US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Nairobi National Park by Heather
Nairobi National Park is not one of the best parks to visit in Kenya. If you are coming to Kenya specifically for safari, there are so many bigger and more beautiful parks and reserves in Kenya with greater variety of wildlife. However, I had already been to most of the other big tourist destination parks in Kenya and I had an extra day in Nairobi, so I decided to book a day safari in Nairobi National Park and I'm glad I did. Although it's not as wonderful as the Maasai Mara, Samburu, Tsavo, or any of the other big parks, it is still a wonderful little retreat into Kenya's wildlife that lies just outside the main area of the city. I was a little disappointed with the variety of the wildlife. I asked my guide why we weren't seeing lions or rhinos and he pointed towards the more heavily forested areas where the roads didn't go, and he said they mostly hid over there. We did, however, still see a lot of animals such as giraffe, zebra, many types of antelopes, buffaloes, ostriches, etc. My guide also took me to an area where I was allowed to get out of the vehicle and an armed guard took me for a short walk in search of hippos. We couldn't see them, but we could hear them on the other side of the river breathing loudly and making their unique vocalization. It was very enjoyable. For a 1 day excursion within Nairobi, I enjoyed it very much.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Hell's Gate National Park by Heather
I took a driving tour through Hell's Gate National Park even though you can actually walk or bicycle through it due to the fact that there are no predatory animals in the park. I saw some zebra, giraffe, and a few types of antelope, but I wouldn't come here just for wildlife viewing. For me the highlight was walking down into and through the gorges. It was beautiful and very interesting. A maasai guide took me down and told me some of the history of the area. And I got to wash my hands in a hot geothermal stream that was flowing down the rocks. The beauty of these gorges is definitely worth a visit. There's a lot of geothermal activity in the park and before we reached the gorge, we drove through an area with a lot of plants that were harnessing that energy, which is a good thing, but it detracted from the beauty of the park. Once you got through that area though, it was nice. I was glad to be driving through because it started to rain right after I finished my hike through the gorge. I would love to go back though and maybe bicycle in the park.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beautiful Wildlife Haven
I visited Amboseli outside of the typical tourist season. The advantage of that is that I saw very few other vehicles/tourists throughout the park. The downside is that there's also fewer animals around. That being said though, I saw a wide range of wildlife and the landscape was green and beautiful. I saw many, many elephants, oftentimes very deep in the swamps. I also saw lots of hippos poking their heads above the swamps. There were also lots of varieties of antelopes, zebras, buffalos, ostriches, giraffes, hyenas, many different kinds of birds, and probably many more I'm forgetting to list right now. Amboseli is a wonderful haven for all these animals, and the landscape is very beautiful. It is smaller than some of the other parks in Kenya, but it is truly a wonderful place to see Kenya's incredible wildlife.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing and exceeded our expectations (which were low, admittedly)
We had visions of really roughing it if we go on safari.
The private game reserves have refine the safari experience so that people of all ages and conditions can enjoy safaris in relative safety, and in a way that preserves the natural environment.
Sabi Sands game reserve is a well stocked private game reserve. We saw the big five (elephant, lion, buffalo, rhinoceros and leopard) in two game drives, one evening and one morning. We stayed for three nights, and on the subsequent drives had time to see more of the big five, as well as giraffes, hippos, many different types of the deer family, hyenas, zebras, wildebeest and smaller creatures, and even had time to do some bird watching. The only missing animals were cheetahs and crocodiles. We even saw some monitor lizards.
Our guide and tracker were both excellent. On one drive we tracked the dominant resident male leopard out on his evening hunt for well over twenty minutes, and one another drive we got up close to a pride of three male and two female lions who had just crossed over from Kruger. The males looked like they had been in a recent fight and got the worst of it. Being out of territory and not familiar with our guide and tracker, they were very nervous and skittish, and there were tense moments for a while.
Drives were done in relative comfort, in an open 4 wheel drive with up to six passengers with the guide and tracker. Morning drives start pre-dawn, and evening drives finish in the dark, so we can observe game behavior both in darkness and in daylight. This gives about 4 to hours for relaxation in late morning and after lunch.
The Sabi Sands game reserve is located by an artificial waterhole (filled by ground bore water), like many other reserves. We love sitting on the porch of our standalone one bedroom villa and watch the animals come to drink at the waterhole during the day. Accommodation was five starred, ad we love the outside (but private) shower!
All in all, it was a phenomenal experience, and we would go safari again in a heartbeat.
Thoroughly recommended, and June was a great time to go, no summer undergrowth, so no snakes and other creep crawlies!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Kenya by Heather
Kenya has a wonderful, diverse wildlife and a number of different parks and reserves in which to go on safari to view the wildlife. The landscape within the parks is truly beautiful and mostly untouched by man.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about South Africa by Steve
South Africa is a great destination, with experiences to suit all different tastes.
Cape Town is a beautiful city, the Cape Peninsula is a fantastically scenic area, as is Stellenbosch and the Cape wine country just outside of Cape Town. Johannesburg is different altogether, and students of apartheid will have a first hand experience of the legacy of apartheid and study it close up. We did not go to the bustling commercial melting pot of Durban, but would love to do so. We did go to Sun City, but did not go on any game drives there.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
enjoyable and flexible, perfect for my trip
I was traveling alone and michael helped to organize my trip via email. He respond always very fast and answered all my questions. As well, he was super flexible in organising my trip, a part which i liked very much. When i arrived in nairobi the driver waited for my and it was good to "know" already a person. My guide also visited me in my hotel to explain me everything about my hiking trip and answered all my questions. The hiking it self was awesome! The guide and cook (very nice food! :-) ) took care of me all the time and left my time and space for my self as well. The accomodation was okay as well. You might share your room with 7 other people or you are lucky as me and have the room for your self :-) I decided sponteanously to spend one more night at the mountain and i was thankful that they organised it. I would highly recommand this company and michael and his guides! It was an awesome time and they made it possible! Thanks!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
hakuna matata
everything was really good and we felt comfortable with mega adeventures before and during the whole trip. our guide was really nice and we had lot's of fun together. There could be more informations given about the landscape perhaps but in conclusion i really can recomand it!
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very customer oriented and easy to make your own itinerary
I was in Kampala for work and had some days left to see Uganda. My major goal was to include a chimpanzee tracking. Not knowing where to go, I searched on Safari Bookings. A lot of (expensive) options, but I found a budget travel option at Cul and Tours. I went to their office and thought I would be added to another group of people, doing the same trip. But for that period there were no other clients for the places I wanted to see and Steven, the owner, said he still had time to take me to those places. We went through the programme and I still could make a choice between a budget trip or an upgraded budget trip, from ordinary tents to the more luxury tents.
It was good company with Steven and the two of us chatted about all kind of things. He saw all the animals along the way in the parks which I never would have seen without his guidance. He also knew a lot about all animals and birds (and kept on studying when he didn't have to drive.)
I can recommend Cul Tours and Safaris, also for those who are travelling alone.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We enjoyed Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
We travelled to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park , which as number of gorilla families for gorilla trekking , We used Gorilla Tour Booking Safaris to book a safari to Uganda the company provided us a guide who was superb in a number of ways he was well informed about the wildlife history and geography of Uganda. Since this was our first safaris we were asking a lot of questions concerning gorillas, national parks and Uganda as a Country.
We loved Bwindi National Park, the hospitality, accommodation, food and drink was excellent.
Thank you Gorilla tour booking safaris team for a very professional service provided