CH
Second safari with Marianne - always great!
our safari to Botswana was our second travel experience under Marianne's guidance, and it was amazing. All the planning was perfect, as usual, but even more important was Marianne's advice in helping us selecting our lodges, based on our preferences on creature comfort and animal viewing. And Botswana did not disappoint, we saw so many animals and different types of landscape (the air-taxi was great fun too). A post-safari follow-up call with Marianne to exchange views on the trip was also highly appreciated - great job Marianne!
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great experience!
This summer we spend a four week holiday in Tanzania, visiting friends, safari and diving on Zanzibar.Before our holiday we did quite a lot of research on different safari companies and compared all prices and packages.
Quit soon we found out that de prices from Bobby were by far the cheapest. After reading some reviews we decided the book with Bobby Tours and start our adventure.
We started our holiday in Dar El Salaam visiting friends. Afterwards we took a flight to the west part of Tanzania (Mwanza). Since we had such a long holiday we decided to book 6 day/ 5 nights budget camping safari. Our driver from Bobby Tours (Gasper) picked us up at our hotel and took us to the western entrance of the Serengeti National Park. This was a 2 hour drive from Mwanza. The good thing starting from Mwanza is that the western corridor of the Serengeti is really quit, since most of the people start their safari in Arusha. Our package was 6 days/ 5 nights (3 days Serengeti, 1 day NgoroNgoro Crator, Lake Manyara en Tarangire and drop off in Arusha).
I recommend all people to go longer Safari (5 or 6 days), since it increases the possibilities of seeing more animals! We had a wonderful time! Our driver ‘Gasper’ was the best and a really sweet guy. He knew all the good spots and was always having fun with us, but also with the other drivers in the parks. We had a long safari (6 days) and saw a lot of animals! Taking a bit more time allows you to just enjoy a beautiful sight or landscape! So I would recommend everyone not hurrying finding ‘the Big5’ and really experience the Serengeti and it fabulous nature.
Our driver ‘Gasper’ was a really good wildlife spotter! After entering the Western gate and driving for maybe an hour we already saw: lions, hippos, crocodiles, giraffe’s and many herds of wild beasts, impala’s and Zebra’s.
We liked all parts of the Safari, but especially fell in love with Serengeti. It’s expansive plains and impressive nature are the best! You sometimes drive for hours and not see anybody since it’s so big. On the other hand, you sometimes see about 15 cars around a tree, because there’s leopard. It’s funny seeing so many cars in one place, everyone trying to take the perfect picture.
Especially these time you see how many cars from ‘Bobby Tours’ hang around. I think Bobby has about 25 cars, really new and good quality. The cars have 8 places, but only few were occupied. Me and my girlfriend, the driver, and a chef.
Having a lot of space was wonderful since you could move around in the car and pick the best place for spotting wildlife.
I liked all parks since their all special in their own way. Tarangire, by example since it has the most elephants and Lake Manyara for the lakes and birds.
Ngorongoro Crater, feels like a magical world entering the crater and driving around. We saw a lot of action in the crater. Lions and hyenas were hunting. This was also the location where we saw a Rhino! Our driver had the eyes of a ‘hawk’ and spotted it a mile away. Although it was far away it still was a truly magical moment.
We took a basic camp safari since we like to camp in the Netherland and it’s just much cheaper then staying in a lodge. The campsites were fine, showers, were not always hot. On some campsites there was electricity and warm water. Remember to bring some warm clothes for the Ngorongoro crater since it can get quit cold there during the night. The food was also good. Every night the chef sets up a table for diner and serves you some bread, soup, dinner and fruits for dessert. In the morning breakfast is served, with coffee or tea, fruits, pancakes and other food. During the day you will have a lunch break with sandwiches.
Advice, when taking budget safari there’s not always power to charge your devices on the campsites. Be sure to bring enough batteries en SD cards for your camera and other devices, you’ll need them. Also it might ben helpful to take a solar charger to power up some devices! Don’t bother about your cell phone! There’s not much coverage in the Serengeti and the sights are far too beautiful. So don’t waste time watching your cell phone.
Another advice don’t rush around! Hakuna Matata! Not only take a picture and move on, but wait some time to really look! There is more then meets the eye around, also small creatures and many birds par example. We asked our driver to show us the different type of birds. I think at the end of our safari we saw about 50 different bird species! So do not only go for the big animals!
We had a truly magical time and we would love to come back sometime! Wildlife is never boring. Many thanks to our driver and friend ‘Gasper’ for all the fun and spotting all wildlife.
With love!
Philippe and Lotte from The Netherlands
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable safari
Because it was our first time in East Africa, we were a little bit more careful with choosing our safari partner. The communication before arrival was perfect, so we felt confident about Khanga Safaris. Every question was quickly answered and they gave us a lot of information about the tour, so we knew exactly what we were about to expect.
We loved our safari tour in Kenya through Tsavo East, Tsavo West and the tip of the iceberg, Amboseli National Park. Everything was well arranged by Khanga, so we didn’t have to worry about a thing. Our driver and guide, Christopher, was fantastic, friendly and made sure that we got the most out of this experience as we could. He was patient (we took a lot of pictures and made movies) and knew a lot about the wildlife in the parks. The hotels we stayed in were more than mid-range class.
We had an unforgettable time. By far our best vacation ever!
Big thanks to Christopher, Bernard & Lawrence!
If you want to see a short movie of our safari: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3xQauOFKfY
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Uganda and Rwanda private tour with very experienced guide and organization
I found Matoke Tours via a website for a Dutch adventure travel site. I wanted something different than what they offered and found a picture of a Matoke Tour vehicle and decided to go direct. We communicated with the Uganda Matoke office and together designed our private 16 tour including Munchison Falls NP, Kibale Forest (chimpanzees), Queen Elizabeth NP, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and Rwanda's Volcano NP. Our guide, Anatoli, was very professional and had very good relationships with all accommodation and adventure/NP staff where ever we went. The tour was very well organized with constant communication between Anatoli and the home office. The accommodations were much better than expected, clean with good food and friendly honest staff (we opted for moderate instead of fancy). Suggested restaurants were excellent. The wildlife viewing was excellent (we had been to 10 other African countries for wildlife viewing before). There were never more than 1 or 2 other safari vehicles when we stopped for lions, etc. During our travels we met others who had gotten stuck with broken down vehicles (more than once) and even a solo traveler whose guide did not show up in the morning to bring her to the Gorilla tracking meeting in Rwanda! If you want to go to a beautiful area with friendly people and want to have everything taken care of so you can enjoy trip without any hassles or negative surprises, please look to Matoke Tours. You will not be disappointed, they will exceed your expectations. Go now, before Uganda becomes overrun with too many tourists! I did not receive any compensation or special treatment for this review.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unethical business practices
The director, Naphtally, accepted our payments in advance. Upon the very morning of the start of our safari, the local tour guide showed up with Naphtally on the phone. He claimed the government was slow in allowing bank transfers into the country, etc. He asked that we pay for the park fees in advance with our credit card and that he would in turn reimburse us for the different at the end of the tour. In fact, he has not paid the tour guide, the local operator, or us. It is unfortunate because he gives tourists a bad feeling about all local companies which is unfair and unethical. Do NOT give this company any of your money or business.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A Christmas Holiday to remember
My wife and I have just recently returned from a safari set up by your company. We absolutely loved every minute of it and was sad that it had to end. We would like to thank you all and in particular Chris Worden for giving us a holiday to always remember. Every detail was meticulously planned and catered for from beginning to end and every part of the journey went so smoothly. We met by reps at each leg of the trip and the staff at the camps Linkwasha and Musango were fantastic. The stay at Illala Lodge was out of this world and would go back tomorrow. We were a bit worried about the time of year concerning game viewing and heat but there was no need to worry as we saw fantastic wildlife and even a lion kill and we survived the heat of the Zambezi Valley by plenty of sundowners and a copious amount of drinks and good food. Even just driving through the bush and bird spotting was brilliant and the friendliness and knowledge of the guides was second to none. Thanks for the holiday Jim and Pat McGinness
IL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Shabani's scam
We booked 4 days safari with Shabani's company. It was a disaster!!
1. The cars were completely full. 9 people including the chef instead of 7 as promised. When we asked Abdul (our guide) to solve this issue he gave us unacceptable solutions (leave the chefs and that we will cock for our self). Also the cars were fulled with equipment so there was no place for the legs.
2. Abdul the guide was unprofessional. After we talked to him about some of the problems he decided not to talk to us and didn't explain anything during the game drives, even not the names of the animals. He was just a taxi driver that took us from one location to another.
3. Time in the Safari weren't as promised. In the first day of the Sarangeti we had only two hours of game drive.
4. A lot of small annoying issues: there were not enough tents in the first night for everyone, in the second day the chefs refused to wake up early in the morning to make us breakfast because it was too "early" for them.
When we came to Abdul ,asking for solutions for our problems he didn't show any intention to figure out them out and he even blamed us one time that the reason we got late to the Sarangeti (16:30) is because we asked him to stop to photograph giraffes on the way.
When we got back to Arusha we went to Shabanis office to talk with him about everything. During the talk he blamed us for being "hard customers" and didn't even say he was sorry about anything. Eventually he started to talk in aggressivly when we said we will write a bad recommendations. When we got out from his office (without any compensation) he even tried to hit one of the girls and we had to stop him. When we walked out to the street he keep followed us, this was really scary and unpleasant.
I think Sahabani is a dangerous man and even that his prices is low it doesn't worth the bad feeling.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Perfect safari with super safe driver!
Uganda has lots of great things to do and much beautiful thnings to see. So make sure that you are going on a safari at least for 3 days.
I can totally recommend Loving Hearts. It is not just the amazing hostel und the incredible work at their school, ot is also the organisation of safaris! We did a "3 night" safari with them and an extra "gorilla safari" the other day. Both was totally perfect. Good organisation, good accomodations and the important thing: a good driver!
Next time in Uganda, we will book the same agency again!
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not actually delivered by East African Safari & Touring Company
we booked the safari with East African Safari & Touring Company but we learnt during the safari that we were actually with another companies. Apparently East African Safari & Touring Company does not have the TALA licence anymore and are almost bankrupt (at least this is what our guide told us). The safari was overall disappointing, e.g., we left Arusha very late on the 1st day (11am) and therefore we stayed less than 3 hours in Ngorongoro. We had to pay ourselves for the private campsite in Serengeti, despite was included in the agreed programme (we were later refunded once back in Arusha by the owner of the company employing the driver and owning the car), and this took a lot of time, long discussions with the driver and the parking rangers, two visits to the park HQ, etc.
CI
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Worth it!
Maurice was very reactive to emails, and could arrange for one of our friends who missed his flight.
The tour was as promised except a switch in the order of the activities.