50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Perfect from start to finish
From the moment we showed interest in booking our trip to the minute we were dropped off at the airport at the end of our amazing two weeks in Uganda, Matoke Tours were superb, dealing with everything via email in a highly efficient way. We did the 12-day Nature Only tour and Edwin was a brilliant, knowledgeable and considerate guide. The whole trip was exactly as described and fully lived up to expectations. We added a couple of extras and they were probably not necessary given the breadth of the tour's itinerary. It also reduced the 'down time' that would have allowed us to the opportunity to enjoy the facilities at a couple of the lodges. You have to be prepared for some long days on the road, as while some of the distances may not be huge, some of the holes in the road are!
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very professional safari with lots of fun!
We booked an 11 day safari (Hot springs, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Tribes, Ngorongoro and Serengeti) and we have to say Pumba gives you the best safari experience.
Edwin is an expert on East African wildlife, with an keen eye for even the smallest birds and hidden leopards. Thanks to him we have seen almost all the animals in the parks. He is very flexible, full of nice surprises and is just a reliable, professional and humorous guide.
Pumba Safaris is a growing company with an excellent focus on the demand and wellbeing of its clients. We will never forget what we have experienced and definitly want to come back some time! For now we will recommend him to all our relatives!!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Paid for the budget safari and I got it
THe difference between a budget safari and a costlier one is in the accommodations, food offered. and transportation method. Low budget offers tents, same meals every day, and hard road time. On the highest end, you fly into the parks and avoid the "african massage" from the potholes in the road. HOwever where you end up going, is exactly the same spot.
I too my 73 year old mother on the budget safari. Joe was our driver and guide. He found all the beautiful creatures that made our safari amazing. My mom took to the African massage allot like everyone else in the tour van, what choice do you have? Our Route to masai mara was okay, not too long, but the second leg to Lake Nakuru was a long drive day. Flamingoes are no longer at Nakuru and migrate someplace else now. Lake Nakuru to Amboseli was a very long day. In retrospect I'd add an extrs day and spend it near Nairobi, then finish the drive to amboseli the next day.
I'm vegan and found enough to be filled. The point of a budget safari is to see the animals, we achieved that, the simple food, tents, colder showers, and bumpy roads are all part of the low cost. I can endure all that, but make sure the drive time each day is acceptable when planning. I blew it in that department.
BTW: everyone says I brought back the most amazing pictures. Over time , you forget the bumpy road time and remember the highlights.
Magical with upmost professionalism
Our trip started with the upmost professionalism when we were greeted by our driver Ronald at Kigali airport. Ronald turned out to be fantastically professional, warm, insightful and very fun to spend our three days with and he kept the whole process running very smoothly.
We then drovee from here up through Rwanda and across to the Virunga mountains in Uganda - we stayed nearby at the magical Chameleon Hill hotel which overlooks the beautiful lake Mutanda.
The gorilla experience was as magical as we hoped it would be. Ronald was also very helpful in organising a mountain biking and coffee plantation experience on our last day. He enabled us to customise this experience and reduce it down from the half day activity to a few hours which enabled us to still catch our evening flight.
Once again thank you to Matoke tours, from start to finish the communication and overall execution was five star. I encourage any reader of this review to visit the Ugandan countryside as it is simply stunning and full of amazing people
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Most amazing travel experience of our lives!
Our trip with Pumba Safaris has been the most amazing trip we have ever experienced - it was truly one of a kind, our honeymoon and it is absolutely the tourguide Edwin who has made it so special. As we changed the tour a bit to our individual needs, I'll be describing our tour briefly.
We started our tour without spending the night in Arusha, so Edwin picked us up at the airport to directly start the safari tour at the Tarangire National Park with us. After spending the first night in an amazing lodge (Lake Burunge Tented Camp) including a pool, amazing dinner outside with a view to the Lake and little dikdiks running in front of our accomodation, we cut the long drive into the Serengeti on the next day in half and had a great lunch at the Ngorongoro Farm House (Tanganyika Wilderness Camps), which was really special and something I can only recommend you to do, as we sat just the two of us in an amazing garden with a great lunch menu and a big marabou bird coming up to us. Overall, we spend three nights in the Serengeti and the Serengeti Tanzania Bush Camp which was the greatest and most special experience overall. Our tent was glamorous with hot water and a unique African luxurious furniture style. The people hosting us at the Bush Camp were amazing hosts, the food was fantastic and it was the best three vacation days of our lives. The people made us feel at home at all times and they really cared about our safety. Even when five fully grown lions hung out right by our tent at night! Finally, we spend a last day at the Farmhouse again and went into the Ngorongoro crater to end our tour.
Coming back to our tourguide and heart and soul of Pumba Safaris, Edwin truly cares about his clients' customer experience at all times, he anticipates perfectly to give room for some time as a couple on the one hand and is never too tired to answer questions on the wildlife on the other. As my husband and I were really amazed by the wildlife, Edwin would drive all day for us and never get tired of searching for new animal experiences for us even if we had already spent all day in the car and still wanted to explore some more. I can only recommend to book the car all for yourselves as you have more space to move around and can have the tour YOUR way without waiting on other travellers or even photography nerds.
What is truly special about Edwin is his passion about driving and the wildlife. You can tell he has studied Wildlife in university as he has deep knowledge far beyond what a standard tourguide could tell you about the Serengeti. Also, he is a really funny guy and we loved getting to know him, learn about the culture through him and spending time with him. Finally, as I left my iPhone in the Serengeti, Edwin went beyond all service levels to get my iPhone and mail it to me to Germany, which I was so thankful for. I hope many more people get to book a tour with him and have the time of their lives in the Serengeti. Finally, we can fully recommend booking Pumba Safaris and especially we recommend you to tailor the tour a bit as it is absolutely worth spending some more money to increase the number of nights in the Serengeti desert. The Tarangire National Park is a nice introduction into the wildlife at the beginning of the trip, but the special wildlife encounters happen in the Serengeti!
Edwin, Sebastian, thank you so much for giving us the most special honeymoon ever!
US
Kanyezi Delivers the Best
We were thrilled with our trip to South Africa with Kanyezi. Everyone that we worked with was knowledgeable, helpful, and kind. The accommodations were impeccable , the food amazing, and the scenery incredible. If you have ever imagined traveling to South Africa, try to make that happen. Kanyezi also provided the best rates for such a once in a lifetime adventure that I am hoping will not be just this once.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
very helpfull and friendly
We had a lovely holiday!
Just be aware that you can't drive from Mala Mala to Leopords Hill because they closed the road. Our intructoins was not up to date and we had to drive back again.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unethical company, avoid it.
While the camps and staff at the camps (Oliver's, Highlands) are indeed excellent, the management of Asilia is something I cannot recommend. Our trip was interrupted due to our plane crashing in the Lobo, Serengeti on Oct 25, and we had to miss 9 nights of stay at Sayari camp. The representatives from Asilia greeted us at the Arusha airport on the day we were evacuated. We told them we have to travel to Kenya because one of our family member was injured and was air lifted to Nairobi for treatment. The Asilia representative (Jeroen Harderwijk) told me that should we are able to continue if the injury was not serious, they will let us continue with our trip in Kenya at the Mara side. However, several days later, they would tell me this is not so, due to fear of liability. They will not give any credit or refund for the 9 nights we missed due to the plane crash. So in a nutshell, Asilia was trying to sell us more safari on the day we survived a plane crash! What a disgusting company. Further communication with the company did not clarify this. They basically said they will not help in making arrangements for remainder of our trip, and wished us good luck.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Life changing!!
Had an amazing trip to see the gorillas, Barack organised everything and picked me up from my Airbnb in Kigali. He was friendly, informative and fun and the gorillas were completely amazing!! Thank you!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Experience - exceeded expectations
When we started our search for a safari we made a list of what we needed:
-Professionalism
-A specific itinerary- 10 days making a wide loop from lake Nakuru -Maasai Mara-Serengeti -ngorongoro-amboseli starting and ending in Nairobi. I'd done a lot of research and thought this made for a nice kenya/Tanzania highlight reel
-Private vehicle and guide
-accommodations with Private ensuite bathrooms with hot water and clean, critter free accommodations with decent food
Aside from that, our requirements were minimal and we were trying to stick to a budget, so I think this puts in the solidly midrange category. I reached out to about 20 companies (i am neurotic): mr. Otieno at Kenya walking survivors was one of the first to respond with clear answers to all of my questions and a package that matched our needs perfectly. About half the companies responded with offers that didn't match my request at all; among the other half kwss was actually 10-40-% less than anything else with comparable lodge/camp quality, so it was an easy choice to book with them.
Throughout the booking process I received reliably prompt clear answers to all my questions and was provided with contact information for my driver well in advance of our arrival. We actually arrived the day before the elections and had received several state department warnings; I reached out to kwss and they provided clear reassurance with explanations and offered to allow us to postpone even though it was unnecessary - i am so glad we didn't!
Our experience on the ground was excellent and exceeded expectations. The lodging was actually significantly nicer than I expected overall: photos don't do several of the places justice. I have done medical work abroad and stayed in many pretty spare/rustic places, my husband is the picky traveler and he was very happy throughout. Even in the tented camps we had very lovely, well decorated rooms with nice en suit bathrooms, plenty of space and even turn down service with a hot water bottle. staff were universally friendly and helpful although we had one negative experience at our camp in serengeti it was related to a single employee. The food ranged from acceptable to extraordinary - packed lunches were just ok, but some of the dinners were top notch - shout out to the steak and curry at lake Nakuru sopa lodge, the entire buffet at octagon lodge. This was even more impressive given many of our meals were cooked to order and not buffet due to the high number of election-related cancellations. Also- not a single mosquito ever in any room we stayed in- key!
The game drives were amazing. We didn't have the fanciest vehicle and might've had a slightly bumpier ride than some people (we were in a pop up van in Mara and a land cruiser in Serengeti and we noticed a difference for sure) but we didn't care. Our guides were all incredibly nice, patient, relaxed and approachable. They were also all open to answering all questions- not just about the animals but about politics and life in Kenya and Tanzania. Their knowledge about animals varied and they weren't all necessarily high grade naturalists. They all could definitely identify every animal and were all agggressive about making sure we saw as much and possible were each genuinely excited for us when we spotted something unique (mating rhinos!) They really all had great attitudes and senses of humor and I'd argue that's more important for spending ten hours a day with someone. Shout out to mike and Abel our two guides in Tanzania - I have rarely gotten better vibes from two people. Mike's amazing laugh and smile seriously put us in such a good mood. When we did have a small incident at one camp he advocated for us with incredible professionalism. THE BEST!
The overall efficiency of the operation was extraordinary. We actually changed our itinerary mid trip! We originally planned on spending 4 days in Masaai Mara and 2 in amboseli (with three in Tanzania in between) but after 2 days we felt we had a full/incredible Mara experience so decided we would prefer to do 3 and 3. I emailed and asked if this was possible assuming it probably wasn't and to my surprise mr otieno responded immediately that he would be happy to make this change if it would make our trip more enjoyable.
That was really the sense I walked away with overall; that Kenya walking survivors safaris and all of its employees and affiliates genuinely wanted us to have a great experience. Friendly, professional, flexible, responsive and well-run operation. If I ever went back I'd use them again in a heartbeat. Thank you!