan safari company, and definitely wouldn’t recommend 7 Wonders. We completely understand this is a budget tour at budget prices, but for us it was still a fair amount of money to spend on 10/11 days of our trip and we felt that basic service was totally overlooked. If you can afford to spend a little more we think it’d be worth it to feel looked after, have one guide & one group for the duration of your safari, and generally be able to relax and fully enjoy the experience!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Custom Tour in Kilimanjaro Area
We had a series of day trips including one to Arusha National Park and one to Tarangire NP. The other two days involved more local activities, one in the Marangu area and one in the Lawate - Sanya Juu area. The weather curtailed a few of our anticipated activities, but what we did get to do was very enjoyable. The food was plentiful and delicious. Norbert was a great driver/guide to the two national parks.
Communications could have been a little better at times. That may have been partly due to our somewhat last-minute arrangement of our itinerary, or due to the fact that we were staying at the lodge of a friend of a friend, so we coordinated more often with that friend than with Brian himself.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Terrific experience!
Best trip of my life. Can't wait to get back! Was such a wonderful experience.