US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Stole our money
We were supposed to do a Safari in Tanzania for my birthday and our honeymoon with It Started In Africa. They disappeared the day before we got there. Never answered our emails and stole our money!
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Absolutely great!
All good!! Since we started to mail with Paul. Everything just easy and smooth. Good driver, good lodgings, good prices...
Gracias amigo.
BR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent 5-day tour with 2 gorilla tracks (one in Uganda and one in DRC).
We had a 5-day tour with Katona with 2 gorilla tracks (one in Uganda and one in DRC). Both were amazing and different. Jackie was extremely helpful all the time with fast replies, accommodating all our needs. We felt safe during the trip. The guides (Ceasar and Chibe) were great. We only wish we had an extra day in Goma to climb the volcano.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
excellent
We recently completed our third safari with Rupia Adventure and are in the process of booking our fourth safari with them. All safaris have been at least two weeks long. We cannot say enough about the absolutely excellent quality of each safari we have taken from beginning to end. Booking a safari by email is very easy. We have worked with Maria for each safari. Maria's communication skills are very good and she works to schedule a safari based on your interests. Tent camps and lodges chosen are always high quality, very comfortable with great food and the best customer service. Miraji is a wonderful guide with amazing knowledge and has made it possible for us to have the best memories of Tanzania. Our safari vehicle for each safari has been well maintained and very comfortable even when traveling the bumpy roads of the Serengeti. We always choose the African Tulip Hotel while in Arusha. This is a five star hotel with each room having a different animal theme and one of our favorite hotels in Tanzania and is owned by Rupia Adventure. Tanzania is a wonderful country with the best wildlife viewing in Africa and very warm, wonderful people. Rupia adventure is the best at showing you all Tanzania has to offer.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Ensure the best Safari by booking with Rupia Adventure!
We did a 9 day Tanzanian Safari with Rupia adventure. I wish I could give them more stars!
The two most important things when planning your Safari are 1) the person who helps with the itinerary and 2) your guide. Rupia Adventure did excellent with BOTH of these!
Planning the itinerary: Mathias was great, providing suggestions and information. They provided a list of hotel suggestions, with clear cost differences, and I was then able to research and pick the ones I wanted. He was very patient with my many questions and needs over many months leading up to our trip. We had a few last minute changes and he was very helpful in getting them done. During the Safari, we had NO issues with hotels or accommodations, food, or anything that caused any stress or concern. SEAMLESS! This takes work and planning - thank you Mathias!
The Guide: All I can say is WOW. Mathias took what would have been a good trip and made it OUTSTANDING!
1. Mathias could spot wildlife from VERY far away and while driving. There was more than once that a car in front of us drove past something that Mathias stopped to show us. You know, like a leopard hanging out in a tree. He remembered what we had seen/not seen and knew what we were interested in seeing - so he knew when to stop, when to keep going, where to take us and what to make sure we saw.
2. He was very knowledgeable about everything - educating us on animals, animal behaviors, the parks, the country, politics, the local tribes and culture - you name it. And he was not only patient with our 1000 questions but he encouraged it. We learned so much more than we expected to! He even gave us Swahili lessons!
3. We were very into photography and taking pictures. Mathias made sure to park in the best place for good lighting and composition. He made recommendations on pictures and how to make adjustments to get the right shot. Thanks to him, we took MANY amazing photos and have many great memories!
4. When an animal was on the move, Mathias thought through where the animals were heading and got us aligned just right. We were always in the best position for wildlife viewing, even when we were surrounded by other cars. He got as excited as we did when we found awesome things, he really wanted to show off Africa to us and make sure we saw as much as we could. He promised us babies, and he did not disappoint!
5. The icing on the cake: Mathias is always happy and cheerful, patient and kind, humble and humorous and was a joy to be around for 9 days!
The car was great - the top opened and we spent most of our time standing up looking out. When when the dust was high (often) we could close the windows (and/or the top) and not have as much of an issue. We had 4 in the car (plus Mathias) and it was perfect.
One recommendation: If Rupia offers for you work with a travel agent in your country, decline. The people in Tanzania are much more knowledgeable and can provide better recommendations on your itinerary. Mathias is very responsive.
I had to use a different TO for our Rwanda part of the trip and had a lot of issues, causing a lot of stress. Without a doubt, go with Rupia Adventure and request Mathias BY NAME!
A memorable moment-Ruaha National park
I annot thank you enough for the trip that you planned and the service that you provided the six of us. We all have every intention of returning in the very near future because we realize we have gotten just a taste and we need to go back again.
I really feel incapable of naming my favorite thing because everything was above my expectations. I cannot wait to plan my next trip.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Well planned and wonderfully executed custom-built 12 day tour
From my initial enquiries about the tour through to the end when I said farewell to my driver and guide I can honestly say that it was all a marvellous experience.
I started out by asking about group tours as I thought a customised tour for me, as a solo traveller, would be too expensive. My communications with Lionel in the office were always very constructive and together we developed a tour that was perfect for me and for the costs I had in mind. In the end I paid significantly more than I had originally expected but the trip was worth it. The payments were all processed very smoothly and my special requests were attended to by Ilse, the manager.
On the tour itself I was fortunate to have been assigned a freelance tour guide and driver; Confidence Matsiko. He was very professional, knew the job well and he had a number of contacts, some of whom he called upon to ease the minor challenges that cropped up. Confidence has a good knowledge of birds and was keen to learn more; so with our shared interest we never tired of conversation. My tour however was to focus on the larger primates and I can honestly say my close encounters with both chimps and mountain gorillas were way beyond my expectations.
I'm so glad Lionel persuaded me to go for the Chimp habituation rather than chimp tracking. My full day with the chimp group enabled me to experience them successfully hunting a Colobus monkey. The insight into this aspect of chimp life would not have been possible had I been tracking them for just 2 hours.
The Gorilla experience was equally rewarding. Confidence had managed to put me into the group that was to locate the Bitukura group out of Ruhija. His friend was to be the lead ranger for the eight-person group. The Bitukura group were known to have silverbacks and youngsters in them so, when we finally located them after quite a tiring climb up through the forest, I was thrilled and delighted to find a huge silverback male with two young playing and tumbling with each other on his back. He was completely ignoring them until the babies moved off to join their mum after which he set off to find some more food to fill his enormous belly. To watch all of this and to experience the smells and sounds as well as the sights was just fantastic. No TV film could ever match the reality of sitting so close to these wonderful animals.
The choice of accommodations used was also entirely appropriate for me but next time I think I would opt for more homestays rather than the less-friendly lodges.
The only aspect that I offer as a helpful comment is to make customers aware of the journey time between locations. The 12 hour trek between Murchison Falls NP and Kibale was exhausting and I hadn't realised how long it would take. Perhaps in the itinerary some indication of travel time would help clients appreciate what is required and thus prepare themselves accordingly.
I'd like to thank Matoke tours for enabling me to enjoy such wonderful wildlife-filled experiences. All the other game-viewing and birdwatching days of the trip were equally enjoyable and I reckon that I managed to identify, with the help of Confidence, nearly 230 species of birds despite not really working hard for them. If you choose Matoke as your tour operator I think you will almost certainly be very happy with your experiences. Having travelled extensively across Africa I think my Ugandan trip was one of, if not, the best.
DK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good, but could be better
First of all, I enjoyed the tour a lot and I had so much fun with the other people attending the tour. I got to see the different animals and got some good stories to tell when I go back home.
However, I have a feeling that the tour could be much better because:
- Pick-up the first day arrived more than 1 hour late and I didn't get any notice. I called their office, but they weren't helpful at all.
- The engagement of the staff seemed to vary a lot. Some were very engaging and were able to tell about the animals and plants, while others didn't really seem to care too much and just drove/walked us around to earn their money.
- Most of the staff at the Tresmina lodge didn't seem happy. There was a weird atmosphere at the lodge and there seemed to be some tension among the staff.
- The atmosphere at Marc's Tree House was more happy, but the staff didn't seem to care too much for their customers. I got electric shock in the shower the last morning (probably due to a short circuit). I told the staff and they didn't apologize or anything. I just got the answer "Ok, we will take a look at it".
- The quality of the food could be improved a lot without much effort.
Just to summarize: I had a lot of fun and got to see all the animals even though they we had to drive for quite a while to find them. It was a great experience, but I believe that it could be so much better if the staff where better trained and more engaging.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Frank was the best guide! Great experience
We had a 4 days Safari and Frank was our Guide. He was very well organized and knew a lot about the animals. He tried his very best to show us everything we wanted to see and we did see so many amazing things. The Food was very Basic but I wouldn’t expect anything else in that context you shouldn’t Forget that you are in the middle of nowhere. All in all it was a really really great time. Thank you Frank for an unforgettable trip.
CH
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I went to safari with my family in serengeti national park. It was an amiazing
I went to safari with my family in serengeti with faced lapped safaris. It was an amazing time and we saw hieps of animals and the guide was friendly and showed us some good places.