It was an excellent trip, the best that my wife and I went on.
The trip was made pleasurable as we were ferried about by our guide Bernhard Bekker and he was very knowledgeable and showed us the big 5 in day! We saw lots of impala, elephants,birds and giraffe.The park looked well taken care of and the scenery was excellent! Our guide was kind enough to take us to the Kruger gate where we had coffee with the elephants and buffalo.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
First Stop on our Safari and we saw it all!
The Masai Mara reserve was the very first park we went to on our two week safari and it was more than we could have imagined! Although we were prepared to have to be patient and pace our sightings throughout the trip. We saw 4 of the big 5 animals on our first game drive! Whether it was an early morning, evening, or day time drive, we continued seeing amazing animals including: giraffes, wildebeest, gazelles, zebras, lions, and even baby leopards. The views were everything we wanted and to top it off, we visited with the Masai tribe. This was a once in a lifetime experience.
US
Experience level: first safari
Fantastic park!
The animals were abundant! We were there during the migration and saw thousands of wildebeest and zebra. Our guide was phenomenal at spotting animals. I don't think there's one species that we didn't see. The park wasn't too crowded. Sometimes there could be 10-15 vehicles in one spot, but most of the time we felt like we were alone out there. We saw elephants charge lions. We saw lions eating a zebra. We saw hyenas eating something dead. It was a wonderful experience! We took a hot air balloon ride which was nice, but we honestly saw more wildlife on the ground. We didn't even need binoculars. I would definitely recommend this park!
Etosha - Great First Visit
We visited Etosha at the beginning of July and for a first time Safari experience, it was a great one! We were on a self-drive tour and the park is incredible easy to navigate. You also do not need to venture far off of the main roads (or venture off them at all) in order to see some great wildlife. We stopped at about 3 water holes while cutting across the park from east to west and were never disappointed. We actually spent the longest amount of time pulled over on side side of the road watching an elephant pick a tree apart, piece by piece, for his lunch.
I understand you may see more variety and volume in some of the deltas (Botswana, etc...) but for an easy, introductory visit, I cannot recommend Etosha more.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful place
When I headed to Kibale Forest NP my main interest was the chimpanzee tracking: the forest is said to be the best place in East Africa to spot them so a visit there was due. But I wasn't prepared to everything else Kibale has to offer: a beautiful rainforest, stunning scenery, lots of other monkeys (red tails, black and white colobous) and THOUSANDS of butterflies. Whenever walking in Kibale, be it from the lodge to the tree house or during the chimp tracking, I was followed by a multitude of colorful butterflies of different sizes: it felt like a dream!
Even without a guide it was rather easy for me to spot quite few red tails and a couple of colobous; in the afternoon, on the other side of the pond in front of my tree house, I could hear crushing sounds and could see the trees shaking: apparently there were a couple of forest elephants lingering in the area. Given the thick vegetation I couldn't really see much of them but it was a cool experience. At night, I could hear a group of monkeys coming onto mthe roof and deciding that it was a good place to rest! Fantastic, and it was only my first day!
The chimp tracking was demanding since it was in the afternoon and not in the morning: it took almost three hours to track the group but when we managed to find them, it was unbelievable. The females and the babies were in the higher tree branches, while the alpha male was keeping an eye on us. At a certain point while the group started to move, the male came down the tree and started to walk on the ground in the opposite direction, almost trying to attract us away from the females and babies. No wonder they are considered the most intelligent animal in nature. I managed to take a lot of pictures, but best of all were the countless memories I have.
All in all I'd return to Kibale in a heartbeat, even among Uganda highlights I think it's underrated: I'd put over Kibale only the Rwenzori mountains and Bwindi NP.
Too little time..
Arrived straight from some of the magical spots in Kwazulu like Ithala and Cape Vidal so had high expectations. The park was great - very scenic and great accom at the Mpila? camp. Saw rhinos and lots of other stuff on a morning self drive. Only 'downside' was a pretty drunk honeymoon couple on a night drive but even that was entertaining in its own way...
Review about Tanzania by Lisa Haselow
Tanzania has the most parks to explore and they are not fenced like other locations. Also there are many local tribes with fascinating cultures and the people are friendly!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Kenya by Gayle Edwards
I would definitely rate Kenya as a top Safari destination as the Mara has so much to offer such as an abundance of wildlife and the ability to get up close, picturesque landscapes, excellent accommodation options, fantastic food and guides who hold the Mara in their heart and love what they do. Another great thing about the Mara is that they have rangers out after dark to protect the animals from poachers, great work.
Review about Tanzania by Rob M
The most amazing widlife, fantastic accomodations, and the people were so warm and welcoming!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari