US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beware of Mathew Adams & Tropical Vacations
In my opinion you should NOT use tropical Vacations! Our money was wired in full almost a month prior to our safari. We paid the director, Matthew Adams, $1630 in total for our lodge accommodation, safari drives, and flight to the Masai Mara from Nairobi Wilson Airport.
We got to Wilson airport at 14:15 to check in with Air Kenya. When we checked in the lady informed me that there was a problem with our ticket, and she sent us to the reservations office. When we went to the reservation office, we were informed that our tickets had not been paid for. An agent, Mary Anne, helped us to attempt to communicate with Matthew.
Matthew said that he was waiting on the refund from Sarova, and said that we just need to pay for our plane tickets, total of $644 for Casey Parker, and myself, Caroline Wallace. He said, and I quote, that he would "sort us out tomorrow". We told him that we could not do that, we can't afford that. We asked him to give Mary Anne his credit card number. This is when he began hanging up on us, talking in circles, and he never gave us an answer.
We had to pay for our plane tickets, which was an additional $580, that we had already paid for well in advance. I am exteremely dissapoointed in the service I have recieved. Matthew Adams said that he would sort us out the next day, well unforunately that day has come and gone. He has turned off his phones, and has been dodging our calls and e-mails.
I do not want this to happen to anyone else. Please do not use Tropical Vacations!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The Best Day
Having stayed with Tanzania Expeditions previously in their hostel, and got to know Justin (the owner) well, I knew I could trust him to organise a great safari for a friend who was over visiting Tanzania.
We were limited in time, so decided to do a day-trip to Arusha National Park. The quote was incredibly competitive, the service offered before hand really informative and the day was utterly unforgettable. We wanted to do a walking safari as well as a drive, and Justin arranged for this around our limited budget.
Our guide, Steven, picked us up from my apartment in the morning and spent the day engaging us, teaching us, making us laugh and looking after our every need. He took us to some wonderful view points within the park, and made sure that we were happy to move on every time he drove. The day felt completely our own; we only saw a few other people in the park, as Steven wanted to take us away from the tourists, and we were rewarded with a spectacular array of animals and a feeling of complete isolation within the landscape. At one point, we found ourselves totally surrounded by a herd of giraffe, who stayed with us for half an hour; a completely mesmerising and unforgettable moment.
The walking safari took us into the plains midst buffalo and giraffe and our experienced guide / ranger from the National Park taught us a great deal about the natural flora and fauna growing in the area. Being on the ground in such beautiful surroundings with such knowledgeable guides was a really tremendous experience.
I could not fault the day for enjoy-ability, entertainment and learning, and felt that every part of the service that Justin and his team offered was excellent. I will be taking trips with them again and recommend their company wholeheartedly.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Scammers- AVOID
We booked a car through Bencias office in Nairobi with Kennedy. The car was to take us from Nairobi to Amboseli and then to Emhali for a first class bus to Mombasa.
The car showed up on time in Nairobi and the ride to Amboseli was fine. We had to pay the driver 4000 Ksh to stay in the area for four days and then take us to the bus.
The day the driver was to appear he never did. A call to Ken and another car showed up about two hours later. These guys were locals in Amboseli and drive us to Emhali where we were supposed to get on the "First Class Bus". Of course when we got there they immediately started in on us about how Ken had ripped us off, was not paying them and the bus would not stop in Emhali. We awaited about two hours for the bus all the while listening to them tell us over and over how there was no bus. It was getting late and rather than have to spend the night in a very small and very scary town we agreed to let them drive us to Mtito which was about 90 minutes away at a cost of 9000Ksh. There was a local bus in Mtitto that took us to Mombasa at a cost of 1000 Ksh even though we had already paid Ken 7000 Ksh for a "First Class bus". We had no choice so went. We later found out the same bus stopped in Emhali earlier while we were arguing with the drivers
When we got back to Nairobi we visited Ken at the office and demanded a refund. We went back and forth and he agreed to a partial refund. If you have been keeping up we spent 4000 Ksh to keep the driver around, 7000 Ksh for the bus tickets we didn't use, 9000 Ksh to go to a different town and 2000 for the bus tickets we did use a total of 22,000 Ksh. We got a refund of 7000 Ksh.
These guys are scammers. They seem very nice but in the end they don't deliver.
NZ
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Thanks for a memorable holiday
Following our amazing holiday in Africa that Masihambe arranged, I can now understand how people get so passionate about Africa. I travelled with another couple (friends)(B & M). B had worked with Masihambe on establishing an itinerary which took us to 7 African countries. Activities included climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, safaris, resting on a beach, visiting the gorillas in Uganda, being a tourist at Victoria falls, visiting Soweto in Johannesburg, with a stop over in Perth on way home.
We had no "hiccups", every transfer went as arranged, and some planes even flew ahead of schedule.
A truly memorable holiday I will remember for the rest of my life.
Thanks Masihambe
IL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Valentine Gumpo is and excellent guide we looved the 19 days trip
We had a 17 days Safari tour with Wild south safari In South Africa. It was the most amazing interesting diverse tour we have ever had. We were lucky to have Mr. Valentine Gumpo as our excellent guide. He is a bright, most professional, warm, reliable generous guide. We spent ours of most interesting discussions on life in Africa and Zimbabwe and got invaluable diverse information one that a usual tourist can not get. All guest houses we stayed in were wonderful. All places we visited were so amazing interesting and beautiful. We wanted to add Durban and Mr. Gumpo was very flexible to add the place to the tour. The explanations we got were very knowledgeable, interesting. Spotting the big 5 animals was unbelievable in Kruger park, Learning about rural life in Le Soto in Malealea was very special. Interacting with local people was easy and friendly. The waves of the Indian ocean in Tsitsikama just touched our bedroom in the guest house. All went very smoothly. We became really friends. There could not be a better introduction for Africa as the one we got from Valentine Gumpo. Thank you Valentine for such amazing trip.
Dr' Nava Sonnenschein and prof, Cobi Sonnenschein
The School for Peace director
Neve Shalom/ Wahat Al Salam
Israel
US
35-50 years of age
Our trip exceeded our expectations!
Accommodations and service exceeded our expectations. Mark from Odyssey Safari has covered all the details and was able to answer all of our questions starting from Visas, Immunizations, etc. He even selected the perfect match - the fourth passenger for our jeep! Our guide was waiting for us at the airport in Nairobi, we didn't have to worry about any details of our itinerary, everything was arranged ahead of time. Our guide even arranged for us to get an upgrade one night from the tent into two bedroom private villa with two bathrooms, large living room with fireplace... It was a treat, we felt like royalty! Even the tents we stayed at were very nice and luxurious with hardwood flooring, granite counters, comfortable beds... Our guide was very knowledgeable, we got to see so many animals in their habitat, we were just a few feet away from cheetahs, lions, elephants... We got to see the migration of wildebeests, which was incredible, there were thousands of them... I was traveling with my two daughters, we felt safe the entire time, and we immensely enjoyed our trip! We got to visit numerous areas including Samburu, Ol Pejeta, Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara. Besides amazing natural beauty of Kenya, we also got to witness tremendous outpour of support from US and other countries to help Kenyan people in dealing with their poverty level and health care... Definitely amazing experience, would use Odyssey Safaris again...!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Flexible and nimble staff
We requested Africa-Zim to organize a tour for us to Vic Falls and a visit to Chobe park in Botswana. We gave them 3 days to complete arrangements, and we began the trip at the end of the 3rd day. It was a moderately priced trip and we got excellent value for money. We had an afternoon to see Vic Falls then went onto Chobe park where we had 1 night at Water Lily lodge (4 star) in Kasane, 2 nights camping in a tent in Chobe, with the elephants and lions nearby, and 2 nights back in Kasane at Toro lodge (3 star). Our connections throughout were all done well and the people at each place knew Blessing quite well. I give this team 5 stars for their resourcefulness and good services.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great experience, wonderful customer service
I took my family for a tour of Masai Mara with KET safaris and had a wonderful experience. Paul the owner was great and available at all times of day to answer any questions or concerns that I had. Both he and the driver George we very punctual, friendly and great to work with. George the driver was very knowledgable about the park and it's animals. We all had a great experience and would definitely recommend this company to anyone considering a Kenyan safari adventure. Great value for money.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The Best Ever!!!
From the very beginning of booking this safari with Rama I knew I had found a gem! All transfers, awesome accomodations, ridiculously wonderful food and our own private driver in the park, Antoine. He made our trip special and wonderful. He knew every square inch of Mukumi and all its treasures. This was so inexpensive and incredible.
I HIGHLY recommend this company and please stay in the Park. AMAZING!!!!!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Kili and Safari adventure
Brian Mengoriki and Ecological Adventures showed us a fantastic time in Tanzania.
All aspects of our adventure (5 days climbing Kilimanjaro and 4 days of Safari) were taken care of by Brian and his amazing team - including some last minute itinerary changes as a result of an unannounced vacation by a head of state in the same area!
The trip was thoroughly enjoyable, the staff exceptionally knowledgable and friendly. Accommodations were very good to exceptional and the meals were also great!
Ecological Wilderness Adventures will really take care of your needs and treat you to an unforgettable adventure!