EE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beautiful nature and delightful mountain gorillas!
Our trip was very well organized, all the lodges were of good quality an our guide George was piece of gold. He knew all the birds we saw, found lions in high grass impossible to see to unexperienced eye and took good care of us.
There was only one problem - the car was not in the best condition. It did not start without pushing or pulling and so we could not shut down the engine during game drives. Also during the night safari, when ranger saw some red glowing eyes in the darkness, our engine shut down and we had to get out to pull the car and so we lost the animal.
My conclusion from our trip to Uganda:
if you are for:
lots of animals - go to Serengeti;
chimpanzees - go to nearest zoo (bad luck for us - this was second time this year they were unable to trek the chimpanzee's);
gorillas, birding, beautiful landscapes, friendly people - go to Uganda;
Best park in my opinion was Murchison Falls and safari by boat from Mweya peninsula along Kazinga channel was very nice.
Apart from prementioned problems we found our trip satisfactory.
I recommended Destination Jungle Safaris and especially guide George.
CL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Botswana by Catalina Tecas
I think there are more predators missing in the park ... the rest is great
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
So much wild life, great accommodation, 4 star tour operator
The wild life viewing was excellent, saw the big five and and was blown away by the number of animals everywhere. Weather was great, warm still days and mild nights. Both mid-range tented camps were awesome, like glamping, the Rhino lodge was also great. The lunches that our tour operators organized were not great.
Our guide was knowledgeable and got us close to the animals however his communication with the daily plans weren’t good, there was some communication problems and we were not told about certain experiences that we could have had, and had to wait around a couple of hours for differences in tours between other people in our car. There was some awkwardness regarding the tip, the guide accepted ours but other people in our group who offered less were made to feel bad and the guide asked for more from them which I thought was distasteful. We weren’t advised of tipping amounts/expectations prior to trip. Overall, has a great time and would reccommend the safari to others!!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Tanzania by nicole_reigelman
Tanzania was beautiful with friendly people. The lodges were incredible, and driving though the countryside to get to them was a pleasant experience as well.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Kenya by photoautomotive
Kenya is a great place to see wildlife of all shape and sizes, people are friendly and open. The landscape is very dieverse cooler in the hills, and arid on the Masai Mara. We have been on safari there twice, and had a fantastic time. Will be going again soon I hope.
LV
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Magnificent!!!!!!!
Our trip with kids was amazing - Safari was very interesting and Tanzania itself was amazing! Hope to go back one day!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing first-time experience!
The first thing to say to be as honest as possible is that this was our first Safari experience, so we have no comparison other that what we have heard from other people. The second thing to say is that, although our Safari was booked from "Suricata Safari", our trip was organised by a company called "Mount Meru Safari", who apparently works together with "Suricata".
Maybe it would have been nice to have some clarification about that, in the beginning. Anyway, we must say that the communication with the Suricata company was easy, they answer quickly to the emails and quite precise, compared to other companies we had been writing.
Driver/Guide: we had Frederick, a young and friendly guy. Frederick is a very good driver, he never goes too fast and he takes care that everything in the car is working. It is not easy at all to drive for so many days and so many hours and being a good guide at the same time. Freddie managed to keep the mood happy during most of the times. He has never denied an answer when we asked something. I have never seen him tired or sleepy while he was driving, which is quite amazing. I have got the impression that he knows what he is doing in terms of wildlife, but as I said I have no comparison for that. Sometimes I wished we had waited longer in a place, sometimes the opposite, but Freddie had to deal with 4 of us and he did very well. Surely we had an amazing experience, being our first time. One hears of course of people that have managed to see more or less, but this is probably also a matter of luck.
Food: our cook was Dionise. Not much to say: the food was good and we were never left hungry. The dinners in particular were always different, which is very nice, since breakfast and lunch are always very similar (of course, after all this was a camping safari, not a luxus trip). So a positive mark for Dionise as well.
Wildlife/Scenery: In a 6-day camping safari, one typically visits four national parks. That's really nice, because the sceneries are notably different. Many people are not so impressed by Tarangire, but we loved it, given that you don't get to see Baobab trees and a big river in the other days. Also we did not have problems with tsetse flies, but we saw other people struggling. Maybe also just a matter of luck. We were really surprised to see that it is relatively easy to spot the animals. But we saw some of them only at a distance (cheetah, rhinos).
Accommodation: we slept in tented lodges near Lake Manyara and in the public campings in Serengeti and Ngoro-Ngoro. Our tent was good, but essentially all the tents of any company we saw look the same. In Ngoro-ngoro it can rain, so my suggestion is that the tents should have also a waterproof cover (ours had not, some others had). Finally, it would have been nice to had better chairs to sit for dinner: ours were more like stools. It seems stupid, but it does make the difference after a long day.
Others: I do not recommend stopping to see a Masai village. The experience is very fake and it is all based on money and commerce. We had a quote per person and we were told that we would have been not more than 6 in the car. We were 4 at the end and we think this is really the best number to spare some money and still enjoy. A group of 6 might be a little bit too much, considering the space in the jeep.
Final word: we were really satisfied with our experience with Suricata Safari. We have the impression that the quote we got was ok, compared to what we have heard from other tourists. If you are a first-timer like us in a safari, you will be amazed and you will have no regrets by choosing them and by having Frederick and Dionis as guide/cook.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The guide was very knowledgable, smart and very accommadating. He was great.
The Safari tour with Bernhard was an out of the world experience. If I go back to South Africa it would be because of the people like Bernhard from this tour group and his associates.
I was there with my wife and 2 sons they had only positive comments for Private Kruger Safaris
One word Outstanding.