US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Leslie was incredible & literally went the extra mile to see the best animal sightings possible!
We highly recommend Tanzania Choice Safaris. We were referred by an acquaintance who lives in Tanzania so we felt very comfortable using them. Brenda is easy to work with and she provides a lot of information up front so you know what you need and what to expect. Brenda was also very helpful in assisting us so we could seek reimbursement after two unfortunate airline delays. The bandanas/gators on her packing list came in handy for the dusty roads.
We chose the middle accommodations package and were more than pleased with our cabins and tents which all had full private bathrooms, bottled water, mosquito netting, means of communicating with staff and a comfortable bed. The grounds were all in beautiful settings. The meals provided for breakfast, lunch and dinner were quite good. The background noise of animals at night was pretty cool.
Our guide Leslie was absolutely fantastic. Every day he searched endlessly to make sure that we saw as many of our favorite animals as possible. He found a leopard in a tree for us, a mother leopard with her cub, two cheetah sightings (one with cubs), lions with tiny cubs and lots of other male groupings. We got to see two incredible wildebeest river crossings, in addition to many elephants, giraffes, zebras, a variety of antelopes, buffaloes, birds of all kinds, hippos, baboons, monkeys, hyenas, mongoose, jackals, crocodiles etc. We did a walking safari in Tarangire National Park that was a lot of fun. Make sure to wear high boots to your knees like the rangers do. Ngorongoro Crater was beautiful and the Serengeti was like living The Lion King.😊 This trip was a dream come true and we hope to return with our children. We would definitely use Tanzania Choice Safaris again and hopefully Leslie will still be there because he made the trip really special.
US
Experience level: first safari
horror experience of Safari tour from Johannesburg to Kruger round trip
I’m glad the world gets to see the exact treatment and type of service you provide with the name calling. Now I’m presenting my email copy of communication.
1. Pickup time was between 8:30-9:00 AM communicated. I took responsibility for coming down late at 9:10 AM, before exchanging pleasantries I sincerely apologized to AL for coming down late.
My Airbnb host was late and that delayed us. It was only after my apologies that AL got down from the car to assist with our bags. Mind you readers we were physically challenged healing from leg injuries. The 2 of us on this trip. So we were really looking forward to a smooth trip. You will see a picture of the luggage in front seat.
2. Read the previous comment and then continue here, by 5 minutes into the ride we smelt the smoke and my companion turned and confirmed it was indeed coming from the car (exhaust and boot). AL said he just got the car from a mechanic shop and it was an oil change and the old oil was burning off to let the new oil kick in. I honestly don’t think if this was possible to conjure that in my wildest dreams I would have. At this point you reading this would have lost your cool and say why didn’t we get out, that’s our 1 regret and we learnt.
3. If able I will share a video of us in the car cloudy atmosphere because of the smoke. Winding up without a/c or winding down the window did not help neither did masks.
4. If able i will share a brief video of us trying to eat the breakfast we bought at the stop spot and you can hear how nasal my friend sounded and distraught.
5. Even after wasting time, I’m talking hours which pales in comparison of 15-30 minutes I tipped AL R100 or R200 can’t recall the note I picked because I genuinely thought he was dealt a bad hand from the mechanic and we all could use a pick me up. Plus he said he called the hotel to give us ground rooms because of our legs.
6. The $100 = R1,775 already paid as 20% wasn’t refunded to us. We chucked it as a loss. Let’s do a breakdown. At the hotel we discovered they had a banner for R895 per night, Kruger entry is R450 or R495 as on the sign while leaving. For the record we had no problem paying as the link for payment came in at the stranded location point, at that point I was very suspicious but still kept an open mind.
7. I will share a picture of our box when I got to Cape Town and discovered that the Deets spray I used to keep the bugs away, I sprayed a square parameter around our boxes to prevent the roaches or bugs from getting into our bags. I sprayed the bed, under bed, sink where the line of ants were coming from.
8. The receptionist when we got in before going to the room & gave a brief experience decided to gift us a breakfast pack, told her we didn’t need it, we came prepared with meals ourselves and we ended up giving this to the tour guide at the rest stop. For every turn we were sharing this incident as it was happening. We came out to front desk and there was no one there to report the room’s condition after settling in. We were so numb and traumatized from the day we went to bed hoping for a better day next day.
9. We had pre-booked hotel reservations cancelled and paid flight for next day cancelled. It was business class flight I only get a partial refund from saa.
10. We paid business class/ flexible highest rate flight to be able to get out of Johannesburg. This was unplanned cost of R12,000+. My friend lost her initial joburg to Cape Town flight refund completely.
11. We paid the Good Samaritan that got us out of that forest and the transfer driver that took us to the airport a total of R3,500 (tip included). The transfer driver mid drive changed the price on us while in the car from R833 to R1800 (R900 per person because the car owner said that’s what he should collect since we were heading to the airport instead of paying to drive back to Johannesburg. This is not affiliated to the diamond agency but I wanted to mention we would not have been in any of these situations if you provided a good service.
12. At the point of GS finding us a transfer, we encountered the Ali driver who drove us from stop to hotel & heard he was not paid and your excuse was you had a bank error and would send his transfer fees later. AL had already left after giving us our bags if not the driver would have met up with him for his money.
13. When it was obvious that we were missing our sunset, we communicated our expectations. Original plan Sunset and Sunrise drive. New plan, We gave 2 options as compensation and AL said he talked to mgt. That included Mozambique and Bylde Canyon. We told AL at the stop and trusted he was communicating this to the mgt. When Ali came to pick us up and we asked can we head to Mozambique and he said no, we did not push further but started understanding they were indeed playing us.
14. The tour video you will hear the man seated close to me telling the tour guide to stop the car so we could take pictures or enjoy the game drive. As far as we understood sharing the tour car with others wasn’t the problem. For the record the other passengers in the open car were from different tours, and were not staying at the hotel we stayed. The problem was putting us in a cramped car, I only could put the phone behind my shoulder to try and capture anything, the dishonesty in putting us in a car for an all day tour without our consent. Lying on picking us up from Break location. Lying the pickup was going to happen in the 2nd break location only to discover that location had no signal or internet service. The tour guide had to bring us back to the 1st point of rest where the lies continued.
15. The snip below show the mgt was updated in whatever story by MIC of our decisions. They ignored it because they already pre-planned to keep us stranded and have to journey back to Johannesburg late at night.
16. We reserve the right to change our mind, not only for risk to our health but also our safety when a service promised is not delivered. That’s where the shock factor came because for everything that happened we were cordial even when if felt like we could just loss composure we didn’t and when we managed by the grace of GOD to not be at your mercy that shocked you most.
It is clear there was ill intention, bad transportation, to make us miss the sunset drive and hope we weren’t going to speak up? Or demand a better service?
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Patient, service oriented, good
Thank you Bildad and the entire team for handling our itinerary the way we wanted, accommodating all our requests not just wrt the tour but also visa, sim, currency etc...
I appreciate your efforts , patience and recommend your company to my friends. I felt safe and taken care throughout the trip. Brian is a great guide, fun and very helpful to other guides. He always asked us what we want to see and tried his best to work it out... We carry home a lot of good memories!!!
Derrick gave us a city tour and he was very friendly and gave us maximum info in the limited time we had on our last day. Gilbert was patient with us and on time to pick us up in airport!
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amaizing Safari with a wonderful team
The organization was perfect.
For the safari, Stephan and Mickael are great guides, very kind, helpful and patient. They took great care of us and we got along very well with them. We saw all the animals thanks to them, even the most difficult to find. They know everything about animals and are very respectful.
Thanks for everything
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Outstanding - best tour company
Jeff Shirao can find animals like no one else! He has almost 20 years experience. Great service. Tremendous value. I’ve done over 10 safaris in Kenya. Entourage and Jeff are clearly the best value and service.
PT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best operator in Tanzania
Me and my wife always dreamed of a safari in Tanzania. We booked the 5 day safari tour with Suricata Safaris and there’s really no words to describe how incredible it was. Our driver and guide Mandela is really the best guide one can wish for. He managed to find and show us everything we ever dreamed to see in a safari. We got to see (up close to our car): all the big 5, cubs of lion, cubs of chita, little elephants and giraffes, all with adult relatives, and so much much more! Mandela always made sure we got the best spot and at the best time, being always very comprehensive and relaxed so that we could have the best time of our lives! The chefs also prepared amazing food for us every day! I mean actual delicious food, cooked from pots and served in real plates, while everyone else from the other companies was having just simple sandwiches. Camping in the middle of nature with animals paying a visit during nighttime is also a once in a lifetime experience that is only improved by the jaw dropping (Lion King’s quality) Serengeti and Ngorongoro sunsets and sunrises. All in all this was the best trip of our lives and we feel that it is all because of Suricata Safaris, specially our guide Mandela. Many thanks to them all and I definitely recommend doing the trip with these guys!
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Reliable and delivers what's promised
Abdul was open to changing plans to suit my requirements from the beginning as my schedule was subject to change but we managed to cover what I wanted which were the main national parks starting with Bwindi for gorilla trekking and finishing off at Queen Elizabeth national park. We had a great time and good fun on the road, experience local food and enjoying our time. He is adaptable and honest. You can rely on him whole heartedly and experience Uganda in a way that'll make you come back again.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Right Choice is the right choice for your safari!
My two friends and I went on our first safari and it was a 10/10 experience - I would 100% recommend Right Choice Safari to anyone!
Our guide, Mr. Opany, picked us up from our accommodations in Nairobi and we started the 5 hour journey to Amboseli (2 rest stops included). We arrived at Kibo and we were all really impressed with the lodgings, food, amenities, and overall service.
Mr. Opany was always extremely professional and honestly made us feel like we were with the best safari guide in the park. He seemingly knew everyone on our trip and was always able to get us to the front of any animal sighting. Throughout the course of our 3 day trip, we were able to see so many animals (especially elephants), but also almost 10 lions and a cheetah!
Millicent was always extremely responsive via email leading up to the trip and George even made sure to reach out after we got dropped off back in Nairobi to ensure we had a good experience.
Special shoutout to Mr. Opany for helping make our vacation that much better!
(The only feedback I would have about our trip that is fully unrelated to Right Choice Safari is I would skip the Maasai Village - we felt like they were taking advantage of us as tourists and did not explain much about their culture and history.)
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Sustainable Safari Operator in East Africa
My partner and I are seasoned travelers, having explored much of Africa, particularly African safaris. This year marked my second visit to Tanzania, with my first trip being in 2016 when I toured the southern circuit, including Ruaha, Selous, and Mikumi, with Kilidove Tours and our incredible guide, Joseph. After a few years, we returned for an epic 20-day journey through East Africa. We began in northern Tanzania, visiting Arusha, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Natron, and Serengeti. From there, we crossed into Uganda for Gorilla trekking in Bwindi, ending the trip in Kenya with visits to Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru, and Amboseli.
Thanks to the exceptional planning by Lisa and George, our trip was flawless. To our delight, we were once again guided by Joseph, whose unparalleled skills in spotting wildlife and navigating the parks truly impressed us. His passion for sustainable tourism and love for his country were evident throughout the journey. In Uganda, we were accompanied by Moses, a knowledgeable and storyteller who made the experience even more memorable. We’re already planning to return to Uganda to explore the other parts. Kenya, did not disappoint, with James as our guide. His professionalism, extensive experience, and deep knowledge made for an extraordinary safari.
The safari vehicles across all three countries were in pristine condition, almost brand new. It's clear that Kilidove Tours has made thoughtful investments in ensuring a comfortable experience. All interregional transfers, via Coastal Aviation, AeroLink, and Kenya Airways, were smoothly arranged, ensuring we wasted no time during our travels. Flying in small planes allowed us to enjoy breathtaking aerial views of the landscapes we were exploring.
One of the standout aspects of Kilidove Tours is their commitment to sustainability. George shared their many initiatives aimed at leading the way in conservation and responsible tourism. We noticed these efforts in various ways—there was hardly any plastic packaging at the places we stayed, the reusable water bottles came with a meaningful backstory, and the guides were meticulous in managing waste. It was inspiring to see how developed their sustainable practices are.
The accommodations were perfectly curated; we stayed at Mawe Lodges, Bwindi Gorilla, Heritage Lodges, and Elewana in Amboseli—all top-notch choices. We wholeheartedly recommend Kilidove Tours to anyone traveling through East Africa. They provide incredible value for money, and the experience is nothing short of exceptional.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very professional, excellent staff and amazing overall experience
Amazing safari experience, transparent communication, excellent quality, and very friendly staff.
Valentine was very clear in our communications and supported in any adjustments we requested. She also managed to upgrade one of our hotels at no extra cost to us, which allowed us to see the Masai Mara from our bedroom and while having breakfast and dinner
Lucas (our guide) was fantastic. Not only did he do his job professionally, he also supported us on any other issues and requests we had. He clearly knows his way around the parks and we were able to see all big 5 with him (and many more!). We are truly thankful for having him us our guide and hope that this message reaches him.
