50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Arid but beautiful.
As South Africans and having never visited the Northern Cape province of the country, my wife and I decided to take a trip which included the Augrabies Falls National Park. This turned out to be a good decision because the arid beauty is spectacular. Bearing in mind that this is not a game park as such, the "game" viewing is limited to smaller mammals such as the rock hyrax, baboons and a wide range of reptiles mainly in the form of lizards. So if you are looking for the big 5 this is not the park to visit. Birding is good if not spectacular, and many of the birds have become quite tame and can be viewed from quite close up. There are not many trees in the area so this is going to limit the potential for a wide variety of bird life. But this is not what you visit the Augrabies Falls National Park for. The main attractions are the falls and the spectacular scenery which is unique to the area. The falls are not huge but the raw power of the water surging through the canyon is a sight to behold. A very well built walkway is available to allow close access to the falls for most people. The walk is not very strenuous. The best time to visit the falls is at sunrise when the sun peeks over the horizon lighting up the spray and forming a spectacular rainbow. It is also quiet at this time of day and we had the falls to ourselves which was great because you want to be able to get the sound of the falls without noise around the place. A visit to Moon Rock, which is also in the park, is essential. This huge single rock can be climbed. The climb is quite strenuous but the views from the top are spectacular. Don't miss this. One of the advantages of the Northern Cape is all year round sunshine. It is unlikely that you will have an overcast, cold day regardless of the season. The accommodation is basic but comfortable and clean. The staff are extremely helpful and will go out of their way to make your stay a pleasant one. For a National Park with a difference Augrabies is a must visit.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great 12-day trip with Spot Kenya Safaris
My husband and I had a great 12-day private safari with Spot Kenya Safaris in January 2015. We flew into Nairobi and went to Lake Nakuru, Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha, Amboseli National Park, Tsavo West and Tsavo East, and then returned to Nairobi. The parks are amazing and you will not be disappointed! When we (hopefully) return in the future, we will try to go during the great wildebeest migration in August/September, as we heard that is even better!
We were very happy with Spot Kenya's responsiveness during the planning phase and its willingness to design a private safari based around our interests. We ultimately chose Spot Kenya because Geoffrey and the rest of its staff were very responsive, provided a competitive rate, and had good reviews online.
Our guide and driver, Harun, was friendly and professional. He knew lots about the animals and he seemed skilled at navigating the parks and the roads. He also was good at finding the animals and getting us up close to them. We especially appreciated that he was willing to take us to a few places in Nairobi on our final day, even though they were not on our original itinerary.
We loved the places we stayed in Masai Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo West, and Tsavo East. The other places we stayed were okay (fine but not as good as the others), and we conveyed our suggestions for changes to Spot Kenya after our trip. We liked the food everywhere we went, and, as a vegetarian, I was happy with the selections.
One suggestion for future travelers is to ask about the driving times between parks, as we did not realize ahead of time how much driving we had in store. We probably would not have changed things anyway, but some travelers might revise their itinerary if they knew how long it takes to get between destinations.
Happy travels - we hope you get to visit Kenya!
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic safari experience.
Tanzania was great! We had organized a safari with Safari Soles before we arrived. Our 10 day safari tour was mind blowing, We did not expect the variety of animals and the accommodations and food were fantastic. Each park had its highlights. We enjoyed the northern park areas more as the southern parks were much busier with tourist traffic. We had fantastic weather and enjoyed being guided by a Massi to some waterfalls and to Natron lake.
Next we flew to Zanzibar for 10 days. The Nungwi beach was beautiful. In Stone Town we enjoyed watching the beach activities, walking through town, the tasty food and the markets. Overall Tanzanians are very welcoming. We never felt unsafe; however the majority of vendors were uncomfortably pushy. Be sure to negotiate prices of tours and items.
The scenery was beautiful and varied throughout Tanzania. We enjoyed a day trip to the foothills of Kilimanjaro where we learned how coffee was grown and the locals had us participate in making a good cup. They also cooked us a delicious lunch.
We really enjoyed our holiday!
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Overall, it was great, and our guide, Dan, was wonderful. The vehicle was a bit old though.
The experience lived up to our expectation, and Dan was informed and flexible to our needs. The accommodations were first class, food good, and we saw all the animals we had hoped to. The customized trip to a Water School project in Nebbi District went according to plan, and was a lot of fun.
The only criticism was that the original vehicle we were given had seat belts which didn't work. Roads are dangerous in Uganda, and I considered this a serious lapse. We were given a replacement vehicle with working seat belts, but it was pretty old, and struggled up some hills. You could use newer vehicles!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing wildlife
We were a group of 5 colleagues who had some spare time at the end of our trip and decided we wanted to do a safari in the Masai Mara. I found Hyrax safaris and they were extremely responsive over what’s app which was really handy due to the time difference. Hyrax were good at sorting out our different room configurations and found us great quality accomodation at Sarova Mara. I would recommend the hotel, we had a room looking out over the reserve. We opted to be driven to the Mara (about 6 hours), I’m glad we did because we saw so much on the journey and there were plenty of stops to stretch your legs. Our guide Aaron was excellent, really knowledgeable and was also flexible about what times we did our drives. I enjoyed doing a full days drive as we saw so much but some of my colleagues found a whole day game drive a bit too much. I’m sure you’d be able to split it into two of you wanted. I would recommend using Hyrax safaris for your safari booking.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
5 days safari with Northern Circuit Adventure.
We went on a 5 days/4 nights safari to Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and the Ngoro Goro Crater. We got good and complete information from mr. Ndalla before booking the safari, he could offer us exactly the safari we wanted. The safari itself was beautiful and good organized. We saw a lot of animals and enjoyed the stay at every camp. The guide Elias is a safe driver with sharp eyes for animals, and knows a lot about the wildlife. The cook Ibrahim made very good food every night. We enjoyed out safari very much and would recommend it to everyone.
NO
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
i had a good tour package with yebo tours to murchison falls and quuen elizabeth.
Yemen Boniface is the best tour guide i have got.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
good safari with the family
For booking very attentive and client friendly treatment. during the trip a reliable and safe car, with a driver who was driving proper and carefull. during safary a very experienced driver with lots of knowledge about the park and the animals. Driver was next to that good in checking program, cross checking interest of the group. All in all a good time of fun with the family
DK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
safe and exciting journey through Kenya
First of all, I must express my deepest admiration on behalf of the drivers. They where all fully committed to the job at all times, delivering top class service, ensuring safety and communicating in a way that even our children understood. (11 year old danes). As we did spend up to 65% of the time in our cars, they indeed made the trip for us.
One big debate when we stood in line for the flight back home, was which of the 5 drivers was to be the best.
-We will most certainly come back.
Many thanks :)
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tour guides very knowledgible and friendly.
We were two 50+ women travelling from North America. We were concerned with booking everything on line and not having TICO protection or personal contacts. Although it was tough at times to correspond thru emails with our questions Noah tried his best to answer all our questions. The guides were wonderful and we were lucky enough to see the "big 5" within the first few days of our trip. Noah took care of booking resorts, airfares, transportation and guides and although there were a few hicups the trip was more than we could hope for.