Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Great Zimbabwe by Luke Brown
Great Zimbabwe is a United Nations Cultural World Heritage Site and has significant resonance with Zimbabwe's heritage. It is an amazing site to behold, being the largest ruined city in Africa, south of the pyramids. It is definitely worth a visit. Lake Mutirikwi National Park is close by, but this area is not a strong safari destination. The scenery is beautiful and the ruins are spectacular however.
Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Nyanga National Park by Luke Brown
Nyanga National Park is situated in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands. It has amazing scenic beauty with rolling grassland, rocky outcrops, large forests and rushing, clear-water streams. It is not a big game destination, but is home to kudu, waterbuck, impala and other plains game.
lots of zebras and thick brush
We stayed at the UWA bandas which were quaint and clean enough. we visited this park to see zebras since we hadn't seen them yet and we weren't disappointed. there is some new invasive plant that is taking over and making through brush so thick you can barely see wildlife from the road.
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Hustlers thieves, officials,police,ruin what would otherwise be a wonderful tourist destination
Zambia is a beautiful country with so much to offer, but traveling up from Botswana, there is a stark difference -the official's police and the Botswana people are friendly and efficient, (been several times) , have never been hustled in Botswana -the moment you arrive in Zambia there will be a hustler at your door -the Botswana officials expedite you quickly and efficiently -The Zambian side will keep you for hours -But that we can deal with.Livingstone(Vic Falls,) was empty this year of tourists, one would think they would welcome the ones who do come,but there we felt immediately like we were a mark, and constantly harassed and hustled, beware of the money exchangers and hustlers, do NOT deal with them,even if it costs a bit more, use a bank or ATM, where you are nor surrounded -they will come at you in gangs and try to distract you as others steal from you -this happened to us with our international guests who had money stolen, the police are no help,so don't expect any help there, we did go to the Livingstone police but they laughed at us and said we most probably dropped the money ourselves -so they find it a joke and obviously are not there to help tourists -our guests said it spoilt their experience there, and I doubt will recommend anyone else to go there
NO
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A dedicated driver means a lot!
I picked Karibu Safaris based on reviews found on Internet. I had some questions concerning the 6-day safari Masaai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli, and would like to have some answers before deciding whether to choose the 6-day safari or the 3-day safari to Masaai Mara. The email communication was not very professional and I was stuck without having the answers to all of my questions, just some of them.
I picked the 6-day safari. I was picked where I was staying in Nairobi. I was also brought back after the safari. That is a good and valuable service.
The actual safari tours were nice for someone who loves safari. The driver in Masaai Mara did not seem very interested in animals. Therefore, the experience could have been better. The safari in Lake Nakuru had a limited value except spotting the rhino which was not spottet in Maasai Mara. The driver in Amboseli was definitely the most dedicated one and did a good job. It was not his fault that Mount Kilimanjaro could not be seen due to thick clouds....
The 6-day safari is not recommendable unless you enjoy hours and hours of driving along the Kenyan roads. Driving from Nakuru in the morning, arriving in Nairobi in the afternoon and in Amboseli late in the evening was very tiresome. Instead of combining Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli, I would suggest to combine Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru as one tour. Amboseli should rather be combined with Tsavo. That would reduce the driving along the road between the national parks.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Mahango Game Reserve by lifeisgreat77
more like a small zoo
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Namib-Naukluft National Park by lifeisgreat77
too many tourists in the Namib/Sossusvlei, great, but hard trails in the Naukluft
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A somewhat nightmarish, yet remarkably astonishing safari experience through Elkan.
My last safari was a bittersweet experience in every sense of the word. What would start out as a suspected long-con ended up being a pretty incredible safari through the ranges of Manyara and Ngorongoro, to the plains of the Serengeti. I even ended up making friends with a couple of lovely people from Spain with whom I had a surreal amount of fun. I am a New Yorker, and I was travelling alone.
I picked Elkan as my operator, not after doing a properly extensive search for a reputable operator, but only because of the simple fact that the response from Victor, the sole owner/employee of Elkan Ltd., was a very welcoming and exciting one. I was offered an itinerary of exactly the sort of safari I had envisaged, and Victor also allowed me to negotiate the overall rate a bit. From the very beginning of our correspondance, I kept growing more and more excited as the safari dates approached.
What was initially meant to be a group of six people on a 7 day safari, ended up being reduced to only 3 people on the day our safari started. Apparently the group had been broken up in 2 to accomodate specific itineraries. There appeared to be a lot of misinformation for all the parties on our safari, including the driver/guides, who apparently had not a single idea of our itineraries, what they entailed, etc. It was at this point we began to suspect a hint of disorganisation and misinformation on Victor's end.
After a glorious first day in Tarangire, where we saw lions mating, a whole world of elephants and the most stunning, yet underrated landscape, we were brought to a semi-decent campsite around Manyara called Sunbright Campsite. It was at dinner that our group, which consisted of myself and the two ladies, and our over-exhuberant narrator/driver Osman, learnt about the completely misguided information from Victor we were all under. Our driver was only going to be with us for one more day-trip to Ngorongoro, before he was to hand us over to another guide, Adam, who was to take us around 3 different parts of the Serengeti over the course of 5 days and 4 nights. However, according to Osman, the Serengeti was only going to be 2 nights. I immediately shot an email to Victor demanding clarification to which he responded everything was status-quo, no changes of any kind whatsoever.
The next morning we received a call from Victor asking us to accept a 2 night safari in the Serengeti and a refund for the remaining 3 days. That was bollocks, and we made sure he understood what bollocks meant.
Needless to state, at this point we knew we were about to be caught in a Tanzanian local tour operators clumsy attempt at conning perfectly well-educated international people, all under the pretence of their sad mentality of "this is Africa", which seems to be the only place on Earth with a licence to be inadequate in everything consumer-related.
We carried on with our safari as we'd planned and had another magnificent day of animal-spotting on the Ngorongoro Crater floor. We saw a coalition of lionesses set out to hunt buffalo end in the most ruthlessly perfect execution, and then each of them returned to collect their cubs hiding in the bushes 5 meters from our car. Our entire engagement with this pride was an incredibly rewarding experience, one that only few people get to experience on that vast crater-floor. And when the other shoe came cascading down from the sky, we were told by our guide that we needed to rush back as he had other Victor-related engagements to adhere to. Our resistance to being swindled once again only earned us a speedy drive passing all variety of animals to the lunch-spot to wolf down our pathetic lunch boxes, and rush back to the rim so as to accomodate Victor's disorganisation. This was when we were handed over to a driver/guide named Adam, who would become our sole Tanzanian assistant in making sure we would not be robbed of our safari, as had apparently been planned by management. Turns out Adam worked for another company called Sunset Africa, who were in a deal with Victor to provide our safari. Turns out they too were having a devil of a time working with Victor, financially.
The 3rd day, according to the provided itinerary, promised to be quite exciting. We were all high spirits as we drove through the Ngorongoro ranges towards the Serengeti. Then we arrived at Nabi gate where you enter Serengeti from Ngorongoro, and shortly after were notified that our park entrance fee had not been paid by Victor and that we would have to bear the cost, until it could be refunded to us later. This is where the whole tide turned against Victor as it had become all too clear that this one-man bad operation was out to flat-out rob us. After an intensely excruciating 3 hours of demanding the services sold to us, the owner of Sunset Africa, man named Ally, stepped in and decided to handle the dealings with Victor, and letting us proceed with our safari. But, not before we were each asked to pay $70 in order to enter the Serengeti for our first day, which would act as a day's fee while the "management" got things sorted in Arusha for the remaining 4 days.
For the next 4 most incredible safari game drive days, very very sadly we also had to deal with going to the extension office every single day during lunch to extend our days as it was not sorted out appropriately since our very first day in the Serengeti, which meant we never got to leave the Central Serengeti/Seronera region at all. For 4 days, we hung out with the same pride of lions, same herds of elephants and even the same Leopard whom we spotted twice. While this was indeed THE most amazing 5 days of hanging out with the lionesses of Seronera and their cubs and boyfriends, and all the other beautiful wildlife in Central Serengeti, for the purpose of the company review it should be stated that we were initially offered a 5 days safari in the Serengeti to several different areas of the park, Center, North and West as it is simply massive. Nevertheless, our 5 days around the central area and nights at the Serengeti Wild Camp (operated by Zara Tours) were just fantastic.
We chose to abandon the toilet of a public campsite arranged by Elkan called Pimbi. Even the animals found it too disgusting to graze by.
Ultimately, this was, without a doubt, a safari of a lifetime for me considering all the wild animal interactions we had, and our stay at a semi-luxury lodge, with abundant wildlife through camp. Although, a lot of it was due to the diligence employeed by our smart, hilarious and jolly-spirited guide, Adam. He single-handedly saved all his co-workers faces by showing that some Tanzanian people do value a good work ethic and will do whatever they have to to deliver.
In the end, Victor was, as you'd expect, quite apologetic and I can honestly say that we were not robbed of anything, except several hours of our safari time. All else was sorted once we got back to Arusha, including our $70 and timely transfers back to the airport. I do genuinely hope that this was just one big logistical/planning error on Victor's part and that he'll do better to avoid such an instance next time, else I can't imagine Elkan Ltd. or any other local Tanzanian tour operators who don't learn from such experiences, would survive too long in this highly personalised and incredibly lucrative business.
All the best, Victor.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Interesting but tedious. However the staff at Victoria falls and Hwange national park were exception
The wild life and scenery are average. The accomodation at Hwange was superb and rustic . The cook and staff at Hwange looked after us very well. We were lucky to have Liberty as our guide as he was kind and knowledgeable.
We particularly enjoyed the lunch in the bush where the table was laid out to celebrate my friend's birthday.
PT
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
good animal viewing but roads and general environment poor
Wildlife - good viewing but most only visible on the roads, where they are almost "tame"
Guide was great. Indeed all Kenyans were nice to us.
Roads in the parks terrible limiting getting around and detracting from the pleasure of being there. A very rough ride!
Roads to get around also very crowded with terrible traffic jams, mainly due to large trucks.
Due to the inability to cross into Tanzania there were long drives to and from the parks, via Nairobi
Accommodations variable
Nairobi is a polluted crowded city with terrible traffic jams and no redeeming features
in terms of souvenirs, poor quality and very expensive with most not in ebony (although sold as ebony)