DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great wildlife, friendly driver and chef, bad equipment
We choose the 4-day Safari to Manyara Lake, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti and the communication, before the Safari started, was good although it was not possible for us to do the online deposit, but it was possible to pay when we arrived Arusha. Our guide/driver Horas and the chef Vitalis cared really good about everything and did a good job. Sometimes we expected more information of the guide spontaneously which was rare, but he could answer all our questions. So we saw a lot of animals an he gave us enough time to observe them- what was great! And the dinners Vitalis cooked for us were really good!
But we also had a few problems: at the gate of the Serengeti we were not allowed to enter the park because Richard hadn't done the cash transfer or something went wrong (we still don't know). So we waited for three hours and one member of our group had to do the payment with his credit card. After the safari he got the money back from Richard but it was annoying that we had to wait for three hours without knowing what's going on. The second thing were the tents. They are okay but because of the age the zipper is bad/ broken and it's not possible to close them properly. One evening was an short rainstorm and all the water came in on every seam. Furthermore the sleeping bags smelled like hell (sweat of a lot of people) and I would recommend to everybody to take their own sleeping bag! Third and last thing: the car broke down on the third day. The driveshaft of the back wheel broke. It was nobodys fault and they were able to find a solution after 40 minutes - so we drove to the next camp with front wheel drive. The guide drove to the next garage and they fixed it during the night.
So all in all it was a good safari with some adventures.
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good value for money but definitely needs improvement!
Tour started as promised. Julius was excellent on transfers from/to airport to hotels. Our first 3 days were great with Stanley in Masai Mara ( very friendly / good driver) and Lake Nakuru. Our hotels Masai Mara Lodge (very good) and Lake Nakuru (average) were both in excellent locations. We had a very short game drive in Lake Nakuru so it was a bit of a waste of time. Last 3 days of the tour after Nakuru turned into a nightmare, spending long hours in the car with a non-company driver with zero knowledge in animals / safari, Amboseli tour was complete waste of time and very tiring... the connections/ timings / this trip could be improved. Suggest 3 days in Masai Mara and 2 day in Nakuru. Overall great experience seeing all of the animals (we have seen them all) but the entire experience could have been better...
LT
Indigo isn't making trips to Namibia by themselves
I've found the nice reviews of Indigo Safaris looking for a trip to Namibia. To my enquiry about the price for "6-DAY SAFARI & DESERT EXPERIENCE - GROUP ACCOMMODATED" with additional 2 nights pre- and post tour and airport transfer I got 21900 NAD. Only after asking isn't it the tour that costs "from 15720 NAD" (according to indigosafaris.com) we ended with 17800 NAD with additional percentage for paying by card and for conversion to EUR. We corresponded quite long and a had a feeling that something not said. Only after asking direct about the group size, Corinne Bly whom I communicated with, wrote it was not a trip of Indigo Safaris. The tour was good, the guide - perfect, but decide yourself if there's sense to pay commissions for a dealer, - or just look for Chameleon Safaris (or anybody else) when going to Namibia... And it's recommended to ask about the max group size and max places in the vehicle (we were 8 what was optimum, - for the maximal group of 12 the vehicle wouldn't be convenient)
BE
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The trip was well organized, but rather expensive .
Guides and drivers were ok. Some accomodations (Debark especially) were not acceptable.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good viewing - poor guiding
The booking process was easy and Thale was a pleasure to work with. Very accommodating.
The accommodations were as advertised and decently comfortable.
It was on overall good value for a private tour, with food included and in those accommodations. I enjoyed the food, great cooking by Lungisani!
My problem and reason for 3/5 is the guides. I honestly don’t know if Isaac can see well enough to be guiding tours. He was knowledgeable when we spotted an animal, but he never saw them. Lungisani would spot all the animals and tell Isaac to stop (his driving wasn’t great either). On the 2 drives in which Lungisani didn’t come, Isaac didn’t even stop the vehicle once because he didn’t see anything (even though we did). Also he didn’t speak once to us. When they were both there, on the drives and at camp/during meals, they just spoke to each other in their own languages or were on their phones, which made it very awkward and uncomfortable for us. Very little conversation with us and getting to know each other. Although we saw lots of animals, and the park was incredible, the guides detracted from our experience a lot.
Overall, would I go back to Kruger? Yes, 100%. Would I use Wild planet safari? Possibly, but it would totally depend on who the guides were. Service levels while spending 5+ full days with someone needs to improve drastically.
US
Got referral. Sounds great. Good price. Good cause.
Got referral. Sounds great. Good price. Good cause.
BR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful time at Krueger game, but some issues with the logistics
We had a great time in South Africa, really beautiful Country, we had the best Safari we could have with the guide Mr. Lucky Mathebula, we saw see all the big five with him, he was simply the best. The Lodge (accomodation) was really good as well, the owner was a sympathic lady and the food was good.
But on the other hand we had some issues with the Bonnie, the guide that took us from Joanesburg to the Park and back to Joanesburg.
He got late to pick us up in the hotel to get to Krueger so we didn´t have time to have lunch, we had to eat our pizzas on the way to the Park! Also, he didn´t make any effort to be nice when he was joining dinner with us. When returning from the Park to Joanesburg, he drove fast and it was rainning a lot, a lot of accidents on the road, it was really tense.
And to complete, he charged us 300 Rand each to see the Panoramic route, when the offered from Adventour was 250 Rand per person. We felt really disappointed and betrayed.
I explained all the above to Mr. David (my contact at Adventour), he apologysed and said he would make a refund to amend the situation. We are still waiting the refund, his last promise was to make it today.
SK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
good office interaction, driver not perfect
Minneh was great helping get this organized at the start and was quick to respond to our questions and queries, which was fantastic. But there were some mixups on what time we were supposed to be picked up at our hotel to start. Not a big deal, but we were told three different times and ended up ready at 7am while the driver said he was told to get us at 8am. A bigger deal was the 45min wait at the tax office coming home while our driver sorted out permitting issues on the way out. Other safari teams came through the tax checkpoint quickly, showed their receipts, and left -- less than 60 seconds -- while our paperwork wasn't quite right, and so we waited and waited and waited.
The animals of course were great, which is what you want to remember from the experience. And Keekorok lodge, while dated, was a great location and had super friendly staff.
I'd probably be okay using Jocky Tours again for the ease of payment and organizing, but just double and triple check how things are supposed to go on timing. And maybe avoid Leonard as a driver. We didn't get as a warm a fuzzy with him as we might have liked -- he'd clearly done this a lot before, but spent a lot more time on his phone while driving that we would have wanted.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Drones was great in Kenya, but struggled in Tanzania
The communication from Drones before the trip seemed great. In Kenya we had a little orientation of what to expect, and that went well. Our guide was knowledgeable and looked out for us well. The accommodations were very comfortable.
The transfer to Tanzania was confusing because we kept being handed off to different people and the information they were giving us was different that we had been told. And our hotel was changed to a place that was not as nice as we had been told we would be staying. That was apparently for the convenience of the manager on the Tanzania side. That manager was rude when questioned about the change. The cook for our stay in Tanzania was great. Our guide was not quite as good as our guide in Kenya, but was fine. The camping was uncomfortable because the provided tents were old canvas tents which were not waterproof and the weather was cold and rainy. Additionally, the tents were put away wet, so even before the rain started, the tents smelled terrible and were very wet inside.
Despite booking the entire trip through Drones, the experiences between countries were very different.
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exhiting
I recomend to improve the information on the elements for choise the best tour.
The dexcription of the park, rate the lodge not only by quality but also for their position (to avoid long transfer to park entrance) and finally to the vehicle.