50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent eve safaris, our guide was very knowledgeable making the tours very enjoyable and special.
After a work conference a group of us stayed a few extra days to see some more of the wildlife.
We stayed at Bakubung Lodge which was perfect being so close to the park, breakfast and dinner were included in the package and was very good.
Part of the package Patrick arranged for us was 2 private evening / afternoon safaris, these excellent.
Our guide made both tours very different and gave us a great experience seeing the wildlife very close up.
Mmilo tours were excellent Patrick was very flexible and made the itinerary fit ours. Even when our transport was late Patrick still made things work out. Also kept me updated on any changes from their side.
A very enjoyable stay would highly recommend.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Plenty of wildlife to watch in the most comfortable way possible.
We booked our Safari from Tekko Tours & Travel. They provided us with a driver/tour guide for 6 days and booked our preferred accommodation. We spent 2 days at Kibo Safari camp in Amboseli, 1 day at Sarova Lion Hill Lodge in Lake Nakuru and 2 days at Mara Sarova Camp in Masai Mara. Amboseli was great place to see Mt. Kilimanjaro and plenty of wildlife although lions and cheetahs/leopard were difficult to spot. Kibo Safari Camp was wonderful with great hospitality, separate camps giving good privacy, the camp was dark enough to see Milky Way with naked eye and a swimming pool. Lake Nakuru was a disappointment as most of the flamingoes have migrated to other places but still there were plenty of birds to watch and listen to. Masai Mara was the best place to spot the Big Five and all other animals. The rooms in Sarova Lion Hill Lodge had thin walls so we could hear noise from outside and from adjacent room and unfortunately, our neighbours were noisy. But there were plenty of birds here for bird watchers. Mara Sarova Camp was very beautiful and it had quite some greenery inside to walk around. Overall, it was excellent vacation, great food, wildlife and awesome hospitality.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
EXCELLENT OPERATOR: differentiated from the "Big" operators, please read this review
You have read the other GREAT reviews of Ecological Wilderness Adventures and I would agree with them. So I will focus on what differentiates Ecological from the other operators that we came across on our safari. Also, I encourage you to reach out to me if you would like to discuss in detail. Brian and the staff at Ecological Wilderness have my contact email. As a side note, my sister and her husband have PhDs in Biology and have extensive travel experience all over the world. They selected Ecological Wilderness Adventures over many other choices they had!
So Why are they different??
- A smaller operator allows you to have flexibility that you don’t get with the BIG tours
o Ability to adjust start times in the morning, meal times, or stop times
o Ability to tailor your trip to your specific tastes and desires for wildlife or plant life, etc
o Ability to select/ adjust accommodations that match your budget and tastes
o Ability to alter vehicle arrangements for your group as needed
- We interfaced with several other people on safari with BIG operators and commonly heard:
o Most common complaint was being tied to large group and “herded like cattle”
o Other complaint was not having a voice to adjust anything
o Few complained the tours were primarily in a language they didn’t understand if they were a
small party dominated by a larger group
o All we talked to quickly understood the benefit of a smaller operator as soon as we explained it,
often in a “AH HA” moment like a light bulb went off!!
o If you have a small group (aka your family) then you want a great small operator= Ecological
Wilderness Adventures
- Brian and his staff at Ecological are extremely knowledgeable about all types of wildlife and plant
life. This includes big animals to small birds and all type of vegetation.
o Personally, I was stunned at the depth of knowledge but they go to school for years to be such
informed guides
o Even the two Biology PhDs on the trip were extremely impressed
- Brian and staff are wonderful people and great to spend time with
o They were extremely helpful before the trip (how to prepare, what to bring) and answered every
question we had
o During the trip, they were a pleasure to be with and learn from
o They even dealt with our more difficult group members in great fashion
- The accommodations and food were wonderful. The soups were amazing.
- Ecological was great with the children on our trip who ranged in age from my 5 year old daughter
to a 15 year old teenager. All the kids loved the safari and the guides.
Closing comments from me…
First off, GO TO AFRICA!! Tanzania is WONDERFUL!! It is a spectacular experience that should not be missed while it is still unexploited. This was not on my list to do but was the best trip of my life. My family organized the trip and I took my family simply to be part of the group. Now, I can’t wait to return.
Second, as you can read above, I strongly encourage you to use Ecological Wilderness Adventures with Brian and his wonderful staff. They truly are outstanding!!
Finally, as I mentioned before, feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss further. I have already referred many interested parties to Brian with confidence. Enjoy your trip!!
FR
Awesome
One of my best trip ever. The walk in the jungle was amazing (and not too hard). Hanging out with the gorillas was an incredible experience. Our guide was very nice and explained us many things about the park we drove through.
Uganda is an amazingly beautiful country with stunning places to see. I really hope I will have the opportunity to come back.
CZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Absolutely awesome experience, excellent service!!!
The wildlife, scenery and everything was totally awesome! Suricata safaries gave us the best of the best. Frederick, our guide was great, knew a lot about animals, drove carefully, was funny, helpful and beatifull personality!The Chef Dionysos was a magician,who made us the best food, even if I am vegetarian, I had plenty of choices to eat different stuff every day!Hilary also took great care of us, and was all the time very helpfull. You cannot choose better company than Suricata safaries. WE LOVED IT! It was our best holiday experience so far. Thank you Frederick, Hilary and Dionysos. Jana and Ondrej
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great experience
To be honest I expected a bigger wildlife in the Kruger National Park.
sometimes we were driving ten or twenty miles wothout seeing animals.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Thank you!
Dear Simba Safari-Team
Together with my boyfriend Andreas we have booked a Safari from July 14 – July 18 with your company. We really enjoyed the safari and it was stunning to observe the wild animals so close to the jeep. Hassan, our guide, has excellent English skills and a large knowledge about all the animals. Therefore he could explain us things very detailed what we really enjoyed. Furthermore, he was very obliging and always on time. Hence he was the best guide we could dream of :-) Thus, we can highly recommend him as a safari-driver and would like to express our heartfelt gratefulness for the wonderful time we could spend with him. We learned a lot and felt treated like kings.
In the email you will find a picture of Hassan and two other guests, my boyfriend and me (left). Please let him see this picturce and convey our gratefulness and best wishes to him.
Greetings from Switzerland,
Claudia Longhi & Andreas Durtschi
TH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It's great if it were not for the Tsetse fly
The nature of Tanzania is beautiful. We had an excellent guide who showed us a diverse animal world. Hotels on the safari were not bad, but the hotels in the country itself are terrible. In general, the safari was pleasant.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic tour company. Super helpful and responsive
We had a fantastic tour with Safari Wildz. We booked mid-accommodation and had nice clean simple rooms. They also arranged all our airport transfers, accommodation for a kayaking trip, and our travel and accommodation on a trip up to Sipi falls.
Our guide was really nice and helpful. If I had to offer some criticism then I would say that our guide's bird knowledge could do with a brush up, but we had plenty of books so it was no problem.
Overall I would recommend Safari Wildz to anyone that wants to experience Uganda.
BR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic.
Magical experience. Everything perfect. The driver - Aaron - was the best!