US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beyond my wildest dreams safari tour
My recent South African safari tour was fantastic from beginning to end. The breathtaking sights, the elephant ride (a must), and the six safaris were way beyond my expectations! The wine during the evening safaris and the muffins and coffee during the morning outings was a nice touch. Humala Lodge was awesome, even the invigorating outside shower. I can’t say enough about this very well organized tour and the great attention paid to detail. For example, we had to leave at 6 am to catch a flight in Johannesburg and Seasons Resort sent us off with a very ample bagged breakfast. The all inclusive aspect is a big plus as well as having a driver and knowledgeable safari guide. If you are planning a trip to Africa, give Marie Brivid a call. Being from South Africa, she is wealth of information. I highly recommend this safari tour.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tripcare Adventures Tours and Travels have excellent service
Tripcare Adventures Tours and Travels have excellent communications skills and service. Tripcare Adventures Tours and Travels also living up are expectations.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
An eye-opener to a welcoming culture of happy, loving people with exotic animals at arm's length.
From Angie Main to Kimberly Gitzler, Melissa Wertheim and Taylor Davenport, all services went smoothly albeit, 10 friends from varying residences attempted to travel together - with individual needs and desires to see different things. Sometimes its difficult to do so much coordination. The teams' work was much appreciated.
The accommodations were very nice, although the days were quite busy and everyone looked forward to just returning and sleeping. The facilities were neatly decorated with more than enough space. Coffee, tea, and water were conveniently replaced daily.
Our drivers, Bakkies and Bill in Seasons Sport and Spa, and Joseph, Tony, and Renee in Cape Town, were professional, knowledgeable, kind, and punctual. Not a day would go by that Bakkies shared his sense of humor with us. Additionally, one of the guests, who we met on the trip, had a birthday and Bakkies made sure that he went out and purchased a cake for the group to celebrate.
The safari at Humala was like something I've only seen in the movies. Bastiaan and Richard went out of their way for us to have an enjoyable trip, see all of the animals the savanna offered, and respond to every need that we might have had. The stilted tents were incredible to sleep in. Even though it was a bit cold in the evening and early in the morning, nothing was more refreshing and exhilerating than the outside shower off of the bathroom. And to wake up with animals outside your accommodations was the creme de la creme. I loved it! A TRIP OF A LIFETIME! Don't wait - just go!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Everything went smooth as planned.
When I arrived at the airport in Johannesburg I was early so I waited for a while and then I asked the airport official where they told us to meet at and he told me to go outside that's where they meet us at, so I waited outside and then my guide came and got me but, he said he was waiting for me inside,. So I should have followed directions and waited inside like I was told to do in our itinerary. The service was excellent! I enjoy the Safari, the location everything was beautiful. I would definitely recommend everyone to have their own phone service... either you buy one when you get there and make sure your phone company gives you a good deal,. You can only make calls if there is Wi-Fi on the premises.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice gamedrives, excellent driver, bad accommodations, miserable customer service from the office
We’ve been doing a tour for 16 days/15 nights with this company. We visited several nationalparks and destinations in Kenya.
Nairobi-Amboseli-Mount Kenya-Thompson falls-Lake Nakuru-Kakamega forest-Kisumu-Masai Mara-Naivasha-Nairobi was our tour
First of all we can say thanks to our driver and guide Evans, who was very friendly and helpful. We enjoyed all the game drives with him, we were able to spot all of the big five and he was able to tell us a lot about all the animals we saw. He’s very experienced and has a lot of knowledge.
So on the first day in Nairobi we’ve been picked up on time at our hotel and drove to the office to do the outstanding payment with our creditcard. The office wanted to charge us 5% on that amount, which we refused because it was not a small amount and we already paid a lot, it was never mentioned or written anywhere that paying with creditcard will be charged with 5%. If we would have known we would have paid full in advance. We started our program in Nairobi, it was fine and in the evening we arrived at the sopa lodge in Amboseli. The hotel was good and the first game drive the next day was great. On our way back to the lodge our drive told us our program the next to days will change.
There the disaster began, they wanted to fool us the first time. Our schedule was to visit the Mau Mau caves on the way from Amboseli to Mount Kenya the next day but it was not possible due to lack of time (whole day driving). So he told us we would postpone it to the day after and skip a whole day gamedrive/visit in Ol Pejeta Conservancy (Sweetwater Rhino Sanctuary). That’s ridiculous, they obviously really tried to fool us and why was the visit to Mau Mau caves planned anyway, if they now it’s not enough time for it? So of course we’ve been insisting on our gamedrive in Ol Pejeta.
So after the second night in Amboseli we spend the whole day on the road to Nanyuki (Mount Kenya) and arrived at Sportsman Arms Hotel in the evening. Horrible hotel, unfriendly and inconsiderate staff, dark rooms with a lot of broken items (lights, dustbin) and water dripping out of the bathroom light from above. Restaurant also very dark and uncomfortable, staff as mentioned, buffet very small and not tasty at all.
The next day our gamedrive at Ol Pejeta was great but we had to quit in the early afternoon due to one out of four persons was already feeling bad because of conditions of the last night... sad because of the nice conservancy and bad because of returning early to that hotel (we just thought ok we’ll tolerate one more night there).
The next day we went to Nyahururu to visit the Thompson falls, spent few hours on the road and arrived at the lodge for lunch. Already two out of four persons felt bad/were ill due to the last two nights. Lodge was very old and rustical but had charme but could definitely be maintained better, especially the showers.
The next morning we took off to check-in to our hotel in Nakuru and left with picnic lunches for Lake Bogoria which was a nice trip. We arrived at our hotel (Hillside Court) in the late afternoon and took a first look into our rooms and we’ve been disappointed again. Dirty sheets, leaking toilets, dirty towels and so on.
That was the point we decided not to be disappointed about accommodations anymore and just to look forward to get back to the hotels late and wake up early the next morning for gamedrives/excursions.
The next day we had our gamedrive at Lake Nakuru, which was as enjoyable as the other gamedrives! In the evening we had to go back to our hotel, at least the staff tried everything to get us comfortable.
The next day we went to Kakamega forest and finally had a good accommodation again, the Rondo Retreat. Really charming, quiet and in the middle of the forest! After a good night we had a guided walk into the forest the next morning and went to Kisumu arriving at our hotel for lunch.
In Kisumu we decided to upgrade the hotel in advance on our own cost to have two comfortable nights with a day at leisure in between! Later it paid off...
After two nights in Kisumu we took off to Masai Mara with a stop at the soapstone factory in Kisii which was quite interesting. We arrived at our camp in the Mara at dinner-time. The Lechada camp is not maintained well, the mattresses are done, the showers are very dark, dirty, no hot showers, all in all very poor bathrooms, food was okay but the dining hall also very dark. Staff and the Masai have been friendly.
The gamedrives the next two days have been amazing, the Masai Mara is really awesome.
After three nights in the camp we took off to Naivasha and we’ve been really excited about our hotel, the Lake Naivasha Resort was on the program for two nights. Arriving at Lake Naivasha our driver told us we’ll stay in the ‚sweet lake resort‘ which is a totally different price category than the Lake Naivasha Resort wish we found out really fast online, so we told the driver and insisted on to stay in the Lake Naivasha Resort as per program. As we were doing our boatride before lunch, our driver was to sort out with the office. As we came back I had to talk with the boss Lucy from the office for the first time, the lady really told me that the hotel was changed and we’ve been informed about, which was not true and a lie! After me still insisting on us staying in the better hotel as per program she was shouting at me on the phone!!! It was getting later and later so that we even had no lunch and we finally accepted to stay in another hotel called Masada resort, because Lucy was not reasonable and insisting to her lie the hotel was changed and we knew. So we checked in at around 6pm in the Masada Resort without having any lunch (all meals included) and the hotel was also definitely not the same category as the hotel on the program, the hotel that we have paid for! How can a hotel/program that we have paid for be changed?
The next day we went to Hells Gate Nationalpark and had a gamedrive in the morning to back at the hotel for lunch and afternoon at leisure. After another night at that hotel we took off to Nairobi the next day.
We would never recommend that agency to anybody, please be careful!
Our driver/guide Evans Ngigi was really excellent but the Office/the boss Lucy really unprofessional, customer service was very bad or no customer service at all! She tried to fool us with skipping Ol Pejeta Conservancy which is 95 USD per person, in total almost 400 USD. And finally she corned us with our hotel in Naivasha and saved a lot of money (hundreds). This lady is criminal! Sadly we had no chance to react because it was already paid and booked directly with that agency in Kenya.
CA
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great experience
With the exception of some challenges with the Capetown guide on the last day of our visit to the city, every portion of our booking experience and the two week tour in South Africa exceeded our expectations.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The best safari we have
From the first minut to last second very very good. We enjoy everything and recommend wild gaze 100. Nordin is a lovely guide and driver. Ernest is a very good man with his heart on the right place. They sponsored a school and it's very good that the start from the safari a visit is on the school. Amazing good project. The safari is respect full to the animals and nature. We saw very much wildlife. More on takes time tho enjoy everything. Food for lunch/breakfast is delicious. The game drive is one from the best we have . On the way back we visit a masaai village. Very interesting about there traditional life. In one word....go to wild gaze for your safari.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very professional, nice, humor and good music!!
Very professional, don’t worry!! The most unexpectable moments with the animals, these moments we will never forget, thanx to the knowledge of the driver!!
A fortnight of sensational wildlife encounters, exquisite food and well organised mobile safaris
Rob at Golden Africa safaris selected a brilliant combination of permanent camps and mobile safari camps our trip (for six people). These included Linyanti Bush Camp, Gomito Plains and Meno a Kwena. Each had their own unique charm and habitat. For the mobile safari Rob took us to Khwai and Moremi. The whole journey was superbly organised with small aircraft taking us from one airstrip to the next. The standard of service on the mobile safari was exceptional. Rob's crew were attentive, good fun and eager to help in any way. The food and wine were excellent, the cook performed miracles in the camp kitchen. The camp included a chill-out area with canopy and sofas, a bar tent and a dining area with linen table cloths. Each of the tents had en-suite showers and flush toilets, really comfortable beds (with hot water bottles magically inserted while we sat round the camp fire before retiring.) This was unlike any camping experience I'd had before. Rob's newly re-furbished safari Land-Cruiser was very comfortable - there were no middle seats - lots of places to store water bottles, binoculars and cameras - and recharging points... Everything was well thought through - right down to the furry-lined ponchos for the chilly early mornings. But what made the safari truly outstanding was Rob's stories and deep knowledge of the wildlife. Every day was memorable - an unforgettable experience - that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone considering going on safari in Botswana.
IE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The Amazing Wild Gaze with Wild Gaze!
Wild Gaze tours under the leadership of Enerst were amazing. They provide excellent services to our group and made our Safari most memorable.