US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Can't Wait Until My Next Safari
Kenya Walking Safari provides an excellent experience for an excellent price. I am definitely a fan and will recommend this company to others who are traveling to Nairobi and who want a safari. From the start, we received prompt replies to our requests and confirmations of our reservations. On safari, the driver was knowledgeable and accommodating and made sure we had a good time. Plus, we got a free massage! We ran into others who had paid hundreds more for their safari. I plan to return to try the gorilla trekking in Uganda.
Amazing, they know the local culture and are flexible in finding better rates
They are fast in emails and phone response, they work hard to make you comfortable. We have sent tens of guests for our non-profit through them to various parts of Kenya, the compliments are many.
I am a Kenyan living in the States, and I did the same work they did before for over 6 years, they know their craft.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Three safaris in one trip
Our adventure started February 24 and went to March 17, 2015. We visited the following locations; Nairobi, Arusha, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Lake Manyara, Serengeti Nat'l Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire Nat'l Park, Cape Town, Greater Kruger Nat'l Park, Victoria Falls, and Johannesburg. This entire trip provided 25,000 miles of air travel, which includes about 5,000 miles within the African Continent. Considering all the above locations, and the pickup and drop off at each airport, never was there not someone to greet us. This made this trip truly a "Trip of a Lifetime." As for the safaris we did see the "Big 5" and many many more animals and birds. Great Job Great Safaris.
Kenya Photo Safari
I am back after my 5th safari for what was the 3rd photo workshop organized with this wonderful team
A stay of two unforgettable weeks ... a week in the Maasai Mara, two days in Nakuru and Baringo 4 days photographing everything we had hoped to see: Cheetahs, lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceros and fish eagles .
Our guides have been incredibly knowledgeable! They shared their skills, availability, generosity and flexibility not to mention a constant good humor!
Our chef James did wonders with his little dishes to perfection!
The was organization flawless as always.
In short, a dream holiday for this trip 150% photograph which we keep again wonderful memories!
We would like to thank their team for organizing the visit to the Orphanage that allowed us to offload 100kgs of school materials, We will never forget our encounters with these children who in the end gave us their smiles and much more than “thank you” Thank you to all the Team at Africa Remote Safaris. Kenya is Safe, not for one minute did we feel discomfort(except for the bumpy ride) . We hope to come back. This time with bigger group.
BD
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A lifetime experience
This was my first safari. It was a 3 days safari at Masai Mara. It was really a great experience. everything was nicely planned. The guide was also very experienced. Specially Mr devid and his team was simply awesome. Their friendly attitude made the tour more memorable.
Marakele National Park is a hidden gem with magical scenery and good selection of wildlife.
My visit to Marakele took place at the end of September 2015. This is typically considered near the end of the dry season. The temperatures are above 30 degrees celsius daily with little to no sign of rain. The surrounding vegetation is quite dry, although leaves are starting to sprout with the advent of the coming summer. This means that the vegetation is not too thick enabling you to spot the animals further away from your vehicle than you otherwise would when everything is green and vibrant. Its also a good time to frequent waterholes in the morning and evening because water is still scarce and animals tend to congregate at the waterholes for their daily fill.
Marakele has a predator section and a non predator section. Camping is allowed at designated camp sites in the non-predator section. There are no fences around the camp sites so animals are free to walk through the camping area. This might sounds both exciting and scary, but what I noticed is that many campers are not used to this and do not respect the animals right to be there and try to chase them away when they come sniffing at the strange smells we humans bring. But its a lovely experience to see giraffes and rhino walking through the camp and the ability to grab the camera to get amazing photos. Additionally, Bontle Camp, where I stayed, has a waterhole alongside a wide plain that provides hours of peaceful wilflife entertainment where one can spend hours sitting and staring through binoculars. The non predator section has an abundnace of wildlife ranging from many species of buck, to more rare sightings of rhino and giraffe. Monkeys, babboons and warthogs are fairly prevalent too, as well as plenty of zebra and ostriches. There should be ample opportunity to spot most of these animals while driving through the park over the course of a few days.
The non-predator part of the park covers a small region of fairly flat savannah. The predator section takes you into the larger part of the park which is situated among some of the mountains making up the Waterberg mountain range. Most of the animals from the non-predator section can also be found in the predator section, but because of the larger area, sightings become more rare here. In addtion to the above, it is also possible to encounter lions, elephant and leopard. But these are rarer and they were mostly hanging around the single large dam which I, as a resident of the Bontle camping site, was off limits to me. But the most notable thing when driving into this part of the park are the high mountain peaks and craggy cliffs creating some amazing landscapes. The single tar road ends in a very beautiful scenic climb up one of the mountains ending at the top near a radio relay station with some spectacular views. Here you can also spend a while looking at the family of white backed vultures that fly gracefully around the valley and often come to glide above the viewpoint giving birders and photographers some great opportunities.
There is only one tarred road in the park. For the most part it is reasonably maintained except where it starts to rise up the side of the mountain leading up to the view point where you can encounter some tricky potholes. All other roads are dirt tracks of varying conditions. Most roads can easily be accessed by normal cars but some of the roads in the predator section are certainly uneven and can be very bumpy, and in some cases my require some careful navigation. There are a couple of marked 4x4 roads and certainly I wouldn't recommend low clearance cars trying them, but only the 4x4 track in the north eastern part of the park requires a capable 4x4 and a driver with some experience.
Overall the park is a lovely place and was not very busy when I was there, which is perfect. The guards and game rangers were friendly. Animals in the non-predator section were plentiful but the predator section was less eventful in this regard. But the spectacular scenery made up for that. Many of the local bird species appear in the park, of note are rollers, vultures and hornbill. Places like Pilanesburg probably have a higher density of animals, but Marakele has better scenery and certainly has its own charm that should not be ignored.
AR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Experience!
Me and a friend were looking for a budget Safari starting from Arusha. The alternatives were a lot, and is really imposible to do a good choice with all the guys taking you to diferent offices to tell you the same speach, but we ended up picking the one we felt more faithfull.
We were really lucky, the couple Driver/Cook was supreme (Godfrey and Alifa). They were young, funny, helpfull and really profesional guys, and I think that there lies most of the quality of a Safari. If I could do it again I'd maybe avoid some of the smallest parks to spend 1 or 2 days more at Serengetti.
I'll surely recomend the company to my friends.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An amazing Safari Adventure
After having been on a couple of Safari's in East Africa I had some fairly high expectations and this time I was going with people who were safari virgins and I was eager to show them the beauty of East Africa.
From the planning to the implementing Alym was knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with. He was able to answer all our questions and was able to package an experience that none of us will ever forget.
We went to Ngorongoro, Serengeti, and Lake Manyara. All of which are beautiful places in themselves, however having been paired with drivers/guides who were knowledgeable and able to add so much to such an amazing experience, made it that much better. Our driver "Fabien" knew all the places to go to see the most animals and was able to maneuver quickly so we were able to see the most of everything.
During this Safari We got to see something we will forever talk about. We were fortunate enough to see the wilderbaest migration (hundreds and thousands of wilderbeast crossing to greener pastures), a pride of lions chasing a buffalo, an amazing Kill by 2 lionesses and the Serengeti super pride feeding on their kill from up close. What a way to experience everything a safari has to offer.
As far as accommodation was concerned we told Alym that as much as we wanted the safari experience we wanted it in a luxury setting, he again did not disappoint. We stayed at the Serena Lodges all the way through which was an amazing 5* experience in every way possible.
During the course of the Safari, Alym checked in often to see if he was able to assist and add to our experience in any way which made us all feel very comfortable.
I would highly recommend allowing East Africa Wild to plan your amazing Safari Adventure, you will not be disappointed. He exceeded all my very high expectations.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not recommenable at all
I booked a 4-days-Safari to Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park and ended up doing the tour with a very friendly french family. At first, also the owner of the company seemed to be a nice guy. Later that turned out to be a false first impression.
The first day we stayed in small bomas, the dinner was reasonable and their was enough food.
We found out the next morning that a another guy would join us for the next three days. Unfortunatly, we had to wait for him, which delayed our drive to the next park, but was of course not the fault of the very friendly south korean guy, who told us that he actually didn't book his safari with the same company we did. Before he joined us, we also spend about an hour at a garage to get the shocker of the jeep repeared.
The time we spend in the parks was great, we saw many animals and really enjoyed it. The smallest problem we had, was that the zippers of the tents that the safari company provided couldn't be closed. One of the things we really got annoyed about was that the driver and the cook didn't stick to the programm which was given to us when me made the booking. One morning, we should have left at six, but they said seven would be early enough because we would have been at another park to early. This would have ment an extra payment, as it was planned for us to stay until afternoon the next day (as you might know the entrance fee is only valid for 24 hours) and only goes to show that the programm was actually full of promises that weren't kept.
Another problem was the fact that there was not enough food for 5 people. When we came to the campsites after a long day, we had to wait for our food for more than an hour twice, while all the other travellers from other companies were already served. It made me upset, when the cook even delayed our moring game drive because he obivously didn't get up early enough to prepare breakfast. The portions were small and compared to what we were served the first evening and what people from other budget safari tours were having, the choice was too.
Also, I had the impression that our driver had no idea where he was going and didn't seem to have control over the car at all. On the way out of the Serengeti we almost overturned after a speed bump and drove into the bushes. How could the driver or the cook even dare to ask for a tip after their services had been so horrible?
When we came back to Arsuha and spoke to Ibrahim, the owner of the company, he wouldn't even listen to us. I was in his office with the french lady and her son. The cook had been taking pictures of some rice and a tiny bit of sauce we left over, so Ibrahim shouted at us and said we were lying when saying there was not enough food. He wouldn't even listen when we told him that we didn't finsh the food because their was no meat, no vegetables, barely some sauce and only this pile of rice left over. It was not possible to have a proper conversion with him and after he had called me a "bitch"and said "fuck you" to me, I decided to leave the office, because this was just getting ridiculous. The french lady asked me to stay which was not a good idea at all, because Ibrahim got very aggressive. We asked him again to stop shouting at us and really felt like I was in kindergarten. When I told him he was behaving like a child, he got up, took my glasses, cracked them into pieces and threw them on the floor. He even shouted silly things about us being christans, complained about us using up to much of the milk powder, claimed he had never had any complaints like this and reproached us for having too high expectations concerning the food. I really could't believe it! Just because he didn't want to take the critism of his clients serious, especially not from a white yound lady, he got violent. Moreover, he pushed the french lady out his office and might have broke her arm. I didn't find out, because they left the next morning.
I haven't experienced anything like that in the last 7 months in Tansania and Uganda. Next time I would definetly spend a hundred dollars more to avoid this kind of hassle. There is still no guarantee that everything will work out fine then, but I think in this case it's worth spending a little bit more money!
Great experience
We had a great experiencie with absolute safari! We stayed in Kenya and Tanzania and we saw beautiful landscapes and all kind of animals, lions, zebras, leopards.... It was amazing!!!
David helped us in all and was very resolutive. Very happy with them.We hope to repeat it again soon,